© Peter Tucker

Chapter 1 The Awakening     A Tale of the Future and the Past, and how they affect the Present, told to me one long midsummar night by my friends, the Cranes. The story is never-ending. Bit by bit it will find its way onto this site. Check out the site now and again, so that you don't miss out on the next chapter ... and the next ... and ....          NEXT PAGE

NB: This story was originally told in the form of a comic book, or as Will Eisner once put it: "sequential art". The pictures were made with ink line and coloured pencil, sometimes only with graphite pencil (cf "Hugo"). Since then, I have been working on a digital version, partly based on the orginal artwork, partly on new black line drawings which have been scanned in and exclusively coloured in Photoshop. The purpose of this has not primarily been to produce a faster, slicker printed version, or even to make something that will work on a website, as in this particular case. Instead, I have used PowerPoint to make a "multimedia" version, what I call a "talking picture book", which I hope eventually to produce in DVD form. The text has been put on voice-over, with music backing. The pictures have been arranged in sequence, sometimes using PowerPoint's simple, but surprisingly effective animation functions to achieve a dynamic effect. The aim has been to resist the temptation to use proper film and animation media, but instead to approach the flow, rythm and dramatic effect of film without losing that particularly meditative quality associated with the experience of studying individual still pictures. Especially when combined with the voice of the story-teller, the synergetic effect of this approach feels quite different from any other form of visual story-telling. Betwixt-and-between. And something else entirely.