Posted in: Comics | Tagged: kickstarter, superteam international 88

Creating the Next Generation of Heroes – Superteam International '88

Published Thu, 10 Sep 2020 17:00:46 -0500

Comic book creator and publisher of Superteam International '88, Scott O. Brown, tells Bleeding Cool; "I miss superheroes." He continues;

Okay, I know that our culture is hyper-saturated with superheroes, but I'm not talking about MCU or DCEU or the CW or the Snyder Cut. I'm talking about classic Bronze and Modern Age comics of the 70s and 80s. I miss the weird, funny, political superhero comics I grew up with. I miss the innocent fun of Spider-man and His Amazing Friends. I miss the subversive humor of Justice League International, and damn it, well, I miss almost every superhero comic from the 80s.

So, I'm doing something about it with my new comics series:

Creating the Next Generation of Heroes - Superteam International '88 — Superteam International '88 logo

Do you know who else loves classic superheroes? My twins, Samantha and Sebastian. One of my favorite memories of Samantha as a little girl is watching her giggle like crazy the first time she saw the Flash in old cartoons. And Sebastian, he's my Batman addict. They love Batman Brave and the Bold like I love Challenge of the Superfriends, and they devour manga, more and more Batman, and anything else with a costumed, super-powered human in it, Marvel, DC, Kodansha, or otherwise. When they were ten, I told them I was going to make my first superhero comic, and they asked if they could help. They wanted to make a comic book.

And, oh boy, did they ever!

Samantha went with what she loved best and created our speedster, Rollerblade. She's a derby girl who discovered she had superspeed after an altercation with her aunt, the villainous Aunty Arctica. Sebastian created the best Batman/Iron Man hybrid I'd ever seen, Mr. Sleep. He never takes his suit off and uses an AI called Mr. Wake to control the suit while he sleeps so he can fight crime without taking a break. We grabbed some public domain characters like the Dan Garret Blue Beetle, who we turned into a pharma bro, and the Super American, who really evolved into something weird and different. I created a few more heroes and villains to fill in the gaps (one of which, Flight Path, I created when I was a kid, myself!) And voila! SUPER TEAM INTERNATIONAL was born!

We spent a few years tinkering with different ways to pull the story together. Even as the kids grew and became a little more sophisticated in their creativity, we stuck with our original vision of SUPER TEAM INTERNATIONAL. They are a bunch of borderline incompetent heroes learning how to work together and be better teammates in the face of a group of supervillains who are far better organized than expected! Characters came, and characters left, until we settled on the roster, you see on the cover of issue #1.

Samantha and Sebastian have brought tons of youthful enthusiasm and perspective that has really energized our series. As I craft a functioning story out of these disparate ideas, I find that STI'88 is the perfect venue to channel their zaniness and my nostalgia into something new and fresh.

But the three of us don't get all the credit, not even remotely. Artist Carlos Gabriel Diaz, who I met through a mutual acquaintance in Buenos Aires' comics scene, holds a special place in his heart for the same era of super-heroics. He's brought a sensibility to the design and storytelling that wouldn't be out of place post-Crisis or Secret Wars, but that also feels like it belongs in the here and now. As he wrote in our promotion for the first issue: "As soon as I read the script and saw the logo, I had a strange feeling of nostalgia and euphoria. I knew we were thinking about the same thing: The Giffen Justice League, and the classic post-Crisis stories of the bronze and early modern age… you know, when the comics were fun, and there were no limits to the imagination!"

We did gangbusters on the first issue, exceeding our goal by several hundred dollars. Bringing a labor of love to fruition, while teaching my kids the creative process from idea to finished comic book, is my way of helping to create the next generation of heroes, on the printed page, and behind it.

With the Kickstarter for issue two of SUPER TEAM INTERNATIONAL '88 ending on Tuesday, September 15th, we're hoping to finish successfully funding it sooner rather than later.

So what's this issue about? SUPER TEAM INTERNATIONAL '88 is the story of a motley crew of superheroes from around the world struggling to work together as a cohesive team against V.I.L.E. The King of All Evil Dragons and his V.I.L.E. minions are ready to rid the world of heroes once and for all. Still, little does either team know that a greater threat looms in the background!

In issue #2, we find Mr. Sleep and Gamma Rei Burst trapped in an abandoned carnival as The Giggles and Aunty Arctica make the first move!

So here's the ask: To help us successfully hit our goal, we've created a special tier for Bleeding Cool readers. In the spirit of big, cheesy 80's fun, we'll have a special Bleeding Cool Tier available. It will include a print copy of the first and second issues along with a 12 x 18-inch card stock big head cutout of either Mr. Sleep or The Giggles for $25 plus priority shipping just in time for Halloween! Oh, and if we hit our goal, we'll boost the page count to include a two page "Secret History" back-up story featuring one of our leads.

Thanks for reading!