Posted in: streaming, TV, YouTube | Tagged: kickstarter, the comic shop

The Comic Shop: Cheyenne Ewulu's Workplace Comedy Deserves Full Season

Here's why creator/writer Cheyenne Ewulu's The Comic Shop: A Mockumentary Sitcom! deserves a full season - and how YOU can make that happen.

Before shifting to Bleeding Cool's Television/Streaming Editor, I used to have a lot more time to check out how things were looking on the indie pilot/series scene—and I've wanted to dive back into it for some time now. Thanks to Cheyenne Ewulu's The Comic Shop: A Mockumentary Sitcom!, I've got a great place to start. I saw the tweet from Ewulu from earlier today, offering a heads-up that the Kickstarter campaign to fund a full season would be kicking off on November 12th. The mockumentary workplace comedy spotlights a crew of friends trying to make a go of a comic book store in Los Angeles – and after watching the trailer (waiting for you below), I'm getting the distinct impression that they're willing to keep an "open mind" when it comes to making their dream a reality.

So why did it work for me? Three reasons. Ewulu had me caring enough about who I met that I would definitely want to see more of them—who they are and what they're about. That's not easy to accomplish in less than two minutes, and that says a lot about the series creator, writer, and creative team they assembled.

As for the setting, when was the last time a comic book shop was the setting for a comedy series? If your response is "The Big Bang Theory," then I'm going to box your ears and send you to the back of the class because that doesn't count on any number of levels. A comics shop is a comedic setting whose time has come – especially when it's done from the perspective of real geeks and not sitcom writers who think they know how geeks talk and act.

And then there's the "mockumentary" approach, which I view the same way as "found footage" with horror films. I love the technique, but it all comes down to how it's utilized. Basically, is it there as a gimmick, or does it make sense in the series' "bigger picture" approach? Ewulu's The Comic Shop not only makes it make sense (I'd watch a docuseries about a struggling comic book shop and the folks looking to keep it afloat), but the characters' interactions with the camera feel like they would be in a real documentary (like how the first few episodes of ABC's Modern Family handled it).

Written and created by Ewulu, the Robert Butler III-directed "proof of concept" stars Ewulu, Zeno Robinson, and Shanae Cole and features Joshua David King, Matt Acevedo, Cade Huseby, and Andre Ellsworth. Now, here's a look at the trailer from 2023, followed by the official series overview that's posted on the campaign's page. Speaking of that, make sure to head on over to The Comic Shop: A Mockumentary Sitcom! Kickstarter page so you can set yourself up to be notified when the campaign goes live on November 12th – with Ewulu sharing that a new trailer will also drop on that date:

Welcome to Oh Em Gee Comics! The shop that's constantly holding on for its dear life in a Los Angeles strip mall that's seen…well, better days. This comic store and its crew are fighting a constant uphill battle against the ever-evolving digital age, financial ruin, and their own incompetence.

They face the same problems as any tight-knit group…with the added bonus of keeping a sinking business afloat. Their competition? Big box stores with actual marketing budgets and – to add insult to injury – an in-house Starbucks. Oh, and let's not forget their landlord, Kevin, who is always looking for a reason to turn the shop into a dispensary (as if Los Angeles doesn't have enough of those…).

In this age of digital dominance, how in the name of Stan Lee can they convince people that the IRL comic shop experience is still worth getting out of bed for?

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