Simple

Although starting my next book is still at least three years ahead I'm well under way planning it. And what started as pretty simple story taking place in turn of the century Africa has now twisted into something much more complex. And it'll keep on evolving.

Been reading Tarzan books to my son. Pretty good entertainment. And ofcourse there's colonialism and racism but what I find intiguing is the sense of real. How is this created when the story is anything but? Well I have pretty good idea. Still it's somehow magical. Creating a world.

Newspaper comics

But not the way they are today. Really love the Flash Gordons and Prince Valiants and Gasoline Alleys. Bring them back! There is plenty of talent around it's just a question of money and not even that - a question of vision. Wouldn't it be great to have a real comics supplement once more!

...

Soon changing again to Läskimooses. Issue 47  is about to be started. 47... that's something. 

But still 2 or one and half pages of Suomaa strip before that. Soon though.

Goals

-to finish Läskimooses (2 yrs)
-to finish the notes of Läskimooses (1yr)
-to start and finish the book after Läskimooses (5 to 6 yrs)
-to finish the book started in 2011 and left unfinished (6 months)

-to make my publisher rich (might take a while)

Luck

With any luck I won't be seen at any comics/art/literature related function. For oh so many reasons.

Suomaa

Always tricky to move from Läskimooses to the strip. Although they are parts of the same story there are differences in the approach. For one I'm not sure who is the narrator in Suomaa strip. In Läskimooses the narrator was more or less the main thing in the story. Anyways, now I'm back to Suomaa and working on part 32 and it's going, let's say, as it should. Plan is to finish 5 and then get back to Läskimooses, which is beckoning for me. Issue 46 is going to be another turning point in the story and there's going to be ACTION. nuff said.

Plans

I have a plan for a book. I think it's a good plan. Real excited whenever I think of it. Meanwhile I have 2 years to go with Läskimooses, not counting the "notes" and editing. I have this nasty feeling that time is running out. And I still have things to do. Things I want to do real well, as good as I'm able.
But this plan... it combines several themes I have felt strongly about for years. I really really would like to do it. For real.

Case

Case you're interested: all pages drawn in 46. Texts missing here and there. Trouble with cover. 1095 pages drawn.

Been

Been working on issue 46 since January. Had to have some breaks in order to keep up with the Suomaa strip. Now a week more. More or less. 2 pages not done, Some adjustments with texts and pics, cover and backcover and that's it. Or almost. More on this later. In many ways issue 46 is a culmination. After this issue it really is downhill. Oh, there are twists and turns, but for instance issues 49 to 52 are Mars/Kalevala stories. Yes we'll get back to Kalevi and his friend in 53 and 54 and the final shock is in 54...shocks. You'll see when we get there. Less than 2 years now.

39

Had a fever of 39 C for 2 days. Now slowly recovering. Meanwhile the recent "discussions" within the Finnish so-called scene have escaleted to such idiocy that I want no part of any of it. Tomorrow I will get back to work. And from now on interviews and such are not part of the work.

Evolve

I love the very early stages of a book when you start with a concept and then it starts to evolve into something completely different. And then it's still somehow the same book but now hidden inside of something stranger.

Planning ahead

Week in review

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Things with a 1500 pg book

The things already written, that I forgot to have written and
The things unwritten that I'm not sure whether they are already written or not.
These things.
Not to be mixed.

Form

Thinking out the form of my next book, the book after L and notes to L. In many ways the favorite part of the process for me. I now have a pretty good idea of the beginning. Could start it any day. Any day after L is done. Book is called AGK in A.

Silvia Regina

Yes it seems this book is coming out in English. I don't want to jinx it but yes Lola Rogers is translating (at this very moment)and a LA based publisher is bringing it out. This book is probably the best that was done in my old style. Don't have a clue how it'll be read in the English speaking world.  Translation is something I feel strogly about. A good traslation is a work of art in itself. Looking forward to reading this.

Ordered

Ordered 5 boxes of Essdee scraperboard to get me through the next couple of years.

Instincts

If I had the liberty to follow my instincts to the fullest I would never give any interviews or in any way talk of my work to anyone.

Who will live who will die

In issue 46.

Synopsis

Wrote a quick synopsis for Suomaa strip parts 29 to 77. As usual there are spots I really can't wait to write and then the other spots that are more like built up to fortcoming events. And what's with my math! As I mentioned several times Läskimooses was supposed to be a 250 pg quickie and now it's going to be a 1500 behemoth. Same goes with Suomaa. I should have reached most of the main events in little over a year and now I'm still in the early stages of the story.

Suomaa strip

Believe

As a form of publishing I still believe in the pamphlet comic book, although THIS project hasn't been a commercial success - in a long shot. 

There is so many things to explore that you are not able to do with a book. And even today I would jump to the opportunity to start a comic book of my own. That was the original dream in the 90's. Having read Dirty Plotte, Eightball, Hate, Palookaville... what I really wanted to do was have a comic book going. At that time it didn't really feel impossible so I ended up doing books that had the same structure a comic book would have. Eventually when  I started Läskimooses it didn't use that kind of structure that I had envisioned in the 90's for a comic book. It's now a book in comic books clothing! And 2 years to go, maybe lingwr since the Suomaa strip is slowing me down. 

All this, it wasn't very wise, was it?

Think

I think all publicity is useless

So

The ending of this issue wasn't in the first drafts of the story. I think the current ending started to come about a year back, maybe two. These things often happen with the story. I have a sort of skeleton narrative with preliminary twists and turns and some of these sometimes feel or start to feel unsatisfying, that more is needed, some deeper secret or surprise, some more meat for the bones. In this case the original idea of the killer planet just crashing earth felt weak so I came with a somewhat different solution. Hope it works.
It would be fun to track down all the changes the story has gone through in the process of becoming. There are a lot of them. All the time some general direction remains. I have added depth to the 2 main characters, I knew I would. Still the way it has happened feels like a sort of miracle.
When the story eventually will be finished after 8 years of work it will be curious to read it through. And I'm saving a couple of major plot revelations for the so called NOTES. More of them in 2 years.

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.