Waking World rises from it's seven year slumber, sort of.

Waking World was a project I started in 2001. Sort of a cross between Pan's Labrynth and Blade Runner I suppose. I was listening to Haujobb's brilliant album Polarity a lot back then, and it just created these images and stories in my head. I couldn't stop myself from creating. The only problem was, I wasn't comfortable with my writing back then. I had a very detailed, page-by-page plot, but was having trouble turning that into a cohesive story. Enter Casey Faulkner.

Casey was (and still is) a great friend of mine, and a brilliant writer to boot. We had many conversations, and shared many similar interests and ideas, and I knew he was the perfect writer for this. We got together many times, and he loved my basic plot/story. He didn't try to change things, but instead added so much to it. It was my first great experience working with another person creatively. We were going to tackle the issues of racism, class-ism, white collar crime, recreational drug use, the lengths people are willing to go to protect their own, and what it means to believe in a god in this day and age, among many other things all while telling a great science fiction crime drama. I was even more excited than before! He added a prologue that amped the story up a million notches. The pages were flowing out of me like crazy.

Then one day in mid-2002 the bad news came. Casey's car was broken into and much of the work was gone. His bag and laptop were stolen. Months of work down the drain. I was truly heartbroken, as this was, and still is to this day, my favorite work. I stopped working on it almost immediately, and I've never looked back until now.

I've recently found a bunch of the character sketches though, and even a few finished pages, so I thought I'd post them here. I like the style I've grown into over the intervening years, but am astonished at the level of detail I used to employ. I don't remember the whole of the story, but the basic plot elements are still there at the back of my braino-thingy. Finding these pages has really inspired me. I've begun sketching these characters again, and am re-working the basic plot into a script so I can begin anew. Waking World may still see the light of day sometime in the near future. Stay tuned. For now, here is some old shit. Click the pics for full size, and thanks for looking.

This is the main protagonist, Lycia. She is an Elven bounty hunter/gun for hire. She is the best there is. Period. If she's looking for you, you will be found. If you run, you just make it more fun for her. She is loyal almost to a fault, but if you get on her bad side...
I first penciled this in 2001, and just recently inked it. I still love those boots!

This is Lycia's best friend, and sometime lover, Lucy Gunmetal. She runs the bar The Zone where the criminals and other lowlifes hang out. She, however, is one of the good guys, always listening and feeding Lycia information. She's a tough girl with a big heart. This was done in 2002 sometime.

And here we have Lycia and Lucy together. Again from 2002. For some reason I changed Lycia's look a bit, maybe trying to make her look tougher? Now I'm not so fond of it. Also, that gun is way cheesy.

Here is a scan of a print-out of a piece I did to show off the cast. This is also from 2002. I designed the logo as well. I don't remember many of these character's names, but I remember their purposes in the story.

The guy with the gas mask thing is Lexicon, another ex-lover of Lycia, and her heaviest competition. They are still somewhat friends, as long as there is no money on the line.

The guy with the stupid looking blonde hair was a petty criminal who stumbled onto something big, and therefore became Lycia's target.

The guy with the wings is Archangel, or Archie as Lycia calls him to his chagrin. He is the big money in the upper levels of the city, and the most powerful person in this world.

The guy with the crown is the big boss of Low-town, primarily the Rotlicht. If you need anything, he will get it for you at a price, but if you cross him you'd better leave the planet.

The person with all the glowy bits is... well, I'll leave that until later.

This is an old, really bad scan of the first page. I still love this page so much, especially the cybernetic panel borders.

Well, that's it for this trip down memory lane.

I will try to get some good scans of the other pages very soon. Keep watching this space for some new stuff in the next few weeks as well. I feel my writing skills may finally be up to the challenge now, so I may have some new pages up very soon. Let me know if this is something you would be interested in seeing more of. Comments, as well as criticisms, are always appreciated and encouraging as long as they are constructive.

- Carl