This collage was originally intended for the December 2012 “Doomsday” show on that same date in the Mayan Calender, but another traditional piece depicting Fenris the wolf devouring the sun from the Ragnarok of Norse Mythology got in instead. (Look for Fenris coming up!) Road’s End went on to debut at the PG Gallery and Cafe soft opening in early 2013.

If you took a look through my 2010 Sketchbook Down My Street, you will have seen this same car in a less polished form. I was happy to be able to expand on my idea and do a more finished piece starring the car. I still intend to do a lineart version.

I envisioned a car with a human set of internal organs for my story “Sacrifice” examining the emotions I feel whenever I drive past a cross by the side of the road. The car is full of meat and organs which are of course, very vulnerable and subject to injury and destruction in a car wreck. Thinking of these tragic circumstances always reminds me of a passage from the Maya Origin Legend the Popol Vuh, about the death gods (Wing and Packstrap I believe) who determine that some people should die upon the road. I end the story by comparing the sad little road crosses with their touching floral tributes and stuffed animal offerings to a Maya totem containing the road (depicted in Maya art as a ribbon with footprints on it).

And this is their domain: that people should die in the road. Then there is death in the road and suffering whether one is coming or going. And this is their domain. -Popol Vuh

The next story in the book, “R_VE_ _” also opens with the theme of the road demanding a sacrifice, this time an accident with a dog I witnessed in my childhood.

I plan to do “R_VE_ _” properly as a black and white comic for an upcoming collection of one-shots including The Ruby Machine and The Stone Squirrel!