Into the comic world of Batman, Superman and the Fantastic Four steps a new title: Existing Earth.
So what makes this title different from all the others? Well, it’s produced by Wind Wolf Graphics of Saskatoon and Wind Wolf Graphics is really the team of Colin Oleksyn and Brent Butt, two former residents of Tisdale.
Existing Earth is the pair’s first effort in the comic book field and is truly a joint effort. Oleksyn, the writer, for the told the Recorder the idea for the book came from “a small idea of Brent’s that originally I thought was a bit boring but then the idea grew to where we both felt it would make a great comic.”
Butt perhaps tells the story of the birth of Existing Earth best in his introduction in the comic itself:
“Ahh... I remember that fateful day so vividly, when I approached my old high school buddy Colin with an idea. I said, ‘Colin, old high school buddy ...I’ve got an idea.’ That idea was to put Colin's mind to work on a simple little story I had for an eight-page filler. I figured we would talk it through, pencil it out and put it to press.
“So I sat Colin down at the coffee shop, reveled my little storyline to him and asked him what he though.
“’Hmmm...’ he thought, stirring the fourth package of sugar into his coffee. ‘Pretty simple. Needs work.’ That’s how Colin is. He says what he thinks (never mind my feelings). So he said he’d stew on it and see what he could come up with.
“About two week later, Colin came up to me and grabbed my arm. I looked into his eyes and they were set as stone. A devilish grin of Cheshire proportions spanned his face. ‘Let's go for coffee,’ he said. We did.
“About 57 cups later, we left the coffee shop. I walked quietly to the car.
“’Well? What do you think?’ he posed, anxious for my input. Unfortunately, I was experiencing system overload. I sat staring ahead, trying to comprehend what I had just heard. Somehow, Colin had taken my rinky-dinky eight page filler and turned it into what had the makings of an epic classic.”
Butt does most of the artwork although he has not taken art classes. Butt says, “I'm self-taught. I've been doing it for years.” Recorder readers may recall that Butt drew a political cartoon for this paper some years ago.
While writer and artist are the broad definitions of the partners Butt was quick to point out that he often chips in with dialogue for the characters and that Oleksyn is starting to draw backgrounds.
Existing Earth is basically a “sword and sorcery” title where the heroines, Tempest and Arian, battle the forces of evil. Oleksyn says that he tries to “take impossible situations and make them seem possible.”
The title has some definite religious overtones but Oleksyn says he “won't be biased.” Over the months the story will touch on aspects of several religious beliefs from Christianity to Greek mythology, to the crusades. He says, “As eras change, so do beliefs. With the heroines being sent from the gods they can see different religions from a different outlook.”
It should be pointed out that while religion is involved, Existing Earth is still predominantly an action filled book with a broad base of factors intermingling to make the story.
“Please do not think that everything written in this comic [Existing Earth] are my personal beliefs, I merely like to take different views because I believe it makes an interesting story.”
The heroines of the book will also be able to transverse time itself. Oleksyn says, “We will see the heroines in several different eras as the story progresses, including for example, an eventual visit to the 1960s.”
Oleksyn is currently majoring in history at the University of Saskachewan. In an excerpt from an introduction in Existing Earth by Oleksyn he writes, “As a history major I pondered what to do with such a useless degree. The opportunity to put it to use are one day when Brent came to me with the idea to work on a comic together.”
“It gives me a lot of reference materials and some ideas I can incorporate into the story line.”
One of the toughest things in getting the book off the ground was choosing a title. Oleksyn said, “It took us about four months to come up with Existing Earth as a title. We must have had 100 different ones. We finally came up with Existing Earth [writing the dialogue of the first issue (editor’s note: a hole in the archives obscured this sentence)].”
Existing Earth is produced in black and white art. When the Recorder asked Butt if he’d like to do colour comics he replied, “yes, but not likely this title unless maybe in an annual or special issue. You can accomplish some very interesting effects for a title of this genre in black and white that you can't do in colour. Things like use of shadows, etcetra.”
Oleksyn echoed those sentiments saying, “For example, in the second issue there will be more detail in the background of pictures. Using black and white gives you the ability to have more depth and dimension in the art.”
Butt says color will come when they add more titles to their list of publications.
With regards to expansion Oleksyn says, “It’s always on your mind.” He adds, “It’s not difficult to write stories. I don’t see a comic as a whole book but as a single idea that they can then sit down and expand into a whole issue.”
Butt tells us that Existing Earth is scheduled to be a monthly publication. The first edition is currently in the hands of distributors and the second issue is due out in late January. After that they hope to publish once a month.
Butt says, “A schedule like that gives us about fifteen days to do a single issue of 22 pages.”
The book is printed by Phillips Publishers of Melfort and is distributed through two Canadian and four American distributors. One of these is Styx Comics of Winnipeg. The Recorder asked a Styx spokesman why they decided to distribute this title.
He replied, “We had only seen some sample art and it looked promising. Besides, it’s Canadian and deserves a chance.”
He also related that there are not many Canadian comics publishers to start with.
One he did mention was Aircel Comics of Ottawa. This is a name very familiar to Oleksyn and Butt as they wrote to Barry Blair, a driving force behind Aircel, and he was good enough to phone and explain some of the hazards and pitfalls of starting in the comics business.
Existing Earthwill be a direct sales only comic. This means that it will be available only through specialty comics shops or by subscription. However, Butt told the Recorder “Park Foods will be selling the book in Tisdale and we hope to have someone in Melfort handling it as well.”
The first issue is on the stands now at Park Foods and selling well. The first batch of comics was sold out in 24 hours.
As the original print run was only 1,000 copies, Butt hopes brisk sales are realized not only in Tisdale but across North America.
“We hope we get lots of re-orders from our distributors. In the future we hope that demand will warrant publishing greater numbers of an issue.”
The book is published on a sheet-fed press that allows the use of a higher quality paper than most comics use. Butt says we “hope this will help our comic stand out in the crowd.”
This is also the reason that Butt and Oleksyn went to such an elaborate cover for Existing Earth. The cover is the only aspect of the comic not done by the pair as the four-colour artwork was done by Terry Gilecki of Saskatoon.
The air-brushed color graphics on the cover was done through a laser disc separator process. Butt said that using this process was more costly but again they hoped that it would enhance the overall appeal of the book. Oleksyn and Butt have their favorites among writers and artists currently in the comics field. Oleksyn likes Frank Miller, a writer for Marvel and DC Comics because, “He portrays his characters in a realistic way.”
Another big influence is Robert E. Howard of Conan fame. “I love his historical references and knowledge of mysticism,” Oleksyn said.
Butt echoes a love of Conan. He said he likes the artwork in some of the Conan comics done by artist John Buscema.
Oleksyn also enjoys the works of J. R. R. Tolkien. “I enjoy his characters, they're entertaining and you enjoy reading about them.”
If the reaction of the majority of readers is as favorable as it was amongst the Recorder staff who read Existing Earth, then Butt and Oleksyn will have themselves a book that is indeed entertaining and enjoyable to read.
Editor’s note: the comic was nominated for an award, but only two issues of the comic were released before the $5,000 bank loan ran out.
