Diary #1 - The origins of the Nowhere Wolf

So here I am, 19 posts into the series and still with a bank of cartoons yet to publish before I run out and need to do more.

The Nowhere Wolf has been in development for about 8 years -- hence the backlog. Eight years ago he didn't exist. I almost remember the day he was conceived. I say almost, because like most guys on the eve of conception I was hideously drunk.

I was around a friend's house having a few beers, listening to some tunes when my friend put on a new record. Now, I need to explain, that amongst other things, my friend was a vinyl collector and a connoisseur of 80's music ... and I was about to hear his newest find. It was rubbish. I don't even remember who it was or what the album was called. I think it was some obscure European band. But as I looked over the sleeve, wondering if the record was ever going to end, I noticed a song called "Nowhere Wolf".

I think I'd just finishing reading Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse, so the title of the song struck a chord (no pun intended). In my innebriated state I draw parallels with the wolf from the Steppes and the wolf from Nowhere.

"Poor wolf. He has nowhere to go, nowhere to be. Poor little fellow", I thought.

And then I got distracted by my friend offering some more beer or some more peanuts or something and largely forgot about the whole thing.

Days later, I somehow remembered the Nowhere Wolf. I jotted the title down in my sketchbook and as I wrote it, it occured to me that NOWHERE and NOW HERE used the same letters. This poor little lost wolf wasn't really lost at all. He didn't belong NOWHERE, he belonged in the NOW and HERE.

"There's a story in that ... one with a moral. It'll be a modern fable! It'll be like Aesop's fables all over", I thought

And so the Nowhere Wolf was conceived.