Welcome to the world of DROWSE!

Better late than never, right?

It only occurred to us a few days ago that we launched DROWSE without a word from its creative team, so this is more than a little past due. Suffice it to say, we’re thrilled that our story is finally out in the wild and look forward to continuing to create compelling and challenging comics for you.

DROWSE has had a long and convoluted genesis. We initially developed the property as a weekly comic strip for a proposed digital comics website curated by longtime friend Rick Ritter in 2011. The site was intended to build upon the creative success of Rick’s Don’t Look! A Horror Comic Anthology (2010) by giving a more expansive platform to many of its creators, including us. Sadly, the site was scuttled for one reason or another, and we paused the development of our own strip shortly thereafter to pursue other career opportunities. 

Originally, our then-untitled “occult detective” comic was to be presented as a reprint of a weekly strip that ran in a fictional underground newspaper in the 1950s and was stylistically influenced by Terry and the Pirates and Dick Tracy. An element of self-reflexivity was key to the story as initially envisioned. The detective, over time, would grow aware of being trapped in the strip and would figure his way out, thus transforming the comic, formally, into something new.

Foolishly, in 2013, Frank thought he could revive the story while working on his PhD. For fans of Paul’s sidekick Ben Franklin, you’re welcome, as his addition to the mythos (and some story beats you’ll see around Chapter 14) was about all that came out of this attempted revival.

Until finally…

In 2016, looking to collaborate again, our first thought was to revisit our unnamed occult detective. We dusted off our old Word docs and set about revamping the material. Ideas excitedly and effortlessly flew back-and-forth in months of emails and phone calls. In our more sober moments, we lamented how long it took us to get DROWSE off the ground. Still, that lost time may have had its benefits. We returned to the project better writers and more mature collaborators.

In time, we presented a comprehensive story bible and a very-rough first draft to editor Kev Ketner, who later joined the project. Kev brings to DROWSE an impressive resume as a comic book editor for a variety of publishers, supernatural project management skills, and an uncanny ability to know how to provide just enough feedback to nudge his team in the right direction. Kev has a true knack for what works and what doesn’t, and has saved more than a few embarrassing pages from publication (seriously, the dialogue in the opening scene of Chapter 3 went through about six drafts). Oh, and he also designs those killer chapter title pages!

Kev in turn introduced us to our letterer extraordinaire, Taylor Esposito. If you’ve read an American comic book within the last ten years, you’ve probably seen Taylor’s work. In addition to enhancing the visual storytelling and adding personality to the characters’ dialogue, Taylor goes the extra mile and makes unique and innovative creative choices — such as the way in which he presents Scholz quoting the newspaper article during his speech in Chapter 2 — and works closely with Kev to get things just right.

Of course, DROWSE wouldn’t be what it is without the truly out-of-this-world art, design, and worldbuilding of artist Jaime Huxtable. Jaime is an absolute master storyteller. He can take a sequence like the outdoor market scene in Chapter 1 — a challenging and potentially problematic exercise in which he must negotiate action on multiple planes — and make it look uncommonly easy. From the sobering historical tragedy of Chapter 2’s opening scene to the bizarre, Superstudio-meets-The Prisoner pod technology of the People’s Project that follows, Jaime is crafting an artistic voice for DROWSE unlike any other. And we haven’t even talked about his coloring

So…what can you expect from DROWSE?

We’ve plotted out DROWSE into four “seasons,” which will be broken down into arcs of four chapters each. Our goal is to publish individual chapters monthly — or close to it — with short breaks between arcs. To fill the void during those story breaks, expect to see behind-the-scenes content, supplemental material, and a few other surprises posted regularly.

Welcome to DROWSE. Embrace the unconscious mind…

Frank & Nick