KRIS ASHTON

Since 2007, I’ve been fastidious about noting the circumstances in which my stories were born. I started doing this after I couldn’t remember anything about the genesis of ‘Level Two: Time Trial’.

I’m sure I scribbled down the story behind ‘Even Superheroes’, but it was such a long period between acceptance and publication (more than a year) that it went missing. I vaguely recall imagining a superhero trying in vain to commit suicide. It might even have been the opening scene. 

 

I suppose the story is a meditation on the nature of existence, although at about 1800 words it doesn’t meditate very deeply. 

 

Stephen King believes horror and humour run on parallel lines. While ‘Even Superheroes’ is indeed “melancholy”, as A Thousand Faces editor Frank Byrns noted in his introduction, I think it’s the moments of black comedy that make it work. I seem to have inherited a sardonic sense of humour from my mother and it usually holds firm even if the humour is at my expense. (My wife doesn’t get this at all and finds it distressing when I laugh at our misfortune.)

 

One last thing worth mentioning… I knew I had subconsciously cribbed the title but I couldn’t remember from where. A Google search turned it up: it’s the name of a documentary about Marvel Comics that I reviewed back in 2003. ‘Even Superheroes’ was written in 2008. It’s amazing what useful crap the mind hangs on to.