My sketchbook pretty much looks like this:
I mean, what am I going to do with that?
Clearly I’ve got nothing, so I might as well embrace the archive-digging-as-procrastination, which has brought you Ernie & Fitz, and Everybody Comes to Raph, lean in to it as they say, try not to beat myself up about it, and just keep posting old stuff that is at least new to you, in hopes that My Past Self can eventually inspire My Present Self to get his act together.
Naturally, the logical next step is to post a story about a guy with no head.
It’s an idea that’s been floating around in my head for a long time. (I didn’t realize how long until I found a comic from my high school sketchbook.)
Eventually I worked out a story. The first version, circa 2001, was very Shel Silverstein, in all black and white, and featured some simple narration.
A couple of years later I did a second version in crayon (the idea behind using crayon was that if this were a kids book, it might be inspiring to kids to know that it was made with the same tools they have access to) and eliminated the narration.
I showed the story about a guy with no head to a few friends, then put it away, but never forgot about it.
With Ernie & Fitz, and Raph finding a place on my little internet home, it seemed like there could also be a spot for this story.
I had already scanned in the pages ages ago, so I digitally brushed over a couple of stray crayon strokes, discarded a few confusing panels of story, and starting today, I’ll be posting a page a day of the story at screentone. It will take about 22 days to tell the complete story, but since you guys have gone to the trouble of not only subscribing to screennotes but also opening it up when it arrives in your inbox, you can you can read the whole thing in one sitting. (Don’t worry, it’s short.)
Hope you dig it as much I’ve enjoyed digging it up.
Until next time,
tone
P.S. It’s oddly scary posting this story. I’m not sure why. Maybe because I’ve been carrying it around for so long, maybe because it’s kind of a weird tale, maybe because I would do it differently now than I would have more than 15 years ago. Not to mention that once something is on the internet it tends to stay there. Eek. Frightening stuff. Let’s go.