Comic Cuts — 25 August 2023

I've started to speed up a bit on the layouts for the Badger Books book, Beyond the Void, and I surprised myself on Wednesday with 11 pages laid out; I think the best I had achieved before that was 6, maybe 7. Tail end of last week I had finished 46 pages or so, and that has now risen to 71, with another 30 pages just waiting for illustrations.

Cleaning up artwork is generally the bottleneck that is slowing down the whole operation, but, of course, there have been other distractions and I've had to burn the midnight oil to get this far. Most are not newsworthy, such as my efforts to defrost the fridge. Other recent distractions are equally mundane, but are good examples of the rolling lack-of-excitement that is my day-to-day life.

For instance, we recently had a new bath fitted and everything seemed fine until we tried the new taps and water began spurting out of the flange—sleeve that covers the valve behind the handle (see illustration). Had to call in the plumber, who thought the problem was with the valve and then managed to crack the handle. Thankfully, he had a replacement set of taps, so they went in and everything seemed fine. Notice the "seemed fine" in that last sentence...

We've had some beautiful sunny weather, followed by some intense rain storms and recent overnight showers have helped to establish the new areas of lawn that I was working on earlier this year. In fact, it was growing a bit wild, because you are recommended not to cut the new grass until its roots have had a chance to grow and anchor the stem—the last thing you want is for the mower to rip up your new grass!

So I picked a sunny day at the tail end of last week and hauled the lawnmower out of the little shed it lives in and began cutting the back lawn, which was thicker and more lush than it has ever been. The Flymo (see illustration, although that's not ours, just a similar-looking one) was surfing over the old grass and I was thinking that I'd be finished in five minutes. That's when the cheerful "Wheeeeeeee" of the spinning blades turned into a grumbling "ruuurh, ruuurh, ruuurh." I switched everything off and cleaned out the underside of the mower, which wasn't particularly clogged up, but it needed doing. It didn't make any difference.

I'm not a practical man. I'm thinking there must be some sort of belt inside these motors that drives the spinny bits. Anyway, the blade was still spinning and cutting, so I thought I might get away with doing the last small area that needed mowing. Big mistake, as Arnie would say. The motor started smoking, so I ditched the mower and went to see how much a new one would cost. We've had that mower for probably more than twenty years, so it has done us proud. A new mower arrived the other day, a name brand Flymo-style mower—Flymo is a trade name that has become a generic name, like Hoover—and I was planning to give it a baptismal run today (Thursday)... but, of course, it's raining.

Two books went off to the printers and proof copies ordered on Monday. That's the motorcycle book, A Laverda Journey by George Coates, and my own Trials of Hank Janson in its new, slightly revised edition. You can see the cover top left and you can see another cover top right. That's for the hardcover edition, although I'm having a bit of a problem getting a proof for the latter printed in the UK. Hopefully I'll have it sorted when the book is released next month. Proofs are due to arrive shortly.

In the meantime, I'm powering through Beyond the Void and that has been causing a few aches and pains. Literal aches and pains: I get a lot of tension in my shoulders and neck cleaning artwork on a computer, as I'm tensed up, making small, careful movements with the mouse, and a single cover can take upwards of an hour to clean.

One solution is a nice relaxing bath, but my attempt last Sunday saw a repeat of the problems with the bath tap... actually a different and more bizarre problem: the hot water would run for a bit, the boiler would deliver piping hot water, which you could get to the right temperature by adjusting the flow of the cold water. Fine for a minute or so, but then the hot water would start to slow to a trickle and the bath was filling with cold water. It made for an interesting shower, as the water started off nice and hot and slowly went tepid.

So we had the plumber out again who, this time, discovered a couple of problems with the valve, one with the washer and the other with the o-ring. Unscrewing everything and reseating it all and screwing it back together seems to have solved the problem. It's still working as of today.

I did warn you that my life lacked excitement.