Two stories in the bag.  Air punch!  Yes, folks, this is the concluding page of Push the Button.  I can hardly believe we’ve reached this point already!

So now that the story is complete, it is as good a time as any to reflect upon it.  Push the Button ended up being something of a Frankenstein story in the sense that it was made up from various elements sewed together.  The first part of the story involved a lot of housekeeping, establishing where the characters lived and what they intended to do following the events of The Prototype.  Then once all of that had been taken care of, two separate plotlines developed.  The spacegirls went on a taxi mission in the bus, and Zoe attempted to get a job to fund her spaceship detector project.

If I’m honest, most of this story was pulled together from ideas I had had in my notepad for some time.  Zoe’s story was essentially a handful of standalone comic scenarios in which she gets fired.  Several of her pages were originally intended as Dr Sheep and the Aardvark strips but I never got a chance to use them.  On the other hand, the spacegirls’ story was mostly written two years ago when Girls in Space was brain-pooped into the world (technical term).  At that time I knew I wanted to write about two girls flying around the universe in a VW Camper Van and I wrote a few pages of the hippo storyline to explore the characters and concept.  Therefore, most of the new writing in this story involved me linking together all the pre-written elements.  It was a challenge to turn it all into a (hopefully) coherent story.  I hope you enjoyed it and didn’t feel it was too disjointed.

So, this story is over, what now?  Well good news, compadres, the next story is loaded up and ready to begin!  Come back on Thursday to see the cover and title.  The story itself begins this time next week.  It’s another 34 page story, which means that it should take us through to Christmas!   Terrifying!

Thank you so much for reading Push the Button.

Push The Button (Page 34) is a post from: Girls in Space

I am a little concerned that people might feel as if  Zoe’s storyline (at least in Push the Button) ends in disappointment.  All that hard work getting a job and making a spaceship detector turned out to be for nothing.  Or was it?   For one thing, there’s nothing disappointing about pizza!  Zoe’s role as a translator will also be the seed of future stories.

I can hardly believe it but Monday brings the concluding page of Push the Button.  Miss it and miss out!

My cat is staring at me.  I think she wants me to stop typing.  I’d better do as she requests.

Push The Button (Page 33) is a post from: Girls in Space

Only two more pages to go in the current story.  This is the last appearance of Madame Strippo.  Goodbye hippo – may all your sharp corners be nicely rounded!

Push The Button (Page 32) is a post from: Girls in Space

Voom indeed!  There’s no going back now! 

I really enjoyed drawing this page, although it was quite challenging to figure out a layout that allowed me to have the bus overlapping other panels.  I had to read it through a few times to make sure the ‘flow’ worked.  It’s quite a busy page but hopefully the flow steers you through the panels in a sensible order.

There’s only three more pages in this story, and I’m about half way through drawing up the next story at the time of writing (in fact I’m exactly half way).  I took some time last week and this week to flesh out some ideas for future stories and I’ve come up with a couple of twisted tales that I’m very excited about sharing.  I just wish I could post pages every day!  Ah, a fellow can dream…!

Push The Button (Page 31) is a post from: Girls in Space

Apologies to anyone who doesn’t remember this advert and therefore doesn’t get today’s page.  Hopefully it makes some sort of sense even without the knowledge of the ad. I found it on YouTube (not sure why this version has a laugh track on it!)

So yes, Zoe’s story is concluding.  She’s finally landed a job as a translator thanks to the languages that she had downloaded way back on page 9 of The Prototype.  Hopefully this will help her pay for spaceship detector components, as mentioned on page 8 of Push the Button.

Push The Button (Page 30) is a post from: Girls in Space