A Conversation for Paper Cuts

Prodigal Blighter

Post 1

spimcoot

Dear God just look at the dust in here - there's not nearly enough of it! That's more like it! Confuses the mice don't y'know. Now then, I've waited nine years for this ... finally, the comfy chair is mine!



Um, oh dear. Not quite as comfy as I'd imagined. Perhaps I should have seized my moment sooner rather than crouching behind the grandfather clock all this time ... Neh, hopefully my limbs will loosen into attitudes of graceful insouciance before someone comes in. I'll crack an empty, that should help. Cheers!


Prodigal Blighter

Post 2

Wowbagger

Get off me!

*dusts himself off and feels around for his glasses.*

Spimcoot! This is a shock. I thought you'd gone to... to... blast it... not used to speaking these days. I thought you'd gone, at any rate.

How are things? This is somewhat of a prodigal visit for me, too. Serendipity seems to be smiling on us... or is that just the dust playing tricks? smiley - smiley


Prodigal Blighter

Post 3

spimcoot

Ah, that explains it! Might have known it would take more than the mere passage of time to part you from the comfy chair. Let me give you a hearty embrace under the pretext of dusting you off.

Saw that you'd cautiously dipped a toe back into the place and thought I ought to get round to it also, then I sort of fell in while at the Manchester meet. Probably not posting quite as oft as of old but I'm back for good (or ill) I think. Don't tell anyone but there might be a fresh Paper Cut in the offing in next week's post.

And how the horned one are you?


Prodigal Blighter

Post 4

Wowbagger

I am fit, sir!

And your good self? What have you been up to in the (too many) years since we both frequented the Cartoonist's Lounge?

'Tis nice to hear new Paper Cuts are in the works. Shall watch out for it.

I, too, have been making more. Not for the hootoos though. Go here: liffbyrob dot com

(I'm not too sure if Pastey's Brave New World allows you to post links up, so I'll circumvent that in the tried and tested manner.)


Prodigal Blighter

Post 5

spimcoot

Man, those things are like the Alhambra: moorish. I stopped by earlier and read the latest and found it pleasantly surprising that your son hadn't aged as much as I thought. Then I discovered it was a younger son. That was earlier. Just now I've bolted the entire back history in one sitting. But actually, I think this can work better when getting to know a cartoon (did the same with Dykes To Watch Out For). But then, I do sort of know this cartoon already. At the risk of doing a disservice to h2g2life, I think the drawing is more fluid; it's lovely. Think I prefer the black and white too.

As for me, did I tell you in some other life that a graphic novel version of Eustace is being published next year? Well, it is! The Paper Cuts that are coming up were done when procrastinating at the beginning of that process a few years ago, but I should probably do some new new ones. Cartooning is good.


Prodigal Blighter

Post 6

Wowbagger

I did not know about Eustace's development. Hurrah! You have a sale! Let me know when it is on the market and I shall be ready.

As for Liff: thank you. Most kind. smiley - blush

It began as a drawing exercise but pretty quickly turned into a writing/publishing/producing something daily exercise. I tend to use the same images regularly and, when I do draw something, it's something a little more fancy, such as creating a shot from a Hitchcock film or similar. I'm enjoying the thinking most, if I'm honest with myself.

'Dykes to Watch Out For', you say? I believe that's one my publications, too. It's a pleasant way to spend weekends and long train journeys. If you like that, may I recommend 'Hipster or Lumberjack', where people who successfully tell the difference win a whimsical prize of my choosing. smiley - winkeye


Prodigal Blighter

Post 7

spimcoot

Eustace will be out 'next year'. I don't have a date yet so I'm hoping it will be earlier than later. It might be mentioned in passing on this very site when it is ...

I spotted the repeated images in Liff; indeed, I was going to comment on them in the spirit of constructive (or constructivist) criticism. I think you could make a little more out of them, or some of them. When the car crops up, for instance, it's almost like a punchline or catchphrase in its own right. But the car is noticeable whereas some of the other repetitions risk looking merely like a lack of variety. My suggestion, and I'm just thinking out loud here, is that if more of the repeated images stood out as such - like the Bride in her chair, which is beautifully done - then you could develop an alphabet of stock images, which could increase into a language as you added to and modified it. It would give the 'fancy' drawings something more to play off too. Or maybe you've thought of all this and maybe I'm talking out of my hat (which saying may explain the madness of the balaclava wearer). It's lovely as it is - 'twas your talk of exercise and thinking that sent me down this road; hope you don't mind.


Prodigal Blighter

Post 8

Wowbagger

Excellent news about Eustace. I shall watch this space. Or that one over there. I'm not sure. I'll watch a space in this vicinity, anyway. for news of its arrival.

Constructive criticism accepted, with many thanks. I agree with it wholeheartedly too, by the way. I'll just need to put it into action. It's a time thing rather than a desire thing: I like the strip coming out daily and that also seems to work with its readership.

Food for thought (for me).

*wanders away thinking*


Prodigal Blighter

Post 9

spimcoot

Oh good! Glad you agree. It's odd about the 'time thing', though, isn't it: you have both limited and unlimited amounts of the stuff - immediate and cumulative respectively - which means that you have the luxury of increments. And you know what wonders increments can wreak ...


Prodigal Blighter

Post 10

Wowbagger

Aye. I shall do my utmost, sir.

It was good to see Paper Cuts' glorious return, by the way! A little lacking in fanfare and feedback, alas, but Dogger and Binky never fail to make me smile. smiley - smiley


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