6 Questions With...FREDERICK KIM

Here's Fredrick Kim, his story is called Bugged, with art by Antonio Bifulco.





Tiny Electric:Is this your first published work?

Fredrick Kim:My first published work was a short story set in the Star Trek Universe, published in "Strange New Worlds VII," by Pocket Books. It featured Captain Picard. But "Bugged" is my first published comics
story.

TE:What's the sentence pitch for your story?

FK:"Bugged" is about a man with a shady past who decides to commit one last crime, for all the right reasons ... but ends up damning the world through his actions.

TE:Was your story an idea you already had, or did you come up with it in class?

FK:Ermm... a bit of both, actually. When I signed up for Andy's class I thought we would be writing stories about Spider-Man or Wolverine, so when he asked us to come up with original material that first day, I didn't have anything ready to go. After thinking about it, I decided I wanted to tell a story with a noirish vibe, and I
created the protagonist as an entirely new character. The villain, however, is a character I previously came up with for a sci-fi television pilot script that I wrote.

TE:Do you hope to expand it into something longer?

FK:There's a relationship between "Bugged" and the television pilot I mentioned earlier, so, yes, I'm hoping to do more with that universe. Right now a production company in Hollywood is interested in optioning the pilot, and turning it into a series of animated webisodes. If those do well, they'd consider bringing the concept to a studio, in the hopes of getting a television series made. Nothing's set in stone yet, though, so stay tuned...

TE:Talk about your artist and the look of your story.

FK:I'm really grateful to one of our fellow classmates, Rob Anderson, for being able to find Antonio Bifulco. When the anthology was still just a vague idea we were tossing around, Rob went out and found a bunch of artists online and then posted their information for our group to peruse. When I saw Antonio's work on the web, I thought he'd be great for "Bugged" -- his art displays a level of attention to detail that really helps sell a story like mine, which is supposed to have this dark and gritty vibe.

Antonio's a real pro, and it was a genuine pleasure collaborating with him. Through his art he brought in elements to the story I hadn't previously imagined, but what he came up with fit in with what I was trying to achieve, which shows he was really thinking about how to enhance the story through the art. I'm extremely pleased with the way everything turned out -- the end result (including the lettering and logo by Dave Sharpe) just went beyond my expectations.

TE:What comics have you been reading lately?

FK:Recently I finished The Rocketeer: The Complete Adventures, which is just amazing to look at. Also, I've been on a DC kick for the past several months, because as a Marvel fan since childhood, I haven't been that familiar with the DC Universe, beyond Batman. So I've been going through Crisis On Infinite Earths, The Sinestro Corps War, Infinite Crisis, and of course Blackest Night, and now I'm finally starting to feel like I have a sense of what the DCU is all about. On there commendations of friends I've started reading the trades for Invincible, which I'm really enjoying, and right at this moment I'm into the first volume of DMZ.



You can check out Fredrick's website here.

6 Questions With...ROB ANDERSON

Here's Rob Anderson, his story is called Animal Control:SCU, with art by Leandro Panganiban.



Tiny Electric:Is this your first published work?

Rob Anderson:Yes, this is my first published comics work. My other published work has all been non-fiction -- stuff like newspaper columns or journal articles, that sort of thing.

TE:What's the sentence pitch for your story?

RA:Animal Control: Special Creatures Unit follows the lives of two animal control officers in a world where scientific breakthroughs led to the spread of patchwork, designer animals like Panda Dogs, 'Gator-Snakes and Horned Mastiffs.

TE:Was your story an idea you already had, or did you come up with it in class?

RA:The idea long pre-dated Andy Schmidt’s Comics Experience class, but it was the class that finally helped me take it from a bunch of partial drafts and plots to finished stories. AC:SCU is a concept that has been rattling around in my head for about a decade, at least since the year 2000, when artist Eduardo Kac convinced a French geneticist to create a "transgenic" rabbit with jellyfish traits that glowed in the dark. Things have gotten stranger since then (here in the real world) and when it eventually, inevitably gets out of control, there will be Animal Control officers dealing with the mess.

Already, you can find pictures out there of things like a mouse with a human ear growing out of its back -- although it can be hard to sort out the Photoshop fakes from the real transgenics. I've had more than one person come to the Panda Dog Press website via search phrases like "how to make a Panda Dog" and "are Panda Dogs real"? (ha) They're not real! (yet)

TE:Do you hope to expand it into something longer?

RA:Absolutely! I'm self-publishing right now, but my goal is to do an initial 3-issue miniseries with an established publisher. I have ideas that would fill a monthly series for a very long time.

At this point, I've got three stories completed and headed to the printer -- two AC:SCU stories that follow the officers, and an all-ages spin-off set in the same universe, Panda Dog Adventures, that follows my favorite mischievous hybrid.

The very first AC:SCU story appears in our Tales from the Comics Experience anthology available via IndyPlanet now. All three stories will appear in a Preview comic that will be available at some conventions this summer (first up, Heroes Con in Charlotte, NC on June 4-6) as well as via the Panda Dog Press website.

TE:Talk about your artist and the look of your story.

RA:The AC:SCU story in Tales from the Comics Experience was penciled and inked by Leandro Panganiban, a very talented guy based in the Philippines. I was looking for an artist that could give a realistic feel to the book, despite the unusual animals. Leandro had done some sample Spider-Man sequentials that really showed his ability to draw real-life scenes -- great facial expressions, realistic proportions on the people, etc. His style of artwork was just what I envisioned for AC:SCU and he delivered, and then some!

The collaboration with Leandro has been great, and he's actually just finished penciling the second AC:SCU story, "Feral." He raised his game to another whole level in this second story. I can't wait for everyone to see it. I hope Leandro and I (along with Letterer/Designer E.T. Dollman, and now also with inker Steve Bird and cover colorist Coleen Allen) get the chance to play in the AC:SCU universe for a long time.

TE:What comics have you been reading lately?

RA:My "can't-wait-for-the-trade" favorites right now are Walking Dead, Fables, Terry Moore's Echo, and Luna Brother's The Sword. My favorite recent trade paperback was Locke & Key, Volume 1. I keep lobbying to break that one down in Andy Schmidt's Book Club. That's some entertaining sequential storytelling, and one way or another, I want to spend some time studying it. (ha) Basically, I have an entire bookshelf of backlogged trade paperbacks. It's overwhelming sometimes, but I just keep buying them. I'll never catch up!



You can check out Rob's comics at PandaDog Press or follow him on twitter.

6 Questions With...J.D. OLIVA

Now here's J.D. Oliva, his story is called Well Beyond Reason, with art by Jesse Kornhardt.




Tiny Electric:Is this your first published work?

J.D. Oliva:Yes, this is my first published work. I've spent most of the past five years developing indie films and short documentaries.

TE:What's the sentence pitch for your story?

JO:An arrogant reporter and an elderly priest must save the life a young child before she killed by a Satanic cult.

TE:Was your story an idea you already had, or did you come up with it in class?

JO:I actually had this idea for a few months before class. The basis of the story was taken from a "Demon" story I wrote for a talent contest. I reshaped it to fit "Charlie Welles," a character from a short film that I made last year. I was already planning on writing a five page story before I enrolled in class. When I found out about Comics Experience with Andy Schmidt, and the five page story we were required to write for the class, it just worked out perfectly.

TE:Do you hope to expand it into something longer?

JO:Absolutely. I would love to do a whole series about Charlie Welles and his ventures into the macabre. I've been writing a lot of Charlie stuff that could go either way as film or comics work. The next few months will kind of shape the route I'll take with him.

TE:Talk about your artist and the look of your story.

JO:Jesse Kornhardt is awesome. I actually got in contact with Jesse a few months before class. I was planning on doing my Charlie Welles comic stuff and I put a Craigslist posting out looking for an artist. Jesse was the only serious person that I talked to and it helped that he has this great, dark sensibility. After I finished the final draft of "Well Beyond Reason" I forwarded it to Jesse and he started work on the story. Jesse has a background in photography and has a very cinematic eye, which works really well with me being an indie filmmaker. He gave our story this ethereal, noir-ish tone that works perfect with the story. Visually speaking, I think our story really stands out. We have a real good understanding of the character and the direction we'd like to take this story in the future. He's my partner on this story for the long haul.

TE:What comics have you been reading lately?

JO:I love superhero stuff, so I've been all about Green Lantern Blackest Night, Batman, Spider-Man, The Avengers titles, Captain America. Andy Schmidt', our beloved mentor's stewardship of the transformers franchise has brought me in but I've become a big fan of Mike Costa's handling of the characters. I'm also a fan of Dirk Manning's Nightmare World, which I think is some of the best horror stuff in comics right now.


Check out J.D's film at Vimeo.

6 Questions With...JOSHUA OSBORNE

Here's Joshua Osborne, his story is called The Struggle, with art by Branco Jovanovic.



Tiny Electric:Is this your first published work?

Joshua Osborne:A few years back I got a couple poems published. I was trying to win a poetry competition, and though I didn't win, the poems were published. They were even put onto a CD read by a 'Professional Reader'. Not exactly sure how you get into that profession, but to each his own. This will be my first published comic of any kind.

TE:What's the sentence pitch for your story?

JO:Well the story that I actually did wasn't the first idea that I had. My original idea was based on Chris (My Protagonist) training a sidekick, but it was decided that their wasn't enough action going on, so it was changed to The Struggle. However, because of the sudden change in story, I never did a sentence pitch. Alright, so when does this interview start?

TE:Was your story an idea you already had, or did you come up with it in class?

JO:I came up with the idea in class as I was fleshing out Chris's character biography. It wasn't my initial focus, but I changed it to my main story idea a couple weeks into class.

TE:Do you hope to expand it into something longer?

JO:Yes, The Struggle is only the beginning. Chris's story will continue in a future Anthology, hopefully a sequel to my classmates and my 'Tales from the Comics Experience' Anthology. He's destined to be the greatest super hero the world has ever known. But that's something that's a little hard to believe based on his demeanor in The Struggle. He's unstable and depressed and doesn't think he deserves to be loved. He'll get closer and closer to reaching his ultimate destiny in each story that is told in future Anthologies.

But The Sidekick, which is in development right now, will take us forward several years to see the great super hero that Chris has become. It's the story of Chris's tragic tale to train a sidekick to replace him for a future that he won't be a part of. The story will center around Tyler, Chris's sidekick, and Joey, a random thug, as well as those closest to them. You'll see that the line diving good and evil is a very gray line and that sometimes good people do bad things for good reasons. Expect 'The Sidekick' by the end of the year or early next year.


TE:Talk about your artist and the look of your story.

JO:Branko Jovanovic was the artist for 'The Struggle'. He's got amazing talent and his style is very reminiscent of Mike Deodado. I'm a firm believer that every story should have a certain look to it, and I went into my artist search wanting an artist with a very dark style, as my story is dark and depressing. I found Branko and new immediately that he was the artist I wanted to work with on this project. I hope to work with him again on my future Anthology stories.

TE:What comics have you been reading lately?

JO:Sadly, my comic book reading has been limited ever since I bought my house. I've only been able to afford mainstream books for the most part. Astonishing X-Men, Siege, Batman & Robin, and Uncanny X-Men are some of the few books that I have been able to pick up and read though.




Check out Joshua's work, including updates on The Sidekick on Twitter.