Alright, so:

What we’re looking at here is an introduction, from someone’s point of view — entering Quitoclam. Or, rather, re-entering… (just wait for page 1-04).

I’ve probably written more short stories / plot scribbles / thoughts / etc about Tales Of October (and the larger narrative it leads into, called Foolproof)… altogether more comprehensive character & story notes for this than any other story I’ve done. From a purely notes-standpoint, it still tops everything with Johnny Shallow in Exit At The Axis and Fool’s Errand. (Of course, if it were a contest of finished comics pages, EATA & FE would win at a count of 241 to 24).

So what’s that say? That I have a great idea I’m sitting on, and someday it’ll be an awesome novel, graphic or otherwise? I doubt that very much… but as evidence it does support a special love I must have for this story that came out of my teenage years, spent growing up in the Vancouver suburb called Coquitlam.

For all the work I’ve put into this story world over the years, though, very little of it exists as actual comics. Lots (and I mean LOTS) of sketchbook doodles or single panels of comic art exist… but really, nothing in a proper sequence, nothing more than at most a single page or two. So, when I sat down to formally start telling the first chapter for the work, it seemed important to me to do as proper of an introduction to the world as I’ve ever done for a story. Salvager Kain has a strong narrator’s voice at the get-go; Exit At The Axis just launches into Johnny’s life; for this, I wanted folks to journey into the world just like my main character was:

On a train, late at night, with a couple of hostile passengers correction officers.