Commentary added April, 2017

 

 

 

 

Below you will find:

 

Introduction

Trivia

New Cover

 

(contains spoilers)

 


 

Introduction

 

Before I began work on Desert Dreams I knew how I wanted it to start and how I wanted it to end...

but everything in between was "fuzzy."

 

Nowadays, I write out an entire comic, frame by frame before anything is created visually.

This was not the case with Desert Dreams and all the other older comics.  While that might not be much of a problem

for a 50-page comic, the lack of a solid plan shows more clearly in this 181-page story spread over 7 chapters.

In contrast, No Rest for the Righteous was written, chapter by chapter, before pages were made and the results show.

 

I don't think Desert Dreams is a bad comic at all but after re-reading it for the first time in many years I see many ways

I could have written things better for improved pacing and clarity.

 

 

 

 

Trivia

 

 

Thankfully, this did NOT happen!

Datton's original hair was becoming an issue with newer software and prior to starting Desert Dreams

I created and shared many prototype Dattons with new hairdos, including the embarrassingly bad one seen above.

All of these new looks were generally frowned upon by comic readers so I decided to keep

using the same old hair despite the technical issues.

(And thanks to all of those who talked me out of using the hair in the image above!)

 

The Arena scenes were complex, especially back when I had weaker hardware

software.  To reduce the strain on my computer, Datton was given a helmet

so I could get ride of 90% of his hair and save resources.

 

I knew that if I made a 5th Datton comic that I would absolutely

need to part with the old, tech-troubled hair.

The merger with the angel was the excuse for his new look, though

that has been more or less retconned.

The next Datton comic saw different hair, the one that is still used.

 

I lived in Phoenix, AZ when I started to create this comic.

 

The demon attacks represent terrorism attacks and there are

visual and written allusions to real-life parallels.

 

Drake's role was minimized and he's never seen with Datton.

This was due to technical issues.  For whatever ever reason, my software

would crash after each and every frame rendered with Datton and Drake

together.  I tolerated this for their scenes together in Lad of the Dead but

decided to write him out early in Desert Dreams.

 

The Lion's Den Arena was not meant to be such a large part of the comic,

however, people were liking the arena scenes so I spent more time there than I had originally planned.

 

 

San'jeet is aware of Kelvin true nature and even warns Datton.

Though it's not clearly stated San'jeet and Kelvin had a loose alliance

and were using each other for their own agendas.

 

 

 

 

New Cover

 

 

I recreated the cover, keeping the same basic look.

 

Three versions of the cover:  2006, 2011, and 2017.

 

 

 

 

 

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