ABOUT EPHRAIM GREY

The Lost Chronicles of EPHRAIM GREY is an original comic series written by Derik Hefner and illustrated by David R. Wagoner. Check back here regularly for news, character bios, and all manner of other juicy tidbits.

What does it all mean, you ask? Read on...

The roots of the story go back centuries, stemming from a medieval legend about the "Wandering Jew." As Jesus Christ (or more accurately, Yahshua HaMoshiach) made his way down the road to the site of His crucifixion, with cross in tow, he stumbled within reach of a certain young Jewish man. The man taunted Yahshua, saying "Go now, why do you tarry?" In response, Yahshua glared at the man and replied, "I go, but you shall tarry till I return." As a result of this curse, the man was left with no other option but to roam the earth until the return of the Messiah.

Now, here's where the story gets really interesting. The legend first gained popularity in around the 12th century in Europe. A couple of pamphlets made it into circulation not long after, spreading the story further. At one point, a bishop visiting a certain monastery was asked by the monks if he had met "the Living Witness of Christ," and interestingly enough the bishop said that he had (whether he was telling the truth or just trying to keep from being one-upped by a bunch of guys in potato sacks with bad haircuts could be debated all day long, but it adds depth to the legend nonetheless).

Aside from the bishop's dialogue with the monks, there were numerous "sightings" of the Wandering Jew (or "Eternal Jew" as he was known in Czhechoslavakia) in various parts of Europe, some of them separated by centuries. This guy was like Elvis.

To some, he is a personification of the enduring, seemingly "eternal" nation of Israel, who spent nearly two millennia wandering without access to their God-given homeland, yet still maintaining a strong national identity even in the face of attempted genocide(s). To others, he is nothing more than a Medieval myth to be filed away with more modern counterparts such as the Sasquatch or the Jersey Devil. To us, he is Ephraim Grey.

He is a man who is quite frankly, fed up. Throughout nearly two millennia of roaming the earth, he has documented his experiences in journals and hidden them away in libraries around the world. He has outlived every friend he has ever made (except one--- more on that later). After seeing his people nearly wiped out of existence time and again... well, let's just say that when we first meet Ephraim in our day, he is not exactly the role model he once was. After the Holocaust, Ephraim's proverbial camel's back was crushed beyond repair, and he has found, shall we say, an "interesting" way of coping with his grief. He is a man who knows more about the realms of Heaven and Earth than any other earthbound soul, and at this point he could care less. So we get in on the beginning of what will (hopefully) be Ephraim's journey from darkness back to light. Along the way we'll meet a naive college girl who gets sucked into a War and a world that she doesn't understand; we'll see a calm, collected (yet psychotic) intellectual whose villainy was inadvertently born out of Ephraim's own actions; we'll meet the mastermind behind most of history's ills; we'll get a glimpse into the ongoing war between the celestial hosts (with a new war in the works); we'll see political intrigue in the heavenly places; we'll become acquainted with another immortal whose life has brushed up against Ephraim's many a time; we'll see an incarnation of evil that Hell itself fears, along with his own twisted (per)version of a messiah figure; and all of that barely begins to scratch the surface.

It's Highlander meets Quentin Tarantino; Sin City meets Lord of the Rings. It's the first glimpse at an epic tale that reaches into nearly every part of the globe, and into multiple genres of storytelling. There's modern noirish yarns, Medieval melees, Western shoot-em-ups, other-dimensional SciFi/Fantasy tales, and underlying spiritual themes that seek more to incite questions than to give preachy, pat answers. The book deals with themes that are bigger than all of us, but reaches into the heart of what we look for in stories.