{"id":48205,"date":"2026-08-20T07:56:23","date_gmt":"2026-08-20T11:56:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/?p=48205"},"modified":"2026-08-20T07:56:23","modified_gmt":"2026-08-20T11:56:23","slug":"teenage-beast-words-and-pictures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2026\/08\/20\/teenage-beast-words-and-pictures\/","title":{"rendered":"Teenage Beast: Words and Pictures"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

As I have written before, I have been writing a horror novel — Teenage Beast<\/em> — since June 7th and frankly, I am surprised by my progress. I thought I would spend several days staring at a flashing cursor, not knowing what I would peck out on my keyboard. After a fruitless week or two, I would have called it quits, but fortunately, that isn’t the case. I have managed to maintain a schedule of writing for at least an hour a day, every day, and it seems to be working. Words are flowing out of me, and so far I am 42,466 words deep into a first draft.<\/p>\n

I have to say, I feel pretty good.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

I am in the zone, so to speak, both in my writing and in my drawing.<\/p>\n

Writing takes place in the morning when I am bleary-eyed, barely conscious and taking that first sip of coffee. Nights are for drawing, and until recently, it always seemed I was too tired to crack open the sketchbooks and start scrawling a pencil or an ink line. I would fall asleep in front of the TV instead.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

That has changed. I’m actually enthusiastic about putting my marks on paper.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

I think about what I have written, or what may happen next, and that informs the drawings. The drawings, in turn, inform what I may write the next morning. These are happy labors that I actually look forward to doing.<\/p>\n

I am working in a small Strathmore Sketchbook<\/em> that was floating around the house half-used and begging to be polished off. It is not my favorite paper for ink — it’s thin and prone to ghosting — but it’s been pretty good for working out scenes or figuring out approaches to final drawings with ink.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Because the drawings are in black and white, I am toying with the idea of self-publishing this book with illustrations. I know I’m thinking about the finished book before I’ve even finished the first draft, but I like the idea of placing a spot illustration or two per chapter. To me, the words and pictures are inextricably linked.<\/p>\n

Yes, I have kicked around doing a comic, but prose with spot illustrations seems very doable. I’m practically there. It would be silly not to do it.<\/p>\n

If you have any thoughts about this, please drop me a line in the comments below.<\/p>\n

For now, I am assembling my recent drawings in a gallery below. Click the thumbnails for a larger image.<\/p>\n

\"LOSING-PATIENCE\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div>
\"BLARGH-FOOSH\" <\/a> <\/div>
\"GET-SET-GO\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"BAD-BREATH\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"ON-YOUR-MARK\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div>
\"SHOOT-HIM\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As I have written before, I have been writing a horror novel — Teenage Beast — since June 7th and frankly, I am surprised by my progress. I thought I would spend several days staring at a flashing cursor, not … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":48208,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[49,16,6405],"tags":[233,1338,6421,6417,6418,1270,6114,6377,907,6420,6415,6414,6419,6424,3661,5693,6416,2034,5,4866,3669,215,3613,6423,25,6422,699,5937,480,5978,6407],"class_list":["post-48205","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-it-came-from-the-sketchbook","category-sketch","category-teenage-beast","tag-1970s","tag-1338","tag-black-and-white-art","tag-cartooning","tag-comic-book-art","tag-comic-books","tag-creative-process","tag-creative-writing","tag-drawing","tag-fiction-writing","tag-horror-comics","tag-horror-fiction","tag-horror-novel","tag-illustrated-books","tag-illustration","tag-independent-comics","tag-indie-comics","tag-it-came-from-the-sketchbook-2","tag-joe-williams","tag-pen-and-ink","tag-philadelphia","tag-punk-rock","tag-rust-belt","tag-self-publishing","tag-sketchbook","tag-sketchbook-art","tag-strathmore","tag-teenage-beast","tag-usa","tag-writing","tag-writing-process"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1ed1x-cxv","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":48125,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2026\/08\/11\/two-months-five-days-and-38329-words-later\/","url_meta":{"origin":48205,"position":0},"title":"Two Months, Four Days and 38,329 Words Later","author":"Joe_Williams","date":"August 11, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm still writing. Somehow I have managed to keep to my morning ritual. Sadly, if this were a gym membership, I would have crapped out on it long ago. Writing is a lot less physically taxing, but it is mentally taxing. 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It turns out I've been so focused on telling the story that I forgot to keep score.","rel":"","context":"In "It Came From the Sketchbook"","block_context":{"text":"It Came From the Sketchbook","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/it-came-from-the-sketchbook\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/tookapic-screen-933307_1280.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/tookapic-screen-933307_1280.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/tookapic-screen-933307_1280.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/tookapic-screen-933307_1280.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/tookapic-screen-933307_1280.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":44548,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2025\/02\/04\/this-is-the-end\/","url_meta":{"origin":48205,"position":2},"title":"This is THE END","author":"Joe","date":"February 4, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"...or it could be. I may have figured out the end of my story and I am working my way backwards. I never planned on revisiting the Teenage Beast character which I cooked up back in the mid-1980s, but I find that is where my pen and my sketchbooks are\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Doodle Tuesday"","block_context":{"text":"Doodle Tuesday","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/it-came-from-the-sketchbook\/doodle-tuesday\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Pen and ink drawing of the Teenage Beast going back to hell","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Teenage-Beasts-Final-Form.jpg?fit=640%2C796&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Teenage-Beasts-Final-Form.jpg?fit=640%2C796&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Teenage-Beasts-Final-Form.jpg?fit=640%2C796&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":44872,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2025\/04\/08\/the-teenage-beast-continues\/","url_meta":{"origin":48205,"position":3},"title":"The Teenage Beast Continues","author":"Joe_Williams","date":"April 8, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"My punk rock monster, The Teenage Beast, continues to haunt my sketchbooks as I piece together a story through doodles and develop an approach to the illustrations. I'm still figuring out where the story is going and what materials will serve me best.","rel":"","context":"In "Doodle Tuesday"","block_context":{"text":"Doodle Tuesday","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/it-came-from-the-sketchbook\/doodle-tuesday\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Teenage-Beast-Transformation.jpg?fit=900%2C676&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Teenage-Beast-Transformation.jpg?fit=900%2C676&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Teenage-Beast-Transformation.jpg?fit=900%2C676&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Teenage-Beast-Transformation.jpg?fit=900%2C676&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":47983,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2026\/07\/14\/a-face-in-the-crowd\/","url_meta":{"origin":48205,"position":4},"title":"A Face in the Crowd","author":"Joe_Williams","date":"July 14, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm about 70 pages into the first draft of my Teenage Beast story. I envision it as a comic, but I am writing it out as a full prose story because that is simply the way it wants to come out. As I have written before, I spend about an\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Doodle Tuesday"","block_context":{"text":"Doodle Tuesday","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/it-came-from-the-sketchbook\/doodle-tuesday\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Bobby-Hughes-07-09-2026.jpg?fit=640%2C934&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Bobby-Hughes-07-09-2026.jpg?fit=640%2C934&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Bobby-Hughes-07-09-2026.jpg?fit=640%2C934&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":47264,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2026\/03\/17\/it-wasnt-the-worst-little-sketchbook\/","url_meta":{"origin":48205,"position":5},"title":"It Wasn’t the Worst Little Sketchbook","author":"Joe","date":"March 17, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"I wasn't crazy about this discounted discount sketchbook when I first got it, but now that it's gone, I realize it wasn't that bad after all! It was more of a notebook than it was a sketchbook, but it was nice to have something close at hand that I could\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Doodle Tuesday"","block_context":{"text":"Doodle Tuesday","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/it-came-from-the-sketchbook\/doodle-tuesday\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/250-penny-sketchbook.jpg?fit=640%2C895&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/250-penny-sketchbook.jpg?fit=640%2C895&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/250-penny-sketchbook.jpg?fit=640%2C895&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/GET-SET-GO.jpg?fit=1200%2C760&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48205","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48205"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48205\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48219,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48205\/revisions\/48219"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48208"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48205"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48205"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48205"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}