About Me:
As a structural engineer by day, my appreciation for structures and how they relate to complex elements and parts not only permeates within my career but also how I see the world. I am fascinated by the pieces that make up buildings, stories and our system of ethics, and have an aptitude for breaking complex structures into its constituent parts.
I apply that same obsession with structure to stories. I am a contributing writer to PanelxPanel, and I co-run “The Power of You in Fiction” Podcast
PoYiF Pod:
The Power of You in Fiction podcast serves as a one stop shop for a lot of my work. All of the episodes on this page were at minimum written, co-hosted, and co-produced by me. The mini-sodes I host I created solo.
I designed our logo
PoYiF Pod:
The Power of You in Fiction podcast serves as a one stop shop for a lot of my work. All of the episodes on this page were at minimum written, co-hosted, and co-produced by me. The mini-sodes I host I created solo.
I designed our logo
Here’s some of my faves
This is a curated playlist of some audio Story Edited Produced and written By Lucius Illuminux.
PanelxPanel
PanelxPanel is an Eisner Award-winning monthly digital magazine featuring a range of critics and comics creators in each issue, looking at themes, craft and why comics are a unique medium for storytelling. My articles for the publication normally discuss how certain series make unique use of the medium or how black people like myself exist within the medium. If you have read any of the comics I write about you might notice that I also try to mimic the form and character of the comic in my writing and the layout suggestions I send my editor.
Invisible Kingdom
I consider this my most ambitious piece to date! I talk about how my experience reading Christian Ward’s layouts in Invisible Kingdom felt like listening to rap music for me. I originally wanted it to run under the title Ward 4/4 and my process writing this one was unique. So here’s an exclusive author’s cut of the article that only exist on this website.
Bitter Root
This was my first ever article for PanelxPanel! When I pitched this I had 3 pitches; the story I really wanted to write, the softball, and the one I thought I’d get away with. Fortunately, my editor liked the on I really wanted to write the best!!! So I really debuted with an article with a wildly proactive title and a discussion about race. In this story analysis I talk about how Bitter Root creates horror by giving the seeds of racism monstrous form.
The Seeds
This one is very technical. It’s about shapes and numbers and their use of storytelling devices. The number 4, the number 6, squares, and hexagons all play very specific roles in The Seeds and this device which is 99% invisible can tell us a bit about the natural and man made environments.
PanelxPanel is a great publication and I am honored to be next to the other writers in these issues. Full Issues can be purchased here!!!
Here’s a bonus thread on how I worked with my editor on the page layout for this article.
Now that this is out I actually want to talk about how I tried to mimic the form of #TheSeeds in a prose article as much as possible in hopes that @davaja and @annienocenti appreciate the ways I tried to pay homage. 1/🧵 https://t.co/AT4mV75WBv
— Lucius on the 🎙️ (@Shenz_da_Griot) December 31, 2020
Djeliya
My last clip is my article forJuni Ba’s Djeliya. Twas an incredible read from its armature, to its unique art techniques. I was very taken by this comic in many ways but chose to write about how Juni’s African epic resonated with my specific experience a member of the DiAFspora. There’s some poetry interludes in there too. PanelxPanel really lets met think about how my words will appear on the page and it makes for an incredible experience.
Comic Scripts
I’ve written more scripts than this, but these are self-contained stories about licensed characters so I decided these were best to share as I have no scripts drawn and people are familiar with the characters.
Call Me Wallace
This is the first comic script I ever wrote in 2015. Iwas writing this for a friend who may eventually draw it, but in working on it we created this unique format called the thumbnail script where I placed references and key beats in the margins and even suggested layouts on some 11×17 sheets after the full script so he could play around a bit.
As far as the story, I always thought Wallace West had a ton of potential to be a completely different speedster than portrayed and I always thought about how I would begin to transition to that if given the opportunity to write. The thing I stood on is the idea that only the people he’s been around after his mom disappeared call him Wally and never even asked if they could. I also introduce a few elements while reflecting on how something’s he’s been through affected him.
Darkness Origins: Xombi
This was my submission for the 2020 Top Cow Talent Hunt. Hopefully I’ve gotten better since 2015. In this story I imagine the life of a descendant of the darkness that existed in a time not discussed in the series. The mythos of the darkness meets real life events as artifacts are used to spark the Haitian revolution.
Comic Editing
I had the privilege of serving as an assistant editor for the Gwan Anthology Vol. 2 under Jerome Walford. This 200+ page comic anthology highlights and celebrates comic creators who produce work with a sense of the immigrant, refugee, and ‘foreigner’ perspective, expressing both the joys and challenges of such a journey. We take immigrant experiences and transform them into relatable fantastical stories.
Production:
Let me help you make your project happen
My production strengths lie in program planning and execution, developmental editing.
In addition to my work on PoYiF Pod I am a producer for the Certified Gumbo Youtube Channel.