Luckily, I Happen to Know an Amazing Illustrator

In between books two and three of the Revenge Artist series, I tried my hand at writing for comics. I completed the script of the first episode of a projected series along with many pages of notes detailing the overall story concept, character background, and other technical information (it is a sci-fi dystopian tale, after all). It’s called The Adventures of Red Literal and the Apocalyptic Twins. Episode #1: For Whom the Bell Tolls.

I want to say that writing for comics is easier than writing a novel; however, I won’t because I wouldn’t want to take anything away from, well, writers of novels like myself … but it does take less time. This makes sense, of course, because writing the script is only half the job. Someone still needs to illustrate it (and I want to say that illustrating may actually be more than half the work, but I won’t, because I don’t want to take anything away from, you know, writers of comics).

Luckily, I happen to know an amazing illustrator, my sister, Theresa Ysiano.

After discussing my story concept with her, she immediately agreed to partner with me on the project. Only then, and with earnest (the intent, not the person), did I begin to write (Theresa appreciates a good pun).

The next phase of the project is currently in her very capable hands. In the meantime, I thought I’d share a little behind the scenes work.

Red looks like she could be in her late teens or early twenties, but she behaves like someone much older and wiser.

Imagine a young, Last Crusade Indiana Jones, only he’s a girl. Physically…think, Daisy Ridley as Rey in The Force Awakens, but with hips.

Here are the first three pages of the script, accompanied by some of Theresa’s sketches:

RED LITERAL AND THE APOCALYPTIC TWINS EPISODE #1 FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS WRITTEN BY: PHILIP HOY ILLUSTRATED BY: THERESA YSIANO
PAGE ONE
SPLASH PAGE:		Close-up of RED wielding sword. Her face is revealed clearly. It is a beautiful face, but it is the determined, manic face of a killer. Her long black hair is pulled back in a ponytail. What kind of enemy RED has just sliced through is not necessarily obvious, though something humanoid. There is blood splashed across her face and sword.
1.     CAPTION:		Her name was Red.
2.     CAPTION:		At least that’s what her friend had called her.
3.     CAPTION:		Michael had watched her kill over thirty of them, maybe more.
PAGE TWO
PANEL ONE:		In the foreground is the silhouette of RED as seen from behind sitting cross-legged in front of the fire, holding a sword across her lap. Just the edge of her cheek and face are visible. In the background on the other side of the campfire from her are MICHAEL and GABBY wrapped in sleeping bags. MICHAEL is watching RED through half-closed lids. GABBY seems to be asleep.
4.     CAPTION:		Now, it just didn’t seem possible.
PANEL TWO:		Close-up on RED’s face. The long black hair that had been pulled tightly behind her head that morning is now loose, tangled and hanging wildly over her shoulders and about her pale, oval face. There is a faraway, unfocused look in her enormous dark eyes.
5.     CAPTION:		She looked too young, too fragile…
PANEL THREE:		Close-up of MICHAEL and GABBY, better revealing their age and the similarity of their features. MICHAEL is watching RED intently, pretending to sleep. GABBY is more obviously asleep.
6.     CAPTION:		…too beautiful to be capable of such destruction.
PAGE THREE
PANEL FOUR:	Medium shot from MICHAEL’s POV of RED aglow in the firelight sitting cross-legged on top of her sleeping bag and wearing no more than her jeans and t-shirt. With her left hand she is holding the sword across her lap and with her right hand she is sliding a small, square whetstone not much larger than a matchbox along the length of the blade.
7.       SOUND:	S-h-i-n-g
PANEL FIVE:	CLOSE-UP of her hand lifting the grey stone toward her face.
PANEL SIX:	EXTREME CLOSE-UP of the stone held to her chin as she spits saliva on it with the tip of her tongue.
PANEL SEVEN:	MULTIPLE IMAGE SHOT of RED sliding stone along the length of the sword.
8.       SOUND:	S-h-i-n-g
9.    CAPTION:	As she steadily, rhythmically, slid the stone along the length of the blade, the sound of scraping metal rose and receded like waves on a beach.
PANEL EIGHT:	CLOSE-UP of whetstone on sword in the extreme foreground with MICHAEL’s face looking on in the background.
10.     SOUND:	S-h-i-n-g
11.  CAPTION:	Each time the stone left the tip of the blade there was a delicate, distant ringing, like the sound of a faraway bell carried on the wind.
PANEL NINE:	MOVE-IN on MICHAEL’s face, eyes closing.
12.     SOUND:	S-h-i-n-g
13.  CAPTION:	Like the sound Michael and his sister had heard that morning, the sound that had led them…to her.

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For more Theresa Ysiano: Here is her Website and her Instagram.