Indie Comics Review: Salvagers ISSUE 1

SALVAGERS: Visual Storytelling Done Right

There are many space opera sci-fis out there. Stories where you watch characters go from nobodies on a farm to galactic heroes whose names are spoken in awe by its denizens. SALVAGERS is not one of them; though that's not a bad thing.

I was given the opportunity to read their first issue when the creators of Salvagers graciously gave away free PDFs of the book to celebrate 10k followers. This premiere of the series quickly introduces us to the crew of the Harrier, the calculating Teagan bickering with the computer A.V.R.I, the quirky Brigby, Mighty T'yr, and of course the roughneck Cpt. Roanick. The first novel introduces them not as heroes but blue collar labor, a theme of the series that originally drew my interest. These "Salvagers" are a group of people trying to make money harvesting old wrecks that are drifting through space post a huge galactic war.

Bob Salley really nails a few features of this first book. In a one page blurb without too much text he is able too give you context so that you can grasp the state of this galaxy and basic economics, it was so short and sweet that I wish George Lucas could have seen it before making episode 1 whose dialog was washed out with economic and trade discourse. The first issue also really drives home the relationships of this crew, while they are concerned about each other, they aren't tight as family; rather they are coworkers - trying to do a job while not getting killed by automated security in

Its this "let the page speak" presentation that I really admire as a fellow comic creator. Too often you have huge blocks of text that are hogging otherwise beautifully rendered pages that try to educate the reader about the world their entering but only end up alienating them, even more so if the book is a science fiction piece. It is something that I feel plagues the industry especially "the big 2" who often need these word chunks to outline decades of prior history and timelines of their characters. Its terrible, and that is why Marvels "nuff said" series in the 90s really spoke to me... No pun intended. They used pictures exclusively! That was remarkable for the entertainment industry that has gotten too reliant on narration, reading large blocks of text,
and seemingly unable to leave things implied.
otherwise dead warships or sucked out into space. In just 24 pages he is also able to give you a firm grasp of who these characters are using subtle hints in the communication between each crewmember, such as Brigby betting on T'yr destroying something emphasizing that character as a bruiser sort of archtype.

Let me get off the soapbox simply to say that Salley has started strong. It allows the artist that he works, George Acevedo to create really engaging gritty images. These are chock full of Jim Lee levels of detailed backgrounds, and he creates doodads and circuit panels and so many other eyecatching inventions to fill the image. One page I really liked visually was page 5 where Teagan is arguing with the computer , Acevedo doesn't just fill the screen with nonsense, he has actual blueprints displayed their of the wreck they are investigating. A ton of work for such a simple detail that only seen on one page. That's crazy! I like that kinda crazy. As far as his visuals his visual story telling and even his stylistic leanings remind me of early Adam Kubert work, specifically on the 90s X-men. Its this ability that really moves the action along and allows your eye to flow smoothly along the page.

As far as lettering goes there isn't really anything groundbreaking or special there and the letterer does a capable job telling a story. That's not to downplay that ability as early letterers often can make a mess of the page. The one thing they may have considered is when transporting the letters from whatever program they use they might want to consider adjusting its color as black text moved from a program like Illustrator to Photoshop lose their crisp black element, and you end up having words and word bubbles that are grey and it just looks a little lazy and sloppy.

Those minor nitpicky grievances aside my interest was originally peaked in Salvagers because of a little number called Starlight Tavern. A comic-strip comedy that is an extreme foil to Salvagers, as Salvagers tone overall is dark and has muted colors and thick dark inks, the Starlight Tavern, meanwhile, is fun and bright and welcoming. Both series are worth as shot, and I think these guys really have something special. They have 2 other issues of their book out and a 4th on the way so you don't have to worry about the series ending on a frustrating cliffhanger... You can salvage them from Comixology or their store.

All in all, Salvagers was a refreshing break from the norm of glorified farmboys in space, and I have to say I'm looking forward to more.

This guy SirGryphon is a scifi junky and he eats it for breakfast and dinner. He works on his own scifi over at Gryphon Knights Comics called the WOW Signal. 

Getting Away with Murder: A Comic Book Kickstarter

I can’t say I had it tough growing up. At least, not in an outward way that would make sense of the heroin cravings and passionate strangulation of “Getting Away with Murder: A Lowlife Story”.

For me, the mental maelstrom and cynicism I experience daily is what shapes my characters. This inner struggle reacting to an outside force is where my stories start. The chaos and constant fight of addiction and the overwhelming corrosive force of guilt are the internal struggles of the nameless main character in, “Getting Away with Murder: A Lowlife Story”.

Back when I was more of a musician, playing shows all around New York, my band had played a show at this lounge in Brooklyn. The lounge has since closed down and at the time it was not thriving with activity. But when you walked in there was a huge empty floor with a couple pillars disrupting the view across the lounge. There was a stage that was painted the same matte black that coated the whole interior of the building and just past it was a hallway to a couple dressing rooms. There were three acts playing that night and only two dressing rooms. We were first to arrive so we put some of our equipment in one of the dressing rooms thinking ourselves grand that we had as large a room to occupy before going on.

However, as the other acts showed, we were relegated to the hallway, letting the “bigger” acts have the preparatory space. I remember having forgotten a piece of equipment in our former dressing room. I opened the door while knocking, not expecting anyone to be naked but instead seeing the 12-piece band, the headliner that night, all turn to look at me, aghast that someone should walk in. The lead singer was hunched over in front of the makeup mirror, the kind with the clear bauble bulbs so bright you don’t see a crevice in your skin, with a line of coke just below his nose. Their brief look of fear quickly changed to anger. Who the hell was I and all that nonsense.

But really, who the hell were they? We were, all of us, nobodies.

Our story, “Getting Away with Murder: A Lowlife Story” came somehow and somewhere from that idea. The main character, a rocker who had a brush with money and fame, now forced to live a middle class life not only addicted to heroin but addicted to the thrill of playing. He thirsts for the old days of people cheering for him, of having “rock star privileges”, and the parties where he’s the focal point. He’s on the downslide of stardom, plummeting toward being a nobody and it’s the most painful thing. Also, he just killed his ex-groupie.

Two MoCCAs ago, I was walking the floor when I met MJ Steele (MJ's Site). He had an 11” x 14” inked drawing of Kurt Cobain mid-air playing his lefty fender strat in a warehouse to a silhouetted crowd, the Seattle Space Needle seen through one of the warehouse windows. No doubt about it, I had found the artist to help me tell this story. 

MJ’s style could be compared to more known talents like Sean Murphy or Rafael Albuquerque. Could be. If I were forced to make the comparison. The reality is, he draws inspiration from those artists while still maintaining his own unique style. He’s a balance of precision and broad strokes. Sharp black lines meeting swooping water colors. MJ studies illustration and cartooning at the School of Visual Arts.

Once MJ started churning out fully inked and beautiful pages, we need a letterer. We were lucky my brother, Thomas Griffin (Tom's Art), who can do any part of comic work artfully and skillfully, stepped in. He lettered the pages without the black outlines typically seen on word bubbles and captions. This let the bubbles fit MJs artwork without the obvious outside source that can sometimes disconnect the words from the pictures.

Currently, we’ve started a Kickstarter campaign to help us raise the funds and some buzz for this one-shot comic. Check it out at this link:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/583569168/getting-away-with-murder-a-lowlife-story

Help support us by donating and sharing. If you donate a minimum of $10 and mention this blog post you’ll get a special little something extra.

Article by Sean Griffin. Sean is a writer and co-founder of Gryphon Knights Comics. He currently writes the comic book "Hero" for GK and is studying Creative Writing for his MFA at Manhattanville College.

Webcomics Review: Fighting Stranger

I draw a lot of webcomics for GryphonKnights Studios  but on my down time I also like reading and discovering new webcomics. Sometimes they really pull me in and I find myself waiting for the next update. Usually it's only a one page update; the story doesn't progress much. But once in a while that one page changes everything.

Fighting Stranger written by Adam J. Monetta & Illustrated by Juan Romera, starts off with a beautiful splash page; A man in a cloak finds himself standing over a city remembering no more than the city's name. He wanders into the tiny cramped metropolis, and finds it to be a  mostly, deserted wasteland. He's tries to kill a fugitive mutant and is led out of the city towards another.

A man in a cloak finds himself standing over a city remembering no more than the city's name, This purposeful repetition and mimicry of the event that starts the book is what immediately sets Fighting Stranger apart from any other dystopian sci-fi. When I came to this point, I wondered if I accidentally started the comic over, and my sense of disorientation and uncertainty at this moment made me realize that I was sharing the feeling of the main character of the series. Arriving at a similar point, not sure exactly if we've been here before. It's this ability to allow the reader to empathize with it's protagonist that made the series go from entertaining to riveting, as you begin to wonder and read as the mystery of these cities and the stranger slowly unravel.

The Stranger isn't a very compelling character. He is a worn rugged mercenary archetype. The supporting cast, however, kicks ass! The citizens of this world are constantly trying to manipulate the stranger for their own ends. The Strangers stoic persona, is countered by these characters from C4D to Lacey, whose rough existence creates entertaining, dark humor which immerses me in their world.

The art and coloring of this gritty, arid planet draws you in. The colorist is excellent at conveying texture on every element of the set, from the cold metal of a gun to the rocks to the red sky. I am also a fan of the lettering, particularly  the robots' font.

I would be loath to forget mentioning the action sequences. They are amazingly story-boarded! The fights with the mutants each is laid out like a video game boss-fight, as certain mutants only have a couple of weaknesses.

So step into the rough world of The Fighting Stranger and then let me know what you think of the series, and we can theorize together!

Signing off!

T Griffin would also be remiss to forget to mention his own sci-fi, non-dystopian works WOW! Signal and Felix and Saw

The Resource Known as Patreon

Greetings and salutations!!!

I wanted to turn you guys onto a resource the small comic company I run with @DimitriosFragiskatos & @HarperArsenal have begun to use. 

Our comic company has expenses as any company or artist does. Website costs, advertising, convention costs, and (what is often neglected) pay for any work we've done to for our company. We weren't sure how to meet these constant costs, and for a long time these expenses came out of our own pockets.

Finally we found Patreon! Patreon is a crowdfunding service that functions similarly to other CF services, except this one donors can contribute per month, or with comic books can donate per page published. Its pretty handy especially if you have regular readership. Those who are already interested & investing in your book are likely to donate. While the rewards are more difficult to figure out, many users have dollar subscriptions that just support their comic and $3 subscriptions that allow readers to see extra content on the Patreon.

Visiting a variety of users can soon help you garner some ideas on how to reward those who are faithful contributors. Things from one time rewards like sketches to monthly prints of pages of the comic. Another way to garner contributors is using a twitter management tool like justunfollow.com or others to set up automated messages to new followers providing the link to your comic and to your Patreon!

In the end it also never hurts to ask for contributions from those who have expressed interest in your book!

We've had good success with it thus far, and have actually found other people on the site that we ended up donating too. Also at the time of this writing Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal (SMBC) Was making $100,000 a year. They are one of the most successful Patreon users there are. 

Finally if you haven't seen our work yet you can really our various webcomics on gryphonknights.com! If you have and you love our artwork & storytelling then please help by donating to our Patreon page at www.patreon.com/gryphonknights! Each donation allows us to focus more time on the comic, and will hopefully one day make us full time artists!

Tom Gryphon

PS. Hippopotamus Prime thanks you for any & all contributions you make!