"Long ago, in a faraway land..."
That is how this story could begin! If I remember correctly it was about four or five years ago when I was approached to do a story for the "Parable" comic anthology. I hadn't really done any sequential work at that time, but I jumped at the chance. Looking back, I have no idea how I was able to get anything finished. I had a month to complete the work. I was using a version of Painter called "Painter Classic" which was basically a demo version of the software. There were many features disabled, including the ability to create layers! But I plowed forward, creating what I can at least say is an honest effort to tell a quick, fun story.
My story is titled "The Picnic" and it is about a young boy who goes to great lengths to share his peanut butter and jelly sandwich. And it has a cardboard box rocket in it. And an alien.
Because so much time has passed between when I started my story and current day, I have mixed feelings about how things came out. On one hand, I look back fondly at the experience. On the other hand, I start mentally re-drawing every panel as I read through it. The book itself has seen many changes over the last few years. The original direction was that of an "all ages" comic collection that could be enjoyed by just about any comic fan. The now very clear "christian" messaging will scare plenty of people off in my opinion... but perhaps that is a discussion for another time. :)
The bottom line is, I am happy to see the book published. There are a bunch of great stories inside, including offerings from my buds Bryan Ballinger, Paul Conrad, and Sarah Mensinga. The variety of art styles alone is a great reason to check it out. And I have to say that the ever so talented Mike Maihack has really done a fantastic job of not only adding a great story, but putting the entire book together.
One final note. I am considering not only re-drawing my story "The Picnic" over the next few months, complete with good artwork, but also drawing up it's sequel. My thought is that it would show the same tale from a different point of view.
Be sure to check out the preview pages and get more info
HERE.
Thanks for checking the blog!
