TALES OF THE BROTHERS THREE - TOON'S JUST WANNA HAVE FUN

Speaking from my own personal experience, I can safely say that being one of three brothers isn't a very easy thing to do. Well, if it wasn't bad enough your two siblings keep on pinching all of your stuff, worst still, every bath time you have to fight over the same rubber-duck! Yeah! I'm not kidding. My mate Joshua said same thing to me only the other day, whilst telling me about his comic book series...


Tales of the Brothers Three

1) What are your own origins, Joshua? Plus what path did you take in life to get to where you are today?   I've always loved drawing, especially when I was younger. My Grandfather, if he were still around today, would vouch for me too. Apparently, I ruined his best mug by storing crayons in it.

My favorite thing to draw was cartoon characters. Everyday, after school, I’d plop down in front of the TV and really have at it. Every time I learned how to draw a new character, I would stick the drawing in a binder. Eventually I filled up around three binders of my favorite toons. Then binders in hand, I’d head on down to the local playground. I’d let kids flip through them and sing their praises. For a quarter I’d draw any character in the book. Ninja turtles were always my best seller. At seven, this is how I thought I’d make my millions. 

It was those early days on the playground that eventually fueled my desire to make my own characters and tell my own stories. Now a lot more people get to see my drawings than just the kids on the playground, but I’m still a few quarters away from my millions.

2) How did ‘Tales of the Brothers Three’ come about? It’s ‘secret origin’ as it were.   The not so secret origin is that I have two brothers of my own and a lot of the stories are loosely based on things that happened when we were younger.

The secret origin is that the 'Brothers Three' actually started off as a movie. I went to film school and studied screen writing. While I was there I started to develop what I hoped would be the ultimate Christmas movie, something to rival my favorite movie of all time, “Home Alone”. The movie I was working on was called 'Christmas with The Brothers Three'. It laid the groundwork for what would eventually become the comic.

For those of you interested in what the movie would have been like, I later adapted the story into a comic which I posted on my site last Christmas.

3) In your own words how would you describe this story?   Tales of The Brothers Three follows the misadventures of three brothers with overactive imaginations and all the trouble they get into because of it.

They fish for sharks in the toilet, battle haunted mustaches, get sucked inside their mom’s vacuum cleaner, and that is just to a few of their adventures.

Oh! I should also mention that all of the tales are told by the mounted head of a moose that hangs on the wall in their living room.

4) What song would you say best represents this project and why?   That would have to be the theme song from the 'A-Team', because a crack team of government agents on the run from the law is a lot like three brothers on the run from their own imaginations.

5) If you could get a celebrity – either living or dead – to promote your wares, who would you choose, and why would you want to choose this particular person?   There are so many great people to choose from, like Bill Watterson, Steve Martin, Olivia Wilde (mostly because I’d like to meet her), but I think right now I’d have to say Pendleton Ward, creator of 'Adventure Time'. 

The stuff that he and his team of creators and artist are doing right now is amazing. They are creating childhoods. Much like people my age look back and define their childhoods by 'The Ninja Turtles' or 'Star Wars', that’s what 'Adventure Time' is to today’s kids. So knowing he had nice things to say about my work would mean a lot. 

6) What have you learnt about yourself through this endeavour? And were their any unforeseen obstacles you had to contend with along the way?   What I've learned is… making a comic is hard work. Meeting a deadline isn’t even the half of it either. You really need to be on top of things and you have to constantly push yourself. When I put out a comic I expect it to be of a certainly quality, hopefully hilarious too. Maybe not shoot milk out your nose funny, but I’d love to hear that I've busted a few belt buckles from those deep belly laughs.

There are always unforeseen obstacles of course. I've never been fast on the up take when it comes to learning programs or coding this or that. When I see some of the amazing things my fellow artists are doing it just reminds me how much I have left to learn. 

7) What can you tell us about your new book?   My new book is called, 'The Moose Kisser'. It includes the entire second year of the comic as well as some exclusive content. This book will also answer a question Brothers Three readers have been asking for years, “How did Mortimer J. Moose end up on someone’s wall?” 

8) During your time in this field, what is the one thing that has kept you in good stead?   This one is easy. It has to be people’s response to my work. My comic is now in the middle of its fifth year and for the first few years things were pretty slow. I didn't hear from the readers too much, it was a lot of toiling away, hoping people were enjoying my work, but not really knowing one way or the other.

Then in the last years, especially after my first book came out, I started connecting with fans new, and old a lot more. It was a real boost. That energy is just the sort of thing you need to get you through a long day at the drawing table.

9) If ‘TOTB3’ had a motto, what would it be?   “Habitum onto vestri pes vestis”, which loosely translates to, “Hold on to your socks”. Now if you've read the comic then you know this works on more than one level.

Ha! Good one, Joshua. So if you want to know what he's gabbing on about, folks, you know what you have to do. Check out 'The Tales of the Brothers Three' today. Plus of course, don't forget to follow Josh on his facebook and twitter pages too. Go on. Click-Click. Or else your socks may need a darning.