Robert N. Lee and Jordan Taylor make their Shimmery debuts together in issue #17, with two completely different stories — one science fiction, and one a fairy fantasy. That’s just how Shimmer rolls, YOLO!
Robert N. Lee, “98 Ianthe”
I was doing research for Them Bones, and had to come up with a name for a New York City analog. It figures into Them Bones and is the primary setting of a sequel, Beautiful World. It’s what New York is in movies and songs and books; the dream of New York City, I guess.
I read some of the old Bernie Krigstein 87th Precinct comic books back in the eighties, when I drew comics myself. That led me to read some of the Ed McBain books the comics were based on. Which I liked, but what lingered in my mind about them for decades after was the ersatz New York City invented for the books – to save the author fact-checking, and so they could be written in weeks.
87th Precinct’s Isola is Manhattan, except it’s not. The drive from Wall Street to the Battery doesn’t have to map to the real life version, it can go as long or short as as the author wants and the reader agrees. The bridges and boroughs all have different names and live wherever the story needs them, but they’re roughly analogous to real life. The rivers run backwards. It’s so cool…
Jordan Taylor, “The Desire of All Things”
I confess. I love fairies. I love stories about fairies, even the silly kid ones. But in my favorite fairy stories, fairies are much more than winged sprites at the bottom of the garden – they’re ancient and strange and sometimes scary.