Our Creator Interview series returns with Sean Wood, writer of The Fog Within. Its hero has an incredibly unique set of powers, with lots of homage to some of the best comics of the 1990s. The third issue is also currently on Kickstarter, already having blasted past its intended goal! I'm excited to share this unique comic with you and the mind behind it.
GlobalComix: Thank you for joining us today! Tell us a little bit about your The Fog Within, yourself, and how you got into making comics!
Sean Wood: My name is Sean Wood and The Fog Within is my first chance to write my own comic. I was born into this comic book world. My dad had built up a collection from the mid 60’s all the way to the 90’s. I had anything you could possibly think of to read from those time frames (and sometimes multiple copies, since everything would be worth a lot of money at some point) I really started collecting on my own after I got married and moved next to our old local comic shop. I’ve been going every Wednesday for the past 12 years. I’ve always enjoyed stories of all kinds, but I never thought there was a way to make my own.
One day I was reading The Walking Dead Deluxe issue #1. I picked it up because I wanted to collect The Walking Dead in color, but the back of the book changed my life. Robert Kirkman put his basic outline for each page of the comic, and then he goes into an explanation of what he was thinking about for each page. At that moment, I realized it is that easy to start my own story. My mind wandered from there, and I couldn’t stop. After that, I signed up for writing classes with Scott Snyder and Brian Michael Bendis to learn the process.
GlobalComix: What inspired the character and story of The Fog Within? That’s an incredibly unique superhero ability that you don’t see anywhere else?
Sean: I was training for a marathon at the time, around two years ago. Your mind will always wander when you are on a longer run. As I passed some fog, I had the random thought, “If I ran through this, what would happen if I ended up somewhere else on the other side, what would it look like?” Once I had the idea, it was off to the races.
GlobalComix: You’re currently running a Kickstarter for The Fog Within #3, congratulations on absolutely smashing that goal by the way! What has your experience been like crowdfunding?
Sean: Crowdfunding has been a crazy ride. A year ago, for my first campaign, I was learning something new on the fly every day. I watched a ton of videos online, met other creators at cons and listened to different podcasts that helped me build my campaign, but there was a lot missing. The biggest thing was the audience. We funded our first campaign the last 5 minutes. Our second campaign I started to build an audience, I am a part of the indie community and I understood more of what I needed for the campaign. For our third campaign, we had more of a structure that fit our book. I am happy to say we have seen growth for each campaign with the audience size, my writing, and our art team keeps making everything better and better.
GlobalComix: For anyone who might miss the campaign, will they be able to purchase your books elsewhere?
Sean: Issue 1 and 2 is available as digital on GlobalComix. Once we complete issue 3 around November, that will be available as well. As of right now, I am working on a website, but I do not have another place to purchase physical copies other than the kickstarter campaign.
GlobalComix: Do you have any plans to create more superheroes in the same world that have their own comic storylines?
Sean: I have written an anthology type story that tells the story of Epsilon. She is our bad-ass punk rock elite rebel with a futuristic sniper and master of her serrated blades. I have the first two pages as our 3rd stretch goal and we have a chance to get there by the end of the campaign. This story also tells the origin of how the rebels formed their allegiance to each other.
GlobalComix: What advice would you give to folks who are looking to get into crowdfunding for comics?
Sean: My biggest advice would be to prepare, prepare, and prepare some more. To get the most out of crowdfunding you have to have an audience of your own, you need to listen to experts, either on YouTube channels or podcasts and you need a support group of other like minded individuals to help fill in the gaps that you can’t find answers for elsewhere.
GlobalComix: Of all the books you’ve worked on so far for The Fog Within, do you have one that’s been extra challenging? Why and what have you done to overcome that?
Sean: Honestly, the hardest issue was #1. This was my first comic of my own. I learned something new every day about the entire process. I didn’t know what I didn’t know until I needed to. From what kind of script to format, to lettering, to print format, etc.
GlobalComix: Why a time-traveling fog? Is there something about time-traveling as a theme that is particularly interesting?
Sean: I’ve always loved time travel. The thought of the unknown, and you have the chance to build this world to anything that you can think of. No one has seen this era, so anything could happen. The only limit is your own imagination.
GlobalComix: Speaking of time traveling, where and when, would you go if you could time-travel?
Sean: I would visit 2015 from Back to the Future part II. If I had to pick a real time, it would be the distant future. I’ve always liked the possibilities of better technology.
GlobalComix: What is your dream project, and would it be self-published or with a publisher?
Sean: I would love to write an obscure character for Marvel or DC. One that doesn't have a lot of specific history that I could mold it as my own. My other dream project would be a self-published story that would be picked up as a show.
GlobalComix: What advice would you have for creators who want to develop their own networks and communities? We all start somewhere, after all!
Sean: I didn’t know where to start so I went with what I knew. I’ve been going to cons for 10 plus years, so I figured I would start with the ones that are already doing it. I reached out to the creators asking about their process. I bought a lot of awesome books and that helped build relationships with different creators and grow from there.
A huge thank you to Sean Wood for taking time from his busy schedule and answering my questions and provide us with all this amazing artwork! I really loved seeing those sketches!
If you would like to keep up with Sean Wood and his team on The Fog Within, here's a list of links for all of his social media profiles and website:
ImperialNecromancer829 1 year ago
Another great interview!