WESTERN SUN RISING is the story of Kenzo Takeshi, a former samurai who travels through the American West of the late 1800s, pitting his sword against six-shooters and repeating rifles to exact vengeance from the men who murdered his brother.  The saurai’s mission to resotre his family’s honor is derailed when he finds himself in the sights of a hired gunslinger who is both a formidable opponent, and a curiously sympathetic kindred spirit.

We mythologize these the samurai and the gunfighter as dangerous, but honorable men who brought order to lawless times. Although the samurai enjoyed his heyday decades before gunslingers roamed the West, these disparate historical figures are cut from the same archetypal cloth.  Sergio Leone understood this when he adapted Akira Kurosawa’s Yojimbo into the “spaghetti Western,” A Fistful of Dollars.  WESTERN SUN RISING continues in this tradition by weaving an iconic, enduring figure of Eastern culture into therich, mythic tapestry of Western folklore.

I hope you enjoy this interlude between adventures of WORLD OF HURT.  I concocted WESTERN SUN RISING as a pitch for a comic book a couple years before I dreamed up Pastor.  The style is cleaner and more open, as I was really into the work of Stuart Immonen at the time.  Nonetheless, I think this introduction works as a nice short story with a sort of drive-in, grindhouse aesthetic which complements WORLD OF HURT pretty well. I see a lot of things I would have done differently, but I also see a lot that still works.

- JEP

This is the last episode of The Thrill-Seekers and the end is a little bittersweet.  Due to personal family issues that I have to attend to, I decided to wrap the storyline one strip short of what I had intended.  Therefore, I didn’t get to explore some of the characters stuff I wanted between Pastor and his attorney, Vonetta Foster.  Vonetta’s first name was originally supposed to be “Gloria,” but I renamed her “Vonetta” in honor of the the actress Vonetta McGee (Blacula, Hammer, The Eiger Sanction), who passed away last week.  With Vonetta Foster, I wanted a female character who could verbally spar with Pastor as an equal and, for the purposes of this story, represented the unfulfilled promise of Alicia Patterson.  Additionally, by returning Alicia’s class ring to her mother, I hoped to bring The Thrill-Seekers full circle to the first clue that started the story.

I want to thank everyone for your support for these past sixteen months.  It has been invaluable.

What happens next, you might ask?

Well, Pastor will return in four weeks in WORLD OF HURT: The Black Fist.  I need a little time to recharge my batteries.  However, while you wait for The Black Fist to begin, there WILL be new content on Wednesdays, and the Friday blog will still be in effect.  For the next month, I’ll be running a completely new short story called Western Sun Rising.  Western Sun Rising is the story of a samurai in the Old West.  It will conclude at the end of the four weeks, so you can consider it a brief intermission between the WORLD OF HURT stories.

Stay tuned, folks, because it’s been a long run, but we’re just getting started!

- JEP

At long last, the epilogue.  Only two (maybe three) strips left in The Thrill-Seekers, and I decide to introduce one more character.  How’s that for confident storytelling?

- JEP

When I came up with the The Thrill-Seekers, this episode was pretty much what I envisioned as the final strip in the story, with Pastor riding back to the city in a lifeboat.  The panels were pretty much unchanged from the way I imagined, but I had to alter some dialogue once my fiancee (now wife) suggested a fantastic, and very touching moment, which I felt should be included.  Her idea became the basis the coda which will wrap up The Thrill-Seekers.  Thanks to that suggestion, it looks like you’re stuck with me for a couple more episodes.

- JEP

Hey, everyone!

This is the first strip I completed as a married man!

I spent a long time thinking about how I was going to off each of my villains.  For each of them, it had to be something appropriate to moving the story along and appropriate to the character.  When it came to Charles, I remembered a moment in Mike Baron and Steve Rude’s classic comic book series, Nexus.  Nexus is an intergalactic executioner who hunts down mass murderers.  At one point, Nexus corners a much-feared villain who mewls, cowers, and begs for his life, and Nexus sees him for the coward that he is.  So Nexus, who has all the power in the universe at his disposal, merely touches the man’s forehead and ends his life, with the line, “Then let your death be a small thing.”  That’s the kind of moment I wanted for Charles.

- JEP

I’m back from my honeymoon with my lovely bride.  We had a great time.  I want to thank you for all your congratulatory comments last week.  That really meant  a lot.

Big thanks to my man, Andy Haworth for uploading this week’s strip!  I had some problems setting it up before I left last week, and once again, he came through in a lurch.

- JEP

This is the moment a lot of you were anticipating.  Pastor finally gets to use the special package he picked up from Rashid, with devastating results.

Now, I have some more good news for you.  This weekend, I’m getting married to the lovely, talented, funny, exciting, and adventuresome Noelle Phillips after nearly a decade of dating.  It’s been a wonderful trip so far, but I hope our journey together is just beginning.  One of the reasons she’s the love of my life is that she even makes the most mundane things fun.  We’re having a small ceremony  in northern Georgia with our immediate family in attendance.

So, as you’ve probably surmised, I won’t be around to check the website for the next week, but please feel free to leave comments.  I’ll enjoy catching up when I get back.  Also, in case you were worried, I already have next week’s strip lined up in the queue so I won’t leave you high and dry with an unresolved cliffhanger.

Take it easy and I’ll see you next week.

- JEP

I’ll tell you one thing: constructing a good, pithy, “Your mama” joke is tougher than it looks.  However, I do like the second panel and the force behind Tuck’s kick.  It just looks like it hurts.

I’ll do a full write-up for my Friday blog post, but I just want everyone to know that I had a great time at Heroes Con this past weekend.  It was fantastic meeting all the fans of WORLD OF HURT, meeting old friends and acquaintances and making new ones.  A couple of y’all even saw this strip in it’s pencil stage, since I was working on it at my table for part of the time I was there.

- JEP

Now we see the detriment of bringing a knife to a gunfight.  The odds finally catch up with Pastor asTuck gets his licks in and Pastor suffers a slight setback.

Remember, I’ll be in Charlotte for HeroesCon this weekend.  If you’re going to be there, be sure to stop by Booth AA-240 and say, “Hi.”  I’ll be there with my buddy Anthony Summey, who’ll be helping me man the table.

- JEP

I’ve been watching a lot of Deadliest Warrior on Spike TV, so I’ve probably given waaay too much thought into the speed and force that would be necessary to drive a k-bar knife through a guy’s head.

- JEP