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Greetings and salutations. It is I, Graham.

Our current line of discussions center around the ideas we brought to the book, why they were important, and what we were or were not willing to change. Last week we discussed what we were adamant, at their core, could not be changed. Today I will mention what I was willing to sacrifice or make changes to, in order to see the project finished. But first a little story of two opposites, both of creators that I truly respect.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. You know them, you watched them, you may have played with them. But how many of you have read the original comics? Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird created a serious and gritty comic book, black and white, and not kids material. The first issue opens with the four brothers squaring off against a street gang who draw guns. The Turtles take offense to that and kill them all in an overt, bloody sequence that is stark and rugged. But they sold the creative rights for animation and therefore had very little access to any kind of say in the series, either with TV, movies, or toys. Sure, they made some (not nearly enough) money, but grit became Cowabunga, and blood became skateboards. They went too far and gave away too much control.

In comparison, you have my favorite and most influential comic book ever: Elfquest. When my family moved back to Alabama from Texas, a classmate I barely knew had a copy of the first graphic novel to this amazing story, and impossibly I was able to convince him to allow me to borrow it. I was so instantly in love that I dug some funds together and ordered all four graphic novels before I even finished reading the first. The husband and wife team of Wendy and Richard Pini completely hooked me with both the story (Richard) and artwork (Wendy). They were so determined to keep creative control that they formed their own publication company, Father Tree Press, rather than compromise on a single letter or line of ink. I can respect that, but the consequence is that almost nobody knows anything at all about the property. If you know of it, please contact me so I can have someone to discuss with!

In the wild possibility that anything happens with this series and compromises need to be made, it will need to be something in between these two extremes. I’ve read many places that new writers often will surrender creative control on one project just to get their name out there, so that there will be better chances of getting something they care more about made, with more creative control. Sainan is a good story, with some novel elements, fairly well told. I also feel that Clevenger and I have more stories to tell. Possibly even better. There is potential here for these stories to go somewhere, and we have already discussed the possibility of whoring out one of our stories in order to get a better one told later. We shall see what happens, and what may become necessary.

Anyway, back to the editing. We are still looking at a Fall / Winter release, so the work marches on. Until next time…

Don’t forget to love one another.

Graham