So here we go: the final short story in Tales Of October #1, called “Welcome To The City (Reprise)”. No title — it would have been too abrupt. I was looking to keep this story tied with the end of “Fun & Games” a little, to show that it’s all supposed to occur in the same Canadian suburb: Quitoclam.

Now, yes, Quitoclam is fictional, but only barely; it’s blatantly modeled on the small Canadian suburb I grew up in, which for the faintest stretch of privacy, I’ll leave unnamed. A real trait of the real suburb, though, is the comparatively high level of undeveloped natural areas (”high level” compared to most American suburbs from my experience). Many parks, a number of ravines, just large sections of woods. Of course, this better describes the area of twenty years ago. Nowadays there still are some parks but the rest of it has been developed like crazy. “Ay, oh, way to go, Ohio…”

The view at the top of the page invokes a very specific wooded corridor near my childhood home, where the power lines reach down from one plateau into a more-developed urban corridor and then back up the mountains on the other side. Not much point to it, except it’s a view I know well… and seemed appropriate to represent Pargimus’ supposed “high-altitude” observations.

What’s supposed to be the streetlights on the bottom half of the page is my poor inking choice de jour. Live and loin.

For those of you just joining in, I’ve been posting these short stories for the last couple months here on salvagerkain.com while I’ve been busy being a new dad. Once again, the plan is to resume postings of Salvager Kain #6 (already in progress!) as of May 29, 2010. Thanks for your patience and I hope you enjoy this last little tale.

I grew up in a smallish Canadian suburb of Vancouver. After having spent some time around a couple different urban areas in the U.S., I started to think that “suburb” generally had different connotations in Canada than it did down here… now I’m not so sure. Duplicate parcel lots and cookie-cutter homes, yes; not much to do but commute to the city for work or real fun, yes. The only difference I can still maintain in my head is that maybe Canadian suburbs, on average, have better trees, or better access to beautiful, beautiful nature. I’m probably still biased.

Anyhow, Tales Of October, and the larger story I hope to tell about the characters I’m introducing here, is essentially my love letter to the suburb I grew up in.

I’ve heard it’s not a good idea to tell a story you’re particularly enamored with, that it’s best to have some distance or remove from the subject matter so you can tell it with more objectivity and less personal attachment. Unfortunately, if I had to reveal my own honest criticisms of the work I’m doing with Salvager Kain, high up on the list would be that I have less attachment to the story than I’d like. (This might come from the rare equation of “survivalist / fantasy – comedy about amnesiacs”; I’m not sure.)

Does it mean I won’t finish that story? Nope. “No Story Left Behind” is my new motto.

Still, as I start to post these pages that I created a few years ago — inspired by experiences from much longer ago — it’s interesting to remember just how much passion I have for that quiet Canadian suburb I grew up in. I hope some of that shines through.

Once again, my apologies if this runs too slow for your tastes. I can only hope you’ll check back again from time to time to see how things have progressed. FYI, the short stories of this first issue conclude every six pages, so you *should* see a generally-faster telling than the SK stuff.

As for today’s installment, this is my favorite story start I’ve ever created. I miss black & white!

See you in five days!

P