… Of these buildings, we managed only to explore the larger chambers, and even then, only those that served as entries. There seemed to be no rhyme or reason to the shapes and sizes of the doors in between rooms and tiers, as though access between levels was restricted according to the size and shape of those who once lived here.
James, however, is resolute in his notion that our ancient hosts have neither a set shape or size, citing the absence of ladders or stairs between the floors of these strange towers.
Of course this is nonsense. The large amount of human skeletons we have found here, indicate that these strange and seemingly pointless chambers must have been purely decorative, or of some significance to whatever primitive religions or superstitions they practiced.
We’ve counted, documented, and graded what seem to be thousands of years worth of human remains now. For all the varying ages of the bones, and for all the time this settlement was here, it is strange to find the builders of this mysterious city had but twenty or less members at any given time… leading all the way up to only ten or less years ago.
The Rain-Maker
by Phillip Challis
Published with permission May 18th, 2009
Morgan Booth looked up at a stretch of wide blue sky and waited for the miracle to happen. With the winds kicking up, little dust devils tumbled across the plains and scoured the land. Standing on the edge of town, Booth found himself surrounded by a sizable crowd of townsfolk. Their mood struck him as electric, like the static carried on dry winds that sometimes threw blue sparks off wire fences at night. That’s how it was with the people. They had an excited air about them. He could see a few had even gone so far as to throw coarse blankets down on the bare ground. Families tucked into their picnic dinners and children played in what used to be fertile soil now gone to lifeless powder.
This town was just the latest in a string of used up little communities he’d wandered into and out of again over the past few months. The past few summers had seen withered crops and wasted stock across much of the rolling countryside out west of the Big Muddy. In his gut Booth knew a lot of places wouldn’t make it past another winter. Even at the tender age of nineteen those towns tended to rattle him. They were too full of empty houses and empty fields that had dried up. Wheat, corn, cattle, and sometimes even the people went to dust and blew away. The town, he decided, felt like death and he avoided them whenever he could.
Today though, Booth saw the crowd of townsfolk out milling around and it raised his curiosity. Arriving on the coach an hour earlier, he’d made a point of finding what few stores lined the main street. There wasn’t much to see, and his hopes of finding work weren’t great. He walked from one end of the street to the other in the space of five minutes and that’s when he saw all the people. Ambling over, he quickly learned the reason for all the fuss. It was a man standing atop a wagon the likes of which Booth had never quite seen before.
The handbill pasted across the wagon’s side proclaimed the man to be a rain-maker. The crazy looking collection of kettles, copper drums, and India-rubber tubes in his wagon was apparently a ‘patented gas generator’. Dressed as he was in dusty spats, a powder white frock coat, and matching white top hat of the old John Bull variety, he looked to be an eastern dandy, a snake oil man, or both. (more…)
Amy Pearson is the writer and artist behind Mathema: A fantastic Alchemical combination of science, magic, action and intrigue set in a beautifully illustrated world.
The preview at Zuda Comics certainly leaves me wanting more – and I would love to see this work published.
If you would too – please remember to vote for it once you have completed reading the free online preview at Zuda.
Also, be sure to take a look at her blog, which has much more related content available, including a large number of her original sketches.
At first I thought this was an instructional video. About twenty birds in, I was informed that it was in fact an art film by Craig Welch, who is apparently quite brilliant and quite adept at animating images on film.
Now that I am able to fully appreciate it for what it is, I must say Bravo!
