This was what I like to call the worst time of my life as far as art goes. Really, it was a trying time, and not a lot of artwork is around from this time frame for one simple reason. There wasn't a whole hell of a lot of it being done. Maybe it was because I wasn't sure I wanted to do this anymore, maybe it was just not receiving a lot of creative feedback on art. I was going to a community college at this point. And although it was a great school, I had problems because my heart wasn't into the studying or lessons that it needed to be.

At this point in my life, I was still convinced that I could be a comic book illustrator, and really I had no clue, no real refinement in my work, nor any idea how the comic industry worked. About this time, although, I and one of my freinds were working on a concept for a comic story that at one point began to take shape. It was called "Newborn". And although the writing was pretty good, and my art was beginning to look halfway decent, I still felt that somehow it wasn't coming together how it should have.

Honestly, this is where the first stirrings of "Pagan Zoetrope" began, and you can see some influence from this period coming into play even in my work today.

The concept behind "Newborn" was focusing on the craze of the times, which was at this point, Vampires (not unlike today's obsession with pirates, no small thanks to a certain Mr. Depp). But we had wanted to take it into an arena more akin to really science based horror. That (now the writer may have different memories of this) vampirism was more along the lines of an infectious disease. And although the characters were, as most all vampires are, creatures of romaticism and mystery, we focused on the human aspect more so. That there was no real reason to revel in the spiral of insanity that they had been thrust into so violently.

I can't honestly tell you how many pages and stuff will ultimately end up on here from that storyline, since a lot was written, maybe half was drawn, and of that amount, half was lost.

Artwork: Coming Soon.