Sand is Back!

The Sand-Band in action at Small Press Expo 2023.

After too long of a pause, we are indeed back! This year’s Small Press Expo (SPX) marked the return of Sand with Of Wolf & Prey, illustrated by Erin Lisette, as well as a Special Edition of The Tale of Luc & San, which features a brand new cover and epilogue titled Starfall, illustrated by Jade Lee.

We are also on track with two more installments, which will hopefully debut in 2024. The first already in production, titled Eyes of Red, and illustrated by Margaret Huey. The second, titled Twin Blades, is nearing completion of the script.

This has all been gestating for way too long, but as we head towards an exciting 2024, I wanted to talk a little about how we got here.

Sand began taking shape sometime between 2010 and 2013 as a series of short prose segments. Some of those ideas were never going to be more than that, others could have served as the start of a longer novel (but that never happened). Nonetheless, some ideas like a Mother-Light, a God Pillar (since morphed into the God Tree), or even the deities Luc & San stuck around, and eventually were shaped into the first installment of Sand, The Tale of Luc & San.

That process took about two years. The first draft dates back to 2013, and featured Luc & San falling in love, instead of being siblings. It was my first script, and needed a lot of work. In fact, the near-final version of the script didn’t take shape until 2015. By this point the mythology of Beacons, Behemoths and Feys was firmly in place, as was Luc’s sacrifice, and the creation of the world of Sand.

The final comic needed another two years, during which I worked on other comics not set in the world of Sand (both featured on this site), and illustrated by Emily Gillis. Working on shorter comics was good practice, and by the time the collaborative process with Jade began more reworks were needed. All told, 2017 finally saw The Tale of Luc & San completed!

Jade Lee & Erin Lisette tabling at SPX 2017 (yes, Erin was there all along).

The plan was always to do more stories set in the world of Sand. If The Tale of Luc & San tells of the creation of the world, then the logical next step would be to explore that world, and beyond that there was always a story of a youth named Jona who finds a fallen star in the desert (now there’s another idea that dates back to the early 2010s).

So I started researching desert fauna & flora, building up a world bible, and scripting a follow-up. This second issue would have seen Jade return for a short (4 page) prologue, which would clarify the fate of Luc, and then three other (roughly 8 page) installments, each featuring a different artist, would have shown us the world of Sand growing up from pre-human, to pre-historic, and finally to the metropolis of the Oasis Republic.

None of that happened as planned. My day job got in the way, then a pandemic happened, and finally (let’s be real) the ideas were always too big to fit into just a 28 page comic. But I needed something else to really kick things into gear, and that was attending the Toronto Comic Arts Festival (TCAF) in 2022. Hanging out with friends and being surrounded by comics at what is one of my favorite comic-book shows was exactly what I needed. Within days I had a script for Erin, and we embarked on a creative trip that resulted in Of Wolf & Prey debuting at SPX 2023, alongside an enhanced reprint of The Tale of Luc & San (which now features that 4-page prologue, redefined as an epilogue).

Erin’s initial designs, including an early draft of the cover, for Of Wolf & Prey.

All of which brings us to the present. Two installments are done, two more are being worked on. Beyond that lies the story of Jona, which once seemed like a bridge too far, but now seems like something we might get to soon. Here’s to 2024, and beyond. Stay tuned!

Old design for Jona by Jade Lee (circa 2017).