Origins of THE SIXTH PRECEPT - Part 1

About 15 years ago, I got an idea for a short story which was to be a sort of an homage to my favorite costumed hero--Batman. I posited the concept of what would happen if comic book, short story and novel characters actually existed in an alternate reality and were linked to our own universe by the literature we created about those characters. These “literary terrorists” started to break through the dimensional veil into our world as a result of a “quantum overflow” in the space/time continuum.

I was just going to write this for myself, to have a little fun with friends and the members of my writing/critique group, science and logic be damned! Little did I know it would take on a life of its own and snowball into something much, much larger.

At just a little over 3000 words, “Primary Colors,” told the story of Wayne Petersen, aka Bruce Wayne, aka Batman (though I never mention Wayne or Batman by name), being lost in our reality and trying to find his way back to his own world. He tries to help an out-of-control Popeye (yes, Popeye!) so the two of them can work together towards this end. But Popeye, like Wonder Woman, D’artagnan and the other literary figures arriving in our universe, could only survive for a finite period of time. After that, they go insane and then, after wreaking havoc throughout the city, die and dematerialize. Poof! Just like that.

 In his guise as Petersen, Wayne enlists the help of an African-America female detective to help him before he, too, ends up as a pile of dust. I left the ending pretty ambiguous with the costumed hero swinging out into the night to visit the detective at her home to convince her of the danger to both his and her/our world.

Well, I started to really like the story and decided to expand upon it. I couldn’t just leave well enough alone and that was just the beginning of this long, but ultimately, thrilling journey.