Anyone fancy adding words to my Durham Red strip?

[SuperSurfer]

Ditto all of the above. There are some particularly excellent frames in those pages.

And good to see the original version of Durham Red which I prefer.

[Kev Levell]

It don't need words Matt. Your storytelling has made them redundant - take that as a sign of your own mastery.

[mygrimmbrother]

I'm genuinely very flattered by your comments guys, but let's see what Locusts can come up with...

[Emperor]

The words are in, a nice job:

http://mygrimmbrother.blogspot.com/2009/11/durham-red-long-time-coming.html

As I say, it doesn't need them but it is an interesting experiment fitting the words to the pictures.

Now can we get Roger to do a foul-mouthed version?

[Mike Gloady]

Good job Locusts. 

But as everyone's said, it does work beautifully in it's original form.  Hopefully Roger will get the phrase "big jubilies" in somehow.

[locustsofdeath!]

I'm sure the overall senimtent will remain that that the strip needed no words - and actually, I'm inclined to agree!

But I couldn't resist contributing to such beautiful imagery, and I'm sure that if I hadn't gotten to it first several of my fellow boarders would have loved to have a crack at it in my place.

The biggest problem I faced was avoiding redundancy, and I think I did a fair job of that. I realized right away that the strip had to be "silent" and that no dialogue was needed. This only further heaped on to the second biggest problem I face: being locked into what was already drawn. There was no flexibility. A tough task indeed. I sat and just stared at the art for some time before the line "spirits drift with the fog..." came to me. After that the rest fell into place and I finished the rough script in an hour or so...it was a great challenge, but loads of fun.

I hope you guys enjoy it even if you prefer the version without my words! And thanks to mygrimmbrother for giving me a chance to work with him - after months of viewing his lovely art!

[Bolt-01]

That is a lovely re-mix. I quite enjoyed that and agree that you didn't need any 'speech' at all.

I'll also link to the relevant post over on the Queaquam Blog too.

[mygrimmbrother]

Thanks to the Emperor for posting that link - I was gonna re-post the lettered version on here, but then something distracted me (probably a brightly coloured balloon).

Very much enjoyed this wee experiement, and am chuffed to bits with a) Locust's contribution, and b) everyone's repsonse/general lovely demeanour.

Cheers guys!

[mygrimmbrother]

BTW, is Roger really going to do a blue version? That I'd LOVE to see.

[Mike Gloady]

Roger tends to do blue versions of everything sooner or later - whether he's asked or not.

[Kev Levell]

Locusts has indeed done a great job and it does add an extra dimension to your story Matt... I'm just not sure if I don't prefer it silent movie style.

[mygrimmbrother]

Well that was the original concept - once I decided to do away with captions dialogue entirely, it immediately presented itself as an old scratchy silent movie - like Nosferatu maybe.

Actually, that's a really good idea. I'm working on a new vamp-themed idea which I want to submit to Something Wicked when it's ready, maybe I could go to town on this angle. Cheers Kev!

[locustsofdeath!]

The concept of "silent comics" is pretty neat. I love silent films.

Here's a couple wot I made:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8YBEJeGmIiU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrVO0y9gFok&feature=related

I shot them on super-8 and ran them through an old movie projector to get them nice and scratched up!

[mygrimmbrother]

And thanks to Bolt for pimping it on the Quaequam Blog too 

[Richmond Clements]

I've just had a chance to read the worded version- very good job guys!