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StevePeters

Date:

November 18th, 2007 4:45 PM

Header:

RUNNER'S PARADOX now available!

Bulletin:

Steve Peters' Awakening Comics imprint was created in 1997 after he received a grant from the Xeric Foundation. He has decided to do something he's never tried before in commemoration of Awakening's 10th anniversary---releasing Runner's Paradox as his first full-color comic.

In pages of Peters' Slave Labor comic, Everwinds, a shaman encounters a walking fox carcass. Through the course of the series, the carcass comes to life, becoming a real fox, and gains a name, Runner, and a magic sword. In Peters' self-published Awakening comic, The Everwinds Awakening War, a book about apocalypse and change and rebirth, Runner sought his own rebirth, leaving Everwinds and his shaman teacher to seek out his own path.

Runner's Paradox shows where he's been since then. Mysterious and powerful entities called the Kachinabots have appointed him as the guardian of a magic multi-dimensional highway, Route 666. Bored with this job, he seeks love by approaching a girl he has a crush on, only to be painfully rejected. Depressed and feeling he has nothing left to lose, he leaves his post protecting the highway to serve on the Starship Paradox, which he thinks will bring him the adventure he craves. His thoughtless and irresponsible action results in tragedy, forcing him to deal with the consequences and to desperately try to save his own soul.

Peters reveals that Runner's Paradox is an intensely personal story. "Several years ago, I started an autobiographical Paradox comic that I eventually abandoned because the story proved to be too difficult to tell. There were events that were too painful or embarrassing to share with the world, and there were certain people that I knew would see the comic that I would rather they didn't.

"I eventually realized I could get around this problem by using my character, Runner, from Everwinds, in place of myself. By hiding behind this character, I was able to tell the story. I didn't feel obligated to depict the events exactly the way they happened, and since it was set in a fantastic environment, I was able to make some things more abstract."

Most of Runner's Paradox was drawn on 24-Hour Comic Day at Commuter Comics, a comic shop in South Orange, New Jersey. The scope of the book proved to be too ambitious, though ("When you see the amount of work that went into the drawing, you'll see what I mean", says Peters), and only 18 pages were finished. Peters went home, got some much-needed sleep, and finished the book that evening. This approach was similar to what is known as "The Kevin Eastman Variation": If you get to 24 hours and you're not done, KEEP GOING UNTIL YOU ARE (Other variations include "The Neil Gaiman Variation": If you get to 24 hours and you're not done, end it there)!

Peters adds, "The color tones were added later, of course, using Photoshop, as were the areas of solid black. There are song lyrics which appear between each row of panels; those are from my Paradox CD. They were originally handwritten much earlier for the CD liner notes; as I did the 24-hour comic I pasted xeroxes of the lyrics into place."

As with 2005's Gene Day Prize-winning Chemistry comic and soundtrack CD, Peters is selling a Paradox Soundtrack CD as a companion to Runner's Paradox. The comic is broken up into chapters; the title of each chapter is the title of a song on the CD; the mood and lyrics of each song reflects the subject of its corresponding chapter. While other artists have released comics with soundtrack CDs, it is Steve Peters' innovation to tie them together in this multi-media way. The CD has almost 1 hour of catchy songs and progressive rock; it's what Yes songs would sound like if performed by "Weird Al" Yankovic.

It is not necessary to hear the CD to enjoy the comics, nor does one have to read the comic to enjoy the songs, but if one enjoys both products together it will create a unique experience of sound, words, and pictures. As the title song proclaims, "Come aboard the Starship Paradox"!

The Paradox Soundtrack CD has been available for several years through the Awakening Comics web site. The Runner's Paradox comic book will make its debut at the Mid-Ohio Con in Columbus, Ohio on November 24-25. More information on the comic is available at the Awakening Comics web site: www.awakeningcomics.com

Images from the comic, as well as the Runner's Paradox YouTube trailer, can be seen in Steve Peters' Runner's Paradox Gallery here in ComicSpace.

PRAISE FOR RUNNER'S PARADOX

“Wrapped in musical lyrics that tie into his Paradox Soundtrack CD recording,
Runner's Paradox is Steve Peters' charming graphic expression of longing, guilt, and unrequited love on the artist’s journey… through the veil of archetypal cartoon characters.”
---David Mack
Kabuki, Daredevil, Se7en

"If you are one of the tiny percentage of human beings who deplore the hypnotic techno-media mass enslavement of modern consumer society, then you'll surely recognize something vital, spiritual, touching and very funny in Runner's Paradox and in the comics of Steve Peters. The rest of you, go back to your regular programming."
---Rick Veitch
Can't Get No, Rare Bit Fiends

PRAISE FOR THE PARADOX SOUNDTRACK CD:

"It certainly is innovative to combine a comic book and a CD in this way".
---Dave Sim
Cerebus

"I really liked Steve Peters' Paradox Soundtrack CD. It's just like his comics. Also, it reminds me of '80's Maryland/DC band 9353 and Victor Banana who did the Like a Velvet Glove Cast in Iron soundtrack.

---James Kochalka
American Elf, Super F*ckers

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