Can you give us a summary of what your comic is about?
Frosty: Time & Again, on the surface, is a story about a character who lost something very precious in his life and is trying to regain it. He finds a way to do so, but unexpected things happen when he starts tinkering with time and space.
It’s a mix of genres; every chapter is written so it can be read in any order. Which is weird, but that was my idea. It started as a one-shot, then kept growing, and now I have eight chapters planned. Five are done, and the sixth one is in development.
Mike: Oldsmobiles with Laser Guns is about three best friends who find this oldsmobile and they’re blasted into outer space, and they’re trying to make their way back home. Unlike other comics about space and space opera stuff like that, there is nothing discernibly special about any of them.
None of these guys are the chosen ones, none of them have the force, none of them are space wizards or anything like that; they’re just best friends. That’s where the comedy comes in: the dialogue of these three best friends bantering and being jerks to each other when they’re in a life-and-death situation. Their dialogue is completely inappropriate for what they’re experiencing at that moment.
They’re staring down the barrel of a gun and making fart jokes.
How are you involved? Who writes and illustrates it?
Mike: I do it all.
I knew that my art wasn’t good, but I wanted to do it. I was not even the slightest bit confident in my abilities, but at least I get to say that I’m the one who did it.
I write; I learned a lot about how to write a comic book script, or at least enough to know you need to write the script first.
Let yourself suck. Embrace the suck.
I’m not getting into this as an established artist. I’m learning to be an artist as this comic goes, so as the characters are developing, as my writing is developing, as my art is developing, the people reading it get to join in a very unique journey, beyond just being told a story.
I did luck out with an editor; I didn’t find out until after he’d finished editing issue two that he also works as a stand-up comedian.
Frosty: The only person who helps me a little bit is my editor, who proofreads the text before I publish to make sure there are no mistakes. Still, we find some afterwards, but that just happens; it’s inevitable.
Everything that I do is completely down to me, from scratch to script to characters to the final product.
As a teenager, I did lots of writing, but I do not know why I suddenly decided to make a comic by myself. That was a madman endeavour, clearly, but I decided to do it anyway, and I have drawn since I was about eight years old.
Why did you decide to create a comic book?
Frosty: A few years back, I had a weird dream that featured a character who was an antagonist in my unfinished story. Unfortunately, I don’t think I’m going to come back to that story anytime soon, but the character was still very interesting to me.
The dream was basically the story of chapter one, with an extra character who was Edgar Lothar’s uncle, and then I thought, hey, I can write that, or maybe I should make a little one-shot comic, because that would look so good if I put it in art.
It was just a very short comic, about 14 pages, but then I just continued working on it.
As I wrote chapter one, I had more ideas for the rest of the story, and then it just kind of grew out of control. That’s how it all happened.
Mike: When I was 15, I wrote a song called Oldsmobiles with Laser Guns. It was all about my parents’ oldsmobile if it had become a spaceship, and basically, the story of Oldsmobiles with Laser Guns was that song.
I thought, “Hey, this song is so cool, I’m going to make a comic,” but at the time, I really didn’t know how to make a comic, and I had no idea how to learn how to make a comic.
It was going to be too difficult to make the comic, and then time went on, and we still played the song as a band, and a new version of the band came out later as I got a little bit older, and we still played the song, and then I had a kid.
It really was something about having a child that made me say, “Why did I stop this thing that I was doing that was great?”
I want her to grow up and have her dad always able to say, “Whatever you want to do, you can do,” but I don’t want to just say that; I want to show that I can do even the most bizarre things, ever.
My daughter will be able to look back on it, and she gets to say, “Oh, my daddy did that.”
What has been the most challenging thing about creating a comic?
Frosty: Time management, because when a person works on stuff like this by themselves, it’s always a challenge to find time and plan your day, especially for a work that is that big.
Chapter one was interesting in this way: I drew everything by hand on paper at first, but the background was digital.
I did not have a graphic monitor yet, then my husband got me a graphic monitor, and my workflow has changed dramatically; that was a great help.
My husband knows that I really love art, so he understands how much it means to me.
Starting in chapter two, everything was digital.
Mike: The hardest thing about the comic is getting people to read it.
It’s finding that audience, and because it’s so difficult to find one, it is far more special when a person buys the comic. Every time someone buys that comic, I feel like a f***ing rock star.
If they can recount even one joke or something, I feel like I did something special, not just for myself, but for them. I gave them a memory that’s going to make them laugh, and maybe one day they’re going to be sitting somewhere, like a business meeting or in church, and they’ll think of that and laugh inappropriately. Everyone will stare at them, and then they’ll get really embarrassed, go red, and all the tension will make them accidentally squeeze out a little fart. Then everyone next to them is going to laugh, and maybe I will have caused that kind of chaos, and I love it.
What’s unique about your comic?
Frosty: I have developed my own font that I use in the comic.
I decided to learn how to make my own font for my comics, so it’s completely my own.
I still use other fonts sometimes when they match the picture, the ID, and what I’m doing, but the primary font used for the entire story is my own.
I handwrote it, and I just used some fonts as a reference to just see what I could do, and I learned how to make fonts that are very good for the visuals of the comics.
Mike: I had decided in advance that I wanted issue three to be 3D, like the full retro 3D.
The problem is that when I was done with the initial drawing for issue three, I found out that making a 3D was gonna be a big pain in the ass, people really wanted the story now, and you also had to print it in colour. So that nearly doubles the printing cost.
I wouldn’t have it ready for at least another six months because I didn’t know how to do that kind of 3D. It was a learning process. It took me close to a year to actually do it.
Originally, the run was just regular, but then, over the last couple of months, I finally released issue 3D, and it looked so good.
It took me longer to make that comic 3D than it did to draw it in the first place. It’s crazy.
What comics have inspired you?
Mike: I like the Punisher because, growing up, I liked that he was a normal person dealing with trauma. I mean, the explosions were kind of good, but what always stood out to me was him dealing with PTSD.
Specifically, Punisher Armoury, in issue two of Oldsmobile with Laser Guns, the space cops are coming out, holding their guns, and there’s a dialogue box talking about the Veldric rifle that they’re using. Nathan pulls a gun out from under the car, and there’s another little dialogue box talking about the gun… it’s all a reference to that.
The art style and the storytelling style are more heavily influenced by European comics. I did not really get into a love for comics until I was first introduced to Charles Burns.
All the different art styles from Europe, and the way comics are laid out there, are completely different from what I was used to seeing here. I make the joke about Tintin, but Tintin really was a heavy influence because of the simplicity of the characters and the elaborate backgrounds.
Frosty: I am a very nerdy person, so I really like to put interesting references that somehow match whatever is happening in my story.
I actually don’t read comics very much, which might sound absurd, but it is what it is.
Of course, I have read some manga; one of my favourite manga is Pet Shop of Horrors, and Neon Genesis Evangelion is a huge inspiration for me.
For western comics, I read Batman and Deadpool, but I have a relatively limited exposure to those.
Video games are definitely a huge source of inspiration for me.
I am a huge fan of Doom, and Dark Souls definitely is a very big one for me.
I also have a few music references in my comic as well, especially in the first chapter, and there are a few ongoing references.
Memes are a huge inspiration for me, especially those very old, outdated memes, like cheeseburger cats, advice dog, and philosoraptor, and all of those weird things.
What’s next for your comic, or what can people expect from you in the future?
Frosty: I may dabble in a bit of web design to make a website for Time & Again.
Primarily, the comic is an online-first project, and I do publish physical copies for the events, such as conventions, but primarily it’s an online project.
Sometimes something might be altered to ensure that the lore is more consistent.
I am thinking about making a few small changes to the previous chapters as well, and then I hope to return to chapter six to finally sit down and work on it and finish it up.
Mike: Issue four is going to come out in September.
I get to address everything, the cliffhanger that issue three left us on.
Once I have issue four, that is going to be my first swan song, because then I’ll have the full first chapter.
The series will probably be about 20 to 24 issues in total, making up five or six chapters.
After I’ve released it as a comic, we’d be looking to release it as both a graphic novel and a manga.
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