Borderlands - The Golden King, 2010 (John Swogger, after Chris Dunbabin)
Yes, in answer to Jackie’s email last weekend, I am still writing Borderlands – although progress has been slow over the past few years and necessarily interrupted by work. For those of you who didn’t see any of the Borderlands panels when they were up briefly on deviantart, this is my somewhat rambling graphic novel that’s slowly been coming together since 2007. It’s set in a small, unnamed market town on the Welsh borders (yes, I know it’s actually Oswestry), and features characters drawn partly from the paintings and portraits of the artist Chris Dunbabin.
In 2010, I went back and reworked the whole of the first book, moving from primarily drawn panels to primarily painted ones. I also took the opportunity to redesign the fonts and do more elaborate two- and four-page layouts. It’s been quite a labour of love, but also very much one of those back-burner type projects.
Now, however, with “Something Different About Dad” under my belt, and “Something Different About Her” underway, I have been thinking about dragging the whole project onto – well, if not a front burner, then perhaps a middle one. It might be useful to have two comic projects on the go – and one that I could be loose and experimental with, too.
I’ve just had two prints done of The Golden King illustration (above), and I’ll put at least one of them into a proper frame and hang it in my studio. Maybe having it staring down at me will prompt me to get back to the Borderlands.
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