Planet Forefather Volume I:

And thus ends Volume I of the flash fiction graphic novel. It is a cliffhanger, but fear not as the developmental stage of Volume II starts this spring with the goal of having the second volume of the series completed by the end of the year.

            In the final chapter Kotov meets ‘the enemy’ and is left to make a life or death decision for Planet Forefather and its inhabitants. The reader will have noticed that he was guided towards a certain decision, but at the end of the day those guiding him are forced to hope he will make the right choice. Why didn’t they just tell him what to do? Well, aside from the fact that every man should come to his own decision, there is also the matter of spying and thus cloak and dagger techniques were necessary.

            I must say, I thoroughly enjoyed writing from the perspective of First Lieutenant John Kotov. I wrote in first person, trying the whole time to imagine myself as a determined, moderately intelligent soldier with an appropriate level of vocabulary. It wasn’t always easy for me as at times I cringed at what I wrote but I believed it was fitting to how Kotov would have spoken or thought. Writing this graphic novel was not just fun, but it was a good style exercise too.

            A point for the future; I have decided to write the different series (the next one out is the fantasy Steampunk Blues: Tenebrocity) in the same way. Ten chapters with each chapter being a minimum of 1000 and a maximum of 1500 words to allow the illustrator and graphic artist to provide uniformity to my ideas. So far both of these first volumes adhere to this principle, but in the future, I may need to increase the writing to develop the stories.

            Yes, the Dickensesque graphic novel will be out soon …