The team behind City Weekly’s 2013 Arty for the best LDS Comic book, Salt City Strangers, is full of character. Always willing to have a good time together, it’s not hard to see how their book is funny, irreverent, and above all else, respectful of its source material.
Their second book is soon to be released in what promises to be an even better time than the first one. From what they’ve showed me; the art will be crisper, the dialogue even more biting, and it will have even more Utah history Easter eggs than issue #1. Chris Hoffman handles the penciling and shares writing duties with Jeremy Gates and Joshua Shawndall Butterfield, while Sam Rodriguez handles finishes and inking.
Josh and Jeremy met through their shared passions of gaming and comics in their youth. Chris and Josh met when they two were working at Comics Utah in the early 90’s. As most youthful friendships go, they lost touch with one another. Luckily for Josh and Jeremy, they later met up in life through a mutual friend. Luckily for them all, that mutual friend just happened to be Chris’s wife. They all know Sam through Black Cat Comics in Sugarhouse and his band Discoid A. As Josh put it, “Our friendships have deep roots in Geekdom. We’ve come together because we all have common interests and we love working on them together.”
Their passion is to create and when hanging out with each other the talk of their projects comes up organically. Their talents are very similar but they all contribute equally without stepping on top of one another. The process to get to a finished comic book is very collaborative. Chris tries to keep them all on task and working with one another to push the project forward. Jeremy, with his deep writing background, is able to insure the story is planned and then framed in properly. Chris then takes the framing, and Jeremy’s story boards, and draws out the art. Josh finalizes the story by insuring the dialogue is grounded and sounds real.
Jeremy is a published author with 6 titles under his belt, the most recent one being The Serenity of Chaos. Josh is the co-owner of a game development and production company called Touch Paper Press. Chris Hoffman is an artist by passion but an MBA by trade. He works up at Westminster College and works with the rest of the Salt City Strangers team on all kinds of different creative projects like a script for the next Slam Dance Film festival. Most of the creators were able to sit down with me to talk about their book, Utah and Salt Lake City culture, and the honor of winning an Arty.
Big Shiny Robot: Congratulations on the Arty for best LDS comic book. At the Salt Lake City Comic Con I visited you at the Black Cat Comics booth and on your poster there was a disclaimer. The disclaimer read that the Salt City Strangers was not preachy or blasphemous. Many potential readers would ask, why would you be awarded the best LDS comic book and not be either of those two things?
Josh: The book is really a cross section of Utah and Lore, of which, the LDS church is a prominent part. People may like the Mormon Church or they may dislike it; but the reality is, they bring a lot to the community. If there were a super hero team in Salt Lake City, who fits the bill better right? They’re organized, which screams LDS. They do a public service, which is LDS. It’s volunteer work – LDS. I mean, it’s logical and it fits; and it fits Utah perfectly.
And (speaking about the book), it’s not about the fact they’re LDS. It’s that they’re super heroes who happen to have that background. The point is these are good people who want to help and who just happen to be LDS. It’s an element of the characters’ history and it doesn’t try to smack you over the head with it but it’s insinuated in there just like it is with (Utahans’) daily lives.
Chris:A lot of people are suspicious because there are a lot of people out there like the Southpark guys. They wonder, “Why would you do this if you’re not LDS?”
Matt and Trey say [The Book Of Mormon] is loving but there are parts that are kind of mean. We know people are suspicious because they wonder if we’re going to do the same thing. They wonder if we’re going to be mean and [the content] could be so poorly handled because the characters are LDS; but the book isn’t our platform to make a commentary on the LDS religion.
Jeremy: Early on we talked about, and in our writing sessions we talk about it, what roads are we going to go down and what are we not going to touch. [The comic book] is really not about religion. I mean, because [the setting] is in Utah, obviously that’s going to affect some things; but it’s not really about religion. There are times we get going down that road and we have to stop one another and say, “OK, let’s not go there. Let’s change directions.”
Josh: We’ve meandered all over the place, but the simple answer is we are providing an objective view of the people. Of the people that are part of the LDS Church. I think that’s recognized as a genuine contribution to literature rather than a commentary on this organization
Chris: Or it’s political views or anything like that. Since I’ve lived here my whole life, but I’ve never officially been a part of the church; this is sort of my experience. Demographically and just statistically speaking, 50 percent of my friends and the people I interact with are going to have a good chance at being LDS. It’s not like I can’t be friends with people because we’re not both Mormon or Episcopalian or Jewish or Muslim or whatever. We all have different relationships and backgrounds and that’s just the way it works here in Salt Lake City Utah and that’s the way it works for our super heroes.
Big Shiny Robot: Is there any concern that labeling it LDS is going to drive people away from the book, or drive the wrong audience to the book? You’re fighting against members of the church not waiting to expose themselves to commentary like Matt and Trey and non-members that don’t want to expose themselves to anything that would feel like additional LDS culture. Is the right audience so stunted by some of the controversy in our current culture that they’re going to see the book and not even give it a chance?
Chris: We’re hoping that the storyline and our characters are interesting enough and that we’ll be able to create an amount of trust with our readers. Everybody that’s taken a chance on the comic has told us that they think it’s funny and that the characters are likeable and that the story passes the test. We like these characters; we like their personalities and their interactions with each other. We have great stories and funny things planned. What we’re going to keep doing is tell cool stories and eventually people will come over to say, “This is just a good book and the rest of it is just background.”
Jeremy: The Funny thing is we’ve never pushed the LDS thing. It’s been the press and others that have approached us about it that have pushed the LDS thing. We never came out and specifically said, “This is an LDS comic book”.
Josh: If a member of the church were to pick up the comic and read it, and they look at this Golden Spike character – who is also a member of the church – they could read into his good deeds as being his calling in life that builds a testimony. A non-member can pick up the book and see that he’s doing the great deeds because he’s a good guy and a hero. Everyone can walk away a winner from this.
We’re not going to tell you exactly why he does what he does, but his motivations will build as the story goes on and we’ll start to see how he ticks. It’s a very personal journey for him [Golden Spike]. Ultimately every reader that reads his journey is going to interject onto that character whatever they see as the reason he does what he does and that’s awesome.
Big Shiny Robot: Issue one was really fun. It reminds me of comics where the stories are more about fun and the settings are bigger than life. I think that’s what made the Avengers films so successful. With sets like the church office building, you’ve nailed bigger than life. How did you get the book to be so fun?
Chris: Heroes are no longer the heroes of old. My inspiration is the Spiderman of the Steve Ditko era. Spiderman was flawed and he could fail. People died when he made mistakes, even when he was trying as hard as he could. That was dramatically satisfying as far as the stories go. I’m not a big fan of Superman because he’s always the right guy for the job at the time. It doesn’t matter who or what you can bring against him because it’s kinda boring for me that he’s the man of the hour and always makes things right.
Josh: The only time’s that Superman is interesting is when he is in someone else’s book. He then becomes the bar of ideal and everyone who is compared against that bar creates context and that is interesting.
Chris: There has been a change with heroes over the last 10-15 years in that heroes are perfect. There is no challenge to what they’re doing. As much as the Avengers movie was awesome, they were way better than the villains. The villains were just overwhelming odds, that’s the big deal about that. But some would say they had a God; they had Loki, but on that other team? There was his better looking, stronger, older brother. I’m a huge fan of the underdog hero and right now there’s mostly the ideal hero. All of those books were bigger than life, which is the nice thing about Comics. You don’t have to have huge budgets. You could say that Mars is getting closer to earth and you don’t have to pay a special effects group to bring that to life.
Josh: Back to the Superman point, I think the underdog heroes are more fun because they’re more relatable. With Superman, I read the book and I think, “Wow, I’m inadequate. I bet this guy even cooks better breakfast than I do.”
The Strangers are people you can empathize with and say, “In his shoes, I might make that decision.” When the Strangers make mistakes, it’s humanizing and you don’t hold them to some weird standard. They’re just like me and the things they deal with sound just like my day. That’s cool to me.
Jeremy: Not to give too much away, but there’s a scene in the next book where the Strangers are hanging out at Spike’s house – which is their hideout – and they’re all playing Xbox. They’re every day heroes. They have to go to the grocery store like the rest of us.
Chris: My favorite stories in movies are ones like The Three Amigos , Galaxy Quest, and Tropic Thunder. Where it’s actors who are being thrust into roles of heroes and they’re the worst people you’d pick for the job. There’s a lot of comedy in the stories, but with a lot of heart, and through perseverance and a can do attitude, they win the day.
Josh: The Three Amigos are the perfect comparison.
Jeremy: And that’s totally the Strangers. They really have no business doing what they’re doing.
Chris: Mystery Men! Obviously and that’s even a closer comparison to the super heroes.
Big Shiny Robot: In issue one the art looks rough in some places, but it is part of the character of the comic. In the issue 2 preview I got from the Comic Con, the art is still great but it’s crisper and cleaned up. How do you maintain the character of the comic while cleaning up the art?
Josh: Issue 2 is still going to have the same feel or soul to it. It’s just more refined.
Jeremy: It’s the same character it’s just cleaned up.
Josh: It’s your Grandma’s wedding ring. It’s beautiful and it’s antique and it’s memorable; but we’ve polished it a little bit. The soul is there but it shines through better now. So, even though we’ve taken the time to polish it up, it’s still Strangers.
Chris: The art in the first one does look a bit rushed, but that’s why we’re polishing up the second issue. We had been developing the book for the last year and had to meet a deadline of Free Comic Book day. Sam Rodriguez did the inks over my digital layouts. There was supposed to be more of a finishing process there but with the time crunch, well; that’s how the book got its look.
Josh: That’s also why we’re using Kickstarter to fund us this time. We want the funds and the resources and the… everything we need to do the next one right this time.
Chris: So the first one had a DIY look to it but we really want to stick with these characters. We like them. We like their personalities and their interactions with each other. We have great stories and great moments planned, so if we need to hire someone to help on inking, the Kickstarter funds will allow us to get the book done sooner.
Big Shiny Robot: That brings up a good set of questions. Where can people find your Kickstarter and when does it end? Also, how long do you plan to continue producing the book?
Chris: November is our delivery date for the book.
Jeremy: Our thirty days on Kickstarter is October 13th and that’s our cutoff date.
Chris: We’re going to be using Ka-blamm.com to do our printing but we’ve considered other options.
Jeremy: Those other options will be available to us through the funds from Kickstarter and with some help from Josh. You can find the Kickstarter by searching for Salt City Strangers Issue #2.
(BSR Note*: Or click the link at the end of this article.)
Chris: We have 3 issues written almost completely now and we’re planning out a zero issue that will cover the primary characters. Not so much an origin but more of a “day in the life of”.
Josh: We have meta-plot that spans about, I’d say, 10 issues. It’s like every good comic or a season of Buffy. Here’s this big bad and this conflict and this meta-plot and all the actions that go on episode by episode. But, when we get to the end of that meta-plot there are new challenges. There are things people will want to see along the way.
Chris: We have plans for new heroes and for roster changes. Their rival Catholic team will be introduced in the next issue.
Jeremy: And they’re cool.
Chris: They’re really cool. I can’t wait to see the reaction to them. They’ve got all the resources that you’d expect from a service that isn’t necessarily voluntary.
Josh: They’re highly trained and highly organized.
Jeremy: We’ve even talked about having the Gull in his own spin-off issue. So, the sky’s the limit.
The Salt City Strangers crew was so much fun to talk to that we completely ran out of time without knowing it. The interview started at a light lunch that was rained out and ended up in the comfort of a coffee shop (not all of us drank coffee). We covered a lot of material and it left them excited to get back to work on the comic while leaving me stokedfor issue 2.
For more information about the Salt City Strangers, and what the creative team is working on, you can visit their website here. To find their Kickstarter page, please go here. If you’d like to talk to the creators, they’d love to hear from you. Please follow them on Twitter @SaltCityStrange.