SHORT CUT TO HECK
So anyway, one afternoon when I should have been getting on with something else, I was daydreaming about sat-nav systems, as one does, and I got to wondering what would happen if anybody ever programmed one to find the route to Hell. They'd probably end up in Middlesborough I surmised, but anyway, it seemed like a good idea for a strip.
I developed the idea a bit further so it became the story of a bickering couple on a holiday trip accidentally taking the road to Hell, but I couldn't see what else to do with the idea and I didn't really have time to develop it further, so I put it to one side.
Then the Observer/Jonathan Cape/Comica Graphic short Story Prize came around again, and Antonella and I realised the deadline was almost upon us and we hadn't done anything this year. It seemed a shame to miss out, so I dusted off the idea, Antonella turned it into a proper script with words and everything and I quickly drew it up into the two-page format cartoon required for the competition.
However, we really left it a bit late, I had to rush it, and I didn't have time to colour it (the competition rules require original artwork, not copies, which means if you want colour you have to do it by hand. This is a pain since I do a lot of the artwork process in Photoshop these days, due to the number of times I've slaved for days and produced the BEST ARTWORK EVER, only to have the cat piss on it the night before it was due to be sent to the publisher). So what I sent to the competition at the last minute really didn't do justice to what I thought was a strong idea by me and a brilliant script by Antonella. I'm not saying the strip would have won, but at least the artwork would have been a true reflection of what could have been done with a good idea.
I've been busy since then, but now I've had a chance to re-caption the artwork and colour it properly. So here's what the strip would have looked like if we hadn't left it to the last minute...
...if I'd had the time and hadn't just drawn two pages of A2 artwork in a day and a half, I would have put more detail into the depiction of Hell and made it more, er, Hellish. Never mind. Art aficionados may spot bits of Heironymus Bosch and The Garden of Earthly Delights, amongst other things.
You can get models of those figures in the foreground, by the way. A Dutch company makes them, though I can't find the link. We've recently rebuilt the fireplace in our front room, so perhaps I'll get one as an ornament for out new mantelpiece.
ODDS AND ENDS
Tuesday, February 24, 2009 6:50:32 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00) 
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