By Shannon Hicks

With the release of To The Snakehouse, Mark Aldrich has given readers the third volume of a graphic novel series that he has been working on for years. The series, called Shards of Time, follows the adventures of The Sisters for the Preservation Of Old Landmarks, or SPOOL, Society. The society's members are architectural preservationists.

Mr Aldrich's characters, it should also be pointed out, are cats. Each feline is named for a different country and each book follows one character while the other "sisters" are also involved, either in listening to the lead sister's story or participating in her adventure.

"The novel's narrative structure," says Mr Aldrich, who has lived in Sandy Hook with his family — wife Wendy Wipprecht, and children Lola and Miles — since 1997, "resembles that of The Canterbury Tales or The Pickwick Papers."

Mr Aldrich has been creating the series since the late 1970s, which is when he began — off and on — mapping out the story line of the full series while working on panels for different books. The outlines for all 15 stories are complete; it is the fleshing out of details and illustration work that remains to be completed for the 12 yet-to-be published titles.

The illustrated panels that make up the books are extremely detailed pen-and-ink, colored pencil, and marker artworks. Watercolor occasionally finds its way into the mix as well.

The first book, The Poison Swamp, was released in October 2001 (112 pages; $37), and introduced readers to the members of The SPOOL Society as they recalled their first adventure, which was set in Egypt and dealt with "an architectural and moral monstrosity: a prison shanty town set in the midst of a poison swamp."

The second chapter, Decision at Dover (52 pages; $25), came out in mid-2003, was heavily influenced by Japanese culture, and detailed the friendship between SPOOLS Society member Duchess Gwendolyn Dumples and Bargello Doré, a samurai master and Hollywood screenwriter, as they try to decide whether the duchess's home is haunted, and perhaps causing the duchess to commit murder.

Mark Aldrich has taken a little more time to produce this, the third volume in the planned 15-volume graphic novel series. Two years of work has gone into To The Snakehouse, with additional research (including an email from the Brazilian consulate with suggestions for source material) and a few personal delays accounting for the additional time. The new book runs 62 pages and has been priced at $25.

This time around, To The Snakehouse takes the reader — along with the group of SPOOL Society members — to Brazil, where Penta Sweet and her sister snakes reign supreme over a casino that is about to be attacked by a band of marauding pirates.

Yes, this time around the story is told by a snake, who at the beginning of her tale says she could only watch as her casino — The Snakehouse — gets taken over by the bad guys of the new novel. As Penta's story progresses, she boards a freighter and befriends its colorful cast of characters, is helped by a mysterious stranger, and eventually embarks on a battle to reclaim her home and its surrounding acreage.

As with his previous titles, there are references both strong and subtle to historic works of art in To The Snakehouse. Previous chapters have recalled everyone from the American painters Hopper and Homer to a number of Japanese artists including Ando Hiroshige and even the 1934 Boris Karloff-Bela Lugosi feature film The Black Cat.

It is when the stories and their characters freeze in midmotion and resemble the subjects of famous paintings that Mr Aldrich finds his "shards of time."

"They allude to art's role in preserving important moments in history. When the narrative motion stops, the reader can pause and reflect upon the story, since characters or motions are being emphasized, sometimes with comic effect," he said. "This 'freeze' is also related to the preservationist work of The SPOOL Society."

One of the artists he honors with his latest novel is the 19th Century French artist Gustave Doré. The book's closing scene, in fact, recalls Doré’s biblical illustration "Daniel Interpreting the Writing on the Wall." Also reflected in To The Snakehouse are works by Alex Shoumatoff ("The World is Burning"), Goya ("Disasters of War") and a number of Houghton images. Photo essays from National Geographic also served to offer support this time around.

"National Geographic is a great source for country scenes, especially jungles," Mr Aldrich said.

"Creating this book was a wonderful revisit of things I have known from the time I was 6," Mr Aldrich said. "I had these great art books as a kid I would just flip through, and they had these great woodcuts and large plates."

Mr Aldrich would spend hours just staring at and absorbing those plates as a child, never realizing how they would influence him later in life.

As the project continues Mr Aldrich says each book does not necessarily become easier to produce. He does, however, see a continued education in his use of color.

"I can already look back at the previous books and compare them to what I'm producing now," he said.

Miracle Graphics of Bethel has one again handled the printing of Mr Aldrich's book.

Proceeds from the sales of each book help Mr Aldrich not only continue the work on future chapters, but also help the author and illustrator finance the creation of reproductions for future exhibitions.

In 2002 he was able to present a pair of exhibitions to celebrate the publication of his first book. The Poison Swamp was celebrated with an exhibition at C.H. Booth Library here in town (November 2001) along with a presentation at Small Space Gallery at Arts Council in New Haven (July 2002).

A former set designer, Mr Aldrich was a self-taught artist until 1986 when he began attending art school. From 1985 until 1988 he did coursework in architectural history, course design, illustration and graphic design at Paier College. He also holds a bachelor's degree in English from the University of California at Los Angeles and a master's in history and a library media specialist's degree from Southern Connecticut State University.

Since the mid-1980s Mr Aldrich has been involved in freelance art projects including the creation of a mural for the exterior of a fish market on Black Rock Turnpike that used the talents of teenagers from homeless shelters and emotionally disturbed high school students.

For the last ten years Mr Aldrich has been the library media specialist at Garner Correctional Institute in Sandy Hook.

Copies of To The Snakehouse, or either of the previously-released titles by Mark Aldrich, are available directly from the author. Contact Mr Aldrich at 426-9327 or MAldrich9327@charter.net.