W.T.M.B.a.w.c.k. EXCERPTS #25-30

Andre Hirsch Todorovich in Qualicum Beach; Photo by Maria Chantelle Tucker

EXCERPT #25:
"This is a playpen for bad men.  I remember not to play too loose where I am likely to be zeroed in on."

EXCERPT #26:
"When I hear how the words flow, I instinctively know if they work. No one on the planet can say otherwise."

EXCERPT #27: 
"The instant chill is encoded in my neural pathways, down ancient branch-ways in my soul, awaiting a trigger."

AFTER RESONANCE with TEAM ASH

Team Ash, 2015; composite photo provided by Vaysha Hirsch

ASH MACZKO is the creator and writer of the SQUARRIORS comic book serial for Devil's Due Entertainment.  He is also the creator and organizer of the pop-culture event known as "Count-I-Con" in Grayslake, Illinois.  Ash lives in the Northwest suburbs of Chicagoland.

ASHLEY WITTER is the illustrator for the comic book serial, SQUARRIORS. Ashley recently worked with Yen Press illustrating and adapting the graphic novel of Anne Rice's INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE: CLAUDIA'S STORY, and THE WOLF GIFT.  Ashley is also an illustrator for the FANTASY FLIGHT card game, NETRUNNER, the comic book series BLOOD THIRSTY: ONE NATION UNDER WATER, and her own original comic book, SCORCH. Ashley graduated from Madison Area Technical College with a degree in Animation and Conceptual Development.  She grew up in Madison, Wisconsin.  

1.  How did the two of you meet ~ event, purpose, or accident ~ and what happened?

ASH:  A random encounter at Nocturna, in downtown Chicago.

ASHLEY:  Yes, the odds of us meeting were incredibly random.  I had just finished work on the Twilight graphic novels, and took a trip down to Chicago on a whim.  When I met Ash, to put it simply, we were kindred spirits.  We were certainly good at combining our efforts to get things done.  Hence, we're now known as Team Ash.

SQUARRIORS by ASH MACZKO & ASHLEY WITTER

Author's Creative Brand:
"Squarriors" issue #1
Genre: Allegorical Dystopian Graphic Novel
Length: 32 pages per issue / 4 parts
Publisher: Devil's Due Entertainment

My 9 Reader Hot-Button Considerations:

1.  World's Immersion:

Read the lit sign on the bar/eatery that opens up page 1 in rural Illinois:  'Good Friends, Good Times,' burnt-out to simply "End Times."  When we walk inside that bar and witness what happens there, the unsettling understanding becomes:  resources are scarce, and the strong shall take them; fast-forwarding a decade later, we are ejected from lingering human out-posts and immersed directly into the weeds.  This world is a sprawling microcosm of conflict on the earthy level, down in the senses, literally, animals scrapping for survival.  This microcosm, to the animal denizens of this world, has its own parameters, delineated from the chaos into an order of warring tribes:  Squirrel-Warrior / 'Tin Kin' Tribe, the Cat 'Amoni,' the 'Maw,' the 'Sursha'...merely introduced, yet to be fully revealed.  We follow the Tin Kin into their compound / shelter, discovering the apt origin of their tribe's handle.  The kinship is housed inside the tin hide of a train-wreck, which clearly jumped the rails, lying in a ruined heap; this is a visual metaphor for the crash of old-world order, swallowed up by the wild...

AFTER RESONANCE with WRITER BRAD ABRAHAM

Brad Abraham, somewhere in his 'hood, NYC 2014

BRAD ABRAHAM is best known as a screenwriter whose best work includes the films FRESH MEAT, STONEHENGE APOCALYPSE. and miniseries ROBOCOP PRIME DIRECTIVES.  He is also writer and creator of the acclaimed comic, MIXTAPE.  His current and upcoming film-TV work includes the Sci-Fi thriller THE PICCO INCIDENT and the TVO kids series NOW YOU KNOW.  He's also been a prolific journalist, most famously as a long-time writer for Rue Morgue Magazine, and his work has also appeared in Fangoria, Starburst, and Dreamwatch magazines.  A  graduate of the prestigious Image Arts program at Ryerson University, he makes his home in New York City.

What was the process of thought that brought you to the MIXTAPE concept and format?

BA: There’s two answers to that. The first can be found on page one panel one of Mixtape #1. It was while packing up my things to move to NYC that I found an old box full of mementoes from my teenage years. There were yearbooks, there were copies of SPIN and Rolling Stone magazine, there were letters from friends, photo albums ... and mixtapes.  Lots of mixtapes.

MIXTAPE Vol. #1 by BRAD ABRAHAM

Author's Creative Brand:
"Mixtape"
Genre:  Comic Book / Young Adult Existentialism
Length:  issues #1-5, 22 pages each; 110 pages in total
Ardden Entertainment

My 9 Reader 'Hot-Button' Considerations:

1. World's Immersion:

Garrison Creek is the small town where our characters have grown up together.  In this microcosm of the world, friendships have remained close and familiar through the formative years until now...teens about to forge outward by the end of the summer and high school graduation, entering young adulthood.  School hallways of commiseration, house parties of socialization, and the cars some of them are now driving, extend out from the insular bedrooms lined with band posters, and beyond the head-phones of personalized soundtracks.  One of their group has burst the bubble, traveling beyond the Creek.  At this key juncture she has just returned from Europe.

The chosen music in each character's own headspace, defines their moods, following them through the developments in their lives.  This is an early 1990's period piece and writer Brad Abraham has designed stories of expanding YA awareness through the importance of what each young mind was listening to in that time; music as emotional guideposts/gateways of expressing just how big all their personal worlds were becoming...beyond what they knew to be safe.

W.T.M.B.a.w.c.k. EXCERPTS #19-24

EXCERPT #19:
"Unaware of the weight coming to break my body, I lay back on innocent elbows gazing at limitless Universe."

EXCERPT #20:
"Caresses like sun-kisses from within, and kisses like head-rockets firing into stratospheric heights."

EXCERPT #21:
"Karma.  Things continue working things out," she shrugged.  "Chaos.  Things co-mingle, create something more."

W.T.M.B.a.w.c.k. EXCERPTS #13-18

EXCERPT #13:
"It's a midnight symphony, orchestrated chords to every solitary, biting, billowing pang."

EXCERPT #14:
"I was like a fresh sheet of paper, ball-point just beginning to swirl a penmanship across my consciousness."

EXCERPT #15:
"A descending base-line, catching sight of cranberry hair pulled into girlish braids just brushing her shoulders."