The Story Behind The Writing: Bells, Whistles and Sequels

We've unveiled a new flash animation for the home page this week. This is a quick flash trailer that will change over the coming months, focusing on key events in each of the 5 books. You'll find new glimpses from the first issue, and for subsequent issues later on. Our plan is to continue evolving this site for visitors who either stumble upon it or come back to check out what's new in our Newsreel Blog. Most of this work has fallen to me, as Shane is immersed in actually drawing the books, as well as updating the blog with various production art.

I've added a 'send to a friend' feature, a self-explanatory tool that we hope you'll take advantage of. Word of mouth is essential in our efforts, and we're hoping that you're excited enough about The Overman to help us spread the word. Our mailing list is powered by a service called feedblitz, which converts the Newsreel blog RSS feed to html and then automatically emails it to you as soon as news appears. Yeah, we got all the latest gadgets here. Last but not least, I've placed a timer counting down the remaining days until The Overman #1 arrives in comic shops December 5th. It does a couple of things: A. Creates a sense of urgency. B. May possibly cause Shane a nervous breakdown.

Other than some minor editing duties, I'm mostly waiting in the wings while Shane's pencil, brush and photoshop mastery brings the script to life. When the site isn't keeping me busy, I'm hard at work writing the sequel, which will exist for the time being as a novel. The Overman began in novel form, so it's appropriate that the follow-up is created in the same way. I felt that if I charged ahead and just wrote a comic script, it would lose something important and unique; an element that can only exist in novel form and extracted later for a comic adaptation. The writing process involved with The Overman was more extensive than anything I've attempted before, but well worth that effort. I found myself continuously boiling down the novel into its core components, trimming out the fat and focusing on what makes this story so compelling to me in the first place. Even though the sequel will be very different from its predecessor, I want to make sure to capture that same vibe and storytelling 'rhythm'. Anyway, that's my current feeling about the process. I 'MAY' unveil this sequel online, in weekly increments once The Overman concludes next year, depending on how I feel about everything, and the level of interest in seeing a follow-up. A lot of factors to consider, although in the end it really comes down to a personal choice. I've never been one to create comics based on what I think the market will support, but rather on what I would like to read, as a comics fan.



Scott Reed

http://www.websbestcomics.com/