Not Forgotten Anthology Interviews 

Harding, Masson, Desilets and Morales Talk “Not Forgotten: A Public Domain Superhero Anthology” on Kickstarter

By | March 1st, 2017
Posted in Interviews | % Comments

The final week of a Kickstarter project is always a tense time, and with just under $10,000 left to raise of a $25,000 total and only 7 days left, the end is in sight for Matt Harding and Einar Masson’s campaign “Not Forgotten: A Public Domain Superhero Anthology.”

As described by contributor Casey Desilets, the “Not Forgotten” project is “some what of a love letter to classic characters that never really got carried on into this modern era of comics. Every artist and writer chose a character they found interesting, that had fallen into the public domain due to lack of use or license.”

Fellow contributor Omar Morales adds “It is a straight up retro revival of masks and capes for the discerning comic book reader in today’s world. It’s a ton of fun, made by over 50 creators from all around the world who combined for over 20 stories and over 200 pages of content.”

So what’s the story behind a project like this? We caught up with the creators and editors of “Not Forgotten”, Matt Harding and Einar Masson, to discuss the campaign, the Kickstarter process and the characters that did (and didn’t) make the cut, as well as chatting with two of the creators, Desilets and Morales, about their contributions and how they got involved with “Not Forgotten.”

Editor’s Note: This interview first appeared on Matt’s blog, and can be found here.

First things first. Einar, Matt, your campaign mentions that you guys met in college, is this the first anthology that you’ve collaborated on? What sorts of things have you worked on in the past?

Einar Masson: This is our first collaboration, yes. I’ve worked with a group called the Bay Area Comic Anthology, with whom I Kickstarted the first volume of comic shorts inspired by life in the Bay Area. I was not directly involved with the Kickstarter itself, but I served as production artist, helped with shipping and getting it into stores (I think people can still find it in most major comic shops in the Bay Area). Matt has more direct experience with running Kickstarters, though.

Matt Harding: In college I Kickstartered two issues of my personal comic Popapocalypse, about Mad Max– style versions of advertising icons trying to kill each other (popapocalypse.tumblr.com), and I was involved in artwork for 3 volumes of Ultrasylvania, which was a senior project graphic novel collaboration. Since then, I’ve done a bunch of motion graphics work for Madefire studios, production artwork for Black Mask Studios, illustrated one of seven motion comics for Stan Lee’sLucky Man television show, and done freelance illustration and coloring for comics here and there. I wrote an upcoming series coming out from Action Labs, as well a series of short stories for Apple, for their “Terms and Services: The Comic Book” which can be found on Apple’s website for free.

How’s your experience of the Kickstarter process been so far? How important do you think it is to the current comics industry?

EM: It’s been very educational! You have to do a lot of research about what makes a good Kickstarter presentation, what kind of rewards people respond to, and what month, week, day and even hour of the day is good to launch.

MH: Kickstarter is an amazing resource for the comics industry, because it’s put fuel into the indie market and made it possible for anyone in the country to create a comic and immediately connect with people who are looking to help fund upcoming artists. The comics industry is a hard place to get a start in, and from what I’ve been told, even harder than it is to start in Hollywood. Kickstarter has given an advantage to people in the early stages of their career, which is great.

Omar, Casey, how did you get involved in the project?

Omar Morales: There was a call to action for submissions last year and I answered the call. I had to pick a hero and do a one-pager to pitch my vision for a short story; I think the publishers received about 100 submissions from all over the place and they chose 20 to go forward with. It was really exciting to be chosen and it is already bearing fruit. My short story about Moon Girl was picked up by Alterna Comics as a full length story that will publish on newsprint for a $1.50 cover price around the holiday season later this year.

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Casey Desilets: I got into the project when I heard about the call for artists. I had known some of the other creatives that had applied and got in, and the core idea of the project sounded like a lot of fun. I’m normally not one to enjoy drawing superheroes, or writing those sort of stories, but the opportunity to put my own twist on the genre was too hard to pass up. I’ve really enjoyed the way not only the project has grown, but also how the community of artists grew out of making it. I’ve gotten to meet and talk to a lot of really interesting folks that I have the pleasure of collaborating on the book with.

Black Satan by Casey Desilets

What can you tell us about your stories, and what made you pick the superheroes you did?

OM: Moon Girl captured my imagination and inspired me to do a different twist on the character. I was intrigued by a line in her cannon: “The girl known as the Princess of the Moon was taught that she came from a long line of women who had been unbeatable in battle.” I went on a tangent and created a whole back story for her. If she’s a princess, then there must be a queen mother. It kind of sounded like that old 80’s cult film “Amazon Women on the Moon.” I made up this whole society of technologically advanced women who lived under the moon’s surface a million years ago. I was bursting to do a retro-futuristic story, all within the context of the hollow moon theory. It was a total nerdgasm.

CD: My story is based on an old Yankee Comics character called Black Satan. His design wasn’t anything special, and the story itself in issue #1 fell into line with all the other cookie cutter heroes of the era. What really grabbed me about his character was alter ego which was the cities attorney, Howard Flynn. You don’t need to look at the original character designs too long to see that his hero disguise pretty much looks like a lawyer with a half mask on. Let’s just say they haven’t gotten on that “to be continued” at the end of issue #1. I don’t really want to spoil the story, but we’ll just say things get ridiculous very quickly, and it’s a rather fun and playful read. I’m hoping people will enjoy it as much I have had creating it.

What are some of the benefits and drawbacks to pulling inspiration from public domain heroes?

CD: I think the benefits are the same as the drawbacks. You’re pulling from a source material that already exists. You have to create within the constraints of that character. Well that’s how it would normally be, our editors have been really encouraging of letting us to almost anything we want with the characters. I took it as a challenge, to use keep in line with as much of the source material as possible. Though I love creating characters, my creating my own super heroes was never my thing, so being able to create a story around an existing one was also a huge help for me. We also had page limits on our submissions, and were not allowed to submit unfinished stories with “to be continued” which was another challenge in itself. Writing a short self contained story is always a great challenge.

OM: In this case, there really were no drawbacks. The publishers gave all the creators complete freedom to reinvent and re-imagine the characters – and there is no legal risk because they’re all in the public domain. Plus, I doubt there are any hard-core comics cranks from the 1930s and 1940s that will post on Facebook about how we ruined the characters with these modern twists! Ha!

Einar, Matt, Now that you’ve studied these forgotten heroes a bit more in depth (and seen what other creators have achieved with them) are there any specifically that you’re surprised didn’t make it back in the day?

EM: He didn’t make it into our book, but there’s a character called Rainbow Boy whom I absolutely love. I figure he’s ripe for a comeback as an LGBT+ icon, but it doesn’t seem to have happened yet. I guess it’d be a little too on-the-nose today.

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MH: Fantomah is a character that could have been adapted and fleshed out more through the decades and still been around today.

Are there any forgotten heroes you’re particularly interested in that didn’t quite make your anthology?

EM: There were several great pitches that we had to turn down, usually because they didn’t quite vibe with the book tonally. One such story was a Stardust the Superwizard story that was very nice and had a unique art style, but sadly it wasn’t quite the right fit for our book.

MH: There are two characters that I’ll be doing a “24-hour comic day” comic as a telethon on the final day of the Kickstarter that I personally love, but hadn’t discovered until maybe two weeks ago. Their names are Nightmare and Sleepy, and Nightmare is a wrestler dressed like a skeleton with his sidekick teenage manager Sleepy. Stay tuned, because I have an awesome idea for a short comic to do for them.

Atomic Tot by Angi Ahlers & Nathan Shorts

Finally, for anyone that might be sitting on the fence about the Anthology, here’s your chance to win them over! Why will people love “Not Forgotten”?

EM: If you like modern superhero comics and would like a little insight into where they came from, you should get this book. If you’d like to own a showcase of some of the top emerging international talent in comics today, get this book. If you like grim-faced avengers, magnificent magicians, intrepid space explorers and gross muscle-babies, get this book!

MH: I hadn’t truly fallen in love with the Golden Age until we started this book and dove head first into the archives of golden age 1930s and 1940s comics. These guys are the Model T of comics, the Apollo 11, or the guy who fell into that cave and discovered all the stuff from ancient Greece,if you get what I’m saying. When superhero comics began, it started with a messy explosion of creativity and ideas, and we’re paying tribute to those creations with this book. Some of them are crazy, some of them not so great, some of them ahead of their time, and some just plain good. This book is a history lesson on the beginning of the superhero in America, and we are proud of what we’ve done to modernize those characters and create this book, and we know you’ll love it.

OM: If you loved the “Minute Men” storyline within “Watchmen,” you will love Not Forgotten. If you miss thought bubbles, narration captions and ray guns … this book is for you! Nostalgia is so big nowadays, and this is about as hardcore and retro as you can go with nostalgia. Comics are pure Americana that took off and inspired an entire global comic book industry that thrives today. This project goes back to the roots to dust off a bunch of great characters that were lost to time. Jump in the time machine with us and back the project – there are tons of great reward tiers with digital and print options. I also like to tell people that if you don’t back Not Forgotten … Ozmar the Mystic will die! Muwhahahah!

CD: Each individual that has contributed to our book has really put a lot into what they’ve made. I think we’re all proud of our work. Though there are some big names, and that kickstarter is looking super polished, the vast majority of us are all professional artists at the start of our career. I hope people will see the video, see the samples of work we’ve put out there, and know that this isn’t just some money grab, or something that we’re not serious about. We all very much love what we’ve done, and we hope you’ll all feel that holding our final book.

NOT FORGOTTEN: A PUBLIC DOMAIN SUPERHERO ANTHOLOGY!

Heralded by the success of Superman and Batman, the world of superheroes exploded in the late 1930s with a litany of colorful and often bizarre heroic characters, creating what is revered as “The Golden Age” of comic books. They defeated evil wherever it reared it’s ugly head, whether it be bloodthirsty Vampires from Pluto, repugnant Nazi jerks, or the mysterious and deadly effects of Atomic Radiation! These heroes sold books by the millions and ushered in an age of unprecedented JUSTICE.

But soon, these ring a ding ding good times came to an end at the close of World War 2 as the heroes fell out of favor in the eyes of a giddy and spoiled public. It was curtains for the heroes, as the once successful publishers now faced bankruptcy and took to the giggle juice while their creations fell into the shadow realm of PUBLIC DOMAIN, a place where anyone, anywhere can use them for whatever nefarious deed their sick minds could concoct.

GADZOOKS!

No longer protected under the shield of copyright laws, these characters were buried and lost to the cruel hands of Father Time and the machismo of modern entertainment, as evil ran unencumbered through our streets!

BUT FEAR NOT, TRUE BELIEVERS!

These heroes are back and better than ever! Reimagined by top creators in the industry, this anthology collects over 20+ short stories paying homage and tribute to some of the greatest heroes and heroines lost to time with brand new, never-before-seen, exclusive tales bringing these amazing creations back to life!

But don’t blow your wig, Johnny, this book is within your grasp! Get in on this here clambake and help show the world that these characters might have been buried under layers of dust, but they are…

NOT FORGOTTEN!

Featuring the work of:

James Harren (Rumble, B.P.R.D., Conan), Eric Esquivel (Lego DC Superheroes, Vertigo Quarterly, Adventure Time), Ryan Cody (Doc Unknown, Heavy Metal Magazine, The Phantom), Jerry Gaylord (Bill and Ted’s Triumphant Return, Fanboy Vs Zombies, Ghostbusters/TMNT), Matt Harding (Doctor Mordrid, Popapocalypse, Styx, Madefire Studios), Angela Ahlers, Nathan Shorts (Toejam and Earl: Back in the Groove), Vincent Kukua (Image Comics), Evan Limberger (Madefire Studios), Matt D. Wilson (Copernicus Jones: Robot Detective, the Supervillain Handbook), Rodrigo Vargas, Josh Krach, Ashley V. Robinson (Jupiter Jet, Top Cow Comics), Morgan Beem, Rica March, Jeffrey and Susan Bridges (Pendant Audio), Leonie O’Moore, Derik Hefner, Anne-Marie Webb, Andrew Steers, Edwin Lopez, Bobby Trauma, Esther Pimentel, Miiike, Greg Menzie, Zakk Saam, Omar Morales (CruZader), Joel Cotejar, Paula Goulart, Jaymes Reed, Paul Plale, Andres Olveras, matt harvey (Exhumed), Sinclair Klugarsh, ,Gabriel Moore-Topazio (Wrought Comics, Asylum), Einar V. Masson (Bay Area Comic Anthology, Bruce the Angry Bear), Mikael Lopez, Kristian Bay Kirk, Sandra Rós Björnsdóttir aka Krumla, Kevin Cuffe (Oathbound), Ricardo Lima, Jason Inman (Jupiter Jet, co-host of DC All Access), Nick Robles (Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials), Casey Desilets, Maximilien Weinstein, Malcolm Johnson (Styx, Ultrasylvania), Kevin Buckley (Madefire Studios, Cyberwulf), Jeff Leeds, Marco Maccagni (Archon, Vampblade), DC Hopkins (Trespasser, We Can Never Go Home), Valentina Pucci (Action Lab), Angela Fato (Action Lab), Jared Rosmarin, Eugene Young, and Dave Harding.

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Atomic Man, written by Jason Inman, Illustrated by Nick Robles
Terena of the Tundra by Ashley V. Robinson & Morgan Beem
The Black Knight, written by Max Weinstein, illustrated by Malcolm Johnson

Matt Lune

Born and raised in Birmingham, England, when Matt's not reading comics he's writing about them and hosting podcasts about them. From reading The Beano and The Dandy as a child, he first discovered American comics with Marvel's Heroes Reborn and, despite that questionable start, still fell in love and has never looked back. You can find him on Twitter @MattLune

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