INTO THE WILD part 1 - summary

I hope you all enjoyed INTO THE WILD. To say it's been an ordeal would be an understatement.

For those of you not sure about what INTO THE WILD is, you can find it for free on the HEROES website HERE.

The only reason I'm going to wax lyrical about my trials and tribulations is to give you some perspective on what Annette went through.







Many people bandy about the terms, "professional", "integrity" and "commitment". But we really only know whether we possess these traits under duress. And with the devastating events that befell Annette over the course of ROOT & BRANCH, in my mind there's no greater personification of those traits than Annette. Her effort in not only accomplishing this project, but excelling under such duress is a testament to how much she loves her work, HEROES and you guys.

So let me set the stage.





When Frank Mastromauro sent the first script to Annette and I, he told us the total story would be 30 pages. We read the script from Jim Martin and Timm Keppler and we knew that it was going to be epic. This would challenge, if not rival The Death of Hana Gitelmann. We knew this would be special. Even though we received the first script really early, I was still tied up working on another project. This gave us a little over a week for the first part, a week and a half for the second half and a week for the third half. Probably about 24 days to draw 30 pages. A good, consistent artist can smash out about a page a day.

We were going to be pushed to the edge of our creative reserves.

Be aware we're both full time artists working on other books already.



With every page of Root and Branch I was freaking out. Similar emails came from Annette. We really wanted to do all three parts, we just didn't know how. If I had a dollar for the number of times I debated handing off the third part to someone else, I could probably retire now. Annette had similar feelings. But I have a saying, "The pain is fleeting, the page is forever."

Annette and I knew that we owed it to ourselves and the fans to make sure this arc was consistently drawn by the same artistic team. We buckled up, committed and we stepped up.


We plowed through part 1, and I think we can easily say that it's some of the best work we've done together. Part 2 really wore us down, but we're both incredibly proud of the work. Suddenly we were at the point of no return and Part 3 loomed. I began work on it on the Monday (with the deadline being the following Sunday) averaging two pages a day at this stage. Both Annette and I were desperately trying to find a balance between moving quickly and moving beautifully.

Then on Thursday, Annette broke some devastating news.

Her email sums it up best:



"My dad has Progressive Supranuclear Palsy, he was in a nursing home for 2 weeks' respite... We're told he fell and hit his head very hard, and when he arrived at the hospital he was unconscious. Surgeons refused to operate because of his old age and medical history. The pressure from the bleeding is so great his brain has compressed to the left-side, so even if he did survive the operation he is already severely brain damaged. It doesn't even feel real at the moment, it all happened so suddenly..."

Annette was one of the few children still living in the same city and a great deal of the responsibility for managing her father fell on her. Keep in mind, we still have about 12 hours work per day to do. Somehow, some way she kept going. Her pages kept coming in - as beautiful as ever.

Three days later on Thursday, September 11th her father passed away.

We were about halfway through the book at this stage.

I offered all the help and support I could think of. She took none of it, (except an audio book I sent to cheer her up) and she kept churning out the pages. When we were chatting after it was done she mentioned this:

"I must say it felt like a blur, I'm not sure how we managed to get so many pages done in such a short time, but we did. I was so tempted to quit really, the deadlines for those last two parts seemed so impossible! But I really don't like leaving things half-done and just wanted it finished. The work was a good distraction too I guess."



I don't know the strength of will, composure and integrity it takes to finish a job when you have EVERY excuse in the world to leave. For god's sake, her father passed away. I can't think of anything worse than one of my immediate family passing on.

I don't know how Annette managed to turn the work into a positive means of taking her mind off this devastating and tragic event in her life. Most artists, hell, most people stop working at the slightest excuse. Annette uses her work as a means to deal, and in doing so rises above and beyond any expectation we should have for ourselves, her or anyone on the damn planet.

My saying about pain and pages seems so empty now as I've not yet had to deal with the pain of my father passing. But I do know that particular pain would last forever.

I'm terrified of the day that I have to walk in her footsteps. Because on that day we will find out what I'm truly made of. For someone who lives by those traits that she defines, I find the precedent she has set is awe inspiring.

I've never asked anything of my readers, but if you enjoyed ROOT & BRANCH I would really appreciate it if you guys left a note for Annette under the comments here. You don't have to log in, you can just leave an anonymous note. I know she would really appreciate it.

Thank you.

ps. I will go into the nuts and bolts of part 1 next post.