SCHMUCK chronicles the journey of Adam Kessler, a young man on the road from man-boyhood to actual adulthood. The tale follows the main character on a comical journey of blind dates, internet connections, break-ups, and the all-to-often ridiculously painful situations he must endure on his quest to grow up and find love in New York City.
While SCHMUCK tells a universal and relatable story, writer Seth Kushner feels it is told from a fresh perspective through both his words and the visuals of Kevin Colden, the artist who will be illustrating his tale. Kevin won a Xeric award for his acclaimed webcomic FISHTOWN, (first serialized on ACT-I-VATE) which was released as a graphic novel by IDW Publishing in November 2008 and was nominated for an Eisner Award. "SCHMUCK is a very personal story for me, since it's based upon a period of my life, and Kevin's sensibility, style and ability to tell a story in a way that feels both fresh and natural make him the ideal collaborator," says Seth.
Adding to the uniqueness of the package, Seth, a professional photographer, will be weaving flashback sequences throughout the narrative which will be done photographically in a fumetti style, blurring the lines between art and reality, fact and fiction. "Since the main character is a photographer, it only makes sense to incorporate photographs," says Seth. "There have been comics that have utilized photography before, but we’re making a photo-comic that doesn’t suck,” says Kevin.
SCHMUCK is planned as 200-page graphic novel and is currently being shopped to publishers. "At the moment, Kevin and I have twenty-three completed pages, which our agent is current pitching around, and it is our hope that we will find the right publisher to take on our project and then we will embark on finishing the rest of the book," says Seth. "For now, we're thrilled to be serializing it on ACT-I-VATE, and have it alongside all of the amazing and brilliant work found on the site."
Watch for SCHMUCK debuting on ACT-I-VATE.com on 11/26/09, Thanksgiving Day, with future installments running every Thursday for six weeks.
About the authors-
Seth Kushner’s photography work has appeared in such magazines as The New York Times Magazine, BusinessWeek, Newsweek, Time, L’Uomo Vogue, and in galleries around the world. His book, THE BROOKLYNITES, (powerHouse Books, 2007) was considered ”a terrific coffee table photo/interview book” by The New York Times. Aside from living out his dream of writing a graphic novel based on his Schmucky past, he is working on LEAPING TALL BUILDINGS, a book profiling cartoonists. Seth is also the co-creator and co-editor of GRAPHIC NYC, (nycgraphicnovelists.com) a website devoted to comics journalism. Seth was born, bred and currently lives in Brooklyn, NY, with his wife Terra, his newborn son, Jackson, and way too many comics. SCHMUCK is Seth's first comics work.
Kevin Colden is the Xeric-winning author of the acclaimed ACT-I-VATE webcomic FISHTOWN , which was released as a graphic novel by IDW Publishing in November 2008 and has been nominated for an Eisner Award. He is a founding member of The Chemistry Set webcomics collective. His work has appeared on DC Comics ZudaComics.com and is also on display in the permanent collection at MoCCA. His current project is I RULE THE NIGHT, for ZudaComics.com. He lives in New York City with his wife, cartoonist Miss Lasko-Gross, where he works on comics, film and video.
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