MENSES: THE BLOOD PLAGUE SAGA

Author's Note: I think it's important to continue to grow as a writer; to venture outside your comfort zone, to experiment with new genres. I'm a fan of graphic novels. The writing and creative-vision displayed in these books is edgy and provocative. I've given considerable thought to a storyline I'd like to develop into a graphic novel  but there's a problem: I CAN"T DRAW!  Always an optimist, I figured this problem could be overcome by simply finding a visual artist to collaborate with--a goal that's proven to be more difficult to achieve than I imagined. There was another option available to me but I didn't have the confidence to do it.

You see when I was in Bangkok, Thailand, I had the good fortune to take a class with a celebrated comic book artist. He guided the class through the detailed steps of laying-out a basic comic book page. I was bowled over by the dramatic, eye-popping drawings he conjured up but this talented artist emphasized the importance of "marrying words" to images.  He said learning how to tell a story using visual images would be challenging.  He insisted the best way to learn how to match images to words is drawing as you write; even if you only draw stick figures.

After a few failed pairings with visual-artists slowed down work on my graphic novel project, I finally did what my teacher suggested. I started writing and drawing (albeit poorly) my story into existence. In the process I begin to understand the mechanics of marrying words to images. So here we are. Allow me to opine that perfecting your craft as a writer can be a stimulating and exciting experience. Therefore, it gives me great pleasure to share the first installment of my graphic novel; a work-in-progress.

 

On a starlit night the world can come undone.   

There was nothing unusual about the days or nights leading to the events that changed the world as we knew it. People drove to work, children went to school, ships sailed into the harbor. On the surface everything seemed normal but something was incubating inside the bodies of girls on the verge of becoming women. Something deadly. . .  

"Mom, I'm bleeding ...down there.  My period's started."

"Oh, darling, that's wonderful! We're going to celebrate later. Did you remember to use the products I gave you for your period?"

"I did but something's wrong...there's so much blood! I feel terrible....AHHHHHH!"

"Shannon! Baby! Oh, my gawd..help her, save my angel!"

All across the world young girls were dying from massive hemorrhages at the start of their menses. Draconian measures were taken to save a generation of women. Overnight the world changed. The definition of  "woman" evolved. Glamorous "trannies" and luscious intersex gals like me moved into the spotlight. "That's right bitches. I'm Peaches Brule. A woman with the right DNA to survive in a man's world gone mad."     

This is the music track for the first installment of Menses:

MAKE SOME NOISE PLEASE.