Origins

This comic pokes fun at the fact that we do not really explain anyone’s origin’s or usually spend much time defining there powers, which is also true of Black Snow.  Why not?  Because that is not what our comics are about.  Our goal was never to make a traditional super hero story, it was to tell the story of people who happen to be a part of the super hero culture. That’s it.  The big secret is out.  At its core I’M FAMOUS! is about a diva-like celebrity who is famous because of his brand he’s created  as a super hero, and  Black Snow is about a man with similar dreams of fame and success, but not the ability to achieve them.

We did flirt with the idea of creating an origin tale for Black Snow and several other characters when we toyed with the concept of Issue 0.  It was less an origin story of powers and identities, and more there “origin” of the relationships of the different characters.  Basically early moments showing how people met or how certain storyline were initially set in motion.  We did we abandon this?  It was very difficult for us to write, and we were worried it was hurting our forward momentum that we’d gained with the completion of Issue 6.  I’d like to return to this concept someday, maybe after the completion of Last Call.

Dedicated fans who remember my last turn at extendedly writing this comic, during the airplane ride, will recall that I touch on similar subjects of Lone Wolf’s lack of a truly defined super hero identity when he met Nicole.  I honestly didn’t connect that with this until I just thought of it and wrote it, but I guess you can see my kind of humor is clearly defined in writing this.  Kind of like my constant return to people getting drunk.

The mention of the Inquisition is a call back to Black Snow Issue 2, when the Lone Wolf met with Mary Summerhall and referenced the Spanish Inquisition.  Upon rereading the scene recently Alex and I were struck by just how different the Lone Wolf was there.  Still incredibly arrogant, but much less crazy and more sophisticated.  I believe when we first came up with the Lone Wolf the idea was to basically have him serve a very similar role to Captain Amazing in the Mystery Men movie.  So I have him mention the Inquisition here in both an attempt to reconcile the varying depictions of the Lone Wolf and directly point out the contrast.  Basically it’s an in joke for fans and Alex and myself, as yet another way to poke fun at ourselves and our “mistakes.”

I like to add multiple layers of depth to the writing whenever I can.  I’m still amazed at how quickly I’m able to draw with my tablet.  A comic used to take 4-5 hours to draw when I was using pencil and pen, but with my tablet that time has dropped to 2-3 hours.  Incredible!  I feel like I’m really gaining a lot of control of the stylus, and the drawing on the tablet is almost becoming second nature already.

BTW, I’M FAMOUS! will be turning one next month! A year ago at this time Alex and I were just talking about the concept of this crazy spin off.  The very first I’M FAMOUS! came out on Groundhog Day last year, or 2-2-10 for you non Bill Murray fans. Expect a fun celebration and retrospective next month, and some surprises as well!