It's easily the best opening line for any work of fiction if you
ask me.
Certainly the writers of Battlestar Galactica thought so.
But the words belong to JM Barrie, who used them to open
Peter Pan.
They felt like the perfect way to finish up In Print.
And it is finished. At least in it's current form.
Jim and Ness have plans,
but I've purposely kept out of those conversations.
It's not my world anymore.
In a lot of ways having the Doctors involved in the first two Wilderness Eras hand over the reigns on the cusp of the Third Great Wilderness era, I couldn't have planned a better point to set things aside.
I had been writing for Kasterborous at the time and the owner let me post an advert for an artist.
Which is how I met Jim Wilkins.
I don’t know if I ever told him, but Jim was the only applicant.
Not the only applicant I considered. The only one that applied.
Full stop.
So you can imagine my relief when Jim turned out to be exactly what I was looking for.
Right from the start Jim started pushing the envelope. I write every strip in the classic Garfield 3 panel format. Every strip. This probably comes as a surprise as Jim has very rarely delivered a three panel strip. There's always something extra. An extra panel or two or an elaborate title for the strip.
I rarely title strips. The Last Print is the exception rather than the rule. I also wrote three panels. Jim drew nine.
Jim has never been one to be constrained and it's fair to say had he
listened to me then the strip would look quite different than it does
today.
Thanks for doing your own thing, Jim. Thanks for everything.
Thanks for pushing me to tell bigger stories, even if that led to
me leaving.
Ahem. Enough gushing.
And somewhere along the line we became friends. Friends that have never met or even spoken. Though I suspect our respective accents might limit that...
Turns out I like Jim, Who'd have seen that coming?
We'll still be talking Doctor Who. We'll still check in with each other.
Because this last strip is merely the end of our partnership, not our friendship.
I look forward to seeing how Jim draws whatever Who becomes next.
