The List

Feedback From a Reader Who’s a Writer

admin — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 22:36:46 +0000

Goran is another writer who has come from writing screenplays (though he is far advanced on me in that area - evident from his excellent ‘Brainteaser’ script he sent me) to now be moving into writing a novels of sequential art - which is a fancy way of saying graphic novelists, which in itself is a fancy way of saying comic writer (though, ostensibly, comic writers must fit their stories in 22 or 48 pages while graphic novelists have no boundaries in terms of length). While it’s always nice to hear positive words from a reader (esp. one that is a writer), even better is when that reader comments on aspects of my work that have yet to be highlighted. Now, while I had to edit the below a little due to it containing spoilers, you will still see that Goran has put a lot of thought into his feedback:

Hey, Paul.

I finished reading The List.

I enjoyed the read. The best thing about the story is how the list - the mythology surrounding the list - is shrouded in so much mystery. I.e., you’ve done a great job creating and sustaining curiosity; I’m certainly keen to know what happens in volume 3.

It’s certainly a graphic story in terms of violence, which is great, as I’m a horror fan. (I didn’t think that the story went into gratuitous-violence territory, which is great, as I hate gratuitous violence.) I liked the idea that The Son tattooed the commandments onto his body. I also really liked the unpredictability in volume 2 in that scene in the park.

You did a good job with the panel layout too. (Note: That was Fleur’s work, not mine).

I thought the flashbacks to The Son’s childhood with his mother in the lead-up to that one-page long shot of the dead mother was great - definitely my favourite part of the novel thus far.

I gave The List to a friend of mine to read. He’s a fan of horror stories too and he said that your novel was “pretty fucked up”, which is definitely a compliment.

Franklin nails it.

admin — Fri, 28 May 2010 00:04:08 +0000

Receiving kind words from readers must be my all time favourite part of creating a work. I don’t know if it’s the fact that someone is appreciating the work I have produced, or the reassurance that there are people out as fucked as I am - by fucked, I mean willing to take a chance and really get their teeth into a story as dark and insane as The List. Yep, fucked. ;^) Franklin is one of those people. I can clearly recall her breaking through the crowd at Melbourne Supanova declaring “The List fucks with my head!” or something to that effect. After I admitted that those words were exactly what I wanted to hear from my readers, we proceeded to take some pics by the stall banner. They are a little too big for the blog, but I will provide the very cool feedback she gave regarding The List:

“I also have a teensy bit of feedback to add in regards to Volume I:

If Stephen King, Chuck Palahniuk and Quentin Tarantino took LSD and
created a comic… it would be The List.

It’s still the best thing to come out of Supanova. ;)”

Franklin, you’ll always be welcome here.

New Volume 1 Cover by Wayne Nichols

admin — Wed, 05 May 2010 05:48:33 +0000

Blew. Me. Away!

That’s the only way I could describe my reaction to receiving the first sketch for the new cover of Volume I of The List.

Having already produced amazing covers for both Volumes II & III, Wayne Nichols (www.wnichols.com) somehow managed to trump both of them with this dynamic, atmospheric and attention grabbing piece.

If there was one picture that could tell The List in…well…one picture, this would be it and it is certainly contender for the cover of the TPB (single volume graphic novel) because of that. Wadda ya reckon?

Vol III cover complete

admin — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 06:17:45 +0000

Devilshly-delicious, huh?

Check out the artist responsible for this lighheaterted piece at www.wnichols.com

(Scroll down for the development of this piece).

BrokenFrontier.com

admin — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 12:11:15 +0000

Broken Frontier Review Extract:

“Deep breaths first… The List is not a comic for the squeamish or the easily disturbed. When I described it as “uncompromising” in my introductory paragraph I wasn’t being hyperbolic or dramatic. In fact, if anything, I was probably underplaying just what an uneasy and troubling read The List can often be…This is take-no-prisoners psychological horror at its grimmest and is all the more effective for that defiant, defining stance…Bedford adopts an economical storytelling style that is entirely suited to his subject matter and reflects the single-minded objectives of The List’s protagonist…There’s something almost hypnotic about the way we follow this unhinged persona from page to bloody page…I have found myself saying this a lot recently but The List is definitely a comic that rewards re-reading. There are layers to the mystery here…There’s a dark emotional resonance to the The List, escalating with each volume, that is almost threatening in its delivery…On the art front Henry Pop on pencils and Tom Bonin on inks do an outstanding job of visualizing the Son’s descent into apparent religious obsession…Pop’s visceral and brooding layouts are a fitting complement to Bedford’s taut and unsparingly paced script…Few comics are as likely to make your eyes bleed just from reading them as The List but, such is its power to ensnare and transfix the reader, you’ll barely even notice the ocular haemorrhaging until the book has you well and truly trapped in its devious grasp.”