Index

Neal Freeland

I'm a Saulteaux artist and poet who spent 17 years in prison, currently living in Ottawa and, going to college for Social Service Worker. I'm continuing to work on my graphic novels and poetry. I'm also writing a screenplay for my second short independent film. During my imprisonment I learned to write poetry, honed my skills as an artist and went to school. It is in prison that I wrote and self published my first book of poetry "Through the Eyes of Asunder" under the pen name of Patches. I also spent a large portion of my time as a peer counsellor, both professionally and as a volunteer. My love of comic books began with The Savage Sword of Conan when I was 10 years young, and I was 12 when I started taking illustration seriously. Over the years following I created and illustrated 4 versions of my graphic novel "The Krillian Key", currently I'm working on version 5 which is to be the final draft. My second graphic novel called "Navriss" was completed in about a years worth of time over the span of 3 years in prison. Actually most of my poetry and illustrations come from being created in prison. These days, between searching for a publisher, working as a cook and going to school, I also illustrate poster sized pen and ink Dragons. I'd also like to sell more Dragons than I currently do, but all good things to those who wait and work for it. I'm happy to be alive these days, thankful I made it out of prison alive, happy I didn't go insane in there, and lucky as all hell I came out far better than I was going in. I guess that's a long story short. http://www.navriss.com/index.html

Miskó Ki’zis (Red Sun/apple) published in Bywords.ca January 2010