An Epic Comic [ Epic Poetry + Comic Strip Art ] Informed by the Equation
“No amount of
saber rattling mutes the peace talker. No amount of wind
deters the warring hawk from its flight.”
— Chakramire
Excerpt from The Epic of Chakramire: Mistress of Strife
#EpicPoetry #TheEpicOfChakramire #VerseDrama #SquaredByWoodsBooks #SevenDaysToPublish
A week from tomorrow will be my 39th birthday! It will also be the birthday of my second book, The Epic of Chakramire: Mistress of Strife, and tenth birthday of my first book, Affect Engineering: A Unified Field
Theory of Emotions. Perhaps in another ten or twenty years I will write something else. Who is to say? It seems to be habit forming for me.
Aside from updating things that needed updating or that had not been updated in nearly a decade, like this webpage and metadata, I plan to share a single excerpt each day for the next week (some of the shorter, bite-sized ones of one to three sentences) from The Epic of Chakramire, with the sole purpose of putting a smile on someone’s face, making them think, or furrowing some eyebrows. A few excerpts will be from the main character and the rest will be from other characters in the epic poem (i.e., narrative verse, or secondary epic in this case as it is written). Its subject codes are epic poetry, verse drama, and science fiction: general.
The book cover illustration (back, spine, and front cover) is below. If you are curious, I began creating the cover from a colored pencil sketch I did several years ago and it underwent a lot of editing before I put it together using Adobe Indesign. If you are not curious, then feel free to ignore the previous two sentences, and this one too. If you want to know more about the story itself, then you can probably figure out the next steps once it becomes available for global distribution. Its official publishing date will be August 11th, 2024 (Hardcover, Paperback, and eBook). No audiobook plans yet. I might have several dozen voices inside my head, but they all sound like me when I talk . . . TBD.
After seven days, I will go back to being the social media hermit that you all have come to know.
~ Marcus
So, this month I finished chapters 5 and 6 (out of 120 planned) of the epic poem that has consumed my attention for a good number of years. I may end up calling them something else as time goes on, as chapter is very prosy sounding. Maybe I will call them fugues, who knows yet. I will likely think it my greatest achievement when I finish, but my latest product always tends to feel like a magnum opus, so I guess I am biased. However, I have noticed something over the years.
For better or worse, the things that irritate me the most evoke my creativity and inner muse. I am finding it impossible to shake the notion that complacency is the sworn enemy of all artistic endeavors. What else could drive people to go the lengths they do in order to share a sentiment, a thought, or a vision? With six out of a hundred twenty chapters complete, that must mean I have achieved five percent vexation.
There is so much to be upset with in the world though, that the other ninety-five percent should be easy to find.
I have done some careful planning on the idea of an epic comic (epic poem + comic strip) and come to the conclusion that one will have to come after the other. A comic strip on the scale that I am looking to do (a maximum of 10,000 panels) would require somewhere between ten to twenty volumes, given the physical limitations that printed book can have.
Phase one will be to finish writing the epic poem (a maximum of 10,000 lines of verse). My target for this is to have it complete before I turn 31 (my next prime birthday). Certainly feasible, given that everything is set up for it, including Affect Engineering.
Phase two will be the comic strip illustration aspect that incorporates the epic poem. Making it available as a web-comic would seem to be the logical route to go before the next prime birthday (37).
Thirty lines of verse and then five illustrated panels per day. They both seem within reach.
Famous last words . . .
A while ago, a chapter sample was promised. Unfortunately, that was before I came to the conclusion that obtaining electronic rights for some of my sources would be next to impossible. So no chapter sample yet, you will just have to buy the whole book if you want to see it, though I may figure some way around this chapter sample dilemma given enough time.
In other news, I made some major headway on the epic comic (comic strip + epic poetry). The epic poem actually has a coherent plot now. This has done wonders for me and made it easier to write. I do not know how anyone can write a story without a plot. Reading someone’s stream of consciousness would probably be just as difficult if not harder. Expect to see more epic comics integrated in the site posts.
