One of my favourite science fiction and fantasy authors of all time, Ursula K. Le Guin, prefaced The Left Hand of Darkness with an essay about the nature of Science Fiction. She said that “science fiction is not predictive; it is descriptive”. She goes on about how a writer’s job is not to guess what’s going to happen, but to tell a story about the present times, framed in a different light.
Last week, when I had to take my poor dog out for an emergency wee in a 36-degree afflicted London neighbourhood, along hot pavements and water-starved trees (*), I could only think that I really wasn’t trying to be clairvoyant when I wrote a comic book series about a future where it doesn’t rain.
(* - I hope he helped a little, even if in his own acidic ways. :P)
It’s been a while indeed since it rained properly here in London, and the city doesn’t know how to cope, because it’s not usual. There’s a hosepipe ban to save water, and last week the government sent out an alert about danger of wildfires to all phones, which included a BBQ ban. We’ve had heatwaves after heatwaves, and buildings are not adapted to persistent high temperatures. We are melting inside our own homes, which were built to keep heat in, not out. Three heatwaves ago, as if mirroring one sequence in the first book of The Last Day of Rain, my husband managed to scoop up the last portable air con unit in Argos. They were sold out everywhere else. Fortunately, it was considerably cheaper than Instant Wind!
Fun fact: as I was getting ready to publish this, I went out for a walk and it finally started raining! I saw a family of Londoners running from the rain. Londoners! Afraid of the rain!
Jokes aside, climate changes are accelerating before our eyes, and heatwaves and storms are the new normal in Europe. We can only hope we’ll be able to slow them down in the near future, but the race for economic growth is making it extremely difficult.
This did serve to remind me that the story needs to be finished, because it speaks of resilience and hope for people who inherited a devastated planet from their ancestors (us).
Even though it’s taking longer than usual, the final chapter will be finished. Having a child is wonderful, and exhausting, and magnificent in an infinite number of ways, but you really wonder where all that time went?
Once I finally got into storyboarding the book again, I realised that my hand had forgotten how to draw my own characters, because it had been maybe a year since the last volume. So I paused for a bit and created character rotation sheets for the main cast, so that I can refer to them. They also changed clothes, so it’s helpful to visualise! I never drew a turnaround before and they are rough around the edges, but I like how they came out. I shuffled their colours a bit too, in hopes of making them look a little more interesting.
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As I worked on them, it felt I was reacquainting myself with my drawing tools, as if they were old friends! I thought I was going to feel tired because I was working at the end of the day, instead of melting in front of Netflix, but actually it gave me more energy and I’m happier overall? I never want to stop drawing for this long again.
Since we’re looking at characters, there’s a new “race” being introduced in the final book. It’s in quotes because they are humans genetically modified for a different environment, as you will discover.
Here’s a teaser / work in progress that perhaps will pique your curiosity. If you paid enough attention, you might have caught glimpses of them in Shiba Town already. :)
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In other news
I started planning a short comic with a writer from my comic book group. We’re just working on character designs for now (and I owe him an update), but I’m very excited for this one, as it has a very interesting world. It will probably take a while, like everything else, but it should happen!
Apart from that, as I return to making comics, I have been thinking about how to continue sharing my work online. All social platforms have become places I don’t want to frequent. Instagram, for instance, which is where artists tend to go, is full annoying videos with fast-moving subtitles, and everyone on it seems to be constantly trying to catch-up with something unattainable. My mood gets noticeably worse every time I try to use it, and I have tried many times. I would always return to it eventually, but now that I have limited emotional energy to spare, this really is where it ends.
I’m planning to share things with a small number of people instead, maybe only in this blog. I want to be focused on learning and creating, because that’s all I have time to do. I’m working on moving away from Substack into my own space too, so that I’m not dependent on platforms that insist on constant growth. Let me go at my own pace, please. :)
And that’s it for today. I don’t know when the next update will be, but hope to see you soon!
- Claudia
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