Well, guess what? The end of July marked the 15th anniversary of Driftwood! (I didn’t mention anything about it at the end of July, because I mistakenly thought its “birthday” was now at the end of August … V`(oo)´V)

I drew the first page at some point near the end of my summer vacation 1996, when I was 15 years old. (The exact date has sadly not been recorded.)
So this means I have been working on this comic for the most part of my life! V^(oo)^V

What is even more disturbing is that by the time I finish it, or when it’s finally printed as a “real book”, it will be about 16 years old. Just like its protagonist.

I was looking at my diary from 1996 in order to try and find the exact date for when I started to draw it, but with no success. However, I did find one quite shocking note. Pretty much exactly nine months before the end of July 1996, I mentioned the dream that was the initial inspiration for Driftwood:

October 24th, 1995
[…] By the way, the other day I had a dream in the spirit of [Loisel’s comic book adaptation of] Peter Pan — a ship came to take me away from this world and to new adventures. Unfortunately I woke up before I had gotten aboard.

During the following nine months, my ideas for the story grew and warped, and I made about fifty million drafts for the beginning. Then one day I guess I had a halfway decent idea for the opening scene, and started to draw it “for real”, in A3 format and both pencils and ink. It was the first comic ever that I actually inked, and as far as I remember the first that I drew in double the print size (or even planned to print, for that matter). And since then I’ve just continued, page after page.

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By the way, I’ve made the final decision to not redraw the first few chapters. Reasons:
– That would take a lot of of time, and I’m already 30, dammit!
– This is only a prequel, and I’m sure everyone wants to read the adventures that follow just as badly as I want to draw them. :3
– It’s a story about growing up, and the way the style matures is part of the story. (Yay, best excuse ever!!!!!! V^(oo)^V)

I’ll still leave the options in the poll to the left, to mock anyone who would vote for them.

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Oh, and today was Read Comics in Public Day. Yay!