Among the artist at Stan Lee's Comikaze 2013 Madeline Holly-Rosing and the Metaphysical Society comic mini-series stood out with a steampunk inspired story.
"I had originally written Boston Metaphysical Society as a TV Pilot while at the UCLA MFA Program in Screenwriting. While I was developing the script a friend suggested I place it in a steampunk universe. I didn’t know much about steampunk then, so I did a lot of reading and research and then completely agreed with him. It ended up being a perfect marriage of my love of history and science fiction. Later on I was told this would make a good comic. So it was back to the drawing board to adapt my TV Pilot into a six issue mini-series," Holly-Rosing said.
The mini-series has been crowd-funded through Kickstarter projects for each chapter of the mini-series.
So far it's been an excellent series and has had a good response from those who visit their facebook page and follow the story.
"I’m very happy that people are enjoying the story. They are emotionally vested in the characters and want to know more about them. Right now, Caitlin and Tesla seem to be the overall favorites from the feedback I’ve gotten. However, many readers are surprised to find out that Granville Woods is a real person and lived in the same time period as the other historical characters. Samuel is still a bit of a mystery, but more about him will be revealed in the fourth issue," Holly-Rosing said.
Adapting the story from TV series to comic series has helped to bring the story to the public eye.
The research has lead the story in a great direction and through hard work and the of a talented team has helped to find the right path to take in order to bring the best possible product to fans.
"I think at the beginning I wasn’t sure how this was all going to turn out, but working with such talented people — Emily Hu, Troy Peteri and my two colorists Gloria Caeli and Fahriza Kamaputra — was a big help," Holly-Rosing said:
Without the team coming together bringing their talents to support the story written by Holly-Rosing the look and feel of the story would not be as spectacular.
With a concept in mind and no real way to describe the style Holly-Rosing struggled to find the perfect group to work with.
Through friends, classmates and networking the group slowly came together and bonded in magnificent way supporting the concept and bringing a magnificent steampunk style to to an exciting story.
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"As for the team, I did not know any of them prior to writing the comic. I met Emily through a mutual friend and classmate and paid her to do some sample pages for me. Well, they rocked and I hired her. She also loves the Victorian Period and pretty much nails what I send her. Dave Elliott (A1/Atomeka Press) arranged for the colorists (Gloria Caeli and Fahriza Kamaputra) through Stellar Labs. Dave has been somewhat of a mentor to me and a tremendous supporter of the project. I met him through another mutual friend from UCLA. Troy, my letterer, I met through Christina Strain (Fox Sister) a former classmate who became a mentor as well. I’ve been very fortunate in that I have been surrounded by people who have excelled in the field. If you noticed the trend here, everyone was affiliated with UCLA in some fashion," Holly-Rosing said.Steampunk has taken the nation by storm with beautiful creations that hold a fusion of old-fashioned industrial glamour with the ease of modern technology. The trend seems to be coming from over seas yet many people here in America have been doing this more many years now.
The belief is that steampunk is more of a foreign concept, such as an English concept.
"Unlike many steampunk stories which are set in England, this one is set in America. (Or rather an alternate version of America.) I wanted the story to reflect the American experience and history which is why I chose Boston. To me Boston represents the heart of United States history and I wanted to explore that," Holly-Rosing said.
Although steampunk is at the base of this project it is not the only reason this story is great. It is a complete story and has aspects that many can find intriguing. The characters are well developed and the plot is well structured with gadgets and steampunk infused into it.
"The story also doesn’t have a lot of gadgets which was a conscious choice of mine. I’ve read a lot of steampunk stories and comics where the characters get lost among a bunch of steampunk-techno gadgets and you can’t figure out what the story is. So I wanted to lean toward the character driven story where the technology is an organic part of their world," Holly-Rosing said.
With the story getting a great following and more of the story to tell. The first two chapters are completed and out, now it's time to continue with the next two.
Holly-Rosing said, "As we finish up Chapter 3, there is going to be a huge surprise and cliff hanger that will make people a little crazy, but that’s half the fun."
Currently, Holly-Rosing is running a Kickstarter Campaign to print the third and fourth issue in the six issue comic mini-series. It runs from Jan.22 – Feb. 21.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BostonMetaphysicalSocietyComic
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/mhollyrosing
