Liner Notes by Marc Bryant Howdy, and welcome to the first installment of Liner Notes, here at The Fourth Rail. Each month, I'll be chiming in with an overview of a work of mine in progress. Each article will include the thought process that goes into the development of the book, from the initial idea to the creation of the cast and plot, the search for an artist if need be, and the proposal to prospective publishers. The columns may also include the discussion of various influences on the project, such as books, movies, music or television I'm digging at the time, current events or what I had for breakfast that day. Lately I've been partial to these new milk and cereal bars, so if a character pops up named Cinnamon Toast Crunch, you'll know the reason why. In short, if it has much to do with the story I'm developing, you'll hear about it in this column. Now, let's do this thing. I usually have about 20 different stories in development at any given time. By 'in development' I mean I've taken a concept and begun brainstorming and fleshing it out, working towards a script that I can condense into a proposal to present to potential collaborators and publishers. Some stories are completely scripted and ready to be pitched, illustrated or whatever the next step in production may be. Others are only a few paragraphs of the direction I want to take-the genre, the main characters, setting, format etc. When I sit down to write, I like to work on at least three or four stories at once, and usually wind up spending the most time on whichever one scratches my itch in particular that day. Now, I want to cover a storytelling format I haven't tackled before, the serial. Depending on the publisher, this will be a monthly or bi-monthly series in the 'single' or 'pamphlet' format, or a series of 72-96 page graphic novels. To keep things flexible, I'll be writing it in twenty-two page episodes. Next: genre. Again, I want to take on something I haven't done before. I'm digging Crossgen books such as Scion and Sojourn and I watch the Lord of the Rings DVD on what seems like a daily basis, so let's go for sword and sorcery, fantasy whatever label you want to slap on there. Other than the titles I mentioned above, I've never been particularly hot for the genre, so hopefully I can bring something fresh to the table here. I want to give the book an edge to help set it apart from its peers, while remaining accessible to non-comics readers and people who don't usually go for fantasy stories, so I'm thinking it'll be cool to set it in the equivalent of the criminal underworld. High concept time: LOTR meets something like Get Carter or Payback. Our hero returns to his old stomping grounds. He was a professional thief. In fact, he was the leader of the entire thieves' guild and his name is Griffin. Griffin was leader of the thieves' guild, until he disappeared. The story opens on Griffin, butt naked, falling out the sky and narrowly managing to keep from breaking his neck as he lands in a convenient row of hedges on the outskirts of his home kingdom. He gets to his feet scratched up and pissed off but none the worse for wear. He makes his way home, to discover that three years have passed while he was gone. (He isn't yet offering the reader, or his fellow thieves any clues as to where he's been, if he himself even knows.) In the three years' he's been absent, his old rival Bragg has taken over the guild, married his girlfriend and moved into his house. Even worse, Bragg has led the guild in branching out to other endeavors such as extortion and assassination; services that were never offered on Griffin's watch. Griffin's whole life has been turned wrong side out, and he wants to make things right, but first he has to round up his old crew, scattered to the four corners since Bragg took over the guild. So now I've got my format (serial), my genre/setting (fantasy/sword & sorcery), my hook (a crime story set in a fantasy type world) and my main character-Griffin. What does Griffin want? He wants his old life back. What's stopping him from getting what he wants? His rival Bragg, and the fact that Griffin's been gone for quite a while. What few comrades he has that haven't left the area since he went missing aren't too eager to throw their lot in with him again. He has to round up the old gang, and win over those he left behind. Griffin's tough, and he's smart, but Bragg is smart too, plus he's rich and has the power of the whole guild behind him. And now, I have my working title- Griffin's Way. What happens next? Tune in next month and we'll find out together. Marc Bryant is the writer of the acclaimed graphic novel Overtime. Each month, he'll discuss a work in progress here. You can learn more by visiting his website at www.conceptalbum.com. Email Marc Bryant comments about this column, or discuss it on the Fourth Rail message board.