Koenig On Things To Come Series
2 min readStar Trek‘s Walter Koenig is not only an actor, but an author as well, with a four part Things to Come graphic novel series in progress.
Things to Come #1 has already been released, and the story includes something quite popular today, vampires. “These are vampires not quite like you’ve seen before,” said Koenig. “I’m proud of the work all around.”
But response to Things to Come has been mixed, partly due to the fact that the story is split up to appear in four different issues, causing confusion on the part of the readers who have only seen the first issue. “The feedback has been limited,” said Koenig. “The thing I’ve heard most consistently is that people love the art, are intrigued by the story, but they don’t know where it’s going next.
“The fact is, the mandate was to release the story in four separate issues first. The problem is it was constructed to play out as a continuing epic story with a beginning, a middle and an end over the length of the entire saga — and not for each of the issues. In other words, each comic is not self-contained. Character development and plot turns are resolved over the course of the entire graphic novel book and not necessarily within the parameters of a single issue.”
Things to Come #2 is now finished and Koenig explained what readers can expect. “Things to Come takes place in two worlds: One part deals with the last humans alive and their desperate effort to free themselves from the underworld life they and their ancestors have known for two hundred years,” he said. “The other part deals with the coming of the vampires and their struggle to understand why they are the only sentient creatures on Earth. In each case, conflict rages, blood is spilled and compassion has its own voice. It is hard to ignore the similarities as well as the differences between the two species.”
Things to Come #3 is “written, painted and lettered,” said Koenig and work is progressing on Things to Come #4. Koenig encouraged fans to support his work. “To put it bluntly, the presales have been weak,” he said. “In general, single issue books are not faring well in the market for even the biggest comic book companies. The distributor (Diamond) has to be convinced that there is a vociferous, ambulatory buying public out there that is interested in what we have accomplished.
“I ask the fans to let their comic book outlets know they have an abiding interest in what we are achieving.”