The End,(of the project)

I signed up to take part in the LDC Online Comic Fair in the summer of 2024. I knew I had a year to complete it and although I had never actually made a zine before and wasn’t sure what mine would be about…I had the confidence of ignorance that I could pull it off.

I did nothing practical for six months apart from forming a vague outline of a story in my head about a woman struggling with the idea of her life changing when she became a grandmother, (write what you know they said). In December we were sent an email with all the deadlines for submission which was quite focusing. I determined to start in the new year, except, isn’t it hard to conjure up something solid when there is nothing to anchor onto?

I sharpened pencils, bought a new note book and realised I didn’t have a clue what I was doing and I had no idea how to start. A quick Google told me to plan out my story in post-it notes, different colours for different characters and decide what each character would do on each page to move the narrative along. Seeing the story laid out like that really helped and the post-its could be shuffled around as much as I liked. Then I made up a page of cells, nine to a page,( it just felt like the right number ), and I drew stick figures and descriptions of the action to fill each cell. I was playing with the procreate programme so this is where I started digitally.

As soon as I had that framework I had something I could push and pull into a shape. It is often easier to build toward what you want by editing and correcting what you know you don’t want. At the stick-figure stage I also wrote the basic dialogue which was pretty wooden and clunky, but it showed me roughly where and how big the speech bubbles needed to be which also refined where the figures would be positioned. After that I drew the images, more or less in their final form.  Only on one page did I need to start again from scratch when I changed the dialogue significantly and had to redraw the scene to fit it in.

What I have learnt;

1)       I had never used the procreate drawing progamme before this and I now love it. Digital drawing gives you a huge toolbox from the comfort of your chair. On the downside I can see it might make you lazy and as a beginner it does give your work a uniformity that is identifiably digital.

2)       This was my first ever zine, I am aware that there are plenty of unknown unknowns, so I can only reflect on the things I became aware of. I looked at lots of other graphic novels and saw so much to consider in my work; pacing , varying the viewpoint, natural dialogue, how to introduce characters without having to name them awkwardly,(working on it)…so much to learn but I tried not to let it overwhelm me and just focused on completing and reviewing page after page. I showed it to a few people and curled up inside at some quite luke-warm encouragement and incomprehension.

3)       I had a strong sense that this was something I could really get into. My work has always been narrative and I have had to dial that aspect down to try to fit it into the ‘art’ side of things. Here it was a relief to just try and tell a story.

4)       The technical side; this will always be a steep learning curve for me. I listened to one meeting telling us how and in which formats we were to submit our work. I sort-of understood but the programmes were all unfamiliar. I asked around and found some technical help from a neighbour who is a graphic designer and then with Google’s help I asked, one question at a time, until I got it,(hopefully) right.

5)       Agreeing to put up work for a zine fair when you have never made a zine was a little silly. As I was working through it I realised that when I make a print it is only at the end that I evaluate it and decide if anyone other than me would get to see it. In this case  I was agreeing to put it into the public domain before I had even started which feels super exposing.

6)       It took me a solid four and a half months from scratch and obviously I still don’t know if it will be well received or simple sink without trace,(most likely), but it has really changed how I think about my practise. I am so keen to try another one. I loved the flexibility of working digitally. I really want to improve my story telling and writing and I think this way of telling stories suits my subject and style.

So…now looking for the next thing.