I'm honestly not sure if I'm happy with how this is working out nor not. Just as well it's a practice piece...
The figure is certainly going to need tweaking. I don't know if it's the stylisation of the beard but the outfit is currently looking more 70s polo-neck under blazer than smoking jacket and cravat.
I've currently lost a bit of confidence in the spiral treatment of the text. In the original conception it created a page-dividing devise to accommodate the images from various stories. I mentioned I'm thinking of dropping that element but I might be veering back towards it now...
I can think of a few possible paths to try out now. But I'm off to visit my folks for Christmas so they'll have to wait till I have Illustrator access again.