Mr. Fetch
Sequential Scotland is coming up fast. Mark the 8th of August in your diaries!
Then double check that’s the real date.
Then mark it in pen because it is.
I am still hoping to have a little comic available from the early world of Paparthin.
These sketches are beginning to shape the textures and colours of the book. Places and short stories where my mind and bodied have idled in the past.
DogBird are burying their little hands in the cool earth of Scotland looking for the elements that will play into their adventures. I am exploring where their strange tales might unfold. Roaming from old memories to bothies, from forests and wild highlands to the scrubland of the outskirts of Edinburgh.
Their masks are becoming faces. Their colours - Green for moss, pink for early heather and red for danger - are beginning to influence the light, the weather, the time of day.
Three mysterious, short films pin this narrative like a butterfly for display. These little Dogbirds are the stop motion animations come to life. There is much of the Czech, Russian and Polish animation I became aware of first in my youth, then onwards throughout my film life.
I am drawn to the strange spaces they occupy between things that are for children and things that are not. A feeling which drove a lot of The Book of Murmurs. I want to write something that will invite you in a make you feel more unsettled the longer you stay.
Come in, come in. You might not be welcome here.