pencil draft is FINISHED!

5/11/2021

After about five years of planning, researching, thumbnailing and pencilling... I've at last reached page 151 which is (I think!) the final page of Two Shillings a Day. Below is the draft of that last page as currently envisioned:

The "list of things necessary" refers to Holding's detailed instructions and advice at the end of his book regarding all the particulars needed for camping - how to sew a tent, operate a campstove, carry jam, etc etc.

Now preparing for the inking and colouring... I'll aim to show regular progress here.

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What's this all about??

I'm making a true-story graphic novel called
Two Shilings a Day.
Read synopsis here.

Touring and camping with a bicycle is a common activity today but imagine the first time this was attempted, in the late 19th century, when cycles were heavy steel with just one gear, roads were unpaved, batteries and nylon and zippers didn't exist, and even outdoor activities were undertaken in woollen three-piece suits!

Thomas Hiram Holding, an experienced cyclist and camping enthusiast, combined these two pastimes in 1897 when he designed a lightweight portable tent and embarked on a pioneering cycle-camping tour with three friends in Ireland.

This graphic novel is a faithful adaptation of Holding's own book Cycle and Camp, from a time of horse-drawn mailcars, kitchens with peat fires, and farmhouses shared with cattle. Part travelogue round rural west Ireland and
part how-to manual - including sewing ones own tent - I'm showing his adventure using entirely his own idiosyncratic words.

Holding’s fervent wish that anyone could now enjoy a holiday in the country without exorbitant cost proved so popular that he started a cycle-camping organisation, an organisation that became today’s Camping and Caravanning Club.

pencil draft is FINISHED!

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What's this all about??

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Michi Mathias illustration & comics