Today we are doing a special interview with *jaster0001 (Jeff Aden) and *skulljammer (Benjamin Glendenning) who are the creative minds behind Superworld Presents as well as *m-u-d-c-a-t (Garry henderson), the colourist. Superworld Presents is finally available in print!

Lets start off with a little introductions to Superworld Presents. Whats the story and who are the Characters?

Well, the goal from almost the beginning was to cover an entire super hero universe from an angle no one else has taken as well as establish finite continuity. To give super heroes (and villains) a different mindset, We don't just have the giant super serious storylines and mega battles, but also the in betweens such as personal lives and a lot of the nuances of every day life (even heroes have to shop for clothes) and so on. An important thing to note as far as the angle we take is the impact super beings would have on everyday living and the popular culture of the world. In a world with super powered beings duking it out just down the street who would really pay attention to which movie star is dating what pop singer? In SWP (Superworld Presents) It would be which hero is dating which heroine and how do they have time for each other with an alien invasion cutting into there personal time. With a comic like this there is no real "star of the book" if anything the focal point would be SWP as a tabloid magazine that covers all the super powered shenanigans. But to give everyone out there a taste of our characters we have some samples here and many more here [link]




Now, for the creative minds! How did you get started with comics? What made you decide to start one of your own?

*jaster0001 - I have been a comic reader since I was 8 or 9, anyone that is a faithful reader at one point or another wants to take that leap and create there own comics. I actually made that leap in high school when I created my own comic strip. It was nothing fancy but I was featured in my small town paper for about a year. While I was in that process I came the the harsh realization that the art was not my strong suit. So I eventually went to just writing, I eventually wrote my first complete comic I felt happy with and presented it to my long time friend Ben *skulljammer. I think that s when Ben realized that I was taking the whole writing thing seriously. So over dinner one day we were talking about my project (which is called "The Fix" and will be out next year) Ben then presented me with an idea to create our own super hero universe which I jumped all over. So long story short Ben threw in his ideas and I threw in mine and Superworld Presents is what we came out with.

*skulljammer - My Dad got me into comics before I even started school Teaching me to read on Legion of Superheroes digests. Comics are a medium that if you become a fan the desire to create comes with it. So I became obsessed with comics and Saturday morning cartoons and the desire to create led me to art and from that point on I was determined to become a career artist/creator. In high school I gathered some friends and self-published a book of my creation called "skulljammer" (so you can guess where I got my screen name). For a small press book made by a group of students it did surprisingly well. From there I spent a lot of time honing my artistic skill while getting some great (and some not so great) freelance work. In time I created lots of ideas for what I thought would be great comic books involving quite a few original characters. So I presented those ideas to Jeff *jaster0001 who was getting into comic book writing and we got to brainstorming and we eventually decided to do what virtually no other comic label has done and encompass all the characters I created as well as some Jeff had and quite a few we created together. So Superworld Presents is what we eventually landed on.




What are yours roles with the production of Superworld Presents and what challenges have you faced in your roles?

*jaster0001 - I would say that my main role in SWP is to take the literally hundreds of ideas Ben and I have and put them into one cohesive story line, but that is with a lot of help form Ben as far as what story to do and when. Also I am the script writer and the unofficial keeper of continuity. On of the challenges is just remaining in line with Ben in the artistic process verses where I am in the writing process. By nature of the comic making process I am several issues ahead with writing than Ben is with the art which is only natural. At the end of the day thought SWP is a blast to work on and I can't wait until comic fans have our book in there hands.


*skulljammer - My role starts at the almost daily phone meetings I have with Jeff about the current or future storylines. From there I'm on to character creation/design, making sure the character fits the style of SWP. From there I'm in the comic making process of penciling and inking, as well as art direction for the book as a whole. Which brings me to the challenge of coordinating a lettererer and colorist which I was lucky enough to enlist Garry *m-u-d-c-a-t who did a fantastic job on colors this issue. But the art direction requires a LOT of email tag and relating to the extended crew our vision of what we want in a SWP book. But all the hard work and challenges are worth it to see what I think is a unique and very entertaining comic.


*m-u-d-c-a-t - I was the color monkey. I actually had quite a few challenges coloring this. The first being that the palette was so bright, punchy, and supersaturated. It's just not a palette style I'm used to using. There were actually a couple of times where Ben and I argued over the some of the color choices. If we woulda been in the same town, I woulda slapped him in a figure 4 leglock until he gave in.

The other challenge was just the amount of time I had to color. We were in a rush to get it finished so it could get to print in time. I had to cut short a lotta the visit time with holiday company. Luckily, Ben had conned $y2jenn into flatting the pages for me, which was a huge help.

The last days before the pages got shipped off to the printer were a bit of fun. Ben had forgotten a few pieces of art that were supposed to go in the book, so I kept getting emails for "emergency colors." I think those were probably some of my fastest turnaround times to date.




What advise do you have for others looking to follow a similar path in comics that you have taken?

*jaster0001 - Quit should never be in your vocabulary. See a project to the end, don't stop just because it's getting too hard. Don't be afraid of critiques and use them to hone your skills and become better for the effort. Other than that feel free to step out of the norm. One more thing, milk should not have lumps...and it's hard to fit into a story.

*skulljammer - The best advise I could give is if you want to be a comic book artist then draw comic books. All the sketches in the world won't help prepare you for panel work and pacing. Remember, storytelling is a artform onto itself. Other than that just draw whenever you can you can never have too much practice. Also massive amounts of caffeine will not improve your line quality...unless you are drawing lumpy milk.



Where can your readers purchase your newly printed work?

Superworld Presents Special 2008 Is available NOW! on IndyPlanet here- [link]
24pages full color 3.99$
And as always we have tons of exclusive content On SuperworldPresents.com

Also We ( Ben and Jeff) will be available at Phoenix Cactus Comicon [link] January 26th-27th Along with an extremely limited Sketch cover edition of the book In which Ben will provide a personal sketch with every purchase.