Comic book Marineman creator, UK-based Ian Churchill, says it’s not easy when it comes to launching an owner-created comic book.
First, you have to figure out how to finance it.
“For a lot of people that means holding down a job and creating in your spare time,” says Churchill, who lived off royalties from a Red Hulk project when he created Marineman.
He drew it in a different style to the fanbase he gathered while working on Marvel and DC comic books, but knew better than to try and write for a specific audience.
“I did it for me. It was a comic I always wanted to do, something I wanted to read when I was eight years old.
“I spent a lot of time making sure it made sense, there were no holes in the plot,” says Churchill.
Marineman features scenes in Gansbaai and it is in issue 2 where the marine biologist lead character is shooting a live TV show and inadvertently proves he can breath underwater.
“And that is when things spiral out of control. It takes a bit of a dark turn towards the end and there are twists and turns,” says Churchill
His lifelong fascination with sea life started while watching Jacques Cousteau documentaries with his grandfather.
His father then challenged him to draw something original, other than Spider-Man, and he created Marineman.
Fast-forward through a career as a comic book artist, and Churchill never really dropped the copying idea since he discovered a facility for detailed and pseudo-realistic work in the style of Jim Lee. “Once I got known for that, I could not break out of that.”
After a shoulder operation, Churchill shifted back to his own, more cartoonish “Disney on steroids”, way of drawing because it was less onerous.
First he tried it out on Red Hulk and the good response gave him the confidence to try it on Marineman.
“One of the reasons I drew this comic is that I felt there weren’t enough comics for all ages. When I was eight I had read the stuff by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, and Stan Lee and Steve Ditko.
“Anyone from age 6 to 60 could pick up the comic and enjoy it on some level.”
Since The Dark Knight Returns and Watchmen changed how comics were perceived in 1985, a lot of the material and subject matter in comics is grittier and darker than what Churchill knew.
“It needed a shot in the arm at that time, but I don’t think it needed it for 30, 40 years. Gritty to a certain degree has been overdone and new readers, kid readers were not coming in. I felt that needed to be addressed,” Churchill says.