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Wednesday 20 April 2016

"Has The Green Skies Been Cancelled?"


Is the question. I know that I had stated it should be ready by June 2015 but many things got in the way. I'll not bore you with all that stuff though.

The original story I had planned went out the window.  I know, I know. But when you plan the last epic book you intend to do -and it will be over 400 pages- you have to make sure it works as far as the story goes and any twists.  What I found is that I had all these "key events" but something did not make sense. As is usual, about 0330 hrs one morning it all clicked together.

Suddenly all of those "why does this need to happen?" points became clear.  Certain things were "red herrings" that, had I bothered following through on in the overall story, would have shot page counts up to 700+pp.  I set myself a limit of 450 pages and that's it.

I'm up to about 370 or so at the moment.

In some cases, as with Return of the Gods: Twilight of the Super Heroes, I got a nasty surprise when it came to what happens to certain characters I've had going back over 40 years. I don't really plan or plot or do thumbnails. I take a blank sheet of paper and my head says "Captain Krii and Tyn Hrrn go into space to investigate" and I start drawing and things happen.

Unless you've created characters that you love and they've been around 40 years you'll never understand how it feels when the ultimate fate greets them.  I do not and will never "reboot" or bring a character back if they die.  Dead is dead. It's been three (?) years since Return and the number of deaths in that are, sadly, going to be small in comparison with The Green Skies.

As someone asked: "Are you going to destroy the entire Black Tower Universe??"  My answer to that is that I have to wait and see because the endings I have may not be any that I choose.  Some of the endings are real twists on what I planned anyway!

Return and The Cross Earths Caper (in which no one died though some did pay the physical price of being hero-adventurers) form parts 1 and 2 of the Invasion Earth Trilogy.  What happens -if anything- after Green Skies I have no idea but it should be interesting.

However, Black Tower Super Heroes (BTSH) will be setting the scene a little -though you do not have to buy them to read Green Skies, which is self contained. Issues 2-4 are ready but not yet published. Issue 4 will mark the end of volume 1 simply because, as I have written, I have no idea what will happen after Green Skies.  When BTSHs are published you'll know as that wil;l be posted on CBO and here.

For now I have a few tie-in strips to finish off and then it's work, work, work until The Green Skies is completed and that will be this year!
 



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