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What are you doing here?  You should go to WWW.STRIP-FOR-ME.COM, it’s much more fun.

After The Silent Choir

Well, that’s it.  Five years since the initial parts of The Silent Choir were printed in the pages of Strip For Me 11, the whole is finally available for you to read. Sorry about the wait.

The Silent Choir was directly inspired by a photograph.  I wondered, on seeing it, what had happened to all of these happy, smiling faces.  Where had their lives taken them?  Was there something that kept them together or pushed them apart?  The title suggested itself, and the title drove the rest of the story.   As for the one hundred individual stories that make up and connect to form the story, well, who knows where they came from?

It’s been a long process, though it’s always been bubbling in the background while I’ve worked on other things.  Parts of the story were written in Dundee, London, New York and at home.  It was interesting to watch the story form about the names that I chose for the faces.  Members of the choir made friends with each other where I hadn’t expected it, connections occurred where I wouldn’t have thought them possible. The Silent Choir was one of those things that took on a life of its own.  Putting it up on the website let me putt all of those links in for other people to see.  Please do have a play around with your mouse as you read – there’s plenty to discover hidden in the images. 

Another thing I find interesting about seeing the completed story is the changes in art style that punctuate the piece.  Now, I’ve never claimed to be the greatest artist in comics, not by a long way.  I am pleased to see the difference between the earliest pieces and the last, though – it certainly seems as though there has been at least a little improvement (take a look at the page address – generally the early numbers are the ones that were done first, funnily enough).  It’s certainly been important to me in the way that I approach writing, and I’ll miss having it around.

So anyway, the story is now complete, and there are mysteries for you to uncover.  Please, I hope you enjoy The Silent Choir. 

In the meantime, I’m going to have a bit of a holiday.  Oh, you’ll still be able to find me at Elephant Words and The Rule of Death, but I won’t be updating the website until the start of October, when I‘ll be doing a bit of refurbishment.  Write it in your diaries now.

I tell you one thing though.  I’m not going to Paris.

“They had been so close.”

Another day, and another update to keep you all going through to the big conclusion, though obviously it’s not the kind of story to have a big climax, but still!  Today we add Gaynor Warsaw to the line up of The Silent Choir.  Please, enjoy, and come back tomorrow for more!

“He took pleasure in that.”

Today we inch ever closer to the completion of The Silent Choir by introducing you all to Fraser Fenton.  You might already know his sister, so feel free to say hello.

More tomorrow.

“Was that her lost summer?”

Today’s update introduces Nora Everett to The Silent Choir, as we move through the final pages.  Remember to look for links within the images – there are things to discover…

“Matilda would slit her open with her eyes.”

As you know, we are now into the last week of The Silent Choir.  Today’s new page introduces you to Matilde Stepper.  Please, get to know her  and her friends now, while there’s still time…

“It wouldn’t last”

It’s an exciting time here at Strip For Me, as  we are heading into the final week of The Silent Choir strips.  Those of you who have been following the site will know that we’ve been running them since last December or so, and those of you who are familier with the issues will know that the first of The Silent Choir stories appeared all the way back in issue 11 from 2002.  Which shows you how long the 100 pages have taken to do. 

So in celebration of the finale finally being reached, I’ll be running a new page every single day this week, with the last page appearing next Sunday.  Then I’m taking a month off to recharge and come back better than ever.

But today I’d like to introduce you to Helen Redknapp.  Come back tomorrow, and there’ll be more for you to see.

“There was something watching her.”

Another new page of The Silent Choir, as Georgina Darbold is welcomed into the fold.  More on Sunday, as usual.  Then much more over the next week.

The King of Rot ‘n’ Roll

I’ve talked about Shaky Kane here before, largely because of this interview conducted by David Hine.  Well, there’s a new Shaky Kane website that’s worth checking out that can be found at http://www.shakykanezone.co.uk/

Not only does it feature some of the artist’s classic work on Deadline and other comics, but it also shows off some of the newer children’s material he’s been doing, as well as the frankly incredible Monster Truck strip, which isn’t something I’d seen before.  Good stuff all.

 

Again, this information comes courtesy of David Hine’s column at Broken Frontier.  He’s a good writer, that one.  You should check out his comic Strange Embrace, currently being reissued in colour by Image.  It’s an odd, unnerving book that will lurk in the back of your brain for ages.  Ask for it by name.

Elephant Words – The Point Where You Place Your Hand

This week’s Elephant Words entry by me is up, entitled The Point Where You Place Your Hand and inspired by Rol Hirst’s photo above.  It’s an odd one, this week, but at least nobody dies this time!