Paranormal Pinkerton
The first issue of Paranormal Pinkerton is here, and you can read it online. I’m feeling really good about it. 12 pages seemed pretty manageable. It didn’t take me too long to complete, and felt like a nice way to ease into a new series. It’s hard enough to do world building without adding on a ton of extra work. It also served as something of a proof of concept for me.
That said, I’m thinking all future full length issues will shoot for 24 or 28 pages, depending on what the story needs. And of course the stories will be more in depth, you can’t have every issue only feature a single human with his non speaking animal pals. Well, I guess you could, but I don’t think it would be very interesting. I just wanted to keep it simple for this introductory issue and really explore who the Paranormal Pinkerton is, including how he views his relationship to others.
There will be some other recurring characters, as well as many one off characters since the nature of the story is that he travels to where he is needed. The Pinkerton aspect will also be played up more too, as we get to see that organization and how he fits into it. I have the next one basically plotted out, and some rough ideas for a couple after that. But really I think it is something that could easily continue indefinitely as there are always more fun monster stories to tell, and the changing of locations and the players involved should keep it fresh. Some minimal overarching story elements for continuity should help hold it all together without making it difficult to just jump in to any given issue.
Basically I want to treat it like a TV show. If you don’t know, I was a film major in college, so I tend to think of story elements that way naturally. This comic is very much inspired by my favorite show of all time, The X-Files, as well as many other shows and movies that are of a similar nature when it comes to dealing with the supernatural. Episodic fun stuff like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Supernatural, and The Night Stalker are the type of thing I want to replicate. Hellboy is another pretty big, direct inspiration since it is my favorite comic book, and my favorite issues tend to be the ones less concerned about overarching plot and more centered around a single monster hunt. The Twilight Zone is another favorite show that deals with the supernatural, but in a pretty different way that I’d also like to incorporate were it seems like a good fit. And there’s a bunch of other stuff that probably isn’t worth mentioning, but will likely influence my stories. So if you are a fun of stuff like that maybe you’ll enjoy this.
And maybe if I handle it like a TV show someday someone out there will think it’s a good idea to option it and actually make it a TV show, since so much of the current movie and television landscape is made up of comic book adaptations. I can dream, right?
If you haven’t read issue #0 yet I do think it is worth your time. It was a lot of fun for me to work on, and gave me a chance to research more about the Pinkertons, the mountains and forests, horseback riding, grey wolves, Sasquatch, old shotguns, and basically the old west in general. I love American history, and this was a particularly fascinating period. Combine that with the mythic qualities imbued by countless western movies and shows, and I think it is a really wonderful setting.
It’s also something very new for me. It’s really inspiring to draw something that is so different from what I’ve been doing for so long. And I really like how the visuals of #0 came off. Originally I had planned to set it all in the forest, but as I drew the elevation increased pretty organically until it showed basically the entering of a forest which progressed into scaling a mountain past the tree line. It really gave me a chance to focus on some natural landscapes, which I haven’t done much in the past.
I also love the sense of movement. There is very little time when anyone is staying still. Gus is always being moved forward. Whether it’s riding horse horse while leading or following his wolf, being dragged around by the Sasquatch, or being manhandled in the fight, it all has a very frenetic feel. I really enjoyed doing things like upside down panels, and by the end of it I was feeling a lot more comfortable with the characters.
It was also fun to sneak in a few references to my other comics. How many can you find?
I do have some nice digital copies for sale, and have ordered a small amount of physical copies to sell at the Alternative Press Expo in October. It will be my first time printing with Kablam. I’ve wanted to try them for years after seeing their work on some other people’s books. Unfortunately I won’t have time to proof it since it takes them over 30 days to do a print order, unless you want pay pretty high rush order and shipping fees. So I’ll only be seeing them myself a few days before the show. I hope they look good!
I’m also looking into print on demand services like I’ve used to sell my previous three books online. Hopefully I can find one that works out well.