Local artist lends talents to creation of new graphic novelDate: 6/29/2020 SPRINGFIELD – You may have seen news reports of an outrageous nature that begin with the phrase “a Florida man.”
Just do an internet search of the “Florida man” and see what you get.
Writer Mike Baron and Springfield artist Todd Mulrooney have crafted a graphic novel in the spirit of these often-hard-to-believe news stories. The creative team has raised funds for the printing and distribution of the book through a crowd sourcing campaign on Indiegogo (https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/florida-man-graphic-novel-volume-one#/) and have doubled their stated goal with more than 30 days left to go.
Its creators describe the novel as “Gary Duba’s having a bad day. There’s a snake in his toilet, a rabid raccoon in the yard, and his gal Krystal’s in jail for getting naked at a Waffle Castle and licking the manager. Gary is just a southern redneck living in a trailer down by the swamp, but he’s got dreams, big dreams. But it seems like every time he tries to get ahead, fate deals him a low blow.
“Then one day he gets lucky. Along with his best friend, Floyd, Gary sets out to sell his prized Barry Bonds rookie card to raise the five hundred bucks needed for Krystal’s bail, but like always, things find a way of getting out of hand. In fact, Duba's got a way of getting caught in all the wrong places.”
Mulrooney told Reminder Publishing that he started the project with Baron – known for his work for DC and Marvel as well as his book “Nexus” – a year ago. Baron approached him about drawing the main characters of the book and the first three pages of the first script. Baron has already written five issues.
“He shopped it around [to publishers] but didn’t get any traction. It doesn’t really slot anywhere,” Mulrooney explained. “Florida Man” is humor, a type of comic book that isn’t seen very much these days.
“It’s a tricky book,” he added.
The solution was to appeal to comic readers directly with a crowd-sourcing campaign, something that is increasingly common. For instance, Western Massachusetts resident and “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” artist Jim Lawson is among the many creators who have used the platform.
Considering the pair have doubled their goal with a month to go, clearly “Florida Man” is appealing to people. Like other crowd-sourcing efforts, there are a variety of levels of financial involvement, but the most popular is simply getting the book at $25.
The use of crowd sourcing allows the two creators “to do something that’s our own,” Mulrooney said.
Mulrooney is a full-time artist who has worked on other comics projects in the past, most recently “Graveyard Shift Volume 2,” as well as his own book, “Ignition.”
Since the crowd sourcing effort has been successful, “Florida Man” is slated to come out in November. Mulrooney said the plan is fly to Texas where the project manager lives and autograph the books for those people who paid for the $50 level of the campaign.
Mulrooney is a Springfield native – “born and raised here and still live here” – who said that being a fulltime comic artist “is not an easy thing to do.”
He explained. “The mainstream doesn’t pay a livable wage,” referring to companies such as DC and Marvel.
He admits he had given up on his dream to work in comics full-time and had worked for Smith & Wesson. When he was laid off, he decided to give it a go again.
His goal is to “own my own work” and perhaps the success of the misadventures of a Florida redneck and his pals will allow him to follow his dream.
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