Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! After all the food settles, remember to go to www.cash-and-carrie.com to support a fun for all ages, inclusive mystery graphic novel. The campaign is in it’s final week, and needs your help to get over the top!

CASH & CARRIE is back! 13 days left to fund the next graphic novel in the series. Book 2: Summer Sleuths features our favorite detectives, Dallas Cash and Inez Carrie and their adventures at summer camp. Go to www.cash-and-carrie.com to back this book on Kickstarter. Help make it happen!

Cash and Carrie Book 2 on Kickstarter

#BlackComicsChat Fam it's going down Friday with @whitltaylor !! Tune in! Don't miss it! Check the #blackcomicschat tag on Twitter for the link to listen live!

Join us tonight @ 9 pm with @dreamfurycomics! Check the #blackcomicschat tag on Twitter for the link to listen live! #podcasts #comics #blackcomics #dreamfurycomics

Join us tomorrow for #BlackComicsChat live with @rslockettdown & @cheinwonderland as we discuss their work, @wincnyc, and more! Stay tuned to the #blackcomicschat tag on Twitter for the link to listen live!

Join us tonight at 9 pm ET with one of our faves, @joamettegil!

Go HERE to Listen Live.

Kickstarter Highlight: Common Men Origins

BlackComicsChat: Welcome to BlackComicsChat! Please introduce yourself and tell us your origin story. Where are you from? Tell us about your earliest memory of comic books, and the moment when you first decided that you wanted to be involved in the creation of comics.

Kirk: Thank you very much for having me. My name is Kirk Twyman and my origin story is pretty simple. I was that kid who would always day dream about things that were more exciting than what was happening in the real world. If my family was at the store and my dad told me to get eggs, it became a critical mission to get the them as soon as possible, avoid the treacherous carts and hostile other customers to get the eggs back safely. Now they didn’t know why I was running at full speed and dodging like a Deion Sanders, but it always helped me edge out the boredom. My earliest comics actually came from one of the ViewMasters. You know those binocular type things where you flip the handle to get to the next image. While we didn’t have much growing up, I am thankful that I received this beautiful device one Christmas. I had Snoopy, Spiderman, Batman, Scooby Doo. It just made me want to start writing my own stories. While I was always creative, the true spark didn’t hit until I read a book about Sleepy Hollow and other stories that had a lot of illustrations. I got really deep into it. See, there is a story of Raven Rock that tells the story about a witch that haunts the area. Where I grew up in Gaithersburg, MD we had to pass by a road called Raven Rock to walk to school, and man, my mind just wondered about a connection. What happened from the story till now. I started filling in the blanks and the next thing I knew I had written a full fledged sequel to Sleepy Hollow that encompassed all the extra stories I found in this book. My principal gave me an award or some kind of certificate, and from then I knew I wanted to create in every medium possible. 

Let’s discuss the project that you are Kickstarting. What is your story about?

Kirk: The Kickstarter is for the full graphic novel for Common Men Origins. I’ve already created the first issue, but I felt that the story would be better served as one longer novel than broken up in 4 to 5 issues. Originally Common Men told the story of two brothers who were trained by their parents to take on supers, my name for any being that has super powers. In their world, Supers have slowly taken over the planet and humanity has become complacent, feeling that they have to stay in their role and take the abuse and common collateral damage that the supers would cause. I wrote a screenplay a long time ago, and tooling with the story made me realize I had written a deep lore for not only the parents of these characters, but the grandfather. So Common Men Origins tells the story of the first betrayal that lead the supers’ dominance once the checks and balances have been destroyed. Frank Plummer is the last watcher, as all the other watchers have been killed, and he decides that it is time to do something. Tells us about the creative team behind this project.

Kirk: In terms of story telling, it is mainly myself over the years talking about this story. In the original comic, Doug Warner did all the art work. He did it for an amazing price and was really invested in the story.

What was the creative process like on this book?

Kirk: The creative process was really long. I had dreams of being a screenwriter in Los Angeles and had written 20 or so screenplays about amazing events and different protagonists and incredible antagonist, but my main story was called Accidental Villains. This has the two previously mentioned brothers who after a night of partying are attacked by a Super Hero and kill him defending themselves. Ha ha, there is still a short out there on YouTube when I tried to make a film intro. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tTW0voLl64 One day I just started connecting the dots to how this story could match with this story and I knew that the thing between my heroes were that they were all Common Men. This led me to write a story about their mom, who is referred to in many stories as the baddest woman on the planet, which then lead to her father who was responsible for her training because he was intimately familiar with what the supers were trying to do. What made you choose kickstarter as a funding method?

Kirk: So I have a friend name Russell Nohelty who is a creative genius and also writes amazing stories. I remember seeing his Kickstarter for the story Katrina Hates The Dead. It really opened my eyes that Kickstarter would be a great place for people who are looking for great content and those that can provide it. Looking at some of the projects that have been successfully funded, I knew it would be a great place for Common Men to get the boost it needed to become a reality.

What are some of the incentives that backers can receive when they support your campaign?

Kirk: People have the option of getting the original Issue #1 signed by yours truly. They can get the new full graphic novel, but I think that the best reward is that you can actually be IN the graphic novel. There are different levels to be one of the dead watchers who we learn about their death in flashback. They can be a super hero with costume and power, they can be a villain, with sadistic lines and evil deeds and for one special person, they can be the Master Mind. The one character pulling the strings of the super that thinks he is in control. So when we say be a part of the story we really mean it by capturing your likeness. What are your future plans for the series?

Kirk: I have at least 5 graphic novels planned out for this series that leads to current events. Common Men Origins is first then we will see the Rise of Knockout, showing how the Baddest Woman on the Planet earned her name. It’s a really exciting road for these characters. We’re looking forward to seeing the finished product. Anything else you’d like to share?

Kirk: Me too. I would also like to first thank you for having me. I appreciate the opportunity, as Common Men is going to be a story that blows people away. In a world where are the movies are old stories and many comics wash, rinse and repeat stories, Common Men will be a truly unique, original piece that I am sure everyone will enjoy. Where can people find you and your work on the internet?

Kirk: You can find the kickstarter at https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2071705902/common-men-origins. The Common Men Origins Issue #1 is available on Amazon at http://a.co/0kn02w6. I can be found on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/commonmenorigins/ and @twymancreative on Twitter. They can also email me at kirk@twymancreative.com