an in depth commentary on each issue. numbers refer to page then panel number. contains spoilers.
1 How apt. I begin with one of my trademark dream sequences. A dream for Rachel that is, reality for Luke.
1.4 An auspicious start to my career in dialogue. Good job I changed it from something stronger.
2.2 Tone messing about with a photocopier. I so wanted to be Shade-era Chris Bachalo. Rachel looks a bit like Gillian Anderson here for some reason.
4.5 Jo was originally named Laura, but for some reason I kept writing Joanne in the script so I stuck with it.
5 Jo's story was inspired by an early Lloyd Cole song Minor Character, but as the title implies he nicked it from a book, so that's okay. I think Phoebe from Friends may have been an influence too. Whatever, she's still a favourite of mine.
6 At the time I thought if you were gonna draw a real life story, you had to draw like Jaime Hernandez. The notion that you have to draw more cartoony and exaggerated when drawing real life is rather odd when you think about it. I rather lost my way artwise during DW, and I didn't recover until the fresh start of Angel Nebula.
7.4 Jason trying to catch another glimpse of Rachel in her nightclothes.
8.1 I set DW in the flats down the road from me, mainly because I had instant reference, but also because it's a very quiet, sleepy suburbia. In DW you'll notice there's hardly anyone else in it apart from the main characters, not even extras walking down the street. This was intentional, so you have the feeling of the cast living in their own little world. Like I do.
8.5 I showed the script to writer buddy Darren Powell, as originally he'd offered to dialogue whatever I came up with. But I ended up writing a full script as I hadn't got a clue how else to do it, and he liked it, which gave me the confidence to actually publish the thing. The only thing Dan suggested was that the mysterious old man bit was overly dramatic, so I rewrote this scene.
9 'People staring at things' would become my byline through BugPowder's Pete Ashton. I think I borrowed this repetition technique from JM Dematteis' Spider-man, and I ended up using it an awful lot in the early issues, mainly to get out of having to draw anything.
10.4 Split Enz's True Colours. On vinyl, no less.
10.5 Catcher In The Rye, the only book we studied at school that didn't completely suck.
10.7 October Street was one of the many titles I considered for the book. Just because I was born in October really. Dark Weather actually came from a Ricky Ross B side I was listening to when I came up with the idea for the whole series. I picked it because it sounds great but doesn't really mean anything.
13.1 I figured it was about time people started exploiting the comedy potential of suicide.
13.2 Nick hasn't really got a hot date, he's out with the boys. Nick was based on the type of bloke who think he's hard and macho, but is really just the same as everyone else. Deep down Nick would have taken Jo back ad infinitum if he had the chance.
14 Past and present layout gimmick borrowed from an issue of Cerebus.
14.6 James Dean, where Luke got his later haircut and look from.
15.4 Guru Dan Powell later pointed out that the letter trick might have worked better if the writing was obscured. And he was probably right.
17 Dan suggested the last panel should be a full page, and he definitely got that one right. Still the only full splash page I've ever done.
1 Lovely page this. The idea came from Steranko's Captain America run. So good I used it twice.
2 Rachel's still dreaming herself into Luke's life.
4 I had Jo pegged as a secret smoker, and later a drinker. It's symbolic of how she hid her true depths from her friends and even her lover.
6 I've always been hopeless at drawing moms.
6.1 I figured she'd be tea obsessed, covering up for the hurt she felt over Luke.
6.6 Bit of an overreaction from Rache there.
7 I really can't remember what inspired this scene. Kinda sweet though if a bit creepy, Jason trying to win a locket for Rachel.
9.3 Why Jo thinks reading ESP For Beginners appears more impressive than watching Scooby Doo, I dunno...
9.6 Rachel's reflection looks completely different to her somehow.
10 This is an all too abrupt change of scene. I blame the writer.
11.1 The old man's choo-choo set makes its debut.
11.3 Silly I know, but it still makes me laugh.
13 On the ride home one day I saw an immense crane, and wondered how it supported it's own weight. And at the time, pretty much any stray thought would go in my comics. Plus I was really trying to mystify people, Twin Peaks style. These days I don't even have to work at it. At a basic level the crane symbolises that Jo's just about to take a tumble off the flats. Yeah, course it does.
14 In Minor Character, 'she said she'd throw herself off a bridge'. Well I couldn't find any bridges.
14.5 'Jesus you made me jump.' Another favourite line.
16-17 There's obvious animosity between Nick and Rachel, and although it's hinted at here, you don't find out exactly why until Special #2.
17.4 I never usually draw people I know, but the bloke in the corner was a mate from Uni at the time.
18 Really nice page this, both in art and execution.
1 Yep, it's that diner page again.
2 Originally Vikki was a very minor character in Luke's story, but as I wrote the issue she took on a life of her own, so I brought her back in #5.
2.6 This being the scene Rachel dreamt about on #1 p1. Luke thought he saw Rachel hitching, when it was really Vikki.
5.3 Ah, girls wearing Nirvana t-shirts at college... takes you back doesn't it? I didn't know any Jo or Rache, but the guy sitting next to them was a mate.
6.3 Luke shows his rebellious streak.
7.7 For the place name I picked Conwyn Bay at random from a map book and altered it slightly. Maybe I should've called it Summer Bay.
8 Ooh, I like this page.
9 This is one of the parks where I wasted many a happy hour as a teen, with my two best friends. Which I guess would make me Jo on this page.
12 This is probably the only time I've ever changed scene mid-page. I don't recommend it , but I got away with it here.
13.2 I didn't want to get bogged down with the reasons for the break-up, so I used this classic line instead. I think in some ways all Luke was looking for was a reason for being dumped, or as they say on daytime TV, closure.
15 This scene takes place after the break-up of course. In the script I had 'insert still from a James Dean film here', but as I was flicking through Rebel Without A Cause I chanced upon the perfect line. Not that I used to bunk off college and watch James Dean films, hell no.
16 Tis a lovely page, this. I decided to leave the Luke/Vikki thing ambiguous, because y'know, she was only 15 and a quarter.
17.6 Luke comes to the realisation that you can't hide from the world forever, but it's a little too soon for Vikki.
1 Rachel and Luke still in each others heads. It's dark and raining, see that's why it's called Dark Weather.
2.2 Told you I'm no good at drawing moms.
2.3 Looks like Jason's finally won that locket.
2.5 Nice street scene, not taken from anything in particular. I wanted to give the impression of identikit faceless houses.
4.3 The old man's residence being over the road from Rachel's flat. Jason picks his sites strategically.
4.5 I think we all know a pensioner or two who spends all day watching comings and goings Rear Window style. Or maybe that's just my street.
6.3 This being the device that sent Jo scrambled psychic message straight to the old man's brain. God knows where I came up with that stuff.
7.1 This is the newspaper article from Special #1. We'll get to that in a minute.
7.5 A flying flying saucer. Somebody should market one of these.
8.3 Old people seem to think 2 quid's still a lot of money. Unless they're just trying to con us young whippersnappers.
9.4 This would be Jason's teacher, come to tell his mom he's not been attending school. Somebody thought she was the older woman Jason was interested in, so I obviously didn't make that too clear.
10.4 Nathaniel, the old man's budgie, makes his unforgettable debut.
12.4 Suzanne was meant to look like Rachel, as old man John looked like Jason when he was younger. A subtle parallel, geddit?
12.8 As we find out in Special #1, it was John's devotion to his inventing over Suzanne that drove a wedge between them. The unfortunate UFO business just hammered the nails into that, erm, wedge.
15.4 Dunno if I'd established this before, but Rachel has a stuffed toy hippo, presumably named Horace.
16.3 One bad lesbian joke coming up.
18.4 Jason's about to present Rachel with his locket, when fortunately for all concerned, he chickens out.
19.4 This echoes #2 p7.5, when Jason was after the locket. The line came from Inspector Gadget's nemesis Dr Claw.
2.1 Someone once told me having shots of people staring out windows is a manifestation of their isolation from the reader. And I just thought it looked cool.
2.5 Rachel just checking she's over her bout of sleepwalking.
3.6 Sound effects are overrused in comics, so I try to only use them when absolutely necessary, and even then it's only RING RING or KNOCK KNOCK. Which reminds me of a good joke...
5 I wrote this page in my head while pushing a trolley round the Kwik Save. Bit of a pain to draw though. I wasn't really happy with leaving Nick and Jo together as it seemed a bit of a cop-out, which led to Special #2.
6.4 I was coming back drunk one night and the taxi dropped me off by my old playground, and I stood there at 3 in the morning going 'they've knocked my park down! Goddamn you!' They've recently put up a new one there, but it's strictly for kids. Anyway, at the time I wrote this issue only half of it was left standing.
7.8 Hmmm. What did Luke and Vikki get up to that night? Anything the police should know about?
9.2 This guy here was based on my boss at the time, who was the biggest -
9.3 I really like this line. If you hadn't guessed, Vikki doesn't really have a great aunt in the country.
10 North By Northwest. This is the moment Vikki realises she's going nowhere, and decides to head back home.
11.3 So the end of #3 took place yesterday morning.
11.6 Luke finally figures out for himself why Rachel broke up with him. Because he's been a right prat.
12.7 I like this sentiment. It doesn't matter where you go, you're always gonna be the same person. Unfortunately.
13.6 The necklace thing was a symbol running throughout DW. Like a ring, its almost like a statement of ownership. That's why Jason tried to make Rachel his by giving her his necklace. Rachel continued to wear Luke's necklace long after they'd split up, so she was never truly over Luke until she could take it off. Now she can put it back on, because now she's free of all that baggage from her past, it no longer belongs to Luke, it's truly Rachel's.
14.3 The tape reminds Luke of Vikki on #3 p4.2.
14.6 Luke drives through a red light like he refused to on #3 p6.3, presumably in search of Vikki. Did he find her? Of course he didn't. England's a big place you know.
15.2 Rachel relieved that it's all over. She may play it cool but Rachel's just as vunerable as everyone else in the story. It's interesting how everything revolves around Rache, although she's not really a protagonist in the story, she just reacts to the craziness that surrounds her.
16 This leads into the scene near the beginning of Special #2.
16.6 And this segues into the old man...
17.2 This is so sad it's pathetic.
17.6 The old man arights the toy crane that fell over back on #2 p13. That pyschotron of his must've beamed the crane falling over directly into Rachel's dream. Or something.
18 Odd that, for a character who was supposed to be throwaway, Vikki gets to have the final scene. I love a happy ending, don't you?
1.1 An evil budgie, according to one reader. Evil!
1.4 The old man's UFO scrapbook, also containing the same photo he showed Jason on #4 p12.4.
1.6 Another nice made up place name, Finley, probably took from Filey.
2.1 I think I had copier trouble at the time, as for some strange reason this reproduction of the cover was actually drawn on computer, Shatter style. You can see the little pixels.
2.2 (old man) John, 40 years previous, living in a similar house with a similar budgie.
3.8 Probably the stupidest line I've ever written, but it did make me laugh.
4 I seemed to be using some form of bingo pen to ink this issue.
5.2 Bill, Joan and Sandra were the three characters from the article, names changed to protect whatever the hell actually went on.
6.4 That's a great shot of Suzanne giving a bored look. She might have been stroppy, but she obviously had a lot of patience to put up with John.
6.8 Odd that Robert here looks like Wesley 'Sandman' Dodds. Ufology attracts more cranks than comics does, which gives the whole field a bad rep. Personally when I was into researching it I found there's so many fruitcakes and scant real evidence, that in the end you have to conclude the whole thing is inconclusive.
7.1 As someone pointed out in the lettercol, this was a steal from a movie poster. The film was about the first reported case of 'alien abduction'. Kinda apt really.
7.5 Suzanne's right, John is the obsessive type. Nowt wrong with that, it's just that people like that tend to only hold on to one thing at a time.
8.5 That's a really great panel that.
9.3 I was going for the dark Kevin Nowlan facial shadows type look in this issue.
12 11 panels on a page! It's my personal best.
12.3 Tis true that before the rise of science in society strange happenings were viewed spiritually rather than rationally. Although some things do appear to defy rational explanation. I'm coming over all Mulder here.
12.5 I've never been a fan of organised religion, although I've nothing against the personal kind. Bill wasn't the most likable character, so I balanced the scales somewhat with Haile from Angel Nebula.
12.9 This line came direct from the account. In it Sandra comes on to Bill, so he naturally assumes she's possessed by some alien demonic force. Like teenage hormones.
13.6 I think Joan telling Suzanne her and John act like they're married pushes their teetering relationship over the cliff.
14.5 It's the quiet ones you have to watch. Dunno what the hell that expression actually means though.
14.6 Bill hints that he thinks Sandra's possessed.
15.1 Shouldn't there be a RING RING effect here?
15.3 Mrs Robert Taylor looking rather dead. Bill said they'd been rowing (not the Olympic sport), so did Robert do her in? Or did possessed lil' Sandra finish 'em both off? Was it Bill or was it - nah.
15.4-9 Having another Steranko moment. I love old black and white movies, and I was going for that haunted house atmosphere with this story.
15.11 Bill investigates the tapping on the window, and sees a light in the distance.
16.2 Sandra supports the theory that she did her parents in, as she hints that they've snuffed it.
18.2 the Bill in the account also ceases his investigation after getting spooked by several visitations from big hairy aliens.
18.3 Another character looking isolated at a window.
18.5 Someone told me this swear word ruined the whole atmosphere of the story for him. Swearing was certainly commonplace amongst men in those days, particularly when women weren't in earshot. As in life, I only use profanity in a story when absolutely necessary, and I sure felt it was here.
19.5 John finally realises Suzanne doesn't believe he saw the UFO, which is a bit gutting for him.
20.7-9 In the account Bill describes a creature at his back door whose top half changes back and forth between male and female. And people said he was crazy. Note the female looks like Sandra.
21.1 After seeing the whatever, John finds himself on the landing with muddy bare feet, indicating some time lapse when he must have gone outside.
21.3 Suzanne sees John on the landing, which makes her suspect him of the attack on Sandra.
21.6 A traumatised Sandra, covered in cuts. In the book it was claimed she was covered in scratches after being raped by 13 'entities'.
22 I went for an X-Files type open ending, which frustrated a lot of people with it's inconclusiveness. I settled for presenting the reader with two main possibilities: either it was aliens (or demons if you prefer) who killed the Taylors (possibly through the possessed Sandra) then assaulted her (again, possibly through possessed Bill or John), or more down to earth forces were at work. Namely Sandra and/or Bill went loopy and killed the Taylors, then Sandra was later attacked by a lustful Bill, or even inflicted the scratches on herself.
22.2 Bill presumably saying 'It was him Officer!'.
22.3 Sandra off to her new home, the loony bin.
22.4 You get the feeling whatever had gotten into Sandra has long since left.
22.5 John getting collared by the police as prime suspect.
23 John, mistakenly thinking he's blown it forever with Suzanne, slings his hook.
24 And thus ends the tale of how bitter old John lost the great love of his life.
1 I think we've all been there at one time or another. Or maybe it's just me.
2.6 It must be tough being friends with someone so self absorbed as Jo. I figured Jo and Rache became best friends after sitting next to each other in college, but after college they drifted apart, and now Jo only calls round when she wants something (usually somewhere to kip).
3.2 An all-time favourite panel, Jo trying to change the subject by rambling about card games.
3.4 Jo and Nick's co-dependant relationship in a nutshell. They're together because they're the only ones who'd put up with each other.
4.3 Jo's first experience of grog. Note the park in the background. The bridge came from the cover of #5.
6.1 Just your generic dive of a nightclub.
6.3 Jo and Nick's first meeting. Nick's trying to grow his goatee, but hasn't got past the bumfluff stage.
6.4 This is unfortunately true of me as well.
6.7 Jo's drinking bacardi and coke, in case anyone's interested.
7.3 There really isn't a conceivable punchline to this joke.
8 Thankfully this has only ever happened to me once, and coincidentally it was just after I'd drawn the thing. Bad ju-ju. Clever layout on this page, with panels 5 & 6 joining up off the page.
9.1 I don't know any of these people.
9.7 Jo hiding the fag, as like a guilty teen with their parents, she doesn't want Nick or Rache to know she's a secret smoker. Otherwise it wouldn't be a secret would it.
9.8 The incident alluded to in #2, where Nick comes on to Rachel.
10.7 This was an in-joke for my own benefit, as Jo was originally called Laura.
11.6 Jo's been turning a blind eye to Nick's roving eye in the past, but finally finds the courage to confront him about it.
13.5 Nick blows it forever with Jo when he calls her stupid. She had suspected that's what he thought of her on p11.6.
14.1 Jo picked up a slight concussion in the crash.
14.3 Inspired by that most happening of towns, Bilston.
15.1 In case you hadn't guessed, the story's all about dependency, whether it be people or things. Jo's oscillated between relying on Nick or Rachel to get her through life, and when they're not around she resorts to her old friends Nick O Teen and Al K Hol.
15.3 Jo tries to stand on her own two feet for once.
15.6 The timetable of the bus I was catching when I wrote the story. Dig the Mickey Mouse watch.
15.7 Jo's so close to independence, and then she spies a pub. Damn that public transport.
16 This page circles back into p1, which takes place later on the same day. See, it's the same pub. And like Jo says, she's got all day. So that answers the question 'How did I get here?'. The question is, does Jo ever leave?