The Four Color Media Monitor

The Akron Beacon Journal has a report on an artist from Twinsburg, Ohio who's created his own adventure set in the Cleveland area:

A graphic reference book was released in August by CEO Keith Harris of FutureGen Comics. The book, "Welcome to the FutureGen Universe," highlighted the corporate launch of FutureGen Comics. In this reference guide, 31 characters have been profiled. [...]

FutureGen Comics plans to release its first comic book by Christmas, and have a second published in early 2022, featuring Big Bruh, the central character, and Shadow Force, Harris said. Big Bruh is a biochemist working at a fictional Cleveland lab.

"He had an accident, was in an explosion, and that explosion had a pulse wave that impacted several others," he said.

Other characters include Hype, a fourth-grader at Chambers Elementary School in East Cleveland who can literally do anything he thinks he can, and Ethereal, a PhD student at Case Western, who was identified as powerful by an alien intelligence and selected for training. Harris added that he attended Chambers Elementary School, living in East Cleveland until he moved to Twinsburg Township in seventh grade.

Harris said that the comics will be published online. "The cost of printing puts us out of competitiveness."

I have no doubt the Covid pandemic partly led to this. I wish them good luck, and if they're successful, they should publish their stories in paperback format too.

His wife was actually the one who suggested that he do something that tied into his love of comic books, Harris said.

"I started doing this after I sold my other company," Harris said. "I've been a comic book fan for a long time. I have about 1,500 comic books at home. My wife suggested I make a comic." He added that he sold his previous company in 2015 and started FutureGen Comics a year later.

I think that's great when the wife is that encouraging and supportive of getting into the art and business. If memory serves, that's what Stan Lee's wife Joan did too in their time. Also important to note:

The majority of his characters are African American, Harris said, and about half are female.

"Most of my friends and colleagues and connections are African American," Harris said. "So it was easier to think of my characters like that."

What's positive here is that you have an independent creator and his co-workers who're developing their own comics starring folks of different races, plenty of female cast, and not changing established properties and creations under conglomerate ownership to suit an agenda. And this is the way it should all really be done, and hopefully will be as the independent scene becomes more emphasized in the future.

Labels: indie publishers, technology