At the ALA Convention in Chicago I tabled at Artist’s Alley next to Tim Fish. His new mini-comic project involves redrawing minis he originally drew in 1993, over 40 years ago.
I found this project mind-boggling, so I found the recorder app on my phone and asked Tim to explain it.
Q: What’s the story with redrawing your 1993 Arché Lady mini-comics ?
Tim Fish: It was largely a project to amuse my friends when I started. And I amused myself and just sort of put something out to the universe, and I kept the series going for 100 issues. But really, it’s only 1993 that still makes me laugh and has some merit. So I redrew the first issue, the very first story, I thought, ‘WOW! The bar for improvement is so low! This is great!’ and I kept it going. I’m now on book 5 of 7 from 1993.
Q: Wow! is right, It’s different, but it’s more than just the zipatone and your improved drawing skills. The point of view on the new version is way more complex.
Tim Fish: The perspective, yes. Some detail, yes. I’ve really focused on page layout, panel layout, composition over the years. I’m pretty much entirely self-taught in the realm of art. Writing is where I’ve had all my formal education. Drawing is not my strong suit.
Q: And did you change the writing, the text, much?
Tim Fish: No, no, very little. I tried to stick to the original script as close as possible. Yeah, unless I wanted to highlight something differently because I would go through the projects and remember- Oh, I didn’t want to draw this panel in 1993!- but now I do. So, I edited to the script to expand certain parts of the story and contract others.
If the story was so bad, like, embarrassingly bad, or doesn’t hold up in 2026. I just skipped it and drew a new brand new story. But otherwise, I really tried to stick exactly to the script. it’s not like a panel by panel. Sometimes I compress and contract.
Q: It’s pretty close to page by page.
TIM FISH: Yeah, and it’s really fascinating to look back at something you did over 30 years ago, there are things about I can see now in hindsight. Like, oh, I was clearly going through something at the time, not dealing with something, and it’s bleeding out into the art and the story. So it’s kind of a bizarre experiment to go back so thoroughly and look at your life and your art.
Q: It’s a document of who you were then, and that’s way cool way. Let’s see, did I record this? I hope so. (Note: Interview lightly edited for clarity.)
Tim Fish is a busy guy. He’s working on his PHD in the form of a graphic novel at the University of Limerick, Ireland. You can support him via Patreon and learn more about his remarkable work by visiting TIMFISHWORKS.COM
Illustration Concentration 
This is great, Kevin, thanks! I’m going to show it to my students.
Yes. Revisiting and refreshing his old work reminds me a bit of Matt Madden’s 99 Ways to Tell a Story.