The Story Behind The Writing: Do The Evolution

These script excerpts from 1991 or 1992 sum up The Overman surprisingly well. "The end of the world. That's what it's about." reads the very first line of dialogue on this page (below, left). It's a very odd experience for me to revisit these earlier incarnations of The Overman. I'm finding bits and pieces of things which live on in the final version of the script, though I haven't seen these dusty old pages in years. The page below also includes, I am pretty sure, Shane's hand-written notes.

This excerpt describes a meeting between weapons smuggler Elvis Everly (referred to in the script as 'The King') and Nathan Fisher. Everly has a brief scene in the final version of The Overman, but this scene sets all of that up, with Nathan drinking a soda in a bar because he's combating alcoholism, waiting for Everly to arrive. Everly then gives Nathan directions to a missing *servol-conn unit. (See preview), but the two clash later in this version of the script, in a high speed car chase. For various reasons, Elvis Everly's role continued to diminish as the Overman went through additional drafts. The car chase remains intact, but in a totally different circumstance.

In the second page (right), I was writing a scene in which Omakon agent David Crowse is visiting the Moon prison, called North Clavius Socio-Prison in this draft. The prison was renamed later to Eudoxus, for no better reason than I think it is a bizarre-sounding name, and it is an actual region of the Moon. There is a Dr.Fields in this draft, probably an early incarnation of Annita Grey.

All of these scripts precede the Internet and email. Shane and I corresponded via snail mail for years, and the process usually went like this: I typed out the scripts on a Brother word processor using an archaic Epson dot matrix printer or some other now-outdated printer, mailed it to him, and he would typically send back his notes along with roughs or photocopies of the finished art. His letters often included brief character sketches. He also created elaborately painted portraits of some of the main characters, as well as many other designs. I have a few letters that remain unsent, because as I was writing I probably decided to simply call Shane up. We would then discuss whatever it was I had started writing in the letter. As a result, there's some interesting stuff I have in the vault, in addition to the script excerpts, that will shed some light on this early development of The Overman.

Scott Reed
www.websbestcomics.com