First Comics News: What is Steamboat Visions?
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drian Ropp: Steamboat Visions is a new comic book being created by me, Bill and Ben Galvan, and Jacob Greenawalt, in which we explore three different innovative takes on Steamboat Willie. All our efforts are to CHERISH and RESPECT the character and his legacy. We believe the all-ages comics market can be a force to be reckoned with, and we’re exploring how to find contemporary takes on classic characters to provide great content in that market.
1st: How many stories are in the anthology
Adrian: To start with, there are 3 main stories. (Plus a few extras yet to be revealed.) However, that may change if we meet some of our stretch goals. We would love to expand the book! And who knows, maybe we’ll be able to make more!
1st: Is it just a variety of stories, or are there a variety of art styles?
Adrian: It’s both. Each of us, and you can see that from the covers, is bringing something from our artistic style to the book. I’ll let Bill and Jacob explain their inspirations, but mine is based on my years as a storyboard artist – very squishy and expressive. It’s a style that I’ve curated for many years and is sort of a mishmash of Disney and Harvey comics. Of course, 11920sMickey had some reckless adventures. Lots of slapstick. So I’ve tried to keep the drawings very vibrant and animated to relay that feeling. Really, larger than life and very exaggerated.
Jacob Greenawalt: A good anthology relies on variety, and this book is nothing short of great!
1st: How did this project come together?
Adrian: Bill mentioned to me one day that it would be fun to do a book about Steamboat Willie. I had been thinking about it as well, and the idea of collaborating with my friend was too good to pass up. We both knew Jacob would do a great job, so we pulled him into the mix, too. I’m sort of the de facto manager of the project as we’re using my Kickstarter presence and I’ve done a few successful campaigns in the past.
Bill Galvan: I suggested the idea to Adrian about a year ago, when Steamboat Willie entered the public domain. I thought it would be fun for us to put our cartooning and storytelling skills to use on a character that was so beloved. The character of Steamboat Willie is full of possibilities, with him being able to travel and have adventures on the various rivers. Also, my son Ben is a big fan of Floyd Gottfredson, so it was a great opportunity for me to work with him on this project. I pencil the story and he inks it, but he also fine-tunes all my sketches of Willie and Minnie.
1st: Adrian, what is your connection to Steamboat Willie?
Adrian: Well, that little mouse has tugged at my heart since I was little. He means the world to me, personally. He never gives up, and he always roots for the best in people. He’s smart, brave, and funny. Then I got a chance to work on the hit video game series, Disney Infinity, which allowed me to work with the whole catalog of characters. And I realized something very important that will never leave me. The characters are more than the sum of their parts. They have a legacy with every child and adult who loves them, and they’re important. Anyone who gets a chance to work in that arena has a noble obligation to preserve what’s amazing about the characters and create MORE value for their audience. And so, when this opportunity arose, I committed to doing just that. RESPECT the character and bring the world new adventures that make them love the character even more. It’s a lofty goal, but one I take very seriously. And I know the other guys feel the same way. I saw a trailer for a Winnie the Pooh horror movie and I thought – wow, that will be ironically funny for adults, but what’s the cost on kids who find Pooh to be a safe space for them?
1st: Jacob, what brought you to the project?
Jacob Greenawalt: When Adrian contacted me and asked if I had any interest in the concept, I just immediately said YES. Before he finished his pitch, I was already handing him pages upon pages…. Hah, noNo, I think we all had been looking for a way to collaborate again since our days drawing Rocky & Bullwinkle and Underdog comic books, and this was the perfect concept to do that. Steamboat Willie is something we could all get excited about and put our best foot forward art-wise, and ultimately generate the right kind of industry buzz.
1st: What was the collaborative process like between the four of you?
Adrian: Every step of the way has been total and unfiltered collaboration. At least that’s my experience. Everything from the styles to the stories to the strategy of the campaign has been a team effort. Everyone is taking time out of their day to spread the word to people in their sphere. It’s been heartwarming to watch.
1st: Were there any creative challenges that you faced during the making of Steamboat Visions?
Adrian: I’ve tried very hard not to handcuff anyone creatively. There are a few simple rules, like “Here’s the page count you get” and “Here are things you legally can’t do”, etc.
Jacob: Just the normal work-life balancing act. Including the art and development for Steamboat Visions with other contractual art deadlines was a welcome challenge. But crowdfunding is the big hurdle.
1st: Each cover has a distinct artistic style—how did you decide on these approaches?
Adrian: For my cover, I was inspired by the old Walt Kelly “Gremlins” comic. I was also looking at a lot of old all-ages Dell comics from the Golden Age. I wanted it to tell a simple story with a clean, crisp presentation that isn’t super cluttered. I also got inspiration from the brilliant Casper the Friendly Ghost comic book covers. I wanted to convey the idea that this is a new, fresh book with a respect for nostalgia.
Bill: For our cover I tried to push the adventure aspect of the character and make it storyline based. Willie encounters a monster of the deep river and tries to keep his crew and steamboat intact!
1st: What were your influences for the art style and storytelling in Steamboat Visions?
Adrian: Disney artists, naturally. Walt Kelly, Jeff Smith, Iwo Takamoto, and Richard Williams. I’m sort of eclectic with my tastes, but there are flavors of all of them in there. Also, you’ll see in my staging a lot of Don Bluth influence. And always front of mind was the great Floyd Gottfredson.
Jacob: Since we are focusing in on only the Steamboat Willie version of the world’s most popular mouse, the original animated short is our Lense, our parameter, BUT since we are drawing a comic book I wanted to include some influence from the beautifully drawn print comic strips by Floyd Gottfredson.
Bill: Ben and I decided early on to emulate the style of the golden age comics of the 30s and 40s. Ben’s Steamboat Willie design is specifically inspired by Floyd Gottfredson. We are also going to keep the black and white dot pattern look of those early comic strips throughout our story.
1st: How do you balance nostalgia with a fresh, modern take for today’s readers?
Adrian: You know what? As soon as you start trying to be fresh, it feels forced. I think the best way to approach it is just to love the material and do what feels natural to you. You’ll get a little nostalgia mixed with current trends without even batting an eye. I teach a video game writing course, and we have a whole unit about creating new stories for existing characters. You just have to understand what makes this special and how to keep plussing your ideas until they take the book out of your hands and send it to print.
1st: What kind of research went into recreating the vintage comic and animation aesthetic?
Adrian: This question makes me chuckle because I don’t think you want me to tell the whole story of my life. It’s like I was meant to do this, I’ve been training for half a century. So many issues of Walt Disney Comics and Stories and a balance of worn out VHS and DVDs of our favorite plucky mouse are stuck forever in my brain.
Jacob: Yeah, I was going to say ONLY A LIFETIME’S WORTH OF RESEARCH. But seriously, my learning and development in art and animation ran synonymous with this vintage style of a, rt so it was just waiting for a chance to finally get it out on an official project.
Bill: I spend a lot of time looking at old golden age comics and studying what their layout is, the printing process of using specific colors, and the fonts of the time. I wanted our cover to look as if it were printed at the time, with the specific dot patterns that are used by printers on the interior pages and the distressing that happens to old covers over the years.
1st: What made you choose crowdfunding as the method to bring Steamboat Visions to life?
Adrian: Well, fo,r me it was creative control. When you do Kickstarter, you have to invest a lot more time making it happen. But then you can make sure the book is exactly what you want it to be. It made me cringe to think of Exclusive Variant Sexy Minnie covers. That’s not what this book’s about, but I know that is a lot of what is trending right now. We want to make sure this introduces new readers to these types of stories and they become lifelong comics fans.
1st: Can you break down some of the key rewards and stretch goals for backers?
Adrian: We’re keeping the stretch goals under wraps for now, but we have some GREAT reward tiers. There the three covers (and a blank sketch cover), and another tier in which you can get an original sketch from one of us. We have a tier specifically for the enamel pin I’ve designed and another premium tier that allows you to appear as a 1920s cartoon character in one of the stories. Among our add-ons are a lot of Bill’s variant covers, a few of my available comics signed, and more. There’s a bunch of add-ons available, and we keep adding more. We want this book to happen.
1st: How does the “get drawn into the comic” reward work?
Adrian: When you choose this tier, you send me a good photo of yourself, and I redesign you a 1920s animation character that appears in the comic book in a flattering way. There are only four spots available, and I’m excited to see who grabs them!
1st: What are some of the biggest challenges of running a crowdfunding campaign for a comic?
Adrian: There is a sea of comics to choose from, and it can be really hard to stand out. We knew going in it would be a fight to fund, but we are determined. We’re offering something different, and we’re hoping we can find our audience! I think, also, a lot of the interested people haven’t used the platform before. So I’ve been doing some live videos to educate people.
Jacob: It’s very stressful because you want the best possible outcome and have the project be funded, but you also want possible backers and pledgers to understand where you are coming from. Showing them that you have the utmost respect for the source material and that you’ve created a wonderful product should be what makes the campaign stand out in a vast sea of internet crowdfunding… All three of us bring 10 plus years of comic-know-how to this book, and we hope that the art that we previewed shows “Hey, we mean business and plan to deliver the best book we possibly can.”
1st: Does Steamboat Visions introduce new characters, or is it more of a reimagining of classic concepts?
1st: Are there any Easter eggs or hidden references for classic animation fans?
Adrian: I don’t believe in Easter eggs, never have, as it tends to take you out of the story. There might be influences, but Visions can stand on its own merits!
Bill: I specifically modeled our river creature to be a distant cousin to the theFleischer-stylee monster seen in the Superman cartoon “The Arctic Giant”.
1st: Will this anthology be a one-time project, or do you envision more issues in the future?
Adrian: I have been working on developing a comic imprint for a while, and I enjoy working with these fellas, so I imagine success will lead to many more books!
1st: How do you hope younger readers will connect with the book, compared to older fans who grew up with classic cartoons?
Adrian: Older readers have the nostalgia to lean on, so they’ll be an easy win for us. Younger viewers, the kids who will keep the comics industry going someday, are a different story. In my dream scenario, kids enjoy the comic because it’s FUN, and later discover this is based on a 96-year-old character. The best history lessons are often the kind that don’t seem like one. We live in a world where keeping your comics “Mint” is essential, but I hope these get read over and over and over, and kids start drawing their own stories and discovering other great comics. Let them go to a comic shop and say, “Do you have any other Mickey Mouse comics?” They can discover Gottfredson and Barks and Rosa and all the great imported Italian comics and go back-issue diving for old Star and Harvey Comics. And for the slightly older kids, Archie! I’d love this to be a gateway into an amazing and rewarding world. Beyond that, I think a lot of media for children forgets something very important – kids are smart! You can afford to be a little more sophisticated with your ideas.
Jacob: My hope is the art styles will be something the young readers can get into. It’s different from current tv animation styles and not flooded with over-the-top gross-out humor which the market is so saturated with right now. I think Steamboat Visions has a ‘stand out’ factor, that if we can get it funded and onto comic book store shelves, it will capture the eyes of a new audience.
1st: If Steamboat Visions is successful, what’s next?
Adrian: I’m so focused on getting this book done, I’m not thinking that far ahead. But this isn’t the last book. If it is well received, maybe a sequel is warranted. When you are a storyteller at heart, you don’t have one story to tell. You have hundreds. And it’s painful not to share them with the world. So whatever happens, this is not the end.
1st: What’s the biggest reason why someone should support this project?
Adrian: We live in a rough world with a lot of unhappiness. This book is sunshine for the soul. It’s something parents and kids can both enjoy. It features work of artists and storytellers who would like to find more readers, and it helps us remain artists. It’s ALL AGES, and another option for kids and the comic shop. If you lament the lack of ofall-agess choices on the rack, this is your chance to support that. If we are successful, people will notice and it will affect trends. Lastly, if you love these characters, we promise we’re treating them right and you’ll love them even more!
1st: What is the minimum pledge for a digital copy?
Adrian: Everyone deserves a chance to read the book. $5 will get you a digital copy of the book and all the goodies therein.
1st: What is the minimum pledge for a print copy?
Adrian: The minimum pledge for the standard print version is $10.
1st: What makes Steamboat Visions so cool, no true comic fan should miss it?
Adrian: Have you ever read a comic and thought, “Wow, the team really must have loved making this. It’s firing on all cylinders!” Well, that’s what you’re going to get with us. Because of the state of the property, we have a once-in-a-lifetime chance to show WHY he’s cool and WHY he’s worth taking a look. It has the superpowers of artists from video games, comic books, comic strips, and animation, and you’ll feel those influences as you read.
Jacob: Three seasoned All-Ages comic book artists who are giving their best to make one unique comic book -you’ve got a have it! This is the definition of one-of-a-kind.
Get it at KICKSTARTER.COM
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