The War Inside the Soul
Everyone struggles in some way or other with warring impulses inside the heart and soul.
The concept of a war between two sides of the same soul is timeless, possibly as old as human nature itself. It’s also the idea that drew me back over and over again to the Starr and Staff Saga, which lingered and grew silently for decades in a dusty corner of my imagination, waiting to come to light.
I was first invited to write this series in 1986 (a long time ago, I know…) by
. As Tony explained it to me, “Starr and Staff” was to be the story of twin brothers who represented the good and evil sides of the same soul. I remember thinking, “That’s an absolutely brilliant concept!”It’s brilliant because it’s both simple and universal. Everyone struggles in some way or other with warring impulses inside the heart and soul. Obviously, it’s an idea that exists in Christian theology: Saint Paul wrote, “In my inner being I delight in God’s law, but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me.” (Romans 7:22-23)
At the same time, this concept of a struggle inside the soul is very much present in Asian philosophy and literature as well. We can see it in Eiji Yoshikawa’s famous novel “Musashi,” about the legendary samurai of that name who spent his life seeking perfection both in swordsmanship and inner consciousness… or in “Scandal,” a Shusaku Endo novel that influenced me, which tells the story of a Japanese author whose reputation is ruined by the sudden appearance of a Doppelgänger imposter.
In 1986 my most important contribution to the story of “Starr and Staff” was to reset it in a slightly futuristic version of Japan— a natural enough shift, it seemed to me, since both the shuriken “star” and the jo “staff” of the title are of Japanese origin. In our recent revival of the series, I find it amusing that it’s now simply set in modern Japan as it exists today, where robot technology and “stealth appliances” of the 21st century already far surpass my sci-fi imaginings from decades ago!
Stay tuned… The five chapters of the first manga book in the series, “A Mirror Image Storm” should be posted here in the next little while. And then we’ll see just how the story grows.
All the best,
Kenneth
You’re reading: Starr and Staff: A Mirror Image Storm
Read the chapters in order: