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Posted by:

idealcomics

Date:

March 6th, 2007 12:55 PM

Header:

Zing Comics Info #5 - Radical Edition...

Bulletin:

In celebration of the recent news that the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles arcade game is headed to the XBox Live Arcade, I will end this paragraph with a hearty cowabunga.

Let's see, dudes. What is on the tubular agenda today? Ah yes. Scars of the Past. This story has a history. Be forewarned. This might take a little while.

A long time ago, my cohort and I were sitting in a restaurant at 2:00 a.m. A bit before that we had found ourselves in a similar booth at another restaurant trying to decide whether we wanted to start a comic company or continue taking the abuse of rejection letters.

I won't ruin our decision, but it should be fairly obvious.

The next step, however, was deciding what our first title would be. We had already decided that we wanted to publish a graphic novel, but we weren't sure which one of our stories would show our universe off the best. We knew that we had one shot to grab your attention and we wanted to be sure that we did.

So it was, we found ourselves sitting in a booth at a restaurant at 2:00 a.m. We started by throwing ideas back and forth. What would work well as the first story. What would exemplify our goals and our mission. How could we best show the world who we were and what Ideal Comics was all about.

It was then that Rhys threw the idea of Reason to Believe my way. He had pitched it to me a few weeks before that, but then it had been a very bare bones story, without a lot of meat and not a lot of themes. I believe he based it on something that happened to his wife or one of her friends or something.

However, this time, he told me a little bit about what the story was actually about. This included the plot, the themes and the message. I loved it.

Of course, a few months later, things fell through and the book was never finished. But that's a story for a whole other post.

Anwyay, I've told you that story for a reason. That's because, Scars of the Past came out of the pages of Reason to Believe.

See, we have a hero names Elastus. Or Elastis. Or something. You'd have to ask Rhys. He named him. Anyway, we have this hero, who fights crime throughout the eighties and nineties. He's a staple of the hero community. He is an example that all the other heros strive to acheive.

Or you would think so.

Underneath all of that, lies a black heart. He is, in truth, a very bad man. He's guilty of numerous crimes, including racketeering, gambling and, most importantly for our purposes, spousal abuse.

Near the beginning of Reason to Believe, we learn about Ophelia, Elastis' battered wife. It's really just a side-note that provides the foundation for the rest of the story. I don't even think more than a page is given to Ophelia and Elastis. But, the events are powerful. At least, I thought so.

I wanted to see more of Ophelia. I know that abuse doesn't go away. Yes, the abused can move on and they can get out of the relationship and they can truly make an incredible life for themselves afterward. But the "scars of the past" never really go away.

Ophelia may have gotten out of the relationship and started to rebuild her life, even going as far as to start helping other women who are in the same situation. But the hurt never really heals totally.

And that's the story I wanted to tell. I think it came out great.

As always, you can discuss this and other Zing stories on our forums.

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