User:Jaylender/Duster

Duster is an American comic-book graphic novel published by Evil Scum in 2015. The story was created by writers Micah Wright and Jay Lender, with art by Cristian Mallea, Gervasio Troche, Jok,and colorist Jorge Blanco. Duster originated as a screenplay.

In "Duster" Wright and Lender use the action idiom to investigate the origins of modern attitudes regarding women's roles in society and the workplace, how they were shaped by homefront realities during World War II, and, in this case, by the heroine's immediate need to protect her town and her family from Nazi invaders.

The Story
On Victory In Europe Day a small band of Nazis trade nuclear scientists for safe passage through America. Flashback to the day before in the small town of Morton, Texas.

Publication history
Duster was first published as a hardcover graphic novel in 2015 and distributed to Kickstarter campaign backers before being offered to the general public at Amazon.com. Part 1 of 6 was made available at comixology.com within weeks. At the same time it began serialization at Wright and Lender's webcomics site, evilscum.com, along with another story, "Get Lucky".

Background and creation
The story behind Duster first appeared in 2005, inspired by a dream Wright had. In the dream, a female crop duster pilot brings down a plane and finds Hitler, still alive, in the wreckage. Wright and Lender decided that the story had promise (minus the cartoony inclusion of Hitler). They set about drafting a screenplay, which received glowing "coverage" at their agency, but which was deemed uncommercial. Wright and Lender, however, still wanted their story to be brought to the public, and the comic book medium offered an affordable alternative--and one with which they were familiar, as comic book writers and artists. Though the story would not change, the new medium required a different approach, so they set about converting the film script to a graphic novel script.

After a search they engaged Estudio Haus, a production collective in Argentina, to visualize the story. Script pages were sent to artist Jok, who created rough page layouts. Finishes were completed by Mallea with the assistance of Troche. Rough colors were created by Jok, then finished by Blanco. Lettering was done by Lender. The finished book was assembled by Chris Dickey, who also created the graphic design. Backup stories were drawn by Gerald Forton and Jok. The cover was drawn by comics legend, Howard Chaykin with color by Jose Arbuto. Pinups were commissioned from Charlie Adlard (The Walking Dead), C. P. Smith, Donna Barr and Carla Speed McNeil.

Style
Lender and Wright chose to tell the story using traditional comic techniques, including solid colors, black linework, and the liberal inclusion of third person omniscient captions. With the exception of 4 pages at the inciting incident of the story, angled panel borders were not used.

Story
XXX

Characters
In "Duster" Wright and Lender wanted to have fully fleshed out characters, which would each have an arc of their own.

Jo Baker: A headstrong woman, who inherited her husband's crop dusting business when he was shot down in Europe. Due to the war, Jo has attained a level of freedom previously unattainable to women, and as the war ends she can see that freedom slipping away. A local pariah, because of what she represents, Jo learns over the course of the story that freedom is not about breaking taboos, but about having choice.

Gideon Stamp: Injured in the Pacific Campaign, Gideon returned home to Morton to resume his duties as sheriff. Damaged both mentally and physically by his experiences in the Pacific, Gideon has been a shell of his former self. As the story progresses he faces his fears and overcomes them.

Art
XXX

Themes
Feminism. The dangers of Absolutism, in gender politics, in political theory, in the use of violence and even the disuse of it.

Prequel stories
As a bonus for Kickstarter backers during their long wait for the finished book, Wright and Lender wrote a prequel story, "Courting Trouble", with art by Gerald Forton and color by Jok in which we see what life for interracial couple Inez and Ken was like in West Texas of 1945. Milkman Andrew and station attendant Rico make an appearance.

A second prequel story, "Escape!", was prepared for the book release. Written in the style of EC Comics Front Line Combat the story features art by Jok and tells the story of Kammler's escape from Germany with his Nazi cohort.