I know I said I’d have a wig tutorial… that’ll have to wait. I had all of my stuff prepared, and planned on having the ears and eyes attached to the moppet before attaching the wig. I had the eyes made, but as soon as I put the wig on the head I knew the eyes were a wrong match for the wig. So I had to redo them, and now I’m just waiting for them to dry before attaching them. The good news is that it’s about half a day’s work left on facial features, and then I’ve got to make the hands/rods and I’ll finally be finished. It’s coming along well actually. … So instead I present a little explanation of what I got up to last night…

When I wrote My friend the writer, I didn’t know two things: one, that he is also now one of the writers for the Star Wars comics (), and that the book he is publishing (Brief Cases), is in installments, the first one being The Example.

He’s also very lucky. This week marks the launch of all three things; last night I attended the book launch for Flinch, a compilation of graphic stories (including that great storyteller, Shaun Tan, who wrote The Arrival which I saw at Perth last year). They also made it a double launch, and The Example, Tom’s first ever graphic novel, is now on sale. (Yeah, I know this sounds like a pitch… I can’t help it, he’s a good friend ) The Example was actually a play of Tom’s, that ended up winning a few awards I think.

The launch was pretty neat. I’ve never been to one before, but it was pretty much what you’d expect. We were in Dymocks (a local chain bookstore) after hours, in the cafe section, and there was food and booze (and tiny cupcakes), speeches, and of course, the books. There was also a signing table set up, and I got both The Example and Flinch signed. I wasn’t really planning on buying Flinch, not being one really for reading short stories, but I picked up the book and flipped through it, and the graphics grabbed me enough to buy it. I’m glad I did; I now have collectible copies with signatures. If Tom ever gets more famous, I have comics that are worth a lot! (Well, Shaun Tan also signed my book, as well as most of the other authors there. I also told Shaun that I saw The Arrival and we had a semi-discussion about it) Tom graciously personalised his signature to me. I don’t know whether that’s a good thing or not, seeing as how his personalised signature was ‘Naomi, Naomi, Naomi.  Naomi, Naomi, Naomi’, and then signed it with his name. (There’s a huge backstory to that, which I won’t explain here, but suffice to say that Naomi X 3 is my ‘nickname’ amongst some of my uni friends; and that Tom explained he wrote my ‘nickname’ and then my full name, which is the other 3 Naomi’s…. )

While I was at the launch I had a chance to catch up with some friends from uni/Tom’s friends. We all worked together in 2003 and 2004 on some comedy shows, but I hadn’t seen them for ages.

What I think is pretty cool though, is that Tom is writing for Star Wars comics now, and has even being going to comic conventions up and down the Aussie east coast as part of the work… I mean, I’m totally not a fan of SW, or a reader of the comic, but that’s pretty big news. I would imagine writing for SW would be highly competitive, something akin to getting a lead puppeteering role on Sesame Street. I can’t believe he’s done all of this. He has also officially stopped being a juggler - something he was doing long before I met him - and is now officially a full-time writer. My god - I need to get a move on in my own career! He makes it seem all so … I’m not sure if doable is the right word, more like depressing. I thought about it whilst standing there listening to speeches, and wondering how he managed to have so much positive career changes happening. I think it’s mostly time: The Example was a play about five years ago. That’s a lot of time to get things happening if you put in the effort. And then I thought about my site, and how I’ve only actually been selling online for a year; maybe in five years I’ll have more going on, and Tom’s achievements won’t be as scary…

But anyway, check out all the stuff at Tom’s site, and later on check out the Star Wars thing (it’s being launched today, but perhaps later accounting for time zone differences) here. If you’re into comics and not sure whether you’d like to buy the books, head to Tom’s site, because there’s a lot of sneak peaks at the graphics. They are very very good. 

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