ALEXANDER RISK

The Tangled Trails of Nathaniel Dusk, Alexander Risk, Sebastian Edge and Questworld

An exerpt from, Riding Shotgun by: Don McGregor

The origins of series often have tangled histories. One trip starts and suddenly dead-ends, as another trip unexpectedly appears in an area where there appeared no openings.

There were just three words, printed in dark blue pen, lined up under each other:

EDGE
DUSK and
RISK

Three words I had hand lettered on the back of a notebook, that probably was for hand written portions ofSabre, or some other series. Three words that were last names for three different series that I was flirting around with in my head, not sure if we'd ever get on a first name basis, or if the names would endure.

Some of you have experienced part of "Alexander Risk" in a magazine called Fantasy Illustrated that Peter Gillis was editing way back around 1981, which was illustrated by Tom Sutton. I haven't tried to locate my yearly diary books to get exact dates on any of this, or this Riding Shotgun piece will never get into a finished written stage at this point in time. If I'm ever given a serious offer to write about my personal history in comics, I'll pull out all the diaries, and notes in calenders, and start exploring through the files. But for now, you have hear a little of the tangled trips that overlap one series or another, and that are influenced by sources totally unexpected in your life, and why one series makes it, and another, just as vibrant and important to you, doesn't.

"Alexander Risk" only saw 20 some pages printed. Tom Sutton actually did breakdowns for the second installment in blue pencils. I still have those pages somewhere, with, if I recall correctly, my penciled copy in the panels.

Alas, that book never came out.

There was no second issue of Fantasy Illustrated.