SELECT * FROM Shane

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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In April of 2011, I submitted a sample of The Lesser Evil to the up-and-coming Shatterday Comics, who had mentioned here that they were accepting (unsolicited) submissions – not too many indie comic publishers interested in sci-fi at the moment are doing that.

It wasn’t long before I heard back from them, with a very enthusiastic response. And after a few emails back and forth, I received an offer of publication for The Lesser Evil under their Zeta Comics imprint.

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Until very recently, it never crossed my mind that the purpose of writing was not necessarily to be published. Although every book on writing I had ever read stated that you must enjoy the process, they all (naturally) continued on to offer advice on getting published, so I guess I developed the assumption that the two processes go hand-in-hand.

For me, getting published was not about making money… or at least, not as much about that as it was about other things.

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Hello out there! If you’re reading this, you’re probably a bit lost. On the off-chance that you are actually here to read about this blog and its author, here are some highlights.

The title “SELECT * FROM Shane” is a simple SQL statement that essentially means “select all columns in the data table called Shane,” or in non-geek-speak, “Everything in Shane.”

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