TIMESPELL
By Rich Henn and Russ Colchamiro
www.timespell.com
What is TIMESPELL?
SYNOPSIS:
TIMESPELL is a supernatural thriller set in New York City during the early 1990s. After tracking down serial killer Harold Gillespie–who is attacking young pregnant women–Detective Michael McMurphy discovers that this terrorizing menace is far more dangerous than he seems. And industrialist Joshua Steele has some serious plans of his own–one that dates back farther than anyone could have imagined.
THE HISTORY:
When Rich and I first started writing TIMESPELL together, way back in 1997, there had already been quite a bit of TIMESPELL history under the bridge. When I first met Rich in 1989 (I was a freshman in college), he had already been kicking the idea around for a few years, and finally did his first stab at an issue for his final design class project. At that point, I really didn’t know anything about comic books–I didn’t grow up reading them–and to be honest, I was only interested in TIMESPELL because Rich wrote it; comic books overall just didn’t register on my radar.
Fast forward to 1997 when Rich decided that he wanted to try TIMESPELL for real, and I’d had about a half dozen years of reading comics by then–yup, I was converted–to be be genuinely interested in the idea. Rich and I kicked it around for a while–the possibility of me writing it with him–until finally it just seemed like a natural fit. Rich had the basic outline for the story and some very specific ideas that just had to be in there, and I was a budding writer with an itch to do something new and interesting. And for whatever reason, I just felt like I just got TIMESPELL; I had the rhythm and tone of it.
THE PROCESS:
The team went something like this: Rich had the basic story idea, and he and I talked over the very big story arc, and then broke it down into smaller pieces, to make sure the pieces fit right. We would come up with a script, and then I’d suggest changes, with Rich and I would haggle over what stayed in and what didn’t. Gerry Coffee did the inks, and when we were luck enough, Rich’s old friend Rob Cobb did some dazzling and gritty covers that are pretty amazing.
For the next few years Rich and I plugged away at TIMESPELL, sending faxes–indeed, before Internet jpgs were easy and all Internet access was through slow and pricey dial-up modems–pitching dialog and plot twists, and then hitting some of the comic book conventions. And for an indie book that was self financed, TIMESPELL did pretty okay. And yet as often happens after a while, we ran out of steam. Me, after issue 3, and Rich not long after.
And even though we didn’t get quite as far as we originally hoped, TIMESPELL was a great kicking off point for me as a comic book writing project, and though Rich and I didn’t always see eye-to-eye on the way things should go or be done–let’s face it, we had some knock down drag outs over TIMESPELL–we both always wanted to tell a great story in the best ways we knew how.
THE ANALYSIS:
The question I ask myself after all these years is–do I like how TIMESPELL came out? And the answer is: kinda. Some of it really works. There’s some nifty story telling, slick twists, crafty dialog, snazzy covers and gritty artwork. On the other hand, certain passages didn’t quite come together as well as we hoped, there was some clunky dialog, inconsistent artwork and a few sections that just don’t hold up.
MY FAVORITE ISSUE:
- Timespell Issue 0
Special Issue #0
The cover art you see here, from artist Rob Cobb, is from my favorite issue of TIMESPELL, special issue #0.
Rich and I wrote a few issues, and was generating some good buzz, including from Kevin Smith (Clerks, Clerks II, Chasing Amy). Then one day Rich calls me up and asks me if I want to do an origin story for some of the characters, which I jumped at. So I wrote an origin piece for Harold Gillespie (a serial killer; the one you see below on the cover) and a background story for Joshua Steele, the series’ main villain. Rich then wrote a background story for Fat Eddie Cipriani, a mobster plagued with mental illness and persecution issues.
And as always, Rich did the interior artwork for the entire book.
FUTURE OF TIMESPELL:
All in all I’m thrilled to have been a part of TIMESPELL and hope that some day Rich and I sit down again and finish what we started. There’s a lot more story to tell. In fact, Rich wrote a screenplay version of TIMESPELL, so who knows?
Stay tuned …
ZOOMIES – Foreword
Russ’s Notes:
The following text is the foreword I wrote for the collected prose version of ZOOMIES, written by my good friend Rich Henn. ZOOMIES, for those of you who aren’t familiar with it, are the true stories from Rich’s childhood, and is his lifelong and ongoing comic book project. Several ZOOMIES shorts are available in comic book form. Along the way Rich decided to write out some of these stories in long form, and then collected them in a single, bound paperback volume.
Since I’ve known Rich half my life, and have heard his ZOOMIES stories so many times I feel like I could write them myself, Rich asked me if I would write a foreword to his collected edition, which you’ll find by continuing on to the next page.
And if you want order the collected prose version of ZOOMIES with my foreword, or just check it out, you can visit Rich’s Web site at www.timespell.com.
The Mind of Rich Henn
Although I’ve mentioned this on other parts of the site, it is important to me to point out Rich Henn’s influence on me as a writer. Indeed, we wrote TIMESPELL together, which I encourage you to check out under the Comic Book Projects section of this site.
But I also want to note some of Rich’s other projects, which I think you might like:
COMIC BOOK DOCUMENTARIES:
Also, as you’ll see on Rich’s Web site, he’s been a busy boy these last few years. On his own initiative Rich decided to do a documentary on the comic book industry, and wound up with not one, but two documentaries that he wrote, filmed and produced himself (and a third on the way, I think). They’re pretty darn cool, and if you like comic books, I strongly recommend that you check these out. He’s got behind the scenes footage that simply doesn’t exist anywhere else. The first one, SCENES FROM THE PRESS, MAINSTREAM: RAW, flew off the shelves, and his special documentary on Colleen Doran and her travails as a young woman coming up in the comic industry is an eye opener.
BACKWOODS WITH THE ZOOMIES
And last, but certainly not least, you’ll want to order all issues and collected editions of Rich’s lifelong comic book project, ZOOMIES. Rich grew up in the backwoods of New York state in the 1970s, way in the middle of nowhere. His parents ran a small farm (sometimes animals, sometimes greenhouse), and to help raise cash, they took in patients from the Elmira Psychiatric Center, who lived with Rich and his parents.
No joke.
ZOOMIES are Rich’s stories about those days. When I say there’s nothing else in the universe quite like ZOOMIES, that’s no exaggeration. And yours truly wrote the foreword to Rich’s collected prose edition, so that’s one more reason to check it out.
You can order TIMESPELL, MAINSTREAM: RAW and ZOOMIES at http://www.Timespell.com.
