The Road to Xibalba

Okay, so I am currently negotiating with 2 artists and the project is becoming less of a fantasy and more of a job. This means that I need to start outlining for you, the general public, exactly what this project is.

The project was originally conceived of as a series of 128 page graphic novels spread out quarterly or bi-annually (because that is much more realistic) basis, telling an evolving story of a wandering hero meeting his destiny. This won't be a run-of-the-mill adventure series, however, since I intend to keep the characters, all of the characters, 3-dimensional. There will be few clear-cut cases of good and evil, and quite a few moments where the reader is going to have to take sides as the hero and his allies sometimes fail to see eye-to-eye on issues ranging from crime and punishment to slavery.

The name of the series is going to be Xibalba which is the Mayan underworld. The reason why the series has this name will be explained in the series, but I am not sure if I am going to do that immediately, or if the answer will be revealed in the 2nd installment.

The nature of the work will be science fiction, but will incorporate elements of many styles including fantasy and steampunk. Yes, I know that this can destroy a story, but I believe that even the most severe critic would be hard-pressed to deny that my plots don't make perfect sense based on the premise of the series. A premise that I won't reveal until the script is compiled with the art and is ready to be sent to the publisher. Sorry, but that's what I have to do.

As we get concept art I will be posting it along with character bios, to hopefully generate some interest among prospective readers.

Anyway, I have to scoot off to do some other work.

Dr. V

It's way too early.

I didn't get a chance to post anything yesterday because after a hideous day at work I came home and had to run errands for another 3 hours then pack for a camping trip Zya and I are going on this weekend. It's Saturday morning, and I am awake and working at 6 am. I haven't done that since I was in the Army, and no, I don't miss being up this early on the weekend.

As soon as time permits I intend to do a couple columns on some of the comics that have influenced me over the years, as well as the creative teams that I most enjoyed. Today won't be that day, and tomorrow doesn't look too promising either, to tell you the truth.

In Project-related news, I have lost another potential illustrator which is disheartening to say the least. I am going to print some fliers and post them at Olympic Cards and Comics and Danger Room if Gabby and Kendra allow it (and I think they will be open to the idea), as well as University of Washington (my Alma Mater), Evergreen (Zya's Alma Mater), and St. Martin's University (because it is right here in town).

In the future, I would expect that Zya and I won't be posting much on the weekends, and one of us will be posting something each day. It might be directly related to our project, or it might be about the comics field in general, hard to say at this point. As soon as we find an illustrator we'll add them to the masthead if they are a full-fledged collaborator, so if you know of any feel free to email us.


ADDENDUM:

I just switched over to Cracked!.com (one of my favorite humor sites) and found this article from Jonathan Kirnak. I posted it here because everything in it applies to comics, but in comics the offense level is about 500X higher, at least for me. I will be returning to this point (hopefully) in my next entry, which I wanted to post yesterday but couldn't due to time constraints. So if you read Kirnak's article, you will have a preview of one of the reasons I stopped reading comics over a decade ago.