Posted in: Comics | Tagged: Comics, entertainment, kickstarter, tradd moore

Flight Club – A Ten Page Tradd Moore Story For Bizarre New World

Published Sat, 09 May 2015 12:00:59 -0500

Main Book: Writer / Creator: Skipper Martin. Line Artists: Christopher Provencher & Adam Huntley. Colors: Wes Dzioba. Lettering: Tom Orzechowski & Ed Dukeshire. Anthology: Writers: Dan Adams-Jacobson, Corinna Bechko, Neal Bailey, Mike Blaylock, Dino Caruso, Joey Cruz, Wilfredo Duran, Troy Dye, Ellen Everett, Micah Farritor, Dan Hill, Skipper Martin, Nicholas Miceli, Raphael Moran, Chuck Moore, Maxwell Patterson, Tone Rodriguez, Michael Sangiacomo, Greg Thelen, Michael Woods. Line Artists: Cale Ajioka, Atul Bakshi, Tielman Cheaney, Danielle Ellison, Micah Farritor, David Hedmark, Adam Huntley, Roberta Ingranata, Allan Jefferson, Rick Leonardi, Megan Levens, Brent Mckee, Tradd Moore, Daniel Panero Bertucci, Mado Peña, Christopher Provencher, Bob Rivard, Tone Rodriguez, V Shane, Connor Willumsen, Dexter Wee. Color Artists: Wes Dzioba, Ellen Everett, Teodoro Gonzalez, Simon Gough, Kyle Latino, Mado Peña, Michael Spicer, Eddy Swan, Julie A. Wright. Lettering Artists: Ed Brisson, Ed Dukeshire, Bernie Lee, Tom Orzechowski. Close Date: 5/28/15. Publishing Date: September 2015

Ordinary schlub Paul Krutcher is the world's first flying man, but his status as the only flyer is short-lived when the entire human race soon joins him in the sky! The main graphic novel witnesses the flying world from Paul's perspective and has a definitive ending. The short story anthology further explores the flying world from other unique points of view.

Written by Blair Marnell

Imagine if you could fly like a superhero. Now picture a world in which you're not alone. A world where nearly every person can fly.

Welcome to Bizarre New World.

Bizarre New World is a comic book series that sprang from the mind of writer Skipper Martin, with artists Christopher Provencher and Adam Huntley, colorist Wes Dzioba, along with letterers Tom Orzechowski and Ed Dukeshire. The series was nine years in the making, but the 278 page main story is done, finished and ready to be read. However, Martin and his creative team need your help to make it happen, so they've turned to Kickstarter to bring Bizarre New World back to print.

At its heart, Bizarre New World is the story of Paul Krutcher, a seemingly ordinary divorced father who suddenly discovers that he can defy gravity. Paul's brief stint as the world's only flying man quickly comes to an end when the rest of humanity takes flight. From there, Paul has to learn how to adjust to the rapidly changing world while helping his son, Sean cope with being unable to fly. And somewhere along the line, Paul also has to tap into a more heroic side of himself, because sometimes even miracles can be dubious gifts for mankind.

This is where the creator would ordinarily tell you that this is their passion project. But I'm not the creator of Bizarre New World. I'm not even one of the 50 contributing creators to the completed Bizarre New World Anthology. And yet I'm partially responsible for the whole damn thing.

Way back in 2005, I was writing a rumor column for a comic book news site and that's how I met Skip. One night, Skip asked if he could come over to my house and get my thoughts on a comic he was thinking about. Over the course of the next two hours, he laid out his plans for Bizarre New World and I loved it. I encouraged him to go forward with it and put him in touch with Tone Rodriguez, a mutual friend in the comic book industry.

From there, Skip took Bizarre New World much farther than anyone else would have. After two years, he put four issues of Bizarre New World out through Ape Entertainment that were critically well received and criminally under-ordered. Skip could have left it at that. The first miniseries was complete unto itself. But he had more story to tell and he spent the next seven years working towards that goal.

Skip also opened up the world of Bizarre New World to several different writers and artists to get their vision of humanity's new adventures in flight. The 225 page Bizarre New World Anthology has also been completed, with short stories by Rick Leonardi, Tradd Moore, Allan Jefferson, Megan Levens, Tone Rodriguez, Roberta Ingranata, Corinna Bechko, Ed Brisson, Troy Dye and several other creators.

But the most remarkable thing about Bizarre New World is that Skip went out of his way to pay his artistic collaborators, both in the core book and in the anthology. Over the course of a decade, that's tens of thousands of dollars that he's still paying off. Sometimes, Skip even jokingly blames me for getting him into this. I always respond that I'll take the blame if I can also get the credit for everything good that came out of Bizarre New World.

Skip's repeated the tale of my involvement in Bizarre New World's genesis a few times over the years. But what he doesn't mention is that he told me how it all ended back in 2005. Earlier this year, I finally got to read Skip's conclusion to Bizarre New World… and he nailed it. Some of the details had changed in nine years, but the core emotional beats were all there. It's the perfect ending for this story, and that's such a rare thing to see.

Bizarre New World is complete. The only thing left is to get it back in print and out in the hands of the readers that it has always deserved. No one "owes" Skip for his decade long labor of love. But if you want to read a terrific story with amazingly charming artwork then you owe it to yourself to check out Bizarre New World.

You can read a 22 page preview of the main story at BizarreNewWorld.com, along with free short stories that are being released daily, like the one debuting right here exclusively on Bleeding Cool! Check out "Flight Club" by Nicholas Miceli, Tradd Moore, Julia A. Wright, and Ed Brisson. If you like what you see, you can help Skip's dream come true on Kickstarter and witness what happens when humanity takes flight. The Bizarre New World Kickstarter campaign runs until May 28.

Here follows a complete ten page Tradd Moore story from the collection: