It’s been a long time coming, but we finally have some updates on the Mark Andrew Smith/James Stokoe-joint “Sullivan’s Sluggers.” Originally announced in July 2009 for a 2010 release at Image Comics, it is now being placed on a Kickstarter to be an entirely self-published creator-owned title. For just a $30 pledge, you can guarantee yourself a copy of the 200-page sports horror hardcover book, and with what we’ve seen of the book so far this is definitely going to be a can’t miss title. With James Stokoe firing on all cylinders in the art department and Smith writing a snappy and humorous horror tale, it’s definitely one of our most anticipated books of 2012.
In honor of the launching of his Kickstarter, we sat down with Mark Andrew Smith to talk about the long road “Sullivan’s Sluggers” has had and his thoughts on the crowd-source funding medium.
For those who are unaware of “Sullivan’s Sluggers,” can you give us the current elevator pitch for the book?
Sullivan’s Sluggers is the story of a baseball team that gets an invitation to play a game in a small town. After the 7th inning stretch, the sun goes down, and the dysfunctional teammates find themselves fighting for their lives against a town of flesh-eating monsters!
The players have to put all of their skills to the test to escape from being the next dish in the town’s terrifying feeding frenzy!
If I’m not mistaken, the last time we really heard about “Sullivan’s Sluggers” was back in 2010 in a CBR interview. Can you talk a bit about what has kept the project dormant until now?
The project started off as a smaller book, and then as I was writing it, the story grew in length and I kept adding to it and the story kept evolving. James also was very busy with ‘Orc Stain’ and other paying work, so I had to work around his busy schedule and be patient.
“Sullivan’s Sluggers” is a 200 page self-published hardcover now. Has the project grown in size since you were originally working on it with James, or is it still basically the same final product?
Sullivan’s Sluggers has grown a lot in size because I kept getting pages in from James and that would pump me up on writing and motivate me to come up with bigger and bigger things. I think being patient has led to a great product that I’m very pleased with.
Since you were first putting the project together, how has the landscape of comics changed for you as a creator? And how did this affect you putting the book on KickStarter as opposed to its previous home at Image Comics?
I want to take a chance with Kickstarter and distribute Sullivan’s Sluggers directly to readers to recoup. Image Comics is a fantastic publisher and I may still do Sullivan’s through them at some point and hope to work with them in the future. Hell, I would like it if they printed and published the Kickstarter book but it might be breaking some rules. I love the work they do on my books.
This is the other distribution system and alternate to Diamond. It’s here and now and there’s never been a better time to be a comic creator in history.
There’s also a future for publishers within the Kickstarter system, and also it’s still possible to work with retailers too. So everything can coexist side by side. Comics are small, and this is just growing comics to a larger audience and everyone benefits from that.
With Kickstarter I can make my own future and accomplish goals that are important for me to rise as a creator. I want to go direct to my audience, retain and interact with, and build a base of supporters. I’m taking the future into my own hands.
I’m going to try to build something in the next two years that makes this a full time reality for me.
When you made the decision to do it on KickStarter, did you think of changing it in any way?
What changed with Kickstarter was the choice to do it as a hard cover book, because after spending so much time creating Sullivan’s Sluggers I want something that I’m proud of and really make a book that’s for me. This is the format that I want to own and have on my book shelf that I can pick up when I’m old and sitting around the fireplace in my parlor in Hugh Hefner gear.
Continued belowBased on how well “Sullivan’s Sluggers” does in KickStarter, are you considering bringing other projects of yours to the crowd-source funding method, such as “Gladstone’s”?
I think Gladstone’s really does have an audience and a future in comic shops, and I love it in single issues. So I’m not sure at this point. It would be nice to do it on Kickstarter because it would give us more resources and I’d love for Armand to be able to draw Gladstone’s full time. One way, we go through stores, but the book takes forever to put out because we’re struggling so much, the other way we hopefully can do a great Kickstarter and pick up the pace to get everyone more Gladstone’s faster. I like more, faster. We might be able to do both.
You’ve talked quite a bit in the past about the influences of the book, but in contrast with something like “Gladstone’s” or your previous work with “the New Brighton Archeological Society”, this book is rather decidedly non-all ages what with all the violence. Was there any particular reason you decided to go with a different age group for this project?
I am usually the all ages guy but I like to jump around genres and do a range of material. It wasn’t a choice to do something for another age group, but it was a story that I was born to tell. I’ve been a huge fan of splatter horror movies but I’m also a fan of Pixar movies. Most people are like that, and it’s not that weird to do books for different age groups.
In terms of the working relationship between you and James Stokoe, how has it changed between now and when you two first started working on the project?
I’m happy we’re finished because now I can just enjoy James’ work as a fan and as a reader again. Doing a 200 page book is a ton of work and the best ones when you read them we make it look easy. Making Sullivan’s was a challenge, but also fun, more fun at the start as with any endeavor and then it becomes like climbing mount doom near the end. Our relationship is good.
In the preview I read, a lot of the quirks in terms of the art are very akin to previous works of Stokoe’s, such as his penchant for lots of little word bubbles with sounds in them around an action along with hand lettered sequences. To what extent are elements like this scripted versus Stokoe just bringing his own artistic madness to the page?
I think for things like that it’s a blend of James and myself. With my earliest work Amazing Joy Buzzards we do a lot of similar things. But some small bits you can see that James wrote into the book and made word bubbles for, and he also hand drew a lot of sound effects as well. I think we come from a similar school in that respect and share similar sensibilities.
Given that this is now a completely creator-owned deal from the bottom up, does the possibility for sequels still exist?
Haha. I’m very pleased with Sullivan’s as one finished story. I like that this is a story that’s read from start to finish in a volume and concludes without 10 more in the series.
There’s something very rewarding in a complete story in one book. If Sullivan’s does gangbuster sales and they were like “you have to make a new one now, you’ll make millions” then I would be up to revisit the Sluggers or put a new sports team in peril with monsters in a new situation. Never say never.
