THE OLD BECOMES NEW: A look back on Comics Obscura issue 1

Time for another installment…

I’ve forgone posting new elements and made the executive decision to post some old stuff first. If you have seen this before hopefully it’ll be new and exciting for you to see it in a different type of media (HA! Laughed myself stupid after writing that one!). If you haven’t seen this stuff before then enjoy.

First off the following pieces are from Issue 1 of Comics Obscura.




I’d like to take a minute (or so depending on how fast you read) to talk about the introduction.

This simple two-page story was used to introduce our narrator of Comics Obscura, The Obscurationist. Choosing to write a rhythmic alliteration of verses the art came shortly after. Each of the four panels found in the rows were one solid image broken into panels to initiate a sense of time and motion. Each of the panels is given pace by the text that accompanies them. You may find this has a very strong feel for oration, that’s how we imagined the Oscurationist to be (An actor, a used car salesman, a carnival barker, etc.)

I had a lot of fun creating these two pages. Hopefully you’ll enjoy as much as still do to this day.




Now on to my main piece from Comics Obscura Issue 1… The Tao of Snarky

The story is about a detective (Snarky) who’s stuck on a foreign planet. I’m not going to give you much more now because the four pages below will pretty much set the stage for the world of Snarky.

It’s a funny thing how it came about though...

I have been working with Brad DeMaagd for a while now trying to get a few projects off the ground. This all started as a fluke detective story to grease the gears on our finally tuned machine. We tossed ideas around about what to do for a first issue. We had about three scripts written each one taking well over our four page limit we wanted to hold ourselves to. Suddenly Brad one day says “Oh yeah, here this quick little write up I did of Snarky writing in his diary…” I took one look at it read it over and simply replied “This is our first Issue.” Funny how sometimes things just fall into place. So I went to work breaking down the diary entry and pacing it for the comic. Threw images together experimenting with different styles on each page for the layout and in the end was really happy with the first installment of Snarky.

Please enjoy this four-page tale.




All in all publishing Comics Obscura issue 1 was a real positive experience. We sold a large portion of our first issue with in the first four months. We got great reviews, the individual comics were well received and the quality of the product all around was amazing. Though without the other creators the issue would not have been half as interesting, or had so much to offer over a multitude of genres.
But alas I have begun to overstay my welcome.

I’ll be posting installments two and three shortly so check back again and read them for the first time again… (if that made any sense). Plus I'll delve into my role with Comics Obscura and how's it's evolved since the first meeting over two and a half years ago.

Hold tight to your panties or your respective undergarments... there is more to come!

-Jacot