N O T E S
THE PRISON AND THE PLANET is the most ambitious of my Prison Comix series, all of which were written/drawn while I was working as a corrections officer inside Washington State Prison, Monroe. These stories were inspired by the weirdness of that very locked-in society, many pages created right in the cell block while standing at the security desk (no sitting around there, not even we guards had a chair).
As you can see by comparing page 157 of this story with page 790 of ARMAGEDDONQUEST, drawn 8 years later, the two stories dovetail right here. This was actually the beginning of AQ, which was supposed to have been a novel, but never jelled until I drew Tazio into this story. A Revelation. Then I couldn't hold it back, once POP was finished I started drawing AQ a few days later.
In fact, were I to continue the story of Officer Gargantua and his flock of Purified Cons, it would have to be no less than the continuation of ARMAGEDDONQUEST as well.
Perhaps I will some day, who knows? After the 10 years it took to produce and polish AQ I was pretty much burned out from drawing comix, I wanted to do something else for awhile. But I'm still thinking about those characters, still taking notes. Maybe that story can't be held back either.
