"The Horrors of Being Alive" Zine #001 — A Collection of Preliminary Sketches & Design

Before the blue hair, before the name, before he was even Prone, there was a boy in a sketchbook, drawn over and over for more than a decade.

Zine #001 is the origin layer of the whole project: a collection of preliminary sketches and development art tracing Prone, Lionel, and the world of Lacuna Valley from their earliest forms to where they are now. Some of these drawings go back to 2013. You can watch the boy come into focus year by year.

Inside you'll find:

• Early concept work for Prone, Lionel, and the cast

• The original "Polkey Family Home" and the Cylinder House taking shape

• Traditional pencil and charcoal pieces, including environment and atmosphere studies

• Margin notes and rough thumbnails — the real, unguarded thinking behind the world

If #002 and #003 are the story, #001 is the foundation — proof that this world has been quietly built, with care, for a very long time. It's for the people who want to see how the thing was made, not just where it landed.

Content note: The Horrors of Being Alive deals with medical trauma, coercive control, gaslighting, toxic family, childhood sexual abuse, and supernatural body horror. Please take care of yourself.