The continuing adventures of Delwur Swill
Broken Lenses is the latest incarnation of a character and narrative I started playing around with many years ago.
The original Delwur story featured in my anthology comix ZOND in the early 1990s.
Delwur was originally designed to be a character who could pop up anywhere in time and space, like an accidental Doctor Who. He has little control over this situation and is sort of “unstuck” across different timelines and scenarios.
Initially, there was not much logic to Delwur’s situation. I always loved the way in cartoons and comedy films, like Laurel & Hardy, the protagonist kind of “re-sets” by the start of the next story. This can be even if they died at the end of the previous outing. This approach evolved into the narrative that became Broken Lenses via a few different incarnations.
There is a secret origin story called Tapes that is the starting point of Delwur’s adventures, but it in no way explains the full story.
I reserve the right to keep that a secret right up until I work out exactly whatever that is! If you would like to read that story, I have printed copies available. Come and see me at a Comic Con next time I table.
The story of how the adventure that is Broken Lenses came into being is a long one, and it started back in 2011 during a 40-minute train commute. I had been inspired by reading an article in Fortean Times about the mysterious “Magonians” and the legends of medieval sky wizards from France and Belgium. Charles Fort, after whom the magazine takes its name, ever obsessed with “the Sargasso Sea in the clouds”, would no doubt approve.
The inciting incident, whereby an anchor drops from the sky into a churchyard, is one of the stories told about the Magonians and was the starting point for my development of the Broken Lenses narrative.
Over the next couple of months, I sketched out a rough plot for Book 1 and then made a full set of thumbnail pages. When I stopped commuting for a while, I stopped working on it, and there it sat for about 11 years.
In March 2020, I developed and produced a 30-page Delwur Swill story for the CUBE Microplex to feature in its March programme. The book was completed and printed just in time for the first COVID lockdown in the UK. The CUBE was one of the first places to lock down, and the programme did not get much distribution. I was quite proud of the work done on the book, and with time on my hands, I began looking for another project.
After an unexpected loft find of the fully worked-through plan for Broken Lenses 1, I decided to follow the plan, updating the artwork to suit how I work now. The Broken Lenses Redux became a thing. I returned to work as a lecturer in an FE college a little earlier than most other higher education institutions, and I started travelling by train again. Commuting 40 minutes to and from Swindon gave me the space to start putting the artwork pages together and developing the story further. Initially, I pencilled out pages and then inked onto board while travelling on a shaky train. I later graduated to Procreate for colour and tone, and after struggling for two years, I had the seventy-odd pages done in six months!
The finishing and repro took a bit of time, but I eventually launched Book 1: Rain, Rain… Go Away on Kickstarter. Amazingly, it reached its goal on the first attempt! I am now working out where to go next. My plans for Books 2 and 3 are in motion but, true to form, are changing, fluxing, waning, and—hopefully—improving. I really don’t think it will take another 11 years in development this time. Watch this space.
If you are interested in Broken Lenses Book 1: Rain, Rain… Go Away, it is available via the store link on this website.
richard starzecki 