Edward Kay

Had an interesting night out this past Friday with my friend Kirk Wheeler (not his real name, which has been changed to protect his identity as one of Toronto’s most caustically witty private detectives). We’ve created a television comedy project that reveals what the lives and cases of actual private investigators are like, in contrast to traditional Ferrari-driving TV gumshoes (yeah, try a stakeout at Jane and Finch in one of those babies and see how long it takes you to get capped). I just finished the new series bible last Thursday, and we’re currently shopping it round to production companies. Meanwhile, it occurred to us that its combination of dark humour and voyeurism would make it a natural for a graphic novel series. So we dropped round to Harbourfront to the Toronto Comic Arts Festival for inspiration. And inspiration is what we got from Canadian writer/comic artist Seth (not his real name, though it has nothing to do with him being a P.I., which he’s not – I think). Seth is, among other things, the creator or Palookaville. He gave a talk about comic art and its angsts in the form of 12 “random” stories. Anyone idiosyncratic enough to dress like Barton Fink and signal the end of each of their stories by dinging a bell is someone with a vision. And, as it turns out, something to say as well. I found it really funny and moving at times, and totally inspirational to see someone who is so focussed, yet so full of all those very human feelings of doubt. But not enough to let it stop him.
Next morning, detective Wheeler and I headed over to the Reference Library to put his investigative skills to work looking for possible illustrators to collaborate with on our graphic novel. One of the ironic and irksome facts of my career is that having worked solidly for the past 14 years as a television writer (doubly ironic – much of it in animation) and now as a novelist, I have consequently never had time to hone my drawing skills, which are rapidly being surpassed by those of my six-year-old daughter. Hey wait a minute, that gives me an idea… and it’s even cheaper than outsourcing to Korea. At least until she learns to use the computer well enough to read this blog and raise her rates. Must be some kind of parental filter for such things.

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