SELECT * FROM Shane

As far back as I can remember, the only career I have ever wanted to pursue was one in the creative industries. (For most of my life, this ambition has been limited to becoming a novelist; however, while studying Creative Writing at university, I took great pleasure in all the creative endeavours I was encouraged to experiment with.)

Even when I was young, I always knew that if I hadn’t made it by the time I entered full-time employment, I probably never would. What that meant is that I would be trapped in the rat race, locked in a fluorescent tomb (I think I’ve used that phrase before, but it sticks with me) that I could never escape while my dreams flittered away outside. The frightening inevitability of it all kept me writing, working as hard as I could in my free time to produce something saleable.

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A recent article regarding spoilers in comic books has reawakened my interest in the role of plot in a story. This article cited research which produced the surprising finding that people enjoyed suspenseful stories more if the crucial plot twists were spoiled for them in advance.

This counterintuitive relevation has made me consider the way I produce my stories, and has helped me to articulate my long-held beliefs into a coherent form. I have come to realise that the true mission statement of The Lesser Evil and its sequels is fundamentally tied to the idea that plot events are secondary, even incidental, to the enjoyment of a story.

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I’m not much of an artist. I used to draw quite regularly, but was a much stronger copier than anything; whenever I tried to draw purely from imagination, I could never get it even close to right.

The decision to become a comic book artist was therefore a natural one… uh, what?

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