Here at Sequential Planet, we dedicate ourselves to bringing you news and reviews of the biggest names in comics. However, sometimes it’s just as exciting to hit the beat at a convention and speak to those creators who haven’t hit the mainstream–not yet, anyway. So, welcome reader, to my Rose City Comic Con Indie Creator Spotlight. Over the next few weeks, I’ll be showcasing some indie creators that caught my eye while I was in Portland, OR, at RCCC.
Colin Lawler, Joseph Grabowski, and Spirits: The Soul Collector
Spending time with these two creators was my first stop on the busiest day of RCCC. My thanks go out to them for letting me sculk behind their table and jot down notes as event-goers perused their booth. As the whimsical nature of Colin’s art suggests (as does the name of the work), Spirits: The Soul Collector is a magical journey where myths become facts, magic abounds, and the world just beyond our mortal sight is revealed. So how did these two storytellers end up at Rose City Comic-Con? Their journey is one of comic-medium translation.
Colin and Joseph met in the 8th grade, so maybe it’s no surprise they teamed up together later in life to produce an all-ages fantasy adventure. Childhood friends don’t ever forget the things they enjoyed when they were young.
Colin reached out to Joseph six years ago with the idea for Spirits. Even though Joseph didn’t have experience with comic scriptwriting, he jumped at the chance to collaborate with his long-time friend. For their first task in the creative process, they wrote out a full script. They originally planned this comic in a traditional sense. They considered how readers’ eyes flow across the pages, how images reveal the story from panel-to-panel. But then Line Webtoon came calling. The infinite canvas platform liked what they saw in Spirits, and courted this creative duo. Colin and Joseph made the most of this opportunity. But with it came a lot of artistic acrobatics.
They had over 35 finished pages. Webtoon doesn’t use pages, only downward scrolling. Splash pages became slimmer, spreads broke into panels to fit on a small screen. Page layouts became tiered without panel overlap. In total, 34 episodes of Spirits are live for you to read, today, on Webtoon. However, to read the full first volume, you’ll need the full book. Not only did the two translate their page-ready-format to Webtoons, but they also reversed the translation once again to fit into a proper bound paperback. These acrobatics lead you to think the finished product may be stilted, but that couldn’t be farther from the truth. Spirits succeed on multiple platforms and is a treat for any lovers of fantasy adventures.
Justin Rueff and Brother Crow
One of the best parts of Rose City Comic-Con is Artist Alley. Rows of artists with 6-foot-tables line the huge convention center exhibition hall. As you wind your way through the crowd of cosplayers and take some snaps of Boba Fett, Deadpool, or HALO’S Master Chief, a woman sells drawings of her cats, rendered beautifully, in superhero attire. A grand display of silhouette art or spaceship schematics tower high. And then you see Justin and his unassuming table. There is no backdrop behind him, but on his table there is a nice Cornell Box, a collection of small chapbooks, and one empty beer bottle (which he did the art for).
“Do you want to hear about my comic?” he asks.
Yes, I tell him.
“Well,” he says, “It’s about two teenagers who fight death by playing punk-rock and stuff.”
Yeah, I want to read that. If any musical genre was used to fight death it would be punk-rock; if a story was going to be told about that punk-rock band, it would be by an independent artist, pushing out a comic he believes in. Frankly, I can’t think of anything more rebellious.
Justin remembers when comic books could be bought at gas stations. Sure, there were the superhero stories, but to Justin, stories were always meant to teach the reader, the audience, something about life.
Back in the 90s, Justin was just a kid going to Brainiac concerts on the weekends. If you’ve never heard of Brainiac, don’t worry. Neither had I. They were tapped to be the next big thing back in the 90s, maybe something to fill the void left by Kurt Cobain and Nirvana. But just before Brainiac signed their big label deal, the lead singer, Tim Taylor, was killed in a car crash. It shook everyone who had ever been to a Brainiac show. It definitely shook Justin. It’s clear those concerts have lasted in his memory in a way few events in a lifetime do. So what does this have to do with Justin’s comic, Brother Crow?
It’s a direct response to the loss of friends, a culture, and a community you think will last forever. While Brother Crow is, indeed, about two teens who fight death with punk-rock, it’s also about the grief death creates and what you do with the grief when you feel left behind.
“When adults talk to kids about death they don’t talk about it like it’s reality,” Justin tells me.
And it’s clear he tries to address this problem in our society with his comic. To Justin, all art is spiritual in nature. “If you have the ear of the world,” he says. “say something. That’s what art is. It’s about reaching people. Death behind you and art, great, within.”
Brother Crow will span six issues, three of which have been published and can be found on Justin’s Website.
