Brant was a fan of comics as a kid and it stuck with him into adulthood. These days he's also an aspiring comic creator. This column discusses his personal journey from fandom to the annals of the creative society that is the world of comics. Brant's current comic series is Wannabez and this is his journey. (If it's you're first time joining him, you can visit the link at the bottom of the article to start the journey from the beginning.)
THE OTHER PROJECTS
During my days with Affinity/Dynamos/Storrm, I was working on a few different projects of my own, four of which I was planning on bringing through that particular company and one that I was doing with a guy from that company, but separate of it.
The first was Eliminator. Yes, I know, that's a pretty generic name, and perhaps one that's taken, but it was the name of the lead character, so I went with it. A couple of years prior I had contracted an artist to work on it, and he had given me a cover, a pinup, a logo design and five sequential pages. He also redesigned the look of the character, and that redesign was very similar to my original vision of the character, so I was thrilled with that. I talked about that at length in my forums here, so I won't repeat myself now. Suffice it to say I was very happy with the logo, the pinup and the redesign, but the rest kind of fell short. I showed it around to some pros and they agreed. Because of this I decided to part ways with the artist, who I am now on good terms with. He's vastly improved, so maybe one day I'll work with him again.
So the project was shelved for a while. When the creator owned imprint started at Storrm I figured I'd bring it in. What they were doing was having an indy anthology of sorts, each issue featuring three 8-page recurring stories, and the stories would alternate. So I threw Eliminator and a couple of other titles in the mix. I had no artists for these, but I figured somebody within the company might work out.
Eliminator, by the way, is about a guy who used to be a government assassin, but discovered he was killing innocent people that got in the way of political agendas. He was part of an anonymous group of assassins, so when he goes rogue his goal is to find out who the other assassins are, take them out, then take out the clandestine government agency. Of course, those same assassins are hunting Eliminator as well, but Eliminator was one of if not the best, so it's an uphill battle for them.
Another one of the projects I was planning on bringing into the anthology was Bounty Hunter$. This is a project I had worked on since I was about 17 when I was doing the sketch pad comics and had my own universe of characters. It was, of course, about a group of bounty hunters who were assembled by James Koda, a former gymnast who was swindled out of a gold medal when he was framed for an injustice that ruined his career. He had been loosely involved with some seedy people, and it turned around and bit him. So he founded the hunters with the secret agenda of eventually taking down these people.
When I brought it to Storrm I changed some of the characters and a little of the plot, but basically kept it the same. I never had an artist for it, and right now it's a low priority, but I still hope to someday have it see the light of day.
And the final one for the anthology was called Sinder: Quest for Dragonfang. This one was co-created by my little brother and I. He named the character and dictated what kind of art style he wanted for the book (some hybrid of manga and Humberto Ramos). I did most of the plotting because my brother, at the time, was only about 13 years old. But we were both into fantasy (he's big into World of Warcraft now, and I love anything Dragonlance or involving Drizzt of Forgotten Realms), so it was a cool and fun concept for us to collaborate on. It focused on a dark elf thief named Sinder who runs afoul of some guards in a small town, gets befriended by a barbarian, and gets unwittingly thrust into an adventure. It has a bit of a comedic vibe to it as the barbarian plays straight man to Sinder, which, if you know anything about dark elves in fantasy lore, is a bit of a departure from the norm. The story was to be a series of mini adventures for the pair and eventually be turned into a series of novels as well. Again, it's something I definitely plan on revisiting when I can as I'd love to see it published being a big fantasy nut. Plus it would be cool to have something my brother and I worked on together published.
There was also a Christian imprint at Storrm in which I had a project I was working on. It may have actually also been set for the anthology, I don't recall. But it only had reference to scriptures and stuff, which I thought was cool. It was called The Beat and centered around a detective tracking down a serial killer that took his victims in a very animalistic way. The attacks were very brutal as if an animal had mauled them, but they all took place within the city, and some behind closed doors. So it was unlikely an animal was involved. The actual villain of the story is supernatural of course and a bit demonic - hence the religious undertones - and the detective has to use scriptures to battle the thing. Don't know if it will ever see the light of day, but you never know.
While at Storrm I had met a lot of people, some of which I would go on to collaborate with. One of them was David Brashear, another guy involved with the Christian imprint. He and I began collaborating on a superhero project outside Storrm called Paladins (which we later changed to Paragons as Paladins was taken, and now I believe Paragons may be taken). The story is about the government putting together a team of superheroes. Originally it was set to be interactive, kind of like Image's Wildguard, where the fans would choose two of the final members of the team. 40 characters would be in consideration, 5 of which we had planned on and would reveal through the course of the first arc, and the other two, of course, voted upon. Details are still being developed for the story, but I had designed all 40 characters. We went through a few artists, but nothing really stuck. Until a guy by the name of CeM Dayioglu, who began redesigning the characters for us a few years ago, and masterfully so. Right now the project is at a standstill mainly due to time and funds, but it's definitely something I plan on picking back up, especially with CeM's amazing art!
So I was working on a lot of things at once, none that stuck. Then of course Storrm shut down, I moved onto Paper Dragonz as I talked about a couple of weeks ago, and then that brings us back to lettering.
-B
Past Columns - Start the Journey at the beginning! Click here to check out all the past Journey of a Wannabe columns.
Brant W. Fowler / Writer, Letter, Creator, Reviewer, Columnist and Comic Related PR Coordinator
Brant W. Fowler has been a professional comic book letterer and logo designer for three years, and has been a freelance editor for the past five years. He has also worked with graphic design, writing and many other area of skills for several years honing his talents. You can learn all about what he's up to by visiting Gonzogoose
Design. Brant is also a member of the core
operations team at Comic Related.
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