So, at the beginning of this year, I had submitted my comic strip Always Kinda Itchy to a few comic strip syndicates. These are the companies that do the leg work of getting comic strips published in various newspapers and such all over the country. I figured since there were already over 200 strips in the bag, it was worth a shot.
I received some excellent feedback, mainly complementing the writing. The artwork of Itchy didn't seem to gel though, which was not unexpected, given that it was basically badly drawn stick figures. I knew that Itchy wasn't really the type of comic that was going to land next to Garfield and Family Circus in the Sunday paper, but it was interesting to go through the process.
Given how much people seemed to enjoy The Paranet Pals, I decided to try a bit of an experiment; what if I wrote something in the tone of Itchy, but drew it in the style of the Paranet Pals? Enter GHOSTED.
GHOSTED is a comic strip about a depressed illustrator that inherits a mansion from an recently deceased and estranged great-uncle. It also happens to be a very very haunted mansion. The ghosts of the house take pity on the illustrator, and sort of become his emotional support network.
I wrote about 17 strips, and drew about 12 of them. The 10 above are the ones that I actually finished. The plan was to make the 26 or so that are required to submit to syndicates, and try again to get picked up come January. Then, last week, I stumbled on to a show called GHOSTS.
It's a BBC show, which recently had an American adaptation debut, about a down on their luck couple that inherits a mansion. After a near death experience, the female lead can suddenly see and interact with the all of the ghosts in the house.
So, based on the fact that the BBC version of GHOSTS debuted in 2019, I've decided that the similarities between the premises are just a bit too close for comfort. Which is fine; there are always going to be more ideas. But I thought I'd share some of the strips that I finished with y'all, as a little end of the year treat.
