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This is a cartoon strip I started drawing in the late eighties, based on my memories of leaving home and going to University, so it really has more of an early eighties feel and look to it. Aside from the fashions, though, I think it still holds up reasonably well. The strip was inspired by my great love of Doonesbury and it shows. The format is intended to be read in groups of six (Monday to Saturday), so each set of strips within one week takes a theme, which then leaps ahead a bit over the weekend (we don't have Sunday versions of daily comics in Britain) to carry on in a different mileu the next week. |
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I think I probably got a little too involved with the minutiae of the characters which led to the story proceeding very slowly. Remember, if published, the strips here would appear over the course of four weeks. The first episodes are a little rough. I'd played around with characters in previous efforts, but it wasn't really until episodes seven & eight (the notional second week) that the drawings took on a confidence and strength of line. So if you think the first few strips are scrappy, keep looking. They're laid out two episodes per page as the best compromise between ease of viewing and downloading time. |
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As it was, there were virtually no outlets for this kind of long-haul strip soap opera in the UK at that time - indeed, the situation hasn't changed. Tabloids have daily comic pages, but the subject matter is either imported from America or much broader in its humour. I did have vague hopes of selling it to the Guardian, but they already had Doonesbury and Steve Bell, as indeed they still do, and my work was returned with best wishes but sorry no thanks. |
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At this point, I got hold of a 4 track portastudio from a friend, and my spare-time energies found a new outlet. For that, you need to check out the music pages. But for the complete short run of the Raintown strip ... Start here |
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