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| The color cover for The End of Paradise |
The End of Paradise was a project I developed when The Champion City Fire came to a complete halt during the end of 2009. Joe Haemmerle, the artist for The Champion City Fire, was in college and didn't have time to work on the webcomic. I put that series on hold and decided to start another story which became The End of Paradise.
This was my first attempt at recruiting a total stranger to be my artist. I spent some time during the beginning of 2010 looking for an artist and discovered two talented artists, Kav and Victor Pozzi. I couldn't say yes to one and let the other one get away, so I created a project for each artist. Both are my friends to this very day, which is something truly wonderful and amazing. Their work for Champion City Comics has been wonderful and their work has truly progressed over the years.
Kav was the artist and letterer for The End of Paradise, a crime noir revenge tale. I discovered him via Digital Webbing and was impressed with his work. Kav's artwork featured some crime themed projects, plus he was a fan of Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips' Criminal. How could it go wrong?
Before we move along any further, here's the synopsis of The End of Paradise: Nick Hamilton, a former small-time criminal, is on a serious revenge mission to kill Frankie Paradise, a notorious mob boss responsible for the death of an innocent man and his family. Joining Nick on his mission is Marshall Jackson, a weapons dealer, and The Kid, a teenage prophet and gun for hire. Nick, Marshall, and The Kid must take out Paradise's henchmen in order to get to their main target, Frankie Paradise.
It should have been a 50 to 75 page graphic novel, but it ended up becoming a 138 page monster of a story that was not even close to ending despite Kav's best efforts to have me "wrap it up, dude". Kav and I agreed to put a hold on the story nearly one year after stating our epic adventure to work on another project, which I'll write about in a later post. We never went back to the story to finish it, but we thought about starting over from the beginning with a new title, new script, colored pages, and digital lettering.
The End of Paradise is a very good story, and I admit as a writer there are some flaws with the script which are totally my fault. Kav did an amazing job with the art and lettering, and we did everything in our power to promote the hell out of this story. We even offered it to publishers and sadly we never received any responses. C'est la vie.
The End of Paradise was a story that I made up as I went along without any true plans for an ending. Yes, there was a rough outline and I pretty much ignored it because I had new ideas for the story popping up in my head on a daily basis. I'd write 8 to 10 pages, send them to Kav, and then he'd send me the finished pages asking for more. I'd write another 8 to 10 pages and the cycle went on for roughly 138 pages. By that point, Kav was ready to wrap it up or try another project as a change of pace.
Kav was - and still is - great at offering script advice. Working with him made me a better writer and he provided me with some tips that I still use today when developing a story.
If you're interested, then check out the epic crime tale that is The End of Paradise. You'll like it because it's awesome.
Tony Wright is the owner of Champion City Comics. Follow him on Twitter @TonyDougWright.
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