How Does it End/How Did it Start

How Does it End/How Did it Start, are two parts of a future graphic novel, each telling the story of three characters whose stories wind together through love, betrayal, and murder. The first steps of this project are these eight digital illustrations comprising two cover pages and six chapter illustrations, each one featuring the central character of that chapter.

Set in the fictional small town of Allswell, How Does it End/How Did it Start tackles themes of death and life afterwards. We follow our six protagonists as they deal with the ghosts that haunt them, some more real than others, and explore what happens when there’s nothing to do in town but die. Whether you tried to revive your dead boyfriend, or you’re trapped in a time-loop of your death, there’s something to learn from how things end, and how they started.

How Does it End

Welcome to Allswell is a semi-linear story, each chapter jumps between two plotlines starting on the same evening but diverging between past and present. How Does it End is the first volume comprising three chapters and exploring a complex triangle of love, hate, and justice.

Memento Mori

Evan MacNeil had been trying to revive his ex-boyfriend, he didn’t mean for things to go so very wrong. However trying to ressurect someone who isn’t dead creates some awkward issues for the balance of life and death and now his ex can’t die.

Sleep deprived and in over his head what will Evan do when his good deeds refuse to go unpunished.

Hail Mary

Ricky “Rabbitsfoot” Valentine is lucky. First his dad is a cult leader and now his ex has made him invincible, god does indeed have favourites. But how many times can you die before you start to getting tired of life?

When Ricky ends up in someone’s crosshairs, will his luck win out, or will he finally stop running?

Wash Cycle

Reina Khatri-Lapierre is stuck going no where. With parents who run a laundromat and are betting all their money on her twin brother, Reina knows she can only count on herself. But when tearing out her own heart isn’t enough what will she turn to.

When you’ve been numb for years what do you do when you’re flooded with hate, pain, and rage.

Back Burner

James Chambers-Reid fashions himself something of a prince, a knight in shining armour even. So what’s he to do when he stumbles on a damsel in distress. But princesses these days are ungrateful and now he’s the bad guy for saving her life.

James lives to act first and ask questions later, but consequences are nipping at his heels and who’s to protect a prince when the kingdom turns.

Kindred Spirit

Valerie Valentine misses her brother. When he dissapeared with their dad and the congregation she didn’t know how she would go on with her life. But we’re a couple years in and she’s finding ways to cope. Misery loves company and she’s nothing if not a good host.

Being left behind is gutting, so when Ricky turns up very much alive how will Valerie let everyone know just how hurt she feels.

Curtain Call

Bernadette Stevens has been dead for quite some time. How long is unclear, but when she’s broken out of the timeloop of her own death will the real world be much better? Stuck in a world entirely not her own she struggles to find herself, but does she even exists at this point?

The shows coming to an end and hopefully Bernadette will figure out her role before curtain call.

How Did it Start

The second half of Welcome to Allswell is told in How Did it Start. With farther jumps into the past and higher stakes in the present these chapters ramp up towards the introduction of the quarry, a bottomless pit where anything left is forgotten.

If you could make the world forget about something, or someone, what wouldn’t you do?