Posted in: Comics | Tagged: Comics, entertainment, kickstarter

How To Make Friends In The San Francisco Public Library Basement (And Not Die)

Published Sat, 03 Oct 2015 13:00:37 -0500

Bay Area Comic Anthology: Volume 1. D.B. Elsa, Roderick Constance, Sean Marney, Einar Másson, Gabriel Moore-Topazio, Jeff Walker, Ed Orza/ Close Date: October 5th. Publishing Date: December

A group of 7 comic creators have been working for 10 months on a comic anthology about the San Francisco Bay Area. In the BACA collaboration model, every creator, whether artist or writer, had to write and illustrate for somebody else! We thought this would be a cool way to become better comic creators and collaborators, while creating stories unique about the San Francisco Bay Area!

by Ed Orza

All I could think was, "Please don't let me die in the basement of the San Francisco Public Library."

Here I am, 27 years old, meeting up with a bunch of strangers to discuss the creation of the Bay Area Comics Anthology. BACA, as we refer to it, is a collection of short comics written and drawn by D.B. Elsa, Roderick Constance, Sean Marney, Einar Másson, Gabriel Moore-Topazio, Jeff Walker, and myself. (Kickstarter running now through October 7, hint hint.) In short, every member of the group. That means self-proclaimed writers like myself had to stretch their drawing muscles and vice versa for the artists.

Anyway, back to why I thought I was going to die. In classic style, we got in a circle and basically played the name game. After a couple introductions, someone who I assumed to be a late arrival strode into the room with an ominous gait—he stopped short of finding a seat and lingered behind us. As I turned to greet the new member, I was met with a vacant stare. Behind his empty eyes were long, angular, features…he was at least 6' 5." An oversized head, sunken eyes and an almost "Xenomorph-like" slope to his posture made him look like a bond villain dressed like he was on his to way to see the Disco Biscuits. His first words were a strained sequence of syllables that seemed to cause him pain with each breath: "Is…this…the comics thing?"

"Yes!" The group welcomed at once, but with a small tone of relief.

And this is where I start to think I'm about to have to take this guy down…"Oh, ok." he muttered. He just stands there, staring at everyone with his hands in his pockets.

"Are you here for the meetup?" One of us asked.

"No." He replied without moving an inch.

Now, I don't know if it's that I'm paranoid, or if it's the fact that I had a dad who made me count the exits in every room…or the fact that I've watched way too many movies—anyway, sh*t was getting real. I was preparing to leap over my chair, sweep the leg, and eliminate the target when all of a sudden—

He turned around and walked out of the room without uttering a word.

Everyone continued to look at each other in disbelief for about 10 seconds and our fearless leader, Dona defiantly roared, "So…let's get back to business." And as they say, "The rest is history."

I was left feeling proud, we all just collectively stared death in the face, in the name of comics no less. There we stood, united and victorious.

Ok, so maybe I'm exaggerating a little bit, but seriously, this whole project has been a gut check…in the best of ways.

I've met some extremely talented creators, who are even better people. In all seriousness, we formed a bond in that forgotten basement of the public library and I think some pretty sweet comics were born out of that bond. Get out there and create people!

Take it easy,

Edward Orza

The BACA team can be reached through our kickstarter, facebook, tumblr, or twitter.

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