Oklahoma horror comic takes another run at crowdfunding
Word Balloons #1227: Horror legend joins team to finish storyline of 'Bad Candy'
It’s not yet Halloween, but comics fans have another chance at getting some Bad Candy.
The horror comic featuring a pumpkin-headed monster is seeking funds for its fourth issue on Kickstarter:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1993782250/bad-candy-issue-4-0f-4-plus-1-3
An earlier attempt at crowdfunding fell a little short, but the team has reorganized and is making new plans to get this issue in front of comics fans. The Oklahoma-based comic book “Bad Candy” was crafted as an homage to 1980s horror films and has so far seen the release of three regular issues and a special.
The original creative team for “Bad Candy” included local writer/artist Robert Henry and artist Joe Evans.
Henry is a photographer, artist, and Oklahoma native with comic-book credits including the "Rough Cut" comic book series of the 1990s. Artist Evans sadly passed away last year.
Henry explains the process of figuring out how to conclude the Bad Candy story arc on Kickstarter.
"Wrapping up the first story arc of Bad Candy is exciting and bittersweet,” Henry said. “It has been a long time coming and has been unpredictable on several levels. First and foremost, my collaborator and penciler on Bad Candy, Joe Evans passed away last year. He had been having health issues for some time and I had hoped that he would get better and finish this story of Bad Candy. Unfortunately, it was not meant to be.”
Filling in to finish out the series is Tim Vigil, the artist best known for “Faust,” whom Henry befriended after meeting the artist at comic conventions in the 1990s.
“A long time ago, when I was transitioning from GI Joe and Transformers comic books to X-Men and the Marvel universe I discovered the detour that is Independent comics. I remember the day, when thumbing through the comic rack, I picked up Grips #1,” Henry writes.
The style, content and detail of that comic “opened a whole new world of comics to me,” Henry writes.
“The artist of that book: Tim Vigil. If you had told the young me that someday I would not only meet the artist, but he would end up drawing a book that I wrote, I would have never believed it. However, here we are. I am grateful and feel extremely blessed.”
Henry originally conceived of the pumpkin-headed Halloween character as an "Inktober" sketch in 2015. “Inktober” is a challenge where artists draw a sketch each day of October, often based on a specific prompt.
The series, set in 1982, features a farming family, the Lewises, who provide an offering to a spirit known as Bad Candy each October. But when bank robbers on the run take over the Lewis’ house, the offering isn’t made, and trouble ensues.
Three issues of the regular series have been released and showcased across the region at comic-book conventions from Chicago to Houston.
Henry is a veteran of Oklahoma comics publishing, with credits tracking back to the 1990s. Several of those projects have been alongside his compatriots at Rain King Studios, who are all coming together to help wrap up this “Bad Candy” arc in a variety of ways.
The Rain King artists providing covers for the Vigil-drawn issue are Shawn Wilson, Dirk Hooper, Scott ‘Prime,’ and Henry. There is also a commemorative cover that was drawn by Evans, a new cover from Vigil, and a cover by the artist Talis. Wilson provided thumbnails and tones for the book (and created the Bad Candy logo). Hooper does lettering, interior design, and marketing.
The Kickstarter campaign runs through Sept. 2. The comic book is finished and ready to print upon the conclusion of a successful campaign.
Matthew Price, matthew@matthewLprice.com, has written about the comics industry for more than two decades. He is the co-owner of Speeding Bullet Comics in Norman.