Posted in: Comics | Tagged: Creep Show, David M Brown, Fifth Dimension Comics, kickstarter, The Wisdom Of Fools

The Wisdom of Fools: They Grow Up So Quick!

Published Sun, 01 Sep 2013 09:00:46 -0500

David M. Brown writes for Bleeding Cool:

Sometimes I sit in front of my computer screen and just stare at it. Half dazed, half curious. How the hell did this thing even happen? Did I sow the seed that grew into this monster? Am I its father? Am I legally obligated to then pay child support? Shit!

The object of my obsession is the 'The Wisdom of Fools', the 84-page graphic novel horror anthology that fourteen artists and writers, including myself put together. The reason I'm absolutely obsessed with it is because this idea has been festering in my head long before I had even met a single artist. In fact, the original thought of doing a graphic novel horror anthology occurred to me in high school which is strange because aside from the hind quarters of girls, not much else occurred to me in high school. The whole anthology thing seemed like a good way to go…I'd always enjoyed old school anthology comics and one of my favorite movies of all time is Creep Show which is basically an anthology movie. That and the idea of working with a group of like-minded creative people felt like a support group for my young, nerdy, comic loving self.

Of course the idea sat stagnant like ideas tend to do when you're young. Always dreaming bigger than my brain could handle. I'd written loads of short stories and comic scripts but it's fairly difficult to produce a graphic novel without art. Fast forward 16 years, I'm an old, battered, bruised, divorced father of three with a soul sucking full-time job. After all that, I was surprised as hell when I realized that the idea for the book was still in there! More than that, the desire was there. It wouldn't leave me alone so I decided it was now or never. The hunt began.

After what now seems like thousands of emails to potential artists and the better part of two years, I have finally assembled a team of insanely talented people that I'm proud to call friends. Who knew that there were so many talented creators out there in the same situation as I was? That was unexpected! The power of Twitter and internet forums is absolutely underrated. What started as an awkward kid's nagging dream to make comics has now morphed into a full-blown team of creators. All fourteen of us have come together, Voltron-like, to form Fifth Dimension Comics (5d Comics). Our goal; to bring the comics we want to read into the world with no censorship or agendas, just pure independent comics. To my surprise, 5d Comics took on a life of its own! All of a sudden we are producing web comics, podcasts, plans for upcoming books and most wild of all…people pitching to us! I've been floored by the early reviews we've received and I am genuinely humbled by the response.

But the most difficult part has just begun. Kickstarter. This is the part where all the hard work we've poured into 'The Wisdom of Fools' is laid out in front of perfect strangers and we ask those strangers to help fund our dream. It seems like such an audacious thing to do! I'll be honest, I'm nervous. Not because I don't believe in the work, I do. I'm nervous the same way a parent is on their child's first day of school. Now I find myself sitting in front of my computer staring at a digital copy of my dream made real, 'The Wisdom of Fools'. I'm sending my little scary book out into the big bad world…hoping it doesn't beat somebody up.