July 20, 2005
TECKNIGHT: Jar of Ashes
Created and written by Brent E Anderson and Shirley Johnston

TECKNIGHT: Jar of Ashes is a 200-plus page graphic novel I started putting together well over ten years ago. I had created the TecKnight's world but I had no story. I had a beginning and an end, but no middle. This is where my wife Shirley came in. She is a poet and prose fiction writer, and had written some science fiction, so I asked her if she would read over my world-building notes, and, if inspired, write me a story. She did. And it's a corker.

The story:

An anachronistic Batmanesque super hero is lured out of retirement to save the inner planets of our solar system from certain destruction and provide salvation for the far-flung society itself.

Virtual reality is an environment where anything is possible. Where computer code can make one's wildest desires real. Where a good code writer can be God in his own universe and earn the ratings to prove it. Where being a hero is only limited by one's imagination.

This is the universe of the TecKnight.

In this future high-tech world anyone can create and program a virtual reality domain to compete with the millions of other creative souls who reap the rich rewards of popularity from the billions who consume their virtual products.

Nanotechnology has made every necessity of life infinitely available. Nano-medicine has made people virtually immortal. Work and money are obsolete. Entertainment is all that matters. Constant ratings tabulations determine wealth. The more ratings one has the more prestige one gains. Popularity, whether fleeting or lasting, rules.

The TecKnight comes out of retirement to investigate Joquesne, the upstart head of the fourth most popular network in the solar system. Joquesne has hatched a fantastic plot to destroy the inner planets and terraform the moons of Jupiter. He has discovered a way to ignite the gas giant into a second sun, effectively giving him a 100% share of VR ratings, making him the wealthiest, most powerful individual of what remains.

The TecKnight hunts for clues as to Joquesne's intentions with the help of Sylvia, a 12-year-old girl searching for her father, a gifted game programmer who has disappeared into the Joquerverse.

The first six pages of the story are reproduced here, and there is pre-production art for this project published in my sketchbook (on sale elsewhere on this web site).

I will be adding art periodically to this Work in Progress page, so keep checking back. And enjoy!