COMIC BOOK MAKER 2.0 - STARTING AGAIN

[MattBrady]

by Ryan McLelland

When I started the Comic Book Maker columns back in late 2004 I was a man with a simple vision: create an indy comic book and write a column about my attempt to produce it. If I succeeded you would see my victory. If I failed I was fair game for everyone to point, laugh, and scoff. That’s something that every creator, writer, or artist must face in their lifetime so I had no qualms about doing it openly.

I ended up writing seven columns that included steps on how to find a creative team, how to write a query letter, and many of the steps that came in-between. In the end I was quite proud of the eleven stories that would make up the Wise Intelligence Anthology #1 though I would quickly learn that an anthology about a bunch of college kids was not something that publishers were really interesting in publishing. I got a lot of positive vibes about the book and some studios were even interested in publishing the book should I write it as a miniseries and not a bunch of short stories. I filed my rejection letters with the multitudes of others that I had from my early screenwriting career and self-published the book, quite happy about the final product and the crossover with Dave Sim’s Cerebus and Mike Kazaleh’s Captain Jack. I got to work on writing a Wise Intelligence miniseries but also started on an idea of creating a body of work that could be a bit more mainstream.

In the back of my mind I knew that one thing sells in the comic book market: superheroes. I really hate to say it but the thought of writing superheroes sort of bores me. Don’t get me wrong, I love reading them, but when it comes to writing them I love those books that seem to go a bit outside the box. Some of my favorite comics are books like Major Bummer or Young Heroes in Love where a ‘slacker’ hero or a super team that cared more about sleeping with each other than fighting crime took center stage. It’s why I love Steve Gerber’s Howard the Duck and constantly badger Robert Kirkman to put him in a book somewhere (ANYWHERE!). I love heroes but writing about characters that can never stay dead (except Captain Marvel, that cancer thing really seemed to stick) seems a bit, well, boring to me.

That was until Epic came around. You all remember Epic – Marvel’s idea to have anyone submit a comic to them for their new imprint. It introduced Kirkman to Marvel with Sleepwalker and John Jackson Miller’s Crimson Dynamo miniseries (which would lead him to a run on Iron Man). Newsarama writer Mike San Giacomo produced a column My Epic Journey that would detail his successful pitch for his book Nowhere Man and its subsequent ups and downs. It was back then when a terrific idea popped into my head and I sat down to write a story for a comic called The Trio.

My original idea was always a joke because I imagined it as myself and my two best friends gaining superpowers. I’m your average looking guy with an average athletic build but what happened if I suddenly had the power to lift an entire building from its foundation, even if I still had the same ‘little-build’ body? Plus I happen to be a bit of a nudge, so I know as a team leader my friends would sometimes respond to me but most of the time just be like, “Dude whatever. Let the cops handle it. We just got this Resident Evil game for our Playstation and it is cool.”

My friend Scott happened to be, well, a bit lazy. Scott would just sit around on days off and do nothing, cooking a vat of food for himself so when he sat down next to the television he wouldn’t have to get up later and make himself something. I thought why not give Scott speed powers but then I realized that it wouldn’t matter. Even with super speed Scott would still have to actually get up, go to the kitchen, make something, then run back down to where he was seated. It may take him five seconds in all to accomplish but being lazy he wouldn’t even use his superspeed to do it. The irony was just a trip.

My other friend Dave happened to be a bit of a heavy drinker so Scott and I thought that giving him a flame power would be cool. Dave had a bit of a temper so we could see him getting mad at something like someone not parking right in a parking lot and suddenly setting himself on fire. There, in a parking lot, there would be a man in his car on fire yelling about someone else’s car. I also thought that the alcohol would then be a great inhibitor to his power, so when he drank more his powers were stronger. Here was a hero who could be incredible, but only if he showed up to a fight a few sheets to the wind.

I was proud of myself and the characters I created, deciding to base them in the city of Philadelphia because everyone from Spider-Man to the Avengers call New York City home. They would have been a terrific sidebar to the Marvel Universe until many creators like myself were crushed to hear that Marvel had pulled the plug on Epic and distanced itself very quickly from what was, to many, the ‘Golden Ticket’ into comic books. Crimson Dynamo would see six issues released as well and Mark Millar’s much-hyped Trouble would have every issue released, but Kirkman, Jason Henderson, and Rob Worley would never have their individual series see the light of day. Marvel decided to throw the first issues together into a single, dead from the start anthology issue and Epic Anthology #1 was released with little hype along with a revelation just a week later that a second issue would never be published. San Giacomo’s Nowhere Man, retitled Phantom Jack, would not be included in the anthology as he struck a deal that would see his book published by Image Comics, where five great issues were produced. As for myself I had a half-written comedy script about a bunch of goofballs pretending to be superheroes. I would lay the idea aside and there it sat for a long time on my computer until I pulled it back up one day.

I thought that the series could have merit and tweaked the book a bit so it was more serious then funny but still taking a skewed look at those who put on tights and fly around defending a city. I knew I wanted to have a team that had the powers, that had ‘the look’, and still there was something about them that didn’t make them great no matter how hard they tried. I also didn’t want the book to just be about them but some of the people that they would work with as well, from random vigilantes to other superheroes to the police department who work so hard fighting everyone from powered villains to common thugs.

While working on the Wise Intelligence Anthology, I had run into a guy named Jim Hanna who was not at all perfect for a book about a bunch of college kids but was utterly amazing at drawing superheroes. He had a Joe Mad flair with a hint of Humberto Ramos and I knew that he was going to be something big. Having gone through Digital Webbing to look for artists for WIA #1 he was perfect to run my idea by and see if he had any interest in doing an offbeat yet serious superhero book. He loved the idea and right away we were off creating the characters that would bring this book to life.

So ‘Philly’, as the book was now titled, was born. I reworked the script, Jim and I designed the character costumes but we also realized early on that while I could write and he could draw neither of us knew a thing about inking or lettering. All we knew was that we had a great idea, an interesting five pages from the first issue script that we could use for a pitch, and a dream to do something a bit more mainstream then fraternity guys drinking with Cerebus the Aardvark.

So here is where the journey begins, not only for myself, but for every single person out there with a dream. I hope that you will follow as I bring my idea from the thoughts I had above, to the pitch, to the long process it took to get us to where we wanted: Philly #1 hitting stands everywhere in April. It’s a process that took nearly two years to come to fruition and a journey that I’m more than happy to share with you and how we got there.



In Two Weeks: Bringing together the creative team and our pitch to the publishers!

Ryan McLelland is a writer/columnist for Newsarama known for his columns ‘It Came From The Quarter Bin’ and ‘Your Indy Weekly’. Having stretched his legs with his Wise Intelligence series, Ryan’s Philly will be released this April 2007 from Arcana Studios. Send love/hate mail to: rdmclelland@hotmail.com.

[Speedball93]

This looks pretty cool. I don't usually go for "indy" books, but this has something that just seems right.

[CitC]

Is there a link to the first series of "Comic Book Maker"?

[RyanMcLelland]

COMIC BOOK MAKER:

#1- My Simple Idea
#2- Writing and Art
#3- The Submission Thing
#4- The Spirit Animals
#5- Preview Art
#6- Printing On Demand
#7- Pitching Thoughts

[AlexLothos]

This sounds fun. Can't wait to read more about it.

[jasinmartin]

Alright Ryan!
Been hearing about Philly for a while, good to see it's getting the full release treatment here on Comic Book Maker (good to see that back too).

Sound like a couple of neat twists on super powers, should make it interesting...
Looking forward to more installments!

[johnchrist]

Welp you've got me reading this. Seems as though you're farther along the stream of creation as than I am and I can use any and all clues as I try my various crazy projects (writing/drawing my own comic - writing another comic which I am paying someone else to draw - AND preparing my pitches for the upcoming Wondercon). If my brain doesn't explode all over my desk that is...

[nickmaynard]

that bartender looks like a cross between the dad from invincible and the dad from thor #64

[Dirk Manning]

It's good to see you return to a column such as this one, Ryan!

The more insight that can be given into creating comics, the better!

SINcerely,
Dirk Manning

[AirDave817]

This looks very cool! I'll be looking for it in April!
(By the way - did I miss where Wise Intelligence Anthology #1 got published? Or is it on your website?)

[RyanMcLelland]

Originally Posted by AirDave817

This looks very cool! I'll be looking for it in April!
(By the way - did I miss where Wise Intelligence Anthology #1 got published? Or is it on your website?)

You can find issues of Wise Intelligence over at ComiXpress until 'the site' is up to sell them.