Oddly Gone Comix: Preamble

Cartoonist Mike Scagliotti introduces his newest comic strip, Oddly Gone Comix.

Oddly Gone is a cosmic port of call. It is a cove inside of a dreamscape. It is the last stop for provisions before the big voyage to the place where dreams come true. The heroes of Oddly Gone Comix-Quilby, Jules, Calamity, Alibi and Plotzlick-have come here to celebrate one last hurrah before they, um, embark on their big, y’know-well, wait a second! Are they really going anywhere? Or are they just stuck in an endless series of last hurrahs?

Oddly Gone, the setting for their drama, only inspires them to feel more stranded. Its weirdly morphing terrain-that quivers and drifts in the background-provides the setting for the human drama at center stage, this conventional comic strip camera angle in which our heroes find themselves stuck. Then something happens. A whole new generation of characters suddenly shows up in our heroes’ comic strip! These new little dudes look funny, act boisterously, and, unlike our heroes, lack philosophical depth. However, they are able to interact with and build upon the environment of Oddly Gone in ways that our heroes never deemed possible. The new little dudes gradually shift the entire perspective of the comic strip. The dreamscape of Oddly Gone comes to life, and our heroes begin to feel crowded out. Is it too late for them to make their own dreams come true, or will they be swallowed up by someone else’s dream?

Oddly Gone is not just a place inside of a dream. It is also a place inside of San Francisco, California. The story is spawned by this fantastic city, ribbed with reptilian Victorian facades, glazed over with brightly colored murals and street art, teetering and bending along the dragon-backed hills that slope enormously into the Pacific. The characters that live here, in Oddly Gone and in San Francisco, stand center stage on the edge of the world. This is the end of the road after the long trek across prairies and deserts of old identities. This is the threshold before the pot of gold at the end of the railway, the endless summer of love, the perfect rabbit hole onto the worldwide web. Beyond lies the Pacific, a wild, crashing ocean named after peace. Where do we go from here? Just where is that confounded other dimension? Why do others keep coming here from somewhere else? Is there no limit to the possibilities? Just whose dream is this, anyway?

More Oddly Gone Comix…
Dramatis Personae
Oddly Gone Comix: Amble In, Scramble Out