Are We There Yet?

If you are reading this then the answer is YES! “TALES OF THE STARLIGHT DRIVE-IN” was supposed to have been on the shelves in 2006, but the company I was working for at the time packed its bags and left town. us (me and more than two dozen hard working artists, colorists, inkers and letterers) standing around with no book to show for more than a year's hard work.

After bouncing around a select few publishers and waiting for a contract following an enthusiastic reception, I decided to go with the folks I know. Image was kind enough to pick up my first book, PHANTOM JACK, when Marvel's deal to publish it got strange, so I sent them off a package.

Within a few weeks I had the green light, making me wonder why I bothered with those other book publishers in the first place.

What is Tales of the Starlight Drive-in?

It's something original and unique: 26 illustrated stories and six text stories set in a drive-in theater over a 50 year period. Make that a 53-year-old, including the epilogue. Each story had to accomplish three things:

1. It had to be able to stand alone, make perfect sense even if nothing else was read.
2. Each stand-alone story must still advance the overarching storyline of the graphic novel as a whole.
3. Each story had to somehow relate to the movie that is playing at the drive-in at the time (e.g. Jimmy The Whale is a mobster who wants to see ‘The Godfather” but fears going to a movie theater. He takes his armor-plated Caddy to the drive-in to see it and well, read the story).

I think we succeeded on all counts. I enlisted some serious talent, assigned them stories attuned to their styles, and ended up with a great package. There is a very cool cast of characters that bop in and out of the series, a lot of stories that span the gamut of mystery, comedy, romance, satire, disaster (financial and natural), political and even a western motif.

The story begins and ends with a young boy named Adam who lives across the street from the Starlight Drive-In and can watch the films from his bedroom window.

While Adam is a main character in the story, he is not my favorite. That would be Neil, the strange projectionist. Neil is the only character that is at the Starlight throughout its history.

Like drive-ins themselves, which are on the verge of a comeback and being cool again, nothing is ever lost in the graphic novel. Characters and situations return and run full circle.

The story reflects the rise and decline of a drive-in, something truly American, and ends on a high note. And because it was delayed past the original 2005 closing story, there is an epilogue that offers an ending beyond the ending.

If you're a fan of the drive-in, you'll love it. If it's been a couple decades since you've been to one, this will make you nostalgic.

For more information on drive-in theaters and to get the location of the one nearest you, go to www.driveintheater.com/index.htm, www.driveinmovie.com/mainmenu.htm, or www.driveinexchange.com/.

Thanks for coming and please replace the speaker before leaving. Michael San Giacomo

SPECIAL NOTE:

There were some printing problems with the
JIMMY THE WHALE story. For a high resolution look
at the whole story, written by Michael San Giacomo and artfully executed by Ian Dorian and Seth Mathurin, please visit: http://starlightdrivein.blogspot.com/