The Brotherhood is a story arc derived from a game I used to play with my brother, cousin, and Mike and Tim Hare when we were younger. We called it "Medieval Warfare." Basically, we used to make up stories and then beat the crap out of each other with whatever weapons we created out of wood. It's the story parts I'm remembering, not the beatings, mind you.

Anyway, when we played we ascribed to the old "Dungeons and Dragons" ideas (only without boring character descriptions and 20-sided dice). I was a wizard by the name of Shaffron and always fought with a staff and a scimitar. My brother Jeff (who had seen "The Princess Bride" one too many times) was a warrior with a sword and shield named Entigo. My cousin Chris was an archer with one hand named RedKlaw. Tim was a thief named Mercer. Mike actually kept changing roles from a loudmouth grandstander named Jake Johnson to an assassin named Saarbus. We all liked Saarbus a lot better.

Once we grew a bit more and realized that beating the crap out of each other was non-conducive to normal life, our play trailed off. But it was not forgotten. While everybody else was furiously scribbling notes in school, I was putting together imaginative tales and doodling in the margins of my notebook. School wasn't very difficult anyway. So, I had all these sword-slinging tales and nowhere to go.

Like most youngsters, we were all collectors of comic books (by collectors I mean avid readers-- not the type who sealed them away in special bags, planning to retire on the profits therein). We preferred Marvel overall-- you know, the company with Spider-Man as their logo. Mike and Tim liked The Punisher, Jeff read The Avengers, Chris followed the Silver Surfer, and I collected the X-Men. We often would hold drawing contests and sketch our favorite characters in dramatic poses. With these ideas firmly inbedded in our skulls, we tried to turn the stories into a comic book. It was off and on over the years.

But something in those stories lacked. They were just the same old "Dungeons and Dragons" stories re-hashed. Guy kills dragon, wins girl, gets gold, the end. Yawn.

I did a complete overhaul. I took our characters and fleshed them out a bit more. I set them up in what may or may not be the future. I took other people we knew and turned them into characters. Now, we have winners (I think, anyway). The stories I write are more fun to write and Mike fleshes them out on paper like magic. So sit back, and I'll give you the structural framework of it all. Just click on the "next" button below...