Note to self

Does incompleteness make art interesting? Does "the work" cease to be interesting if it ceases to be incomplete? Strategies to hold on to this incompleteness?

Thinking

Thinking although impossible of the times after Läskimooses. I do have plenty material for the so called "notes" and pretty sure I will keep myself occupied until 2022 with those. But what then? There is the book I started after Silvia Regina with some 15 half finished pages. I might pull that one together. Then there are plans for at least 2 or 3 concepts for a bigger project. Couple of ideas for some lighter one's... Hard to say which one I will pick, might be something totally unplanned.

Movies

Well occasionally I would like to turn this into a movie. But since I would want to make it with puppetry, matte-paintings and stop motion animation I can't really see it happening. Or do you have 10 million to spare?

Working on 46

Issue 46 now well under way. Some cosmic action coming up. Might be some surprise there for true believers. I won't be able to dig into this just yet. Only later in January. Have to finish at least 3 Suomaa strips before that. If you want to see the strips so far go to Kirkko ja Kaupunki website and search by my name or Suomaan Kansan Muinaisusko. 

Happy holidays!

Info

26 sheets of 50x70cm white Essdee scraperboard needed from 2019 to end of 2020.

45 down, 9 to go

1171

1171 pages now wrapped up. Did a quick calculation that this means the finished product will be 1400 pages long. Well that's an estimate. Then ofcourse there are the NOTES, 200 pages minimum. Just wanted to remind you that it started with a plan of a 250 page quick book.

Working on a 1000 page book

Well more like 1200... started it on 2012 and looks like I'll be finishing it in 2020. Apart from occasional feelings of loosing faith it has gone lighter and faster than I expected. There hasn't been as much feedback that I perhaps expected. Many of my older readers found the new style unappealing and/or decided to wait for the BOOK version. Maybe that was the right thing to do. Although it is not sure that there will be a book. But maybe there will and maybe I will do some editing then. There are 3 spots that could be better, that I could do better.
My publisher has been absolutely brilliant with this. Oh, there have been occasional moments of despair but mostly because we are not getting readers and he feels we could. I don't know. I try to concentrate on the writing. And I think I've taken some steps to a right direction. So that at least is good.
Now I'm finishing up issue 45 and it starts to be wee late for any major changes. And ofcourse there will be changes, no surprise there. The story of the story. Things just pop up and then often they stay.
This book (object) would not have been possible for me 15 years ago. A level of faith is required that I probably didn't have then. Patience I had and it was required for Silvia Regina and the others. This one seems to require more faith than patience. Most often I just have trust the story knows where it's going.
Anyways now would be a good spot 4 some support. Most people who have actually read the "work" have actually liked it. The people that haven't read it...well they can go both ways.  You know what to do.

All Nathan Penlington's Läskimooses reviews

http://syndicatedzinereviews.blogspot.com/search/label/Läskimooses?m=1

Cool

Although sometimes it seems I'm working in a void and that there isn't much interest to this thing I'm working on, it IS kinda COOL that we've finished 44 issues of the thing and it has actually been printed and published and (I suppose) read. By people.

Means

A year of working on Suomaa strip now behind and what has changed? Not much. All and all it's been a good year. Got a grant from Skr and been paid for the strip I've been able to work real concentrated. The issues of Läskimooses this year have been to my liking so far although there were some spots I felt were a bit difficult to write. And now working on issue 45 I really have to start putting things in place. Just decided to cut a huge chunk of the story from issue 46 and save it for the "notes", mostly to give more weight for the main story. The year has been good in publicity too with the documentary and the newspaper story and a really nice piece coming from Kosmoskynä... and the year by year review of Nathan Penlington. These things haven't brought too many subscribers though, but at this stage I don't mind so much. People will pick it up when they're ready.
Basically two more years to finish the big book and then maybe 2 years for the notes. Some editing probably too coming up before the French edition from L'association. It all has hapoened sort of fast and sometimes I don't really know what it all MEANS.

Review by Nathan Penlington

http://syndicatedzinereviews.blogspot.com/2018/11/laskimooses-issue-43.html?m=1

People

People, I just finished episodes 24 and 25 for Suomaa (look it up from kirkko and kaupunki) and even though I will do some writing for 26, I will be moving towards Läskimooses 45. Yes 45! I'll try to make the following issues short and sweet, but that will most often go wrong. All set for that though.

In case

In case you're interested 23 pages done of issue 44.

Now

It's been kinda slow. My classes are starting all around and feels like issue 44 is proceeding real slow. Issue 43 is at the printer and will be out in a couple of weeks. Dreamt of Duke Ellington for whatever reason. Meanwhile back at the studio I'm wasting a lot of time because of a bad compass which keeps moving when it shouldn't. Got to get a new one, sturdier, if I can. I have a good group of people in my Aalto comics class. At the open university freehand drawing class seems like a fun combo. Next week still open university comics class starting. And already on Saturday I have the script writing class at the Comics Centre. And with script I mean the so far unpublished work in different stages. Some good people there. Autumn...

Happening

This thing: one of the main thing in Läskimooses is that it is in the state of happening. It's not a finished book or object but it is becoming. This is it's form as it was meant to be. The best way to "get" it is to get a subscription and join the ride. It won't be the same book once it is finished. Although I hope it'll in some poetic way remain unfinished even in a book form. And whether there'll be a book form, that I don't know. Nuff said.

Song of Läskimooses

September 2019 I will put together a show of all of the material I've profucef for this project. Here at Cable Factory. Mulling it over already now. Several things I'd want to do for the show but too soon to tell whether I will. See u there or not.

Seldom

Seldom or really seldom it happens I spoil a panel. But it happens sometimes and it happened yesterday with panel three in Suomaa #17. Everything was already more or less in place when I started to improve a face and before I noticed I had scratched through the surfus of the scraperboard. Nothing to do except to start over. You can't really fix the board at this stage. And since I work to the publishing size the face in question was rather small. I guess some of things could be avoided if I would work to a bigger size, more room to move. Or if I would do some sort of pencils, which I don't do. I just start with markers hoping for best. And in most cases it works.

Need

I need to work a lot harder.

Plans for the summer

1. To finish Pynchon's Against the Day

Translations

For some reason the couple of plans to translate my books in English have proceeded really slow. Basically this is ok for me since I have other things to worry. Still... it's a bit stramge. Truth is I'm not putting any real effort to getting my work translated. With France it always worked fine, things just happened and most of my books have been translated to French.
With English it would be different, though. Being able to read the language would probably lead to serious nitpicking. Translation isn't easy. I pay close attention to how a sentence is uttered in the work. In many cases it's the main thing to me. How something is said instead of what is said.
In Läskimooses there is a feel of obsession in the writing. This is important to translate in the right way. But already in Silvia Regina the sentence was in major role. In that book I was going to a sound of contempt in many places. This was necessary in order to make the heartbreaking honest stuff to sink in.
So far I haven't really been able to test how my writing translates to English. But maybe the things will proceed soon.

Seems

Seems more and more that Läskimooses will end in issue 54. The story has already taken a turn towards the end, hope you are liking. But after the "end" there are still some snippets left to do. Some revelations left unrevealed. Part of those will be seen in Suomaan kansan muinaisusko. And part of them are really quite essential for the main story. So what is this "thing" I will eventually have invested 10 years to? Some kind of a bookish thing. You tell me.

On 43

Working on issue 43, which is going to be one of these 'turning point' issues. At the moment 8 pages remain undone. Exchanged to days this would be 8 days approximately. But it's time for some holiday. One week of that. And on 16th I have a class starting at Cable Factory.
Estimate is that issue 43 will be done by the end of July.
Meanwhile: issue 42 is coming from the printer next week. It will be mailed to subscribers soon after. With this issue comes a treat: KTL in Teneriffa 'novel'of 20 pages. Only for subscribers.

Documentary

https://areena.yle.fi/1-4114476

Now it can be viewed.

Class

For whatever reason my comics class at aalto is not getting students. Information of its existence doesn't seem to reach the students. Or what?
 The minor subject has been a success. Books like Eeva Meltio's Pedot, Hanneriina Moisseinen's Kannas, Viivi Rintanen's Mielisairaalan kesätyttö and Suvi Ermilä's Hauho have been developed during the program.
Maybe time to move on to something else. I have enjoyed teaching and found it meaningful, but Aalto is not the place it was when I started 1998. But the students. They still come with the same enthusiasm and talent. And if I can I will continue. Either at Aalto or someplace else.

Know

I would like to know what is my strongest talent. And then maybe concentrate on that. Writing? Art? Teaching? BecauseI only have so many days.

Plans

This month is dedicated on working on Suomaa. So far I've finished episodes 12, 13 and 14 in bw. Working on episode 16 now, there was a change in the story. Before June I aim to have 5 new ones in color to send to the paper. Those will last until the end of August beginning of September. Before midsummer I should have Läskimooses 43 well under way. It's an complex issue to write but not so complex to draw. Anyways this is the way it goes.

Back in the days

January 1986 I opened the door of University of Industrial Arts in Arabia district for the first time. I had started my studies few months before at Teollisuuskatu and now the school was moving to a new place. And some place it was! Great new artclasses for painting and good facilities for printmaking and on the 5th floor at the department of Graphic Design, where I was studying an 2 color Heidelberg. It seemed to be rolling all the time back in the days. I stayed in the school for 8 years. The last years I was mostly painting. I returned in 1998 when my comics classes started. At some point the Heidelberg disappeared. 5th floor was filled with Macs.
 I've been teaching there ever since. 20 years. Next September school is moving to Otaniemi and the old building at Arabia is left to other purposes. On wednesday I have my final class there. I've worked with the best of teachers and the best of students within those walls.
End of a period.

Pages

Still remember how big a leap it was to finish a 10 pg story in 1995, or then the 25 page story in 1998. Or how Holmenkollen felt like a monster of a book with little bit over 100 pages. Or Silvia Regina with... I can't even remember. But let me say this: passing 1000 is really quite something. And after the milestone... It all is still done one page at the time.

Läskimooses in one sentence

From maximal order to maximal disorder

Ideology

I have this stupid idea that whatever you do whatever your line of work you should always do the best you can and always strive to better. If you feel otherwise maybe you should reconsuder your choices.

Clear

From 2012 I've had a pretty clear idea of how this book will end. And this has not changed. There are still however spots that I feel haven't been quite worked out. Couple of these moved forward yesterday. And as they moved forward this entirely new turn popped up. Oh!
Now, as you know there are 2 books I'm working on at the time: first is the one titled Läskimooses and the other is the one titled Suomaan kansan muinaisusko. Within the latter I will place stuff and info that for some reason didn't fit the main book. Among these things there should be at least 2 major revelations. One of these the one that came to me yesterday. Both the kind of stuff that'll make you view the main book in somewhat different light.
But this will all be out in 2022 so hang on.

Seven

Seven pgs left to do of issue 42. Might be 8...if there's surprises. Tomorrow I will need to do some writing to keep it going. Aim to finish before end of April.

Skills

When you're young build up your skills. It'll be much harder later.
Draw and write all you can. Draw what you see draw from life. Write what you see every detail counts.
That's all for today.

Faster

If I could keep the one page in a day pace, but too seldom. Faster would be better. A lot faster would be a lot better.

Moving

Ever so slowly... issue 41 pages lay out and corrections now finished. Cover and backcover still require work. Sent 4 Suomaa strips to the paper, will return to that in may.
Now 42 is well under way. 5 pages done. Start has been difficult, nothing new there. Aim to finish this during April.
The end is getting near and I ponder whether ending is in the nature of this project. And sure enough the ending will be open in many ways. Still there will be answers. Things will be revealed. Already in issues 41 and 42 there will be some unexpected revelations. And total silliness.
In 2020 this will be done. Done with corrections although Suomaa will go on. But the main feature will end.
What has been a surprise during these 6 years is how the project seems to be really hard to grasp. It doesn't fit any given slot. It's not a hardcover book, the narrative is not straight forward. And it seems some people even miss that there is a plot. They only see random images placed together with random text. This I find really hard to understand. Nothing much I can do.

Read Suomaa

https://www.kirkkojakaupunki.fi/artikkelit/-/tag/suomaan kansan muinaisusko

Suomaa

Now working on page 9. It's a learning process, what works and what doesn't. A combination of sketchiness and detailed work. Shaky lines contrasted with straight. Naturalistic drawing contrasted with cartoony. I aim to do 3 or 4 now and then move on to Läskimooses. There's an exciting issue coming up (42). Trying to draw it semi-abstract horror sryle. We'll see. Close ups and hard to figure out detail. Looking forward to that too.

Going

What I'm working on at the moment are obviously the Läskimooses book and Suomaa strip. But apart from these two I have several other projects in different stages of development. The new interesting project for one. For this one I got the basic idea last week and I have already started to gather data. Also there is one concept without text and one without pictures. The latter even has a title. I have five or six pretty solid starting points for Läskimooses spin offs. And then the book I started immediately after Silvia Regina that I put on the side for the joys of Läskimooses. And what have I forgotten!
Sometimes I feel it would be cool to enter the studio without any idea of what I will do next, but I can't see that happening anytime soon.
And I have the notebooks with bits and pieces...fragments...that might beginnings of some book.

Method

This might be slightly interesting... during these 6 years working on Läskimooses I've constructed quite an fixed system of working. It always starts with the text, something I scribble down in my notebook. Usually 1 to 3 versions. When I'm happy with the story I move along to the other stuff.
I draw the panels on Essdee white scraperbooard (the new one). My grid is rather fixed and mostly these days 6 equal sized panels in three rows. I draw to the actual publishing size.
After all the panels have been drawn I will start the lettering. At this stage I make a lot of finetuning to the text.
After lettering it's time to start drawing. Often but not always I start with panel one. Even if I haven't had any break in my work, starting a new issue can feel like I've totally forgotten how to draw. Partly because of this I try to make the actual drawing part as much fun as possible so I pick and choose the panels I want to draw first. Sometimes I want to start with some landscape sometimes with some space scene sometimes with something altogether abstract. There's no penciling but sometimes quite a lot sketching which I enjoy. Scraperboard allows me to make corrections while drawing. I keep my knife close at hand. For everything I use Textmark 500. Totally silly but I have my reasons.
When starting the book I made some decisions in order to make the process as fluent as possible. To have a more or less fixed grid was one of them. Also I wanted to have as much liberty as possible with the subject matter. The writing had to be something that would allow me to move from semi-abstract to cartoony to something drawn directly from a photo reference etc.
Eventually all the panels are drawn and I will have to read the story. If something doesn't work I will try to fix it. Then when I'm more or less happy with everything I send the lot to my publisher. He the scans it and cleans the pictures. When the lay-out is done he then sends it to me to check and I do. More often than not I then make some correction to the text. Certain things are hard to spot from the originals.
And then the issue is sent to the printer and I will try to do better with the next one.
Nuff said!

The best

The best retailer of Läskimooses will be revealed in issue 41. The issue is just about done. Some adjusting with the text and 3 panels to draw, not that much really. Had fun with this issue. Lot of drawing and some nice surprises. Back cover I will start slightly later since I have to now finish 4 pages of the Suomaa strip. After those I will be able to start with issue 42 which will by the way feature one of the biggest revelations in the series. You'll see.

Real nice

I will try to draw the remaining 336 pages real nice.

Funded

Thank you Suomen Kulttuurirahasto! I now will be able to conclude this thing. Maybe not quite in two years but now nothing should stop it. Currently working on issue 41 which means I have 13 issues to go. It's getting close. Suomaa is maybe slowing Läskimooses down a bit but in the end it's all part of the big complex book I'm working on.

Working

Back

Back to issue 41. Just finished a panel. I have a week for just this and then I have to start preparing the next couple of Suomaa. Could in best of circumstances finish 7 pages, but that's unlikely. And I have 12 undrawn. Oh well...one page at a time.

Piano piano

Painting the window at Cable Factory has been slow. Tomorrow is the 5th day and I will work a bot longer. Sort of hoping I could manage to conclude the linework by monday. Here's a photo from the side I'm working which will later be hidden behind plywood and the picture can only been seen from the cafe, other side of the window.

On monday

On monday I will start to paint my silly window painting for the Cable Factory restaurant. It will smell bad and people will complain and I don't know how long it'll take. It'll take what it takes, right? Anyways, I'm forced to take a break from issue 41 which is a bummer since it's going nicely. But I will get back to it soon as I'm able.
This issue will return to the mainstory ( which is not actually the main story but you know what I mean) and Agner Mang. Soon it's going to be goodbye Agner Mang. Yes we are getting neat the end definitely.

Just asking

What is this thing I'm working on? Because I don't have a clue. 13 issues to go and I would be curious to know whether I'm on the right track or on any track.

Nasty

I've written some pretty nasty stuff for Läskimooses. It's basically a dirty book whether you realized or not. Some characters have a history that will not make them look good. And all will be revealed eventually and how will you then see the these characters? Kalevi really has a story to tell and I'm saving it for issue 53.

Much

Much likeness in issue 41 to issue 37. And quite suitably it continues the story of Agner Mang, the main character of the book or the main character of the story in the book. The actual main character would probably be the narrator narrating the story. He and his pal/nemesis Kalevi, those 2. But what I came for is this: although starting this issue AGAIN felt impossible, it's once more well under way.
And issue 40 going to the printer soooon.

Calculating

With Suomaa going how many issues will I be able to finish this year? 4? 5? I'm hoping for 5, but it's hard to say. Every page of Suomaa equals two pages of Läskimooses. So if I plan this right shouldn't be any problem. At the same time it is possible that there'll be less issues this year.
All this planning is pretty useless. Suomaa is something I have to do to fund Läskimooses so it has to come first. 12 issues left of Läskimooses. It' ll be finished no matter what in 2 or in 3 years.

Sketching Suomaa

Remember

I don't even remember all the things I've been in a dream. And what is it anyway? This thing being someone else... here's a small list
-Spiderman
-Wolverine
-God
-Young girl
-horse
-Deathpool

SUOMAA People

Now

Well yeah... been returning to work with baby steps. Aim is to finish 2 or three pages of the Suomaa strip before mid february. And yes, the thing is starting in Kirkko and Kaupunki on 18th. That's less than a week ahead. But after I finish the strips I will return to Läskimooses. Issue 41 will feature wild scifi stuff and so will 42. What! End is approaching. And was it all a big mistake? Maybe. Who knows. You tell me.

And what else? Looks like Silvia Regina is coming out in English in US of A.

Busy year? Looks like that certainly.