The Adventure of the Cardboard Box

Four or five years back now I attempted to adapt the Sherlock Holmes story The Adventure of the Cardboard Box as a graphic novel. This was probably going back to either 2004 or 2005 I attempted this. I probably got 15 or so pages into the project and I gave up tossing the pages I had completed into the files with countless other scripts and unfinished projects.

Having completed lettering Alice Faulkner about a month or so ago has made me want to do at least a couple more Sherlock Holmes graphic novels. And The Cardboard Box immediately sprang to mind. I always enjoyed the story because it was based on a true crime.

For those of you unfamilar with the world of Sherlock Holmes, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle had based this particular tale on a case he had taken part in with his professor Dr. Joseph Bell while he was at Univesity. Someone had received a parcel with two severed ears and Dr. Bell deduced that the ears came from two seperate people.

For those of you who love those CSI style shows, this is the man you can thank for them. He basically helped established forensic science the way we know it now.

But I feel one of the things that hindered me from finishing the story was the fact that I had written the script as a movie script and not a comic book script. I think I had originally intended it as script for a movie or animation. Trying to layout panels and pages on the fly is not an easy task. It's nearly as problematic as trying to write a graphic novel without using a script.

It was something I use to attempt in High School drawing pages for graphic novels on xerox paper with Sharpie Markers. Yeah, I know how could working with those quality supplies EVER doom a professional project to failure. But in the end the project would become rambling (and a slight rip off of both Batman and Spawn) and it's ultimate fate was the dustbin.

So a few days ago I decided I may give the Carboard Box another try. I just finished reworking the script this morning before I headed out to teach my art classes.

This time I broke it down from page to page and panel to panel. Which brought the book out to around 80 pages. More given all the credit pages and any goodies I may or may not add at the end.

But it would be nice to create this book as a companion piece for Alice Faulkner. Since my previous Holmes project is based on pastiche. Although, very enjoyable pastiche.

Still, I thought it would be nice to tackle one of the original stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

So, stay tuned brave readers.