FLASHBACK: How it all started...
And where you can read it.
We hope your summer is going great so far! Just a friendly reminder that if you would like to read our comics for FREE, you can always find them at the JOPLIN PUBLIC LIBRARY in the graphic novel section! Summer is great time to check them out!
Since we are not producing any new Club work over these months, it is a good time to look back… this month we are going all the way back to the very first tournament we ever engaged in as a club… FIST-A-CUFFS. Back in 2011, we were inspired to do this by artist Sam Hiti’s online contest of the same name, which pitted the amazing characters of different illustrators against each other, a few of which you can see here:
Here is what we came up with…
We showed Sam Hiti our version of his tournament and while he loved what we doing, he did ask that we use a different name next time. And thus was born… the CLASH OF CHAMPIONS! But the story of the first volume of that tournament is a tale for another day…
And here is a look back at the beginnings of our original comics anthology… Scribbled Stories! The first issue of this series was created by the 5 members of this Club during its first year of existence (school year 2008-2009). Over the next four years, the Club would grow to average 15-20 members (as our school changed locations because of the Joplin tornado of 2011). We created a group story with a fantasy theme where we each designed fantasy characters loosely based on ourselves. We wrote a story together and our sponsor Mr. Wolfshorndl drew a chapter of it in each of those first four issues. You can see samples of all of this below…
Seventeen issues later and this series is still going strong! It’s pretty amazing to think of how far we’ve come…
Our next public event will be an appearance at JOMOCON from 10am-6pm on Saturday August 2 in the Joplin Expo (attached to Northpark Mall). We will have our new volumes of Clash of Champions, Scribbled Stories, zines, and coloring books! We will also be drawing commissions of your favorite characters! Hope to see you there!
Back in the 90’s, Stan Lee hosted a series of videos called Comic Book Greats where he interviewed other legendary comic book creators. In this episode, you can see him chatting with the master storyteller Will Eisner (The Spirit, Contract with God) and get him to demonstrate many of his techniques on paper!
Thanks for tuning in! More coming next month!