In the midst of all this talk and excitement about UNDERTOWN, I am happy to report that those wanting to get a little Jim Pascoe fix, can snatch up a copy of CTHULHU TALES: TAINTED. This new anthology from BOOM! Studios, features my short, "Black Sun."

I wrote this story with a different approach in mind. I may have written here before that I think short comics stories are nothing like prose short stories, because in 6-12 pages, you don't have the space for a lot of stuff. So short comics end up being better structured as jokes -- which is not to say they need to be FUNNY, but it should be set-up/punchline, not a mini three act structure!

Well, with "Black Sun," I've opted for a different structural model -- the rock song. Even folksy narrative-based songs, from Bob Dylan to Nick Cave, don't belabor the story with much set-up, backstory, or any fat whatsoever. And that doesn't take into account the NON-narrative based songs, like let's say Alice in Chains or Tool. What you get is a number of oblique verses talking about a subject, a character, a scene ... and a repeating chorus to drive home a central image or theme. Ideal, a song like this should suggest something to you -- a feeling, an image, a moment.

Apparently someone thought it worked out all right. Check out this review by Andrea Speed:

"My favorite story in here is probably 'Black Sun', but it's also the most puzzling story, as it's an extremely hallucinatory, trippy vignette that seems to make the unholy madness of Cthulu synonymous with drug addiction. Or does it? Is it madness in drug form? Is it a picture of someone's damaged psyche? You’ll have to read it a couple of times, and you may not be certain, but damn, it's full of wonderfully creepy imagery."

Fly from me fall, fall, fall.

Labels: Boom Studios, chtulhu, comics