This week I'm giving you guys a look at some of the stories from part one of Oh Brother (draft version) that I finished a couple of months ago. I've picked three short stories that I think stand alone okay for you to have a little look at. These stories are currently somewhere between detailed thumbnails and loose pencils (I haven't really decided what to call it other than Not Final Art).
Story one. From near the start of part one we have How to Explain Rob. This is fairly self-explanatory. Before this story we have a few examples of what it's like to live with Rob. This is the first time in the book that you see Rob and Gina interacting with other kids.
Story Two. The Diagnosis. As it sounds, this story is about my parents finding out about Rob's diagnosis. Rob was two when he was diagnosed with autism (I would have been four). We also jump forward in time to see my reaction to their story of Rob's initial diagnosis.
And story three. As part one is called Communication, most of the stories and anecdotes are about my and my family's attempts at communicating with Rob. In The Mist I talk about the more ethereal feelings around having a brother with autism.
Those are the three samples I thought would work well displaced from their home in the book. I hope I picked the right ones.
If you want to read more of the draft and live in Adelaide, you can! I'll be putting on an end-of-year Oh Brother wrap-up show, exhibiting some of the diagrammatic illustrations I've done during the year, the sketchbooks with notes and illustrations, and the full comics manuscript draft for people to read and flick through. I've also put together a mini-comic sampler of some of my favourite Rob comics and background material. For more info about the event, click here.
Write you next week.
Gxx
Following on from my last post about how the design of the characters in my graphic novel, Oh Brother, have changed over the 7-ish years I’ve been working on the book, this post is about my absolute favourite thing: drawing emotions!