Week's worth of Mythomatic orders fulfilled, quite a few international ones.
Inboxes at 152, RSS 147. 34C today, “feels like 43”.
journal
“Daddeee, what's that sound you made?”
Me? (Feeling exposed) Oh, haha, nothing, habibi, just talking to myself.
“That was a funny sound you made, daddy,” he says laughing, which makes me laugh too, deliriously.
“Are you really tired, daddy?”
Hahaha, yes I am, son, you could say that, yes.
It's not that bad. Surviving on 3-hours sleep each night for most of this past week has paid off; Latest TSG is up, newsletter drafted and sent (edition #209: Power of the Package), kickstarter updated, and roundtrip flight to New York booked. And today, I finally managed to step away from work and take the kid out to the coffee shop around the corner for a much-needed treat (for both of us!). We also got to lay on the floor and do some coloring together, and also put together a little chia-planting kit. All in all, a delightful day.
A couple hours after the sense of release/relief following the completion of the TSG chapter that precedes the very last, I started to think about the work ahead: The next and final chapter in THE SOLAR GRID.
According to script and thumbs, the last chapter is a 50-page beast. Between pencils, inks, and letters, we're looking at an average of 3 days per page, and that's if I work fast and assuming no pages require color, but there are in fact quite a few that do. In fact in fact, some even require what might best be described as ill-advised mixed media madness that I'm not entirely sure I can adequately assess the time they would need to make before trying to work on one or two such pages first. Which means we can be sure that 3 pages a day is way too optimistic and things will probably not work out that way. But even if we were to make use of this ludicrously optimistic calculation, we would be looking at 150 days of work. Five months basically, and that's if I work weekends and take on no other projects whatsoever, however small.
This is a terribly depressing realization and wholly unrealistic. I can't not have this chapter finished before year's end, I just can't. I will kill myself. The only logical thing to do at this point would be to go back to script and thumbs, see if there's anything I can cut or at least compress. And perhaps do without any unpredictable visual experiments that could potentially multiply execution time, no matter how strong the creative itch is. I really shouldn't spend more than three months on the thing, so that means I need to see if I can bring the page-count down to 30. That's a lot of cutting and compressing.
Shit.
On a completely different note, I have done absolutely nothing towards this week's newsletter which typically goes out every other Friday at 11:59 pm. It is now 9:45 pm.
Fml.
You know you're stressed when all your rules concerning carb intake are out the window.
Good morning.
I'm sure I will regret this 11:00pm coffee, but I need to push to get this chapter in the can.
It's true what they say, the last 10% of any project is always the hardest. No idea who “they” are, but I'm pretty sure it's a thing.
“Why are you so tired, daddy?”
Well, Mr. Moony, I was working all day today, and the work is still not finished, and I have so much more work to do still.
“Are you gonna work while I sleep?”
Probably.
“Why do old people die, daddy?”
Well... because they've been alive for so long, their body's been working so long, and after so many years of their body working, everything gets real tired; their heart gets tired, their chest gets tired, their tummies get tired, their legs get tired, and their eyes get tired, and their heads too. Everything gets so tired to the point where it's ready to say, All done, bye now.
Laughter, and then: “Are we gonna die soon?”, asked with a smile and a trail of laughter still.
Hopefully not you, Moony, because you're still very young.
“But you're gonna die soon.” The voice of conclusion, not a question.
Sooner than most, I think, but hopefully not too soon.
He then nodded in silence and after a beat or two changed the subject before drifting off to sleep.
Promised myself I wouldn't travel until the entire TSG is in the can, but this chapter has genuinely sapped the lifeforce out of me and I think a recharge is very much in order. Considering fucking off for a few days as soon as its wrapped. Either Mexico City or NYC, can't decide. Mexico City is closer, more my vibe, and kinder on the wallet. I do know more people in New York though, some of whom I haven't seen in a couple years.
Another day of surviving on a mere three hours sleep after awaking at 3:00am for no good reason. Orders dropped off at post office though, and a quick visit to the lab for bloodwork checked off (I'm rather particular about my health and try to get tested fairly regularly). These are now the very last remaining copies of THE SOLAR GRID #1 in existence:
Cover for the print edition of #9 underway today.
Ordered by accident and almost tempted to keep it just for the terrible mis-registration on this copy's print job. Snooping around online and I'm not seeing any publicly available evidence of anyone else having come across such a terribly misprinted copy.
Almost want to send a picture directly to Dan Clowes just to ruin his day/week/life. But no, what good would that do without getting to see the look on his face?