The last chapter of the first Eels collection was delivered last year in July. Then there was the editing of the collection as a whole, redrawing pages, cutting pages, adding pages, a new cover design and then some thinking. By the by, the collected book is a whole different read, check it out if you haven't already.
While it's true, I did start the second Eels book a while back, I stopped working on it as I didn't have enough material written. Honestly, I just wasn't ready. I needed some time to let the ideas gestate and for the scenes to emerge. There was also some time needed to absorb all of the lessons I learned from the first one and how to avoid those mistakes. I finally feel I've got the stories I want to flesh out and this afternoon I tracked down every scrap of paper I've been writing my notes on and compiled them all for a four page notes index. The next step is to write the script and figure out how many pages it's going to take to tell this story.
What to expect: Eels 2 will take place a few months after the first book. We'll see the return of Janet, Frank, Sheila, Max, Armistead, Bert, The Negative Orphans, The Record Store Guys, Special Agent Brody Howard and The Zapf. There will be more Milk City and Tales of Abstraction House comics.
We'll also see the introduction of some new characters, more meta layering, more comics, a long vanished character, new foes, more booze, more supernatural creatures, more obscure culture references, conspiracy theories, and the usual dusting of non-sequitors.
The images above come from a cache I was rifling through for notes. It's the pre-Eel Mansions anthology I had in mind before things got re-shuffled. The title A Fifth of Suspense is now re-purposed as Janet's new anthology. Yeah, meta.
If you have any Eels questions, feel free to ask.
More soon,
The Eels Keeper
