Not so long ago, I got to pondering the current popularity of Minecraft with kids and wondering what comparisons there might be with comics during and before my childhood. Was it plausible that, in forty years time, there will a small, scattered but hardcore group of ageing individuals who will continue to play the game and refuse to put it away for adulthood? From this idle thought appeared a germ on idea I called "Pitknack". I originally intended to produce it for the on-line comic, ACES Weekly, for whom I've already had a couple of one-off strips appear. The idea was, basically, to make the story up as I went along, completing each episode one at a time and dealing with each of the plot-traps I had set myself and setting new ones every week until the seven episodes I was allotted were up. After completing four pages, another long, fermenting idea, Why Don't You Love Me?, reached critical mass and the urge to work on that obliterated Pitknack's. It's a shame as I really like what I have done for it so far and, if I didn't have a day job, would love to return and finish it.
Cartoonist Paul Rainey is the creator of There's No Time Like The Present, Thunder Brother: Soap Division and Book of Lists and is an occasional contributor to Viz. His current big project, Why Don't You Love Me, appears regularly in ACES Weekly. He is the winner of the Observer/Jonathan Cape/Comica Graphic Short Story Prize 2020. His latest comic is Journey Into Indignity. My online shop is www.pbrainey.bigcartel.com.