So...

Well, Race War is DONE! That is fantastic, really. If you consider this was written in 2006-ish... it has taken a long time to actually just get it drawn. Lots of starts and stops and misfires, I am quite happy to have it finished.

Now that it's done and I'm gearing up for marketing - I need some "quick" funds so I've taken a job from DC. I have excellent friends there from back when I was a staffer, and they hook me up with freelance work often.

So now I'm working on Legends of the Dark Knight: Len Wein. It's 500+ pages for me. And while I'm working for Indian wages...and not living in India, it's a sizable chunk of change, so I merrily chain myself to the computer for the next 3 months. Which means that I can't get any drawing done on Blow Up. The chain doesn't reach over to the drawing table.

So there's going to be a bit of a hiatus on Blow Up. I HAD intended to build up a supply of pages, but it took longer than expected to finish up Race War, and now the Bat Man book beckons.

If, by the grace of God the pages go quickly and I have time, I will certainly get some pages posted. But, with a project like this, not only am I working gobs, but the wife is with the girls all the time and has to pick up the slack of my absence. that makes "downtime" a treat in short supply.

I think I will post a preview of Race War, though. so you'll all have something to look at each week.
Blow Up will begin reposting in August.

Thanks for reading.

-Joe

Murdering my darlings...

Sigh.
Yes, for those of you in the "writing know" have probably guessed, I am rubbing out something that I'm overly fond of. Namely: Khozos. I've been building up the story for... 4-5 years, maybe? Regardless, its been a project that I(and recently my wife, Rissa) have been pruning and cultivating with some seriousness. I took samples to the International Licensing Show in 2009, I have the first 32 page issue drawn, inked and partly colored. Five more issues after that have been written, and I have a plot line that stretches out over three graphic novels and two generations of characters. Plus two stand alone stories for after the big climax of the third book.

I'm saying all of this just to hammer home that I'm putting aside something near and dear to me. This was going to be my magnum opus, my path to riches and comic book fame, and a semi-legacy to leave for my kids to pick up and continue. I know, right? I think big sometimes.

Why would I put aside all of this after so much work? Because it's ungodly.

Lemme clarify. The "point" of Khozos, beside being a cool space/fantasy story, was to have a mainstream book with Christian morality at its core, in a genre not usually known for having moral substance. I was getting there. The basis for the first six issues was to show the main character changing his behavior from one of greedy self-indulgence to paying attention to how God wanted him to live his life. However, because God is real and the setting of this series was decidedly UN-real, I couldn't just have them paying attention to God because fictionalizing a real person who is currently alive distorts reality. I don't think it should be done. Now, after a person is dead, and you play around with them some, OK. I will read a book about Abe Lincoln as a vampire hunter, or Jimmy Stewart and U.S. Grant as time travelers fighting robots controlled by Fu Manchu(not to self: write that story). Anyway, God is real and I won't fictionalize him.
So, I had to put in a god-like character called the All Father in Khozos. But the reverence and importance that character plays in the story can give rise to false worship.

I'm not saying that Khozos would be so huge and popular that everybody would be driven to apostasy, but I'm not going to put anything out that leaves that open to chance.

I'm trying to use the creativity and skills God has blessed me with to make stories that honor Him, and entertain people without filling their minds with trash. Its too easy for people to get into a story with a sort-of-religion in it and take it on for themselves.

So, no more Khozos. I may try to resurrect it in some kind of fashion, but I don't know how, currently. Not as big of a problem as one might think. I'm rather back-logged with story ideas.

Next on the list will be redoing(fully drawing) "Blow Up the Outside World". Its a sci-fi story about a maintenance worker who can't dream getting addicted to a virtual realty device. I have a series of "Carson Cole" stories, about a Christian underwater scientist/adventurer. The first one is an underwater ghost story called "Not Quite Atlantis". Then there's a cyberpunk tale called "Artificial Soul". And the list goes on.

But, from here on out, everything that Manic Repressive produces will be unmistakably Christian.

Thanks for reading. Back to work.
-Joe