The idea of what would become The Paranormals popped into my head one evening back in 2003 while laying on my floor, staring up at the ceiling. I’d completed my first attempt at writing in a comic-book format about a year before with my preview story Kurai Tenshi: The Dark Angels but I hadn’t yet attempted a full-fledged complete comic as yet.

"The Paranormals #1" is on sale now.(Click to Order)

Since finishing the Dark Angels in 2002, I’d written a few spec scripts for Shazam!, a feature film version of the Dark Angels (my first screenplay which is admittedly horrible and will never be shown to anyone) and had written out some treatments for major arcs with Green Lantern (which DC writer Geoff Johns seems to have ripped from my brain) and a few other characters. They were all dreams; dreams of what I would do if I was getting paid to write their adventures instead of someone else. Nevertheless, I was looking to find another brand-new concept to build from the ground up.

At the time I was teaching English and in class we were reading Ender’s Game (a fantastic book if you’ve never read it.) I began to notice an interesting dynamic related to the subtext of the story between the sadistic passion of Peter (Ender’s brother), the too empathetic Valentine (Ender’s sister), and Ender himself who was a balance of the other two. I came to realize that these three characters reflected the idea of the id, ego, and super-ego, and by extension, the idea of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. At the same time, the disappointments that were The Matrix Reloaded and Revolutions were in the zeitgeist and I noticed a similar dynamic between Neo, Morpheus, and the aptly named Trinity.

And then came the night I was laying on the floor staring at the ceiling and the idea of three interesting yet broken individuals popped into my head.

Jenni, Jai, and Mason. (Click to Order)

Originally The Paranormals saw life as a spec TV pilot script. After I came up with the idea I took it to two people I trust with story telling chops to help develop it. Soon, the three characters began to come to life: Mason Lynch, the well meaning, slightly bumbling, but ultimately effective private investigator; Andre Jai, the dark, loner, demonhunting anti-hero; and Jenni Mi Huen, a girl with a past…and a future from which no one it seems will let her escape.

We developed the story with television in mind, so we designed a large, season-spanning story in five major arcs, each with a theme, that would lead our characters through the peaks and valleys of their attempts to save humanity. A lot of work to do for no promise of any financial return, but hey, it’s a passion.

The concept was pitched and eventually was optioned, and then the option lapsed. It has always been well-received, but unless you’re one of the lucky ones, getting your stuff read is an uphill battle. A fight worth fighting, but still a fight. So while sitting around waiting for the dollar bills to roll in, I realized that you can’t just sit around and wait for the dollar bills to start rolling in. And after all, screenplays and television scripts aside, I moved to LA in the first place to help raise my chances of breaking into the comic book industry. The Dark Angels experience went well enough, so while the Paranormals pilot was sitting on the shelf gathering dust, I figured I might as well do something with it. This time though it would be full length, not a 16-page preview. A real comic. And I would have a clear path marked out for where the series would head should it take off.

I took the teleplay and rewrote it with sequential art in mind (an interesting process in what works and what doesn’t depending on the medium you’re working in. Perhaps a blog for another day.) Then the search for an artist whose style matched what I had in my head began. Luckily I was able to find, rather quickly, a ridiculously amazing artist, Russell Fox, and we began hashing out the comic. Eventually I was able to find an equally incredible cover artist Christopher Shy, and my eleventh hour savior disguised as a letterer, Leah Novak, both from Studio Ronin to round out the team. It was a years long journey. And now we are here today…

So what are my hopes?

I hope you buy it.

Someone...or something...lurks in Scotland. (Click to Order)

I hope you tell your friends, family, relatives, and even your enemies about it.

And I hope you give it a chance.

In The Paranormals there will be running, there will be jumping, and there will be explosions. I can’t help it. I’m a guy and it’s written in my DNA. But I’d like to think I’m smart about it. There’s talking. Lots of talking. Why? Because as I sat down to write I discovered that I love these characters and who they are and what they are about maybe just a little bit more than if they actually do end up saving the world. They are human, they are broken, they are real. Even if the situations around then are ridiculously extreme.

So why this long-winded blog post/story?

I tell you all of this because it has been a journey. The 32 pages of comic book that I hope you read is the summation of years of work, money down the drain, working multiple jobs at once (hey mon!), starting, stopping, quitting, and quitting again. But I’ve also gotten the chance to meet some really cool people along the way that I otherwise would never have met. All that and I still have a cool spec script for the pilot just waiting to be read.

So, after all this time…”The Paranormals” has finally arrived.

I hope you enjoy it.

The Paranormals #1 is now on sale at Indy Planet and available for ordering. Comic shop retailers can order copies here.

And remember, until you receive your issue you can also check out a preview of the first five pages here, while waiting in anticipation for the first issue of the worlds latest supernatural epic to arrive at your doorstep.

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