The Dad Years
Setting the comics aside was easier when Aiden was born. He truly was the life changer everyone told me he would be. Even though I still sketched and thought about doing the book, I worked and did what a dad was supposed to be very willingly. I wanted to pass along what my Pop had done for me and be my son’s best friend. I never forced or suggested comics to him. But they were laying around and as he got older his just gravitated to them. When we got to the point of talking about what he read, it was even more amazing. During the years after he was born, I would be at work coming up with whole scenes for the comic I seemingly left behind. I would thumbnail them out, you know for fun. I tried to suppress it, but it just wouldn’t die. And when Aiden was around 12, he found some of these layouts and asked the question “why don’t you make a comic?” “And if you do, maybe I can help?” I was taken aback. I think one of the things that bothered me the most was that Aiden was growing up not seeing me do what I truly wanted to do. When he saw that I had long wanted to create my comic, he kind of gave me the permission to go back to them. When I actually started producing the book, it just made sense he could help out on color. I gave him a crash course in Photoshop and he took to it quickly.
I can’t believe I’m finally doing this
Now to put things into perspective. I lost my Pop in 2011 to pancreatic cancer at the age of 90, a year before Aiden offered to help me bring my book to life. Pop lived a strong, vibrant life until 7 months before he died. He was so tough, something had to take him out because old age wasn’t doing it. When he passed, I truly thought that was the end of the book because I never made it for him. So the very fact I was thinking about going ahead with the book seemed wrong. One of the biggest things I struggled with in going back to the book was the reality of the situation. I won’t go into it, but those of you that have read the graphic novel, know what happens 3/4s into it.
This is real. This book is based on the relationship I had with my Pop. A lot of it is true bits of our life I lifted to make the story work. Just subtract the mask part and you get it. As such, that turn in the story truly happened. It was one of the deciding reasons I put the book aside years ago. And it was embracing it, that made me finally decide to do it. Sorry I don’t like spoilers, so I’m not trying to be meanly vague, just considerate. But embracing it helped me decide that at least the graphic novel would be more about family drama and the ups and downs that come with it. And that while it might have surprised some of you that read it, that it wasn’t a super hero action story, it was the story I needed to tell.
The retelling
Now, all these years later, a lot has changed. I’m still extremely proud of the Graphic Novel’s story. It told the story I wanted and set the stage. But in getting me “back in the game”, there were things I put to the side to get it done.
In the early days, I wanted to do it as a multi-part comic. I love the floppy. I still think it’s viable in some situations. And waiting for the story to unfold can be fun opposed to sitting down and reading it all at once. Something to look forward to, month to month.
Storytelling-wise, one approaches a comic differently than a whole GN. I chose to take essential parts of the story in going scene to scene in the graphic novel. Focusing on bigger parts and breezing through smaller ones, I hoped I imparted enough of Tommy’s life that the reader felt full. It let me indulge in some fanboyish scenes that I might now have done in the confines of a comic. That’s good and bad. And, as one big recollection by Tommy, I didn’t get to do some scenes that might have happened, but because he wasn’t told about it by his Pop, he didn’t know to think of.
These are all the reasons for the retelling of “Emerging from the Shadow.”
Each comic will be a whole story flushing out bits from the graphic novel in a more clear way. None of the issues will be told from the recollection of anyway. Each part takes place exactly as it’s being told. Each progresses in time and tells a whole story. If you’ve read the graphic novel, you’ll have a general guideline. But the comics are their own things and have their own pieces to the story in a tighter more focused manner. By the time issue 6 comes around, you’ll know the general ending, but it’ll feel like maybe you took another road to get there.
In outlining each book, I remembered the excitement I had working all those years ago. This time though, I get to share the sketches, the thinking, early layouts with you. I’m not working in a vacuum this time. And, I’d like to think Aiden and I have stepped up our game in all this time. Learned our craft, so to speak.
The retelling is a look back, but it isn’t a step backwards.
Cool to read this! Keep rockin!