Long strange trip. Sharing stories from the past: Grateful Dead edition.

Greetings,

Long Strange Trip, originally titled Dead End, is a personal and gritty screenplay by Joshua Lee Andrew Jones that is based on his real experiences going to Grateful Dead shows as a 15 year old in 1989.  As a part of our new content sharing initiative, some stories not normally developed by us will be given away, and this tale is presented to you for free as a pdf that can be downloaded from Dropbox by using the link at the bottom of this post. The link terminates in 25 days.

We also wish John Mayer good luck with his musical journey with founding members of the Grateful Dead. Funny thing, Joshua went to the same high school in Fairfield, CT as Mr. Mayer and was three years older, but they shared a guitar teacher named Al though Joshua moved to playing bass with a different instructor.

Joshua in 89' with the 69' Splitty VW Bus. 

The story follows Joaquin Chandler, a misfit among misfits, as he falls in love with a boarding school hippie girl and then pursues her on summer tour while also trying to find a Utopian realm, which sadly never existed. This is a story of self-discovery and shows some of the seedier and sketchy sides of traveling in the mad caravan down to shows and the danger one might have encountered. The "Scene" wasn't all flowers and love. In fact, parts of it were tribal in the worst sense with hierarchy and exclusion.    

Joshua is currently not able to shop around the screenplay to indy producers. He is taking care of his mother who is stricken with cancer but his need to share the story was strong. You never know when the bell tolls for thee and he just wanted to share it and pass along his experiences in fiction based on real events. He would be happy if someone wanted to make a movie out of the script one day but is equally happy just for people to read it and maybe remember the past when we all sought who we were. 

Link for download-> https://www.dropbox.com/s/dqzhpviilquzdrz/LongStrangeTrip.pdf?dl=0

Hartford Comic Con 2015: A Capital Con Wrap-up

The birds flew high over the Connecticut capital this past weekend, ruling the roost at Hartford Comic Con 2015. This was our second year doing the show and we had a wonderful time seeing old friends and making new ones. 

Remember when we talked to Shawn?

Shawn Perry of Bleeding Cool dropped by and we talked about Signed C: the missing issue 3, due to debut at NYCC this year. You can still pre-order a copy for a discount, but don't wait too long! As soon as the interview posts, you can believe we'll get it to you.

We also got a visit from The Angry Geeks Show. Mark talked all about Wayward Raven and Alex did his level best to distract the host. Or maybe it was the other way around. I guess you'll just have to give it a watch when the video goes up.

Of course, it wouldn't be a con without cosplayers and Hartford Comic Con was no exception. We saw some great costumes and are happy to share them with you below.

If you missed us at Hartford, you can always come see us at NYCC. We'll be in small press booth 1266. Enjoy the con pics, hope to see you all in a few weeks!

-The Wayward Raven Crew

Charles Muir stopped by to say hello. Hey, is that a Horsemen shirt?!?

Seems the answer to the question is "in Hartford."

Truly sorry. Apologies from a bird brain Hartford Comic Con.

Greetings flock,

With a heavy heart, I must extend my apologies to all who are going to the Hartford Comic Con and I am truly sorry I cannot make it. Not that many would know who I am, or even miss my presence, this is my supplication for a general forgiveness for my extended absence over the last year. 

This all began in 2012 at the New York Comic Con where we made a debut to much promise. Underneath, I held a secret and a family condition that over the next three years would develop into my leave. In 2012, my mother was diagnosed for the second time with squamous cell carcinoma of the tongue on the first day of the con. The first time she fought cancer was a decade before where treatments seemed to work well. In 2002, I put my life on hold to help in her convalescence and it  appeared I would need to again in 2012 because of lack of resources both in money and family members to help out.

I also held a secret. Throughout my life I had been countering anxiety and depression alone in a silent despair, as the English might put it. Thought I had a handle on the torment, thought I could best it, and to a degree I did but the cumulative effects were beginning to erode my frayed mind. Asking for help was out of the question. My family did not ask for nor seek help. For me, it seemed a trait of failure to require assistance from others. Just kept taking the daily beating from a bully who stared me in the mirror. But...

Things started to go pretty well for Wayward Raven Media. We learned how to exhibit and sell at conventions by being engaging. Plus, we really cared about comic book readers and what they thought, not just about our books but all stories. A year passes...

My mother is again diagnosed with oral cancer and the surgery, a hemi-glossectomy, rips away her ability to speak. Happens to be right before NYCC 2013. I miss it entirely. But...

Wayward Raven continued to grow and take flight. So many funny stories, so many learning experiences, so many humbling events, so many mistakes, so much fun was had over the year. The things we saw at conventions, and after the conventions at night, filled us with stories to last a lifetime. More conventions, connections and comic were made. Things were looking up but then my demons in the mirror decided to shatter the looking glass, but being busy with Wayward Raven duties, I got a new piece of glass, slicked it with quicksilver and tried to hold it up to reality.  And...

Cancer in 2014. Again, I was required to adjust my life, and then, guess what, in 2015 I had to take leave of many of my Wayward Raven duties as my mother had once again been diagnosed with squamous cell carcinoma. The kicker was that during a routine scan, they found a new cancer in her lung, adenocarcinoma. Two different cancers, two different stages, and two different therapy strategies.

Not going to go into the gritty details of taking care of someone after so many surgeries and therapies, but I will say it is disturbing. The fluids a human body makes are amazing but repulsive when coming from your mother. Learned a lot about  dressing and cleaning surgical wounds, g-tubes, tracheotomy scars, Welbutrin side-effects, speech therapy, estate finances, taxes, insurance companies declining obviously medically necessary procedures, and more. All the while, trying to figure out how to keep on growing as a writer, comic book editor, press agent, business partner, and friend to Mark and Alex.

I, most of all, regret letting Mark and Alex down. One could not ask for better friends and collaborators who tolerate me with an undeserved patience. They are why I don't quit this.

Sadly, Wayward Raven doesn't pull in enough revenue to pay a nurse/personal assistant so I can get back to my creative duties. Hell, don't now of any companies are going to cover "Taking-care-of-a-parent-so-they-don't-lose-everything Leave".  

I extend my sincere apologies for not being more involved with the company this year but circumstance finally broke me. Had my first public breakdown at the Boston ComicCon and that was something I didn't want anyone to see, but I made an attempt at helping out.

Again, I am sorry for being absent. I am not sorry for writing this and stating that asking for help is not a sign of weakness as I once thought. 

Respectfully,

Joshua Lee Andrew Jones

PS: There are so many stories to tell, so in the rare times, I've been able to write a memoir to expound upon the last three years with Wayward Raven and our travails. First draft should be finished in the next two months. Will be looking for an agent and publisher soon. 

PPS: Please go see the guys at Hartford ComicCon. They are amusing and love to chat. Plus, Eric Roberts and Ernie Hudson of the Ghostbusters will be there at the XL Center.

 http://hartfordcomiccon.com/   

PPPS: Please have a look at our comics, your support allows us to exist. http://waywardraven.com/shop/     

A comic book history of Horsemen

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.                   

A Conspiracy is Forming in Hartford

Your dark winged friends at Wayward Raven are soaring into the Connecticut capital in two weekend's time and we hope you'll join us. On September 19th and 20th we're flocking to Hartford for Hartford Comic Con with a beak full of comics, books and even a couple new items.

Last year was the inaugural year for HCC and we had a blast! We are really looking forward to the event again and seeing how it has grown. How can you beat two days of comics and cosplay?

Naturally we hope you'll join our conspiracy and swing by to say hello. Although we don't have our table number yet, we will make sure we post it as soon we know more. Hope to see you there!

-The Wayward Raven Crew