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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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.
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A Note Before You Read I’m proud to share something I’ve been building toward for a long time. Below is the first full issue summary with a soft intro to the Evany Starr & Midnight Penn world — the story I’ve carried from dream to sketchbook to script. It’s ready for the next stage, but for now, this is the clearest look at where it all begins. If you’ve come this far, you might as well stay for the read. It won’t take long - YG BEFORE ISSUE #1 — A GLIMPSE INTO NEW VERANCE CITY™ Welcome to New Verance City™. Its 2029. On the surface, it looks like any other modern metropolis. Neon signs, crowded streets, tall modern day buildings, 24 hour bodegas. But beneath that familiar vibe, something is off. Time doesn’t always move forward. Pockets of the city are frozen in the 1970s or 80s — old phone booths, yellow cab stations, half‑burnt neon signs still inhabit when they should not. Most people walk past them without noticing. Their minds not aware of the inconsistency, forgetting what they just saw. But the cracks are spreading. The Coda Network runs the underground. They move stolen tech, rare artifacts, contraband and things most people wouldn’t believe. On the street, they look like your security and private investigator firms, pawn/jewelry shops, night clubs and vip lounges, antique shops, electronics & repair, logistics warehouses, financial consultancies, high end auction houses and art galleries, all with hawkers and thieves who are under Coda employ or influence. But someone higher up is pulling strings, collecting items that shouldn’t exist — Vein Cores, ancient relics that warp reality just by existing. And then there are the three women who never asked to be at the center of it. Midnight Penn™ Known as Penn She owns a small relics shop, but that’s just the cover. Her bloodline is old, powerful, and mostly forgotten — even by her. She has flashes of a hidden vault, a family museum, a legacy erased. She doesn’t chase power. She chases a sense of safety and structure around her. When things start breaking, she’s the one who tries to put them back together. Evany Rae™ An orphan, former baseball player, and part time engineer who once dreamed of inventing a new sport. When the Inventors Guild rejected her, she kept her prototype bat anyway and it became her protection. Then she found a Coda “battery” — a Vein Core Relic™ — and built a regulator for it. The bat started doing things she never designed. Now it’s the only edge she has, and she refuses to let it go. Emma Rae™ Evany’s twin sister. She can walk into her own memories — literally. Anyone can see the memory if you walk into one with her. She rebuilds them as physical places, searching for clues about their missing parents. Each time she does, she loses a piece of the present. And something inside those memories is watching her. This faceless figure that mimics her and pushes her out before she can find the truth. “The Pitch That Never Lands” Its about a championship they won. A trophy that no longer exists. A father whose face is only a photograph. This is where the story begins. Not with a hero answering a call, but with a stolen knife, a library explosion, and two sisters running from a reality that’s already starting to crack. Turn the page. Issue #1 summary follows below. EVANY STARR & MIDNIGHT PENN: STARFALL – ISSUE #1 “The Pitch That Never Lands” Cold Open – Memory Break On a pitcher’s mound inside a memory construct, Emma Rae throws. The ball stops mid‑air. The field freezes. A faceless figure in the stands mimics her motion. A portal tears open and drags Emma through. Her body disintegrates. The memory detonates. Black. The Theft A young thief breaks into Penn’s relics shop and steals a strange artifact. Penn chases him into a Coda hardware storefront, where she finds evidence he was only a hired hand. The Explosion An explosion rips through the neighboring library. The thief escapes. Penn rushes inside to help survivors and discovers two sisters – Evany and Emma – at the blast’s center. Emma is limp. Evany convinces Penn to get them out before authorities arrive. Escape Penn leads the twins to her vehicle. As they flee, a shadowy Acolyte watches from a shattered library window. A single caption: “Similarity is here.” The Car Conversation Evany insists hospitals are unsafe. The twins offer fragments of the truth in exchange for passage. Penn learns they are low‑level Coda vendors. She agrees to take them to a hidden warehouse. The Aftermath At the destroyed library, the same Acolyte blends into the crowd, calmly measuring the disturbance. Regroup – The Warehouse Emma collapses from exhaustion. Evany explains Emma can walk into memories. Penn realizes the thefts are connected. Evany drops a lead: a secret rooftop auction run by a Coda Delegate named Ledger. Dark Revelation – The Blade In the Coda shop basement, a Technician Delegate joins a stolen knife housing with a Vein Core. The ancient Milican Blade is restored. Awakenings The Milican Blade pulses. Elsewhere, in a locker at an orphanage clubhouse, Evany’s black bat begins to glow in response. Final Splash – Penn Witnesses the Collapse Penn enters the ruined library and finds herself inside Emma’s collapsing stadium memory. Evany holds Emma as the illusion dissolves. The spinning portal and the baseball that opened it hangs in the air. Then it’s gone. Penn alone witnesses the impossible overlap – something familiar, something wrong. End of Issue #1 1. World of New Verance
Everything about the city, the Lattice, Vein Cores, rollback zones, and the rules of reality. 2. Characters Profiles, sketches, and thoughts about Evany, Emma, Penn, Velek, the Acolytes, and Delegates. 3. Lore & Artifacts Deep dives into the Chantry, the Acolytes, the Continuum, STARR, the Milican Blade, the Artemis Core, and any ancient history. 4. Process & Sketches My 2003‑2004 drawings, rough layouts, script snippets, and any “behind the scenes” content. 5. Blog Updates Shorter posts about milestones (new art, convention appearances, crowdfunding, site updates). 6. Excerpts & Previews Sample pages, panel descriptions, or short story fragments. |
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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 #1
Welcome to New Verance City™
The Championship
Starr Blog Intro
Vein Core Relics
Earliest Sketches of Evany Rae 2003-
The Rae Twins & CODA
The Remidy Saga:
Unwanted War
MASK ATLAS ARG COMING SOON!
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