Hush-hush and on the QT, we present to you, dear reader, the Golden Age of Hollywood. Los Angeles is ripe with beautiful beaches and gorgeous movie stars, and there’s opportunity as far as the eye can wander. There is also, unfortunately, a supervillain problem, with rogues running rampant everywhere. During the day, the city is attacked by atomic robots, robbers that run football formations, and circus acts with a death wish! And by night? There’s an onslaught of gangsters with magic wands, feral beasts out for blood, and seedy criminal organizations conducting cosmic-powered turf wars. Welcome to the world of ALTER EGO, an action-packed, 100-page all-new, original graphic novel by Eisner-nominated writer Nate Cosby (Cow Boy), artist Jacob Edgar (James Bond), colorist Kike J. Diaz (Red Sonja), and letterer Rus Wooton (The Walking Dead). A Kickstarter for ALTER EGO is now live from Linney Incorporated, featuring variant covers by superstar artists Wilfredo Torres, Phil Hester, Declan Shalvey, Chris Eliopoulos, and SOZOMAIKA, and a main cover from artist and co-creator Jacob Edgar.
Listen, I love gettign the chance to interview comic creators and this one sounds super fun! Get to know Nate Cosby with me and learn about his new offering, Alter Ego!
First off, why Kickstarter?
This’ll be the fifth Kickstarter I’ve been a part of, and each one has been a wonderful experience. I’ve learned a lot about how to engage more directly with people that are interested in the stories that my collaborators and I want to tell. The Kickstarter community has been super-supportive of what we’ve done so far, so we’re actually planning the next couple projects that we plan to launch on Kickstarter, via my production company, Linney Incorporated.
Alter Ego is set in LA, what was the reasoning behind that choice? (most super heroes are in new York, after all)
“Most superheroes are in New York” was a big reason to set our story elsewhere. There’s a bazillion comics with costumed people leaping/flying/swinging in New York. Jacob Edgar and I wanted to tell our story with a different kind of energy. Namely, a version of Hollywood that’s been overtaken by different film studios, sort of like the different lands of DisneyWorld! So we’ve got a section of town that only makes Sci-Fi, another Westerns, an entire Noir section. Then there’s the huge Bollywood neighborhood, the Japanese area, Korean studios, and many more. We wanted to create a big playground for our adventures.
Also, why the “Golden Age of Hollywood”?
Because it’s where my favorite movies were made! Jacob and I love classic films, and the biggest touchstone for Alter Ego is Singin’ In The Rain. Not just the setting, but the performance of Gene Kelly…he had such a vibrant physicality that we used as the basis of our main character, Ace Adams.
And also, I’m interested in exploring the concept of identity, by telling the story of one person that’s chosen to “act” like two totally different heroes…WHIZ-BANG, a grinning daytime hero, and THE BLACK DOG, a nighttime vigilante. Ace thinks of these two characters as “performances,” and what better time or place to examine performance than in the Golden Age of Hollywood?
What’s next?
Finishing Alter Ego! And finishing up my previous Kickstarter project, Fight-Bunny by Jennifer L. Meyer, Ariana Maher and myself. Then it’s on to the next thing…
