CK Comics from California is an art that will excite and ignite your imagination. With titles such as ‘Caliber’ and ‘Tomorrow’ they are all set to come out with ‘Incursion’ that will be a compiled work of their 21 characters so far.
It’s a team of twelve members who work day and night to get at least one title or issue every month. From a diverse cast, to young and mature they have stories for everyone. It’s a self funded comic book and seeks some help from the investors at times.
Shane Will one of the founders of CK comics has been a huge fan of comics since childhood. Before comics he used to work in films and worked on few independent projects like ‘Waning Solstice’ and ‘Monster Operatives’.
AnimationXpress.com’s Niyati Handa got in touch with Will, who spoke about his latest project, women in comics and why he chose comics as a medium to express his thoughts.
Tell us something about CK Comics? How did the association happen with Scattered publishers?
I started CK Comics to produce and publish my own characters and to create a ‘shared universe’; we call it the ‘Tomorrowverse’. Initially I started with a group of 10 characters; Caliber (which is my main book) was the first one. I started talking with my friend Joe Burttram who at that time was getting into writing comics as well. Together we fleshed out 21 characters. Right now we have a total of three characters which is likely to go up to six by the end of the year.
At a comic convention in Chico, CA about a month later I had both Caliber #1 and Tales of the Tomorrowverse #1 out. The idea of working together and having Scattered publish the books came up there, and after talking to Jason (one of the owner’s of CK comics) and Noel Serrato (the owner of Scattered), we worked out everything and they finally became the publisher of CK Comics.
All these characters will come together in a big summer event called ‘Incursion’ which will be a mini-series.
What made you get into comics? What were you doing before this?
I’ve always been a huge comic fan and love writing so it seemed like the perfect fit for me. Before comics, I used to work in films. I made a few independent projects (Waning Solstice and Monster Operatives) that have already been released. I looked at what I was doing though and wanted to tell more long term stories, something I can serialise and release to the public more often.
What inspired you to write ‘Tomorrow#1’? Elaborate on the story line as well.
I wanted to write a character that had a mix of superpowers. I also wanted to tell a story of hope. So, the story is about a boy who was created in the far future by scientists who combined multiple alien and human DNA to create a soldier who could fight the alien forces who over the centuries have been devastating Earth. It was too late though and humanity lost before they could give birth to their creation. Two human archaeologists, perhaps the last two humans, traveled back to earth and found the embryo that had somehow survived. Knowing it was too late to save everyone now, they found another project that could allow them to go back in time. They traveled back in the hope that by being around before the first attacks maybe the child could make a difference in the past. They raised him with ideas and beliefs in good and togetherness, and he grew into a good man. The time has come for him to reveal himself and begin his quest to show the world there is a better way, and that together we can all build a better tomorrow.
The series is written by me, the art is by the talented CK artist Nicholas Garza. It is a 32 page book with a bonus 6 page story. Cover price for print is $4.00; digitally it is around $1.99. Thanks to digital we are worldwide.
Tell us more about the character ‘Brake’. What made you think of a Muslim lead character? Has it been released to the public? Have you got any feedback for it?
I always wanted to have a Muslim hero character from the beginning and he was one of the first I started working on. He is someone who stood up to counter the public perception of their own people. In the story he is inspired by the character ‘Tomorrow’ and sees the good he has been doing and wants to do the same for his people. He wants to show the people that not all Muslims are terrorists to be feared, but just a selected group of it that can be countered if we stand together.
He has the power to adsorb kinetic energy, which allows him to refrain from getting physical hurt but can take the force and then hit with superior strength. He is unaware of where these powers come from, and discovered them in a horrible car accident. ‘Brake’, believes these powers are a gift to him from Allah and he must use them for good.
He has been released to the public. He first appeared in our book Tales from the Tomorrowverse #2. We also released a free story about him and his origin digitally.
He has been very well received by the readers. I have even heard about him from comic readers in other countries that are Muslim, and they seem to enjoy him, and are happy to have a hero like them to read about.
Do you think Comics can play a strong role in spreading social awareness and social issues? Do you intend to dabble in it?
I do. Look back in the 1970s when Neal Adams and Dennis O’Neil were doing Green Lantern/Green Arrow. They were really hitting on a lot of social injustices in America, and what they started continues today as well. As we progress, there will be stories that will deal with society and social awareness. We have hero in ‘Tomorrow #1’ that keeps battling to remove hatred from the world, and then we have ‘Brake’ who is fighting against stereotypes and so on.
We also want to portray a diverse cast of characters, from different backgrounds, races and religions. That is the core goal of CK comics.
How many people were involved in designing these comics? Also talk about your upcoming project.
For the ‘Tomorrow’ series right now we have Nicholas Garza as the artist, Josh Check and Susan Schulz as editors, I have done the writing part and then the work has been compiled and distributed by Scattered Publishers.
On my series ‘Caliber’ the first three issues were written and drawn by me, inked by Susan Schulz and edited by Josh.
Several artists have been working on Tales of the Tomorrowverse, our anthology series. We’re getting ready for the third issue of this series. Around six to seven artists will be working on the same. People who will be working along me on this comic are Nicholas Garza, Fredrick Allison Jr and Calvin Ellis as artist and Joe Burttram and Josh Check as writers.
How do you plan to market this issue?
Scattered Comics handles most of the marketing part of it. We usually use social media, like CK Comics Facebook page, my own Facebook/Twitter/LinkedIn/Wordpress pages. I go to various events, conventions and comic book stores to distribute and promote our work.
How has been the response so far for your previous comic ‘Caliber’? How many copies have you sold of it?
The response on Caliber that I’ve received has been great. People seem to really be getting into the deep story of him and his mother. We sold out copies at conventions while stores have ordered second printings. His is a dark story and people who have read it have responded with their love of it.
Caliber is the story of a child who at the age of four was told by his mother that his father was murdered before he was born and something terrible had happened to her that night as well. She tells him that now his life will focus on being trained and disciplined so that he can become a warrior on the streets, an instrument of her vengeance, so others won’t have to go through what she did. The first issue begins on his 18th birthday where Caliber is handed a mask and told to begin what he has been trained for all his life.
This is a kid who has only known training. No friends, no fun, and little emotion. It’s at a breaking point as he heads out. How does he deal with people, and what is his relationship like with a mother who didn’t show him tenderness? These are things explored in the book, as well as action in back alleys as he works to save people.
Issue #3 comes out in the end of January and will end the first story arc of the book.
What is the growth plan for your company?
With new titles and issues of our comics coming out every month we are getting great response. The numbers of our books is increasing in all book stores; we see so many fans at comic cons every weekend. The future is looking great for CK Comics.
Will you have female lead characters too? How important would you say it is to portray women properly in comics?
I believe it is not only important to have woman characters but to also portray them properly.
In “Tales of the Tomorrowverse” #1 we had introduced ‘Spitfire’, which is a story about a girl who can fly and shoot fireballs. You’ll also see the origins of two more female leads in the bonus story in “Tomorrow” #1, then we have ‘Disarray’ and ‘Metis’ who have major roles in our Tomorrowverse issue. In our upcoming comic ‘Incursion’ we will feature many women characters.
Finally, what is ‘Incursion’ all about?
‘Incursion’ is about an Alien fleet that becomes aware of Earth and seeing it unclaimed by any government in this Galactic Council it claims it as its own and begins to invade and take control over it.
The story brings all our characters together for the first time, where all the 21 heroes will fight for earth as a team.
That book will be released on 18 April 2015, with a special release at ‘Big Wow Comic Fest’ in California. It will be available in stores and digitally the following Wednesday.