House On A Hill, Old Rejected Book

A page from a spooky comic I never got around to finishing. I really want to do a spooky comic with really rich detail but haven't been struck with the right idea yet. I'd likely do it in pen and ink rather than pencil though. I'm reading Shirley Jackson's amazing Haunting of Hill House for the first time so I'm getting lots of spooky ideas. Have you read it? I love it and can not believe I'm just getting to it now. I read We Have Always Lived in the Castle a year or two ago and it easily became one of my favourite books. She does something interesting in her stories, combining a real human compassion with unsettling, other worldly ambiance. Brilliant stuff.

Years ago I brought a ghost story to Tor but it was rejected, I was a little disappointed but had more than enough on my plate that it wasn't a crushing blow at all. I shared the idea with Mike Mignola who really seemed to like it so I've been holding on to it and refining it since. With a number of books floating around as pitches maybe I'll finally unearth this concept as a self published book. My experience at Tor made me suspect it's too strange to properly market. And like I mentioned in my last post, Marrowbones showed me that having a self published book can make the whole business of being a cartoonist more viable, when combined with traditional publishing.

In family news, Henry turns 4 next month. We are planning a birthday trip to the pumpkin patch. How much fun is that?