New SLG Web Comic: Sparko
As promised, we have a new web comic at SLGComic.com, Sparko by Karl Stephan, a British cartoonist we're proud to be working with. The first seven pages are now up, and we'll be updating it every Monday.
I'm going to write a press release to send out to press-types, but I liked what Karl wrote for his press release blurb so much, that I'll give you readers of this blog the whole thing. (Also, I'm covering for scheduling stupidity on my part -- I should have had the press release ready to go when the comic was up. Oh, wait, I shouldn't have told anyone that.) The first two paragraphs are from the cover letter that Karl sent, which might be of interest to people interested in submitting their own projects to SLG.
Sparko is a dark offbeat fairytale about a near-death experience by which the main character, Norman, is exposed to the strange inhabitants of the dingy fantasy realm that exists beneath London’s streets. He soon finds himself locked in a journey that will force him to confront the truth about his girlfriend’s untimely death, and face the evil that dwells in the river Thames.
It’s a cautionary tale about not letting your problems get the better of you, but with a healthy dose of ghosts, monsters, killer chihuahuas and people going round bashing each other’s heads in to keep the reader’s entertainment levels in the red from cover to cover.
Anyone who has ever lived in London will know it has this enveloping gloom that permeates absolutely everything. I could well imagine that if someone was to give in to the misery, it could suck them in and turn them into one of those creepy glue-sniffing bin people who are always hanging around the super market car park and hounding you for exactly 27p (I mean, WTF?!). I imagined myself in that situation, wasted and on rock bottom, completely consumed by the tragedy that is my own existence. I then proceeded to give my character hell, kicking his pathetic needy arse as much and as often as possible at every conceivable opportunity. I added a weird, alternative reality for a setting and ended up with the first draft for Sparko.
Basically, I wanted to do a comedy with the same premise as Neverwhere, but with the relentless nosebleed-inducing staccato pace of Alan Martin’s Tank Girl. The end result is a racy, nightmarish (and somewhat bipolar) ride through the bowels of the world’s glummest city.
I want to live in London, don't you? It's home of the brash, outrageous and free, after all. And, apparently, to killer grannies on scooters.