Francis Ford Coppola on the set of Apocalypse Now in the Philippines (1976)

A wild, unforgettable film-and it all began with chaos. A planned 5-month shoot spiraled into an 18-month odyssey. Tropical storms destroyed elaborate sets. Marlon Brando arrived overweight and wholly unprepared.

Martin Sheen suffered a breakdown and near-fatal heart attack mid-production. Filming finally wrapped in May 1977, but the madness continued -Coppola spent months buried in over a million feet of footage, endlessly editing and delaying release.

In 2018, @rassilon-imprimatur's story in The Book of the Enemy introduced Faction Paradox readers to Auteur, a skeletal Archon with the uncanny power to literally rewrite reality — and metafictional delusions of grandeur to match. Ever since then, the Mad God of Writing's popped up hither and thither at Arcbeatle Press, but never quite as the headline feature.

Now, at long last, the official newcomer-friendly Volume One of his very own series is ready to invade your shelves, complete with fourteen exclusive interior illustrations, a crossword, and more surprises than you can count! Whether you're a long-time FP-head or coming fresh to the Auteurverse, I genuinely can't wait for more people to discover this thing…

Out now, in both digital and physical formats!

Auteur is a visionary, a genius, a god. The Author of All Creation. So he has claimed for centuries, and many believe him — who else could rewrite reality with one flick of a quill?

But the Cosmos has changed since he’s been away, and it keeps on changing. Old rules are broken, and new powers rise. What wonders and horrors might Auteur create, in his quixotic quest to get the final word? And what will he destroy?

I can finally show the full scale version of this really fun painting I did for Auteur! All the moody lighting and glowy bits were a delight to work on, and of course his Evil Skull Face (tm) hehehe. If you like a melodramatic villain who rewrites reality around himself and ignores fourth walls when it suits him, this anthology is a delight!

ID: A low angle image looks up at Auteur, a skeletal figure wearing a flowing dark blue-purple cape with a high collar. Auteur's head is a stained skull with staring orange eyes and an angry expression. Behind him stands a cylindrical stone tower with blue-green light glowing through windows at the top and swirling down into misty bird-like shapes around the sides of the tower. The sky in the background is filled with dark clouds and split by a bolt of purple lightning. end ID