Josephet Tate: Page One

Like I said yesterday, here is page one of Josephet Tate.
I doubt I'll ever write a better intro to a character than this.

Having re-read it, I now know where my friend got the Transmet vibe from, I do visualise it drawn by Darick Robertson, 'cos it never hurts to aim high.
Also it probably has something to do with the fact the character starts hairy and ends up bald, but this guy is nothing like Spider Jerusalem.

Here you are.

Page 1.

Panel 1.

Wide shot of a shuttle on a launch pad. Clearly preparing for launch.

CONTROLLER: (Bubbles should be spikey and run vertically down the side of the panel) 10. 9. 8. 7. 6. 5. 4.

Panel 2.

JOSEPHET is standing under the rocket boosters. His long hair and scraggly beard kind of go with the truly disgusting Hawaiian shirt he is wearing. He has a giant shit-eating grin on his face, and a fag hanging out the corner of his mouth.

JOSEPHET: 3. 2. 1. Rock On!

Panel 3.

The rocket bursts into life, beginning its climb towards the stars.

Panel 4.

JOSEPHET is now naked, his clothes having been burnt away by the force of the rockets. All his hair is gone as well, including his eyebrows. He does not look happy, like something has just failed him. There is no need to make this a full length image of him yeah? No little Josephet swinging in the wind cheers.

JOSEPHET: Fuck!

Panel 5.

JOSEPHET storms away from the launch pad. Marching purposefully.

JOSEPHET: I fucking loved that shirt!

Not doing much

I feel bloody knackered. Went to Brighton to pick up my latest comics subs today, and it's killed me.
Picked up book 1 of Planetary (I know, late to the party). Liked it, then looked at my MySpace messages to see one from Warren Ellis announcing that Planetary ends today. Done, finished, kaputski. Oh well, I think I'll be getting the other trades.

Tried to write, did 2 and some pages on Josephet Tate and the more I write, the more it feels like I'm ripping Warren Ellis off. My friend read the first page and said it read like Transmetropolitan, it has that vibe. Whether that means I'm writing well or just taking off a great writer in a poor story, I don't know.
May post page one tomorrow, I like that page.

Fell short of my 6 page aim, but brain is fried.

Trailer Remixes

This has been going on for a while now, but I found some new ones to share with you.

School of Rock as a Psycho thriller


Groundhog Day as a thriller


The Sound of Music as a tense political thriller


Ferris Bueller in Terminator 4

Quick Strip

No, not like that. Get your filthy minds out of the gutter.
A quick one from StripCreator.

Death Can't Take a Holiday

Not much work done on the book yesterday, and the weekends I get off. At least I'm creating something though.
Gotta keep those juices flowing. Not those juices! Oh I give up.

Making quick comics.

I have recently been introduced to the site StripCreator
I've only made one so far, but more will come I'm sure.

Check it out.

Keeping yourself interested.

I've noticed that when I do my daily target of words (3 times this week!) I tend to end the days work the same way I try to end a chapter, with something interesting, exciting or cliffhangerish.
It makes me want to keep telling the story the next day. So far I only failed on Wednesday, because I was so exhausted.
6000 words this week, I think I'm looking at an 80 to 90,000 word novel here, when originally I was planning on about 60,000.
Things keep happening though, I know where the story is going, I know who's who, but I don't know all the characters yet. Just introduced a new one, who was supposed to be a craven coward who dies later in a rearguard action. Now he's something else, still probably going to die, but not until the second novel at this rate.

3 scratchcards down, no money yet. 1 carried over to next week (Wednesday ticket).

Membership has benefits

Despite any claims to the contrary I may have made back in June, the only habit 've picked up is avoiding doing anything, and that's not new.

Well, a new leaf has been turned, rolled up and dunked in hot water to make a cup of tea. And now I'm fully refreshed in a classically British way, I can move on.

Last night I finally reached what I am provisionally calling the end of Book One of The Carpenter's Apprentice. All the main characters are established, truths revealed, skills demonstrated, bad guys smacked around, cue massive battle and time to get on with the plot.
It's been about 8 years since I first started work on this book, for the BBC's New Talent scheme where they wanted some children's novels as submissions. Kind of glad I didn't advance. I'm sure I would have finished the book back then if I had, but it was much more your generic fantasy plot, with 8 years of procrastination and thought the characters are much more developed and there is a massive overarching plot for the whole world.
It was this giant backstory that had me stumped for so long, it had grown so big and complicated that I lost sight of the smaller story I was actually telling with this book.

Today sees the start of plotting and writing for Book Two, another 45000 words and I should have a completed novel to start harrassing agents with.
However, crippling doubts have crept in, the only reason I managed to finish Book One is a series of bribes, promises and threats I made to myself. To save myself from this I'm collecting a bunch of readers from my gaming clan to read Book One and let me know if it is actually worth my time to continue on with this story, or if it's time to pack it away and make a start on one of the three other projects I have waiting for me to start.