Gearing Up For My First Comic!

Hey everyone. This Wednesday has a big personal highlight: Michael Powell and I will begin the serialized release of our digital comic, Revenger. To celebrate, below is the initial pitch I sent to Michael when he asked me if I would be interested in collaborating. I talk about my approach to the character, his world and the type of stories I would tell with him.

But! First some details about the release: The serialized release will be one page a week for 10 weeks and absolutely free. We will also make the entire story available to download at once for 99-cents. The download will include lots of fun bonus content including brand-spanking new stuff. To keep up to date and give us some support, please like our page on Facebook:

REVENGER Pitch
From: Rolando Garcia
To: Michael Powell
Date: December 30, 2010

First of all, as a writer, I tend to think in terms of characters’ personal/emotional arcs. It allows me to build depth into every story without resorting to simple plot mechanics. I generally want new readers to be able to hop in and get a sense that these people have existed for a long time but not need to know tons of continuity to enjoy the current story. At the same time, I want regular readers to feel they’ve been on a longform emotional journey. I think about it like Dexter: you can jump into the show any season and quickly catch up on plot but if you follow it regularly you get the big pay offs as the characters grow.

My specific pitch for Revenger would build off the emotions evoked by the way you ended the first arc: “It’s time to take what’s mine.” Here’s the backstory I’m seeing in my head (for context, not necessarily the first story I’d tell):

David is in his mid-20′s and he’s been through a lifetime’s worth of experiences already. The events of his origin would take place when he was around 14. He lives with his mom and his sister (who survived the accident). Ominus takes David in and steps into the Ramirez’s lives as a financial angel. Ominus moves the mother and sister out of their bad neighborhood. He ostensibly pays for a boarding school for David. Of course, there is no real boarding school, David is training. At this point his life became split. On the one hand, he remains very close with his mother and sister (his sister I especially see as a good supporting character) but they remain unaware of his life as a costumed hero. On the other hand, there’s his relationship with Ominus, the father figure who he had longed for his whole life and still very much aims to please. Essentially, he’s been on autopilot for almost a decade now and hasn’t even stopped to question if this if the life he wants. The closest he came was during his one relationship that, while filled with genuine love towards the woman and his daughter, was also doomed to fail because in many ways David is still desperately naive.

With that in mind, I’d aim to tell stories through which David is forced to discover himself. In a way, we would be seeing his true origin: the time in his life where he stops doing the superhero gig out of habit, stops doing it for his family and stops doing it for a father’s approval and begins doing it because this is what he wants.

These stories, of course, would be filled with crazy superhero fun. In fact, I think it’s essential both for the character and for the genre. All the emotional stuff I described would be there to enhance the superhero aspects, not overshadow them. In fact, my primary reaction to your artwork was that’s it’s pretty damn dynamic and exciting. I’d shy away from captions whenever possible because it really does a lot of the storytelling on its own.

So, there you have it. If that sounds interesting to you we can discuss specifics regarding collaboration. Thanks for reading!