WHAT IS NUOS?
By Gary Yap

When Nicole and I were kicking around what to include in this special preview of NUOS, one of my original ideas was to do a page or two describing what the series is about and where it will be headed. After all, every time I think about the future of this book, I can’t help but get excited. Unfortunately, Nicole became the justifiable voice of reason by telling me that if I were to indeed let people know TOO MUCH of what was gonna be happening…well…then what was the fun in reading it and, ultimately, surprising you all with the series’ twists and turns?

Damn her. But she DOES make a great point.

Well, here’s what I CAN say –

I met Nicole in early 1996 while we both worked for a company called Global MediaNet in Santa Monica, California. I worked over on the “creative side” of the building as a Graphic Designer/Storyboard Artist for an interactive CD-ROM called 21st Century Schizoids (yes, that WAS the title). Nicole worked over on the “business side” of the company, as the Marketing Communications Manager, or MarCom for short, seeing as how THAT sounds MUCH cooler (see, Niki, ALWAYS putting you over, Baby!).

Our paths first crossed during a routine bomb scare. You see, we were a few floors up from one of the biggest divorce firms in the city. Real high-powered kinda shit. Bomb threats were actually the norm for the building and one day, while safely tucked away in a nearby KFC watching the Bomb Squad do their job from afar, we started talking. She SWEARS that it was then when she first brought up the story that would eventually become NUOS although, to be honest, I can’t say as I remember much of that day, or any days back then, for that matter. Remember, kids, just say no.

Anyway, as was the situation with a lot of CD-ROM companies back then, Global went under, 21st Century Schizoids was never released (or even finished, for that matter), and I found myself out of a gig. Nicole stayed with the company to finalize a lot of the last-minute business crap and we both stayed in touch with each other, talking off and on about this project of hers that she was determined to see come to fruition as a feature length film.

Soon after I had started working on the King of the Hill television series, I proposed the idea to her about doing her story as a comic book series. I had worked in the comic field from the early ‘90s until shortly before working for Global and had always had the itching to get back into it. While animation paid well, I had always felt that I left comics prematurely. I felt that I still had unfinished business and that, by helping Nicole bring her project to fruition, maybe I’d be able to satiate that “jones” that a LOT of us animation guys have but are always too damn lazy to pursue (and that includes ALL of you at Film Roman – especially you, ALAN! Oh, that’s right, I’m calling you out!).

So I started doing character designs and thumbnail breakdowns for Nicole, a few of which are included on this site. As time passed and the project became more and more fleshed out, I hit up Nicole about the title of the book. “What’s it called?” I asked. “Apocrypha,” she replied.

I responded with a painfully long silence.

Finally, after thinking long and hard about it (at least that’s what I told her because I didn’t want her to think that my response was immediate), I came back with, “Do you NOT want this book to sell, Nicole? Cause when I think of a book called Apocrypha, I think of a book that screams to the reader STAY AWAY FROM ME!”

Long argument short – Apocrypha became NUOS.

SIDE NOTE: This one goes out to all you comic historians out there. PUH-LEEEZE don’t remind me that Miracleman used the word Apocrypha in its’ title, okay? Using a word IN your title is one thing (as Miracleman: Aprocrypha proved) but calling your title JUST Apocrypha is NOT something I wanna support. So no hate mail, okay? At least not for THAT.

Anyway, as everyone knows, nothing interferes with set plans and goals more than this silly little thing called LIFE. Responsibilities come and go. Planned deadlines come and go. But if you REALLY want to do something bad enough, eventually…it finds it’s way out of you and you JUST DO IT.

So here we are. Seven years later.

DONE!

NUOS starts out simple enough. A bounty hunter who failed his last assignment is given one more chance to make things right. Redemption, if you will. His task – find and destroy the Nihlaat, a creature so powerful that it’s destined to be responsible for the destruction of the universe as we know it. Both science fiction and comic book fans will recognize this story as familiar territory, but what separates this from other tales is where it goes from there. Nicole Jones, as the creator and writer of the series, has crafted a universe so dense and layered that just when you think you have something figured out, well…it turns out that you didn’t, after all.

Issue one introduces us to a handful of characters whose lives are destined to become intertwined with each other over the years (and this series does span years). Issue two repeats the process that issue one began, this time with another handful of characters. By issue four, the stage is set and the series is off and running.

I fell in love with this story when I saw its long term potential. Characters who start as somewhat black and white personalities slowly unfold into complex and intriguing people with their own sets of agendas and motivations. Don’t look for good versus evil here, folks. Life isn’t that simple. NUOS is a challenging journey into what’s right, what’s wrong, and where everything falls in between.

Thank you for your interest and please remember to ALWAYS support independent comics!