Happy Holidays from us at LOST the comic. (And by us I mean me.) For some reason I wanted to make a holiday issue, so I incorporated Christmas into the storyline that I was already working on in Connections. Some people may of think that I went to far with the burning of the tree. If you’re one of those people all I have to say to you is this- You’re Crazy. You can just cry me a freaking river. I showed that page to a friend of mine who made me feel guilty about it. Then I thought, wait a second! This is my comic! The point of him burning the idiotic tree was to show James’s mental instability. Why did Natale’s words affect him in such a manner? Well, for one thing he’s kind of nuts. Another reason, even the criminals have loved ones to spend the holiday with, but he has nobody. I was going to show another reason in a flashback inside of the hospital, but I moved that flashback to Issue 4.
I must admit that I really didn’t enjoy creating the first issue. My problem wasn’t developing the characters or storyline, but the way I was making it. Arrival was done entirely on the computer. On Microsoft Word Ó I would create the background; than I would draw the characters on paint to later place them in there retrospective places. I just didn’t enjoy doing this, so in Connections I actually drew the comic by hand and scanned it into the computer. After getting it sized in Microsoft Word Ó I would copy it to paint, after which I would covert it to black and white, leaving the lines & getting rid of all those colored pixels that prevent me from coloring the page. Only problem is that it leaves many lines and pixels colored black that I don’t want. The only way I can fix this is by editing them out manually- which takes a lot of time.
Ok, I have left (or altered) several things out in the last two issues that I wanted to have incorporated into those issues. One thing I’ve changed a bunch of times before leaving it be was who Dan Kimble’s second victim was. In fact, remember the lawyer Mrs. Thompson? She originally was Natale. At the end of the issue there was going to be a bit with James saying “Hello Natale,” in which she was going to reply, “That would be Mrs. Thompson.” I was also going to have her on the plane. I eventually tweaked the story, partly because I wanted there to be more emotional trauma for James, and partly because I just plain hated her. Another big change was that originally there was no bout between James and his brother, not to mention that his brother was never planned to die. I also had this whole conversation between James and Joanne with her saying “So did you see the monster? It must have been heading towards you,” in which James would have replied, “There are no such things as monsters.”
While I have mapped out James’s storyline to a certain degree, I still have a few more characters that I have to figure out where I’m going with. I have a good idea about where Daniel Allman’s story will take him. (Remember- the shrink with a lot of money?) I also have plans for the back-story of the mysterious island man. (Not Dean Silver, AKA: Natale’s husband who was never named, but the other one you will meet next issue.) There are two more major characters I’ll be introducing. For one, I know only a little of what I will incorporate in her story, and that’s because it’ll be tied in with James’s. The last character you’ve already meet- he’s the guy (Named Charles Brewer.) who had that scene with Allman, I have no clue where he’s heading, but I hope to plan something really good for him. (Though I’m thinking that I’ll re-model Charles a little bit.)
Wow! We reached the amount of fan letters I’ve expected to get throughout the entire run of the comic: 0! I’m glad that you’ve put in so much effort- all five of you. Maybe next time we can even beat that record! The point of these letters are to give suggestions for future storylines, ask me questions of upcoming storylines that I might not give anywhere else, give me comments, and even insult me if you want to! I’ll publish it! Anyways, if you want me to post a letter, there are several ways you can get it to me. You can always PM me if you’re from the Caves and the Beach, you can go to my site (www.freewebs.com/johnlocke108) in the “Text me” section. Or you can email me at johnlocke108@hotmail.com.
