INDIE COMIX: Plan B, Josh Jenkins' Self-Publishing More Dangerous Than Bombs

By now you've listened to the Josh Jenkins' episode of the podcast and have gotten a good idea of the madman behind what is one of the coolest new series in the self-published indie comic scene. But I loved these books so much that I felt they needed a more thorough post.

PLAN B. The supersecret cadre of mad scientists looking for the ultimate weapon, an alternative to that ludicrous atomic bomb project. Maybe some bats with napalm strapped to them? That sounds like a plan, and as insane as it sounds, that's history for you. Professor Jenkins presents us with a team of iconic scientists and specialists that are a dysfunctional family of co-workers.

In book one THE HAUNTED LIFE OF DOCTOR ANOMALOUS we meet the good doctor Victor Anomalous, head of Plan B in the heyday of experimental creativity. We're introduced to each member of the team, giving us hints of the other archetypes represented here (adventurous cartographer, diabolical mystic, happy-go-lucky behaviorist, insane escape artist), but these glory days are not to last forever, and so the rest of the book deals with an elderly Dr. Anomalous dealing with his dodgy genius as the ghosts of his friends...co-workers...all come to haunt him into bettering his life.

The story is really well structured with very likeable characters that are a bit larger than life and all feel familiar. My personal favorite is Tumbler, the lunatic escape artist, but every character is fleshed out and anyone can find one character that resonates with them. If you happen to enjoy mad science, then you'll love it that much more. And for the science/history buffs, each chapter ends with a small snippet of true facts that relates to the chapter you've just read.

In that first book you get a full story arc for Dr. Anomalous, so you might wonder what book two, SAMUEL PROVIDENCE AND THE NEFARIOUS DR. FOIL holds in store for you my eager reader. Well, let me tell you, it takes that same world and approaches it from a drastically different angle, giving you a new appreciation for segments that you saw in book one, only this time giving you a murder mystery thriller surrounding the enigmatic and shadowy Samuel Providence. It is horror that lurks within these pages.

Upon reading the first book, you could say, ahh, what a keen little story of an aging mad scientist. But when you read book two, the rug is pulled out from underneath you and you're given a hint of a whole dark world that lies out there in the darkness of this Josh Jenkins' warped mind. We begin to see the whole operation from a bigger perspective, and the pull of this yawning cosmos is undeniable. I am looking forward to book three more than anything put out by Marvel or DC.

As for the artwork, Karl Slominski really delivers in every scene. It's cartoony when it's meant to be slapstick, sketchy when there's evil afoot, even crude (and hilarious) to demonstrate the ancient past of primordial man. It's a highly stylized black and white, caricature-esque style with lots of detail work, which usually winds up looking like a mess of lines when guided by a lesser hand. But I was never confused about who was who, what was happening, or the mood/tone throughout both books. In fact, both books are pretty flawlessly crafted. (Despite what Mr. Jenkins says.)

There's a lot of research, love, and craft put into these books and it is very evident almost from the first chapter. You'll laugh, you'll learn things (from mythology to fringe science), and you'll become invested in the world they are creating here. Dr. Anomalous' story is a great comedic lead-in, with Samuel Providence's dark history deepening the mystery. I honestly can't wait to read book three, THE FIVE LIVES OF JONATHAN TUMBLER where we'll learn more about...

Oh, but that's a secret.

Keep up to date with the Plan B Blog and begin reading book one as a (colored!) webcomic that comes with a bit of commentary. You can also follow Josh Jenkins on Twitter or become a fan of the series on Facebook.

Be seeing you.

K

Write Club! "Left Handed Past!" V. 3, Ep. 0b

WRITE CLUB!

In our transition from one volume to another we get some help from the enviously talented writer Josh Jenkins.

We chat with Josh about his Plan B series, mainstream comics, BBC Comedies, and surgically removing frag from the Earth. And some other stuff, I'm sure...

Understand, you will like it!

Intro: "Protect Ya Neck" Wu-Tang Clan

Outro: "Write Club Theme" Scott St. Pierre

Anomalous is pretty hard to spell

My Top 5 Favorite Feminists in Comics

by Josh Jenkins

Kate Corrigan

Powers: Wrote sixteen books on folklore and occult history (not a super power? Let’s see you do it.)
Why I love her: One of my favorite moments in comics involves Kate and her first encounter with a ghost in “The Wolves of St. August.” She doesn’t freak out or run away, she starts balling. So educated on the supernatural she can view ghosts for what they really are: a representation of human tragedy. She is by no means a shrinking violet bookworm; she also outwits an ageless marquis hell-bent on trading her for a homunculus.
Greatest Hits: “The Wolves of August,” “The Universal Machine”

Power Girl

Powers: Nigh Invulnerable, Flight, Super-strength, Very distracting.
Why I love her: The jokes practically write themselves and yet, they don’t. It annoys me to no end when a character is bogged down with all of the “Earth: who gives a rat’s ass” minutia. It isn’t her difficulties that make her interesting, it’s her ability to deflect the way she’s treated by looking the way she looks.
Greatest Hits: “Power Girl: A New Beginning”

Jaka

Powers: Melting the heart of one of the coldest meanest misogynists in comics (Not me, Cerebus).
Why I love her: “How do you write women so well? I think of a man and I take away reason and accountability,” Dave Sim is most noted for being a self-proclaimed misogynist, which befuddles me considering the way he writes this character. I have never bought into the idea that dancing naked for money is feminism. I find the idea completely absurd and offensive, however in Jaka’s case I make an exception. She loves to dance; it is her art form, and she takes great pride in it in the way of monetary value. It’s easy to armchair quarterback and say you’d never exploit your art for money, but if Marvel asked, I’d write the shit out of a Power Pack story quicker than you can say “Snarks and Carmody”
Greatest Hits: “Cerebus Vol. 5: Jaka’s Story”

Jen Walters

Why I love her: Here’s an equation I hope you can follow; I hate She-hulk, She-hulk hates Jen Walters, so I love Jen Walters. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a super-hero more embarrassed by their alter ego. Imagine if you had a version of you that was infinitely stronger, more exotically beautiful, and way more famous than the “real” you will ever be. Would you ever go back to being the real you? How would you ever know if people really liked the real you? Imagine how hard that is. It’s a perplexing dichotomy that’s worth exploring. All I know is, I love ya Jen, hope you get on a cover one day.
Greatest Hits: “She-Hulk Vol 1. Single Green Female”

Mina Murray

Powers: Monster Wrangling
Why I love her: Ya know what’s uninteresting in Hollywood? A woman with no superhuman abilities that can keep rapists, murders, terrorists, and opium addicts in line. Ya know what Hollywood loves? Sexy Vampires! Fuck You everyone involved with the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen movie! Sorry, I have to pull my bloody fist out of 6-inches of drywall to finish this article. Alan Moore has always written strong women well, and I think Mina is my favorite (no offense Evey). I love her for all the reasons mentioned above, AND she helped take down Dracula for god sake!
Greatest Hits: “League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Vol. 1 and 2”

How I F@$#ed up

by Joshua Jenkins

I have been told on more than one occasion that I write in my head. Which means that when people read my work they know that it makes sense, just not to them. I think a lot of people who love comics are by nature introverted, and might also write this way. This is why it is imperative that you…

Get an editor!

No, I don’t mean that ass-hat at the con that laughed at your script in a zip-lock bag. You may have a very long way to go before you earn his hallowed and vicious beatings. For my first book I tried to force feed my script down the throats of every one I knew; aunts, uncles, friends, dead relatives. Half came back with some really fluffy comments like, “It was nice” or “I liked that one part” or “You still have a day job, right?” The other half came back with notes but the feedback was all completely different, and I’m sure half of both halves didn't even read it (I don’t blame them).

You know that movie that seemed to have all kinds of potential; good actors, good director, good writer, but was just bland and uninteresting? It was probably gang raped repeatedly by a focus group. Writing by consensus is never wise, you can’t please everyone and you shouldn’t try to. You don’t want the WAL-MART of scripts.

You really only need one person other than yourself; two at the absolute most. I use my good friend Mat Markert, who has what I consider to be the best qualities of an editor.

1. BRUTALITY – So important! You need someone who will pour charcoal down your throat when you’re overdosing. You may not like it at the time but you’ll be alive in the morning.

2. PROPOSALS – You need someone who will suggest good ideas in place of bad ideas. It isn’t enough to say something sucks; a good editor will also give you a way to make it better.

3. GRAMMAR – I am really, really bad about this. Make sure your editor is better than you. I’ve gone over scripts at least 20 times and still miss things, it’s gonna happen.

I didn’t have an editor for my first book and the differences between book one and two are substantial across the board.

Speaking of editors, I really hope Tim and Kurt are editing these, seriously guys my grammar blows.

How I F@$#ed up

By Joshua Jenkins

Last time I talked about what to do when you get an artist, this was a misstep. I should have started with how to get an artist. And speaking of missteps…

Don’t get your sequential artist off Deviantart!

(Ignore above statement if you’re writing a creepy anthro man-beast comic)

I have no problem with deviantart whatsoever. In fact, I kind of love it. I have gotten a shit-ton of commissioned promo art from there and it is all incredible work. However, we’re talking about sequential artist here, and there are way better places to get them. So here’s the best way I’ve found to go about this.

1. Get a new email account. It doesn’t have to be snappy; you’re only going to use it once.

2. Go on digital webbing forums http://www.digitalwebbing.com/forums/

3. Under Creator Community go to Help Wanted/Paid jobs.

4. Check out the page views on the right. You want to find out what gives certain posts more views than others and try to make your post resemble theirs.

5. For a giggle go to the Help Wanted/Collaboration section and check out the diminished page views. Collaboration = “I’m not paying you shit!”

6. Post what your book is about, not too much detail, just a simple solid pitch. Put your new email and the fact that there is payment involved. (Don’t put how much, save that uncomfortable conversation for later.)

7. Sit back and enjoy looking through people’s portfolios. I recommend doing this right before you have a couple days off. When I did this I was averaging about one per hour for about three days. When it starts to slow down repost which will move it back up to the top.

8. Learn Spanish/Portuguese or get a patient girlfriend that speaks Spanish. I’m not kidding; you are going to get a lot of artists that don’t speak English. I have commissioned many artists that don’t speak English very well for promo art and while I love the final product it is never what I asked for.

9. Go through all submissions carefully; look only at the sequential art that’s what you’re buying. Don’t just jump on the first one you like, shoot them an email saying you’re interested but still looking, you may find another one 2 days later. I’ve had to tell an artist, “never mind I found someone else” before. It sucked, very unprofessional.

10. Send the script and see if he/she still wants to do it. Give them a polite out; you don’t want someone you’re collaborating with hating, or not understanding your script.

11. If the artist is still psyched ask for a sample, have them draw up some characters and see how long it takes them to get it back to you. Ask them how long it takes them to do a page. Finally discuss price. If they ask for something out of your price range see if they can meet you half way, if they’ve gone this far, clearly they are interested.

12. Lastly, build a rapport; when you two start collaborating you’re going to butt heads, it’s natural. Also there is a chance you guys may go to cons together and that is a long time to hang out with someone you hate.

With any luck you should have your artist by the weeks end.