The launch of G-Man Comics with the first two issues of Simon N. Kirby, The Agent is on Kickstarter! This Kickstarter is starting a whole bunch of cool things! It is the launch of G-Man Comics! It is the launch of not only one but the first two issues of Simon N. Kirby, The Agent. It is also the launch of a very real, very coherent, and realized superhero universe.
The first thing people might notice is the homages made to a wide variety of subjects. Joe Simon and Jack Kirby. The super team supreme of comics past. Others might note the visual reference to the MLJ / Archie Comics Shield and Lancelot Strong. Others might think Captain America or Fighting American.
No comic or comic creator or publisher can say they have no influences or are inspired by what they read in the past. But as creators build upon the past, they unleash fresh ideas and outlooks with their creative visions. They are akin to a DJ who spins audio education of past sounds with new sounds, blending a musical brew that creates rather than copies.
When I see what I have from the World of G-Man Comics, that is what I think. G-Man Comics is creating something new with the dynamic energy and enthusiasm that I saw in the indie comic scene of the 80s.
Today I have the honor of interviewing Rik Offenberger for the second time. Rik should be a name you are familiar with. Rik is known for many things, today though, we talk to Rik about G-Man Comics and his upcoming Kickstarter for Simon N. Kirby, The Agent.
There is a very involved setting that Simon N. Kirby starts in. From Simon N. Kirby, The Agent’s bio:
“In 1963 Congress passed the Super Hero Registration program. With public concern over the emergence of superheroes and Villains, all superheroes were required to register with the F.B.I., reveal their secret identity, and be deputized by the F.B.I. Anyone failing to register was listed as a supervillain and subject to arrest.
President Trump funded the program for the first time with his 2018 budget. Agent Kirby was assigned to head up the program which included suiting himself up as a superhero and actively registering superheroes as well as calling upon them as needed to police the supervillains, keep them in line, and bring them in when they cross the line.”
First Comics News: Homages aside, this is very different from Marvel and DC Comics! There is quite a lot more for readers to uncover as they explore the world of G-Man Comics. What else can you let us know in advance of the debut of Simon N. Kirby, The Agent, and its Kickstarter?
Rik Offenberger: This is the world outside your window. If superheroes existed in real life the government would register them. There would be no question, there is no rebellion on this. They are quasi-policemen deputized to do their job.
1st: Having President Trump in the G-Universe places it closer to the real world than some companies have theirs. What other real-world things might we come to expect?
Rik: I want to keep this as close to the real world as possible. Simon N. Kirby is an FBI agent who is assigned to dress like a superhero. As a result, acts like an FBI agent. He’ll arrest the bad guys, they’ll be brought in for questioning, they have attorneys, etc. We will have a lot more of a police procedural aspect to the story than just a bank robber holding the bag with a big dollar bill sign on the side of it. We have to suspend our belief that there are superheroes in the world. But I want it to feel more genuine.
1st: According to the above, superheroes have existed at least since 1963, if not before. A lot of time has passed before our story in Simon N. Kirby, The Agent (especially when you consider Judah “The Hammer” Maccabee!). Not only is he in the unenviable position of registration enforcement, but he is also in the grand scheme of things superpowered, Simon is a relatively new face of being a superhero yet uber important to all things heroic. Who are some of the other heroes we can expect to read about and how do they view Simon N. Kirby, The Agent?
Rik: We are launching with four of my heroes. We have The Agent, Sgt. Flag and Lynx, are a couple. Simon N. Kirby, The Agent has been with me for a long time. Simon N. Kirby is the title character and he is a third-generation FBI Agent who leads a superhero team called the G-Men. The G-Men are a “Mission Impossible” style team, in which Agent Kirby will select different members for different missions. Sgt. Flag is a Marine charged with search and rescue missions for fellow Marines. Currently reassigned to the G-Men. Lynx is an Army Ranger turned urban superhero. When I was a comic retailer, I created him and we did an ashcan. Now Lynx is a team with male and female members. They are a couple who enjoy fighting crime together. You will see more of them in Simon N. Kirby, The Agent #2. We are incorporating Jim Burrows’ World of New Arcadia and he has a variety of superheroes as well as Eric N. Bennett’s superheroes. But from my corner of the universe, it’s all very real-world-based at least in my mind.
1st: What are Agent Kirby’s powers and how do they equate with the levels of powers of the heroes and villains that are part of the G-Man Comics universe?
Rik: Agent Kirby has no powers. He has to rely on his tech. His uniform is made from 9-ply Kevlar. His chest piece is a ceramic trauma plate comprised of boron carbide. Agent Kirby’s uniform absorbs kinetic energy from a plate underneath his chest plate. Any force striking the chest plate is absorbed into microcircuitry embedded into the uniform, and the blast is released through his gloves. There is only one problem. All of his techs are manufactured by Rothländer Industries. Owned by Henry Rothländer who is Murder Hornet, the villain from Simon N. Kirby, The Agent #2. Therefore, his tech malfunctions or is ineffective any time he is battling Murder Hornet or his allies.
1st: Speaking of villains, who might be plotting a way to strike terror as we speak?
Rik: Aside from Murder Hornet, we have the Aryan Alliance show up in the first issue. The Aryan Alliance is a white supremacist militia. Just like the group that wanted to storm Area 51, the Aryan Alliance has its conspiracy theory. They believe Peter Beter’s claim there is no gold in Fort Knox. They’re going to storm Fort Knox to prove there is no gold and destabilize the country so they can take over. If they’re wrong, they’re going to steal the gold. Aided in their endeavor, they will have a 16’ giant robot, Vanguard. Vanguard is also built by Rothländer Industries.
1st: What does the N. in Simon N. Kirby stand for?
Rik: Norbert. Vocally it makes Simon N. Kirby sound like Simon and Kirby. The Norbert name is a tip of the hat to Mike Baron’s Badger and an artist friend named Norbert.
1st: You’re the writer. Who else is in the creative equation for Simon N. Kirby, The Agent? All these talents at G-Man have interesting credits attached to them outside of G-Man Comics.
Rik: Gilbert Monsanto is the artist in issue one. Eric N. Bennett introduced me to Gilbert. I was doing a series of mock covers with Mitchelle Kwok and Eric told me I had to have Gilbert draw Agent Kirby for his Facebook Arena. That was the start of the road of going from a mascot character I used for First Comics News, DeviantArt, and Facebook and him becoming a full-fledged comic book character.
Alan Faria is the artist in issue two. I saw his work on Marshall Strong and asked him to do the piece that will be one of the alternate covers for Simon N. Kirby, The Agent #1. He wanted to do more with us, so I had him do the Lynx Who’s Who page. I was so blown away by that image I had him start on Simon N. Kirby, The Agent #2.
1st: Simon N. Kirby, The Agent is an excellent comic to introduce the G-Man Universe. He is the prime participant in enforcing the registration. He’s going to interact with and know each hero and villain. Bravo! This is not a spur moment, let’s create a comic, comic book! Everyone at G-Man has thought things out for a while it seems. How long has G-Man Comics been brewing?
Rik: It kind of depends on what you mean because I’ve been working on this all my life. This includes elements from every comic I’ve ever read and every idea I’ve ever had for what makes a good comic. Jim’s is part of the universe and is more than 20 years old, coming from the world of gaming. Jim brings a rich tapestry of his New Arcadia to G-Man Comics. Eric N. Bennett brings in characters he created years ago. His characters have evolved over time and also give an American patriotic reflection to his own Steelwolf character. G-Man Comics as a company started in 2018. The first thing we published was the Who’s Who Handbook of the Gmail Universe last year.
1st: In my introduction I mentioned influences. Agent Kirby does pay respect and homage to a variety of comics but is a very different weave and tapestry of comic creation than what has been created before.
In a way, it’s like the letters for S.H.A.Z.A.M each gives a trait, ability, or power to Shazam, who, he, himself is Billy Batson. Shazam is nothing like Solomon, Hercules, Atlas, Zeus, Achilles, and Mercury but his makeup is. At the same time, Billy and Shazam while similar are different as well. To me, that is how a lot of creativity is.
What are some of your influences? How did they inform Agent Kirby and how is The Agent different from them?
Rik: All patriotic characters are some reflection of the Shield, who was first, or Captain America, who was the most successful. As a kid, the first character I gravitated to was Wally West, Kid Flash from Teen Titans. There are a lot of those Flash stories in this comic. After all, first and foremost, I am a comic fan. The Simon N. Kirby character is more like Barry Allen than anything else. However, unlike Barry, he’s a guy who doesn’t want to be a superhero. He’s assigned the role as part of his job. Once assigned the role he’s going to make the most of it. He’s an FBI agent so we’re going to have a lot of procedural items in there. My other patriotic character Sgt. Flag is Rob McFarlane. Another tribute name. With Sgt. Flag is everything about being patriotic that Agent Kirby isn’t. Think of The Agent as a Silver Age hero and Sgt. Flag as a ’90s Image hero. The other two characters are from my days as a retailer. Lynx was a character that we produced as an ashcan for in my comic shop more than 20 years ago. Now Lynx is a couple. The word Lynx is both plural and singular, much like the word Deer.
1st: Over the years, from your dedication to preserving the memory of MLJs Joe Higgan AKA the Shield and other superheroes to G-Man comics you have shown pride in patriotism. I hardly think G-Man Comics is an exercise in PC’izm. There is a difference between patriotism and politicalness or nationalism.
I’m curious what your idea of patriotism is. For yourself personally and in light of Simon N. Kirby, The Agent, and G-Man Comics?
Rik: I’ve always been patriotic, even as a kid. I have a strong sense of national loyalty and pride. As an adult, I’ve been both a Democratic and a Republican. I am financially conservative and socially liberal. I think there is too much government regulation of people’s private lives by both parties. That convinced me to become a Libertarian. I’m not so Libertarian that I want to defund public education, but there is a lot of government waste and over-regulation. Neither party can balance the budget. I don’t think anyone disagrees with that. In general, I consider myself a very patriotic moderate.
1st: How did Joe Simon and Jack Kirby influence you? What other creators spoke to your imagination?
Rik: Joe Simon and Jack Kirby were such giants in the comics industry they touched everyone who reads comics whether they know it or not. I met Joe Simon a few times in person and emailed him other times. He was a personal hero of mine based on his body of work. He had such a vivid amount of ideas from Captain America to Brother Power the Geek, it’s staggering. I never met Jack Kirby, but his composition and his ability to show power, energy, and emotion in simple images his imagination was well beyond its time. I use a “mother box” every day, but in 1972 Jack was the only one who saw this coming.
1st: You are EIC and a writer for G-Man. G-Man Comics has a lot of other cool talents on staff.
Tell us about the powers that are behind G-man Comics.
Rik: G-Man Comics is me, Jim Burrows, and Eric N. Bennett. Jim Burrows is a novelist who has been involved in role-playing games since the 1970s. He started building the world of New Acadia, the setting for the G-Man Universe stories, two decades ago. Since retiring from the high-tech world, he has been writing on topics ranging from Machine Ethics, AI, and Cybersecurity to High Fantasy and Superheroes. Jim edits the entire line, as well as doing the lion’s share of production.
Eric is a full-time professional graphic artist for AccuWeather, Inc. in State College, Pennsylvania (home of Penn State University). A married father of two sons, Eric is best known for his character Steel Wolf. Here at G-Man Comics, he has created a parallel universe version of Steel Wolf, a character named American Eagle III. Eric also is known as “the profile guy,” having written and compiled well over 200 individual character handbook entries. He’s also written several short Steel Wolf stories, as well as a comic featuring the cosmic menace known as Stellarex. Additionally, he’s credited as the co-writer and letterer of several other story projects, some of which appear on the deviantART website, and others that are in progress to be released at a future date.
For us, G-Man Comics is an imprint, not a company. In the same design as Image Comics. My characters are mine. Jim’s characters are his and Eric’s belong to him. If we choose to crossover we will own our characters separately.
In addition, we have a lot of really talented people joining us. I mentioned Gilbert and Alan before,
Gilbert Monsanto is the artist on Simon N. Kirby, The Agent #1. Gilbert started his career as a comic book writer/artist in the Philippines in the ’90s. He later became the chief instructor for Whilce Portacio’s comic creation school in Manila for three years. He penciled Hellcop and Houdini: The Man from Beyond under Image Comics. He’s done other projects like the 50th Anniversary Trilogy of Darna (Mango Comics), Hands of the Dragon (Black Ink Comics), and some independent titles like Bayan Knights.
Alan Faria is the artist on Simon N. Kirby, The Agent #2. Alan is an artist and colorist from São Paulo, Brazil. He has illustrated children’s magazines and newspapers in Araraquara. He also has worked as an illustrator in advertising. Some of his work can be seen in comics from DC Entertainment and Dynamite Entertainment, where he worked as an art assistant. Currently, he is working on Argo Comics, Marshal Strong, and right here at G-Man Comics!
We also have Steven Butler as a cover artist. Steven is my buddy from Archie Comics. We worked together on the promotion of the Archie Comics New Look when we both worked there. He is a fan-favorite comic book artist who has worked at all of the major publishers. He is well-known for his Marvel Comics art on the Web of Spider-Man, Silver Sable, and many other popular titles. At Archie Comics, he was the long-running artist on Sonic the Hedgehog. For Charlton Neo, co-created Mr. Mixit and produced Warrior Women of the Golden Age! He and his daughter Lily formed the Duo Publishing company, publishing Fianna McCool and the Hound of Ulster.
I asked Joshua 1:9 Holley to join us and create the art for our letter page header. Josh is an artist, writer, teacher, and musician based in Rincon, GA who works full-time in ministry at The Chapel Effingham. He’s the creator of Word Weirdos – trading cards for kids that help them memorize Bible verses. Aside from his ministry comic pursuits, Josh has also done illustration work for Lucky Comics and Empire Comics Lab. He is inspired every day by his wife, Anna, and their daughter, Brenna. Joshua also came up with the final look of Ariel-51 a villain in Simon N. Kirby, The Agent #3, and will be seen in the Handbook and trading cards for this Kickstarter.
Lou Mougin is an old friend and he serves as our story editor. Lou is a writer and historian of comics, new pulp, and anything he can get his hands on. He has worked for Marvel, Heroic, Lucky, Eclipse, THE CREEPS, Pro Se Productions, Claypool, InDELLible, and now G-Man Comics. Old but immature, Christian, trying to hang on. I think Lou is only working with us because he is my friend, but we are lucky to have him with us and keep us honest.
Darrin McDonald is our videographer. Darrin is a filmmaker, writer, director, and producer best known for his YouTube channel, FizzFop, about comic books, superheroes, and the people who create them. His main focus is on forgotten superheroes from the past—many of whom once had fans in the millions, but are now almost completely wiped from the public memory. Darrin talks not just about comic book heroes—he also includes old-time radio programs, pulp magazines, dime novels, and movie serials. Darrin is an Emmy-nominated producer. You don’t want to know what our Kickstarter video would look like without him.
1st: From First Comics, Eclipse, Comico, and many others to Image, Wildstorm, and others, the indie scene of comics has provided a great alternative for readers wanting something different from Marvel and DC. Much like there will be readers of all things comics, not just the big two. There’s nothing wrong with that. There are millions of comic book fans across the planet. Everyone has different tastes.
What kind of comic book is G-Man Comics trying to provide for comic book fans?
Rik: I am a lifelong comic fan, former comic retailer, and comic journalist. I am making comics I like. I assume that there are other fans out there with similar tastes in comics. The Kickstarter will prove if I am right or not. Either way, G-Man Comics are about people who are superheroes and supervillains. Agent Kirby is an FBI agent who dresses up as a superhero but at his core, he is Simon N. Kirby the agent. Murder Hornet is Henry Rothländer, a white supremacist, he is a villain by definition. No one makes better villains for patriotic heroes than Nazis. Henry is also the premier arms manufacturer for the US Government through his Rothländer Industries. He has ways of hiding his identity despite the need to register. As Henry Rothländer, Murder Hornet is a rich, powerful, and politically well-connected man. He won’t just be a dangerous villain for The Agent, he will set his sights on Simon N. Kirby.
1st: There are plans for a lot more to come. Simon N. Kirby, The Agent is an exciting start that begins what will usher in other titles, heroes, villains, and comic book excitement. What reveals can you announce or clues for us to try and decipher?
Rik: Gilbert has already agreed to do at least 3 comics for us. He is doing this Kickstarter for Simon N. Kirby, The Agent #1. After this, he will be starting G-Man Comics 3in1 #1. As the name implies will have 3 stories, one from me, one from Jim, and one from Eric. The last comic Gilbert has agreed to draw for us is Judah “The Hammer” Maccabee. This is not a superhero comic. It is a bible comic telling the story of the biblical Judah Maccabee. Judah will be drawn as a superhero but the comic will be biblical. I used a contemporary version of the character in last year’s Who’s Who Handbook of the G-Man Univers, but the comic will feature the bible story from the book of Maccabees. Alan only signed on for Simon N. Kirby, The Agent #2 so far but fingers crossed this is just the start of something big and Alan and Gilbert will be making comics with us for years to come.
1st: You have a rocking and talented crew, and an impressive superhero-driven universe and G-Man Comics has an interesting description on your website: “We are a micro-publisher who specializes in comics and fanzines sold at printing cost and free digital comics”. Tell our readers about this aspect of G-Man Comics.
Rik: Well this project kills that, doesn’t it? To date, we have published 5 fanzines and 1 who’s who comic all as free digital downloads. We offer a print version at the cost of our printer charges to print and ship with no profits to anyone who worked on the comic or fanzine. With this comic, we are producing our first for-profit item. To put together an actual comic we need to pay the artists. So this changed our business model.
1st: Technology makes your premise possible. This is great. Comics can be quite pricy. It feels good that someone cares about making comics available to everyone! Speaking of technology. The internet has changed things for interviewing! I’m going to try something here. One question to each of the talents on the Simon N. Kirby, The Agent talent roster:
1st: Gilbert Monsanto I’m curious what are you learning from being part of G-Man Comics and doing the art on Simon N. Kirby, The Agent?
Gilbert Monsanto: Learning? I guess how to have fun while working with cool creators. G-Man Comics people are professionals with a great less stressful way to get the work done, plus the characters are classic cool.
1st: Alan Faria with such dynamic costumes, powers, and personalities, what was the best part of doing Simon N. Kirby, The Agent #2?
Alan Faria: The best part is that these characters are incredible, AGENT KIRBY has a big shield on his chest, guys this is cool! The LYNX couple cares about each other and cares about the children in their neighborhood, they are kind and impulsive, MURDER HORNET is bad, and will have to be accountable to Team Kirby. It is an honor to participate in this comic book with my drawings. I always liked classic hero comics. I’m enjoying everything about this story, but the best part was seeing Agent Kirby, interacting with the Lynx couple and working together, even with very different personalities, it’s a little dramatic and tense, but different people together for a similar purpose. This is a good challenge.
1st: Eric N. Bennett no doubt lettering creates a mood and aesthetic for comic books. What mood and aesthetic will you be creating for Simon N. Kirby, The Agent?
Eric N. Bennett: First and foremost, I want the lettering to look clean and professional. No matter how nice the art of a book looks, I’ve found that bad lettering can take me right out of it. So I do my best to make sure everything looks as good as I can make it. In addition to that, with Agent Kirby being an FBI operative, I’ve so far tried to make the caption boxes look like an almost file-like visual. His captions have their unique look that’ll follow him through into the future of the series and any other project of which I’m a part.
1st: Lou Mougin Earlier I mentioned how G-Man has the energy and feel of the great ’80s superhero comics. You were part of that exciting time in comics at Eclipse, Heroic, and other companies. I was only a reader and manager of a comic store. I’d love to hear your take on my comment.
Lou Mougin: I’m hoping we’re at least as successful as the aforementioned companies!
1st: Jim Burrows you are proof that the chicken came before the egg or would that be the egg before the chicken? Tell us about the evolution of New Acadia.
Jim Burrows: The city of New Acadia and the world and multiverse it resides in all have a long history, both in real life and in the world.
I started reading comics a little more than 60 years ago and soon found my way to the world of fanzines, and “amazing”, amateur ‘zines published using ditto, mimeograph, and photo-offset printing. Seeing the examples in Alter Ego, Star-Studded Comics, Fantasy Illustrated, and the rest, I started making up my characters. One of the very first was “Twilight”, who dressed in a black and white particolored outfit and owed a lot to Dr. Mid-Nite, Dr. Light, the Eclipse, and the 1940s Daredevil.
Twenty years later, the Superworld role-playing game came out, first as part of Worlds of Wonder and then as a game of its own. For the next couple of years, our Tuesday night RPG was superheroes, and a friend and I took turns running so that each of us could have player characters. Twilight and a few of the other characters that had been doodling in my notebooks populated the world along with PCs and NPCs from all sorts of superhero supplements. My first PC was the Sentinel of Liberty, which was taken from the name of Captain America’s fan club.
The campaign ended in the late 80s and was shelved for more than a decade. Then I got the bug and decided to create a coherent Pulp and Superheroes world to run another campaign in. But, I didn’t just create a superhero world. I created a whole multiverse connected by a world between worlds called the Halflands. From it, you could travel to worlds of high fantasy, science fiction, space opera, pulps, and superheroes.
I was kind of fond of the idea of Jenny Sparks, “The Spirit of the 20th Century”, and decided to create a character whose career started as a pulp hero like Doc Savage, the Shadow, and the Green Hornet evolved into a Batman-like character and on through the whole 20th century. I hadn’t gotten far when he became “she”: The Mystery Woman and the world started to build around her. A few more months and she was Bette Noir, with sidekicks like Giordano, her chauffeur, “Sam, the Dragon”, a young Asian kid, and “Bella Donna”, her teen sidekick. Unlike Jenny Sparks, Bette was not one person but a series, generally with a former Bella Donna becoming the next Bette Noir.
About this time, Jeff Hebert created HeroMachine an app for creating images of avatars for RPGs, both fantasy and superheroes, and I had portraits of all the Bettes, the Bellas, Twilight, the Sentinel of Liberty (who became the Champion of Liberty, because Marvel had taken to calling Capt. America “the Sentinel of Liberty” a whole lot more), and two or three hundred other heroes and a hundred or so villains. I had portraits, sourcebooks for both the superhero and pulp eras of the world, and the beginnings of a city for my main action, one that combined aspects of Boston, New Orleans, and San Francisco, cities I love.
And along came Rik and the Shield G-Man Club. I loved the idea of a club created by fans for fans that generated a lot of freebie material and merch. I’d retired and started writing high fantasy and superhero novels set in the worlds around the Halflands. Through fortuitous accidents, Champion of Liberty 2 got created and met Agent Kirby and Sgt. Flag in Rik’s series of faux covers, and his characters and Eric Bennett’s came to New Acadia.
So that’s the real-life history, but what about New Acadia itself? Where is it? How did it get there? Well, it happened something like this:
Almost 300 years ago, the English wrestled the colony of Acadia away from New France and kicked the French out. The Acadians came back, so the Brits kicked them out again and stocked Acadia full of Scotsmen (my mother’s ancestors) and other troublemakers. In our world, the bulk of the Acadians ended up in southwestern Louisiana after 1,500 of them were turned away from Boston.
In the world of Bette, Twilight, the Champion, and the rest, there was one persistent anomalous French Catholic mission that managed to hold on in Massachusetts, in the western part of Newbury. Because of it, 2,000 Acadians, largely French, but many intermarried with Mi’kmaq natives, settled in the area around the mission. When Waterside was broken off from Newbury, instead of becoming Newburyport, it became New Acadia, a more culturally diverse town than the rest of New England.
Where Louisiana’s Acadian exiles became the Cajuns, New Acadia has its “Acadies”. Many of the Haitians who settled in French-speaking Louisiana in our world settled in New Acadia, and the city became more racially diverse. Because of that, many escaped slaves who “rode the underground railway” to Canada stopped in New Acadia. And so, like New Orleans and San Francisco, and to a lesser extent, Boston, New Acadia has been a culturally diverse, multilingual port city from the start. It is now the second-largest city in New England.
If Boston, New Orleans, San Francisco, or even New York would make a good setting for a story, it would fit easily in New Acadia, but the author needn’t stick to the actual history and geography of those cities. My novel, the Demon Priest, starts in a cobblestoned alleyway not far from Chinatown and the Theater District. Agent Kirby and the FBI G-Men are only a few hundred miles away in the nation’s capital.
The city is home to the Lyonnaise the skyscraper owned by the World’s Richest Superhero, Lionheart, the neutral Household that provides all sorts of services to superheroes and villains alike, and manages to keep its neutrality, because it is home to Titania, the superhero who is also Queen of the Fairies, and an accredited ambassador.
Where DC, the FBI, and the G-Men have to run by tight (if not entirely incorruptible) regulations, one of the key regional headquarters of FALCON is in New Acadia and runs a little more… pragmatically. FALCON, like the CIA, traces its origins back to the clandestine services of the OSS and has had exclusive access to the Little Green Man and his tech since 1947. The New Acadia office is run by Special Agent in Charge Simone Lefort, the famous Woman of Bronze. Lefort can be flamboyant, pragmatic, and flexible, as befits her city.
1st: Two issues in one buy! August 1st it all begins. What Kickstarter fun can we expect for this month-long event? From the looks of its cards, T-shirts, posters, original art, a chance for your hero to be included in the comic, and a lot more is coming Kickstarter’s way!
Rik: We have a lot of fun planned for the Kickstarter, we hope to give everyone 3 comics for the price of 2. If everything goes well we will produce a new 2020 version of the G-Man Comics Handbook.
Trading cards are something that was a big deal in comics in the ’90s I remember the Marvel Universe Trading Cards fondly so again if we are successful we will do that with our heroes.
We have a relationship with One Hour Tees in Chicago, they produce Pro Wrestling Tees for independent wrestlers. They will be doing our tee shirts, I believe we are their first independent comic tee shirts. Hi-quality printed in the USA tee shirts.
Mort Todd and Alan Faria both donated art to the Kickstarter that is not part of the comic itself. I felt the best way to utilize the art was to produce some posters that had unique images. Gilbert did a piece with Simon N. Kirby, The Agent, and Sgt. Flag for his Arena and although not part of the comic it makes a great poster.
1st: What exciting plans do you have after the Kickstarter?
Rik: The goal is always to be successful enough with the Kickstarter to do it again. As we launch this Kickstarter I am writing Simon N. Kirby, The Agent #3 so the goal would be to bring this issue to life too.
Rik: This is the beginning of something special. Comics as comics instead of a message or agenda. I hope people will check out the Kickstarter.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/g-man-comics/simon-n-kirby-agent-shield-1-and-2
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