October 28, 2021. Wayward Raven is making an anthology of comic books, prose, and pinup art. Paid submissions with incentives.
The history of the Horsemen comic book is a rather simple timeline though the story takes place across myriad dimensions and times. Let us start at the beginning then. We could start at the middle but a good midpoint needs a plot point where a terrible defeat takes place or false victory is achieved, neither of which happened. At least I think so, but I could be wrong.
In the green days, fresh and new, Mark and Joshua had finished a graphic novel script while composing other works individually. The process of finding an artists to work on the graphic novel was unfamiliar. Many paths lead nowhere. After a dance through in a ball of misfit errors, the script was relegated to the to-do-in-the-future shelf.
Mark and Joshua gathered in a conclave of what-to-do next , and though a salient option, they decided not to end the comic book adventure before it really started. Thoughts and uttering of of "Wish we could go back in time" or "Wish we could be in an alternate universe where we didn't make that choice" percolated through the stony barrier of daunting ambition. The eureka moment came when the love of scifi merged with regrets and a few articles on The Holographic Principle, The Many World Theory, Decoherence, Cosmic Inflation, Over Unity Engines and the Dilemma of Determinism. A new tale would be told. A tale of time, and space, and myth... a realm where we were confident in our abilities.
But what? But when? But where? But who? But why?
We grazed upon fields of myth online but we harvested such esoteric crops. The plain plains needed to be farmed and so planted a seed of characters many would know in Western culture. The Four Horsemen from The Book of Revelations in the Christian Bible. Theses characters, however, had be done to death. Yup, a pun.
What to do? A strange haired conspiracy theorist and TV personality with a Greek name who frequented the so-called "learning" channels came to mind. He spoke often of ancient aliens creating and manipulating humanity's history. Believe what you want but it was a good angle for a story. The "Ancient Alien/Astronaut" hypothesis was lifted behind the veil. (look up the translation of apocalypse as it refers to the Book of Revelations by John of Patmos, Ol' Johnny P.)
So we had characters and setting for the fictional universe. It wasn't enough. We needed an enemy and a twist. Considering we often heard people say "Everything happens for a reason" and this is really an expression in the idea of destiny as designed by a supernatural force, we thought what if Destiny was a dude. It seemed good if he was the bad guy, but he needed a partner, we called him Fate and made them twins. Twins in mythology always have a special significance that is too long to elucidate upon at this juncture. The reasoning went, if everything was determined by an outside force with special agency over the universe, but was only a dude, a flawed and arrogant dude, then it would be in all effect taking away the developmental rights of sentient being across the cosmos. So no self-determinism. People don't like that in the USA.
[note: these are all concepts that developed the story and not necessarily a reflection on the writers. One can hold different beliefs and compose a fictive universe that is counter to one's beliefs simultaneously. It's actually quite a good way to understand counter arguments to one's beliefs. It is important for truly self-aware and conscious beings to hold up all claims to scrutiny. The best way to not get fooled is to inflict a more rigorous examination to claims that you readily agree with, and do not dismiss off-hand, claims your do not like. Do not be a minion of confirmation bias as it will rule you if you let it.]
More was needed after an initial groundwork was placed so, in keeping with the Ancient Alien/Astronaut idea, there would not be four Horsemen. There would be many. We figured that an ancient human, perhaps a scribe in the story's history, only saw the four and created myths around what they saw. This would explain the limited number. To have a bit of fun, we put the new equine avengers on cybernetic steeds that could ride through wormholes and across the stars. Because who doesn't like cyber-horses.
The five issue story arc came to be almost instantly. We had the Horsemen be a a quasi-police force protecting diversity throughout the cosmos from Destiny/Fate who wished to make all self-aware beings do what they said and have no independence. A multiverse of pure obedience. No one likes that unless you're a dictator.
Now that we popped them on super cyber horses, we gave them each an alien appearance that somewhat conformed to the depictions of the source material. Then, all we needed was a human character for the readers to relate and we chose to kill Death and replace him with a dude. Yes, Death dies, or at least his teammates think this is true, and we replaced him with a man who was about to meet his end in one of the great human created tragedies in history. Boom! So ride the Horsemen. We also thought that it should be a limited series so it could be wrapped up nice and quick and complied into a trade paperback. {Spoilers: the Horsemen get caught in a trap. Betrayal comes with every ride to the stars. Secrets are revealed and no one should try to ride a horse on the event horizon of a blackhole.}
As this post is being written, issue #3 just needs to go to a colorist and letterer. And a cover needs to be done but we have Matthew Fletcher locked into that. His website: http://fletcher720.storenvy.com/
If you haven't read Horsemen #1-2, please feel free to check them out in our shop page or buy them on comiXology.
Shop page (print & digital) -> http://waywardraven.com/shop/
comiXology: https://www.comixology.com/Wayward-Raven-Media/comics-publisher/569-0
Every sale helps us get one step closer to finishing the five issue story. With independent comic books, every purchase has a huge impact on keeping the creator afloat and swimming upstream in the turbulent water of the comic book industry. Thank you for reading and for your support.
Cheers!
The Wayward Raven Crew AKA The Conspiracy of Ravens.
