There's a legend about how I got involved with Warp Graphics some twelve years ago: the key words are "bounced check", "chocolate cake", and "a hundred words a minute." All of which indeed had something to do with my introduction to the staff-side of Abode, but it's too convoluted for an editorial page, and you'll have to corner me at a convention and ply me with the best German doppelbock you can find for me to reveal all.
Those of you with good memories and a deductive steak may remember seeing the name "Joellyn" under the Warp masthead before: back then, when Wendy and Richard were creating the original black-and-white 'Quest in the early '80s, I was Joellyn Dorkin, Administrative Director and Associate Editor. On that first fateful day in November 1983, I came through the back door on Reno Road and breathlessly trotted down the Pinis' cellar steps to where my desk had been placed next to Richard's. In the small room. Opposite the coal bin. Across from the ping-pong table...
Things have changed - lordy, how they've changed! - from those troll-like beginnings. Warp has grown, shrunk, moved, grown again, moved again and metamorphosed into a bustling and prolific home to a handful of splendidly talented artists and writers, all exploring The World of Two Moons and bringing back what they discover to share with you.
One of the waystations on that path of change was the move to color comics after several years of black-and-white publishing. Color has its advantages, to be sure, but unless flawlessly done, it can sometimes blur the subtle nuances that penciller and inker work so hard to convey. Still, ya pays yer money and takes yer cherce, as the saying goes - and I, like the rest of you, got used to seeing Warpwork in color every issue and didn't think much about the old days.
Until now.
When I opened the first of the new black-and-white books, it hit me all over again - the crispness, the fine ability to see everything the artist had in mind. Immediately, I found myself mentally putting in hue, shade and color, precisely as I saw it. Not as the colorist may have decided for me, or the printing process might have altered a touch, or the lighting in the room could have inadvertently suggested. It was all as I saw it. It's like watching a classic movie, filmed in the days before Panavision and Technicolor - Bette Davis' infamous ballgown in Jezebel is fire-engine red to my mind, and blood-wine to my friends. Sure, we're watching the same movie - but there's room for both visions when the medium is black-and-white.
So my advice, if you've flipped through this book and you're thinking you're getting less - is think again. You're being invited to take a larger hand in the creative process than you've been offered in a while. Be a creator with us. I bet you'll surprise yourself with your own imagination.
Joellyn Auklandus
[ Accompanying this text is a sketch by Steve Blevins depicting Joellyn
and Ember chatting and resting under a tree while Choplicker takes a
peaceful nap. --MK ]