My apologies to Tom Williams, who’s done an awesome job; I’ve been really bad about promoting this story as it’s been unfolding (grad school, ’nuff said), but it’s a dark, strange, great little tale and it’s been a fun ride telling it with Tom. Feel free to comment, shower Tom with effusive praise or let us know what you think, either here or on TCS!

The whole story is available on The Chemistry Set.

Again, if you want to check out any of the older STYX stories, check the “Catch-Up Pages” on the ChemSet’s right-hand navigation.

Styx is returning to the Chemistry Set this Thursday, Nov. 8th (not Halloween, as previously stated), with “Federico,” art by Tom Williams!

No, this site isn’t dead, it’s just been sleeping. STYX TAXI will resume serializing this Halloween on The Chemistry Set with a new story called “Federico,” art by the excellent Tom Williams.

Just to give you a hint on the kind of story… the timing is no accident. Art teases to come.

Apologies for the prolonged radio silence… it’s been a busy year. (I got married in June, got accepted to and started grad school, and managed to contribute a story to the forthcoming POSTCARDS: CALIFORNIA DREAMING (due out in 2008 from Villard.) I have a number of STYX TAXI stories written, but waiting to be illustrated, including the previously mentioned “Hothouse Orchids.”)

If you’ve read the older stories and have been hanging in there, thank you. I’m aiming to make it worth your while. If you haven’t checked out the series yet, all the stories to date are on the Chemistry Set for your reading pleasure:

If you want to reach me, drop me an email, as every time I open up comments, I get nothing but buckets of spam about penile enlargement and prescription medication.
–Steven

If you like what you see, please stay tuned to The Chemistry Set, as we’ll be serializing both old and new stories on the site in coming weeks, including “Sing Along” (with art by my brother, Dan Goldman) and “Hothouse Orchids” by Hyeondo Park!

Take three elements:

• a side story from the STYX graphic novel that got cut for space (and because it just didn’t fit in);
• a hella talented comics creator;
• and a beginnings of a completely unrelated comic that has yet to be fully realized…

And there you have the start of something beautiful.

I started developing said side story into a standalone for Hyeondo Park to draw for The Chemistry Set (TCS for short) — concerning a manga-ka who asks for a last chance to tell the unrequited love of his life how he feels about her — but kept getting jammed on what the story-within-the-story was, what platform this writer wanted to use (or was already using) to get his message across to his lady love.

The story’s 16-20 pages; you can’t introduce a whole universe with its own story logic on top of dropping into a STYX story, know what’s going on, get hooked on the new characters, follow their journey through new mini-universe, and come out the other side satisfied… can you?

I’m aiming to prove that it can. Said other comic — hard science fiction taking place around the Sun — is something that’s been burning in my head for a while, waiting to get out (my own answer to PLANETES and 2001 NIGHTS)… so I wound the threads of the characters together and am going to see what they’ll bring to each other.

At any rate, this story — HOTHOUSE ORCHIDS — should work better than the ill-fated STYX Halloween story I wrote once upon a time, featuring a teenage voodoo priestess and Dom facing off against a zombie. Well, not your average zombie. (Who knows, maybe that one will surface sometime too.)

Starting tomorrow (Nov. 9th), STYX TAXI will be serializing from the beginning as a part of wunderkind webcomics collective THE CHEMISTRY SET, leading up to premiering a new STYX story by Hyeondo Park (artist on TCS’ own COME THE DAWN) and myself. For those who’ve never checked the series out, here’s your chance to start from the top!

Check out the column at Sequart.com.

Courtesy of Jeremy:

PASTRAMI FOR THE DEAD, in its entirety!

Enjoy!