Local artist works on first comic book

 

A local comic book artist is working on her first comic which will be released by a local publisher.

April Fawler is getting ready to release her first comic book Apes in the Woods #1. Fawler started working with Legacy Comics Publishing and on her book in December.

“I just finished drawing it last night, so now I just have to paint and ink it,” said Fawler. “We’re aiming for end of April.”

Fawler got her inspiration for the story when a girl she works with told her she was a universal friend of animals. At the same time Tony Gray, co-owner of Legacy Comics, talked to her about creating a book.

“There’s no nasty violence or swearing, it’s pretty friendly,” said Fawler.

Apes in the Woods is about April waking up in a forest with animals who want to be her best friends. While creating the book, Fawler said writing it was more difficult than drawing it. She took animation in school so she had experience drawing.

“That’s probably the hardest part, the writing and trying to figure out what they’re going to do,” said Fawler.

Fawler said she found ending a story to be very difficult. She also wants each book to be stand-alone stories like The Simpsons where everything goes back to normal. Fawler also said the pacing was tricky and she views the comic as if it were animation storyboards.

“I look at it like, if I were to hand a storyboard into an animator would they be able to turn this into a show?” said Fawler.

Fawler had plenty of support when it came to making her book. She said her parents told her this is what they think she should be doing because she’s so good at it.

“It’s really nice to have people that are so supportive of something that I think is so crazy,” said Fawler.

One of the people who has been supporting and helping her is Gray.

“The first time she was out here she sat down and worked for six to seven hours, even after working a shift at her other job,” said Gray.

Gray met Fawler at A Merry Comic Book Christmas Con that was held in Windsor back in December. Gray also said when he and fellow Legacy Comics writer, Mike Michalski, first read some of Fawler’s comic, they said they never could have come up with something like it in 100 years.

“Because she’s watercolour painting it, it’s not a traditional way of doing a comic book,” said Gray. “It’s almost like having many, many panels of a children’s story book put in a comic book format.”

Fawler and Gray are planning on releasing Apes in the Woods #1 near the end of April.