How to Succeed in Evil by Patrick E. McLean

the book is done done. everthing- pencil, inks, lettering, i wish we could have colored it.
but time is a bitch and she likes to run from you laughing. i’m happy with the book except for page 20. oh, page 20 i don’t like thee. well i like two panels on the page but the resst i would change and will change when i get the book back before we get a contract with image or some other comic company. every artist is their own worst critic, but i don’t know what you’ll think when you see the page or the book. i’m just worried about two people seeing it honestly. erik williams and chris brunner, the two people i’m in a constant pissing contest with. overall i’m still geeking over the fact that we have a comic book.

evil

n i c

Artists get sketchbooks. You get to see them play with and evolve ideas as they bring characters to life. And you are also provided with an intimate insight into the way they draw. And writers get…

(let’s try one more time to stick a landing with that sentence.)

And writers get…

Nothing. Writer get nothing. And readers and fans get no insight into the choices a writer makes when constructing a story. In his excellent book “On Writing” Stephen King showed a rough draft that he had revised – but that only tells you about diction. It’s much harder to show why your main character DIDN’T beat the other guy to death with a hockey stick in chapter 4. Or what would have happened if an essential bit of foresight was missing

Which is why I did a podcast. The podcasts are sketches for the finished product. Sure, they’re also a way to generate excitement and see if anybody else likes the idea – but what I used it for was to flesh out the characters and test ideas. To sketch a few arcs/scenes of a larger story and see if/how/why they work.

And these sketches/podcasts provided me with the information and confidence I needed to make How to Succeed in Evil actually happen and not suck.

the pencils are done. time to move on to the fun and after that the bright lights and funny smells at the heroes con.

i’d like to thank starbucks, patrick, nietzsche and the mighty wonder showzen.

hopefully i’ll see you all at a con. near you. if you see me or patrick, give us a little pat on the bottum for a job well done.

back to the grind baby

n i c

Next comes inking and then coloring – but the first issue is drawn. Here are a few glimpses. (more…)

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“Let me see if I understand this. Your company is overrun by Zombies of your own making?”

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Edwin offers a brilliant evil scheme, but his client is wooed by a guy with a magic rattle.

What can you say about Topper? He’s Edwin’s lawyer. He’s very short. His appetities and temper are tremendous. He lusts after everything a man can lust after – power, women, money. He’s violent, mercurial, emotional — he’s Dr. McCoy to Edwin’s Mr. Spock. Except that nobody was ever afraid of Dr. McCoy. But Topper? He’ll stab you in the neck with a pen.

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Topper takes matters into his own hands.

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Sometimes dirty work is good for business.

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Topper wants to know why they don’t get to have bitches and bling. He doesn’t use those words to ask Edwin – but that’s what he’s wondering.

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Talk about your dead-end jobs. You think Henchmen get full dental. You think they get any dental? Let’s see what happens when Edwin runs the show.

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Complicity is the best defense. Edwin co-ops Agent Tupwaddle with the force of truth.

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What’s more evil than an insurance company? Well, nothing.

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Edwin revenges himself upon the Cromoglodon. (And revenge is a dish best served profitable.)

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Not even a beloved sport can offer Edwin a respite from his clients. Topper lives up to his reputation.

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Evil Masterminds – don’t fool yourselves, they’re not that smart. Edwin finally gets to play golf.

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Edwin struggles with the lunacy of Brainitar, Amazing Man and the indignities of wrongful arrest.

Inspiration sans hope

So I had an idea for a comic that I thought was very good. But I didn’t have anybody to help me with it. (In fact, I would have bet a large amount of money that there wasn’t a decent comic book artist in Charlotte.) Despair prevailed.

The Snake River Canyon Jump

Some months later, in January 2005, I launched the Seanachai. It was concieved as a podcast of original fiction. Non-fiction crept in because audio essays are cool. But the thrust of the thing was a new short story every week. It’s the Snake River Canyon Jump of writing stunts. I just wanted to see if I could do it.

A Hungry Beast

So the Seanachai consumed material as fast as I could develop it. And eventually my thoughts turned back to How to Succeed in Evil. It seemed a little weird to do a comic with no pictures – but I decided to write it as if I was trying to communicate the idea to a comic book artist. Basically to inspire someone to draw the comic.

A Losing Bet

So not only was there a good artist in Charlotte, he lived across the street from me. Here I thought that only through the magic of the internet would I connect with someone who could bring the vision to life. I mean surely, no one with talent and vision and a work ethic would loiter in the graphic arts mecca of Charlotte, NC. Discovering Nic has led me to wonder what else I’m grossly mistaken about.

The Rest

I’d like to say that the rest is history. But it’s not. The rest is now.

A gifted expert in the field of biorobotics who transplanted his brain from perfectly good body into a multifunction pod, then went insane when he developed an itch he couldn’t scratch because he was on a limb he no longer had. In Edwin’s words, “Evil? Assuredly. Genius? Absolutely not.”

Think the Hulk, but dumber. (Yes, I said dumber.) He’s so amazingly destructive and unstoppable that law enforcement has a standing rule to leave him alone. Whenever they attempt to stop him it only causes more damage.