By guest writer: Rob Wuest
I have been a long time fan of the sci-fi, monster and mystery comics of the 1950’s and 1960’s. In fact, the first comic book I bought as an 8 year old boy in 1974 was the Marvel reprint comic WHERE MONSTERS DWELL #28. With these comic influences, I began a journey of comic creation over the past several years, which has now led to the completion of the comic book that will debut at Comic-Con 2011 in San Diego: MONSTERS AMONG US!
THE PITCH
MONSTERS AMONG US is a Sci-Fi/Monster comic book set in the year 1959 which follows the lives of the Kraushaar Family and their tragic connection to monsters becoming unleashed upon the world. Dr. William Kraushaar is the world’s leading scientist. Elizabeth Kraushaar is his wife and the mother of their teenage son, Bobby Kraushaar. Issue #1 is the origin issue where we see Dr. Kraushaar, in Chapter One, inventing a machine that will hopefully change the world. Unfortunately, things go terribly wrong and the machine instead brings monsters to life. I will leave out the details to this event so readers can be surprised with the story.
After the creation and escape of the monsters, the Kraushaar family decide to courageously hunt for the monsters themselves to protect the public. The Kraushaar family comes to this decision of sacrifice with the aid of a surprise guest. Chapter Two reveals the first monster to attack… a Vampire! The Kraushaar family battle this Vampire and, well you’ll have to read the story to see how it ends!
THE PROCESS
The beginnings of MONSTERS AMONG US started in June of 2003, as I sat at my kitchen table over the course of a week and drew about 30 monster faces. I don’t know really why I did this. I may have seen a 1950’s sci-fi, monster movie during this time or read an old horror or mystery comic that I love so much. In any event, my drawing was much better than usual during this stretch (I was in the zone as it were!) and I was very happy with the result of my monster sketches. About a year or so later, I wanted to try inking for the first time with a brush like the classic comic artists used. The first thing I inked were these monster faces. Again, I was very happy with my artwork and found I was pretty good at inking and I rather enjoyed it!
Going forward about another year, I decided to make a mock up cover where I cut up copies of my monster faces and placed them on a 10”x15” bristol board to make a comic cover. I named the comic cover “Tales of Mystery #1” complete with an old 10 cent price. This was as far as I intended to take my little art project of monsters… that is, until my son Michael, who was around 10 years old at the time asked me to make a real comic book from my monster cover. “Oh, I don’t know how to make a real comic book,” I responded to my son! “I’ve never done that before!” As time passed, I thought of my son’s request more and more. I couldn’t get it out of my mind and slowly began to think how a comic story could progress from my cover of monsters.
It took another several years before I devised a story plot with characters that I was happy with. This would have been around 2007 or so when I was ready to begin the real work on my comic book. Soon, I would find Stefano Pavan and Mark Englert.
During the time as I was developing my story, I was also thinking about trying to break into comics as an inker. Now, I have some drawing ability as a penciler, but since I have never spent the time or adequate study to draw sequential art, I would not be able to pencil in the comics world. But, I felt I could be a professional comics inker and I began looking for avenues to submit my work. I remember submitting my inking samples to Archie Comics, but I didn’t hear back from them.
Finding an artist
It was when I was reading my favorite comic magazine, THE JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR, that I saw an advertisement asking for an inker for a comic project which sounded interesting. This project was headed by a man named Juan Gonzalez from California. Juan and I have since become good friends. Juan sent me samples of the project’s penciled pages for me to ink. When I submitted these inked samples, Juan really liked them but would not be able to use me for awhile as they had another inker on board working on issue #1 of the project. I had really liked the penciled pages from Juan’s comic book and I asked Juan if I could ask his penciler to maybe pencil my comic book. Juan was very gracious in giving me the e-mail of his penciler, who was Stefano Pavan of Italy.
I made contact with Stefano Pavan around the spring of 2008 with my comic story. Stefano really liked the story and characters and agreed to pencil the comic for me. So, I worked to finish my plot and tighten it up so Stefano could begin the penciling for issue #1, which he started around August 2008. From the very beginning, I recognized that I was blessed as a comics creator to have a collaborator as immensely talented as Stefano. Stefano draws like he was lifted out of 1965 with his classic style of figure drawing and backgrounds. His style was exactly what I hoped to find in that I also love the old school style of comics. I just love Stefano’s art! Stefano and I have become such good friends through working together on MONSTERS AMONG US, despite that we have never met physically as we live half a world away from each other. Stefano’s storytelling ability is rock solid. I gave Stefano complete liberty to make changes to my story plot with his penciling if he found ways to improve the story, which he did.
In fact, I learned that utilizing the “Marvel Method” is the best way for me to collaborate on a comic book. There were some pages in the comic plot where I had written narration or character dialogue. But, when I received Stefano’s penciled pages, either he had made some changes to improve the story or he drew a page differently from what I was visualizing in my head so that now the pages no longer matched the words that I had written before. I found that MONSTERS AMONG US was a building process, with each step of the way improved by the interaction between Stefano, Mark and me.
Lettering and color
While Stefano was penciling issue #1, I began to search for a letterer and colorist. To back up a bit, I had originally intended to hand letter the entire comic book by myself…..and I actually hand lettered the first eleven pages on the original art. I have always admired the hand drawn lettering of the old masters such as Artie Simek and I wanted to give it a go! I would give my dialogue hand lettering result a B or B+, but I wanted an A+! So, I decided to find a Letterer to cover over my lettering with computer font lettering that is commonly used on most comics today. I placed an advertisement on Digitalwebbing.com to pay for a Letterer and Colorist. It was good that I included that I would pay for these services because I received over 100 responses from all over the world! In the end, I chose Mark Englert to color the comic book and another artist as the Letterer. When it came time months later for the Letterer to begin work on the comic, he was unable to do it because his day job was just too involved right then. But, no problem! I asked Mark if he could do the lettering and he did it magnificently!
Mark Englert brought the experience and knowledge of comic book production to our trio. Mark had by far the most experience in our group, having worked in comics since the early 2000’s, I believe. In fact, if I remember correctly, Mark was discovered by Robert Kirkman when Robert saw some of Mark’s artwork on a fan site about 10 years ago, before Robert hit it big with INVINCIBLE and THE WALKING DEAD! Robert and Mark even did a comic book together called CAPES. Mark and I both did the lettering of the comic book, where Mark did the digital dialogue lettering and I did the lettering of the titles and sound effects by hand. Mark had suggested I do this lettering by hand, saying it would add a warm quality to the book. With my hand lettering, I either lettered directly on the original art or I lettered on separate bristol board, then cut out the letters and pasted them over the original art boards. Even though it took a lot of time, I like how it turned out! For the dialogue lettering, I had Mark use the JOE KUBERT FONT, which I felt had a nice, old-school feel of the 1950’s and 1960’s comics.
The coloring is where Mark really shined on the comic! From the beginning, I had wanted to color MONSTERS AMONG US in the old style coloring of the old comics. I felt that the old coloring would also match the 1950’s period of the comic. Personally, I am not much of a fan of the modern coloring. Mark was able to color the comic book just like the old comics, complete with little dots and slightly off center coloring imperfections…..I loved it! I am so blessed to have had Stefano and Mark work on MONSTERS AMONG US! I thoroughly love the outcome of issue #1, thanks to the artistry of Stefano and Mark. I look forward to producing more issues with Stefano and Mark.
INFLUENCES
I have a number of comic book influences. As a writer, I am mostly influenced by the Marvel Comics of the 1960’s and 1970’s, particularly those comics written and edited by Stan Lee. Stan’s writing has so much pizzazz and draws the reader into the story and characters so well. It is funny how he speaks with the same gusto that he writes with! I also am a big fan of the EC Comics form the 1950’s with their Science Fiction titles being my favorites. It seems every time I read an EC story, I spend the rest of the day pondering it! The EC stories were engaging and thought provoking…..great stuff!
Regarding comic artists, I have three favorite influences: Jack Kirby, John Romita and Frank Robbins. I basically try to read and collect everything these artists have done. Collecting Jack Kirby’s work will take me a lifetime since he did so much! For me, Jack Kirby is the absolute greatest comic artist ever! Currently, I am buying and reading Jack’s DC Fourth World stuff in order and loving it! I have read and collected most of John Romita’s Marvel work so far and really love his Spider-Man, Daredevil and Captain America. John’s art is so clean and crisp and well proportioned. I discovered Frank Robbins at an early age when I would buy every issue of the Invaders in the 70’s as a child. Though his work is not regarded as highly as Kirby’s or Romita’s, I just love the quirkiness of it. My inking style is patterned after those artists that use mainly brushwork to attain rich, dark lines of “thick and thin” on the page. Joe Sinnott, John Romita, Frank Giacoia and Mike Royer are my favorite inkers.
WHERE TO GET THE BOOK
I wanted to premiere at San Diego, which is the grandest stage in comics and pop culture! I will be in the Small Press section of Comic-Con, table K-2, under the self-publishing banner: COSMIC COMICS GROUP. I like how Marvel Comics used to be called Marvel Comics Group in the 1960’s. To “Comics Group” I chose “Cosmic” because Stefano will sometimes call himself “Cosmic Steve” and it had a nice ring to the name. Someone wanting a print copy of MONSTERS AMONG US #1 can contact me through the website “contact” link at www.monsters-among-us.com. They can also e-mail me directly at monstersamongus@att.net. For this first printing, I only printed 200 hardback copies with 34 pages each (32 pages of which contain story and bonus art). I chose hardback over floppy because I think customers might enjoy a sturdier book than the traditional comic. Also, it might make MONSTERS AMONG US stand out more in the crowd to be in hardback. Lastly, I plan to sign all of the books with an original art monster sketch inside the front sheets of the book. I primarily printed this small number in order to take to Comic-Con and other conventions, if I do not sell out at Comic-Con. But, if someone e-mails me their request for the comic before I sell out, I will mail it to them anywhere in the world. I already have a number of international customers which I am happy to see.
When the comic sells out, I will either have arranged with a publisher for another printing or I will start a Kickstarter video campaign to raise funds for a full print run. I discovered Kickstarter about 6 months ago and they seem to be a great way for creators to fund their projects. My hope is that many people will enjoy the art and story of the MONSTERS AMONG US as much as Stefano, Mark and I were happy to make the comic book.
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Thanks for sharing your experience with us Rob! Your project sounds fun and I wish you success with it.
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Thank you Jason for posting my article. I love the way you integrated the wonderful images from MONSTERS AMONG US and the world of comics. I also like the way you can click on various words to view their websites…….great job!
Rob Wuest
http://www.monsters-among-us.com
Double check your comment Rob it may not have come out the way you intended. 🙂
Wow! Wow! Wow! It is really cool to read about the early stages of your idea and how it has come to life. I don’t often hear the background of an Indie creator, and this is just a great story. Thank you for sharing this. I’m hoping to get a copy!
Happy to now own a copy of this great book! Thanks Rob for such a fantastic piece of work!
