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The Solar Grid is complete.
When I first embarked on the project some 10 years ago, I hadn't been but a year in America. This transitional phase in my life was compounded because I was also in the middle of relocating from New York City to Los Angeles. In fact, the first THE SOLAR GRID thing I ever wrote was done during the two weeks I'd assigned to apartment-hunting in LA, with all my belongings still in New York. Why in the midst of this mess I thought it was a good idea to start a project in a field in which I had no support, connections, or network, I really don't know. It happened at the AirBnB my then-fiancé and I were renting out in Los Feliz, a delightful apartment filled with books and walls adorned with resistance posters; clearly a lived-in space intended for actual habitation and not set-up exclusively as some kind of money-making endeavor. As it turned out, the couple it belonged to would become our first LA friends.
After a long tiresome day of looking at "properties", we crashed and I awoke in the middle of the night, unable to sleep--likely due to jetlag; the first time I'd experienced the phenomenon after traveling within a single country!--and I found myself writing. What came out was the first draft of what would become the backmatter for Chapter 2: an article written from the perspective of a Martian journalist on Earth. The DNA of the entire graphic novel--all 450 pages of it, what I would end up developing over the span of 10 years--can be found right there in that article. Here it is as it appears in the graphic novel (featuring an illustration by Molly Crabapple and another by Hicham Habchi), and here's a version of it read by Dina Mousawi at an event held at the British Library in London.
Initially, I thought I would only be writing it and handing it off to another artist to draw. Primarily because I didn't think I was good or fast enough. And indeed I did approach an artist I admired--got a quotation and everything--but I ended up spending most of my money on my wedding and no longer had the funds to afford to pay the man, and I was adamant about not letting a collaborator assume the risk of such an endeavor with me. Even though the financial risk at the time seemed much less risky than it ended up becoming because the original plan was to do it as a 4-issue miniseries totaling no more than 80 pages (based on the wise requisite of the then artist-collaborator) and only work on the first issue to pitch around.
When it transpired that I could no longer afford to pay anyone to work on the thing with me, and I still couldn't shake away the desire to realize it, I just went ahead and started drawing it myself. At which point I foolishly decided I no longer needed to confine myself to a 4-issue thing. And thus began the process of digging myself into a hole that got deeper and deeper and would eventually demand a full 10 years to crawl out of.
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THE SOLAR GRID... is a black and white sci-fi (cli-fi?) graphic novel in 9 chapters. I’ll be releasing each chapter on a bi-monthly basis in PDF format. Easily readable on desktop or iPad, but definitely looks particularly good on the iPad. Downloadable for no more than $1.99. First chapter (32+ pages) hits the web in 6 weeks. That’s April 15. Where? TheSolarGrid.netThe plan is after completion of the THE SOLAR GRID (estimate: July 2017) to release a quality hardcopy trade edition. It’ll include things not in the online chapters, but the online chapters will also include things not in the hardcopy trade edition. Let’s see how this goes. |
How naive I was.
Sitting here and writing this now that it's all over, I can't help but wonder why I did it. I'm unable to give much of a reason other than having been overtaken by a sense of urgency and clarity (aka obsession). It just felt like this is The Work that had to get done. A quote comes to mind--the original author of which I cannot remember nor can I find online--"Write only what needs to be written. Write only what needs to be read." And that's exactly how I felt when visions of THE SOLAR GRID made their way to my head. It just felt like the thing that needed saying for me. Of course, the things we want to say shift and change over time. What I wanted to say 10 years ago did not remain absolutely constant throughout the years of working on THE SOLAR GRID, and the work was able to accommodate that in many ways (even if the ending was more or less fixed in my mind), and THE SOLAR GRID morphed and grew with me over the years.
Would I have done it still had I known it would suck a full 10 years of my life? Hell no! Do I regret having done it now that it's finished? I don't think so. After having read the entire thing front to back a handful of times now, I can finally say that I am proud of it. It's actually very good (a sentiment I rarely feel for any project once complete)!
Sure, the work has been getting a fair degree of praise and compliments since I started putting it out, but the hole I found myself in was way too deep for any sane person not to question themselves. And you have to understand; while arguably something of a critical success, THE SOLAR GRID has thus far been for me, quite frankly, a financial failure. How could it not be? Pouring 10 years of your life into a graphic novel just doesn't make financial sense any way you play it out. In fact, any project with a 10-year production timeline will seldom make any financial sense. Even hollywood blockbusters that anticipate a return in the multiple millions typically have a production timeline of only 6-24 months. What on Earth was I thinking?
I knew that, of course. Five years into the damn thing I knew it. With the arrival of my child, I knew it. Through separation and divorce, I knew it. Through multiple relocations across the United States, I knew it. I knew it all along, but I carried on anyway and through it all I had my doubts. That sentiment even makes its way into the work sometimes: |
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Chances are, I am unlikely to ever create anything of the same breadth and scope of THE SOLAR GRID ever again. It really is big and expansive! I'm not sure how Warren Ellis was able to call it from the get-go after reading that first chapter all those years ago. However "big, complex, and eccentric" it may have seemed at the time, it certainly gets even more so as the chapters progress.
Even if I wanted to pour a full decade of my life into another project (which I don't), truth of the matter is I likely don't have a whole lotta full decades left to live anyway. Being in my 40s now and caring for my 79-year-old dad who can hardly use the toilet without some help, I'm far more aware of my own mortality than I was in my 30s. The way I see it, I've probably at best only got three good decades left of being able to make stuff before it becomes really, really hard. Allocating that time to shorter, more concise works seems infinitely wiser than the alternative.
Right now, the complete THE SOLAR GRID is only available in digital installments. These will cease to exist come January 1st. This is largely out of fairness to my publishing partners at Radix Co-Op, who produce the print installments together with my own micro imprint, Mythomatic--with exclusive covers! Eight out of ten have been printed to date, with the remaining two forthcoming. |
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A collected hardback edition was also promised via a kickstarter campaign I ran some 8 years ago, a promise I am presently looking into the logistics of fulfilling. So much has changed in 8 years, and it looks like I will likely have to open a final call for pre-orders to make the numbers work. Granted, if I can get enough orders to make the numbers work 🤞 (It should be noted though that there are small differences between each edition--digital installments, print installments, and the hardback collection. These differences are not manufactured, but rather a natural consequence of the process).
Only after crossing that bridge and getting the printed book into the hands of everyone who supported the project and stood by my side all these years will I be able to celebrate (and cry and sleep a very long sleep). It is as far as I am concerned the final boss in the 10-year-long adventure/struggle/battle that has been THE SOLAR GRID, and fuck me if I don't nail the bastard. |
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Support RESTRICTED FREQUENCY for a chance to win something special like the awesome reader named below. |
Congratulations, Sherif! You will be receiving the complete digital downloads for THE SOLAR GRID graphic novel. Thank you kindly for your consistent support! |
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The AFROFANTASTIC Newsletter explores how Afrofuturism connects imagination, history, and technology to envision liberated futures. Curated by Dr. Julian Chambliss, it blends culture, technology, and stories—spotlighting artists, thinkers, and movements shaping the future. Each issue explores scholarship and creativity, tracing the Black imaginary as a dynamic, evolving archive of possibility.
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"If there's a book that you want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it." - Toni Morrison |
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