In less than a week, my first published work, self-published, yes, but published nonetheless, will be released for sale. Something that I wrote will be out there for people to buy. And read. That is a pretty big thing. A HUGE thing, in fact.
It's not necessarily my best work, as a matter of fact, I know it's not as good as it could have been, but it's what it SHOULD be.
I never intended to go out and hit a home-run with my first issue of LEGACY. There's a few reasons for that. LEGACY is a long-form story, a style that has come under fire the last year or so from some critics who dislike having to read more than one issue to get the whole story. I get their points on it, and in fact, I agree with many that we need more "one and done" books as they call them. It's not exclusive to comic books by any means. When was the last time you saw a really good movie that didn't end up with a sequel or prequel, later on? LEGACY is a story that spans from the late 1800s to the "future", and therefore it only makes sense to be told in long form. LEGACY is a generational story, it is a story of a city, the people who live in it, and their families- it only makes sense that not every book will tell a complete story. Not to say that there won't be issues like that- I have SEVERAL in mind, as a matter of fact.
But I digress.
LEGACY #1 is an introduction to the city and some of the players; the people that we'll follow and get to know as the series goes on. Locations that we'll go back to and will have their own stories to be told. A friend of mine once told me that he could never get in to Batman or Spider-Man or any other comic that had been out for a long time because the depth of history and story was just "too much to catch up on".
As a matter of fact, my favorite comic book writer, Geoff Johns, answered that very question in an interview once, and I thought it rang quite true. I'm paraphrasing but the basic of it was "when you first meet someone, you don't suddenly know everything about them- they've lived a life before you met them, and it takes time gradually you learn bits and pieces of their lives and even then, there will always be things that you didn't know, that await discovery, or that you will never know".
I probably butchered his quote but I'm working from memory and he's much more eloquent than myself. The idea stuck with me though. The idea that you have to start somewhere and I took that and applied it to the first issue of LEGACY. #1 is a handshake, a "how do you do" or a name-tag saying "hi, my name is...". You aren't meant to know everything right away. It's not meant to tell a complete story, it's meant to give you just enough to make you want to come back and explore some more. To give you a peek into the world that I'm creating.
A world that I hope you'll find interesting and fun as I do. One that evolves every day- a world much like our own; a world full of people, both good and bad, and others just trying to get by. A world where wondrous things happen as well as the mundane, where hopes and dreams are realized and where struggles sometimes are too much for one person to overcome. A place where anything can, and will, happen. It's a lot like your life and the world around you.
But this world has supervillains. Alien armadas. Giant killer robots. Time rifts that threaten to tear apart reality. Dark sorcerers bent on conquest. Secret societies who wish to dominate people's hearts and rule humanity. It's a scary world to live in.
There is hope, however. Much like our world, there are good people who strive to make it a better place to live, to protect those who cannot protect themselves, to guard against these new and frightening threats, sentries against the worst that might come our way. There are heroes. Like us, they are, for the most part, human. They have within them the same potential for greatness and the same frailties that they seek to overcome. Some will fall. Some will soar higher and accomplish more than they could ever dream.
Much like us.
So why should you read LEGACY? What does it have to offer? Hopes and dreams. Fears and nightmares. Failure and success. Stories of life. But in colorful costumes and cool super-powered fights. Sounds like fun, huh? ;)
LEGACY #1 has been a journey for me of not only time put in, but of lessons learned. It's one thing to read a book, comic or otherwise, it's another to write one. I've been fortunate enough to have a good support team in place, and a great partner in doing this first book, Mr. Mike Campeau. I cannot thank him enough for all his hard work on this initial chapter in not only LEGACY, but in my writing career. Huh. Writing career. That looks pretty cool. Here's hoping that you think the same of #1 and tune in for the next chapter in the book and my career as a writer. It's going to be a heckuva story, however it all works out.
Follow your dreams, before you know it, you'll be living them.
Andrew
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