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What If Someone Else Published What If? Comics…

Published Sat, 31 Aug 2019 12:00:33 -0500

Matthew Stapleton writes,

As a child of the 80's I grew up going to my local video shop most Friday nights on a quest for entertainment. I wasn't old enough to watch many of the VHS tapes that filled the shelves, but I marvelled at the artwork and imagined what they could be about.

At home, we had a library of films taped off the TV (that were more age-appropriate) and I would find myself watching them on repeat. The more I watched, the more I would theorise backstories for side characters and create outlandish adventures – it was fun!

Flash forward nearly 30 years and some of these stories were still rattling around my head. If I wanted people to see what I was thinking, I needed to show them. I decided I would like to unleash my ideas in the form of an anthology comic book called What If? Stories, but who would bring them to life?

I began a search for artists willing to work on my wacky What Ifs and I was fortunate to find Mark Hooley, Jess Forrest, Harry Utton and Rhys Wootton. With a team assembled I sat down and wrote out some of my imagining's, things like…

What If old man Marley (Home Alone) did kill his family?

What if Mr Futterman had faced the Gremlins before back in WWII?

My vision was that in time these stories and characters would cross paths and we'd begin to create our own "movie-verse". I was enjoying playing with these stories when one in particular caught my imagination – Die Hard of The Dead.

I needed to tell this story, but the problem was it was long enough to be its own project. I didn't want to put What If? Stories on the backburner (I was having way too much fun) but I also didn't want to wait. I spoke with Mark about the project and he agreed to work on it. We decided that this would be a continuing story under the What If? Stories banner.

So, with that decision made Issue 1 came out in October 2018. It featured 2 short stories and Die Hard of The Dead chapter one.

I was more than a little relieved to find it wasn't just me and my team that thought these What If? Stories were a cool concept. Our fanbase grew quickly and we soon had people asking when can I get issue 2? So, we got to work.

Issue 2 came out in July of this year and Issue 3 is on the way right now. I have self-funded the first 2 books but for issue 3 I need a little support, so we have launched a Kickstarter.

In Issue 3 the Die Hard of The Dead saga continues, additionally the book contains a story called Amity.

It is based around Jaws (obviously). It's 1980 and although there have been no shark attacks since 1978, Deputy Hendricks is suspicious. He is still fielding missing person reports and boating accidents and so he begins to investigate – what he finds could get him killed.

Insert Amity page

We also catch up with old man Marley who is on the run after the events of Broken home in issue 1.

We have some really cool rewards ranging from signed copies of the books to actually featuring in the comic book. So please check it out, back it and help us spread the word.

BLEEDING COOL SPECIAL: The first 3 backers at any reward level will feature in the comic as a zombie and all others will be entered a prize draw to join our ever-growing army of the dead. Just note BLEEDINGCOOL when you back us.

There are many more tales to be told but we need your help