Posted in: Comics | Tagged: Bullys Bully, comic, Courtney Huddleston, James Taylor, kickstarter

Huddleston And Taylor Reunite For The Bully's Bully

Published Sat, 16 Nov 2013 13:00:50 -0600

James Taylor writes for Bleeding Cool:

After 15 or so years in the industry for Courtney Huddleston and me, some of our creative friends asked us why we hadn't done our own thing in comics as we've worked together on and off for at least twelve of those years. So we've had ideas brewing in our heads as to what to do while still freelancing for various companies.

Then Courtney's daughter started to encounter problems with a bully in third grade, and a completely different one in fourth grade (even being hit by one of the boys). As a parent his first instinct was to go after the bullies himself. Fortunately, he knew better. So Courtney and his wife were able to go through the proper channels with the school to get the problem resolved, but he was still a bit bothered by it all. So, he decided to do a webcomic on bullying, with a positive and educational spin.

With that Courtney asked me if "Bully's Bully" could be our project to finally do. So I jumped on board before he could even finish his sentence as I had past in elementary school and again in high school with being teased/tormented. Plus we hadn't worked together for a few years so I knew it'd be fun while maybe excising a few demons.

So the adventure started on this journey of "Bully's Bully", launching as a webcomic back in January of this year. Inspired a bit by Andy Runton's "Owly", "Tom and Jerry" and "Fantasia", we wanted to push our selves story-wise artistically by telling a silent comic (though truth be told, neither of us is much of a writer when it comes to dialogue). But this open us up to be a truly all-ages story (if you can't read you can still follow the basic story) and also allows the reader a chance to put themselves in the story.

It's funny we knew were doing something that might help people a bit, a release maybe for stuff that's happened to them in the past or even currently. But as we've worked conventions over this past year promoting the web comic, we've been amazed and horrified over the stories we've heard people had gone through. Courtney and I were both victims of bullying growing up, mostly excessive teasing, but nothing like the stories we've heard. It seems like bullying has gone 100 steps past where it was with us 25 years ago – it's down to just violence and pure cruelty (just watch the Bully documentary). We never expected that bullying victims would latch on to Bully's Bully as they have and those numbers seem to keep growing.

With these stories we've heard, it's driven us even harder to reach out and connect with those fans, in addition to telling better stories.

So this journey has ended up with this whole Kickstarter thing after the second chapter was completed, as well as adding two print exclusive stories and pinups from some industry friends of ours to compile into a 150 page graphic novel.

We decided to skip going the publisher route as we keep total control in our hands. There's a great freedom in doing the webcomic, which gives fans immediate gratification with regular content and for us a direct and instant interaction with those fans. Continuing that into print, Kickstarter has leveled the playing field for self-publishing. With Kickstarter, we have control over pretty much everything. If we succeed, it's our fault. If we fail, it's our fault.

While this Kickstarter campaign is going on we're still currently working/posting on the third chapter of Bully's Bully and have more stories planned for the future. Which you can find at www.bullysbully.com

This has definitely been a project of joy and learning for Courtney and me.