Support Creator-Owned Comics

Creator-Owned Comics Rock!!

My own meagre contribution to creator-owned day.

I’m a little late getting this out, but… March 1st was declared Creator-Owned Day. It’s an opportunity to recognize, support, or contribute to the body of comics work produced independently. The idea behind Creator-Owned Day is outlined in Stephen Downey’s blog post in which he offers the call to action in the form of a challenge to create and post original, creator-owned comics work.

Sure, there’s a lot to be said for corporately-controlled comic work, that’s where most of us are first introduced to characters like Batman, Supes, Spiderman, The Avengers, et al. But where would we be without creators like Art Spiegelman, Dave Sim, Seth, Chester Brown, Don Simpson, Daniel Clowes, or the Hernandez Bros. to inspire and entertain us with their unique stories?

Independent comics with creator-owned characters and content are a platform for innovation and have done a great deal towards legitimizing comics as a serious artform. Check out some of the above artists’ work and make an effort to support creator-owned content for more than just one day of the year.

Web-comic Character Development

Cartoon of Zip and Monkey-mind

Playing with colour design for these two characters Zip and Monkey-mind.

For some time I’ve been playing with ideas for a comic strip involving the characters shown above. Zip Crashwell is a former race car driver who’s had a few too many concussions. As a result, he’s plagued by an over-active hallucination in the form of a monkey who’s only mission seems to be to drive Zip over the edge.

I’m working now at developing the supporting cast and hope to launch a web-comic later this year. Stay tuned.