A World Where Anything Is Possible

For some time now I’ve been telling everyone who asks that THE LARA-SU CHRONICLES is not for all ages, that parents should look over the material to decide whether it’s appropriate for their children or not. I say this because I’m not bound by restrictions dictated by the editors at Archie Comics, the Comics Code of Authority and/or SEGA, and I refuse to be.

As a parent myself, I’ve seen what my kids growing up were exposed to and their reactions to many things where there’s no filters or shielding from in the real world.

Take a look at the news these days. Kids are aware adults are doing nothing to shield them from being gunned down in the schools, that owning a gun has a higher priority in our society than saving kids lives. There are wars going on in Ukraine and Israel where people are getting killed every day that kids are exposed to on the TV and internet. Even going out to a store, a theatre or any other place where people gather, and it’s pretty common for kids to hear someone pretty clearly in any number of ways use the word “fuck”. Especially if one person is annoyed with another, or has no sense of common courtesy.

So as I was working on a specific panel on a certain page, while figuring out the layout of the story point being depicted, it occurred to me I was depicting a beautiful moment during a crucial story point and I was about to censor the presentation because it might get someone upset because moments like this were never depicted in an Archie or IDW comic or even a SEGA game.

As I worked on the rendering, I thought about the women I encountered in my travels who had their infants with them on a subway or bus or park and suddenly needed to accommodate a hungry baby. I also thought about the time my son Steve was being born and what I saw when I was in the delivery room.

When I finished the drawing, I knew there was no way I was altering or deleting this from the story. I also knew when similar moments occur in the story to come, there would be no dumbing down. No censorship.

When I wrote my KNUCKLES stories, I can’t tell you how many kids I met at conventions who told me they loved the Knuckles series because the main character was just like them, a product of a broken home. These kids knew their parents weren’t getting back together and were appreciative when I was just as honest stating there was no happy ending for Knuckles with his parents either.

My grandchildren are growing up in a world far different from the world I did, and in many ways, the story I’m telling with my characters is a reflection of that change and the world they now now live in.

For the record, if a person watches STAR TREK: STRANGE NEW WORLDS or FOR ALL MANKIND, that’s the kind of storytelling these days I’m shooting for with THE LARA-SU CHRONICLES. There will be no apologies and no going back to previous expectations. It’s a brave new world with plenty of surprises.

In the meantime, there are 12 days remaining if one wants to be listed on the SPECIAL THANKS page as a show of support by pre-ordering THE LARA-SU CHRONICLES: BEGINNINGS.