8FOLD/CONTEST: Journey Into... # 11, "The Leon Czolgosz"

[Tom Russell]

On Apr 26, 6:18 am, Andrew Perron <pwer... at gmail.com> wrote:
> > Now *this* is a use of "opposite" and "conflict" that I didn't expect.  I
> > want to hear more from these characters!  It's great!

Thank you, Andrew. I wasn't so sure of this story myself-- I thought
it started strong, and set a certain tone that the rest of the story
didn't quite match.  So it's very nice to hear that you enjoyed it.

As for more-- well, we'll see.  When Mr. Rosen and myself started
JOURNEY INTO..., it was with the intention of it being a SHOWCASE kind
of try-out series, in which we'd see if a particular character,
concept, or setting resonated with readers and, more importantly, with
us as writers.  And if it did (so the idea goes) then we might launch
it into a series of its own.  And while some of those concepts have
resonated, they haven't quite made the leap as of yet.

I had so much fun writing the Fleetfeet story that I had him assume
the mantle of Darkhorse and put him in the cast of JOLT CITY.  I've
come _this_ close on more than one occasion to posting a premiere
issue of the HUMAN ZEPPELIN, only to scrap it and try again from
scratch.  I'd love to return to that Weird Western setting-- the
thought of the Magnificent Seven with super-powers gives me goose-
pimples-- and if I had any more Santa Claus stories to tell, well, I'd
be telling them.

So, there are ideas that I have enthusiasm for-- whether the employees
of the Leon Czolgosz Memorial Library will be one of them, time will
tell-- but I just haven't gotten around to them yet.  Part of that is
just having trouble managing my time efficiently-- what with making
video games and movies and writing reviews of the same, not to mention
having a life-- and part of it is JOLT CITY, which I never intended to
take over my writing life in quite the way it has.

Not that I'm grousing, mind you-- I really enjoy Jolt City and the
people in it, and I have such a deep affection for them that I never
had with, say, Gregory Dingham, that I haven't really had since the
days of NET.HEROES ON PARADE and [that series that begins with a
"T"].  It's a nice feeling, being attached to and invested in a group
of fictional characters, and so I'm probably going to hang onto that
for awhile longer.

Of course, if any of the myriad series ideas floated about catch
someone's interest, and they'd like to co-plot and write, I'd be more
than happy to launch a new series of two. :-)

On Apr 26, 5:52 pm, Scott Eiler <sei... at eilertech.com> wrote:
> Now, what comic book was this inspired by?  If I've missed an issue of
> "Sgt. Dewey and His Howling Librarians" or "Lady Librarians on the
> Moon", I want to go buy it.  8{D>

Well, the charter basically states that anything that could
conceivably be a comic book is fair game, and since comics are a
medium, I've really kinda taken that as a license to write whatever
strikes my fancy.  I mostly stick with superheroics, as it's a genre I
have an unabashed affection for, but I've also written romances (of
both the Doomed and Kinky variety), some weird meta-fictional auto-bio
mash-up, and even actual comics, albeit of the ASCII variety.

==Tom, will totally do a teen humour series one day... one day...