Jordan Faris's 'The Haarken Elect' wins the Celtx POW!

Banished from Their World. Exiled to Earth. Reborn As Champions.

EXT.: NIGHT ON A DISTANT WORLD---MOONLESS, COLD. VAST RANGES OF SLOPING DUNES, DIMLY LIT BY CRISS-CROSSING STREAMS OF LIGHT FROM LOW-FLYING PATROL VESSELS.

THIS IS HAARKEN.

Beautifully written and illustrated by Jordan Faris, this week's POW 'The Haarken Elect' was originally prepared in screenplay format and currently serves as "a working schematic for a comic book, graphic novel or young adult science fantasy screenplay."

The first chapter,The Fate of the Excludants, is dynamic, exciting and a pleasure to read, as Faris's mastery of the English language combined with astute attention to detail engages the reader right away. As a 'Grafictioneer', Jordan's other artistic talents are apparent when viewing his illustrations and detailed descriptions of the story's characters as they immediately aid the viewer in establishing a distinct personality for each one. (I, myself am especially partial to Whither and Venable.)

Jordan says he plans to restructure the work in Celtx's new comic format soon, and will use that as a blueprint for comic book work that he hopes to show at the San Diego Comic Con this July.

To find out more about the talented Jordan Faris, and what inspires him and ideas like 'THe Haarken Elect', please read on....

"My background isn't rooted to one place: I was born in Manhattan, raised in Michigan, we moved to Mexico (Michoacán and Tijuana) then pulled a U-turn and ended up in Southern California.  My mom was an art teacher---there was always literature, art and music as a constant in our home. I am an illustrator and writer, a grafictioneer. I have served as playwright-in-residence for Mascara Magica, a groundbreaking multicultural theater project in Southern California.  My poetry has has been published in Slipstream, The Wormwood Review, Xib, Puck, The Quarterly and others. I am currently developing projects in the graphic fiction genres. In my wayward youth, I was singer/lyricist in four original music bands during the better part of a decade.
 
The Haarken Elect is my attempt to recreate the sense of involvement I felt when I was first discovering comics.  My main goal is to try to create a world that is engaging, yet not so convoluted or dark that it shuts out the younger audience demographic.  I'm trying to construct a universe where questions of moral relativism, ends justifying means and other conflicts of conscience can be addressed without the editorial politics of extremism.  Mostly, I want to create an adventure you can enjoy as just a good story, or as a parable of our time, take your pick. This first draft has been fun...now to put it down graphically on paper, or pixels...the next step is to commit to it visually, tighten up the action, streamline the dialogue.
 
Celtx, in many ways, prompted The Haarken Elect's current form. How?  Originally, I had a decent rough draft, some model sheets for the characters and a few stray background ideas. When I was looking at possible screenwriting software (Final Draft, of course, Movie Magic and Mindstar's Cinergy were tools I'd heard of), I googled the phrase open source scriptwriting software; Celtx was the first result that came back. After downloading (preparing to be disappointed, a veteran of open source alpha-stage burn) I was struck by the ease of navigation and its uniquely intuitive interface. It felt familiar yet new, like any habit-altering experience should.  I didn't think a whole lot about it...from the first time I saw the splash page with its Project of the Week, I was hooked.  I just started writing (Celtx guided me gently with its Tab: Parenthetical, Enter: Character prompts) and when I'd get stuck, I'd play with the format tools, and that simple exercise would make me see things in a new way and get back on track.  For those who argue that no scriptwriting program can impact your creative edge, I can only say: Download Celtx, settle in for the ride; then we'll talk."

You tell 'em, Jordan!
And All the Best at Comic Con.

Sheila and The C-Team

To enjoy more of Jordan's work, check out his web sites at VANDERWOLFF GRAFICTION and WANDERING WOLF.