'Keepin' it real.'

The seeds for Dead Heaven were planted a long time ago. I had always wanted to tackle a dense fantasy adventure, but it always seems time is against you when you want to put aside the work that pays and pursue a personal project. I guess we could start at the beginning. I was born in Saskatchewan, Canada and raised on a farm outside a small town called Swift Current. I was that kid at school with the multi-sided die in his desk, compulsively drawing elves and dwarves slicing each other into pieces in the margins of his workbooks. Occasionally some Star Frontiers may sneak in there if I had just read an Endless Quest book with a Larry Elmore cover.

After high school I briefly attended the University of Regina studying fine arts, which was good. But I say briefly because two years later I put together just how much money is was costing me for what I wrongly perceived was a useless fine arts degree and left.

Around 1996 I managed to fall into the animation industry doing character design, storyboards, and began doing some 'serious' painting resulting in some gallery exhibitions dotted along my CV. At some point in early 2000 I decided to get back to one of my first loves, comics. I never dove in. I never sent my work around to publishers and editors; I just sort of dipped my toe in at the fringes. I did end up doing the illustration duties on several books like: The White Elephant (Alternative Comics), Kill the Revisionist! (Ape Entertainment), Beowulf (Markosia), and Worlds of Dungeons & Dragons (Devil's Due). There was a brief thrill with the idea of being properly published, but it quickly faded after discovering how fragile, flaky, and flawed so much of the traditional comic publishing realm is. I decided to trim the fat, to pull back, and focus on doing work that I can be proud of so I could start enjoying comics again. This time, I knew I would write it, illustrate it, and take the reins to find that audience. I would keep it real, to me. I knew it would be fantasy. I knew it would be mature. I knew it would be big. And I knew that I would need the complete creative freedom that comes with self-publishing online.

In 2008 I moved to Germany. While visiting places like the Black Forest and Neuschwanstein Castle I was discovering the world my characters would inhabit. Where they would live and die. The dots connected, the plot holes filled, and Dead Heaven was tangible. Something I can jump in to. A reality I can see and feel became an unavoidable catalyst in moving forward. I then started making things more concrete. Writing, writing, writing. Drawing, drawing, drawing. Putting down the pencils now and again only to work on the site and write pieces like the one you are reading here. Now that the site is live, the rest is up to you, dear reader, yes YOU! My world has become this world, and I don't want to leave until I'm finished. Please support Dead Heaven. Keep me there so I can continue to share it with you. Spread it and stick around!

Chris Steininger

Berlin, 2009