I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about my Tales from Vertigo City project, and after much discussion with my favoured creative confidantes, Carrie Clevenger and Jimmy Misanthrope, I have decided to pull The Second Tale. Initially the concept worked well in outline form for the serial, but now I’ve started writing, it’s blossomed into something much larger than my chosen serial format will allow. Therefore I will be working on it as an illustrated novel.
This has also forced me to rethink the entire concept behind the Tales from Vertigo City project, and I have had to redefine this, too. Originally the plan was to have nine different tales, set in alternate versions of the City (in effect, my own multiverse), yet all starring Liss as a recurring character in her form of the Spirit of Vertigo. This has become too unwieldy and I would rather not do it at all than get halfway through and realise it’s not working.
In addition, I’ve become too attached to the characters and world I created with The First Tale. It would be unfair to them, and myself, to leave them as they are in order to move onto the next incarnation of Vertigo. Therefore the Tales project will now consist of the adventures of those characters you’ve already met, in the form of novellas and regular flashes about them.
The Second Tale will still proceed under the heading of Tales from Vertigo City, albeit a Vertigo City a century or so after the original First Tale. It will have a name change, and I’ll post snippets on the Vertigo City blog. I hate to be a tease, since The Second Tale had received a good reception, but this way, I get to do these stories justice.
As a result, I’ll be bowing out of the Tuesday Serial for the time being, unless any shorter stories demand to be told in such a way. In the meantime, I recommend you check out Carrie Clevenger’s Crooked Fang, Grace Motley’s Fire and Water, Jason Coggins’ The Courage of Others, and Sam Adamson’s UCF Chronicles.
Good call. I didn’t expect Madame to be a serialized novel instead of a serial, which is what it turned out to be. It chased away most of my readers *sigh* Doing book 2 as an illustrated serial novel will probably work about better for you.
Sounds like a great move. I’d love to see an it illustrated.
Sometimes you’ve got to sit down and look at what’s best for the story and the characters. If you force it, it’ll never work. Good for you for choosing to a go a new direction. I look forward to reading more.
Doing it this way also gives me more time to draw the characters.
Sounds like you’ve been doing some heavy thinking and you have put yourself into a good place to move forward with Vertigo City. Love the idea of the illustrated novel (makes me want to read comics again) – will this become the next Watchmen?
Adam B
Yeah, I think that’s a good call. It would be good to see the return of Liss and the crew and let the Hero strut his stuff comic book stylee.
Adam – Yeah, I did think about it a lot and I feel a lot lighter now I’ve made the decision. I wouldn’t dare put myself in the same league as Alan Moore (or Garth Ennis and his Boys) but I’d like to try and do something new.
Jason – I updated my entry to include a link to your Courage of Others serial as a) it’s fab and b) your input was invaluable!
You have a world that is rich in stories…definitely worthy of a novel!
Good call, I reckon. On the one hand it’s a shame because I was enjoying The Second Tale, but I can quite understand your decision, and it means I get more of Liss’ adventures, which is definitely a good thing. Thanks also for the shout-out for The UCF Stories.