Wanna see something weird?
You’ve come to the right place. By picking up this anthology, you’ve begun a journey; a descent into nightmares, bizarre worlds, and the unknown. When you flip through these pages, you’ll see a collection of weird tales by a group of unbelievably talented VCU students and alumni. But at the root of the madness you’re about to experience is something more poignant. You’re about to get a glimpse of the hopes and dreams of a collective of collegiate dreamers.
In October of 2013, the five of us met up and began tossing around ideas for VCU’s first student comics anthology. Richmond’s comic community has been on the brink of exponential growth for several years now; and the five of us believed that if we could get the right group of people together we could pull our hidden kinsmen out of the woodwork.
Slowly but surely, the submissions came in. Five months of 3 AM work sessions, and nights that honestly left us sick of each other tried to break us. But we soldiered on. All the while, we tried to capture the elusive “spirit of the anthology.”
In the end, the artists and writers who contributed to this publication provided the spirit for us. We found that our peers are not just weird, but also funny, thoughtful, romantic, tenacious individuals. We don’t have to convince you of this. Their work will do that on its own.
We hope that you enjoy the talent and work that artists and writers alike poured into these pages in VCU Comics’ first anthology. We hope you are surprise, amused, saddened, and frightened by the work we’ve put into this little floppy book.
So check your closet for monsters, bolt your doors, and get to reading, if you dare. It’s about to get weird.
Table of Contents
“Eyes” Erin Bushnell 2
“Sedna” Elly Call 10
“Semester Two” Connor Weekes 18
“Uh, Apocalypse or Something” Hannah Lazarte 26
“Abduction” Moaz Elemam 32
“Beneath the Surface” Gareth Bentall 40
“Dialogues in Negative Space” Fahmida Azim 42
“Vampire Mom” Maddie C 50
“Rude Angel” Kendall Ewing 58
“Sunday Dinner” Matthew Marinello 66
“Cat Call” Chris Kindred 72
“Spoonger” Nicole Kim 74
“Beware of Dog” Tres Dean/Melissa Duffy 80
“Swamp Witch” Courtney Shackelford 86
Editor Bios 95
Acknowledgements 96
Cover: Cathryn Virginia
Dedicated to Kerry Talbott
Chris Kindred
A Communication Arts major and Editor-in-Chief of the Comics Anthology at VCU. He plans to make and teach comics wherever he can, as long as he can.
Tres Dean
An English major at VCU as well as a writer. He’s going to keep writing because it’s fun and also basically the only thing he’s good at. His hobbies, include talking about Batman, talking about Superman, talking about the X-Men, and literally nothing else.
Courtney Shackelford
A student of the Communication Arts Department, content editor for this publication, and a passionately prolific doodler. Though she wants to create comics well into old age, her love of storytelling has expanded her interests to include storyboarding for television and movies.
Hannah Lazarte
Majoring in Communication Arts at VCU with a minor in Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies. She is a content editor for this publication and an aspiring illustrator and comic artist. She eagerly awaits the day when women will take over the entertainment industry.
Elly Call
A Communication Arts and English double major, she has united her passion for both the English language and art through her editorial positions at Poictesme and VCU Comics. She dreams of traveling and teaching English around the world.
Contact Info
Chris Kindred kindredca@vcu.edu swrdplay.tumblr.com
Courtney Shackelford shackelforce@vcu.edu shackelforce.tumblr.com
Elly Call callim@vcu.edu
Hannah Lazarte lazartehn@me.com lazarte-art.tumblr.com
Tres Dean tresdeanrva@gmail.com shutuptres.tumblr.com
Kendall Ewing Kendall.m.ewing@gmail.com
Erin Bushnell erinfb@verizon.net. monstercoach.tumblr.com
Gareth Bentall bentallgr@vcu.edu
Fahmida Azim azimf@vcu.edu agent-eemz.tumblr.com
Melissa Duffy Duffy@ohbeehive.com Ohbeehive.com melissatheduffy.tumblr.com
Moaz Elemam moazlog.tumblr.com moaz.elemam@gmail.com
Matthew Marinello marinellomn@mymail.vcu.edu
Nicole Kim soyjoykim@gmail.com
Connor Weekes www.behance.net/MrMoonGoat weekescd.wix.com/connorweekes
Maddie C verticalart.tumblr.com maddiecillustration@gmail.com
