Planet Pedro (comic story)
Planet Pedro, commonly referred to as Afrenasia, was a standalone Jenny Everywhere comic story written by Elton Mesquita and illustrated by Grant Cook. Although an early Barbelith Jenny Everywhere story, it is not considered part of the official list of the original 13 Barbelith comic stories due to never having been finished; only the first page was ever published. A full script, initially referred to as Planet David, was known to have been completed, although it is not currently known to be extant.
The story borrowed its common title from the wider artistic project of the same name, having originally been hosted on the project's website. From the available information, it does not appear to have had any tie-ins with the fictional component of the Afrenasia idea.
Contents
Plot
While he is relaxing on a bench in a park, Pedro Primavera sees Jenny Everywhere materialise in front of him in a shower of rainbow-coloured bubbles, telling him she is here on a secret mission. When the confused Pedro asks her the nature of this mission, she tells her there is no time to lose and that she has a message for him.
Worldbuilding
Jenny
- This story features a version of Jenny Everywhere with reddish-brown hair and pale skin, who wears a red scarf and appears to have a tendency to call people “darling”. Her brand of shifting sees her materialise in new places against a backdrop resembling a bubbling rainbow.
Universes
- This story takes place all in one universe, suggested by the opening caption-box to be the 6-billionth reality visited by this version of Jenny (or possibly all Jennies cumulatively).
Continuity
- The story would later be referenced in COMIC: Peter's Pursuit, with another Jenny considering going to "the one where one of me went on a mission".
Behind the scenes
Background
The story was first mentioned on the Barbelith forum thread "Collective Comics Project.", at which point it was a completed but undrawn script called Planet David:
| Hey, folks, I have a script. Any artist out there who wants to take a look and see if the thing is interesting? The story is called "Planet David" and is a slow-paced, more slice-of-life kind of story. |
| —Elton Mesquita |
Following this, artist Grant Cook agreed to illustrate the script; however, after a series of delays, Cook backed out of the project, posting the following in the Barbelith thread "Fool requests magichelp for NinJade":
| I signed on as artist for [Mesquita's] 'shifter comic as part of the collaborative comic project down in creation. Alas, I really don't have the time to do his ideas justice, so I'm going to have to bow out. |
| —Grant Cook |
The single completed page of the story was subsequently published on the "Collective Comics Project." thread with the following commentary:
| This is the single page I finished for Jade. Thought I'd post it rather than let it gather electrodust on me computer... |
| —Grant Cook |
The story was commonly referred to as simply Afrenasia for decades due to the unusual font in which the actual title was written obscuring the fact that it did, in fact, have a title other than that of the site on which it was hosted.
Read online
This story was originally released on Barbelith, on a thread which, though gone from its original location, was backed up on the Internet Archive. All original uploads of Planet Pedro now being offline, we reproduce the single page of the story here.
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