Preparing Ned Kelly for Printing....

In Lora and Adam's home, showing off the size of the NED KELLY book.

I've been mindful of the fact that I have been neglecting my Comicoz Web-Blog of late.   To be honest, I have not had much time this month to get down and spend the thirty minutes it takes me to write this entry.   Better late than never, here I am....
Soon after the birth of grandson Dustin, Carlene and I headed off to spend three weeks in his home town of Bendigo, Victoria.   While we were there, my other baby, the uncorrected proof of Ned Kelly, Written and Illustrated by Monty Wedd arrived.   Purely by co-incidence (or was it?!), the package arrived on the 113th "anniversary" of Ned Kelly's hanging, on November 11th 2013....

---

And when I say "uncorrected proof", that was exactly as it was.  As chuffed as I was when it arrived (as these photos show), it was the cold reality of day that I discovered that there were a couple of errors in the text of both the cover and the internal pages.   They were not minor mistakes either.   For example?    How could I have let slip by the incorrect year of Monty's death: I had 1992 written in one place instead of 2012.   And a couple of others...

One pretty chuffed Publisher, holding the only uncorrected proof copy of Ned Kelly, Written and Narrated by Monty Wedd.

Still, it was best discovering these glitches before the book was printed!   Since the arrival of the proof, I have worked tirelessly with Cover designer Michal Dutkiewicz and Interior Designer Ryan McDonald-Smith, and the book is now as good as we can possibly make it.   There was also an issue with the colour of the printing, but just last week I have managed to resolve that with the printer to my satisfaction.   In summary, all corrections have been made and the book is now at the printer being printed!   My only concern is that I don't think it will be ready by Christmas as I had planned.   Still, I would rather see a book completed to the best of the creative personnel's ability rather than present a book to Readers with glaring inaccuracies...