Those who have been following this blog for a while know that I’ve had a graphic novel project of my own, The Mermaid, underway since last year, but lately it’s been on the back burner, due to other projects and, well, life. In order to get myself some time to work on it (this is MY baby!) I’ve instituted Mermaid Days in the studio. Twice a week, a whole day to work on my own story. Sweet, eh?

Today was the first one, and wouldn’t you know it, I woke up with a cold! So I was a little slow in dragging myself upstairs to the studio, but once I started inking the pencil pages which have been languishing, dormant, in their binder for a year (a whole year! I can’t believe it!), I was lost in the story again.

The story involves a young farm girl who goes in search of her missing brother, and finds herself going much further afield than she has intended. Thrust into an unfamiliar life, you might say she is… at sea. And that’s all I’m going to tell you for now, that’s a spoiler enough. Suffice it to say though, she finds herself in very deep waters indeed! You may groan now.

The first chapter is already pencilled, all 36 pages, and the script is outlined for ten chapters, so I expect this to be either a tome or a collection of chapter-long issues. It’s going to take me a couple of years to finish the whole story, but I don’t want to make people wait that long, so once I have two or three more pages inked and painted, I will give them their own site, updated regularly.

I’m so happy (sniffle, sneeze) that I want to share it with you (the work, not the cold!). So here are the first three pages of The Mermaid inked (the second image is a two-page spread). They will soon be watercoloured as well and I’ll share them again then.

Who is this young woman? Why does she look so determined?

The end of one journey and the beginning of another.