Bizarrely enough, the Prologue was one of the last pieces of the "Shades" script to be written.

I'd completed the introductory chapters, I'd set up the central conflict and was half-way through writing the concluding chapters when it hit me. None of my opening chapters featured so much as a hint of a costume. What kind of a super hero comic would that be?

The dilemma was that I'd revised the early script a couple of times already by then and I really liked those opening chapters. The idea of re-writing them just to include a bit of costumed fisticuffs filled me with horror!

The solution, I decided, was to add a Prologue. A kind of Indiana Jones style pre-movie action sequence. Of course, it would have to fit in with the rest of the story but - since I was already in the process of writing the conclusion - that really wasn't so difficult.

In fact, although it had its origins in an afterthought, once the Prologue was complete ... it felt like the story had been crying out for it all along!