about Von AllanVon Allan's artVon Allan's comic booksabout Von AllanShop page for Von Allan StudioEssays by Von AllanInterview links by Von Allancontact Von AllanLinks to the I Am Still Your Child documentary film featuring Von Allan  rss feeds for vonallan.com

Short Story - I Was Afraid For My Life


UPDATE! While you can always read the short story below, I have decided to start making my comics freely available to all for easier digital reading. Please visit https://www.vonallan.com/p/pirate-von.html for more information and download links!

I Was Afraid For My Life is an older story, actually a few years old now, that has never been published. I think, given the times we live in, it still packs quite a punch. Maybe more now than ever.

It's also one of the more abstract stories I've tried to tell. As can be seen once you've read it, the nameless main character and his dog Niko are growing up and getting older during the course of the entire tale. It was an interesting narrative challenge to get the flow of that down and to have it make sense. It might work better in print, given the nature of the "page turn" in comics, but I think it still comes across pretty well in this online version.

Note that pages four and five are shrunk a bit to fit the website. You can click on that image to make it larger.

Page one of the comic book short story I Was Afraid For My Life written and illustrated by Von Allan
Page two of the comic book short story I Was Afraid For My Life written and illustrated by Von Allan
Page three of the comic book short story I Was Afraid For My Life written and illustrated by Von Allan
I Was Afraid for my Life double-page splash
Page six of the comic book short story I Was Afraid For My Life written and illustrated by Von Allan

This story first saw print in the comic book titled STORIES! 2015 TO 2019 back in 2019. Unfortunately, the print edition is out of print (though you might be able to find a copy using Bookfinder). But! This story — as well as a boatload of others — were collected into a beautiful hardcover edition titled LOVE, LAUGHTER, AND LOSS: A COMICS COLLECTION. More information about that edition can be found right here.

In addition, there is also a digital comic book version of STORIES! 2015 TO 2019 on Kindle that can be read anywhere in the world. That edition is available at https://www.amazon.com/dp/B089QX5LJC.

For more of my comic short stories, please visit my archive of comic books and webcomics.

Oh, and in the interest of full disclosure: I did briefly post this story on a Tumblr page while I was entertaining the idea of using a different pen name. I decided against going in that direction, so here it is where it belongs.

Other Links

Wolf's Head by Von Allan

Link to Von Allan's Wolf's Head comic book series

Email Subscription

If you'd like to receive email updates from Von Allan Studio, please subscribe using the form below.
* indicates required field

Please note: You can unsubscribe from email updates at any time.

City of Ottawa Grant Support

Von Allan Studio gratefully acknowledges the financial support of the City of Ottawa.

City of Ottawa logo

Creative Commons License

I Am Still Your Child Trailer

Documentary Film Excerpt