Call us sentimental, but we’ve been following the story of Von Allan and his graphic novel “the road to god knows…” for sometime. His struggles to launch an unknown graphic novel have revealed valuable lessons for all. Thus, we smiled when it was announced that the story will be serialized at Girlamatic:
Webcomics have, over the past ten years, become a phenomenon and are read by people of all ages. This popularity has greatly increased both the diversity and sheer amount of high quality comics that might not have been able to find an audience in a traditional print format. Coinciding with this growth has been the development of a number of webcomic publishing sites that collect similarly themed webcomics under one roof. One of the most notable is GirlAMatic, primarily due to its focus on comics that would appeal to female readers both young and old. Canadian graphic novelist Von Allan’s original graphic novel the road to god knows… has recently been accepted into GirlAMatic and will launch as a webcomic on December 3rd, 2007. The story will update four times per week (Monday through Thursday).
“Comics are a wonderful and diverse medium that can showcase stories from any particular genre. This is often forgotten due to the overwhelming market presence of both Marvel and DC’s superhero comics in print format. As a result of this, comics have traditionally been considered a ‘boys club’,” says Allan. “Most comics, especially in North America, tended to exclude women and girls by creating characters and stories that few female readers would ever identify with. Which, of course, is an odd thing to say but it can still occur even in this day and age. GirlAMatic has tried very hard to change this by creating a home for stories that, while running the gamut in terms of genre, can all be considered female friendly. Webcomics have managed to become a great leveler when it comes to genre and it’s fascinating to see how many readers of webcomics are female. When one combines that with the phenomenal growth of manga, driven primarily by female readers, comics of all forms are seeing a remarkable equalization in readership that they’ve never experienced before. And I’m pleased as punch to be a part of that.”
The road to god knows… is the story of Marie, a young teenage girl coming to grips with her Mom’s schizophrenia. As a result, she’s struggling to grow up fast; wrestling with poverty, loneliness, and her Mom’s illness every step of the way. Betty, Marie’s Mom, can’t help; she’s living with an illness that’s slowly getting worse and increasingly frightening. With her Mom absorbed in her own problems, Marie is essentially alone while she learns to deal with the chaos in her young life.
The road to god knows… is expected to be printed in 2008 and has an ISBN of 978-0-9781237-0-3
This is very good news, indeed! I love The Road to God Knows – I’m one of the people to whom Von Allan sent a review copy. It’s a lovely story about a tough subject. I’m glad he’s found a web home for his work.
Thanks a bunch for the mention, Heidi! And for the smile, too.
And thanks to Kat, too. She has been remarkably supportive through all of this.
Thanks to Heidi for helping get the word out about this swell read.
Congrats also to Mr Von Allen. You really stuck with it man. After reading the galley copy again recently it reminded me that this book needs an audience.
Big ups to Girlamatic for providing the outlet for that audience to gather and enjoy.
You’re all wonderful…thank you for helping to get the word out, for your support, and for the positive comments! I can’t tell you how much it’s appreciated.
You’re all aces in my book…I’ll be doling out hugs (and beers) in the future, I think. :)
Just a quick note of correction. The webcomic will update four pages every Monday rather than update one page Monday through Thursday. That error was on me (because I can be a wee bit thick sometimes).
So, still four pages every week, but those four pages will come in all on one day – Monday! :)