A few weekends ago, while running updates on the blog, I clandestinely watched an episode of the Green Lantern animated series that was mesmerizing my husband.
Green Lantern—Hal Jordan, Sinestro, that oath: “In brightest day, in blackest night, no evil shall escape my sight…”
All I could think was, “How the heck did they tell a perfect story with beginning, middle, end, and sympathetic characters in 22 minutes?” Not to mention the eye-catching animation.
I last experienced comics, before I met my husband, on the Long Beach Press-Telegram’s Sunday pages circa 1972.
But you can’t call yourself a storyteller and remain a snob to this powerful medium and its evolution. (I include graphic novels here.)
That’s why Chris Edgar’s animated musical project, Steve’s Quest, fascinates me. I thought, animation and a complete soundtrack? That sounds like a lot of work.
For Chris, “labor of love” doesn’t begin to describe it. His past lives include speaker, author, personal coach, and Stanford-trained attorney.
But his passion is music and Steve’s Quest embodies that. He wrote the story and the songs. It’s part superhero tale and part rock opera.
Steve’s Quest follows Steve, a young software engineer who struggles with work, love, and getting a science fiction novel published.
He has finished a draft of a cyberpunk-themed story, The Chronicles of Gain, Part 1: Under a Plastichrome Sky. But he hasn’t worked up the nerve to send out his manuscript, not least because his domineering mother keeps telling him to focus on his “real job,” and give up his pipe dream.
But, Chris writes, “there are deeper questions at play in Steve’s Quest as well, like what it means to grow up, and what manhood is about, in today’s culture. And there’s a liberal dollop of silliness too.”
I wish Chris Edgar great success with this, his own late-blooming creative quest. Here’s the first episode of Steve’s Quest (it’s under eight minutes and it’s amazing).
More about Chris Edgar and Steve’s Quest:
- To follow Steve’s Quest on Facebook, click here.
- To read how Chris and his production team collaborated long-distance, click here.