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Today the third and final, for us anyway, round of the Small Press Idol contest draws to a close. I thought it would be fitting to wrap up my commentary on the three pages we submitted to the contest today as well.
This page begins an important sequence which, over the next few pages, draws Cain into an investigation that will form one of the main story lines for the first season. I’d rather not get too far into details here, but essentially Cain has used the synthesized hallucinogen as a means to view the psychic history, or echoes of the space occupied by the hospital. This page allows the reader to follow Cain as he finds a kind of familiar landmark in the ether from which he can explore the echoes further. What will he find? Well, for that you’ll need to wait for the rest of Issue Zero to be published.
For some insights from Mike on this page, here is a section of a post of his from the Associate’s Small Press Idol forum:

“Jason had a lot of descriptions for this page, but left me the freedom to break down the information into panels. I wanted to show Cain as “walking” through the hospital, symbolizing a journey through a vision. This hospital is most definitely haunted. It’s our belief that all these old institutions are haunted in some way. People would be put in to these facilities and left to rot, and eventually die. Mass, unmarked graves can be found behind these hospitals all over the country.1,000s of lonely dead.
But what Cain sees here are not ghosts.

Jason used the perfect term here to describe it: Echos. A sort of psychic residue left behind by suffering and nefarious deeds. I think it’s safe to say, without giving away the story, that these children have been being experimented on in numerous ways – the why and what of these experiments will be a focus of our first Season’s story arc and tie to much bigger events.

I wanted all the hospital staff to have no faces, but to be a moving blurry image of a face. This is how I think the children would remember the staff in their minds and thus in this projection. The children’s faces are their real faces. They are all deformed and mentally stunted. I wanted them to be sort of creepy, but not threatening, not evil, they are the victims here. Horrible, creepy, disturbed victims…”

So there you have it True Believers! With our commentary and contest wrapped up what is next for The Associate?
Well, I think our Issue Zero will still be published in one of DimeStore’s anthologies, but we are out of the running for the contest’s grand prize: being published as an ongoing series.
Michael and I have pretty much plotted out the first season, which will be something like 24 issues, and have sketched out a basic plot line for season two. When will we begin work on season one you may ask…well, I have no idea. Currently Mike is hard at work on finishing the final HvB strip in the “Hostile Make-Over” story line, plotting out new Dr Immortalis adventures, pencilling Vent, as well as beginning a new project with one of our fellow Small Press Idol contestents. So, I fear the inhabitants if the Associate universe will have to wait until later this summer…at least.
Last, but certainly not least, I’d like to extend our thanks and gratitude to all our fans and fellow contestants who voted and got others to vote for us in the Small Press Idol and Zuda competitions. While we didn’t win, we did learn a great deal and made some new friends in the community.
So, thanks again everyone, and watch this spot for updates and news!