"They say he didn't sleep during the entire war..."

With issue one finally finished I've allowed myself a month off before launching into issue two. Feedback from the folk who read #1 was very encouraging and has really rekindled my enthusiasm for the project. But it a weird way it's made me more nervous too. I need to make sure that issue #2 is better than (or at least as good as) #1 and I didn't have that pressure before. I think I have 'difficult second album' syndrome.

I've not been idle for the last month. I don't have a lot to show - I've mostly been plotting #2. Annoyingly, I have a very clear idea of what will happen in issue #3 but #2 is a little more... nebulous. I need to introduce the other main character, a chap called Robert Temple, who's a new comer to the town. I have the first few pages roughed out and I know where the issue needs to end to lead into #3, but what happens in the middle is proving a challenge. I think if The Absence was, as originally conceived, a novel it wouldn't be as difficult because it'd be based around interior monologue - but as a comic I'm trying to find a way to navigate the story in a more visual way.

Anyway, while I struggle with this here's a thumbnail sketch of a promo poster I might, at some point, work up, and also some (very rough) sketches from my development of Robert Temple. They say he didn't sleep during the entire war...

(Obligatory sales and marketing comment: Uh, there's more copies of issue #1 available if anyone wants one. See info on the right for details. Obligatory sales and marketing comment ends.)