“It’s a Christmas Miracle of Closely-Monitored and Regimented International Distribution, Charlie Brown!”

Nants ingonyama bagithi Baba!...Too much?

Fabulous news, something I’ve been keeping under my hat (except to everyone I know in real life, on Twitter, Facebook and a cute bookshop girl I wanted to impress) – I’m effervescent with glee to announce that “Throat” has been officially published in the States! I’m not sure when it’ll start showing up in stores or to what extent, but it already has an Amazon listing and you can all order it just in time for Christmas! Think what a hero you’ll be to the impossible-to-buy-for, indie comic enthusiast in your life; Y’know, the one who only likes completely obscure comics that have no reputation whatsoever, so as to never be accused of following the crowd? I know, I know, I’ve saved your Christmas. You’re welcome.

Woot!

A couple of important points to address, just to make sure everyone’s completely in the loop. To err on the side of caution the entire book won’t be published in one go, instead it’s been cut into three equal parts, effectively ‘trilogising’ it. Fortuitously the book’s three-act structure divides up more or less equally, so each book will be about the same length and stand up individually. At least I hope they will. This way instead of having one massive expensive book published it’ll be three cheaper ones. Which is even better, especially as two of the notable issues potential buyers voiced were the price and the length. So here’s the game plan:
•Book One: Coping Is Coping (November 2012)
•Book Two: Manageable Unease (February 2013)
•Book Three: Nobody’s Waiting (May 2013)
Each of these volumes will have a section of exclusive material, the first of which being a development sketchbook from which I put up excerpts last week. So how’s that for added incentive? The versions of each book that are being distributed to stores are black and white (cheaper and artsier), but after some humming and hah-ing there’s a full-colour alternative exclusive to Amazon. In every other respect it’s the same exact book, just a little pricier for the ink but still pretty cheap. To differentiate between the two when it comes to online listing the B&W cover has the title in black and the colour version in red. Fiendish!

Presenting the world's easiest spot-the-difference...

Unless the first or second volumes completely tank, all three will be out by the spring. Then depending on sales we’ll be looking into putting out the whole book as a kind of ‘Deluxe’ edition, like the original release but with all the extra bits included and maybe even some additional chapters I cut out as a sort of bonus. Like a DVD extra…in book form. I guess. It’s also worth noting that I’m still selling the original, self-published editions of the complete story on Lulu in the meantime.
So there you go, I have a bit of book out in time for the holidays, although you’d probably need to get your orders in pretty sharpish. Don’t forget you can preview the first nine chapters completely free in PDF form and find out more at the website throatbook.com and its Facebook Page.
I'd also like to personally once again thank all those who supported the book as it came together, either through direct feedback, marketing advice or just keeping me going in general. So much love and respect for Luca, Toby, Sam, Karin, Joanna, Jane, Michelle, Alison and Nusha, as well as everyone who has supported it by buying a copy or spreading the word and my ever-brilliant and supportive family for not being too freaked out by it. It's been a strange and unusual little sideline venture and I'm sincerely happy and grateful to see it get this far.
Now to start pimping the living hell out of it...

Naughty Listings

Quickie update regarding some upcoming screenings for my long-in-the-tooth Christmas short “The Naughty List”.

For those Spaniards amongst you who’ve yet to catch one of its TV airings on Canal+ Xtra, it’ll be on this Tuesday (27th) at 2:40pm. I suspect this will be one of its last TV showings – if not, the last – on that particular network, so do give it a pre-siesta watch if you’re so inclined. All told the channel’s been very good to me and my li’l film over the past year, screening it pretty regularly despite it being so season-specific, so gracias to the Canal+ folks for the exposure (and the extra chunk of change didn’t hurt none either).

Mere days before the film sees its third Christmas since completion - mother of God, time goes by fast – it will be screened on December 22nd at the West Side Cinema in support of “Rare Exports”, a Finnish Christmas film that passed me by but I’m tempted to check out as it seems to be quite highly regarded. Unfortunately I can’t make it to that one as it’s in Orkney which is pretty much as far away from me as possible without leaving the UK altogether.

Earlier in the month and closer to home, the film will be screened on December 6th at Bath Road Studios here in Bristol for CineMe Showcase 2012, a networking evening that will also include some of their previously screened films (“Naughty List” and a few others of mine were included at one of their events back in April). I’m aiming to be there to scope out the premises and hopefully not bomb. So if any of you readers decide that’s the night you want to start stalking me, I’m pretty much handing you my exact whereabouts on a platter. Spectacularly nearsighted of me, I’m sure I’ll come to realise.

Throatscratch

For reasons that are probably pretty easy to discern but I don’t want to jinx by outright stating on here, I’ve been leafing through some old sketchbook for any early development scribbles and doodles for “Throat”. These go back to early 2010 when the idea was barely formed (it was originally going to be more of an illustrated non-fictional journal that would’ve bored and depressed literally everyone who glanced at it before I made what I suspect was the wiser move of of making it a more comedic, graphic novel project).

Original cover sketch got itself a tad smudgey over time

Unfortunately some of the really early stuff is smudged, torn or crinkled to the point of illegibility but I did find a few survivors, chief among them some very early Lyman sketches. Some of these were for specific, non-“Throat” purposes, like birthday cards or thank-you notes, but they show a fair bit of how the character developed visually before I started the book proper.

I sure do like to draw this guy naked a lot. Should probably look into that...

Here are a few more randomly sketched-out ideas, some of them found their way into the story, others didn’t quite fit:

On a not-entirely-unrelated note, here are spreads for an entire chapter that was part of a substory I removed completely about Lyman’s job as an app developer:

Hopefully this time next week I’ll be able to announce what all this rummaging is for, so stick around as it will be holly and jolly news indeed!