Comic Creator Shares His Upcoming Projects
An Interview With Comic Book Artist Ben Glendenning
Feb 22, 2009
From a comedy about a superhero tabloid paper to a graphic novel exploring a new side of horror movies, Ben Glendenning’s comic book projects run the gamut from the humorous to the gory.
Suite 101 caught up with Glendenning at the 2009 Phoenix Comicon and got the inside story on some of his upcoming comic books. The following is an edited version of the interview.
Suite 101: You created your first professional comic book Skulljammer with your friends in high school and sold out of all the issues at a comic book convention. What can you tell us about Skulljammer?
Glendenning:Skulljammer is essentially an all ages epic children’s tale with cosmic elements. It’s really a culmination of things I was into as a kid – I’d like to say it’s a cross between Lord of the Rings and The Goonies movie. And we also have a kind of a cosmic Silver Surfer/Fourth World element from DC Comics. I’m a big fan of the hero not really being the hero but helping others become heroes and Skulljammer is really one of those characters.
Suite 101: Your current comic book Superworld Presents has a unique premise – it centers around a tabloid paper specializing in superheroes and villains. What was the process of creating this comic book like?
Glendenning: That was actually a totally self-published venture between me and my writer at that time Jeff Aden. A lot of Superworld Presents came out of us just sitting down and talking about old stuff – characters I’d created since sixth grade.
And Jeff has this really humorous take on everything and we really have a precise vision of where we’re going. In fact Jeff has everything scripted out until issue 16 and there’s an ongoing plot arc that goes through all that, but you can also enjoy the individual comic book issues.
I actually found our colorist, Gary Henderson, on Deviantart and he’s an awesome colorist and a really great guy – he’s actually gone on to do Grimm Fairy Tales books and I think he’s got some DC work lined up. And he was fantastic because he totally understood where I was going because he’d seen my artwork on Deviantart all the time – he was on the same page with us.
Suite 101: You have a number of new projects coming up that sound really interesting – Hellbent and Tin Star Tex. What can you tell us about these comic books?
Glendenning: Hellbent is about how in horror movies, there’s always one survivor. And you’re always wondering – what comes next? How do they cope with everything they’ve gone through?
So Hellbent is basically about a support group for these people, who everyone thinks are crazy. But this doctor gets this group together and they take the fight back to the horrors in the world – they’re hunting supernatural and undead things now. It’ll be straight out horror stories – it’s going to look like you’re holding a Grindhouse movie in your hands.
Tin Star Tex – the easiest way I can liken it is a redneck Dr. Who. Heavy on the comical side with a modern day tall tale aspect. Both Hellbent and Tin Star Tex go into the adult/teenager realm. I’m aiming to have both of these comics out as original graphic novels in 2009.
Read Ben Glendenning’s advice on how to make a comic book at Independent Comic Book Publishing.
Learn the difference between writing a script for animation and a comic book script at Writing for Comic Books and Animated Cartoons.
And check out Skulljammer and artwork from Ben’s other projects at his website.
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