Apocalism! Progress Log

This serves as a log for Apocalism!, a pet project of mine. Expect sketches, fragments, and bits of miscellaneous information. Check What Is This? for more info. ('Me' here refers to Andrey Pissantchev, who lives in Leeds, UK, develops front ends of webs for a living, and draws stuff in his spare time.)

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APOCALISM IS DEAD. LONG LIVE APOCALISM.

For all of the 3 people that had a look at this Tumblr at some point or another, you may want to direct yourselves here:

http://www.apocalism.co.uk/

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What you see in this screenshot is a substantial part of the first draft of Book 1 - the different-coloured chunks of text represent a different plotline and/or different modes of narration. The overall plumage of the book may change considerably (or not at all) over the next few days.

That schedule I mentioned in the last post? It's 3 weeks in and I'm already a week behind. I'm still pretty optimistic, however, about having almost everything done by mid-November.

If you can't wait until then, feel free to apply to substitute the tantalisingly zoomed-out plots in this screenshot with your own.

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Just when you thought you were safe...

You locked your doors, made sure the gate was completely shut. You bolted the windows twice over and pulled the curtains so that not even the street lamps could peer in. The bloodhounds outside haven't been fed in 24 hours. You're currently in your basement, having dialled 999, your finger hovering over the call button, ready to twitch at the slightest smidgen of a sound.

So, huh. I guess you are pretty safe after all. Well done you!

On a completely different note, you may have also thought this project was dead or something. It isn't! I've received a bit of feedback for the first draft and I'm ready to start rewriting.

I've drafted up a schedule of work to push on and finish the thing completely - the deadline I've set myself is mid-November or so, with September set aside for writing and rewriting, and October and November for sketching up, inking, and so on.

November's also got some less exciting tasks such as looking at printing costs and getting some funding together. Fun!

In any case, expect a bit more of an activity in here. When the first three chapters are complete, writings and drawing and all, I'll put them out as a PDF in their entirety, and have them as a free download. I can imagine you're looking forward to that.

And then, just as you were lulled into a false sense of security, I suddenly posted this picture of a snail freaky enough to give you nightmares for a week.

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First draft is complete!

I've now written all the text of the first draft for Book 1, a staggeringly reasonable 15 889 words.

What's to follow:

I'll start working on sketches, but not on final drawings, because I haven't finalised the placement and layout of the illustrations, which would probably be a mistake before I finish the full text.

When a team of dedicated test-readers give their opinion on the first draft, I'll perform all necessary changes, and start finalising the content of all the drawings.

At that point I'll start creating the final drawings.

Expect some more sketches and posts while in the process. I'll post a full PDF of the first 3 chapters when they're fully ready. I'm not really sure when the whole thing is done, but I'm going to aim for September or October. 

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So, I've come up with a possible first sentence for Book 2.

And please note, Book 2 isn't planned as the last book of the series.

Anyway, it goes:

Somehow, quietly, the Rapture happened.

[makingplaces]

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Some musings of mine about keeping invented worlds fresh got posted up at the Making Places blog, run by Evan Dahm of Rice Boy fame.

The post makes a point I've kept in mind when I came up with Apocalism! - which is why I've created a world which is literally primed to self-destruct when I notice it's past its prime, or when I get bored with it.

makingplaces:

By Andrey Pissantchev, in response to 2 Approaches to Invented Settings.

I’ve been thinking something similar about invented settings, though it perhaps deals more with the act of presenting, rather than inventing, a world, so I’m not really sure how relevant it is.

I think a big part of...

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Composite sketch and value study for the first illustration, which, by the way, I've finally figured out. Only now did I realise how much time I'll need to spend on the illustrations for the book, but at least I've finally found a workflow I'm comfortable with.

Expect several more sketches later on, and the first fully inked drawings should start coming in late June/early July.

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Rough sketches for various Fractum stuff, including three of the members (left to right: Leopold Katz, Tyler Strain, and Carmine Sing) and their logo (designed in Word by Katz's nephew).

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Chapter 1, Part 2

This organisation will not play much of a role in the following story. Some of the people involved might claim otherwise, for reasons of their own, but they will be wrong. In fact, you may want to question anything you read in the story – just to avoid unnecessary confusion, of course.

One thing you should keep in mind though: this is the story of the end of the world. All events throughout the series will build up to this one, terrible conclusion. There is no happy ending. In fact, the resolution of Apocalism! will be the worst and most depressing ending imaginable: all your favourite characters will be gone forever, and there will never be a sequel.

The point of the story, then, is to trace the mistakes and mishaps that lead to this rather unfortunate event. After all, who says that the Apocalypse can't be entertaining?

There is also a protagonist to the story: a certain Richard Plick, who gets sucked into the whole end-of-times business and ends up being the only one standing between humanity and utter destruction.

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Fragment from a failed attempt at the very first illustration from the book (the one that goes on top of the text I posted some time ago). I've possibly tried about 4-5 different versions of that drawing, not only because I was displeased with the result but also because the workflow I used didn't quite feel right - and with a project of this size, I should probably figure that sort of thing out to keep the drawings consistent.

The character pictured here is Leopold Katz, one of the seven leaders of Fractum. You'll see more of him later on.

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He did his best to stay out of the street light, though he didn't quite manage to blend in. His hair was bright red and his long, honest face was hard to miss, which is possibly why some found it so easy to point guns at it.

Ah, Richard Plick. The main character of this whole mess, and easily the most mistreated character as well. Essentially, he's a massive coward and is uncomfortable with pretty much anything that happens to him. Let's see if he can build up some sort of backbone over time.

He starts off Book 1 with a 'stache (top right) but gets rid of it quickly, thank God.

Fun fact: I first came up with him in 2003 or so, in a silly short story called Dead on Arrival, and he kept showing up as a generic protagonist-type character in a couple of other things I've worked on. I've changed him a lot since then.

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Chapter 1, Part 1

An excerpt from the very beginning of the book. There'll be more coming later on.

Inside a mansion somewhere in central Europe, a secret society called Fractum has just adjourned its biannual meeting. A glowing hologram globe hangs from a projector in the ceiling, the seven Fractum Chiefs looking at it with the best ominous scrutiny they can manage.

The name of Fractum is well known in public circles. According to the rumours, Fractum is responsible for pretty much everything that happens in the world, and the subject of its biannual meetings is the total enslavement of the human race. These rumours are both true and false to an extent.

Fractum members meet up twice a year to plot global domination – this part is true, yes – but this is pretty much all they get up to.

You see, Fractum has no power whatsoever, and none of its seven leaders realise this. Between them, they've got several châteaus, mansions, a castle, a whole lot of old money, and a handful of loyal servants. They gather to their secret location, discuss the recent developments in world politics, appraise how much they deter or further the Fractum cause, and draw up a plan of action. Each of the members then returns to their own residence somewhere in the world, relays the plan to their closest of servants, and retires to their own private study to gloat.

The loyal servants, a well-meaning bunch, then pretend to contact minions and henchmen all around the world. Some time would pass, and something would appear in the news that either corresponds to or contravenes the given orders. The servants would report to their masters, claiming the mission was either successful or not, depending on what happened in the real world.

At the same time, due to conspiracy theorists and generally uninformed people, rumours would go out that Fractum is responsible for that very same event.

The masters are pleased that their non-existent web of influence is doing their job, the populace gets some obscure sense of satisfaction that the world isn't governed mostly by chance, and the well-meaning servants get to keep their well-paid comfortable jobs. The system took a long time to implement, but it works flawlessly and everyone involved is content.

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In university, Dave had always been a well-liked person, if not for his constant cheerfulness and unfailing willingness to help, then definitely for the fact that he never minded paying for drinks. He didn't really want much from life which is possibly the reason why it was going so well for him. 

Close friend of Richard Plick's, though annoyingly enough tends to refer to him as "Dick". People who have stumbled here from my Facebook will probably have seen him. I drew this picture a while ago.

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Apocalism! Book I (A short description)

So, a bit about what I'm working on right now. The full title of the book is remarkably similar to an overblown royal title of some sort:

Apocalism! Book I: Fractum -or- The Secret Society That Barely Even Was 

The book is, as you can imagine, about a secret society called Fractum that can't quite pull its own weight. Or does it?? To be honest, nobody is quite sure, not even its topmost members.

The book is also about Richard Plick, who manages to get himself in a tangle with what appears to be one of Fractum's more active branches. This is the first of many really weird happenings in a life that has been, to this point, quite uneventful. Also, he gets shot in the heart at the end of Chapter 1.

(That being said, I'm planning to put Chapter 1 in its entirety over the course of this log. Just to keep you on your toes, you understand.)

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Welcome!

... to the Apocalism! progress log. Read the What is this? page in case you're confused. Since this is the only entry at the time of writing, chances are you will be.