I was able to get the last three pieces of this series done. The series can be found on the art collection page for the “Lorelei of Loon Lake” series.
This series was fun to work with although it does ends with a pretty morbid conclusion, but alas, that is the story of Lorelei of Lone Lake! It comes from a golden age comic called “Web of Mystery #2″ published in 1951 by Ace Books. It was a series that collected short pulpy strange tales of suspense and mystery.
A man, named Roy, hears an urban legend about the hauntings from Loon Lake. Fearless of such rumors he goes for a night swim (stupid Roy). During a dive he knocks himself unconscious and meets Lola. They talk and she shows Roy her home in a submerged cave. Lola pleads for his help so that she can rest because she is so very tired. Roy gains consciousness and submerges, but becomes restless himself. The next day he sets out with diving gear to search the lake, determined to find the submerged cave home of Lola. He discovers only bones with an ankle trapped under a root… and flowing, flowing red hair.
This series will very soon be printed on canvas and I can’t wait to see what it all looks like! Pics to come!
Lone Stranger Pitch: Page 4 of 8
Half way through the short, and here come the Trouble Brothers! Now’s the time to say a little about how this whole idea and goal came about.
At some point two years back I started to really REALLY get into public domain comics from the golden age. I got them where I could and consumed them. I started to focus on the western issues for some reason even though I never really got into western movies. Part of the reason for that is that it took me long enough to watch “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly” and I ended up LOVING the flick. I didn’t want the magic of what I felt there to be ruined by a “bad choice”. Being a newbie to the genre, it was a fear that simply held true.
With the golden age stuff, what fascinated me the most was how FAST these stories were told. Heck, there were even ONE page stories in these collections. That’s what set me off: If I was going to put a pitch together, I’d keep the story tight, try to get out quick character development, hit the climax and ride off into the sunset. Done!
So, these two ruffian bastards are actually characters from a public somain story that appeared in Western Adventures #3 featuring the Clayton Brothers (and Dry Water Gultch) called “The Last Stand”. That tales was enough to give me the antagonists to my protagonists. It also set up for me a clear intent to tell future stories using golden age western details as easter eggs; characters, town names, saloons, you name it!
It was an excuse for me to keep finding more old PD westerns and imagining how Lone Stranger tales could keep some of that content alive.
Also, worth mentioning at this point was how I had to really minimize how much was said. I wanted Lone Stranger to say as little as possible to real people, so the story had to move with visual queues or with other characters being the “lead dancers at this shindig”… ha… four pages in and I already can’t help the comparisons…
Anyways, that’s a wrap for this post! More next time!