EYNES ANTHOLOGY - FAMILY MATTERS

Sniff-Sniff! Can you smell that? Can you smell that faint whiff of congealed egg wafting in the breeze? Huh? What do you mean, 'No! No, you can't'? Why not? I've just let one rip so now you've got to suck it in. Otherwise, I won't introduce you to my mate John who's created a great comic book that doesn't suck eggs! Here, John, it's now over to you.





1) What are your own origins, John?   I was born and raised in the Pacific Northwest and grew up with a Dad who loved comic books. In fact, he loved them so much, in the 1970’s he convinced an owner of a bank to give him a thousand dollar loan so he could buy a copy of Superman #1, Superboy #2, and Superman #6, and afterwards, he also held the world record for the highest price sold for a comic book (by selling a navy officers Action Comics #1 for ten thousand dollars). So, with that in mind, it's pretty safe to say that I was destined to be a fan of the comic and super-hero medium.

Around the age of twelve, I started to want to create and draw comics of my own. So me, along with my nephew (who's a week and 6 days older than me) would create these insane characters like Belt Man (a guy with a belt that was alive that wrapped around him), Wolf Man (he was a wolf…that was a man), and much much more. Admittedly, they were all terrible to read, but it started a trend that never stopped: creativity. 

After I finished high school I started taking art classes at college because I wanted to get serious about being a comic creator. But soon enough, I began to realize that I had no idea what I was doing, so I quickly turned to the next best thing: Web-comics, which was a genre that was very new at the time, 2003, and didn't offer any real barrier of entry for a guy who had little to no experience. This allowed me to get instant feedback (not always good) on the pages I was working on and grow as a creator. After 16 years I ‘retired’ from web-comics so I could move into print comics and focus on a longer form of storytelling.

2) What inspired you to create, ‘Eynes Anthology’?   I am a father of 5 kids and have always been into family history. So, when I decided to create something on this larger scale, to me, the path was pretty damn obvious: I was going to make a story about a family, yet I wasn't going to do it in the traditional way. Which in this case meant that I wanted to tell stories about a family over a long period of time, with the intent that the audience could learn pieces of their lives through their interactions with the monsters populating their world.

Collaboration is something that I also love being involved with, so working with other creators to bring to life this idea just fuels my creative juices.

3) In your own words, how would you describe this story?   What would happen to your family if they had this otherworldly draw to the world of the supernatural? After all, throughout history monsters and demons have haunted every aspect of your family tree, murdering, kidnapping, converting, and even falling in love. But how did it start? How will it end? And what would you do if something pulls the world of monsters and demons towards you, and you to them? 

4) What song would you say best represents this graphic novel and why?   We worked with a few musicians in order to create a soundtrack for this book, and through this, Joey Edsall created a theme song called, “The Horde”, which is amazing. Outside of that, though, I would most probably select, “It’s a Wonderful Life” by Bandits of the Acoustic Revolution, because it represents the book at its best. 

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?   This is a tough one, but I think I would have to go with Spose, a musician out of Maine, because this guy's hustle and creativity is just something else. Watching him create his fandom and music for the last 5 years gives me something to aspire to, so having him back the book would be just amazing.

6) What have you learned about yourself through this endeavor?   Patience, because I’m the kind of person who always needs to be working on something. Heck, I can’t even watch TV without my laptop, my phone, my paper, and my pen, or something that I can write/draw/take notes on. When I’m out and about I’m also constantly thinking of new ideas and saying to myself, “How can I use this for content in what I’m working on?”.

So, by creating a project of this size and involving so many creators on it, means that I have to slow down a little bit and wait while other people do their part. Which for a person who sleeps an average of 4 to 5 hours a night, waiting is not easy. 

7) During your time in this field, what is the one thing that has kept you in good stead?   My wife. She's my rock, she keeps me sane, and without her, I’m not sure where I would be.

And on that note, I'd like to thank John for telling us about his new graphic novel, 'Eynes Anthology', before encouraging you to check out his website, facebook, instagram, twitter, and kickstarter pages.