Little Story, Big Story

I think I read an interview with Neil Gaiman once where he was talking about his masterwork, "The Sandman". In the interview, he talked about how he figured that DC would cancel the Sandman after about 12 issues. So, initially, Gaiman only planned out the first 12 issues of the series, made sure the first arc was more or less self contained, and tried to make a pretty kickin' arc to boot (Morpheus travels to Hell, yeah, that's pretty cool...). BUT, when he got the go ahead to continue the series, and the thing became a cult hit, Gaiman then sat down and planned the other (what's 75 minus 12... gimme a second...) 63 issues and created this massive, intricate, overlapping, overarcing story.

I ain't no Neil Gaiman. I don't have notebooks full of intricate notes on how the entire series will develop over the course of X number of issues. Sure, I write myself little notes from time to time, and I sketch up new characters every now and then, but that's about the extent of it. I'm painfully disorganized, but that also means I can be fluid with my stories, instead of being bound by some sort of preordained plan, which I like.

I work in what I have decided to call the Little Story/Big Story format. Each issue of SDF is more or less self contained. You can pick up, say, my third issue, SDF: Perfect/Ugly, and read it, follow what's going on without needing to read previous issues, hopefully enjoy it, and never read another issue of SDF and not have to worry about missing the other part of some "To Be Continued..." because there was no "TBC...". On the other hand, each issue contains both minor references to previous issues (aka, my out of print Xerox comics which only a handful of people have read), as well as numerous hints towards the greater, long term story that I'm also telling. So, even though you could read only one issue of SDF and be content, it should start to become fairly obvious by now, that the more issues of SDF you read, the more developed the overarching story is becoming. I'm not saying that I'm gonna end up with some intricate comic masterpiece like Sandman or Love and Rockets, but I think once all the stories are collected they'll form one big, pretty cool story. I hope.

Which reminds me, the latest issue of SDF, Sombrero Friday, contains at least one noteworthy piece of plot development in each of the three main stories. I'm not gonna tell you what they are, but if you've got a copy, re-read it. There are plot developments afoot. Really. And if you don't have a copy, check out our online store at www.torcpress.com/comicshop.html.