Paper Keys to Burning Kingdoms

Here are some storyboard roughs from my screenplay-novel PAPER KEYS TO BURNING KINGDOMS. The novel exists in more than one version: as a text-only narrative or as a hybrid graphic novel. The manuscript can also be read as a discrete work or as linked to the mega-novel PLASTIC MILLENNIUM (from which it borrows a character, who, in the latter ms., makes a kind of cameo). The work is both "screenplay novel" and "module". In the scene here, Bak Dae-woo, the protagonist, is making himself a cup of hot 'n' less-than-delicious instant coffee after receiving a panicky long distance call from his sister. Dae-woo lives in Seoul. His sister, Kyoung-ja, lives in Toronto. But it's Dae-woo -- the one who was shipped overseas as a young teen -- who is the most "Canadian" of the siblings. He is also -- and this becomes important later in the narrative -- the more politically inclined of the two. Things haven't worked out very well for Dae-woo, however: his original dream was to break into journalism -- these days he works as a security guard.

I didn't plan to make this video; I was simply scanning drawings for later use. The video was the result of a happy accident when scanning with Windows Live Photo Gallery -- the slideshow popped up, I liked it, and I fumbled my way toward successful posting at YouTube.

More to follow....