The Dreaming: Good news. My editor got back to me again after I submitted the summaries of Vol 2 and 3 to the EIC and herself, and apparently after they read it, the EIC is now confident my vision is compatible with his. I was asked to ignore his previous comments and just go with it. Which is great – except that I believe my plots for Vol 2 and 3 need alot of trimming and fixing up. I was amazed they were satisfied by the summary I sent up, because it was typed in a hurry and required, in my opinion, a LOT of rewrites. At least it can’t be a bad thing that they find my draft writing acceptable. However, it’s okay as I’ll have plenty of time to fix it as the plot of Vol 1 has already been pinned down, and everyone is clear that “The Dreaming” is a 3-volume story only (for now). I hope this means I won’t be getting any more baffling notes on “themes” until Round 2 swings around and Vol 1 has sold some copies.

Art-wise, all the higher-ups like what they see. Apparently there’s no aspect of the art, toning, camera angles or pacing they think need improving on, with the exception of some of the faces (which sorta sounds like a miracle). They’ll be sending detailed notes to me on that, so I’ll start fixing it when I get the notes, probably by next Wednesday.

Other Stuff: Keeping with my attempts at all-CG art, this is another entirely computerised piece of art. This took me less long than the previous rooster attempt, but already this random sketch has a name and a story mushrooming behind her. I’ve always wanted to do a pure black & white noirish story (though the get-up looks more pulpish), but while I’ve done pure black and white art before and had no trouble, this sort of “hyperexposed” look can very difficult to pin down in an actual manga/comic. It’s a DIFFERENT way of doing b&w art, and if not done properly with the balance of black and white in both the characters and the environment, you can end up with a confusing mess. I’m interested in doing more of this, probably as a short story. Since computer art is easier to fix up, I hope I’ll be doing it on computer as an experiment.

Done completely in Comicworks

My editor got back to me, and the good news is, they don’t want me to rewrite the storyline for volume 1. That’s a good thing. There were other art changes too – they want me to completely redesign and redraw a character that appears ONLY in Chapter 1, but is in over half of the panels in it. They also want me to redraw the faces of some of the other characters in the same, but I don’t know whether it includes the leads or not.

The not-so-good news, on the other hand, is that they want me to work the rest of the story on the same “themes” as a famous 80s movie called “Picnic at Hanging Rock”, by Peter Weir. For those who don’t know, “Pcnic at Hanging Rock” is about a group of Victorian schoolgirls who go picnicking on Valentine’s Day in 1900. A few of the girls disappear, along with a teacher, for inexplicable reasons. A week later, one of the girls is found, yet she has no memory of what happened to her. The movie never explains what happens to any of the other girls – it basically ends without an explanation of anything.

Now, I’ve SEEN that movie, and it’s a good movie. And luckily, there are similarities plot-wise between that movie and “The Dreaming”. However, the similarities extend only to the fact that it is (a) set in the bush, and (b) involves vanished schoolgirls. Since I’ve planned much of the storyline of “The Dreaming”, I can tell you that 90% of “The Dreaming” can be pieced together at the end, whereas nothing pieces together at the end of “Picnic at Hanging Rock”. That in turn makes it different plot-wise from the movie – so what there IS in common is the mood and atmosphere. So far, I seem to be on the right track – except that what worries me the most is that there may be a difference of opinion in what the “themes” should be, especially the Australian mythos part.

I paraphrase the EIC: “Oftentimes, of course, in stories like these, it’s not all bad news – there’s frequently a feeling of liberation on the part of characters – especially younger ones – that the truths of the bush are much more freeing than the ‘truths’ commonly thought to hold the fabric of society together”. But that, I presume he’s talking about “Picnic at Hanging Rock”. If he is, then he’s completely misunderstood the point of “Picnic at Hanging Rock”, and he’s completely misunderstood what the Australian bush is actually like. Because if the Australian Bush is synonymous with anything, it’s fire and destruction. Every year, bushfires flare up, and if it doesn’t flare up, then it’s bad because nothing will grow. Australia’s flora is evolved in such a way that it will only grow when burned by fire, so every year, if bushfires don’t occur, they will have to be lit in a process called “patch burning”. All this destruction and then rebirth means that the bush is rarely viewed as something dangerous rather than something benign. It also means that the Australian bush is more likely to be viewed as a “masculine” force, rather than a “feminine” force (as it is often viewed in other parts of the world).

I’m typing out summaries of volumes 2 and 3 tonight, and I’ve asked my editor to call me tomorrow so I can tell her to get the EIC to readjust his beliefs about “Picnic at Hanging Rock”. Because if we don’t sort this out now, there could be big disputes down the track. I also should mention that the treatment of native aborigines is another theme in this story, though how to tackle it is something I’m not yet sure about.

New Online Manga: I did a short 10-page urban legend-like story for a Wirepop.com anthology. It’s now up here.

Happy Chinese New Year!
First time I drew something completely by computer. I was going to add more detail to it, but I thought I’d best get back to “The Dreaming” since there’s going to some big reworking coming along. This was supposed to be a break, but… what the heck.