Author And Illustrator Is Making Baby Steps

With His Fictional ‘Shards Of Time’ Series

By Shannon Hicks

Mark Aldrich is still years away from completing a project called “Shards of Time,” but he continues to make forward steps in bringing his work to the public’s attention.

“Shards Of Time: Scenes From A Graphic Novel” will open on July 9 at Small Space Gallery at Arts Council, 70 Audubon Street in New Haven. The exhibition, which will remain on view until August 1, is the second public presentation of Mr Aldrich’s work, which continues to be a project-in-progress.

The Sandy Hook artist is creating a 15-volume fiction series that concerns the adventures of a group of architectural preservationists. The upcoming exhibition –– like the November 2001 show in Newtown that debuted the artwork –– will offer a look at new panels in the series, images from the second book in the series. The show will also include panels and text from the first book

The most exciting thing about the new show is that Mr Aldrich now has copies of volume one, The Poison Swamp, available.

After working on finishing the first volume of his series, and then working on panels for the second (and further) volume, while trying to decide how to publish his first book, Mr Aldrich toyed with the idea of self-publishing before talking with the owners of Miracle Graphics, a Bethel printing firm.

“They usually do advertising and booklets, projects of that like, but we’ve decided to give this a go,” Mr Aldrich said last week. “They want to showcase this in their shop, to sell it and show people what they can do,” the artist continued. Copies of the first edition will be available at the New Haven gallery, and Mr Aldrich will be signing copies of the book during the show’s opening later this month.

One down, fourteen to go.

The work ahead, says Mr Aldrich, is not at all daunting. He has, after all, been working on this series, off and on, since the late 1970s. Of course he has not been working on the same volume for the last 30 years. He has, instead, been mapping out the story line of the full series while working on panels for different books.

The books, as the name of the upcoming exhibition implies, are graphic novels –– fictional stories for adult readers presented in comic strip format, published as books.

“Shards of Time” follows the adventures of Sisters for the Preservation Of Old Landmarks, or The SPOOL Society. Mr Aldrich’s characters are each named for a different country and each book follows one character in particular while the other “sisters” are also involved. The illustrated panels are extremely detailed pen-and-ink, colored pencil, and marker artworks. Occasionally watercolor finds its way into the mix as well.

Mr Aldrich’s general plan, he says, is to arrange a series of traveling exhibitions, where the book will be offered during each exhibition. He hopes to have the show go on view across Connecticut, and he would like it to be seen in New York as well.

“While [the first] book sells, I can begin with the second book, gain reader interest, and continue to build on the series,” explained Mr Aldrich, who works on the series in a small studio space within the home he and his family –– wife Wendy Wipprecht and their children Lola and Miles –– live in in Sandy Hook.

“It may be baby steps,” the creator of “Shards of Time” said recently, “but the momentum is always forward.”

When he is not working on the “Shards of Time” series, Mr Aldrich is the library media specialist at Garner Correctional Institute in Sandy Hook. He also teachers college level speech and communications classes at Garner.

An opening reception will be hosted by Small Space Gallery on Friday, July 19, from 5 to 7 pm. The public is welcome, free of charge. Contact Mr Aldrich, 426-9327, for directions to the gallery.