A Long Silence
It's been a while since my last blog... Yep, I'm still alive. No, I haven't been able to access the internet for about a week, which will account for my long silence and absence from the web. Of course, as long as the comic updated correctly while I was away, this might have passed unnoticed to most of you.
To begin with I spent the last few days with my family in Edinburgh, Scotland. It was a pretty much a peaceful kind of holiday... we just hung around Edinburgh. My father had fun checking out all the Scottish cuisine (FIY, haggis is pretty nice... and yes, I know what it's made of). I regret to say we didn't go out of Edinburgh... a pity, since I really wanted to see the Loch Ness, but my father didn't really seem keen on the idea. Well... he is getting on with the years now...
I'm not sure why, but why didn't anyone ever tell me that Scotland was just so darn... beautiful?! Fantastic landscape (mountains, lochs and incredible architecture), and wonderful, wonderful people. After London, the friendliness and hospitality of the Scots was unbelievably refreshing. We stayed at Glendale House, where the couple running the B&B, Elaine and Duncan, were the perfect hosts. The quality of life there is such an improvement over London...
...actually, compared to London, the quality of life in generally almost everywhere else is better compared to London, but let's not get side-tracked here.
Anyway, Scotland really is my kind of place, and another thing I love is that the people there seem to share my unhealthy fascination with swords, gun and blades. I really wanted to get a full-size Scottish Claymore for my bedroom wall (Or at least a short sword, or a highland dirk... maybe one of those dinky sock knives) but this being post 9/11, you know how hard it is to transport those things when you're flying. Just miniature reproductions for now, I guess.
The War Buffs amongst us might find a visit to Ediburgh Castle a must. The castle itself is fantastic, built on an incredibly defensive position atop this giant... rock... hill... It doesn't take a military genius to be able to appreciate it.
Scotland aside, I also visited Greenwich before my sister's graduation and visited the 'Tintin at Sea' exhibition. It was worth every penny of the admission ticket... we got to see tons of stuff, but the best part of it for my was being able to see the actual pencils and inked art by Herge himself, complete with pieces of redrawn board or white paint where he made the occasional mistake. Also saw the preparation work he did for his comics... good Lord! So much detail... I didn't know Herge scripted and story-boarded entire books before actually beginning on the drawing. Such thorough planning ahead... must emulate.
I'm currently getting ready for the annual flight back to Malaysia. Goodbye to the cool climate of England and Hello to the humid hot tropics of South-East Asia... hopefully I'll be able to settle in by then, work on my computer projects, my comic buffer, and Gear. The buffer should stretch until... the 25th, I think. The Graphic Smashers will finally catch up on the 28th, and finally I can synchronise both comic runs. The Graphic Smashers will miss the daily updates, but goodness, did I give them their money's worth the last few months or what?!
Hope everyone's been enjoying the story so far. Black Earth is longest and the most complex The Jaded story I've attempted to date. Also, I've been working on the script for the whole series in general, and with luck, my projected series runtime can be reduced from the improbable 10 years it currently is to a more plausible 5-6.
This will probably be my last time online until I reach Malaysia around the 20th. I'll be taking a detour to Singapore to visit my grandfather. Then after that it's home for the first time for what feels like a very long time. Wish me a good journey.
Moop! Ping out!
