The Rise of Leng

So, this week I started writing the second cycle of The Path. Yeah, this whole thing's going to be a three cycle deal. The first cycle is what's going on now: The Cthulhu stuff. This'll be going on for a while yet. The second cycle will be The Path: The Rise of Leng. Whereas the current cycle is revolving around some of the more common Lovecraftian horrors (Nyarlathotep, Cthulhu, etc.) and more easily recognized European mythological and folklore references, "The Rise of Leng" will almost ENTIRELY revolve around Lovecraft's "At the Mountain of Madness" and Asian folklore and mythology(which I know little about and have begun researching like a man possessed). As the title suggests, the Plateau of Leng will play a rather large role, as will the creatures, The Old Ones, from "Mountains".

Chance, our current hero, may or may not make it to the second cycle however. I spent last week re-writing the end of the current cycle to lay the groundwork for "The Rise of Leng" and it made me wonder about Chance's survival. I may pull rank and make a decision...or I may leave it up to you, my dear readers. Kind of like when they killed of that annoying Jason Todd Robin.

Anyways, I have some last-minute stuff to do for Wizard World, and tomorrow's page to post, so I'm out of here. Hope to see some of you at Wizard World tomorrow!

Eaters of the Dead and why Borders thinks I'm strange...

I was talked into this by some readers. I can't imagine that many of you want to read my ramblings, but who am I to ignore a bunch of emails telling me I "NEED" to set something up in the way of a blog?

So, it's about 7 a.m. and I just finished the special "WizardWorld only" Path story entitled "Eaters of the Dead". I like it. I like it so much that I'm annoyed with myself for already announcing it as "WizardWorld only". But, that's life, huh? I'd rather not go back on that announcement until a big "Collected Edition", so...

Anyway, it centers around a younger Chance McGavin back when he was in the military. On a Special Forces mission during Desert Storm, McGavin and a handful of other soldiers get lost in the desert. With limited food and water and enemy forces closing in, it looks like they're done for. That is, until one of the men remembers an old tale he'd heard a long time ago...about the Eaters of the Dead. I'll post some prelim art later on. It was mostly just studies of uniforms and supplies, stuff like that. Maybe I'll slap up the early sketches of the actual Eaters themselves. I dunno.

I'm fairly certain that working on The Path has made me insane in the eyes of the employees of the local Borders, not to mention the little hole-in-the-wall bookstore on the other side of town where I do most of my special ordering. Damn near anything on Arthurian lore, the Goetia, specially ordered books on Demonology, Alchemy, encyclopedias revolving around folklore and fairy tales, illustrated guides to supposedly magical ceremonies, Satanism, mythology, books on Babylonian and Sumerian folklore and rites, multiple copies of books containing the works of Lovecraft as the copies I own are routinely ruined by highlighting and notes in the margins and, finally, a faithful recreation of Lovecraft's blasphenous tome...The Necronomicon, now covered in highlighter ink and notes in the margins. I find that the people who sell me these books give me stranger and stranger looks each time I come in to pick up my books. I'm sure the small black book I carry around like a bible doesn't help. It's where I've done all my brainstorming. Where I've been weaving together this fantastic tale and melding all these different aspects together.

I get frustrated because there are very few people I can talk to and bounce ideas off of. Any time I start to talk about an aspect of The Path...like how I want to weave together the journey of Gilgamesh into the Underworld with Lovecraft's story "The Transition of Juan Romero", I get blank stares, patronizing nods, or flat out "Um...what the fuck are you talking about?" One or two of my friends are nice enough to pretend to care about it when I start talking, but I quickly realize that they're just being nice and change the subject to something more pedestrian. Oh, well. I'll probably wind up hitting Barry Linck or the guy who does Errant Apprentice up and talk a little Lovecraft shop with them. I should probably INTRODUCE myself to the Errant guy first before bombarding him with Lovecraft talk, though.

Anyways, I've babbled on long enough. There have been quite a few requests about where I got the idea for The Path...maybe I'll tackle that later.

Catch you hip cats later.