Gum Stunner - An Introduction To Some Pud Prose
One of my favourite writers is Garth Ennis. He writes violent, he writes mean, and he writes offensively. And I love it.
It’s probably a fairly obvious thing to say, but any form of anyone’s creativity will be influenced in one way or another by their favourite ideators.
I got hooked on the idea of Gum Stunner when it came to me. What started off as a bunch of misfits with cool denim jackets and awesome nicknames evolved into a dark, damn near snuff style story about a bunch of dealers, junkies and con artists living in Brooklyn, New York.
I must admit, the ending snuck up on me and I wasn’t 100% satisfied with the story when it came to a close. I tried all I could to have no deus ex machina, but I just could not find a suitable ending for the story. I knew what I wanted to happen, and that’s what is written. But near the end I lost my train of thought and inspiration became less… inspiring. The impending idea of bad storytelling floated through my ego, and I had no idea what to do about it.
Now though, I realise (in a romantic sort of way) that this story needed to be incomplete in my head. I was the one who fell in love with the characters, and that was what I wanted other people to do too. The characters and their story was the important thing. My fascination with why junkies, con men and bad-asses are so popular shows predominantly in the narrative.
Each chapter was meant to have its own style of narration and succinct storytelling. The murder, the drugs, the violence and almost unbelievable story all drew inspiration from one of my favourite comic book characters that Garth Ennis has written – The Punisher.
It’s stylised, it’s raw and it’s certainly not perfect. But I love these characters. I hope you enjoy their fucked up lives as much as I did.
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Click here to read Chapter One of Gum Stunner
