I woke up thirsty the day I died
And the tide was swirling
My mouth is so dry
And all I see is sea

– “Swans (Life After Death),” Islands

This is a page of drawings I did for the city in CALAMITY. As usual, I didn’t end up actually using any of them for the page I was working on, but you never know…

I wish I could just have Stanley Donwood illustrate the thing. Those woodcut animations are spectacular. He’s always been a big inspiration to me.

As for the book, having only worked on short stories and comic strips, I’ve never experienced anything like this — not even when I did my senior project. Total immersion in a world. In a set of ideas. If I’m not careful, almost every waking thought can be consumed by the book. For my sanity, and Meg’s sanity, I’m trying to set time limits and totally shut my mind off to it when I’m not at the desk working, but it’s tough.

My dreams have been helping me along. Sometimes I’ll wake up and a panel will come to me. Meg told me that she used to use dreams to help her solve problems. She’d go to sleep, wake up, and know the answer she was looking for.