I’m about 1/3 of my way through a rather large comic book project that I’m currently calling Issue 17 or maybe I’ll call it FanFiction. I don’t know yet.

BUT let me tell you what's up.

I am recreating all of issue 17 of Sandman which was originally written by Neil Gaiman and drawn by Kelley Jones and Malcolm Jones in the '90s. This issue titled “Calliope” is about a hack writer who conspires to keep the Muse of the famed storyteller Homer captive in his attic, and was originally printed in July 1990 by DC Vertigo and reprinted numerous times since then in the trade paperback Dream Country. Stuck in the back of each of these reprints is the original script for issue 17.

Mr. Gaiman would write these scripts as a kind of letter to the artist. In this case it was to Kelley Jones. It’s a fascinating read, and gives a deep insight into the process of making comics by two master practitioners of the medium. So, being an artist of sorts myself I intend to redraw this book from the original script as though it was written to me rather than the incomparable Kelley Jones, this is the fan fiction part.

I plan to do the project in about three phases. This is all about pretending to be a comic book pro, so I’m going create a facsimile of the classic western method of making a comic book. TRIED AND TRUE. First I have blocked out/thumbnailed the script into drawings and then… I will draw all the pages out as I see fit. I’m going to cherry pick each of the pages, drawn them, then letter and colour said pages. In the end I plan to do a limited print run of the book through kickstarter or whatnot and have a local art show In Toronto for good measure.

Hopefully I'll learn a thing or two about sequential storytelling along the way and the next original comics I do will be better.

Drop by here for updates.

Here is what I have so far…