Posted in: Comics | Tagged: Comics, doug braithwaite, entertainment, Jamie Gambell, kickstarter, Kid Midnight, Ming Doyle, The Black Wraith

It Was The Smallest Con In The World, Just A Guy Dressed As Spider-Man And Doug Braithwaite Were There…

G. Brett Williams writes for Bleeding Cool:

The Black Wraith and his side-kick, Kid Midnight, go up against their greatest foes in one of their biggest adventures yet! Join them as they escape from death-trap after death-trap, and dig deeper into a secret which will change their world forever!

This is an origin story.

"It was like the smallest comic convention in the world. A room, a guy dressed as Spider-Man and the artist Dougie Braithwaite were there."

Those are the words Jamie Gambell told me years ago when I interviewed him for my now mothballed blog, PING! Mother Box PING!. I had asked him about the moment that he first realized comic books something you could make a living doing. He told me he could remember thinking to himself that day, as Doug Braithwaite helped him draw Colossus, that he had met a man who made a living out of comic books. For Jamie Gambell, that's the moment that his fandom became something more.

Switch gears for a moment and meet an awkward, bowl-cut rocking, ginger-headed nerd in rayon pants and coke bottle glasses, took a class field trip to the Shrine Circus in Nashville, TN. Every year, the Shriners put on a series of circuses that schools from across the region could send their kids to on the cheap. You're probably thinking, "A circus? That's not very educational," and you'd be right. Unless of course you're an awkward, bowl-cut rocking, ginger-headed nerd in rayon pants and coke bottle glasses, and unless of course that circus is giving away free comic books.

I didn't really even know what a comic book was before that trip, but I'd recently bonded with a kid at school over the subject of GI Joe and the Konami Code. We'll call that kid Jake. Jake and I were pretty amped about this trip to the circus, because it was the first time we were going to have to really bond as nerd bros. The entire way to Nashville (about a two hour trip from where we lived) Jake taught me about comic books. He explained about the X-Men and Spider-Man, filled me in on all the twists and romances and derring-do, and generally just blew my mind with all the rad stuff he was talking about. So when we walked into the Shrine Circus that day and there was a stack of comic books on every seat, I couldn't have been happier. I don't remember one thing about that circus. But I do remember reading Excalibur #1 by Chris Claremont and Alan Davis five different times that day. I was hooked. From that moment on, spandex and capes, masks and tights, would be my obsession.

Fast forward back to that interview now, and you'll understand where the Black Wraith kickstarter project really began. Jamie Gambell was one of the first friends in the business that I made through Twitter. By the time we started talking, I'd already gotten a reputation through my blog for being a pretty good interview. Jamie had a book he wanted to promote (Omnitarium), so we had a chat for my site. The conversation went great and we've been friends ever since. At the time, he was working on his analog super hero universe which came to life in Hero Code #1. The majority of our conversations became about how we didn't feel like superheroes were accessible enough anymore. They'd become ultra-violent or overly-sexualized, they'd too often marginalized or simply forgotten female and minority characters, and ultimately, they just didn't feel like the stories we'd loved as kids. Then one day the conversation shifted ever so slightly.

"I'm thinking of spinning the Hero Code off into a couple of other titles. Would you like to write the one about the Black Wraith?"

And with that, I wasn't just a fan with a blog anymore. Just like Doug Braithwaite years before, who tried to teach a young Jamie Gambell to draw Colossus, Jamie Gambell had given me the chance to be a creator. I did a happy dance all over the apartment in my Batman pajamas that night.

And speaking of dancing, we'd like to share something very special with all of our Bleeding Cool readers. If you can help us meet our next push goal of $1250 over the weekend, which will unlock a cool new reward, I will also post a video of me doing the Batusi in full Batman mask and aforementioned pajamas. And in case you're wondering; yes, I will most certainly be spiking the orange juice.

Comics are for everybody, y'all. And thanks for your help!

The Black Wraith Kickstarter can be found here – https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/556628777/the-black-wraith-volume-1

You can read issue one, along with many other Monkey Pipe Studios titles (including previews of The Hero Code) here – http://www.monkeypipestudios.com

(original link for the interview mentioned above is http://pingmotherboxping.blogspot.com/2011/05/ping-jamie-gambell-ping.html)

You can follow those involved in The Black Wraith on Twitter:
G. Brett Williams – @gbwilliams
M. Lee Harris – @MichaelLeeHarr1
Frank Cvetkovic – @GoFrankGo
Heather Breckel – @angienessyo
Jamie Gambell – @jamiegambell

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