Champion City Comics

Webcomicography is a weekly article from Champion City Comics that goes behind the scenes of our webcomics to give you the complete story. This week is the beginning of our series for The End of Paradise, a crime noir tale of revenge. TonyDoug Wright was the writer and A. 'Kav' Kaviraj did the pencils, inks, and lettering. To date, The End of Paradise has been our most ambitious project, and at this time, it is an unfinished webcomic that will be completed in the future or completely revised. What was to be a simple revenge story turned into a 138 page epic adventure into the criminal underground of New Ravenwood, Ohio.

When Champion City Comics launched during October 2009, we had one title, The Champion City Fire. The first Webcomicography series covered The Champion City Fire and you can click here to read the history of that webcomic. By the end of 2009, it was apparent that The Champion City Fire was dead in the water because Joe's work schedule kept him very busy. I asked him if we could put that title on hold and he agreed. My plan was to create a new story and have it posted to Champion City Comics.

The End of Paradise was going to be the next project, but it was going to be a science-fiction tale where two hit-men were sent on a mission to kill a droid. I wasn't sold on creating a science-fiction story, so I changed it to a modern day criminal story. I had nothing developed regarding characters or a basic plot, but I was inspired to write, so I then decided to post a help wanted ad at Digital Webbing for an artist that could do pencils, inks, and lettering. The artists were asked to send me a link to their work or to attach some images.

Although I had nothing developed for The End of Paradise, I knew I had to find someone that could deliver a gritty black and white style. Some readers are not fond of a basic black and white comic book or graphic novel, but I have a special place in my heart for a basic black and white story. Within an hour posting an ad looking for an artist to draw a black and white crime noir tale, I had my first response.

It was an artist who had a thing for drawing anthropomorphic cats. I wanted Criminal but was given Heathcliff. A polite email declining anthropomorphic cats was sent and I waited for more artists to reply.

An email from a person named Kaviraj was next and the message just said "avengers assemble! check me out!" along with a link to their artwork. The link sent me to Kaviraj's page at deviantart.com where I was greeted to some images of what I thought were for a Buddhist or Hindu comic book. I was pissed for a moment, but then noticed some images of various criminals for a comic book project. After reviewing those images for a few minutes, I knew I found my guy or girl. With a name like Kaviraj, it was impossible to determine their sex or where they lived.

Kaviraj and I started emailing each other and Kaviraj said they were able to do two to four pages a day of pencils and inks. Kaviraj also stated they were inspired by Ed Brubaker's Criminal and I was feeling great about The End of Paradise. Meeting Kaviraj inspired me to develop characters and a plot. Everything was sent to Kaviraj for development and we talked about the goals for The End of Paradise regarding publishing, creative control, and possible profits. Within a few days, I had the first ten pages of script developed and Kaviraj told me to call him 'Kav'. We had started a great project and I waited for the first few pages of our collaboration.

Next week, I will discuss the first five pages of The End of Paradise.


TonyDoug Wright is the owner and editor of Champion City Comics. His webcomics include Dr Death vs The Zombie, The End of Paradise, The Red Devil, and Day 165.