you win some you lose some

I am currently procrastinating for England as I prepare to start a story from square one again... the result is that my house is possibly as tidy as it has ever been.  Some piles of paper seem to have been undisturbed for almost a decade.  I keep finding things from the time I first moved here, when I was making ‘While You Are Sleeping'.  It was a particularly tricky period for me with story after story being rejected by the publishers.  Reading them now it is not hard to see why they were rejected.  They just don't quite work.  I think that the problem in the main is that I was trying too hard and taking everything way too seriously.  That is seldom entertaining for readers!
On the bright side I notice that many of the better ideas in these stories didn't go to waste.  I have just stuck them into other stories.  Sometimes an idea can crop up in quite a few before it finally sees print.   The Mr Punch comic uses a hat-full and, for that matter most of the characters are ones that I have been drawing for ages.

Here are some pictures that have lead to other things...

You'll see a lot of following the arrows in ‘Jim's Lion'.  I used it originally in a story called ‘The Way In'

It's not just Mr Punch and Crocodile who are obsessed with sausages, I am too and so are most of my characters!

In fact food and the digestion thereof are a central concern in my life.  The scene of debauchery above influenced the Mr Punch comic in two places... as you'll see when you read it.

I haven't used this code for a kiss since but now that I see it again I think it works rather well (mental note ^-^).

I have repeatedly tried to write a story with a good underwater scene... no joy yet though lots of near misses!

 I did manage to get sailing into Mr Punch... well, sort of sailing.  You'll have to wait and see there again.