Promoting Invulnerable

1 of 6 ... Ha ha, just kidding. Well, it was, but I took parts 1 through 5 and made them into a webwork, "Creativity and the Web," which you can find at http://bit.ly/art-and-web. You're welcome.

I admire and respect the self-promotion of folks here, from AllenG's non-existant blog to Seamus and Anna and Poppins and others pushing their books.

I've linked to my own comic or text or video webworks now and then, but I've got nothing as major as ye real authors. I just don't think much of my stuff. Oh, as Randy Newman sang, "sometimes I get off a good one. Least I think I do. No I know I do." But nothing of any significant length, or worth.

There is this one work, of just short-story length I suppose. I think I only ever mentioned it on here once, long ago when I first posted it.

The idea had been rumbling around in my head for years, as a comic book - uh, I mean - a graphic novel. I did some sketches and basic outline for the story, then stuck it in a file and more-or-less forgot about it.

Then, in the midst of being housebound a couple winters back, and having received a shirt-pocket-size blank book, I took up the idea anew. I began from scratch, doing sketches of the start of the story.

But very soon, I found that the story rushed ahead of the art. I began writing the thing, longhand. And wrote, and wrote...

What's online starts with the original rough comic sketches, justified as being done by one of the characters. Then it's just text, pretty much just as I originally wrote it. The last part is portrayed as if there were a website containing the sketches and text, and post-script articles and emails, with a concluding email from the character who did the opening sketches.

So, it's an odd, polyglot format. A webwork fer surely.

After the whole thing was online, I ran across the old file with the original sketches and outlines. Totally different from the final work. I don't think the original plot would've worked at all.

Starts off as a sort of superhero tale, but without flashy costumes or obvious powers. No slam-bang action; intentionally the opposite. There is some big action, but it all happens only in flashback mention. In the second part, the superhero thing morphs into harder science-fiction, with ... ah, spoilers....

One odd aspect is the shifting narrative voice in the second part. Fun to write, but, perhaps confusing? I think it works. But I have no perspective.

I put it online as-was because I wasn't sure I'd ever get around to doing even a revised draft, much less the full "graphic novel" version. Here's the first panel, though, re-done in (large size) painterly format rather than the little pencil sketch rough. This was always how it opened. You might recognize the source of the image. Caption: "Look! Up in the sky!"

http://bit.ly/invul-panel1

After re-reading the whole thing recently, I decided, it is what it is. Heck, I still hope to see the full-length live-action or animated movie adaptation some day! (Sure.)

I'll even be bold enough to encourage folks to break my two-decade-long dry spell, and make a little contribution, if you can and want to spare a buck. (PayPal buttons on the site - they supposedly work.) There is no hard copy, or e-book version, but you can pretend it's "real." I don't mind.

Invulnerable
Out of nowhere came a man with a miraculous message.
Presented in illustrated documentary, what we know of his story, and the history of our community he inspired. (and more)
http://mindfulwebworks.com/invulnerable