Bet he wishes he'd had that cup of tea

2012 is, I’m sure, turning into a very interesting year for Dave Kirkwood.

For those who haven’t heard he’s set about creating an illustrated story wherein every day for a year someone contributes to the text with a single tweet. What makes it truly remarkable is that Kirkwood is then illustrating every single tweet with pictures that are characterful, distinctive and sometimes downright beautiful.

It’s now almost two months in and, despite one ‘it was all a dream’ attempt and the occasional tweet that doesn’t quite seem to fit the tone or situation (and occasionally inadvertently changing a character’s name or gender), what’s unfurled has been a just about recognisable story that is managing to keep the tension and suspense up nicely. Not that the story is really the important thing (nor even, alas, the pictures). No, the important thing is that this is all being done to raise money for the Teenage Cancer Trust and, as such endeavours go, this stands head and shoulders above sitting in a bath of baked beans or running a marathon or three.

Anyway, I signed up to contribute on 24th of February and diligently spent the day before refreshing my memory of the story so far so that I could contribute something relevant and constructive… Unfortunately this led me to desperately try to cram far too many characters and plots into a 140 character tweet (in particular I was fixated upon a tea-serving Cockney squid creature from earlier in the week).

Bleary eyed in the wee small hours of my day I tweeted the densest of my possible contributions. this was followed by a polite message from Dave asking me if there was any chance I could park this one and do another. I agreed and submitted my other tweet which gifted our previously naked main character with a pair of faded jeans.

What this really brought home was two things: Firstly, that while the project is still fundamentally the creation of its collaborators, there is at least a light touch being applied to keep it as lucid and readable as possible. Secondly, there’s no such thing as a bad idea. Dave assured me that my tweet, and the possibilities it brought along with it, would be placed to one side for future use.

All in all it’s an interesting project that I’ll be keeping an eye on and am looking forward to the finished article. In the meantime why not have a look yourself, and maybe think about giving a donation?