Six years ago, Jarrett Kessel helped his best friend’s little brother deal with his family’s rejection when he came out. He saw potential in the tempestuous teenager. Talent. Then, they both moved on with their lives.<br><br>Now, the FBI needs Jarrett’s help. Sketch artist Eli Locke is their only lead in finding a killer, but he’s nowhere to be found. Though the Feds are convinced Jarrett is the best way to lure him out, he’s not so sure. Until they show him the web comic Eli has created, with a superhero who bears a striking resemblance to Jarrett.<br><br>When Eli gets an email out of the blue from the man who changed his life, he doesn’t even consider saying no to a meeting. Jarrett is even more amazing than he remembers, and the fact that he’s all right being the role model for the one thing that means the most to Eli is just icing on the cake. But the truth about the murder comes out, and even though he had nothing to do with it, Eli wants to run. It’s up to Jarrett to keep him from ruining his life for good, before the killer finds them both and does it first ...

Outlined in Ink

Clearing out email was always first. He had the toughest spam filters he could find, but he invariably ended up with a lot of junk to throw away. He’d set up the accounts initially for more personal feedback from readers not comfortable with the comment section on the posts, but in the past few years, he’d kept a close eye on it in hopes someone in the industry stumbled across his little corner of the webcomic world and thought he was brilliant. He had a million and one fantasies where Marvel or DC or Dark Horse emailed and asked him to spearhead their latest and greatest books, or better, asked if he wanted to create a brand new series for them to produce. Nobody had yet to nibble, but he wasn’t giving up. Drawing for a living was the only dream he’d had since he’d picked up his first pencil at the age of four.


Chapter 7