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

Millennials: You Are Special

Published Sun, 02 Aug 2015 10:00:04 -0500

Millennials: You are Special. Created by Dimitrios Fragiskatos. Art by Guillermo Villarreal and Sir Gryphon.Close Date: August 11, 2015.Publishing Date: September 30, 2015

Dimitrios Fragiskatos writes,

Entitleman, Mr. Hideous, Buzzgirl, Cyber Bully, and Know-It-All are members of the most feared and hated group today: Millennials. Follow their story as they fight giant robots collecting student debt, the Men's Liberation Front and other millennials governed by apathy, self pity and egoism.

It's hard to find the resources to make a comic book, but hopefully you meet the right people, make the right connections and reach your goal. Millennials is becoming that project. I can feel it.

The idea sprung out of a conversation I had with my prior collaborator, Tom Griffin. We were on the phone, tossing ideas around as I leafed through the latest issue of Superior Foes of Spider-Man, by Steve Lieber and Nick Spencer (really funny, I highly recommend it). I've always wanted to do a Doom Patrol/ Roy Thomas-era X-Men story. Not to take away from Chris Claremont's historic and layered run, but there is a charm to how archetypal the characters were in the Silver Age, but until now I never had a name for the team.

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"Hey, Tom, I got an idea for a book about outcasts who are feared and hated in today's world. Want to hear the title?"

"Millennials?" he asks, in his quipping tone.

And I closed my mouth, hung up the phone and completely forgot the idea I had. Millennials…

Millennials are hated. There is a whole new, even broader generation of people who don't fit in. There is an entire age group not doing what greater society thinks they should be doing. They're failing the American dream, or they're doing it wrong. They want to fix the world, but can't fix their bills. I realized not fitting in, is the new norm again, and from there I slipped on the discarded Marvel Comic, whilst reaching for my sketch book and began to jot down my ideas.

It's not the first time an entire generation feels like this; music like punk rock thrives on a fan base that believes a system is failing them. But it's a new experience for misfits, because of how wired and jacked in we are. Today's youths aren't joining groups or cults, but starting their own and looking for followers through Facebook or Instagram.

From that thought, I carved out my new archetypes: Entitleman, who absorbs white privilege and makes energy blasts, Mr. Hideous, the dysmophic monster, fetishized by fans, and who takes selfies. Buzzgirl has sentient nanobots that can construct anything from atoms. Their sentience has also gotten them social media accounts where their blinding loyalty is more apparent. Know-It-All is the inventor of the group, who designs apps, and Cyber Bully is a robot, in every sense of the word.

Step one, was completed; I came up with what I believe is a marketable concept, I would enjoy writing. I started to work on the plot and scripts, driven to get this thing done right. I ran concepts by people, villains, plots, metaphors and themes. The best part and biggest advantage of managing the Midtown Comics Grand Central location is the customers. They are each so unique with various perspectives and experiences in the world of comics. There are cosplayers, and creators, businessmen and baristas, people with nothing in common except that they want to find out what's happening next with Batman. I was able to gauge and run ideas by them during our usual Wednesday exchanged pleasantries. This helped me maintain my confidence in this project. I ended up with plots for six self contained issues, the first of which would parody the X-men 90's cartoon episode "Night of the Sentinels," where the government sponsors a program to build giant robots. This time it's to collect the ever growing student debt.

With Tom's help I concocted a method to get a creative team going. Tom and I have worked on Greasers in Greece and Frankenstein vs Dracula: Throughout the Ages together. He's got an amazing work ethic, but doing every bit of work, in converting a script to a page can be so draining. My mindset was that having more perspectives in a book is beneficial, and there's a reason why comics have been doing this for decades. But neither of us have the means to get a book going and pay a fair wage for a creative team. We launched an Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign to help find that creative team. It was a risky decision since most crowdfunding campaigns have the team already in place.

I've learned never to stop, never to be put off by perceived limits. Yes, on paper, in discussion, I do not have the means, to fund a creative team for this book. It's not realistic that these guys would be charmed enough by the concept to do it pro bono. But the next step isn't to pay them. It's to make the book. I was prepared to do every little bit of it myself. To prove it, I did a mini-comic/ pamphlet that I gave out at the stores.

Yes, there were many moments where I thought I was out of my element, but five weeks later since the campaign launch and here's where we are:

The campaign is 20% funded for our goal amount.
We have a logo thanks to Tom.
Tom has found a talented artist from Mexico City, to help pencil the work. Guillermo Villarreal should already be a pro on a Marvel or Dc book in my opinion.
A huge supporter and big help, Andrew Cohen, made a Buzzfeed Quiz, using Tom's character concepts in the results, when he asks "Whcih Type of Millennial are you?"
Repeated appearances on the Pete's Basement podcast where we played a Jason Todd "phone in" for Pete's life in our story, sharing a table with Tommy Walker, an actor on the Daredevil Netflix show.
And hey, an e-mail exchange with Rich Johnston, submitting this experience, was certainly not something, I expected, and thrilled at.

As of this moment, I'm still looking to raise money to pay for an editor; someone who can do copy, look at content and help in it's direction. We're also looking for an experienced letterer, and we are still hoping to raise money for a printer.

Again, it is hard to find the resources to make a comic book, but you meet people. People like Tom Griffin and Andrew Cohen who do what they can to help. People like Pedro Rivera, Dan Toy, Mark Mazz, Jim Spivey, Carl Kent, Sinestro artist, Brad Walker, pros who in one moment's interaction can give you notes you wouldn't think of. And the people who share and contribute, friends and family who inspire and believe in you.

You can find Tom's work on gryphonknights.com or as Sir Gryphon. You can find Guillermo's work on his Facebook page. And you can find this project on Indiegogo

For all Bleeding Cool fans who make it to the stinger ending of this article and contribute, email us "Miss Cranbourne got away with it" and you get a exclusive drawing by one of the artists involved with your perk. If you get our newly added $50 tier AND e-mail us "Miss Cranbourne got away with it" street artist Frost the Great will send you a fully inked an colored Blank cover!!!!

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