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Over the last few months I’ve been working on comics in tandem with my award winning novel series. I’ve penned several comic issues which are in various stages of development. What I’ve learned in creating comics I that it’s a slow game. More often than not, collaborations with artists don’t work out and you’re stuck with half-drawn issues and don’t really go anywhere.
It’s a difficult business because of that, and that’s why the top tier talent commands such a high price for their art — it’s really hard work and dedication to stick with a project even through a full issue, let alone a graphic novel.
The one artist I’ve loved working with beyond any other over the last decade is Jethro Morales. He’s currently hard at work at my adaptation of Richard Fox’s bestselling military science fiction series, The Ember War, but a lot of folk don’t know that he worked with me before, nor do they realize that I’ve been in this writing game a lot longer than the last couple years.
Comics Are My Passion
I started with comics. My first writing was all comic scripts. I dreamed of doing comics since I was in junior high, but never had the artistic talent myself to do anything other than write. In 2010, I decided to make a go of it. I decided to save a bit of my paycheck get a professional to do a page a week for me, and I created the webcomic, Flying Sparks.
At its base, it’s the story of a hero and villain in love under their secret identities. Both of them get frustrated when the other seems to disappear for their extracurricular activities, and their relationship complicates as they find themselves in over their heads with their super-lives.
Flying Sparks was wildly successful. I created a fairly complicated superhero universe revolving around a mysterious classic golden age style hero, Meta-Man, and a corporation who is up to some nefarious things. Thousands of people read each week. CBR even wrote it up at one point, stating, it’s “the kind of stuff that made me fall in love with early Marvel comics”.
There was a lot of depth to Flying, a lot of plots that were going to converge into something very epic. This superhero world was my baby. I scripted out audio dramas of Meta-Man’s old school adventures, did a backstory issue with him on the side, wrote up a series of video blogs for the main Flying Sparks heroine to document her adventures with. I was ready to go multimedia with it and have a folder full of ideas and stories in this universe.
It’s Hard Out There For A Writer
The only problem was, as a writer only, there was no way to monetize webcomics. Most webcomics are done by artist who write their own scripts, because they can do commissions or whatnot on the side and they use the webcomic to fuel it. By the time I got myself about 6 issues into the series, I saw Flying Sparks was burning a hole in my wallet, and even with its audience, the monetization problem wasn’t going to change.
But now we’re in a new world, one where #MoveTheNeedle and #ComicsGate is changing the game. Crowdfunds for series are a real viability, and I love my superhero world and would love to be able to finish the story, or take this to the next level.
Which is why we’re taking to crowdfunding to rerelease Flying Sparks. We’re going to start with the first 3 issues worth of content in a single collection, a 66 page giant special. And the best part is — the art’s already done. We’ll be able to deliver quickly.
What the crowdfunding is for is both for printing costs and to get the book relettered. The reletting is key because I’m so much of a better writer now than I was in 2010 when I first scripted these books, and I’m going to do a “remastered”version, with brand new dialogue to really make the book shine and make it one of the best superhero books out there.
This being by the same creative team that’s bringing you my next comic can also serve as a nice way to check out our work while it’s being completed. As you can see from some of the sample art I have, his work is pro, and this is going to be a lot of fun.
The Announcement
We’re going to launch the crowdfunding effort around the end of June/early-July. So stay tuned for lots of updates. We’re going to have great stretch goals, lots of cool rewards and potentially swag — and if it does well enough, we’ll be pushing this to the next level by completing the story of Flying Sparks. There’s 8 issues worth of content drawn already, the 9th issue is scripted, and it was planned for about 14 issues total… onward and upward. I look forward to showing you this fun and heartwarming story.
If you’re new and haven’t checked out my writing before, why don’t you read my award winning novel and see if you enjoy my work? 106 people on amazon have all rated it positively with no negative marks at all, something unheard of with so many people reviewing a book. Check it out here.
It sounds like a great read. I’ll be watching for this one.