false 840074 0 0 Star Wars: A New Hope. The single child of two loving but troubled parents, Von split most of his childhood between their two homes and, consequently, spent a lot of time in the worlds of comics and wrestling. And, to be perfectly honest, what comics and piledrivers didn't teach him, science fiction did. He worked at a small independent bookstore in Ottawa for many years, all the while working on story ideas in his spare time-- eventually, he decided to make the leap to a creative life, and the road to god knows… was the result.

Von currently lives in Ottawa, Canada, with his writer/editor geek wife, Moggy; a husky dog, Rowen; and two feisty cats, Bonny and Reilly. Von is just finishing his first original graphic novel, the road to god knows…, and he will be starting work on his second novel in the very near future.
]]> male 1974/01/13 138390 1839699 0978123700 9780978123703 2 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1255372455m/1839699.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1255372455s/1839699.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1839699.the_road_to_god_knows_ 4.00 3
Betty, Marie’s Mom, can’t help; she’s living with an illness that’s slowly getting worse and increasingly frightening, and she just doesn’t have the resources left over at the end of the day to help Marie. With her Mom absorbed in her own problems, Marie is essentially alone while she learns to deal with the chaos in her young life.

Marie’s youth makes it that much harder for her to cope—as a teenager, she just doesn’t have the life experience to feel confident about her decisions. At the start of the story, we see a scared young girl, uncertain and overwhelmed, but as Betty collapses into a full nervous breakdown, Marie is forced to examine herself and her life and come to a decision: does she continue to be a child, reacting to what’s happening around her? Or does she take control of her life, come what may? ]]> 840074 3.50 4 2 2009 3883778 9780978123710 0 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1217083109m/3883778.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1217083109s/3883778.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3883778.Li_l_Kids_road_to_god_knows_adventures_ 2.00 1
In the case of a young girl named Marie, the friendship began by a chance meeting after her mom told her to go play outside on a beautiful summer day. That early encounter is the basis of the first of three interlocked short stories contained within this volume. Each story focuses on an element of Marie’s life, from meeting a new friend to her burgeoning awareness of her mom’s mental illness. While this later theme is explored in the graphic novel "the road to god knows…," Marie is only 8 years old at the time of these three stories. As a result, she is only just beginning to be aware of the world around her and her place in it.

Each story stands on its own but, when taken together, they help to illustrate that childhood, like most aspects of life, has its ups and downs. Being a child can be fun, scary, and magical; but sometimes the things that seem very little at the time can have a profound effect on you later on in life. That’s certainly true for Marie and her experiences in these stories help bear that out. Later, in "the road to god knows…," we see just how significant some of those events can be.

In addition, this collection includes a large amount of supporting material. Concept and thumbnail art give a peek behind the curtain and show how each story was put together. Von Allan also discusses where each story’s inspiration came from and how ideas form. Lastly, he shows each step from story outline to completed script. ]]> 840074 3.50 4 2 2008