My journey from comic strip creator to sci-fi novelist
I have a confession to make. The roots of my science fiction began at the pen-and-ink-blotched nascency of my original aspiration, creating the next Calvin and Hobbes. Before spit-taking your coffee and scoffing with righteous indignation, understand that I hail from a family of artists. The pie-in-the-sky notion of joining the hallowed ranks of Watterson and Schultz et al. wasn’t far-fetched to a modestly talented art school student back before the internet turned the world on its head.
Inspired by my favorite book and author, Michael Crichton’s seminal novel, Jurassic Park, I hunched over my father’s hand-me-down drawing board, sketching and inking a lab-grown dinosaur and mutant bee comic strip duo into existence with visions of syndication, fame, and notoriety dancing in my head.
As you may have guessed, this did not happen. Soon after, real-life distractions relegated my hammy, gag-filled strips to a long-forgotten, dog-eared folder labeled Bentley, tucked away in a flat file under stacks of art.
Fast-forward a couple of decades to an older, not wiser, version of myself coming across this same folder on the heels of a particularly nasty business deal going south. Sifting through reams of my inked vellum strips, xeroxes, and pencil-sketched character studies unseen for years, the insane spark to resurrect my original comic strip rekindled in my brain.
Or, I lost my mind. It depends on who you ask.
Following a year of honing the original strip using online resources and digital tech nonexistent during my initial foray, Lost Cactus, the eponymous code name of a top-secret base tucked behind a barbed-wire perimeter in the arid southwestern hinterlands reanimated in 3-panel comic strips.
In addition to Bentley and Ty (the original bee and dinosaur), I added mutants, zombies, and aliens co-mingling on the ultra-secret base managed by white-coated scientists clashing with quasi-military and corruptible bureaucratic foils. Envision M*A*S*H meets the X-Files, and you get the idea.
Cognizant of the remote chance of success, I mailed submissions to syndicates hither and yon. After too many rejection letters to count—and an interested party’s suggestion to drop the alien character—I realized wedging my creation into a shrinking comics section of a vanishing newspaper industry was a non-starter. Undaunted by the predictable setbacks, I drew upon my graphic design expertise and formatted Lost Cactus anthologies, intent on entering a self-publishing industry at its primitive inception.
Desiring to stretch my creative muscles beyond rote comic compendiums, I stuffed the full-color anthologies with liner notes, pop quizzes, artwork, essays, and short stories from within a burgeoning Lost Cactus shared universe. In retrospect, my early attempts at writing are indeed cringe-worthy. However, those strange tales laid the groundwork for a host of memorable characters and sci-fi plots foundational to The Powers That Be trilogy and beyond.
Could I have predicted my path from comic strip creator to science fiction novelist from the start? Thereby avoiding the numerous inevitable pitfalls, dead-ends, and failures. First off, no. Where would the fun be in that? Second, life is messy and unpredictable by design, which makes it worth living and writing about.
A note about my writing process
Researching the sometimes controversial topics and principles underlying my science fiction has expanded my armchair knowledge to a deeper, albeit limited, grasp of a host of subjects—Omega Point, artificial intelligence, trans- and posthumanism, the Fermi Paradox, and the Fibonacci Rule, to name-drop just a few. Furthermore, the artful inclusion of historical people, places, and events in my writing lend invaluable credence to the out-of-this-world narratives.
A final thought
Humankind’s place in the universe is an astonishing mystery to behold. Embrace your inner skeptic and dare to explore beyond what constitutes as common knowledge. That is where the fun begins.
See you in the funny papers.
A shared universe of Lost Cactus and The Powers That Be sci-fi action-adventure content featuring John’s eclectic human and non-human cast in graphic novels and fascinating sequels to the PTB trilogy are in the works.
Stay tuned and keep an eye on the sky.
