A short comic about death and social media, and how weird technology makes everyday life.
WAYFARER: ESCAPE
A short WAYFARER story, set in Birmingham UK. Abi visits her friend in Birmingham England as a break from astronaut training. What starts as a holiday soon turns into a mystery...
This was drawn at least two years ago, but for one reason or another it never got finished. I coloured the pages earlier this year, using this two tone muted palette to give contrast to the two “worlds”. It’s the first time I’ve actually used a local place in my stories. Most notably being the exterior of the Grand Central building that sits on top of New Street Station in the centre of Birmingham in the UK.
The story itself centres on loneliness and friendship with the framing of the VR device that Jason uses. Looking at the story now, two years after I initially conceived it, the most naive thing about it is the Grand Central display screen being used for anything other than tacky advertising. But one can dream.
In terms of Abigail’s 5000 year timeline, this sits just before WAYFARER 1 & 2. While she was still doing astronaut training but before her brother completely screws up her plans and she gets booted of the space program.
If you read it, please tell me your thoughts, I’m curious to the reaction of this comic.
WAYFARER is a science fiction comic series following Abigail Quinn as she lives 5000 years of her artificially extended life. Each story is stand alone, but always a little bit further into the future.
Announcing WAYFARER
It’s been awhile since GALACTIC SCRAP COLLECTOR ended, a webcomic that I spent almost two years writing and drawing, and while I’m debating the route to go with a physical printing of it, I have to go forward to the future. So with that being said...
New project announcement! (I’m imagining a lot of air horns and crowds going wild right about now)
WAYFARER is a science fiction short story series focusing on Abigail Quinn as she lives through her cybernetically enhanced 5000 years of life. With a focus on technology, society, and and finding a purpose in life when given such freedom. The series will approach a large range of topics, with the series becoming more science fiction the further into the future Abigail lives.
Here’s a little about Abigail and WAYFARER as a whole:
Abigail Quinn had worked hard to achieve her dream of becoming an astronaut. She was fitted with a cybernetic augmentation that would extend her life to survive the journey. She would travel further than any human would have travelled in space at that time.
Her plans changed however, when that was taken away from her.
Now she has 5000 years to see the world, the universe even, to reclaim what she lost and so much more.
Abigail is curious, empathetic, and always striving to go forward. Always looking for adventure, fighting injustice and simply to help those in need. She lives by a mantra that she doesn’t know everything but she can always learn more.
Abigail is our eyes into the future, seeing the world and the universe change as she stays the same, seeing society rise and fall many times over.
Wayfarer is thoughtful science fiction, contemplating what it means to be human in an increasingly artificial world, how the universe will open up to humanity in the next 5000 years, and what happens when the limitation of lifespan is taken away.
Wayfarer is a journey 5000 years into the future through the eyes of one person, one short story at a time.
Abigail Quinn appeared in final third of GSC, Abigail is a character I’ve had developing in my head for a while. And with my new ongoing project WAYFARER, I’ve finally found a place that fits her well.
Wayfarer is a digital and physical comics project, with Wayfarer: Closure being the first printed issue being released May 15 2017. With webcomic short stories beginning to be published online shortly after.
Wayfarer: Closure follows Abigail as she goes on a roadtrip across a future America to see a location of historic importance. Seeing the sites of the Nevada desert, chatting about self driving with truck driver Teddy along the way.
Wayfarer: Closure was written and drawn by Richard Rudge (me), with interior colours from Riley Jones.
Here’s a little preview. If you’d like a review copy and publishable preview pages like the ones above, send me an email to r_rudge@hotmail.com
Print copies of Wayfarer: Closure will be available to buy here on my online store.
For the digital part of this two pronged assault I’ll be writing and drawing slightly shorter stories to be published in a weekly webcomic format on Tapas and on it’s own site wayfarercomic.com.
I'm so excited to begin sharing the stories WAYFARER is capable of. The broad timescale combined with the short story format is primed for some excellent comics.
INKTOBER #031
The End.
INKTOBER #030
A dangerous stowaway...
INKTOBER #029
Life begins again...
INKTOBER #028
A little thing to remember the adventure.