Friday 16 January 2015

Jikan - a few false starts, but the end is nigh

Regular readers of PARAGON (and I know you are both out there) will know that the third volume of the Jikan Chronicles was released before Christmas. What you may not know is that the story ends with book four and has already been written.

I can't wait to share it with you!


Did you know that originally Jikan was to be a three panel newspaper style strip? Once I was fortunate enough to get other (better) writers involved it span into an epic series of adventures but occasionally I brought it back to my original idea with the help of writer Matt Mcloughlin. And so we had the Kappa King story and the western Jikan Noon 

When the original story was published in PARAGON#2 the final panel had the samurai landing in 20th century traffic dodging cars. What I intended next was to have jikan take on a demonic underground Fight Club. I still think the idea of Jikan cage fighting demons in a New York basement is a great visual, but it was not to be.

There was also an unfinished 3 panel strip called Leviathan where Jikan was to take on an hellish Moby Dick. We got seven episodes into that until it faltered. I still hope to finish that one at some point (although certain frames need a serious redrawing) if I can get Matt to complete the scripts.

Another idea that I started writing but never got around to drawing was to have Jikan arrive at the court of King Arthur to find a demon controlling the throne under the guise of the mage, Merlin.
Of course, those of you who have read Book Three know that can't happen now - Merlin is somebody else. (Spoilers!)

Maybe one day we should have a fifth book of The Jikan Chronicles - The Untold Stories!

In the meantime, grab yourself a copy of Book Three while it's going cheap - only a £5 for over 80 pages of time travelling, demon hunting adventures!




2 comments:

Greg Meldrum said...

Fascinating stuff - I always love finding out the 'behind the scenes' info and the what-might-have-beens about stories. As for ways to continue Jikan even when it's finished - you've got to start thinking like the American big boys and go for saturation! 'Before Jikan', 'Jikan: Year One', 'Crisis of Infinite Jikans', 'Young Jikan', 'Ultimate Jikan' - why let a concept reach its natural conclusion and end fittingly when you can recycle it forever?

Dave Candlish said...

If I ever get Matt McLoughlin to finish Jikan; Reflections we might get an Infinite Jikans tale! If he does that'll be released as a Paragon Presents... special edition :-D