Posted in: Comics | Tagged: Comics, entertainment, kickstarter, rough & tumble

The Road To The Rough & Tumble

Published Sun, 17 Aug 2014 13:00:28 -0500

The Rough & Tumble. Written by Jim Ousley & Oscar Madrid. Art by Benjamin Sawyer. The Kickstarter campaign for The Rough & Tumble is happening now and runs through August 29th. The Rough & Tumble is an action-packed graphic novel bursting with the full-color antics of unlikely heroes, loners, and villains getting exactly what they deserve.

Jim Ousley writes,

Every comic fan remembers the first title they fell in love with, right? My dad, a police officer in downtown St. Louis, found a comic left behind by some unfortunate traveler in a Trailways bus station sometime during his third shift on the beat. The comic he brought home was an issue of Marvel's Tomb of Dracula, scripted by the great Marv Wolfman and penciled with shadowy menace by Gene Colan. Though I was fascinated by the immortal monster himself, I found myself even more intrigued with the gang of seemingly ordinary folks hunting him down. Led by the wheelchair-bound Dr. Quincy Harker, his band of vampire hunters were a bunch of outsiders, united only in their passion to eliminate The Great Fanged One. Misfits versus monsters. What a wonderful concept! And I fell in with love with comics.

Even as I got older, I always found myself attracted to the characters that seemed to be inches away from death, overwhelmed by impossible odds, but still managing to keep their wits about them and maybe crack a few jokes. The Tick, Booster Gold, Plastic Man; all freaks who somehow found their way, stumble by stumble, into a higher purpose. "Man," I thought to myself "how great would it be to not only write comics, but have a whole book of guys like this?"

This brings us to The Rough & Tumble, and our Kickstarter campaign to make it a full-blooded, laugh-riot reality.

Unlike Dr. Harker and gang, my co-creators and I didn't meet with the intention of killing nasty but impeccably dressed bloodsuckers. We did, however, get together with the idea of creating some really fun stories and letting them loose to the world-at-large. The five stories in the book run the gamut from neighborhood adventurers and somewhat confused lovers, to lone wolves and hopeless souls who manage to rise to the occasion and transform themselves, in the funniest ways possible.

In "Bubblehead Road" it's Halloween, and a group of teens want to see if an urban legend about a mutant family living on the outskirts of town is the real deal. It's a story about the invincible feeling of youth, and what happens when we come face-to-face with an unforgettable new reality. "Kings of the Night Time World" features fashioned-challenged, loose-cannon detectives Hooch & Daddy-O. They've been on quite a rampage, doling out their particular brand of justice the old-fashioned way. Captain Grayson, who's had quite enough of their shenanigans, forces them to take a night off. Unfortunately for the captain, they discover that taking a night off will never, ever find its way on to their to-do list, and find themselves facing their greatest nemesis: crime lord Mister Cross and his robot army of Crucibots. A veritable army of crime against two questionable-at-best detectives? The odds are even, my friends.

The centerpiece of our book is "Sonny Kane and the Mephisto Burlesque". Our titular hero is a high school janitor who loves metal and, because of his rather "unique" social skills, doesn't have a lot of friends to choose from. When he finds a special invite to a super-secret burlesque show in the sleeve of his latest vinyl purchase, he jumps at the chance for a good time. No one ever invites this guy to a party! His arrival will trigger a series of circumstances that will reveal not only his destiny, but a wealth of self-worth and the knowledge that this evil Mephisto character is a really hard guy to put down. Plus, you never know; maybe he'll even meet a cool chick who'll give him the time of day.

Sometimes it's the little adventures that pack the biggest wallop, and in "The Great Pretender", we see that young love is perhaps the most treacherous adventure of all. Dolly loves Jack, but Jack's got a big secret. Will they have the courage to tell the truth; will they even be able to handle the truth? Sometimes, the truth sucks.

Finally, our simplest story concerns a fellow who seems to really have it all. He's got the big desert sky, a dog at his side, and no one to answer to. So what's missing? The answer may very well surprise you.

That's why we called our graphic novel The Rough & Tumble. Life has a way of knockin' us around. What we do with those bruises and scars, physical or emotional, are going to determine who we become. And there's nothing wrong with having a lot of laughs along the way. Please take a look at our Kickstarter campaign at www.roughcomic.com

P.S. Mention this article if you back us this weekend in the comments of our Kickstarter page, and we'll hit you with a digital bonus story from the book. We're over 60% funded, and need your help to get across the finish line!

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