G.T. Labs

comics

The Imitation Game

That’s the name of the serialized story I’m doing for Tor.com, and I’m taking a break from writing it to note that the sequence that I thought would be impossible in the first act came together in one night* last week, so this next bit, which I think will be easy, will probably be difficult. I’ve come to expect that I’m wrong about stories I’m writing a lot more often than I’m right.

But in tonight’s batch of pages Turing enters Bletchley Park, and everybody is glad to see him there, myself included.

[*a night that ended late, and with a smile, and with a splitting headache]

Why I work with Big Time Attic whenever possible

If you read Tom Spurgeon’s interview with Kevin Cannon you’ll find roughly 317 bits of wisdom. I’ll quote only one, from this not-for-the-squeamish bit about sound effects:

In Far Arden, David’s “THROW UP A LITTLE IN MOUTH” sound effect really cuts right to the core of what he’s feeling and doing, and it only took one panel to accomplish. If I used a normal sound effect like “HRMPH” I suppose some people might deduce that David had thrown up a little in his mouth. But how do we know he hasn’t thrown up a lot in his mouth? Or what if he has merely belched, without any throw-up at all? One solution would be for the character to have the “HRMPH” sound effect, and then to tell another character, “I’ve just thrown up a little in my mouth.” But given the fact that he’s got to spit out the throw-up first before he can attempt to say anything, we’re looking at three, four panels just for that one gag. That’s just wasteful.

And that’s why, when you have less than 128 pages to cover the space race, you want to work with Kevin and Zander. Storytelling efficiency.

The Next Big Thing…

…or maybe it will be the next, next big thing, depending on publishing schedules. Enough crypticality: If you’d like to take a sneak peek at an upcoming book, head on over to Maris Wicks’ blog and, well, sneak that peek.

The book will feature The Peak, too, in case the above wasn’t cryptic enough.