This story has had a long journey. In the Spring of 1983, I lived in Richmond, VA. Down the street was my best friend and her family. We had decided to make a short Science-Fiction film about a young man and his young siblings who were transported to an alien world to help save the alien civilization. We had begun scripting and rehearsing for the movie, when my parent's divorced and I went to live with my father in Edinboro, PA.
Our story was put on hold indefinitely.
In the Fall of '83, I thought it be nice to write our defunct effort as a story. I had drawn a few pictures to go with the written words. It was just OK, but something was missing. Then one fateful weekend, my father dropped me off at the local mall and I headed to B. Dalton Books to check out the Dungeon & Dragons section. It was on this day that my story would change forever. On that day, as I looked for the latest Dungeon module, I turned around and was mesmerized by what I saw.
I saw the graphic novels of "Elfquest" by Wendy and Richard Pini.
I remember my sister had the novel "Journey to Sorrow's End" and I couldn't put it down (I actually kept it for myself) and was, in part why I wanted to do my story in the written form. But THIS.... I stood dumbfounded for what seemed a eternity. I reached out and picked up Book One. I flipped through the pages completely enthralled.
Then the idea came to me....
"I will do this as a graphic novel!"
I read and re-read all the books taking mental notes on how to improve my artistic talent. The first sketches of my people are indeed a far cry to what they are today. Wendy Pini definitely influenced me and I will always be grateful to her. People who see my work and know about "Elfquest" can see the respectful nod to it.
During my High School years, "Worlds Apart" was the original working title. However, thanks to people making references about Journey, I decided to change it. While participating in the school play of "Our Town", we sang "Bless be the Ties That Bind". There was a line in the song, "When we are sundered part, It brings us inward pain". I liked the sound of that and renamed my story "World's Insundered" and it remained that for quite a while.
I kept busy with my story and would lock myself away and draw panels and pages from evening until the break of dawn. Many things have changed over the years from that initial idea a couple of kids came up with back in 1983. Names would have to be at the top of this list. Vensysia was not always Vensysia. It had started as "Venitia" to "Venisha" to "Venisia" and finally "Venysia". Then one day, as I had been working for hours on an updated map of the world, I made a mistake while inking the name in the corner. An extra "s" was placed and "Vensysia" was born.
After High School, I was thinking on changing the name of the story again to give more appeal . After a woman had read the first issue and the beginning of the second, she suggested I should go further back in my story and by doing so, give it a better pace and flow to it. There were many flashbacks and memories in the first issue and she said that by going back, I could better chronicle the story of the Vensysians.
Then it clicked.
"The Vensysian Chronicles"