The Echoboy Comic

Kind words from Paul Jessup

2007-11-01T20:02:00.000-04:00

Paul Jessup gave a shout out and some kind words to Echoboy on his blog:

"Absolutely surreal and poetic and fantastical and amazing."

THANKS PAUL!

Here's his full post.

I recently discovered Paul in a post on Jeff VanderMeer's blog: Conversations with the Bookless: Paul Jessup.

VanderMeer linked to one of Paul's stories: Apple Magick, which made me woozy upon reading it. Woozy from its freedom with form. I myspace stalked Paul and sent him an email to let him know that he'd helped me figure out what to do post-Echoboy. Which is to write bunches and bunches of mytho-speculative short stories.

Which I'm going to go plink around on now for half an hour.

Again, THANKS PAUL!

Echoboy Comic Getting Rave Reviews (from my family and friends :)

2007-10-10T19:15:00.001-04:00

I've been floating the Echoboy comic around for responses and feedback. Here are some of the highlights, from my perspective :)

My Cousin:
That comic is my new favorite comic. Maybe even my new favorite book. Blinding mothafuckin rainbows, Batman. I'm blind. Yeah. That's what that comic made me say. I love the artwork, and the story's creative. I like the ashpeople a lot too. They were funny. I like the bits of humor throughout it.

My Sister:
Overall I really, really like it. And I really love the style you drew
it in. Really nice and neat and beautiful.

I'm really proud of you, (a cute embarrassing name she calls me).

My Friend Mark Bee:
I like the jerkiness. The pace and the delivery work sort of like a Native American myth, where it's fast and slow, and brings the reader into details of the story that the TELLER considers most important.

What I like:
The framed narratives, the action-driven dialogue with a few big words thrown in (they talk like my action figures used to: "get'im!"), the spots without dialog, the figures and their gracefulness (i.e. Echoboy's pelvis).

My Friend Sam:
GAR--I took a quick look at your comic and I think it's amazing--you're VERY talented.

So as soon as you're in a generous, expansive mood take a read through the Echoboy comic and tell me what you think :D. G.

Echoboy Comic FAQ

2007-10-10T19:03:00.001-04:00

Some of the questions I get I answer directly in the comments for a given page. If you're confused by a page first check the comments and you might get an explanation there.

If you have questions please send them to GFrench@Gmail.com or just comment this post.

The following questions are from my sister who's a librarian (and sister) extraordinaire in Lexington, KY, and Mark Brown, a dear old friend from Frankfort, KY. Check out his MySpace page: http://www.myspace.com/markbee for some tunes whose lyrical stylings influenced the Echoboy comic.

1) Why do the toad bone demons want to save Prometheus? To what end?
The toadbone demons believe that first and foremost Prometheus is their ticket to making a living as singers in the opera. That may not always be clear, and likely this is because I didn't realize it until about 8 seconds ago.

2) Accents? Why do they change so much?
Often I spent long periods of time not working on the Echoboy comic. And then when I came back to it and I was writing dialogue I'd hear their voices clearly, write them that way and only later realize that I'd skewed my continuity. I think there was a part of me who imagined I'd spend a great deal of time on a revision.

3) Is this a re-telling of Hades and Persephone?
To some extent, yes. Getting stolen and taken down to hell, or where ever, is not a meme(?) limited to the Hades and Persephone story though, and Echoboy certainly doesn't control the weather in the land above hell as Persephone's mother did. At one point I did imagine Echoboy collected the garbage, and his absence at this job could certainly create environmental changes. And yes, I certainly had the Hades and Persephone myth in mind as I got rolling.

4) How did Echoboy get his name? Is it because of his loud, echoing stomach?
Hrm... well, Echoboy kind of slid out of my pen one day while I was scribble-sketching at a coffee shop. I drew him and then wrote the name "echoboy" beside him. He seemed to have a larger story behind him than some of the other ruffians I'd sketched that day. Often I try to stay true to early, silly impulses, and calling him Echoboy was one of those. I liked the idea of hollowness too - I feel like there's a great hollowness in Echoboy that sort of spurred on his adventures.

5) How would you ideally want someone to read it, in one sitting, or maybe one episode per day?
However anyone ever happens to read this is the most awesome thing I can imagine. So let's back that question up to: yes, ideally I would like people to read this. I didn't write it with hooks at the end of each page so I don't imagine it's going to really read episodically or carry over from day to day. Plus it's all there for someone to read right now should they choose.

Echoboy page 1

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Echoboy page 2

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Echoboy page 3

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Echoboy page 4

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Echoboy page 5

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Echoboy page 6

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Echoboy page 7

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Echoboy page 8

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Echoboy page 9

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Echoboy page 10

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Echoboy page 11

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Echoboy page 12

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Echoboy page 13

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Echoboy page 14

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Echoboy page 15

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Echoboy page 16

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Echoboy page 17

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Echoboy page 18

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Echoboy page 19

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Echoboy page 20

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Echoboy page 21

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Echoboy page 22

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Echoboy page 23

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Echoboy page 24

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Echoboy page 25

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Echoboy page 26

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Echoboy page 27

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Echoboy page 28

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Echoboy page 29

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Echoboy page 31

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Echoboy page 35

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Echoboy page 36

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Echoboy page 37

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Echoboy page 38

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Echoboy page 39

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Echoboy page 40

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Echoboy page 41

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Echoboy page 42

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Echoboy page 43

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Echoboy page 44

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Echoboy page 45

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Echoboy page 46

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Echoboy page 47

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Echoboy page 48

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Echoboy page 49

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Echoboy page 50

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Echoboy page 51

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Echoboy page 52

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Echoboy page 53

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Echoboy page 54

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