Heaven’s End

Charlie’s brother is dead…

Charlie never stopped believing that her brother Aaron is still alive. 

Not even when the police, her Father, and the rest of the adults in her life claimed otherwise. He was always a success, while she struggled just to get by. He always knew everything; now that he’s gone, Charlie doesn’t even know who she is anymore. 

So, when a strange being with paranormal abilities shows up at Charlie’s school, why does it have an uncanny resemblance to him? And what’s the strange connection it seems to have to Human Analytics, a mysterious weapons contracting company in her town?

Now, Charlie takes it upon herself to discover the truth about what Human Analytics is up to, find out what really happened to her brother, and prove that sometimes defiance is what it takes to save the world (and maybe the moon).

Heaven’s End is a meditation criticizing the regimes and agendas of the hegemonic institutions around us while also caring about the people and places that inhabit them. How can a school exist next to a slaughterhouse? How can the ones closest to you also commit the worst atrocities?

Spanning 6 issues, the first preview issue has already been released as a 6×9” 4 color risograph zine, now available for purchase. This first issue gives you the first 23 pages of the story plus background sketches and character designs.

Background

Raytheon And Me

Andover, Massachusetts, an otherwise workaday suburban sprawl on the outskirts of the Greater Boston Area, has been at the confluence of a surprising amount of American history. Dating back to its inception, the town’s borders have been an inconspicuous theater for the drama of almost every major US event: early Colonization, The Witch Trials, The American Revolution, The Civil War, The Industrial Revolution, The Bush Administration and much more. This unpresuming yet significant setting lays the groundwork for the experiential contradictions I would end up using as the basis for Heaven’s End.

The specific aspect of the town I chose to focus on was the fact that one of the headquarters of Raytheon, the defense systems manufacturers is located there. This existence of this entity within the town has cultivated a complex dynamic within me as a child and young adult. People within the town whose livelihoods were tied up with this corporation were the same ones who would pick up their children after we played together on the school yard, or whose houses you might go over to for holiday. The juxtapositions of these arrangements felt reflective of something larger.

For those in the know, the Boston area is a mecca of cutting edge scientific, medical, technological and academic R&D. Almost anyone above the age of twenty three works in one of the previous buckets. Although I have only worked in one of these industries, my proximity to the rest has given me a front row view of the trappings of these spheres. What is the cost of scientific advancement? Do the pharmaceutical industries prey on the sick? Who really benefits from higher education? These are all questions I am persistently confronted with in my daily goings-on.

Research

This book was incomparable in providing some of the groundwork to engage with the mystical elements of the story. This book, which was written in the 15th century as a supposed way to communicate with Angels, is one of the go-to esoteric texts for gnostic mysticism. The Book of Abramelin tells the story of an Egyptian mage named Abra-Melin, who taught a system of magic to Abraham of Worms, a Jew from Worms, Germany, presumed to have lived from 1362 to 1458. The text, among other things, instructs the reader on how to supposedly summon one’s guardian angel through a series of holy rituals and magic squares. It should be noted that the rituals take up to 6 to 18 months to complete and would be completely infeasible for almost anyone.

When tennis became a large theme within the book I dove into researching the sport and those involved. Knowing almost nothing about it, it proved an encouraging and exciting wellspring for me to pull from. Roger Federer as well as Rafael Nadal were used as models for Charlie’s brother Aaron.

Further research into the history of Angels and the attempts to invoke them, I stumbled upon an interesting story which wound up providing significant thematic inspiration for the story. In this particular legend as depicted in the illustration above, the famed mystic and occultist, Count Alessandro di Cagliostro had reportedly used child “clairvoyants” to commune with divine spirits through a bowl of water as illustrated above. This dynamic was updated and repurposed for the story of Heaven’s end but this time with Charlie’s brother acting as the child clairvoyant and Human Analytics, the mysterious weapons manufacturer acting as Cagliostro.

Initially tennis was not part of the narrative. It wasn’t until reading the essay “Both Flesh And Not” by David Foster Wallace did it click into place. Tennis became the catalyst by which the rest of the story would coalesce. In the titular opening essay, Wallace described his almost religious fascination with tennis and more specifically Roger Federer. According to him, there are certain people whose abilities, in this case athletics, seem to defy our understanding of physics and the world as we know them. Giants whose abilities seem so beyond what everyone else is capable of that they themselves seem almost unhuman, or as Wallace describes them, “Both flesh and not”.

The world of weapons manufacturing, defense research and the Military Industrial Complex as a whole had been at the core of the story from the beginning. Much of the initial research here came from spending time looking at company websites and testimonials, Reddit forums and news articles. The psychological effects of working in this industry were of main importance.

The Super-Kamiokande is one of the world’s largest neutrino observatory located under Mount Ikeno near the city of Hida, Gifu Prefecture, Japan. This facility was used as direct inspiration for the facility at Human Analytics in the story of Heaven’s End

Production

Development for Heaven’s End began in September 2024. With insight provided by my advisor  Sebastian Girner and mentor Connor Willumsen, I spent the three months of Fall semester polishing my outline, writing my script and laying out pages. The script writing process was by far the most time consuming aspect of this initial phase, with the layouts going relatively quickly by comparison. This was partially due to the amount of visual reference that had been collected during the research process. The following is a collection of sketches, layouts and script excerpts that were produced.

By Spring of 2025, I began to work on the final pages. This included final pencils, inking, coloring and lettering. In addition to this, a final pitch packet was produced which included a story synopsis, character sketches and 8 final pages. 

It wasn’t until the Summer when I was able to finally ink, tone and letter the rest of the pages as well as print the book with the help of the Risolab and their wonderful staff. A small print run of 50 books was produced and showcased in July at the MFAVN Thesis Exhibition at the SVA gallery in New York City.

Next Steps

Going forward, Heaven’s End is looking for a place to land. The story is currently in its initial pitch phase with a 23 page preview issue. The next steps will be to shop around to see if anyone will be interested in the story. If no publishers are willing to support it at this phase then it will most likely be kickstarted or self published. Please check my website and social media for updates!

Website: www.brycedavidsonart.com

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