When I start planning a piece of genre fiction, I like to begin by listing all the elements that I believe have come to define that genre. For Shades, therefore, I listed all the elements you would expect to find in a super hero story. For The Spires I wrote down the elements of a typical fantasy adventure. Then, before I begin any detailed plotting, I decide which of those elements I want to keep in my story and which ones I don't.

Often, since some of those elements are integral to the genre, I find I don't discard the unwanted elements completely. Instead I try to "re-imagine" them and use them in a different way.

The text on this page, although it has its own significance with regard to the story, is a direct result of that process. Some of the very first notes I made for "Hunted" were an examination of the various ways in which vampires are usually presented in novels, movies and, of course, comics.

This page was also the page Kyri used to try out a number of different styles for the comic. Some were realistic. Some had the air of a fairy tale. One had that eerie, other-worldly quality that used to be the sole preserve of East European puppetry. Eventually we decided on this one which somehow seems to capture them all!