The Shifty Jackal may be an odd name for a site that has nothing to do with jackals, the symbolism of jackals, people named Jackal, or any other jackal-related concepts. It all started with a request for a writer. An artist on one of the forums I frequented at the time, was looking for a writer to help create a new, great webcomic. I volunteered, and we got down to business.

I wrote a script, and then another, and then an outline for 12 more comics. I was on fire. From a line in the first comic, I decided on the name of our effort, “The Shifty Jackal”. I registered the domain, whipped up some quick HTML, and was prepared for internet glory.

Eventually, though, the artist was distracted by something shiny; I was distracted by the job that paid my bills; and The Shifty Jackal was nothing more than this “hilarious” place holder. But I couldn’t bring myself to just discard The Shifty Jackal. It turns out that I actually liked the name. So I just kept paying the bill for ten years thinking that “someday” I’d get around to doing something with it.

Then “someday” came when I rediscovered my old Shifty Jackal scripts. I realized that there were some solid stories in there just waiting to be told. And I decided that maybe something called The Shifty Jackal might be just the place to share not only those stories, but any other fiction I might decide to create.

I hope you have enjoyed with what you’ve found here. If not, please bear with me. This is, as always, a work in progress.

– Sean Cunningham, July 8, 2013