A Hat

The
Many–Eyed
Detective
Blog

When it’s done…

After some detours into the territory of a french translation and a long and unsuccessful search for a publisher in german or french, The Many-Eyed Detective will be self-published in 2025. It was a long journey and the task revealed itself to be larger than anticipated. The good news is that the whole story is being put into the form of a book, which you will be able to buy and read by April 2025. There’s one single prototype of the book that already exists, as you can see in the picture below:

As of now, There remains a long list of big and small tasks left to tackle. For instance I’m in the process of adjusting the space separating the two lines of panels on the page. In the preview I printed it’s a little too small. I’m doing this while also adjusting the margins in between the panels themselves. The original drawings on paper where done with the idea of an almost infinite single row of panels that was seamlessly scrolled across the screen. Instead of the usual rhythm of a book, the one shaped by the turning of pages, I came up with large fullscreen-panels that I call “stoppers”. These stoppers allowed me to create another kind of rhythm in the absence of the paper-page. The Web-Version of my comic is also built on the luxury of having infinite space on the digital canvas. In the printed version, the panels, including the stoppers, have to fit into the fixed measurement of consequential pages. Which is a nice thing, but also a lot of work. I’m certain that it’s worth the effort as in the process of fine-tuning the format of a double-page spread, I’m creating a version of the story that looks and reads best and I’m very happy to get it into the hands of everyone still interested by spring 2025.

The printed books will be available in german only.
The books will be available for sale online and also at the Fumetto Festival, which takes places from 5. – 13. April 2025 in Lucerne, Switzerland. There will also be a Satellite-Exhibition about the Many-Eyed Detective during the Fumetto Comic Festival in Lucerne. More on that as the festival approaches.

I’m keeping my fingers crossed that the Web-Version of the Many-Eyed Detective will also be publicly released as of April 2025, but I can’t promise it. I’m making the book my priority number one, and many of the small adjustments I’m making in the Layout of the book, are not yet carried over into the Screen-version of the comic. I’ve been keeping both versions up to date during the past years, but I’ll have to focus on one for the time being. I’ll post another update as the release of the book is drawing closer.

Thanks for your patience and see you soon!

9. December 2024

Thanks

The Many-Eyed Detective is done, and not a day too soon.
Thanks to everyone involved in some way, everybody who contributed to it in one way or another during the last two and a half years:

Rebecca, Atelier Güterstrasse: Michael B., Ann-Sophie, Rebecca, Tobi, Philip, Michael R., Massimiliano, Michael K., Ivan, Early Readers of the Comic: Moritz G., Simon B., Philip, Stronzis, David, Ueli, Ivan, Benni, Lukas E., Christina K., Lukas S., Manuel K., Drink and Draw Bern: Eva, Ueli, Stronzo Strips: Andreas, Beni, Markus, Martin, Per Culturas, SfG:BB, Johnson / Kingston, Atelier Gravure Moutier, David, Julia, Alexandra T., Toni, Oli Pixel, Steve + Nina, Simon S, Boxer:innen of Denk:mal, my Family: Markus, Trudi, Beat, Susanne, Cédi, Kathrin, Benni.

Thanks also to Berner Design Stiftung and Burgergemeinde Bern. Both supported the project in an early stage. Berner Design Stiftung is also hosting the BESTFORM Exhibition where the Comic is visible for the first time.

23. March 2022

The First Page

Some weeks ago I stumbled across the Podcast Comic Sans by Mikael Ross and Jakob Hoffmann. The two Hosts were discussing different approaches to first pages of comic books. It is a very interesting topic to think about and they dug up a couple of inspiring ones which are on display in this episode.

So here’s the first page of the upcoming comic The Many-Eyed Detective. It was not the first page i drew,
but it’s the first page of the final comic.

It was drawn on paper and it shows the layout i came up with while developing the digital frame for the story. In the digital display, the four separate lines are merged into one. That one line can be scrolled through by you, the reader.

5. March 2022

Bestform 2022

I’m very happy to announce that The Many-Eyed Detective will be shown in a primal flickering state at the Bestform 2022 in Bern. The vernissage will take place on the 24th of march, fingers crossed. A big thanks to the Berner Design Stiftung for supporting my proposal in the very beginning and being patient enough to let the project develop at it’s own chosen speed.

27. December 2021

Good News Everyone!

It’s been a while since I announced a preview of the comic The Many-Eyed Detective for the Bestform 2020, which sadly got cancelled like many other events, due to the pandemic. The cancellation left me sitting on a pile of beginnings. Luckily one of the thoughts that floated my boat was to just keep going. I managed to eventually settle on that thought. While i tried to come to terms with the story and its frame, 2020 went by without anything to show publicly.
Everything took a little longer.

Group Picture with all the different Stacks, neatly arranged.

Somewhere along the way I decided that I wanted to have the detective grounded in real-world paper. It felt like it made possible some sort of precision that I couldn’t bring up on screen. So I spent much of 2021 trying to grow the right stacks of paper. The first stack was a storyboard. I used that storyboard to come up with a scrollable prototype of the comic. The second stack of paper was another storyboard that became necessary as i tried to mold the story into readable shape. And the final stack consists of finished black and white pages, drawn with the feeblest of pens. Today I put the last sheet on that last stack of paper. Hooray!

The Stack

I will be spending the beginning of 2022 with embedding the images into the digital sphere and adding sprinkles of color along the way. There’s also questions concerning the publication of the comic that need to be adressed. Of course the comic will eventually be published online. But there’s still a ways to go, so don’t hold your breath.

The 2022 Stack

When I started working on the comic I set up a newsletter. Next time i looked it was riddled with spambots, so here’s this little blog instead. If time allows, there will be blips and pieces posted along the way towards the publication of The Many-Eyed Detective.

Here’s to the future and thank you for your interest in my movements, despite the snail’s pace.

18. December 2021

Printing

During a little Kuraufenthalt at Gravure Moutier in the noisy days of 2020, i put two prints on paper. One of the prints acts as a preliminary panel for The Many-Eyed Detective. The image depicts a captains view onto the ships front deck while navigating troubled waters.

Print Sturm

One copy of the print was sold at the expo-vente organised by BD SCAA in support of SOS Méditerranée Switzerland in Geneva. Another one was exhibited at pilzwellelust in Basel. And a third one sits with the resourceful Velomech.

11. December 2021