The 3rd Book - Work In Progress

And so, though my thoughts are seriously turning to starting making money again, hopefully with virtual classes and maybe even the start of genuine live appearances again this summer, work has begun on a third book (as Findlay Macbeth starts to make a few tentative sales, and Prince Of Denmark Street is 14 days from the end of its Kickstarter campaign).

Thurs June 5th - First 6 page treatment written of new book (at that point called The Midsummer Night's Team)

Friday June 5th - 2nd draft treatment 

Sunday June 7th - 3rd and 4th drafts, after 2 lots of notes from Steve, and initial notes from Hev. Draft is now 9 pages, title is now The Midsummer Nights Dream Team.

Thurs Jun 11 - Characters designed. All 21 of them (above)!

Fri 12, Sat 13 - First writing done. 13 pages biro scribble.

Tues 16 - First draft biro script finished, 35 pages.

Weds 17 - Script broken down into rough panels. 517 panels in current form. (Findlay Macbeth was 475 panels, Prince Of Denmark Street 490 panels). UPDATE: Just realised it's 517 panels + the opening 15 silent pages (yes, it opens with a silent sequence). We got us a long one!

That opening 15 page sequence, as it currently stands. Hopefully I know what it all means.

Friday 19th - Script broken down into pages. It's 120 pages, again. (Findlay was 120 pages at this stage, later extended to 125, PODS was 114 pages, later extended to 118). Here's the most boring photo you'll see today:

Saturday 20th June - designed a logo for the front cover. Sunday, decided this will be known as the rejected logo. Sets the wrong 'parody' tone for the book I think...

Tuesday June 23rd, began laying out pages with voice bubbles. First 43 pages laid out.

(I noted back on March 30th it took me two days to lay out the first 30 pages of PODS, but today was a little easier cos the first 15 pages of MNDT are silent!)

Friday June 26th (after my triumphant return to classes on Wednesday, followed by two days plugging them to schools) Laid out up to page 63. 

Sat June 27 - Laid out up to page 80

Sun June 28 - Laid out up to page 88

Mon June 29 - All 120 pages laid out! Next stop, pencil roughs.

I began writing PODS in the first week of lockdown, on March 20th. Rough script finished March 31st. 5 days to lay it out into scripted laid lout pages, 7 days to produce pencil roughs. In the end I drew 118 pages, and covers, and extras, between April 16th and June 1st. 6 weeks & 4 days, or 46 days, to draw 118 pages. Two and a half pages a day. 

10 weeks from conception to completion for PODS. That means the new book could be completed by the 25th of August, unless I hurry up and get some proper paying work in! Blimey, I could even finish a fourth by Christmas and be a fully fledged pauper.

PODS first 10 pages

Book sales, Kickstarter figures, and new videos

Here's a new video I've made to promote the Prince Of Denmark Street Kickstarter. We'll see whether it makes a difference.

Sun 31 May - Kickstarter launches

Weds Jun 3 - Kickstarter reaches its £750 target

Sunday Jun 7 - Passes the £1000 mark

(As I noted in February, Findlay Macbeth reached £500 in 2 days, but after 6 was stuck on £711. It reached a final figure of £1308 after 30 days)

PODS Kickstarter at time of writing (Tues Jun 9) £1163

Weds Jun 10 £1241

Thurs Jun 11 £1372

Fri Jun 12  £1422

Sat Jun 13  £1438

Tues Jun 16 I tweet: 

How publicity works: The Kickstarter for my new comic was going up by about £50 a day up to Friday night. On Saturday the Clevedon Literary Festival went live with a video by me on it, plus I was on Radio Bristol on Saturday morning talking about my books. Since then the Kickstarter has not gone up by a penny!

Within 3 hours it has gone up to £1538. By 7.30pm it's at £1617

Weds Jun 17  £1641

Thurs Jun 18 £1686

Sun Jun 21 £1713

Mon Jun 22 £1737

Tues Jun 23 £1753

Thurs Jun 24 - Hoy! With 4 days to go, we've dropped from £1753 to £1740. Then down to £1720! Before rallying and going up to £1790.

Fri Jun 26 - £1840

Sat Jun 27 - £1920

Sun Jun 28 - £1975

Mon Jun 29 - £2031

Tues Jun 30 - with 2 hours to go, down to £2011

Hooray - Kickstarter closes with 100 supporters and £2024 pledged.

Thurs June 5th - First 6 page treatment written of new book (at that point called The Midsummer Night's Team)

Friday June 5th - Wrote 2nd draft treatment of new book

Sunday June 7th - 3rd and 4th drafts, after 2 lots of notes from Steve, and initial notes from Hev. Draft is now 9 pages, title is now The Midsummer Nights Dream Team.

Thurs Jun 11 - Characters designed. All 21 of them!

Fri 12, Sat 13 - First writing done. 13 pages biro scribble.

Tues 16 - First draft biro script finished, 35 pages.

Work in Progress on Midsummer Nights Dream Team continues here.

Tues Jun 2 - Bought ISBN numbers for PODS (and 9 spares)

Friday June 5th - PODS gets a plug on comicon.com

Tues Jun 9 - These 8 agents all emailed. Most of these 15 agents emailed.

And most of these 65 agents!

First reply Sam Hiyate. No from Diana Fox, Bernadette Baker, Linda Camacho.

Findlay Macbeth sales on Amazon - as of June 9, 13 paperbacks sold, 6 ebooks.

June 9 - First two books via Neilsen (both for Gardners the book distributors).

Jun 10 - Two Findlay Macbeth packages are returned undelivered because their labels fell off!

Conservatory Escape Room Challenge

ESCAPE ROOM – Hev & Kev questions

 

You are trying to escape from THE CONSERVATORY. You have 10 choices. You get a point if you make the correct choice, and an additional point if you can correctly say why. So there are 20 possible points to be made. Give your first round of guesses IN ONE POST please. When we see how wrong you all, I’ll give you clues about the choices to make (if you still need them). First person to get more than 10 points on first guess wins a free signed copy of my book Findlay Macbeth.

 

1)    You have to throw something. Choose between THE STONE and THE SWITCH.

 

2)    You have to burn something and conserve something. A TREE and A BOOK. Which do you burn?

 

3)    Choose between these pop records: JUMP AROUND and GETTING JIGGY WITH IT

 

4)    Choose an operating system. Will it run on MAC or PC?

 

5)    Choose a place to STUDY: The same place as…?

a)    Erik Satie, Camile Saint-Saens, and Mantovani

b)    Bernard Hermann, Nina Simone, and Wynton Marsalis

 

6)    There’s a CONTRACT. Do you want to add time to it, or shorten the time left?

 

7)    GLASS half full or glass half empty?

 

8)    Choose where to hang out in CENTRAL PARK;

a)    The memorial area by West 72^nd, near the Dakota Building

b)    North East corner near Museum Mile, between 104^th and 106^th

 

9)    Choose a FILM. Which one?

a)    Alexander Dovzhenko (1930)

b)    Clement & La Frenais (1985)

c)    M Night Shyalaman (2019)

 

10)  Which are we? A song by The Thomson Twins or Gary Numan?

 

Happy Escaping campers!

 

 

 

ANSWERS:

1

A: SWITCH.

Reason: We’re in conservatory. People in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones

 

2

A: Burn the BOOK. Conserve A TREE

Reason: We’re in the conserve-a-tree

 

3

A: JUMP AROUND

Reason: It’s by House Of Pain (Pane, get it?). We’re in a conservatory. (The other is Will Smith)

 

4

A: PC.  Reason: Windows. Conservatory.

 

5

A: Choose a:  The CONSERVATOIRE A Paris. (B was Juilliard in New York)

 

6

A: ADD TIME.   Reason: It’s an EXTENSION. (We’re in a conservatory)

 

7

A: EITHER. Both glass.

 

8

A: Choose b, The Conservatory Garden (a is Strawberry Fields)

 

9

Choose c M Night Shyalaman (GLASS, 2019)  The others were Earth and Water

 

10

A: Gary Numan – WE ARE GLASS (not We Are Detective)

The Facebook Group where we pretended Edinburgh hadn't been cancelled... is cancelled

On balance I preferred the upside down cow myself. What's anyone else think of the new tent in George Square gardens?

This was my favourite, and most liked, of my posts in a charming and short-lived Facebook group called A group where we all pretend that Edinburgh Fringe 2020 was never cancelled. Which has now been archived, or effectively cancelled itself. 

For my part, I was enjoying making up an ongoing story about 400 chairs, which began in someone else's post (which I'm trying to find) about trying to get people to move chairs from one venue to another. The point of the group, you see, was to parody the cliches and experiences we all know and love from putting on shows at Edinburgh. My posts are below, followed by some other favourites.

My God this weather! This is the road up from The Pleasance this morning. It's neck deep down at the junction with Cowgate.

If it weren't for an impromptu bridge someone's made out of 400 chairs the Royal Mile would be totally cut off!

Good news, I've found the 400 chairs. Bad news, that guy's been up there for three hours now, he clearly had no plan for getting down. Anybody?

Steve Day

New Member · 7 hrs

Anyone up for tearing down one of those 'statue' guys on the Royal Mile and chucking him in Leith Harbour?

Kev Sutherland #SilverLivesMatter

3

(Ten Minutes Later) I've just emerged from the rabbit hole of scrolling down that group and, you know, you really had to be there. None of the posts, in the cold light of day, actually seem worth quoting after all. Well, it was fun while it lasted.

Prince Of Denmark Street - Press Release

Press Release – Books / Graphic Novels

Release date immediate

Prince of Denmark St – Shakespearian graphic novel made during lockdown

Publishing July 2020

What did you do during lockdown? This guy wrote and drew a 120 page graphic novel, adapting Shakespeare’s Hamlet and setting it in punk era 1970s London.

Kev F Sutherland is best known for his work as a writer and artist for The Beano (on Bash St Kids & Bananaman), for Marvel Comics’ Dr Strange & Star Trek, and countless humour comics from Oink to Viz and many more. He also gives Comic Art Masterclasses teaching kids how easy it can be.

Now he’s released his second graphic novel – Prince Of Denmark Street, written and drawn entirely during the Covid 19 lockdown.

It’s a comic strip adaptation of Shakespeare’s tragedy like you’ve never seen it before, giving the familiar tale a unique spin.

Having produced his debut graphic novel in March, Findlay Macbeth, Kev had lined up book and comic festivals galore to promote it at. Then came lockdown. So, with no schools to visit either, he had no choice but to start work on a brand new book.

The Prince Of Denmark Street is set in London’s Tin Pan Alley in 1977, where young Prince Hamlet and his band The Danes are rising stars. But when he discovers the story behind the death of his dad, the rock & roller King Hamlet, he goes off the rails. The story takes Shakespeare’s original and adds fiendish twists he hopes you won’t see coming.

The paperback also includes the full text of the play, illustrated by Kev F.

­­

Anyone who wants to make this a palpable hit can support the project on Kickstarter from as little as £3, and can bag themselves original artwork, specially drawn sketches and other goodies. Kev F is available for interview, and images from the book are available to reproduce.

PRESS CONTACT:                                  

Kev F Sutherland                     T: 07931 810858    E: kevf.sutherland@gmail.com                           

Kickstarter:  https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/kevfcomicartist/prince-of-denmark-street-graphic-novel

Twitter @KevFComicArtist

Facebook.com/KevFComicArtist

Prince Of Denmark Street retails at £5.99

ISBN 978-1-8380824-0-6      

Prince Of Denmark Street - Kickstarter launched

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/kevfcomicartist/prince-of-denmark-street-graphic-novel

Announcing The Prince Of Denmark Street, my brand new graphic novel. It's going live on Kickstarter now and I'd love you to take a look.

It's my adaptation of Hamlet, with a twist. Set in 1977 on London's Tin Pan Alley at the height of the punk revolution, it's a 120 page graphic novel paperback, plus you get the full Shakespeare play at the back of the book illustrated by me.

You can simply reserve a signed copy, or a PDF for just £3, over on Kickstarter. And if you'd like to get more involved you can get yourself a specially drawn sketch, and even original art from the book itself.

Thanks for your attention, join me and let's make this a hit - a palpable hit!