"Railwalker at Rites" was born when EarthSpirit's webmistress, Moira, and I first discussed the idea of replacing the Broadsheet's usual compliment of comics culled from newspapers with at least one strip created especially for Rites. Moira remarked that it could be both amusing and thought provoking to explore the reactions of a sympathetic outsider to the Pagan community, and I immediately thought of Brick, a character who seemed perfect for the purpose. She approached the EarthSpirit directors about it, and they responded enthusiastically to the idea.

When I first set out to bring Brick and the Crows to Rites of Spring, it never occurred to me at the time that their arrival would cause quite the stir that it did. I was amazed at the overwhelmingly positive reaction.

This year, Brick even surprised everyone (myself included) by stepping out of the comics page to make a personal appearance at the Guiser's Ball, complete with crow on his shoulder, and a bagel in his pocket.

Several folks remarked this year that the second series had less focus on humor than the first, but more polished artwork. Well, that's appropriate, I think. The first series was missing not only the Fire Circle, but also some of the deeper - and more serious - aspects of the Rites experience. Also, what I personally missed in the first series was the chance to breath a little more visual life into the stories - I was working at such a frantic pace back then that the art was pretty much visual shorthand.

Still, this second set certainly doesn't exhaust the possibilities of either aspect, art or story, and there is definitely more to come. Not to worry - serious aspects or not, the crows are not likely to lose their sarcastic, carping style, nor is Brick going to move to the country, join a coven, and start calling himself "Rainbow Medicine Turkey", or some such.

Last time around, we threatened to create a book (the "dead tree" version"), and we're holding good on that threat. The book is about half completed, and if it isn't in print by Twilight Covening, it will certainly be available by next Rites. So will the T-Shirt. Meanwhile, we've managed to create the RailWalker coffee mug, (version one) which definitely has advantages over the thimble-sized plastic cups the dining hall normally stocks (or even the stryofoam that showed up this year).

Also, RailWalker has it's own domain now - railwalkercomics.com. At the moment, all that's there is a redirect page that brings you here, to the stories on the EarthSpirit site, but we're working (in all our copious free time) on getting Brick and the crows their own site as soon as we can.

If you'd like to be placed on the Railwalker mailing list, and receive updates on further stories and strips, and on the progress of the book, and the website email me.

In the meantime, just remember, your landlord probably won't appreciate a fire on the roof, either.

Duncan Eagleson
June 2001