Chapter 4 Page 5

by on April 20, 2011 at 12:00 am
Posted In: Chapter 4: Ayana

I just finished reading the second volume of RASL by Jeff Smith, the famous graphic novelist who wrote Bone. With dismay I saw elements of my own script for Coiled appearing in its pages. Smith apparently also loved Tesla and his fascinating history, and incorporated it into his graphic novel, just as we have been planning. I hope that no one accuses me of stealing from him. I’ve had these ideas on paper for years in my hand-scrawled notebook.

There is a really big difference between RASL and Coiled. RASL’s plot is based on the idea that Tesla was onto something big, and the scientists in his story push his vision farther than he was able to, allowing the main character to travel to parallel universes. Coiled is also about a modern incarnation of Tesla’s vision, but this time the vision is created virtually in the form of a space station powered by giant Tesla coils. So, although both are science fiction, Coiled is significantly closer to the realm of possibility.

Oh, and one of the main female characters in RASL is called Maya, same as Joshua’s mother. I swear I never heard of RASL before writing all of this down! Amanda and I are thinking we’ll just change that name.

I definitely recommend RASL, although it’s for adults only, unlike Bone.

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Chapter 4 Page 4

by on April 13, 2011 at 12:00 am
Posted In: Chapter 4: Ayana

While we were on hiatus, I took my sons to the Emerald City ComicCon. It’s an amazing event. There’s something really powerful about seeing so many artists and so much creativity in one place. Not to mention the costumes. (Actually, people kind of blow the importance of the costumes out of proportion. It’s really about the art.)

One of the highlights for me was meeting Christopher Baldwin, who does an amazingly imaginative and entertaining science fiction webcomic called Spacetrawler. It’s for an adult audience, or I would go into more detail. In any case, he was kind enough to mention meeting me here: http://spacetrawler.com/2011/03/13/spacetrawler-3c4cgh/

I also got to meet Doug TenNapel, who has a wonderfully twisted imagination, and has done several works for young audiences, including Tommy Rex and Ghostopolis. His new webcomic, Ratfist, is both fun and more than a little strange.

Another highlight was a program that teaches cartooning in some Seattle public schools. There was a high school student at their booth who would create a drawing for a $10 donation. She made an awesome manga portrait of my younger son.

One day, Amanda and I will be there.

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Chapter 4 Page 3

by on April 6, 2011 at 12:00 am
Posted In: Chapter 4: Ayana

Inception

By Peter

I recently saw the movie Inception. I not only really liked it, but I was struck by the similarity between it and Coiled. They both involve virtual worlds that are generated by people’s subconscious. In both cases, the military wanted the technology for battlefield training (yeah, we’ll get to that much later in Coiled). Inception’s plot is very complex and layered. I tried hard to keep Coiled’s plot simple, and with only two layers.

Wait a minute, you might be thinking. Coiled’s plot is simple? Why can’t I figure out what the heck is going on? In fact, the plot is fairly simple, but it is broken into pieces, and we reveal the pieces a bit at a time, in an order that is designed to intrigue you. I want to make sure my young audience can follow it, so unlike Inception, there’s not a lot to keep track of.

If you saw Inception, you might have noticed that despite all the gun play and explosions, there is no villain. I loved this about the movie. The same is true of Coiled. The General is perhaps the closest thing to a villain, but you should hopefully be able to sympathize with him as he tries to salvage the research project he has built his career on.

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Chapter 4 Page 2

by on March 30, 2011 at 12:00 am
Posted In: Chapter 4: Ayana

We’re back!

By Peter

Amanda is finally in her new home, and we are back on the air, so to speak. It’s exciting to be making the story come alive again.

By the way, this little scene comes from real life. There is a long staircase at the back of the Yesler Community Center, and the parking lot is near the bottom of those stairs. Once, when I arrived to teach, I saw a traditionally-dressed tall, slender Somali teenage girl step through the double-doors at the top. I was just marveling at her elegant foreign exoticness when she turned and sat on the banister and started to slide down.  It was a good reminder that teenagers are still teenagers, no matter how they dress.

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Chapter 4 Page 1

by on January 12, 2011 at 12:00 am
Posted In: Chapter 4: Ayana

New Chapter

By Peter

We’re back to the Joshua and the real world. He has left the computer lab and is sitting outside the back of the Yesler Community Center. Amanda and I spent time there one afternoon and took a lot of pictures. I like how well she’s captured the real location.

When I first started teaching at Yesler, I felt like I had stepped into a foreign country, even though it is an easy walk from Seattle’s Pioneer Square. The neighborhood is not quite so East African as it was then. Now you’ll see a lot of people from Southeast Asia, as well as people from other groups.  The population of Yesler has always been changing. Somehow I’ll work its fascinating history into the comic in some form, but probably not for a while.

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