While this comic (and site) may be called Phineus, Sara is it’s heart.

While Phineus changes, morphs and eventually falls to the dark seduction of the power of Magic (check out the TIMELINE), Sara remains the soul of the pair, the team and the world.

There’s a reason that so many fans, many of them creators, relate to her. She is the audience surrogate, in many ways, as she is not magical. She’s a normal (albeit bad ass) human.

Noeland Collins has done 2 stories focused around her, Sara One Shot (with Marshall Dillon) & The Werewolf Conundrum. In Jason Bender’s Have A Drink on Me, Sara is the hero, saving Phineus from The Contessa and himself.

Sara’s eventual death leads Phineus down his dark path.

Sara, originally, started out to be a damsel in distress. She is FAR from that, and my comic is so much the better for it.

Sorry about the radio silence. My daughter was in Children’s hospital for 4 days. She was just discharged, today.

I really couldn’t focus on comics while all that was going on. Suffice it to say, she’s doing much better and is on the mend.

I do have a treatment completed for “How We Won the War “, just need to thumbnail it and start drawing.

I’ll get back into the swing, shortly and get back to track.

Thanks, guys.

Barry

Next year the character of Phineus will be 30 years old.
I created him in high school, taking a computer graphics class at Carnegie Mellon University, pre-college art class. I got his name from a misremembered Philias Fogg, from “Around the  World in 80 Days”, a favorite book, at the time.

Phineus was very different back then. He was a total ripoff of Mage and The Highlander. He was initially going to be an extradimentional demon hunter. I had even worked up a bunch of demons for him to fight.

This storyline never got passed the preliminary stages and sketches. I back burnered him and kept going back to half started comics with him, and eventually Sara. Several false start comic exist. They are available in my Omnibus comics.

The Phin and Sara we all know and love came about in 1991 (25 years ago, this fall) in a comic drawing class final project. Haven’t looked back, since.

I started writing, because I needed something to draw.

Granted, I always told stories, even as a kid. I did my first comics, full comics, when I was 6. My love of art continued until I got into Dungeons & Dragons. D&D started me creating characters, worlds, histories. I played, I Dungeon mastered. I drew characters. I drew monsters.

My love of fantasy, took me to Conan, and most specifically, RED SONJA comics. Frank Thorne taught me how to draw, at first. Then came Jeff Dee, Matte Wagner & Bill Willingham’s work on D&D lead me to their work in comics. Wagner, Thorne & Willingham are all artists who can write.

So, I write, not in any traditional way, mind you. I write in thumbnails, with dialog beside it. It works for me, though.

I have also been very lucky to draw, whilst others write. My collaborations with Brian Babyok, Mike Wood, Jason Bender, Noeland Collins, Marshall Dillon, Colton McBryer, Bob Delbane and Dan Greewald have also expanded my knowledge of scripts and how others attack a scene. So, thanks, guys.

Adam Black worked with me on how to build a plot around Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey, when I worked on “The Kali Saga”. I again revisited it, when working on “The Hollow Earth”.

After I finish a story or issue. I usually sit, staring off into the room. This is me writing. I am often just thinking through the whole story in my head. I really should take notes, but it’s not my style.

So, here I am, writing about writing, while I should be writing. Better go and write something, then.

Barry

New PDF of the #bonus story, Nameless City is available for purchase for $1.11!

http://www.drivethrucomics.com/product/194411/Phineus-68-Nameless-City

Edited… (I MOVED A FEW THINGS AROUND)

Going to be an exciting fall and winter here, at Phineus. We have a lot coming up!

At the end of September, we see the end of the current issue of Hammer to Fall and the bonus story, Nameless City for Patrons. Starting in October will be the final chapter of the Hollow Earth, a bonus story about The Liberty Lads (GD7‘s predecessor) fighting against the Thule Society in the temple of Sub Niggarath., last seen in the Kali Saga.

Also starting in DECEMBER is the 25th Anniversary issue, Family Secrets. It will commemorate 25 years of Phineus. It recaps what has gone before and forshadows what is to come. This runs through the holidays.

Starting in OCTOBER, we go daily with Noeland Collins‘ Werewolf Conundrum, previously only seen in it’s entirety by Patreon Patrons.

After that we’ll see the entire Should I Stay of Should I Migo, a Phineus/ William Feist crossover, previously only available on ODK Presents. It will sport new covers and final chapter to the story!

After that, I hope to goad James Riot and Adam Black into getting our three way crossover, At The Mountains of Madness underway.

We’ll see a bunch of new bonus stories, stories with Cole Beam as the lead, Creephunter, Teen Wizard and more.

Plus, I’ll be starting a Welcome to Nightvale-like podcast. More radio play than whiny bitching.

So, keep coming back, become a patron & enjoy the fruits of our labors!

The holiday weekend has me a little off. I’ll most likely have Wednesday’s page up on Thursday. I’ll try and get a bonus page up over the weekend.

Sorry guys!