106. Painting the town, part 2.

105. Painting the town, part 1.

 

The illustration is from The Grand Escape, the next chapter of the ongoing Pia Zawa story.

To be continued...

104. The story so far.

Because of some changes since I started publishing the new Pia Zawa, below you'll find the whole thing, including two new pages, the end of Part 1: Roadkill.

103. Jingle bells.

102. Urban cowgirls.

To be continued...

Because the shop clerk grew tired of Christmas music weeks ago, the song playing on the hat shop's stereo is a chill version of Canned Heat's On The Road Again with Katie Melua.

101. The War of the Subtitles.

Back again. And again. And probably again, but that'll be the future's problem.

During these last lost weeks I've done some rewrites and stuff on the Wolf's Blues animated movie project. It's still moving forward, even though it currently seems to be going at a snail's pace.

Wulf Greybones and his favorite dish/arch enemy The Moose - sketch from Wolf's Blues.

  

I've met a flu I didn't like, entertained a bunch of kids with live cartooning, fucked up my back and finally fixed it by changing the chair I work in, and done the first in a series of commissioned posters. You'll see it when it's approved by the customer. 

But on the side, I've scripted most of the Pia Zawa story. There will be some tweeking along the way though. I already know a few scenes that will change, dialogue that needs my attention - but the main structure's there. Except for the epilogue. I want to keep this unwritten, like a little surprise for myself, while I draw and color the rest of the 144 pages. Yes, this is a big one.

While I've been working on the story, it has been pointed out to me (by myself) that the story needs a subtitle. Pia Zawa and the Something Or Other. There are other Pia Zawa publications out there which it may now be confused with. So...

This is the story of Pia's first investigation - she'll later become a private investigator - and an obvious choice for a title could be...

Am I the only one getting a whiff of X-men: First Class? Maybe the subtitle could point to the fact that the whole thing takes place during one Christmas?

Or...

But I do like my titles to be a bit more cryptic. I run through a bunch of them, before finally settling on the one below. Which is now the official title of this restart of the Pia Zawa series.

This, in classic crime tradition, is a title which won't make total sense to you until the last chapter, which you'll find on the freshly edited contents page. It may contain spoilers, I guess.

Finally, back to the story, and the pages I finished today. Yes, you've caught up with me. Last time you read, the police officers Chris and Jurgen were involved in a wild car-chase through the streets of Urbanburg, on the heels of a Bugatti with diplomatic plates.

It's still in the lead.

Next: Urban cowgirls.