Tony: new fan/Rt.666 question

[miracle.eli]

Mr. Bedard,

This summer I went on a binge and bought most of the CG Sigilverse titles after an almost 10-yr dry spell of not collecting any comics. Originally I was just picking up the Bart Sears books, my interest in his art rekindled after learning about his connection to Syracuse, NY, but soon I was buying full runs of any CG book I could find. This brought me to Mystic, Negation, and Route 666.

I have to admit I wasn't familiar with your work, but like most people I found Negation to be simply awesome. I also think your work on Mystic deserves more credit; after Lopresti joined the art team there really seemed to be a direction to the book that was missing even when Marz and Peterson were working on it. But the big surprise for me was how great Rt.666 was getting.

I apologize, but again I was initially interested in the book for Moline's art after I'd read the Fray tpb, but after only a few issues it hit me that this was something special, and that this Bedard guy could definitely hook me on a story. So my question is:

What did you have planned for Cassie and Danik (Too-Too)?? I'm not a reader who was distracted by the Sigil storyline, and I'm really interested in why Cassie got an orange/Atlantean/Danik-style mark. Could you let us know what you had in mind for the end of that story arc as well?

Thanks Tony. Like lots of people out there I find myself in the position of being able to purchase these great books for much less than cover price, but at the same time regretting that I wasn't there to support you guys at CrossGen while you were publishing. Thanks for reading,

.Wil.

[Tony Bedard]

Cassie had the orange sigil because it came straight from Danik. The other people with the red/yellow sigils got theirs from Solusandra.

Which probablly makes sense to all of 10 people out there.

But, of course, I worked hard not to bog down ROUTE 666 in the whole sigil continuity.

If the title had continued, I would have had Cassie, Cisco and those two Rodinan soldiers blow up the "ghost-nuke" factory they find in the frozen wastes of Rodina. Their only escape route to avoid getting blown up, too, is to flee through the portal into Perdition. There, they would have finally encountered the Adversary. We would have probably re-launched at this point, with Cassie coming back from Perdition much changed and tougher, then revealing the backstory of what happened in "Hell" to change her.

But sometimes things are better left unfinished, like James Dean cut down in his prime. You always wonder how great things might've been, rather than watching the inevitable decline. Know what I mean?


Glad ya liked ROUTE!

[miracle.eli]

Cassie had the orange sigil because it came straight from Danik. The other people with the red/yellow sigils got theirs from Solusandra.

Which probablly makes sense to all of 10 people out there.

---

But sometimes things are better left unfinished, like James Dean cut down in his prime. You always wonder how great things might've been, rather than watching the inevitable decline. Know what I mean?


Thanks Tony,

The sigil thing makes a little sense, although I did think that Danik was also delivering the red/yellow ones...

And I can definitely see what you mean, unfortunately lots of CG titles did 'decline' even before cancellation; you did a nice job with the Mystic ending though (and Kesel wrapped up Meridian pretty well, as did Beatty with Ruse).

I appreciate you taking the time to answer,

.Wil.

ps- I think Appolyon was the Adversary!

[ratzo]

Appolyon was the Adversary. If you can, look for a Negation spin-off mini-series called The Mark of Charon and a one-shot called Negation: Lawbringer. They both go further into the history of Charon and Appolyon and help set the stage for Negation War, plus you'll see how Route 666 ties into the Negationverse (however tangentially).

Tony, how can you say Route's better left unfinished after telling us how it would've ended? :(

[Tony Bedard]

I think whenever you're on a roll (and I felt like I was on ROUTE and NEGATION) you're worst fear is not being able to close the deal.

And, to be honest, weak endings are probably my biggest failure as a writer.

So that's why I think it might be better left unfinished.

But I really do wish we could've gotten that last issue of KISS KISS BANG BANG out. That series was a hoot!

[miracle.eli]

Ratzo-
I've got the Charon mini and the Lawbringer 1-shot; I'll have to re-read them to see more of the connection to Rt.666 - other than Appolyon's pocket dimension being referred to as 'Hell' and he as 'the Devil'. Are there more specific clues??
.w.

Tony-
I've only managed to round up the 4th ish of KKBB but plan on finding the rest soon; it looks like it was a fun book.

[Tony Bedard]

Yeah, but KKBB #6 never came out.

It was inked and lettered, but never made it across the finish line before we ceased publication.

And Appolyon was, indeed, the Adversary, but I was resisting spelling it out much more in ROUTE because I really wanted to keep ROUTE separate from the whole Sigil saga. I wanted ROUTE to succeed on its own Horror merits.

[Strannik]

Cassie had the orange sigil because it came straight from Danik. The other people with the red/yellow sigils got theirs from Solusandra.

Which probablly makes sense to all of 10 people out there.

But, of course, I worked hard not to bog down ROUTE 666 in the whole sigil continuity.


Still, as one of the people who used to spend an inordinate amount of time speculating about the larger universe and the nature of sigils and someandsuch, this explanation is appreciated.

One thing I was hoping for is that, after Negation War, the various worlds would interact more. I mean, what would people of magical-based Ciress make of more technologically based Avalon? Or what would people of Quin think when they find out that they're just one of the several planets, with them being on a comparitively low end of technological scale? Would we start seeing the humans of Gaia trying to purchase Avalon's advanced genetic engineering technology? Would Saurons try to conquer comparitively wearker Quin and Arcadia (not to mention whatever world Route 666 was on). But, alas, this shall never come to pass.