Page 1: The beginning

Page one was actually one of the last pages that I wrote for. The original first page (Which is now the second page) J didn’t like for a beginning, so he came up with the space/ planet shot. On pages like these, that nothing much was happening, I felt that I had to step up and write something grand to make the page interesting and not just a pretty picture. On this page I wanted to use a method of poetry where each first letter of a sentence vertically spells out a phrase. Unfortunately, J used his “artistic license” and moved all the sentences around within the stanza’s so that the page wound have a better flow and would be easier on the eye. But then, J didn't know about the little trick I had done. Everything should have lined up like this:

Once things were so clear… once hope was a simple truth,
Now, the world has become frail and withered to flesh and bone.
Cold words break the silence which feeds all happiness,
Echoing a sad remembrance of days with regrets…

Upon these fleeting, pained thoughts,
People continue with their own little lives,
Oblivious to one another but bound in unknown intricacies,
Not wanting and unwilling to look beyond life's primal simplicity…

A final end answer is lost in the calm of visions cloud.

Time continues its undying control without resistance.
In an instant we begin asking the same questions,
Meeting again for clarity and beauty within true knowledge,
Every atom isolated in existence… to have its story heard…

The other thing I did was make every first word or letter in the stanza spell out the same phrase, “Once Upon A Time”. It might be cheesy (I know!) but you never knew about it until now! It really was a challenging process, but I’m glad I pulled it off ;)

As for what is being said, there are only a few key things that lead into what is going to happen. Like I said earlier, at this point I had written almost all of the pages already. The most important part is the last stanza:

Time continues its undying control without resistance.
In an instant we begin asking the same questions,
Meeting again for clarity and beauty within true knowledge,
Every atom isolated in existence… to have its story heard…

The key was using the idea that every atom has a story. For the original concept within the whole comic was that everything that happens (The world, people, everyday lives, dreams and thoughts… etc.) is within one atom being a part of a shell lying on a beach (Which you see at the end of the book). The rest of what is being said, while flashy and poetic, is just there manly so that I could pull of my little bit of tricky poetry and start the book off with, “Once upon a time”.
-Mark-