Got the idea for this sequence—years before working on Empowered vol. 7—during a post-San-Diego-Comic-Con visit to a friend’s house, where I happened to read Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five for the first time since, jeez, junior high or so.

Ah, but years later, imagine my chagrin when I read SF writer Ted Chiang’s great short story “Story of Your Life,” which addresses the same concept of non-sequential perception of time in (arguably) an even more poignant and wrenching manner. Note that “Story” was very well-adapted in the movie Arrival, though the original narrative was (IMHO) even bleaker yet more beautiful, in part because the narrator can simultaneously perceive the end of her life as part of her Möbius strip of memories. 

In his notes at the end of the short-story collection Story of Your Life and Others—which gets my strongest recommendation, BTW—Chiang notes that “Story”, too, was inspired by a reading of Slaughterhouse-Five. Great minds, folks!

The main difference here, of course, is that the Demonwolf is immortal, which was pretty much the main point of the sequence. Come to think of it, (the probably immortal?) Dr. Manhattan mentions a simple form of perception in Watchmen, but I can tell you that I didn’t have that in mind when I wrote this story. (Out of the Moore oeuvre, for me Swamp Thing>>>>>>>Watchmen, to put it mildly.)

Today’s Patreon update: Open slot in the weekly schedule today! Not sure what I’ll be posting, but something will go up today. I’ve been posting every weekday (sometimes multiple times per day) on this Patreon for over a year, so why stop now?

-Adam Warren