Let The Deception Begin...

Back in the 1990s I got lots of art samples.  There was one set of three pages that stood out.  The Theatre featured the on-stage murder of conjurer Chung Ling Soo…by Chung Ling Soo.


The artist was Gavin Ross and he had an interest in stage magic and an art style that was very distinctive -almost art nouveau.


The thing is that I had an interest in a Victorian conjurer known as…Chung Ling Soo!


Was this the perfect opportunity or what?  I broached the subject of a joint project featuring CLS but in a murder mystery.  Something you might read in the 1920s or 1930s.  Gavin said “yes”.  Once the project was finished,The Curse Of The Jade Dragon,or was it The Curse Of The Jade Dragon King[?],it came to the part where it needed to be pitched. I tried for a year-and-a-half with no luck and then I lost complete touch with Gavin!


Around 2005 I published the strip in A5 format. It sold but not enough to make anyone real money!!


A few months back I caught up with Gavin who had been held prisoner by a mysterious Chinese Tong for 8 years.  I got better scans of the old photocopied pages and my brother Mike redesigned the cover and –there you have it.  In glorious black and white.


29 pages which include some text back-up which reveals the truth about Chung Ling Soo.  Or tries to.  Were we deceived? Was he deceived?  Who knows!


That written,I announce here and now that Gavin and m’self are working on the graphic novel follow up:Chung Ling Soo -The Mystery Of The Thames Serpent.


What’s it about?  Nope,not saying just yet but let me say that this could very possibly be Chung’s very last case.


But beware..let the deception begin!!



29pp
black & white
Album format [A4]

Chung Ling Soo. World’s greatest conjurer and said to be an American stage magician in disguise. Or was he? In this story,Chung Ling Soo is called in by Scotland Yard to investigate a gruesome series of deaths -all amongst a party who discovered a Jade Dragon statuette in China. Is the statuette cursed -and can Chung stop any other deaths? Story by Terry Hooper-Scharf Art by Gavin Ross Let the Deception Begin!

Print: £5.00

Download: £5.00