The Last of the Twentieth Century

Everyone dreams of getting away—getting away from where they are, physically, mentally, perhaps even getting away from all that we collectively call reality. The Last of the Twentieth Century is about such an escape. First by car, then by crashed jet, then by mobile home, then by train, and finally by boat.

This story was not intended as a graphic novel, rather six issues of a comic series, each twenty-four pages long. It was intended to have been followed by a second and then third series of identical lengths. Unfortunately, the story was abandoned after the conclusion of the first series—not because the author had tired of it, rather, because the author's changing circumstances made continuing such a big project impossible. The last two issues were completed under considerable strain! Unfortunately, even though the first series was completed, that series ended on a cliffhanger. Worse than that—it ended with our protagonists already off the cliff, hanging in mid-air!

And while the story was meant to be amusing, it wound up mostly bleak. The author doesn't even like to look at it, and has come close to stuffing it into the wood-stove. That's likely still to happen, eventually, but since the pages have been scanned, unless the author also destroys a half-dozen backup drives, the story is unlikely to entirely disappear.

The central characters were to return in an animated retelling of the story in a series called The Devil's Crawlspace, which, like the comic series, was never brought to any sort of satisfying conclusion.

Following are a few excerpts from the graphic novel...