Has it REALLY been this long?

22 years ago...

I'd been carrying the idea of what is now called Judas Christ for over a year when I sat down and sketched out the book cover. This helped me visualize where I was going with all this. What I sketched ended up looking like this, with several years of technology and skill intervening:

 That "eclipse" under the words "Judas Christ" is Nemesis. You may notice the Moon on the left. I still have the original sketch, but you won't see it until it's on the block at Sotheby's.

That was in June of 1990.

It wasn't until August 1990 that I actually sat down and began pouring this story in my head out onto paper. I used this thing we called a "pen." A Berol Thinliner. They stopped making them in about 1994. I bought a box of 20, and somewhere, I still have two left. I wore the rest of them out.

Here is a glimpse of the first page, back when it had a different working title. If you've read the Preview copy, you'll note that this Chapter 1 became a later chapter.

 

 Full resolution: http://judaschrist.com/galleries/JCX-8-90.jpg

A year later...

Yes. A year. I wrote the initial version of A Farewell To Kings in that gap. But, August 1991 rolled around, and the time had come. So, I started the Judas Chapter, which became the opening of the current version (after some severe editing!) Here are those pages:

 

Full resolution: http://judaschrist.com/galleries/JCX-8-91a.jpg

Full resolution: http://judaschrist.com/galleries/JCX-8-91b.jpg

Yes, I DID start writing this at 2:40 AM! I finished at 5am. That started a bad precedent. ;-)

It took me until November of 1991 to reveal that Judas had landed in the 21st Century. But now... maybe, just maybe... we are getting to the end of this road. I can't wait!

Stay tuned...