Jeremy
Folks, today is the start of another week, and another new chapter in the journey of John Stanisci’s career as a writer and artist. As mentioned in previous mailers, John and I came to be introduced by way of a Kickstarter campaign to introduce his original creation, the high concept and character rich world of LIFEDEATH. John’s writing and art have grown tremendously since that time, and below you will be introduced to the character that not only represents that growth in story, but have the first look at some of my favorite pages John has drawn to date. For those who have been following along up to now, I think you’ll enjoy today’s insight. For those of you who are new here, you’re in for a treat…
John
Ibsen said writers only really write about one or two things. Basically, the point being that the same themes recur in all writer’s stories. I never really thought about it in my own work until recently but, if true, then surely one of those themes is: lost children searching for the parents.
I started looking through all my written work and, sure enough, there it was. That recurring theme was there in many of the stage plays I’ve written, some TV scripts (more on that another day), and in my written comic work.
Last year, Jeremy and I premiered a new comic series co created and drawn by the AMAZING Emma Kubert called FOUNDLINGS about a bunch of special needs kids, long abandoned by their parents, who are called upon to save the world. (BTW, we are going to have some exciting new info on FOUNDLINGS come the new year so please stay tuned !!). So, there’s that theme.
And now LIFEDEATH.
It honestly didn’t occur to me as I have been writing and drawing the story, that this recurring theme of ‘lost children’ was playing SO prominently in the series…until recently.
So, the new series is told through the lens of Dr. Meredith Ross, meta psychiatrial scientist from Earth, who has come to Mars to find her mentor, the fugitive scientist Emil Heydrich, and bring him to justice.
Meredith lost her Mom to cancer when she was a child. Her father, Dr. Morris Ross, overwhelmed with grief at the loss of his wife, spends his life as a past life regression therapist, searching for answers about the afterlife . Young Meredith finds herself emotionally shut out by her father and finds ways to be near him as he becomes obsessed with his research into past life regression.
Soon, Meredith’s Father becomes convinced that the afterlife is real…and decides to test his theories out on himself. He kills himself, promising Meredith he is not really ‘dying’; but simply transferring his consciousness to another place. He swears to find a way to contact her to let her know he , and her mother, are safe.
That contact never happens and Meredith spends her adult life pursuing answers about the afterlife.
Years later, Meredith connects up with Emil Heydrich, a scientist who believes that he can successfully transfer a person’s soul from their body, ‘transmit’ that soul into the afterlife, and then successfully ‘retrieve’ that soul and return it to its human host. Heydrich recruits Meredith to aid him in his efforts.
They ‘experiment’ on dozens of volunteer test subjects, but their efforts are a dismal failure and they only succeed in killing scores of their test subjects. Heydrich and Meredith’s work is deemed illegal and Meredith is arrested and sentenced to life behind bars.
Heydrich escapes the Earth authorities, finding refuge by a government on Mars that believes Heydrich’s work is the next step in the evolution of mankind.
Meredith is sent to Mars, along with a full military detachment, to find Heydrich and bring him back to Earth to face justice. As she and the crew reach Mars, they are attacked. Meredith’s husband and the crew are all killed. The ship that carries her crash lands on the Martian surface and Meredith soon finds herself alone, and on the run, on this foreign planet.
Dr. Heydrich, meanwhile, has discovered an ancient Martian city, buried deep under the surface of the planet. A city where the Afterlife interface was originally created.
As the new LIFEDEATH series opens, Meredith has joined up with a rogue Martian military leader who is determined to hide Heydrich and his afterlife tech from the occupying Earth forces.
A massive electrical storm emanates from the location where Heydrich disappeared; a storm that threatens to engulf the entire planet and wipe out all life on Mars.
Meredith will have no choice but to try to enter into the storm, all in hopes of finding Heydrich and, possibly, a way to combat the storm. But, what Meredith doesn’t realize is…the heart of the storm is the afterlife itself and there many surprises that will await her there…including the father she has searched for all her life….
That’s it for now folks! We will have another installment of this come the new year, along with a bunch of new art from LIFEDEATH for all of you to feast your eyes on!
Thanks for following!!