Fearless Felicity's Forest Fandango!

Also known as Inktober 2024

Hi pals! It’s the middle of November, so my perpetually late brain has finally considered it high time to write to you about Inktober. Yes, the challenge that runs through October. Yes, the one you thought we’d all moved on from for the year. Perpetually late brain, remember?

When I read the challenge prompts this year, it felt like they were begging to be turned into an adventure story. My initial idea, after years of only working on stories for and about little kids, was to make a story about a child who found something in their school backpack that lead them on some kind of adventure…basically, it was half-baked, and it was boring.

At this point, I decided to ignore any idea of story and just make a character I loved. I decided to riff off of the Toad I made for Wind in the Willows, who I felt hadn’t been given nearly enough limelight at the time. A few outfit changes later, Felicity Foster was born. And she was just desperate to get out and explore.

Trees are one of my drawing nemeses, but I decided to set her story in a forest. Why? I guess because frog equals nature, or maybe because I love walking through the woods. Either way, I knew my setting immediately, and that helped me figure out little details like the discovery. Because one of the final prompts for the challenge was “violin”, I chose to add a secret musical element early on so that I would have the option to tie it in later.

At this point I should probably add, I made this with no clear plan whatsoever. Every now and again I would have an idea that would pull together a few days, but most of the story just came from reacting to what had come before, and the prompt in front of me. I made the whole comic in September, which gave me the freedom to give up if it wasn’t working without having to publicly admit to having tried, so the whole thing just felt like a fun experiment.

After drawing the first few panels, I felt like I should use this challenge to push my drawing skills a bit more than I had been. I started looking at Tor Freeman's Substack post about Wally Wood's 22 Panels That Always Work (Google it, it’s amazing), and using those panels as inspiration for more interesting compositions. The passport squirrel section are my favourite drawings in the whole comic, I think!

Around this point, the ending was beginning to be a bit clearer in my mind. There were some very random prompts coming up (Rhinoceros! Jumbo! Violin!), which I planned for a little bit more, because they didn’t feel as open to reaction as some of the other more adventure-themed prompts.

Suddenly there were loads of characters, and my efforts to make more interesting compositions flew out of the window. But alas! The great reveal was on the horizon! The summing up of this glorious adventure! The moment when the penny drops on Felicity's wild imagination! It was so exciting to see the finish line, and to realise that this scrappy little comic could actually come together as a finished piece.

HERE IT COMES! HOLD ON TIGHT FOR THE ENDING!

Whew! You did it! You read a month's worth of comic in just a few minutes! Honestly, I think it’s better like this than in the fragmented daily Inktober format, but such is the challenge and we won’t complain because it brought us Felicity and isn’t that worth all the struggle to follow a story with so many breaks?

Thanks so much for reading! If you’d like to share Felicity with your friends, that would be amazing!