Wow! I have to say that I lost touch with you a couple of years ago when my life got a bit … busy … and have only recently reconnected. Geeze Louise! I might have to go on heart medicine if you keep this up!
I just re-read “whimville” on the web where the brain bunnies made their first (I think) appearance. That one ended with Dr. Sprocket instructing the robot to go to the palace of the king. YOTR starts with the BB Queen a mere skeleton and the king … somewhere. Is there a story somewhere which connects the two? Or is it left to our own visits to the land of imagination to fill in the gaps?
Year of the Rat is my attempt to fill in the gaps as well as build a bigger story in the coming years that will (hopefully) be a series of 11 print volumes and 12 online books (chapters). A book a year for the next 11 years. I’m using the Chinese Calendar New Year as the end/beginning of each Book. Next year the page count/update schedule will switch to M/W/F for Book III starting on February 15, 2010.
I’ve put links to each online book on the left hand side of the site for convenience sake. My archives might be a little wonky since there’s been other work included between the two books over the last couple years. The buttons give you easy access to the beginnings of each tale. Did you see the Silver Hammer reference here? They never made it to the castle, but I’m not saying much more. I promise it will all get woven together as I keep working on Year of the Rat. Hopefully (most likely) into a cohesive whole.
My comics production has been spotty for most of my “career” as a cartoonist due to personal circumstances, but I’m hoping to stick to the commitment I’ve made and see each book through. I’m in the home stretch for Book II of YOTR and I’m hoping to get it printed and out in the world. Then it’s back to the drawing board for Book III which I’ve tentatively entitled THE RETURN OF SANCHO SWIFT.
Well you can count me in as a regular, both on-line and print.
By the way, it was me who re-upped the MagicInkwell.com domain those many years ago. You asked who had done it but I wanted it to be anonymous. Now I can’t remember why I did.
I just ordered the Reader. Is Book 1: Trial by Fire available in print?
And don’t worry too much about making it a “cohesive whole”. Your work has always stretched boundaries, putting less importance on comfortable continuity and coherence and more on exploration, experimentation, and possibilities. As the good Doctor says, “I was once a man of science … the answer did not lie in the cold order of reason, but in the ether of abstract thought and the magical forces inherent in each of our worlds”.
Steve by virtue of being the one who not only re-upped Magic Inkwell’s domain registration but re-upped it for FIVE YEARS you’re, like, a magicinkwell.com GOLD STAR DONOR for LIFE! I already emailed you a personal note of thanks, but for the benefit of my readers here: that donation, along with the hosting support of Joey Manley and ModernTales over these many years, helped me maintain this site’s presence on the web in one of the most crucial moments when it could have slipped (finally) into ultimate obscurity by disappearing from the web altogether. That five year pass helped me keep the venue and I’m proud that I’ve been able to keep posting my work here, spotty though my output has been at times.
To answer your question, though, Book I is not available in print yet but it will be available as part of the first print collection. I’m looking forward to making this book happen because it’ll be neat to put out a book that has a color section, a duo-tone section and a black and white section and be a manga digest. It’ll be xtra fancy!
I also think it’s awesome that you quoted Doc Sprocket in an attempt to justify my bad writing… ahem, I mean penchant for experimentation and boundary testing in place of narrative structure.
And thanks for ordering a copy of the Reader. I’ll have to sign that for you at some point if we ever cross paths!
That’s the second puke spread I’ve seen in the last 24 hours! Ryland provided the other one! I’m asking the same question though, what WAS that?!
Wow! I have to say that I lost touch with you a couple of years ago when my life got a bit … busy … and have only recently reconnected. Geeze Louise! I might have to go on heart medicine if you keep this up!
I just re-read “whimville” on the web where the brain bunnies made their first (I think) appearance. That one ended with Dr. Sprocket instructing the robot to go to the palace of the king. YOTR starts with the BB Queen a mere skeleton and the king … somewhere. Is there a story somewhere which connects the two? Or is it left to our own visits to the land of imagination to fill in the gaps?
Year of the Rat is my attempt to fill in the gaps as well as build a bigger story in the coming years that will (hopefully) be a series of 11 print volumes and 12 online books (chapters). A book a year for the next 11 years. I’m using the Chinese Calendar New Year as the end/beginning of each Book. Next year the page count/update schedule will switch to M/W/F for Book III starting on February 15, 2010.
I’ve put links to each online book on the left hand side of the site for convenience sake. My archives might be a little wonky since there’s been other work included between the two books over the last couple years. The buttons give you easy access to the beginnings of each tale. Did you see the Silver Hammer reference here? They never made it to the castle, but I’m not saying much more. I promise it will all get woven together as I keep working on Year of the Rat. Hopefully (most likely) into a cohesive whole.
My comics production has been spotty for most of my “career” as a cartoonist due to personal circumstances, but I’m hoping to stick to the commitment I’ve made and see each book through. I’m in the home stretch for Book II of YOTR and I’m hoping to get it printed and out in the world. Then it’s back to the drawing board for Book III which I’ve tentatively entitled THE RETURN OF SANCHO SWIFT.
Well you can count me in as a regular, both on-line and print.
By the way, it was me who re-upped the MagicInkwell.com domain those many years ago. You asked who had done it but I wanted it to be anonymous. Now I can’t remember why I did.
I just ordered the Reader. Is Book 1: Trial by Fire available in print?
And don’t worry too much about making it a “cohesive whole”. Your work has always stretched boundaries, putting less importance on comfortable continuity and coherence and more on exploration, experimentation, and possibilities. As the good Doctor says, “I was once a man of science … the answer did not lie in the cold order of reason, but in the ether of abstract thought and the magical forces inherent in each of our worlds”.
Steve by virtue of being the one who not only re-upped Magic Inkwell’s domain registration but re-upped it for FIVE YEARS you’re, like, a magicinkwell.com GOLD STAR DONOR for LIFE! I already emailed you a personal note of thanks, but for the benefit of my readers here: that donation, along with the hosting support of Joey Manley and ModernTales over these many years, helped me maintain this site’s presence on the web in one of the most crucial moments when it could have slipped (finally) into ultimate obscurity by disappearing from the web altogether. That five year pass helped me keep the venue and I’m proud that I’ve been able to keep posting my work here, spotty though my output has been at times.
To answer your question, though, Book I is not available in print yet but it will be available as part of the first print collection. I’m looking forward to making this book happen because it’ll be neat to put out a book that has a color section, a duo-tone section and a black and white section and be a manga digest. It’ll be xtra fancy!
I also think it’s awesome that you quoted Doc Sprocket in an attempt to justify my bad writing… ahem, I mean penchant for experimentation and boundary testing in place of narrative structure.
And thanks for ordering a copy of the Reader. I’ll have to sign that for you at some point if we ever cross paths!