Hi there, and welcome to the message board hub for Action, Ohio, a webcomic created by me, Neil Kleid, and artist Paul Salvi. This board is where Paul and I will give you some behind the scenes stories, sketches and offer our thoughts about comics and some cool images you can use to help get the word out. it's also a place for you to come and tell us what you think, talk comics and whatever is on your mind, and get in touch with who and what we are.
A bit about me - I'll let Paul introduce himself:
I received a Xeric Grant to produce a graphic novella entitled Ninety Candles and in early '06, Brownsville, my graphic novel about the Jewish mafia, debuted from NBM Publishing. I have written for Marvel (X-men Unlimited #14), Shadowline and Image Comics (The Intimidators, Comic Book Tattoo), Puffin Graphics (the adapted Call of the Wild), Slave Labor Graphics (Ursa Minors!), Papercutz (Tales from the Crypt) and Random House/Villard (Postcards) and am currently working on mini-series and graphic novel projects for IDW Publishing, NBM and a few others. I am also a founding member of the Chemistry Set, where you can read two issues of my comic, Todt Hill. Feel free to look through my website:
www.rantcomics.comAction, Ohio is a labor of love for me; a project I've been working on for over six years. It's taken many forms and encompassed many characters, themes and storylines to get to it's current state. It's weathered collaborators, editors and artists and I couldn't be happy to find it in Paul's hands and on the Shadowline webcomics hub. I'm a firm believer in the instantaneous power of the webcomic and the wider audience a comic like ours can receive via the internet. Our hope is that people dig it enough to check it out, come back for more, tell their friends and put enough push behind it that we can offer some physical collections.
Here at this board, I'd like to talk about the origins of the comic, inspirations and influences and introduce some of the characters you'll see. Back when I wore short pants, in the summer of Ought-Four, I was knee deep in a handful of comic books that deconstructed superhero continuity, took characters we know and love and turned them upside down, shook them like a martini and dropped them into a cocktail glass of fictionalized wonder. Watchmen. The Authority. Planetary. I admire writers that are able to spin new worlds, new dilemmas using history and mythology, like James Robinson's Starman, and I've always wanted to try it myself.
When I first envisioned Action, Ohio, I'll readily admit that it was a cut and dried Marvel pitch. It gathered the Stan-Jack oeuvre and dropped them in a real world situation where their powers weren't necessarily a gift, forcing them to face their responsibilities when the veneer Stan and Jack created to hide them from the world was shattered by the rude awakening of a group of rebels and misfits. Over the years, I struggled with the story - even going so far as to recruit a co-writer - and the themes and motivations changed, the characters went through dramatic transformations but there was always the fascination of the mythological Silver Age comic books. What I finally understood was that I was pigeonholing myself - rather than focus on Stan and Jack's contributions, I would use them as a door to open the Pandora's Box of the entire Silver Age of comic books.
It was Paul who helped me understand what the story was about and how to frame it - it's a murder mystery, yes, but it's also a soul searching exploration for heroism, courage and the truth. It's about sacrificing what you want for what's right. And who among us can't relate to that? As we continue the story, the dedicated reader will pull each layer back to let the flash of recognition him or her and our hope is that you'll be like I was - drinking deep from the shaken cocktail of characters I know and love, mythologies and legacies I grew up with as a young comic book fan - and that you'll join us at Antony's General Store, pull up a checkerboard and set a while.
If only to see what happens.
Welcome, stranger, to Action, OH.
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