Welcome aboard the Dead Eyes Open Express: Destination 2010. This blog will run the comic-book-then-graphic-novel at a rate of a page every weekday, ending sometime in the first quarter of next year. For more (much more!) blather about the why and wherefore of this project, visit the About page linked up top.
I’m Matt Shepherd, the writer of this series. I’ll be accompanying each page of the comic with a blog entry talking about the process behind the book, the kind of contorted history that prefaced it, and some of the stuff that happened while Roy and I were working on it. One constant theme will be the fact that I — as a fledgeling comic-book writer — tried too hard to fit too much stuff in, so a lot of what will be blogged here is about tangents that weren’t explored, and concepts that never had a chance to blossom in the comic’s original form.
A great feature of ComicPress, which I’m using to power this blog, is that it also lets me run transcripts for every page. So each comic page is accompanied by the original script, cut-and-pasted from the OpenOffice files that I originally sent to Roy in 2004-2006. Some of the scripting doesn’t date well, especially the weird asides and stupid jokes, but I’m presenting it all without editing in an effort to be historically accurate about the creative process.
And so it begins/began! I loved this cover from the first moment I saw it; Roy had done something very much in keeping with the interior art of the first Deadies dry runs at the concept, and it had (and still has) a great epic ensemble-cast feel to it.
Later, of course, I started to prefer the more epic painted covers that Roy brought to the table, but the covers of #1 and #2 are tons of fun.
We’re going to be presenting the covers unadorned, without the logo or other trade dress, and will do so for all six issues.
ROY: Hello people! This is Roy here. I thought I’d chime in on launch day for DEO Online. Many thanks to Matt for setting this site up. From time to time, I’ll be here posting some commentaries and anecdotes about working on the series. Enjoy!
- Roy
