Posted in: Comics | Tagged: Comics, dr. oblivion, kickstarter

Dr. Oblivion's Guide To Teenage Dating

Published Sat, 18 Apr 2015 12:00:38 -0500

Jeff Pina writes,

It started at an arcade. I took my little sister-in-law to her first arcade during a summer break. My wife's family had lived overseas for 18 years and she had never been to an arcade. While we were there, a group of college age guys that were starting to stare at her. She was 15, so obviously, this enraged me. I thought "if I was Doctor Doom, I would vaporize them where they stood…" then I thought… wait… if Doctor Doom had a teenage daughter, and started dating Peter Parker… THEN found out he was Spider-Man… how would he react? Would he then wipe him off the face of the earth? Or swallow his pride for his daughter's happiness? With that, I started writing…

Ok, so for starters, "Dr. Oblivion's Guide to Teenage Dating" was only supposed to be 3 issues. Ever. I released the first issue back in 2005 in the Phoenix area and parts of SoCal to see if I could even complete 3 issues. After I was done, I was going to move onto other projects and never look back. Then I had a few friends ask where the next one was, and I thought they were being nice. Then I had people I had never met who bought the book who were asking about it too. So I came up with a one-shot, "Dr. Oblivion's Guide to Prom" to see if there was further interest. I'm now in the middle of inking issue #11 and penciling issue #12 (written by the highly talented Eric M. Esquivel) with the next 3 issue written and the next 3 arcs planned out.

At the time, I didn't color the issues. The three indy comics that got me wanting to do my own books (Scud, Strangers In Paradise and Bone) were in black and white, and there was no way I could afford a color run, so was content with the black and white format. Fast forward to Doc O's 10th anniversary and the first 5 issues are days away from having the colors completed by my colorist, Shannon O'Connor (who threatens to fill the pages with hand turkeys) to fill the first graphic novel.

Dr. Oblivion isn't my only comic series, but it is the most consistently drawn over the last 10 years (seriously, I work on about 6 self-published series of mine…. I don't sleep a lot). He's a snarky, bitter jerk of a villain who doesn't see himself as a villian, just a man with the means and power to run the planet better than everyone else. All the while, trying to be a good dad to his genius daughter, Callie. If it wasn't for that little jerk of a boyfriend Callie is dating, then life would be good… but what fun would that be to read (or write)

The Kickstarter I have up and running runs until May 1st and I've included some pages so you read a sample of the comic if you've never read it, or if you have, to see it in full color. The graphic novel will also have a lot of extras packed in there as well.

Dr. Oblivion turns 10 this year and I couldn't be more excited. I get to make comic that has a fierce, loyal fan base that keeps growing and growing. I've included a link to read the entire first issue for free. Hopefully, you'll become a fan too.

Enjoyed this? Please share on social media!