A friend gave me an idea for the upcoming library show; When I showed him all the paper and sketches and formatting for a 4-page cartoon story I’d completed, he said “You should show this, too; People only see the finished work, but most have no idea how much there is to the process!” He seemed impressed at all that went into developing a comic story, and so I’ve decided to show a few steps in the process of making that story to include in the show.
After thinking about this idea, I realized that my own process for creating a story can be difficult to trace. It may start from a random scribble in a sketch book, discovered and revised months (or years) later, and then re-composed in various ways. My story “The Fish” has a shorter process period, which makes it better suited for a display of the various formats, sketches, and layout of the finished story. The four page story, once realized, took about 2 weeks to complete. (But I’m almost always working on multiple projects simultaneously.)

The characters from the Atomic Yardsale books started as random sketches back in 2008, but I never inked a finished cartoon from the series until 2010. I published the first of those books in November 2011, I think. I might do more with them at some point, but for now, I’m giving them a rest.