As I start working on next week’s strips I figured I should take a few minutes and go over the process. First, of course, comes an idea… sometimes this is just something I saw that I thought was amusing, sometimes it is a commentary on the day, sometimes it is an idea that I’ve had for a long time. This gets drawn out in pencil- I use Prismacolor Verithin non-photo blue. I have created a template to draw on that has been copied onto card stock. It consists of the rectangle and the type. I use a ruler to draw the lines needed for text using the top third of the rectangle keeping this a more traditional comic strip for now. After drawing out what I want I ink it all in. I am presently using a set of Copic pens with a varied with including a brush. I’m still working on my inking which I hope will improve as I continue. Once the comic is inked and the text and speech bubbles have been drawn I scan this into my laptop to finish it all. I start with a 600 dpi scan and clean up anything I need to (erase the lines so that the individual panels are defined) I tweak the brightness and contrast and then save the file for my archives. I then go back and resize the stripe to 850 pixels wide at 100 dpi and then save it for the web as a .gif file. From there I upload that file to the website using the Comic Press plug-in in Word Press and type a short message telling the story in a little more depth. I hope you are enjoying the journey and as I continue to grow as a cartoonist I am hoping that not only my artwork but also my storytelling will improve.
I may be back from England but I still have a bunch of observations during that portion of the trip along with other ideas that need to be published. I’ve even been asked to chat about the trip next week at our local MINI dealership (Dreyer & Reinbold MINI) and show some of the photos I took (that alone should make an interesting strip).
Well as Cecil got his 600th find yesterday I thought I had everything planned out to make the run… except for logging when I was half awake and needing to comeback a relog a few this morning! We started in Greenwich and I had a pad with my countdown on it so that the virtual cache at the Prime Meridian would be #600. This was the plan and it was a pretty good one. I know that I can be forgetful at times and can even be called “random” so I was trying to make sure that everything worked out. That was until I back to hotel and started to log the caches. I pulled up the map and just started logging from the caches on the map… not my carefully orchestrated list. I suddenly came up with an extra cache! so I tweaked my logging order so it worked out and tried to get some sleep. Well, Sue comes along this morning (being all concrete/sequential) and reminds me that we skipped one of the Greenwich gate caches that I had logged! SO I go back and fortunately only need to delete a couple entries. I am not changing the map for the tracking coin… I’m an old Boy Scout, but its trail is close enough. My plan worked perfectly- I just didn’t. Cecil did get his 600th at the Prime Meridian and I bought a baseball cap to celebrate. As Cecil would say “ook!”
Cecil celebrates his 600th find at Greenwich after a lovely morning wandering the park and the town to get the numbers right.
OK, I know I started somewhere with how I really like the way that England has stayed almost humble about a lot of different things. As I have been motoring along in the heart of England it is difficult to find a Starbucks, McDonalds, or any kind of fast food. Sue and I have commented that the only thing that seems to be franchised is the “Red Lion” since we have seen numerous pubs with that name in various towns as we travel. Yesterday proved to me that capitalism is not dead in England… Sue and I (after a quick stop in Hook Norton) went to Blenheim Palace. Well having visited world heritage sites before this was the first one that was in the process of setting up for the Blenheim Triathlon (sponsored by Mazda) and the first one that had animatronic displays. The house itself was lovely, and the artwork was spectacular (though I get the impression the 1st Duke liked to have his picture painted- a lot). I think I was let down by the admission price (around $28 per person) and that since the triathlon was being set up many places on the grounds were closed to visitors. I don’t think the drizzles (only the second time since we have been here) helped my viewpoint, but if you have seen my Flickr gallery you hopefully have noticed that I like to take photos. I couldn’t find a shot of the house without some company logo in frame! We did take a very nice tour which really helped me to appreciate everything that I saw, but then we decided to view the second portion of the tour which dealt with the history of people and the house through the ages with the help of technology. At first it was amusing… then it was sad. Finally I tried to figure out why anyone with such a lovely house would devote part of it to a knock off of an A ticket Disneyland attraction. The answer came at the end when the latest Duke appeared on a screen thanking us for visiting- I almost thought he was about to tell us about the books, DVDs and t-shirts available at the gift shop “and don’t forget to quench your hunger on some Blenheim Bangers and Mash- Just like Winston used to eat!”. So my idealized version of England has been brought crashing to reality, which isn’t too bad- as we head off to London then home.
The past two days have been relaxing, but interesting as I continue to find out more about normal life in England. On Sunday after visiting the local castle (Broughton Castle) Sue and I decided to go roving… Wandering along using the footpath system which runs throughout the country. A fantastic idea which really makes it easy to go for a walk since there is a trail fairly close to everywhere. We took the “Shutford Circular Walk” which (shockingly enough) had a series of caches placed along the route. About 4.5 miles later we had found 10 caches and were sitting at the local pub thinking about food. Unfortunately, we discovered that while pubs are open and serve beverages, no food is serves in pubs (or at least the small local ones) on Sundays. Slightly different than Indiana where you can’t buy alcohol on Sunday, but can buy as much food as you like! After that we headed back and Sue made a wonderful salad.
Today it was time to tick off another thing on the list… a visit to the Swindon Pressing Plant. This is where all MINI body panels are produced. Again (he says with a shocked tone) there was a cache nearby (called MINI). If it wasn’t for the cache I doubt we would have even known where to look. I dropped off my Mini Cooper Rally Car- the green team. in the cache and we headed off away from Swindon and back to the Cotswolds and quaintness. After a stop in Burford- lovely needlework/knitting shop… I assume it was lovely, Sue bought stuff. We headed off to another cache this one located near an old church that once was the place of worship for a medieval town that died out from the Black Plague. No one returned to the town, so this small church is still there and being used by the locals (no town, but some wonderful homes nearby. After walking around for a while we started to get tired and decided to head back to Swinford Gower. Tomorrow will be another adventure, but it was nice to get one more little thing off the list as date to return home gets closer and closer.
Yesterday was great! We headed over to Coventry to check out the Transport Museum. they had a Dr. Who Exhibition along with a wonderful history of British auto-making. I learned the in the orignal Italian Job the tunnel sequences were actually shot in Coventry… kind of cool. For the Dr. Who Exhibition I learned that while I really like the Doctor, I am a late comer (I recall watching it in the 70’s, but didn’t have a chance to follow it since the last season on BBC America. So while I was fascinated by the displays, I was lost as to their significance. Guess it’s time to start watching more on DVD!
After Coventry we headed to ShakespeareLand, yes Stratford-Upon-Avon. Beautiful town, very, very touristy. We actually took a tour since, while I am familiar with the bard’s work, I am not a scholar. It was interesting. The thing I found really neat was that they had a “kids” version of the audio. I listened to a portion of that and it was really neat. geared to hold the attention of a 9 or 10 year old (no comments). When I compared notes with Sue it seemed the same information was dealt with, just in a different manner. Stopped by to get the MINI washed since poor Nigel was looking a little messy.
Well as today closes (weather was back to being wonderful) I thought I’d post something quickly about motoring in England. I recall the first time I ever drove the Dragon (US 129 on the border of TN&NC) wonderful road, makes my brain hurt to drive it. I know there are those who zip and zoom around the 318 turns, but I’m enough of a novice that it just tires me out to think about it. That’s kind of what driving in England is like. Not the turn every second, but you have to think. I’ve been driving long enough that I can do some things on auto-pilot. A long stretch of Interstate and you can let your mind wander (keeping alert for changes) In England the roads are the same, but everything is backwards (75% of all MINIs made are left hand drive) I can drive with the wheel on the right, but the other side of the road still makes me have to think. Sue has caught me making a right turn and going instinctively into the right lane! Not a good idea. I have improved a great deal since I first started out, but I still feel like I’m a new driver trying not to get into trouble. Combine this with not being familiar with the roads and my brain is set to explode!
Now we have a Nuvi (Hyacinth) with the European roads on it, and I have Sue who is a great navigator. Today we headed out to see an old friend of ours who is in England for part of the summer. He sent us directions via email. So we had Hyacinth, Sue, and Bill all telling me where to go… Hyacinth took one route, Sue had her idea, and Bill had Google Maps directions- the result was getting lost and taking almost three hours to reach our destination. After turning off the GPS things got a little better (OK we had to figure out where we were first), The way home was also interesting because we decided to just follow the Nuvi’s directions- Neat roads but I don’t think I could find my way back without help. Tomorrow is another day and more adventures- the fun part is getting lost- fortunately I did mark our cottage as a waypoint.
Well yesterday was a long day but really neat. We drove into a town just across the border into Wales. Hay-on-Wye has this magnificent book festival besides being known as “The Town of Books” since it has so many bookstores. After checking out the children’s section at the festival (and finding lots of cool books for my classroom) we wandered the town. It was raining (finally some english weather) but we were fine since we were given an umbrella at the festival. Besides books I did manage to pick up a replacement for my Tilley hat. The things are indestructible but that doesn’t help much when you misplace it. I’ve posted a bunch of pictures on Flickr, but all I can say is it was a wonderful day.
One observation I have made as I search for the culture that brought about the Mini is- There are just so many of them over here! If you don’t own a Mini (or didn’t at one time) you knew someone who did. It was the British “Model T” the car everyone had. While the numbers are increasing in the states, you can’t turn a corner without seeing at least one Mini or MINI. For the uninitiated you may notice that I type Mini or MINI which in type distinguishes the old Mini from the newer MINI. There are many diehard Mini Geeks out there who hate, loathe, etc. the new MINI (now 7+ years since the first one was built). But yesterday was for the book geek in me. I spent way too much, but ended up with what I hope will be some gems for my classroom.
As sit listening the the birds and the “gentle Breeze here in Sibford Gower (don’t you just love British names?) I thought I would post a quick note as to what my plans are since I really didn’t feel right flying all the way out here and not doing at least a couple comic strips about the MINI Factory and MINI United. Of course the silly thing is you can’t do a strip about something that hasn’t happened! Now that I’m settled down I have at least a few ideas before I start dealing with commentary about British life and yes, motoring. When doing the planning for this back in November I looked up various museums to see what they might have about the Mini and basically got back little or no information. Now that I’m here every brochure I pick up (for these same museums mind you) are all talking about the celebration of the Mini’s 50th birthday. Go figure. Well, Sue and I are stocked up and the weather is cooperating so expect more simple blogs in the days to come.
I do feel fortunate that I am starting this endeavor a little early and playing around with things before the official kick off in May. I have been overwhelmed with the feeling that maybe I have bitten off more than I can chew. The only thing that seems to help is to go back and look at some of the original strips from the professional cartoonists (web or not) and realize that their characters have matured as their drawing skills have. So as I sit here on the last day of spring break, all I can think of is I need to get the ideas on paper and then go back and tweak them. I have story ideas, but I sat around trying to decide which one I should start with… I finally decided after much inner dialogue that I should just start drawing and then post them in the order that makes the most sense. Looking at PVP recently, there have been a number of short almost single day strips, so why should I be set on a three strip arc? Just draw stupid. I took last night and went over Kyle Baker’s fantastic book How to Draw Stupid. Once again looking for inspiration and I think I did find some, I know everything about my drawing will improve if I just start drawing. So the characters will be change, does anyone remember the main character from the first Peanuts strip? Two hints: It wasn’t Charlie Brown or Snoopy.
As far as planning for the Odyssey goes, everything is finally in place for England. Flight, lodging and a MINI One. For those of you unfamiliar the MINI One is basically a baseline MINI Cooper (not available in the US) smaller engine, no Bells, no Whistles. It should be a lot of fun to drive after living with a fully equipped Cooper S for four years. Now the final steps for England are just to figure out where we are going to go on our day trips, a lot of things on the list, and all of them should be great. Sue has started to solve puzzle caches for England and looking for those that are MINI or Automotive related- including a cache near where Top Gear is filmed. She has also found an event the Monday after MINI United and has been in touch with a UK cacher who has given her some ideas.
The US portion of the trip has also come together, I’ve got my lodging and registration for Mini Meet, and am deciding what route to take to get up to Winona, MN. I’m considering heading over to St. Louis and then north, just for fun (OK I have a friend I want to meet up with and Cecil-Evil GeoCaching Monkey doesn’t have any caches in Missouri). Heading home through Sheboygan, WI to touch base with an old college friend and through either Chicago (and gummi bears at Albanese) or avoiding the city (but not the gummi bears).
One sad point is with the economy I will be solo for Comic-Con in San Diego, not too bad since I feel I will be working for part of it and be rather demanding about what I want to do, but it would have been nice to share the experience with one of my brothers. Still working on airfare to get out there, but I’m not too concerned yet. Haven’t started to ask around to see what might be going on in San Diego before or after and I don’t know about renting a car since I’ll be downtown most of the time so it would be a waste until the convention is over and I head out caching on the way back.
While I don’t think I’ll be posting anymore test strips until May (I might, but don’t know yet) I will try to update the blog part with things related to the adventure. Thanks to all of you who are joining me virtually on this adventure it is nice to have the company.
Well, things are interesting before I have produced comic one… Thanks to my school for promoting this project and hopefully I’ll be able to live up to their kind words and support.
Thanks to Mrs. Apple for writing about this project
