Every episode of Into the Storymaze = writing ideas or writing-in-progress; something creative I’m excited to share; a highlight from my comic book writing; and a quote that’s worth a think.
Hoping you’ll consider signing up for my new comic on Kickstarter: tinyurl.com/axlesinfernal
This is Part 3 of my original pitch for RYSK, the new comic I’ve got coming from Blackbox Comics in late April. The hero is Ruby Chance, and here’s where things start to go very odd — and bad — for her world:
Ruby’s bet on AI is in line with where the world’s put its money — for good and bad. There isn’t an appliance that doesn’t have some kind of “machine learning” advantage. There isn’t a municipality that hasn’t been hacked by some AI bot. AI image creation has upended creative industries, and AI video generation has persuaded thousands to support worthy causes.
So when it came time to tackle climate catastrophe, it was “AI to the rescue.” An AI-powered icemaker (vs. icebreaker), sailing south to seed the atmosphere above the Antarctic. The AI-certified plan: lower the temperature, refreeze the continent, and keep the waters from rising.
But something went wrong in the AI’s “black box” — or maybe someone coded “bad” instead of “good”? Whatever the reason, the freeze became known as “The Melt” — a significant heat wave event that exposed a still frozen part of the land mass and unleashed a long dormant bacteria.
The bacteria — which would itself become known as “The Melt” — manifested itself as a kind of fast acting form of necrotizing fasciitis: the flesh-eating disease. Spreading rapidly around the globe it released a temporary local anesthesia…so people didn’t even realize what was happening to them as it ate-away/melted the flesh off billions, in random and horrible ways. Some people were so traumatized and savaged that they died outright.
Its appetite sated, the bacteria (seemingly) died out. As for the survivors, many wished for death, as they were forced to confront the horror of widespread disfigurement and disability: melted features, hands, limbs. Until once again…”AI to the rescue.”
For the high and mighty, industry moved at the speed of $ to engineer next level prosthetics, designed and powered by AI to replace eyes, arms and more in fantastic ways. Survival of the richest.
As for the less privileged? They were left to fend for themselves — and did. With society in upheaval and stressed to the edges, the masses engineered their own “trickle down” cybernetics. Stealing and remixing code, hacker-profiteers created a cottage industry based on finding smart ways to redeploy the AI chips and servos in everyday, off the shelf hardware to build out low-rent and decidedly hodgepodge new legs, ears, faces.
Humanity is now bonded to technology, a discordant mix of sometimes sleek, sometimes screw-loose; bolted-on and beautiful; delicate and dented. Powered by AI chips that no one really understands how they work, toward a future no one can predict.
Well…maybe someone. Remember Ruby Chance?
More Ruby in next week’s installment: The Handicap.
Just because Reacher is predictable — oversized, overly principled do-gooder delivers kick ass justice to evil-doers with brutal efficiency — doesn’t mean it isn’t good storytelling. There are too many examples of what should be slam dunks (are you listening Secret Invasion?) that can’t turn the propellor, let alone stick the landing.
Reacher knows what it is and importantly knows how to bring it home with solid pacing, broad but compelling characters, and beats that deliver. It may not be high art, but episode after episode is an excellent example of — and lesson in — satisfying structure.
While the Devil of Hell’s Kitchen is still flexing his reborn horns on Disney+, here’s a time capsule item: a striking promo poster from Mr. Scott McDaniel for Fall From Grace. Not sure I get the promo line — I rarely aligned with sales’ approach, and that was before 25+ years in marketing.
Also rare: we got billing OVER the Man Without Fear series that would run at the same time. (No competitive pressure, none at all!)
"We must speak out against racism and fascism in any form, at any scale, any time they rear their ugly head."
- Phil Scott
I’m D.G. Chichester. If that looks pretentious, feel free to just call me “Dan.”
I earned my storytelling cred writing comic book titles like Daredevil, Terror Inc., Nick Fury Agent of SHIELD and Clive Barker’s Hellraiser, along with digital widgets in the world wide web of advertising. I like weird tales, so if things here bend that way — now you know why!
Folks seem to like the comic book adventures I’ve written, so if you haven’t checked one out — please do. Many are now available in fab collected editions.
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