Update for June 2011

June 9th, 2011 | by Pressyuk
Posted In: blog

Schedules out of the window, budgets under strain and the spectre of ever more delays loom. Thats the general outlook for May and June. Doom and gloom.

Basically things aren’t really going all that well on the Hard Graft front. Issue 3 faces ever more delays and financial squeezes mean that I’m delaying the current SS for a few weeks. If you require your daily dose of Jules Rivera’s striking and dramatic art then I suggest you go raid her excellent new comic Valkrye Squadron!

It isn’t all doom and gloom though. My rugby team, Saracens, won a nail biting thriller in the Aviva Premiership final beating Leicester Tigers to become champions. I wore my fez with pride that day!

Also while Issue 3 is delayed until domesday I can confirm that I have a substantial two month buffer building up. As soon as the current side story is complete we’ll switch back to issue 3 for more fun and games.

And if you want to help raise some money for more comics and want to introduce new readers at the same time, why not let them know Hard Graft issue one is coming to Graphic.ly for the princely sum of 99 cents! It’ll include some nice extras including the original script as typed by my godly hands! Issue 2 and the side stories will also be rolled out in due course with new unseen artwork. Graphic.ly is available on iOS, Android and PC. I’ve actually had to form a kind of mini-publisher called CLAPOW! which I might look into taking further as I release more stuff under it :)

And thats the latest thats been happening at Hard Graft towers. Please be patient and bear with us as we try and struggle to get back on schedule!

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Kickstarting the brain #4 : Traitors Den

April 28th, 2011 | by Pressyuk
Posted In: blog

For the past few days I’ve been challenging myself to come up with a script idea a day. The outline is as follows:

So I thought I’d try and get up to speed and stretch myself a bit so I set myself a challenge to write an idea a day.The criteria is as follows:

  1. The idea must be vaguely unique to ones you have created before.
  2. The idea must be in the form of an elevator pitch of one to two paragraphs of three lines each minimum and five lines each maximum.
  3. The idea must fit one of three genres that you have pre-chosen.
  4. It must have a name.

For some reason I was stuck on a National Express coach from hell going to Liverpool on Monday and in the end my 4th script idea was a bit late.

Traitors Den

Rajesh* is enjoying life as a Police officer for the police in Nottingham when he gets a shocking and chilling phonecall that his wife of fifteen years has been brutally murdered in Northern Ireland. He takes the trip to Belfast to identify the body and recover her personal effects when he finds out what she had been investigating: people trafficking and complicity by a range of terrorist groups.

Rajesh immediately sets out to find his wife’s killers and blow open the lid on one of Ireland’s biggest ever corruption cases in a land where the rules and people can easily be disposed of.


Some thoughts as I’ll be less scathing about my own ideas from now on:

  • A bit of a State of Play theme going on here mixed with Red Riding (which if you haven’t read the book or watched the superb drama series you have simply been missing out) but this kind of gritty crime-meets-political-conspiracy kind of thriller is in vogue.
  • Northern Ireland, like the North of England or Scotland has that kind of mystique for those not familiar with the territory which means basically anyone born south of Watford or most Americans. Again going back to Red Riding but the opening slogan “To the North: where we do what we want!” with all the seedy backstabbing and corrupt double dealing that goes with it I want to replicate with Traitors Den.
  • The added racial element with Rajesh going into a world that barely accepts cross-sectarian marriage let alone such revolutionary 20th century ideas as basic immigration within Europe adds extra spice and fire to the storyline. Looking forward to dyed in the wool Protestant PSNI officers who wear the badge on weekdays and the orange sash on weekends treating our hero roughly.
  • To date probably my bravest idea yet.

Anyway if you like it or not please comment and say why! Thanks to those who have commented (hat tip Brian Black).

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Kick starting the brain #3 – Tackle Bag XV

April 24th, 2011 | by Pressyuk
Posted In: blog

As mentioned the other day I’ve decided to try to think up a new comic idea a day, every day for the foreseeable future. The criteria is as follows:

  1. The idea must be vaguely unique to ones you have created before.
  2. The idea must be in the form of an elevator pitch of one to two paragraphs of three lines each minimum and five lines each maximum.
  3. The idea must fit one of three genres that you have pre-chosen.
  4. It must have a name.

So with that in mind here is idea number three:

Tackle Bag XV

At a Tohoku high school destiny calls for young Atsuki Toyama a small but at times vicious and aloof tomgirl of a delinquent who has been given up on by most of her peers and teaching staff. Enter David Evans a freshly minted English graduate and qualified Rugby coach something which the High School principal wastes no time in tapping him to launch the school’s first female rugby team and Evans sees great potential in Toyama.

Tackle bag XV consists of hard knocks, tough choices and even laughs where Toyama and her team mates realise that it isn’t just a case of personal improvement but of dedication and sacrifice for the cause. Along the way the ragtag 15 face incredible challenges which will require some serious fronting up to surmount.

A few interesting questions here pop up:

  1. Classic battle manga idea. Bunch of idiots who train themselves up into the very best or die trying. Question is will this be interesting to the reader.
  2. Gumshield 21 made American Football interesting. Can Tackle Bag XV do the same?
  3. Why Japan?
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