Evany Starr & Midnight Penn™ STARRFALL THE starr blog
New Verance City™ is bleeding through time. The past is breaking in. And three people who never asked to be heroes are the only ones who can stop it.
Who??
Midnight Penn – A private conservator and secret heir to an ancient bloodline. Her memories of that legacy have been erased, but when a series of targeted thefts hits her shop, she realizes the city is assembling something catastrophic. She doesn’t chase power; she chases containment.
Evany Rae – A self‑taught engineer and former Coda street vendor. She dreamed of inventing a new sport, but after the Guild rejected her, she kept her prototype bat for protection. By jury‑rigging a broken Vein Core relic into the bat, she created STARR — a reality‑bending weapon that forces ancient magic to obey human engineering.
Emma Rae – Evany’s twin sister. Emma can rebuild her own memories into physical holograms that overlap with the real world. The cost is devastating: the deeper she searches for clues about their missing parents, the more her present‑day memories are violently erased. A faceless stranger haunts her most precious memories, evicting her whenever she gets too close to the truth.
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Welcome to New Verance City™, a city where the past isn’t just a memory — it’s a physical place you can accidentally walk into. Beneath the neon and rain operates the Coda Network, a sprawling black market where thieves and hawkers deal in salvaged tech and ancient contraband. But Coda isn’t just a criminal enterprise. Without knowing it, their everyday smuggling is a city‑wide ritual — a reflection of a hidden cult called The Chantry. The Chantry’s only members are The Acolytes. They believe they are orchestrating the return of the Ancients through the alignment of Vein Core Relics — rare, reality‑warping artifacts. When Cores get too close, reality breaks down. Pockets of New Verance become “Rollback Zones,” frozen in past decades. Ordinary citizens walk through them and never notice anything wrong. Their memories simply adjust. The Acolytes want to force a world‑ending Convergence. The rigid Inventors Guild wants to lock away any technology they can’t control. Caught between them are our three unlikely heroes. Midnight Penn – A private conservator and secret heir to an ancient bloodline. Her memories of that legacy have been erased, but when a series of targeted thefts hits her shop, she realizes the city is assembling something catastrophic. She doesn’t chase power; she chases containment. Evany Rae – A self‑taught engineer and former Coda street vendor. She dreamed of inventing a new sport, but after the Guild rejected her, she kept her prototype bat for protection. By jury‑rigging a broken Vein Core into the bat, she created STARR — a reality‑bending weapon that forces ancient magic to obey human engineering. Emma Rae – Evany’s twin sister. Emma can rebuild her own memories into physical holograms that overlap with the real world. The cost is devastating: the deeper she searches for clues about their missing parents, the more her present‑day memories are violently erased. A faceless stranger haunts her most precious memories, evicting her whenever she gets too close to the truth. New Verance is bleeding through time. The past is breaking in. And three people who never asked to be heroes are the only ones who can stop it. -YGA
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If someone this meticulous left his workbench before putting everything away... what could have been important enough to pull him away? The tablet offers our best clue. It's still running, while everything else remains exactly where it was—as though the investigation simply paused mid-thought.
 Researcher's Desk
Someone was working here.
Someone expected to come back. Or perhaps someone found the answer they were looking for and left knowing exactly where the trail would lead. The Researcher, one of 6 Acolytes of the Chantry - is not simply a collector of old knowledge, he helps preserve and create it. Alongside the Architect (another Acolyte), he has spent years restoring lost texts, translating ancient records, and publishing modern editions for Chantry study. Many of the volumes stacked across his shelves are their own work, field journals turned reference books and forgotten histories given new life. Unlike most Acolytes, he commands no Delegates of his own. Instead, trusted sources are loaned to him by his peers because his investigations serve them all. His research underpins much of the Chantry's understanding of relics, resonance, and the world they believe is unfolding. Unlike many scholars, he prefers to verify his findings firsthand. Thorough practical, and often working in the field, he is just as likely to be examining an artifact as reading about one.
The shelves themselves tell a story. Studies of Vein Cores and Resonance and Rollback phenomena sit beside restored accounts of ancient artifacts. Discussions of the Lattice sit beside historical surveys and field manuals. Some volumes build upon one another. Others seem to argue quietly across the shelf, offering different interpretations of the same old mysteries. Some of these books were recovered from forgotten archives, old scrolls and manuscripts. Others were written here, assembled from years of investigation and careful translation. The Chantry preserves history—but it also continues the conversation. The desk itself reveals an equally practical side of its owner. Resting atop an older, occult-looking volume are two exposed Vein Core relics, carefully laid out for study rather than display. Beside them sits an intricate magnifier, its layered lenses positioned for close examination. Someone wasn't simply cataloging artifacts here. They were comparing, measuring, and looking for details hidden beneath the surface. The open notebook, the resonance logs, and the field samples scattered across the workspace suggest the same thing: observation from every angle before reaching a conclusion. Today's focus is on 3 of the books and the notepad:
Book 1: 𝐕𝐞𝐢𝐧 𝐂𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐒𝐭𝐮𝐝𝐢𝐞𝐬 - Composition, Reaction, Interaction Vein Cores are the remnants of an ancient system. They don't just sit there—they interact with the Lattice, the underlying structure that keeps reality stable. When two cores come close, they try to synchronize. That's not a design flaw; it's a feature of the original system. But the system was never meant to be triggered by people who don't understand what they're handling. The book breaks down:
But if you read carefully—between the lines, in the margins—you'll find the warnings. The Researcher didn't just document the mechanics. He documented what happens when someone gets it wrong . What you need to know: The book exists because the Researcher has spent years trying to understand a system that doesn't come with instructions. His findings are a map—but the territory is still dangerous. Book 2: 𝐁𝐥𝐨𝐨𝐝 𝐖𝐚𝐤𝐞𝐬 - Rituals, Lineages, and the True Calling Where Vein Core Studies is clinical, Blood Wakes is esoteric. If one explains the mechanics, the other preserves the ritual. Believed to have been compiled over generations by Acolytes of the Chantry, Blood Wakes predates what modern followers now refer to as the Red Awakening. It is less a technical manual than a theological record—part instruction, part warning—describing how Vein Cores were once joined with specially prepared vessels. The text explains that a Vein Core is not itself a weapon, but a condensed reservoir of ancient resonance. Only when housed within a compatible frame—whether an engineered receptacle, ceremonial relic, or lineage-bound artifact—can its stored resonance be directed into a useful form. Ancient craftsmen carved these housings with precise resonance pathways that matched the unique structure encoded within each core. The resulting object became an extension of both its bearer and the Lattice itself, capable of extraordinary defensive or offensive function depending on its intended design. Most surviving frames are inert. Without a compatible Vein Core they are little more than beautifully engineered relics. Likewise, an unmounted Vein Core remains unstable potential—power without purpose. The final chapters describe the Blood Wake, a rare awakening in which certain lineage-bound vessels recognize both their rightful bearer and the Vein Core housed within them. Modern Acolytes attempt to reproduce this event through what they call the Red Awakening, believing the ritual itself grants power. Whether they are restoring an ancient process or misinterpreting it remains uncertain. What you need to know: This is the book the Acolytes don't talk about publicly. The Researcher and Architect preserved it because they believe history shouldn't be erased—even the parts that contradict their own doctrine. 𝐑𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐛𝐚𝐜𝐤 𝐏𝐡𝐞𝐧𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐚 - Temporal Displacement Zones — Observed Effects Rollback Zones are locations where parts of the city appear to have slipped out of sync with the present. Streets, storefronts, and technology may reflect earlier decades despite showing no signs of preservation or reconstruction. Most people never question these inconsistencies. Acolytes believe the phenomenon subtly influences perception, encouraging observers to accept the environment as normal rather than recognize it as impossible. Whether Rollback Zones are remnants of past events or evidence of something still unfolding remains unknown. Researcher's Annotation"Rollback is often described as reality moving backward. This interpretation is misleading. The evidence suggests reality is not reversing—it is remembering." Notepad and Tablet: The notebook records more than observations—it captures an investigation in progress. Every note references the same event: the Library Incident. The accompanying tablet is fixed on a single resonance return, while nearby Vein Cores appear unusually active, suggesting the Researcher was comparing multiple sources in real time. His interest may never have been the twins themselves. Instead, they may have represented the first observable proof that resonance disturbances could be tracked across the city. If Rollback Zones are echoes left behind by changing resonance states, then perhaps the tablet wasn't searching for people at all... ...it was learning to follow the city's memory. 
Coming soon Emma's League Baseball Card - Her historic RED OWLS rookie stats!
MASK ATLAS game
New Verance City™ is calling through the static. You’ve reached the Memory Archive — a restricted resonance terminal where the city itself is trying to be remembered. Mask Atlas is an investigative resonance simulator. Players operate a Lens Device to study New Verance™, learning to read its hidden patterns through Guild and Coda interpretations. You operate a Lens Device to read the hidden resonance of New Verance City™. Every scan teaches you to understand the city a little better, until finding masks, uncovering lore, and building enclosures becomes second nature. Every enclosure you lock changes something. The city will remember… or forget. No heroes. No tutorials. Just you, the signal, and a living map that reacts to your choices. Welcome, Operator. Mask Atlas is designed to stand independently before the graphic novel launches. The Memory Archive terminal (newverancecityarchive.com) is live. Sign‑up there is coming soon; for now, subscribe on this blog. Use the form on this page to join the signal list as test notifications and launch updates go only to subscribers. This is an early preview, more to come. -YG 
Open below for more
▼ Mask Atlas – Art Direction Update When I was in high school, I had a story living in my head. I drew character designs, sketched panel pages, and filled a notebook with story beats and prose. That story was "The Remidy Saga". I started it sometime in my sophomore year, long before I ever thought about writing midterms. By the time my junior year English class asked for a midterm essay, I realized I had a choice. I could write about someone else’s book, a current day topic, or I could turn in something of my own – something I had already been building for years. I asked my teacher if I could submit a short story outline based on my existing work. She said yes. I took the notebook, pulled together the essential beats, and wrote a seven‑page sci‑fi outline called The Remidy Saga. I got a 95%. Then I set it aside. I always kept it and the notebook with the full version stored with the artwork it was meant for. Until recently I haven't looked at or read it for over 30 years. The comic itself never got finished. The sketchbook, however, kept growing. By the time I graduated in 1991, that same sketchbook became part of my portfolio for art school at Pratt Institute. And in 1992, it helped me land my first professional comic book interview. I was interviewed by Jim Shooter on a Friday, and then again by Bob Layton the following Monday. Bob Layton hired me. I was nineteen years old. For most of my professional career, I never thought of myself as a writer. I was an introvert, a pure artist, an illustrator for comics and other media. Writing still feels new and unpolished to me. But I realize now that I had been creating stories in my mind for characters for years, unconsciously. I spent thirty plus years absorbing story structure by drawing other people’s scripts. That’s not a disadvantage; it’s a different kind of apprenticeship. I learned what works on the page, what flows, what lands emotionally and visually. I internalized pacing, panel flow, and visual storytelling in a way that pure writers often struggle to learn. Now I’m applying that intuition to my own work. That brings me back to The Remidy Saga. Thirty six years after that midterm, I pulled out the old notebook. The pages were yellowed, stained, probably by flood water, but the ink was not smudged, the ideas were still there. A global defense organization. An alien emperor forcing human commanders to fight his war. A mysterious hooded figure who believed his own people had gone too far. Moral questions about power, coercion, and good intentions. I didn’t know it then, but that was the same soil where Evany Starr & Midnight Penn would eventually grow. The same distrust of institutions. The same tension between survival and morality. The same belief that dragging innocents into someone else’s conflict leaves scars that don’t heal. I wasn't aware of any overlap while I wrote it. I cleaned up the spelling, standardized the names, and kept every plot point, character, and theme intact. What you’ll read below in the link is the story I wrote as a teenager. You’ll see the seeds of everything I’m still writing today. Read *Remidy Saga: Unwanted War*. Then look at *Evany Starr & Midnight Penn*. The parallels might surprise you.  The original "Remidy Saga: Unwanted War" 2 page intro opener and final page summary + moral addendum midterm paper.
I've been thinking more about the title.
When I first talked about naming the graphic novel, I mentioned leaning toward STARFALL (single R). Cleaner. Simpler. Easier to read at a glance. But stories have a funny way of telling you what they want to be called. The deeper I got into building this world, the more I kept circling back to something that had already been there from the beginning. STARR - STARRFALL. Two Rs. In-world, people don't even agree on how to spell it. Some call it STARFALL. Others insist it's STARRFALL. Old forums contradict each other. Archived footage labels it differently. Conspiracy communities obsess over tiny inconsistencies the same way they obsess over everything connected to what happened to New Verance City™. And that's the point. Because STARRFALL was never meant to feel clean. It's an event people remember incorrectly. A myth people argue over. A piece of history buried under misinformation, missing context, and fragmented memory. The extra R also connects back into places I haven't fully talked about yet. Things hidden in plain sight. Designations, etc. The more I sat with it, the more I realized I wasn't changing the title. This is me listening to the story. So moving forward: EVANY STARR & MIDNIGHT PENN remains the character story. STARRFALL becomes the larger event around them. The mystery. The wound. The thing this city still hasn't recovered from. -YGA Long before the library incident, Evany and Emma Rae were already tied to the edges of the Coda Network – two resourceful kids surviving inside a system far larger and more dangerous than they realized.
Like many children who fall between the cracks, the twins survived by working inside the city’s underground economy. They operated as low‑tier hawkers and runners, moving through Coda‑controlled spaces: rollback storefronts, storage depots, flea markets, side‑street venues, underground clubs, and temporary exchange points scattered across the city. At first, the work looked harmless: moving packages, selling jewelry, keeping lookout, running deliveries. But over time, the girls began seeing things they were never supposed to see. The twins gained limited access to parts of Coda’s internal communications. Most low‑level workers received only fragmented instructions through disposable devices, rotating frequencies, encrypted message boards, and dead‑drop routing systems designed to keep operatives isolated. The network was intentionally compartmentalized. Emma, however, became obsessed with the patterns hidden inside the network. She was unusually good at navigating fragmented systems – tracing repeated routing behavior, signal timing, reused identifiers, and abandoned access points most operatives ignored. What began as curiosity slowly turned into unauthorized access. She never fully breached the network, but over time the sisters learned how to monitor local traffic: shipment reroutes, safehouse warnings, burn notices, broker circulation lists tied to private auctions, and operative movement alerts. Evany used this information differently. Where Emma focused on patterns, Evany focused on survival. She memorized transport routes, understood which sectors belonged to which crews, learned how contraband circulated between rollback zones, and recognized how quickly operations shifted whenever something important surfaced. By the time of Issue #1, the twins possessed something extremely dangerous inside the Coda ecosystem: partial operational awareness. Not enough to understand the full structure. But enough to move through it without permission. This eventually leads Evany to intercept a distress transmission connected to a coded Delegate emergency channel – revealing that the sisters had been listening to parts of the system they were never supposed to hear. Evany adapted faster than Emma. She learned how to navigate the streets, negotiate with vendors, repair equipment, and survive around dangerous people without drawing attention. Emma struggled more. Certain locations affected her differently. Rollback zones made her disoriented, exhausted, or emotionally unstable in ways neither sister understood at the time. Neither girl knew anything about Acolytes, Vein Cores, or convergence. They were never important enough to be trusted with real knowledge. That was the point. Coda survives by ensuring most people only ever see one piece of the machine. By the time of Issue #1, the twins were already beginning to distance themselves from the underground world they grew up inside. Then the library incident happened. And suddenly, the system they spent years surviving began shifting around them in ways neither fully understands. -YGA
I’ve been thinking a lot about what to call my gn. So here's a follow up to last week's social media post.
The working title has always been 'Evany Starr & Midnight Penn' ... that’s the duo, that’s the heart of it. But a graphic novel like what im planning also needs a name that stands on its own. Something that feels like an event, not just a character listing. For a long time, I wasn’t sure what that name should be. Then I realized, the title is already inside the story. In the world of Evany Starr & Midnight Penn STARFALL is the unofficial name for something that happened to New Verance City years ago. A meteor related catastrophe that left scars, not on its landscape, but on memory itself. Most people don’t remember it correctly. Some don’t remember it at all. But the evidence survives online, in fragments... corrupted footage, dead forums, contradictory witness accounts. The name also carries a double meaning. In world, conspiracy communities often spell it STARRFALL (with two Rs), which happens to mirror Evany’s bat designation (S.T.A.R.R. I know I didnt tell you about that yet) lol. It's not destiny. It’s a pattern – one of many the characters uncover as they realize the city is built on top of something it tried to forget. So STARFALL isn’t a “chosen one” title. It’s not a superhero identity. It happened to the city. It belongs to the event. To the unanswered questions that remain entangled in the present. So listen, I’m leaning toward STARFALL (single R) as the graphic novels main title, because it’s cleaner. The in world spelling stays as a nod to the conspiracy culture. I know some people might have other ideas and I’m open to hearing them. But this is where my instincts keep landing because the name already does what I need it to do. It feels like a scar. And it tells you without a single panel, that something went wrong in this city and nobody agrees on what. Read some of my blog before you jump in with an opinion. I’d love to know what you think. -YG |
 REFRESH OFTEN FOR UPDATES
STARR BLOG POST #1
WHATS THE NAME ABOUT?
AuthorI’ve been a comic artist since 1992. This is my first story — born from a dream, lost to corrupted hard drives, but kept alive in sketchbooks from 2003. After a recent rewrite, it’s finally here. Archives
January 2030
Categories
All
Character Intro #2
Welcome to New Verance City™
The Championship That Never Happened
Starr Blog Intro
Vein Core Relics
Earliest Sketches of Evany Rae 2003-
The Rae Twins & CODA
The Remidy Saga:
Unwanted War
MASK ATLAS ARG DEVELOPTMENT UPDATES
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