Stoner Mouse

The idea came first, then the front cover picture, then the final picture of Kes sitting on the bench. I drew the first few pages and added words, then skipped back and forth completing pages and parts of pages depending on what I wanted to draw at that moment.

I knew my creative skills were rusty after a couple of years break from drawing anything and limited by my innate artistic ability/inability, and I had never made a comic before, but I didn't really care. The important thing was to do it. I could either spend days and weeks practicing or (hopefully) I could develop and improve along the way. I opted for the latter.

What I didn't realise was how long it would take to draw it all: two months!

Partly this was due to my aforementioned rustiness, but also because this was my first foray into using a digital canvas. No more inky fingers! I inherited an Apple iPad, downloaded the Procreate app, and began. At first, I treated the tablet like a conventional canvas turning it this way and that to draw lines and curves, even laying a ruler across it for straight lines - the ignorant novice that I am!

It's been a really enjoyable experience, which is just as well, as this is just the first issue in a much longer saga. I have a full story arc with an ending and a vision for how it develops, but as the writer and artist I'm discovering the words and pictures find their own way as each page emerges. My notes are almost entirely rough draft dialogue without description, as that's all in my head anyway, and somehow ideas have a way of evolving in unexpected and pleasant ways as you work on the canvas.

Finally, a confession: first and foremost what I am doing is creating the comic I want to read. Yes, it carries a heavily political narrative and it is created at a time the UK is terrifyingly sinking deeper into fascism,  but I am not preaching. You can agree or disagree with the narrative, I'm not particularly bothered. Nor do I feel motivated by a pressure to reach a big audience, for it to be popular or well received, or to make profit out of the comic.

It is art for arts sake, created for the love of creating, for the enjoyment of the process itself.