Lost In Migration.

Ending in June, DC Thompson ran a competition called The Tartan Bucket Prize. Which was essentially tasking any unpublished artist to create a humorous short story to be published by DC Thompson in the same vein as their previous stuff but freshly in-tune to a 21st century audience.

A couple of limitations were in place, firstly that it had to pretty much be violence free/child friendly, secondly that it could only be two pages long and thirdly- I only had 4 hours to do the entire thing (as I came to know about the competition very late on to its announcement.)

My idea was essentially- Planes Trains And Automobiles, only starring Simon from PSTP and about Birds trying to make it on time for Migration(which I translated in this context to pretty much be a 'Bird holiday.')

Simon was a character I created by complete accident when having to draw the heroes of PSTP doing various poses to support the original title banner on the site- Having a free arm to fill in this particular pose I drew the crude essence of a Parrot giving the thumbs up. Eventually he came to be a star character, even having his own catchphrase.

On deadline day, I had to work a full 10-6 shift and got home around 7, So from then on I sat down to write, pencil and ink the comic and all somehow before midnight- I did it with about five minutes to spare.

I really don't expect to win and unfortunately I've no idea when the winners are going to be announced but I did at least get confirmation that my entry made it on time and will be considered.

And also, at the very least I found that the core idea was strong enough to have legs for an ongoing series, one I may actually look into. There are many ideas for the antics of Ainsley and Simon.

The hardest part for this challenge was trying to communicate my basic idea in the harsh limit of Two Pages(normally for a scene like this, setting things up, I'd take atleast three times that.) And also having to end it in a humorous conclusion was tricky, given these characters needed to meet. I'm obsessed with pacing in comics and this doesn't do much for me in that department but at the end of the day, it is what it is, I think it gets enough of a point across. I just know that if Lost In Migration gets its own mini-webcomic series, the introduction of the characters will be spread over alot more than two pages!

-T