Deadlines and Cream Cakes…

When deadlines loom and even burning the perennial candle isn’t enough…

I thought I would share this with you guys for a light-hearted look at the inner sanctums of the world of comic books. As you are now no doubt aware, unless this is your first time here looking at my Blog, I am producing artwork for Toontastic’s Hot Wheels comic and running this and a couple of other projects alongside my “Worlds End” graphic novel.

With this in mind I would like you to firstly picture my last month’s delivery of the pages to the publishing house. The Birmingham convention was coming around and I was trying to turn around some more pages for Markosia, but the dreaded deadline was getting closer for the second batch of Hot Wheels pages.

Nowadays, in this digital age, I usually send off artwork on disc to the client, but it was quicker due to the recent postal strikes for me to return to my old mode with this particular publisher, as they are reasonably close to where I live, and that was to hand deliver them.

I had been having a laugh with Rob Sharp who was dealing with the issue in question as James Hill was away on holiday, something I said should become a sackable offence especially in light of producing an all-nighter or two to complete the pages on time. As a joke I had said that seeing as how the pages would be hand delivered and James was away I would be bringing along cream cakes, something he never expected me do in reality.

So when I took the pages along I did so accompanied by a couple of cream cakes, to continue the joke, much to Rob’s surprise…although let it be noted here, it was never in doubt as to whether they would be accepted or not by Rob…I could tell right from the off my ploy to butter him up was a success as he was drooling incessantly all the way though the conversation in the Toontastic office, until I left. In fact I was hurriedly rushed out, as soon as the pages passed hands, if truth were told, with Rob running back to his desk as the door closed behind me presumably to consume the said cakes and certainly not to begin lettering – although I am sure this was indeed second on his list.
;))

Now picture, if you will this month’s issue being worked on by me last week and a phone call from James to ask when he could expect the pages and would I be delivering them by hand again as he had heard about the cakes, something I had had Rob swear to secrecy…now here’s the hook for this tale…

So I said yes and arranged for the pages to be in by Monday of this week…originally it was to be Friday last, but I would not be finished until Friday evening, too late to get them to them on the day, although I could have sent them via Special Delivery the next day for them to arrive on Monday morning.

Well as Rob would not be starting lettering them until Monday anyhow and there were the cream cakes to consider James said this would be fine.

The moral to this tale is, when deadlines are looming guys take it from me you can always find a unique way of corrupting the system and making it work for you. This just proves anyone can be bought…I just wish I had thought of this ploy years ago, when deadlines rose their head in my studio, when I first entered the wacky world of comics…

So, my advice, next time a deadline approaches, give your editors a call and offer them cakes…it works for me…

BTW: Just in case anyone is wondering about this particular light-hearted Blog, James said it would be a fun Blog to write and it also proves and shows that editors like most comics folks are fun guys to be around, even when the crunch happens to be around the corner.

Trouble is what happens when cakes are no longer enough…hmmm food for thought…
;))

Thanks to James and Rob for keeping comics fun to work in…if it wasn’t for James I might never have returned to comics at all…

Until next time have fun!

Tim Perkins…
October 24th 2007