Whilst browsing through a stack of old papers in drawer, not too long ago, I stumbled upon an unfinished comic book I was working on from back when I was in middle school. Just thumbing through the pages, I went through the typical emotions that everyone goes through when they find something old of theirs. At first I was slightly embarrassed, and chuckling at how dated it is; muttering to yourself, "why'd you keep this all this time?" hand over bin but, yet, still holding onto it as if it were something
actually valuable. As if it were something more than just a sentimental totem of semi-pleasant nostalgia that lets you peer back to when you were 12 or 13.
However, in this instance, it was something more. I actually found myself sort of impressed with the work I put into it. Especially at the age I was at the time and the level of progress I had made in my drawing skill in just (what seemed to be) a short amount of time. Upon feeling such pride, memories started flooding back to me of what I had done before, ideas that I had for further installments, what started it all and why I and it eventually stopped.
Seeing the age of the notebook paper, and how it was yellowing and deteriorating, I thought I'd preserve it digitally and share it with the unfortunate few who stumble across it. But, before I put it up, I have to give it some background and some history:
It all started with a drawing that I had done of Leatherface from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre on the back of my math book. A class acquaintance walked by and asked me, "Is that Jesus?" (Looking at the thing, he thought the messy hair on my drawing was the crown of thorns) and it struck me right then and there: Jesus with a chainsaw.
By the end of the following class, I had put together a complete comic book (I was quite apt at putting these things together at the time). Albeit, it was crudely drawn and the majority of the book was essentially a flipbook, and instead of a "story," I opted for cheap laughs with extremely crass and vulgar humor with a hint of obscene violence, largely aped from the South Park movie.
Naturally, it made its rounds amongst my friends and their friends and their friends' friends until it made its way back to me. Oddly enough, people seemed to like it and I eventually made two more comics following it; each one developing further in style, scope, and story, and significantly becoming much longer than the one before it; shedding much of the gimmick flipbooks as I was more and more capable of conveying action.
Unfortunately, when I started working on the fourth book, it was nearing the end of my tenure in middle school and, by then, I had a big story in mind to pull off. Something of an arc that stretched 3-4 books, continuing the trend I had established before (books being more complex and longer with each installment). I ended up having to move away from my friends and attend another school (for an ump-teenth time) when year was over. And so it was: no time, new school, new faces (only a handful I knew attend with from the previous school), and no real interest in what I had, despite my best efforts in trying to revive the thing.
During this time, only briefly so, did I push to continue and further the book; coming back to what I had done, redoing and (more often than not) inserting whole new material inspired from new things into the old stuff. Despite my enthusiasm, that soon stopped. Though my tastes matured and made, what I felt, the material better, the ultimate lack of interest from everyone led to a lack of interest in the material from me, and I shelved the book indefinitely. Hoping I'd finish it one day...