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About Mud Walker and Wooden Iguana

The Wooden Iguana comic book began largely because people tend to tell me their life stories. I don't know why they feel compelled to tell me these things, but they do. And, make no mistake about it, these are some fascinating stories. I'd kicked around the idea for a particular book when I finally got around to reading The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay ... and if you haven't read that ... GO! GO NOW! But what Michael Chabon's book was missing was the comic book itself. He talks about the origin of comics in an engaging way, even for the non-comic book geek, but there was no art inside the book, just words. I began working on a novel and hoped that I would be able to convince a publishing company to hire a comic book artist to insert some comic book pages into the story. A story about a couple of regular people, one a comic book script writer, who decide they're agents of Karma.

Then, life played a funny trick on me and I found myself out of work, away from a job I loved more than anything: teaching first year college students how to write academic essays. I know, I wouldn't want to take the damn class either, but I tried to make the class as interesting as possible for my students. Some thought I was a great teacher ... some thought I was Satan incarnate. Regardless, I was suddenly without that all-consuming passion. The book languished ... I didn't want to write a book about some self-appointed agents of Karma when I wanted nothing more than to serve some instant Karma up myself.

Now ... I'm using The Wooden Iguana to introduce a few characters. Disparate folks who have - seemingly - nothing in common. The common thread for this short series is simply the telling of some life stories. Many of these characters will gather again in the main comic book, and the novel: Mud Walker.

For now ... please enjoy these lies more accurate than truth ... The Wooden Iguana



Main | Prologue >>

March 27, 2007

Cover

Notes:


The cover is pretty varied. The sand was done in Photoshop, much of the background was done in Illustrator. The rocketship was a piece of playground equipment that many kids of the 70s remember fondly. That was sketched in pencil, scanned and then coloured in Photoshop. A little bit of everything here. :)

Posted by Mud at March 27, 2007 09:47 AM | Wooden Iguana, Issue 1

Comments

ahhhh, Michael Chabon... I needed to research Michael and his work for a gallery show. This is a nice spot you have here, and an interesting mind I do believe. Nice to meet you.

Posted by: Judith HeartSong at June 28, 2007 06:29 AM

Wow, you have lots of time.
Maybe I'm just too impatient. :P

Posted by: Dizzy Dee at July 11, 2007 03:28 PM

Wow! The Rocketship slide, where was this one located? They had one in Riverside Park in Wichita KS for years. Around the '80s(?) they closed off the upper levels because kids could slip through the bars and fall. Anyway, that's what I recall. Here a couple years back there was talk of removing it altogether, but I couldn't tell if they did or not. I know there was a big uproar about it, nostalgia and all. I just had never seen one anywhere else.

Posted by: Moonshadow at September 23, 2007 01:11 AM