Where were you when the lights went poof

You all remember back in Summer of 1993 when that wormhole opened and something crashed in the Mississippi Delta and, like, 99.9% of the human population just disappeared in a flash? And then all the American survivors got on a riverboat to head south, because there were clues that something down there was the cause? Also, living on water was safer, because at night, legions of strange and terrifying anthropomorphs swarmed over the land, seeking out and destroying any human life they could find in truly gruesome ways?





And, of course, Louise Miller and her brother Dan ended up of the boat as well, and there was Jodie, and her estranged husband, and when the pulses began and Dan found the book, and he ended up in the beam and saw the stored versions and the encroaching well - well, best not to dwell on that too long. Dan nearly drowned, what, three times? And that crazy thing with the anthropomorphs crushing themselves into the music store?





The chase through the mountains at night after the destruction of New Orleans (yeah, it only happened 14 years ago, so I don't know why everyone was so uptight about Katrina) was pretty freaky, but after the avatars of Jupiter and Saturn appeared in that shit-encrusted swamp shack? And the town-hall meeting with the pipes? And the Sheriff's card game? Maybe it was kind of too much, those campfire executions, but you know, things were different back then. After all, we all thought that we were the last survivors of the human race.





You don't remember? Really? Not even the Beachcomber? I'm still a little unclear on whether he was real or just a story I heard, but in either case, he was very old, and very, very tired, and all the other rooms he'd lived in weren't really all that warm, so he was kind of cold, to boot. So, he found his way South, too, when he got real enough to do so. Even though it seemed like Jupiter and Saturn were trying to stop him. Maybe his waveform was just stronger? Maybe we just didn't understand. But there were three possible routes, and somehow, we just ended up on the wrong one. That happens sometimes, when you're not paying close attention to your driving. And I still think Beachcomber did his best to get us back on to the main road. No matter what you think.

And all those junks, headed East. What was that about? They sure were moving fast, though. Gliding across the water, even without the wind. Those were fucked up.





And Dan Miller. Sure, he was a loser - an immature, misanthropic, racist, misogynistic, self-loathing and solipsistic twerp. But he did manage to save the world (we think), so that's got to count for something. And considering everything that happened to him before and after the end of the world, I think maybe he deserves a little sympathy. Not much, but some.

You really don't remember that at all? Jeez. Maybe you just slept through it. Or blocked it all out. But it'll come back to you. We were all there. You'll remember, someday. On the main road.

D.

P.S.: Clicking those pictures might refresh your memory

The Beginning of the End of the World

John wrote the other day (in response to the blog about my abandoned graphic novel At the End of the World with My Sister):

"To this day, I cannot comprehend why you got so demoralized and gave up on ATEOTWWMS. The first issue was quite good and the second issue was looking a lot better, in terms of the story picking up some steam."

Well, clearly the reason I gave it up is that as an acronym, it totally blows. Where's the elegance of "ST:TNG" or "WTF?" I'd taken to shortening it to just "Sister," but to my lights, all great works of sci-fi have to be able to have that great acronym.

Anyway, the reasons are manifold (clunky storytelling, unclear direction, more than I could chew, self-doubt, rickets), but only one really matters (psyched myself out). Here's most of the prologue. I'll let it go mostly without comment, except to note that the drawing quality varies wildly, from quite nice to pretty amateurish; the title lettering was done by hand - mostly copied out of my Letraset catalogue because I couldn't afford the real stuff and I actually enjoyed doing that kind of shit, and I have to confess that the wormhole on the first page is probably inspired most directly by the film version of Howard the Duck.

Also: the reason the panel borders are all bendy is not by some aesthetic choice, but because I used border tape that has, in the 14 years since it was affixed to the page, shrunk and warped. Those used to be nice straight lines. That was the point of the border tape in the first place. Ditto the mechanical tones (not Zip-a-Tone, which I hated and was either going or gone out of business by that point, anyway, but LetraTone), which is why there are halos around all the mechanical tones. Shame, because I was really anal about laying that stuff in just right.

Remember to click for bigness, and apologies for the two page spreads, which will require some horizontal scrolling!










Next: What the hell was all that about?

D.