Junk
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Something odd is happening in Steadweather. People in the tiny town are coming down with a strange rust like rash, a compulsion that they can't quite understand. Until the change. They begin to rip, to tear, to cut, and become one with the junk in their life. Children fuse with their video games, gear heads with their cars. They become something new, new flesh, blissfully happy and ready to spread their joy. In a single night, nearly the whole town is changed. A few people manage to survive the initial purge, a few people lucky enough or smart enough to get away. They quickly find that the town has been sealed off by the Junkers, the survivors' former friends and family. The survivors discover that something lives in the junkyard, a new kind of life, the Junkyard God. Spawned from environmental catastrophe and human waste, it intends to fix the human race. As the survivors slowly begin to change, they come up with a desperate plan to destroy the Junkyard and save themselves, and maybe save the world.
Great Art, Love the Surreal feel. Great Stuff!
Another winner in my book! Great premise and the art is perfect for the story and wonderfully creepy.
Creepy and well-done! That panel of the girl running toward the swingset is perfect. Contrary to some other comments, I think I like it better without the synopsis! Good work fellas.
Creepy and bizarre. Kind of hard to read in places, and reading the synopsis is a definite prerequisite, but it's still my favorite this month. Awesome job, especially on the monstrosities all the other characters have turned into. I'll be lucky if I don't have nightmares about my parents coming after me with a band saw. ^^
Ok, so I went through this several times, and I have to say that this stayed with me.The story was tough to follow without the synopsis, but lot's of stories are at the begining and I would like to see more of this to see where it goes. It has a surreal nightmarish feel to it that the art captures perfectly. The panel where you reveal the parents,"familiar people,but definitely wrong", is very creepy.I love the machine following her, how it's blurred
and hard to get a focus on. Reading this gave me that uneasy feeling that a good horror movie or book would give you.It cuts to the bone, as it should.
This gets my vote. I want to see more!!
A great strip deserves a great review over at:
http://www.mpd57.blogspot.com
Y'know, this is pretty freaking great. Talented crew here. Hope to see more from you guys.
Artixclash - Thanks!
Albatross - No protagonist in these pages - this would be more or less the equivalent of the Drew Barrymore opening to Scream - it establishes the threat and the mood.
Nice, I got a nice silent hill vibe from this book. It's a maze of terror and confusion. What kind of world those jenny live in? I'm hooked...
Dear Zuda Competitors/Creators,
I recently started a Zuda fan blog, and I would love to interview all of this month’s creators. If you would be willing to answer 5-10 questions, to be posted on the Zudafan blog, please contact me at: zudafan@gmail.com.
Feel free to check out the blog: zudafan.blogspot.com
Thanks!
my one qualm is the (apparent) absence of a protagonist in the 8 screens. i realize it's a set-up and it's definitely acceptable but i feel as though if this were to continue i'd have to meet the character before i hope they stay "un-junked" and that they would save the day... i'm sure the pacing is your own and you're doing what you want with it, but i feel like there could have been a voice of hope or resistance (if that's even something you want in the story) to combat the sense of doom and peace in the end of humanity. just throwin' my two cents around. good luck!
RachlemaRie - Thanks! I tried to make the narrator at least understandable in motivation, so that's a big compliment.
Amazing! The terror you feel for Jenny is equal to the sympathy and almost understanding you feel for the Narrator.
Justin - noticed you'd mentioned a list of artists to contact; I'm interested if you're still looking. I don't have a webpage or anything set up but if you'd like to email me I can send samples. nathanoox@hotmail.com
Mighke - Thanks! I'm glad you kept going after the first four. ;)
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les138 - I'm hoping it festers, I mean grows, on some more people.
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Quandry - Cool! We aim to please. Or horrify. You know, whichever.
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Hairballone - It took me a couple of tries to get the narration where I wanted it. I was inentionally trying to get a rhytym of something that's intelligent but not human.
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Illinest - Viva la Pennsylvania!
Alright. Here's now I know you got a good thing here: Through the first four pages I was hating on your story so much I almost quit reading it. On page five I got hooked, and by page eight I completely loved your submission.
I'm not really a horror comic guy (I've always been more into the superheroes stuff) but you've given me an appreciation for the genre. Thanks and Good Luck.
Simply amazing ideas. This one is growing on me.
Good gravy... the artwork is incredible. Sort of gives me that whole Silent Hill 2 vibe in the very best of ways. This eight-page spread was just enough to really pique my interest.
Heck yeah! This is a great read. Refreshing take on familiar themes, ("Body Snatchers" springs to mind). Art is spectacular, writing is a bit, uh, poetic? (That's a compliment). Color me intrigued. More, please.
man you only live like, an hour and a half from me.
Spencer - Thanks , man! Hey, you've been on my list of artists to contact about working with. If you read this, shoot me an email at justinjordan at gmail, if you feel like it.
The art caught my eye, it was the first comic I checked out this month. Very IDW horror looking which I like, but the 8 pages were very hard to follow what was happening, where it was leading. So I read the synopsis and loved the synopsis. Good luck this month, if you win I looked forward to see how the survivors save the world.
Steve - Thanks for the input!
i like the concept a whole lot... I'm not sure the writing is fleshed out enough in these 8 pages though. I like the art a lot, even though it's hard to see details on all the creatures. The art gives off a creepy atmosphere which is excellent.
Miniblog 8/11/08 - Horror in Comics
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What comics can do, very well, is straddle the middle ground of imagination. Less linear and straightforward than movies, but less dependent on the imagination of the reader than books.
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Yes, less dependent can be a good thing. Some people can't imagine the truly horrible. It's a situation where a drawing can evoke the imagination, set them off on the path you want them going on in their mind.
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You can suggest something horrible and let the mind fill in the blanks, and you can control just how much of this is done. Doable with both movies and books, but comics is a particularly efficient at this. So the sort of horror that comics can do best are ones that get worse the more you think about it.
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Comics allow study. One of the reasons I wrote this for Sami was to take advantage of his art style. There are things in Junk that you need to study to get the whole impact of, because the art style demands it. Which is a risk. Because there are no guarantees that people will actually, you know, do that.
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Miniblog - 8/10/08 - Comic Book Horror
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It's actually surprising how much horror, especially American horror, relies on the shock scare. Something startling happens, and then bam, the screech of violins and you girlfriend/boyfriend jumps into your lap.
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Supposedly, comic books can't do this. Which is mostly true. It is actually is possible to approximate the effect in comics, although it's not often done.
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It's not just the page turn surprise (there's one of those in the Junk prologue) - if you can control the pacing of the comic long enough for the reader to unconconsciously catch the rhythm, you can affect them by breaking the rhythm. You can see a variation of this in movies - John Carpenter was really good at it in his early movies.
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What you should probably focus on in comics is mood and horror of concept - the horror of things where the very idea gets under your skin. Actually, something literally getting under your skin is a good example.
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More on horror in the next mini blog.
Dan - Thanks!
RKB - Wow, that's a great page by page. That's awesome, and I appreciate you taking the time to post it.
Cool stuff!!!!!
The art does look like templesmith or ashley wood, but i kind of liked 30 days and fell, so that's not a mark against you. It also reminds me in a way of the first 8 screens of pray for death.
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screen 1 liked the junkyard god text box thoughts. From the first screen you get the creepy factor, the panel layout really gets you to read over the page and set's you to feeling those scary vibes you were going for. The synopsis really tied in well with the comic. Good colors. The letters have pretty much got to be read in full screen -not cool for me. The art is (for this kind of style) fairly easy to follow, and you want it to be a little dark and hard to understand it helps with the mood of the story.
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screen 2 the little panel of the girl screaming was nicely done, but not really needed, I'd rather imagine the oh **** look on her face myself. A dog headed/ spider looking monster, nice 'boo' from around the corner horror movie style surprise. Damn creepy art and some of the shadows looked like Zip-a-tone??? Normally i do hate the text box thought balloons but reading how JG see's these people really added to the story. Did lovecraft ever give the thoughts of his monsters to his readers? That cool weird vibe justs keeps getting weirder.
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screen 3 Good action scene, loved the way the dog went after the girl and the yipe! The giant maw going after her and again with the deep thoughts of J.G. -which you can only read the font in full screen.
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screen 4 great perspective with the girl running away and fighting it out with the monster. I really enjoyed the layouts of the panels.
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screen 5 liked the new and never seen line. The way you handled the lights from the car and the reveal of dave as being part of his car, very creepy. Panel 2 was the best drawn, really very good. Once again jenny is fooled by the monsters she crosses paths with. I also liked the sun burst pattern behind jenny in panel 4.
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screen 6 good panel layout. I liked jenny over laid on the top two panels, and JG's on this page were very good. "This nowhere is my craddle" great stuff. "this flesh is my message" should be the tag line of the comic if you win.
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screen 7 a saw, parts of a computer, and the screen to explain the heart smilely face. I liked how you cut it down to 2 panels, and the color style change from panel 1 to panel 2.
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screen 8 liked the black and white 'I'm passing out' look to panel 1, and the ending "this is just the beginning" great cliff hanger to end on.
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I'm not that well read in manga horror, but it seems your going for a creepiness that you don't usually see in American horror vs. the products of Japan. I'm thinking of audition vs. hostel, or The ring vs. ringu.
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very impressive work folks.
Miniblog - 8/9/08
Small Town Horror - Part Two - All though it doesn't strictly relate to Junk, there's another aspect of horror in a small town that's interesting. Well interesting to me.
Which is public secrets. Things that everybody knows and nobody admits. That nobody does anything about. A couple of generations before me where I grew up, there was a family where the father kept the children on a chain in the yard.
On a chain.
In the yard.
Like dogs, yes. Everybody knew. Nobody did anything. Not that this sort of thing doesn't happen in cities, but there's something about a small town that's different.
In cities, there's an anonimity, and a mobility that means that there aren't generations of specific preconceptions. In small town, the rules are different. When I was growing up, one of the kids my age, a girl, moved on with an old man down the road. The relationship was almost certainly sexual.
But that's the reality of living with the same people for generations - there are rules. And they are obeyed.
Miniblog - 8/8/08 - Small town horror. I grew up in a small town. I mean small - forty two people, all of whom were some kind of relation to me. There's a particular claustrophobia that comes from a living in a place where every one knows you and has an aopinion on what you do. It's surprisingly difficult to swim against the tides of their expectation. This is one of the things I wanted to touch on with Junk - and it's actually in the preview. The gearhead knows Jenny, and she knows him, and he has an opinion on what's best for her, as does her parents. In the actualy story, the fact that all these people know each is an obstacle, on a number of levels.The protagonists all have pre-existing expectations and conceptions of each other, not necessarily accurate, and this will lead to tradgedy. Likewise, the junkers, the transformed people, are their friends and families. Not faceless, nameless zombies. And in a very real way, they are still those people. It's going to be tough to overcome those relationships, and not all of them will.
dreams[on]toast - When I was writing it, I was worried about the narration, in particular, being over written, but I thought it ultimately added a dimension the prologue was missing.
Jeremy - Thanks, man! I'm looking forward to print version of Bayou.
Felipe - Thanks! I dig your art, by the way.
Automator - Thanks! That'sa good point - Junk really does look better in full screen mode. I keep feeling a vague urge to post every so foten mentioing that, but I feel like that might be a little much.
I really like this. Definitely needs the full screen to work though. Wish I had a larger monitor. I feel like I should be viewing each page as a full piece and stop trying to train my eye on individual frames.
Dad with a saw is great.
Very interesting, good luck!
Great stuff Justin! I didn't realize you had a comic in the competition this month. Best of luck.
I like this style of art but the warped panels, blur and inconsistency let the side down somewhat. The writing was fine, if a little 'over-written', no worries, everybody's been there at one time or another.
Miniblog - 8/7/08 Lovecraft. For a lot of people, Lovecraft is the mater of horror. He's best know for the Cthulu Mythos, but what he really did well was dramtize the horror of the unknown. He was a xenophoic racist, and this fear of anything that was unlike what he already knew is the genesis, I think of the horror he was able to instill in readers. I don't have the extremely dubious benefit of being a galloping racist, but one of the things I'm trying to do with Junk is capture some of the fear of a world that seems to be changing overnight. We've had years to adapt to, say, the internet, but I'm just old enough to be comfortable with new technology while still having spent more than half my life without it. Change is scary. It's worse when you feel left behind, when everybody seems to know something you don't, which is the heart of what's happening to the people of Steadweather. Don't expect Cthulu or a Shoggoth, but if I can capture a little of the dread Lovecraft managed, I'll be a happy camper.
Kevin - Thanks, dude, I love it when somebody likes what we do.
Wow, that was really cool. A messed up concept with unique artwork. I dig this type of story, nice job.
Also, saying Dooomcat makes me feel like that boxing announcer guy. Awesome.
Dooomcat - Thanks! I'm going to try and run the creepy on this up to eleven, so hopefully we'll be able to surprise you.
The synopsis is really interesting and original! The pages... less so. But don't mind me, it's just really not my art style. Kudos for the idea though! This would make such a creepy movie, I just don't feel the printed page could do your idea justice... though perhaps you can prove me wrong :)
Miniblog - 8/6/08 - Junji Ito. If you're a connoisseur of fine horror works like Junk, you may already know Junji Ito, a manga creator who has produced the creepiest works in comics. His masterpiece is Uzumaki, about a town slowly being destroyed by spirals. Yes, spirals. You really have to read it to appreciate just how creepy and weird it is. Steadweather, the town in Junk, doesn't bear too much resemblance to the one is Uzumaki, but the horror of a whole town slowly going nuts when the mundane suddenly becomes strange is the same vibe I'm trying for here. Tomorrow: Lovecraft!
Man, I need to find a way to respond to comments with a little more clarity.
I also need to invent something more exciting than a period that doesn't make me look like a cheerleader on crytal meth, ala the exclamation point. Yeesh.
ptimony - Thanks! I was trying to keep a balance between mystery and clarity, with the synopsis as a safety net.
dash - Thanks, I'll let Sami know - he's the actual talent here. I keep hoping he won't notice he doesn't need me. ;)
rudis - Shoot, I don't want to annoy people. What I was trying to do in the prologue was give a taste of the mood and style and generate interest. I didn't think, and this speaks more to my own weaknesses as a writer than anything else, that I could get into the actual plot in just eight pages and have it be at all satisfying. Since there's no guarantee we'll be getting more than these eight, I wanted readers to get a relatively complete experience. Thanks for the compliment about the art - I'll let Sami know when we unshackle him from the art dungeon.
nathanW - Thanks, dude! I really love it when people dig it.
IanDaffern - Haha, thanks. Sami always manages to keep me out, and I helped create this stuff. I can only assume this due to his arcane Finnish powers.
kindesign - Thanks! Templesmith actually complimented Sami's art ona previous project we did, which I thought was cool as all get out.
MariposaGalaxia - I hope we win so I can keep writing it!
Well I think the award for scariest creatures goes to you guys. Nicely done!
A bit Templesmith-y, but that's cool. Tight story telling. I give it a 4
Great concept, great art- I really hope you win so I can keep reading!
Read it. Voted for it. Had no problem following it.
Dudes, the artwork is gorgeous. I'm sold on the artwork. The high concept may be a little bit out there, but it makes for some cool situations, some cool junk/human hybrids. BUT, when i have to refer to other peoples' questions and comments in the talkback to figure out what i just read in addition to the synopsis and stuff, it makes me feel dumb, and it makes me wish you'd dumbed it down a bit and made your story more clear. first time i read it, i also thought the dog was narrating the story. after all, i'd read the short high concept, and since the dog is attached to the sentinel, i figured it was him narrating. am i going to vote for something that promises me that i won't understand what is going on in the beautiful drawings that i'm looking at for a whole year?
maybe, i mean the artwork is that good, although its probably to blame for a good deal of the confusion.
ever had to try to work through one of those trick math problems where the correct answer on the test is NOT ENOUGH INFORMATION (to figure it out).
its a little frustrating.