This is the beginning of an ongoing series spotlighting serial serialists–creators that can’t stop making comics.
It is not uncommon for artists and writers to start a digital series and stop. Doing regular comic work on a schedule is difficult at best: it rarely pays for itself, you have to market yourself, plus unless and until you become popular you get no feedback. It’s no surprise that many creators stop. But there are some that persevere, push through the tough conditions and continue their work. Many artists simply give up. Yet there are many many others that keep going, toiling whether in obscurity or the light of Internet fame. And of those that keep going there are a special few that finish their comic, completing the story they wanted to tell and then move on to another. It is these strange birds we have dubbed the serial serialists–creators that keep on creating comics moving from one project to the next. Comic Rocket will feature several of these creators every month starting today.
The creator I want to talk about in this inaugural article in the series is Evan Dahm. He’s got quite a few followers on Comic Rocket. He’s been working on his various stories since 2006. It sounds like Evan didn’t plan to be a webcomics artist. Talking about his first completed story called Rice Boy he says, “I started it in college for fun, and put it online so people could see. I didn’t do much planning, and just kind of went with it, and learned a lot about what I was doing on the way.” I wish we could all learn so much so easily!
Evan’s stories are unique in that they share a common world called Overside. All of the stories are self-contained, but as he says, “they build upon each other.” He began with Rice Boy then moved on to Order of Tales and finally came to his current story Vattu which he started in July 2010. As he finishes one he moves on the next. Rice Boy ran from April 2006 to May 2008 telling the story of the titular Rice Boy, who is chosen to fulfill an ancient prophecy by a self-described “Agent of God.” Order of Tales ran online from July 2008 to July 2010 and follows Koark, the last Teller of the Order of Tales. Vattu takes place 600 years after Order of Tales. He started it in July 2010 and it’s continuing to this day. So far it follows the Fluters as they deal with Sahta Empire encroaching upon them.
Read them all in order:
Or visit Evan’s blog here.