Wen-Tack PDF/Wen-tack reëvaluated
Sorry again for the slim pickings in recent weeks. I'm down to drawing the last nine pages of Steeple volume 3, pages that will run in January next year, and I feel like a man at the end of a marathon. As controversial as this may sound, I'm going to allow myself a break of a few weeks once I'm done pumping out pages like old Gutenberg Bible himself.
In the absence of red hot content, I thought I'd post up a (now-offline) story that represents on the one hand a low creative watermark for recent years, but in truth, a sort of superhuman effort - WEN-TACK. (it's linked at the bottom as a PDF).
I've said a few times here that I don't think this story was very good. I think it's the only story where someone has written to me while it was happening to say that they thought I'd lost my goose. I really had lost my goose though.
I wrote Wen-Tack at the start of 2018, when I was also working on Giant Days and By Night for Boom! Studios. So that was 44 pages a month I was writing, but I still wanted to draw some webcomics (I had that long, largely uninterrupted run to keep up and I felt the need to keep it going) so I had a go at running on empty. At a rate of five quite densely drawn little strips a week.
I'm not going to knock these weird little comics or myself. I think they're sub-par for a valid and excusable reason. The point at which one of the characters is just Louie from Taxi right down to his outfit, that's a clue that things are getting challenging for me.
Anyway, the story peters out at the end in a manner that led someone to express concern. But now when I look through it, I can tell, I was really trying. I was dying, but I was trying. Here are five panels I think deserved a better home than by the road to a nervous breakdown.
The Lunar Sea Trilogy's plot is very similar to the plot for a big-two series I got quite a long way along with before realising that writing superhero comics is, how can I put this, not something I ever want to do, no matter how talented the editors are and how skilled the artists are.
I should add that the development work for this series was going on while I was writing both By Night and Giant Days. Ha ha! Hahahaha! [SCREAMS]
Mildred's video nasty "MOBE". A bit near the knuckle, T-B-H. But I have nothing against the granting of renewed mobility through scooting.
"We want road", that's good stuff.
This story interpolated characters and a few elements from a (very) unfinished Charlotte solo story called Babysitter Of The Year.
I really liked the characters in this story. I don't think I can go back to the streets of Tackleford to bring them back now (I don't particularly want to, I want to keep widening the net) but though undercooked, I enjoyed their designs and little relationships. This was a salutary lesson in not putting things out before they're ready, because these four could have been used for something completely new.
One learns more in failure than success, of course. And as I say, there's plenty there.
But again, sorry for the limited sketch posts as I reach the end of the book. I'd like to put up more written pieces here so if there is an area of comic creation that interests you, let me know in the comments.
Comments (39)
I just want to *very* belatedly comment that whatever some curmudgeon e-mailed, I greatly enjoyed this at the time (and now re-reading) and I have been greatly influenced by Georgia's dad's hair philosophy as I enter my 30s. If you ever revisited these characters I would be delighted! Thank you for posting this here!
Wen-Tack was great fun -- up there with your best, which is perplexingly high. Your work is all about the characters, and the work itself proves that you know that; but sometimes you *say* things that sound otherwise, and one need not buy into the whole NLP whateveritis to know that if you say things often enough, you will begin to believe them. So stop saying those things :=)
Lovely to re-visit. The climactic off-panel mid-tunnel kiss is a beautiful fever dream of an ending.
You are way too hard on yourself. This is genius.
There are some weird parts. But it's an interesting story and the new characters are really nice, especially the kids. I don't know if one day you will come back to tell about the end (or the rescue) of the school. But I just hope that if Mildred gets back into a story with Lottie and Claire again, they'll talk at least a little bit about Linton.
I love Linton and Grendel ❤️
I am far more into YouTube now than I was at the time, and every time I see one of the big UK tubers show up in my recommended column I think of the Wen-Tack media frenzy. "Oh, so that's who he was making fun of."
It wasn't the perfect one, but I think it was a great way to introduce a new generation of characters. Mildred and Linton being their mentor was great as also. Especially Linton, because the boy suffered too much during the whole series. Hope we can see the new Tackleford kids again one day :)
So happy to have this available again.
44 pages per month? Two per working day? Dear God, I can see why you wouldn't work on superhero comics: those guys have got it easy - POW, SOCK WHAM, "O thank you, Generic Hero, you've saved us all", and the rest of the day's yours.
Writing the pages isn't the problem (in terms of pure, you know, typing), it's coming up with enough ideas to fill multiple ongoing comics, without repeating yourself, or someone else. One ongoing story is manageable, two is okay but one suffers (which is why Bad Machinery went to half on, half off once I started Giant Days for Boom), three was too much for me. There are guys like Jeff Lemire or Kieron Gillen who seem to have infinite capacity to churn out books, but I don't know how. I admire them but I don't think we're the same sort of personality. I only started writing comics so I had something to draw.
Given the hell to which you were subjecting yourself at the time, I'm even more impressed by Wen-Tack. There are any number of great moments, but Zebus, Warrior Child, was a particular stroke of deranged genius.
I also enjoyed the story on initial read, and am happy to have the PDF. Sorry that you were under such duress when working on it.
I also enjoyed Wen-Tack plenty at the time and possibly even moreso on the re-read. Linton starting an unboxing channel is such a perfect match for his personality that it feels inevitable in retrospect.
An underappreciated oeuvre.
I rather liked Wen-Tack, although it was kinda obvious you were cutting it short at the end. But I really liked the Action Committee, and would be all in favor of revisiting them at some point in the future should you ever decide to go back there.
(Also, I'll always get a chuckle out of "Am I a bad parent?" "I'd say you're an... incredibly fit mother." "You're a terrible person, Mildred.")
For what it's worth, I loved Wen-Tack and I still recall many of its jokes quite fondly. Thank you for sharing it again.
May I just salute the diaeresis use in the title of this blog?
Thank you Jason, I never pass up a chance when I can get away with it.
I still think "their music is inferior to silence" was a brilliant line.
During all the extra at-home time last year, I re-read pretty much everything Bad Machinery-related, including this, and I quite enjoyed it. I am perhaps overly fond of the mystery kids (my gateway to the TCU), but I thought there was some good characterization here along with, as someone upthread pointed out, lots of good jokes. Thanks for sharing it again!
I truly enjoyed re-reading this story with Mildred as the main lead and introducing new characters. Growing up she matured to a more calm perspective, but her wild outbursts are still there and are a delight.
As you know, I love Neil. Anything with Neil is ace. I enjoyed this at the time and look forward to revisiting. Thank you!
For two handed wielding that must be a modified mobility scooter. He's got a special guy for jobs like that. Same guy that made the ultra-light bullet proof walker with hidden weapons in.
Was Wentack really only 2018? It seemed so much longer ago to me. Or I am further in the future than I thought I was.
We are all moving through time at incredible speed. But it's possible you may have experienced an "anomaly".
I really enjoyed this one and having re-read it I still do, particularly the new generation of kids (and their respective parents). It may have been off the rails, but it was still a fantastic ride.
Thanks Mark. Work, for me, is often coloured by the circumstances in which it was produced.
“NICE BUTTOCKS, SIRE!” is one of my all-time favorite panels
Mildred at her minxing best.
As I recall I thought this story had some good jokes in it.
It did have some good jokes in it!
I can't be too sour on a story that gave us Fit Mum. She's a legend in some parts.
fit mum still haunts my dreams
Hooda F has haunted me for years, John
Also this is some of the best Linton we've ever got
I liked Wen-Tack at the time anyway and will enjoy re-reading it! Probably.
Tonsils of fury, possibly after being subjected to yet another lateral flow test...?