Amber Love 01-AUG-2012 Today JAMAL IGLE hits the campaign trail. No, he’s not ousting Mayor Bloomberg, unfortunately; his campaign trail starts in New York, heads to the interwebs, and lands in your lap with stops at comic conventions along the way. Jamal is crowdsourcing his creator-owned comic MOLLY DANGER through Kickstarter.
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It’s always a good time for me to catch up with Jamal Igle whether it’s at a comic con or at a shop. He’s been skyping endlessly on podcasts to promote his MOLLY DANGER project. It’s a truly all ages comic that will be published in graphic album format by Action Lab Entertainment. The storylines will not be just for kids but are targeted to fill the void for young readers who aren’t being satisfied by the current superhero selection in comics. Parents won’t be bored by the plots either. Jamal promises to make Molly an interesting character, purely good at heart and a genuine person that has life challenges she must face. The other characters will have their own development as well. Readers will cry, Jamal warned.
“I’m trying to create something I would want to see as a reader.” ~JI
We chatted about superheroes and leading female characters like W.I.T.C.H. and JUNIPER LEE that didn’t quite make it but showed girls kicking ass which is Jamal’s goal. The networks and mainstream are too focused on things like WINX CLUB where girls with power are emo-ridden, angsty, and hung up on boys. Jamal recounts his early influences from cartoons that are far different than what’s available today. The considerations of Molly’s and the other characters’ ethnicities was discussed with some other references in today’s pop culture like Action Lab’s award-winning title PRINCELESS. Jamal explains his need for crowdfunding when he has a publisher attached to MOLLY DANGER.
“The thing about Action Lab is Action Lab is a great content provider but they are a very small company and what we’re doing with MOLLY is not a traditional comic or at least – it’s not a monthly comic; in terms of the size of the book, Action Lab has never done a book like this before. Part of the reason why I’m raising the funds for the printing and production of the book through Kickstarter is because it’s gonna be a 9 x 12 hard cover album series.” ~JI
The process of making independent comics heeds listeners looking to break in that so much of a comic creator’s daily routine is business administration and marketing rather than the physical making of the stories. Now that Jamal is no longer under an exclusive DC Comics contract, his works are amazingly diverse. He’s working on KISS for IDW Publishing the same time as working on special covers for other projects, scripting and drawing MOLLY DANGER plus the “secret” project he’ll reveal soon has an espionage edge to it.
“Had it not been during the movie [THE DARK KNIGHT RISES], he would have found some other venue to do it. His whole goal was to hurt people – to kill people. It’s cute for the networks to try and make a story out of it by calling it The Batman Massacre when it has absolutely nothing to do with the movie or the content of the movie or anything else; the guy is clearly disturbed. ” ~JI on the Aurora massacre
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Founder and Editor-in-Chief of AmberUnmasked.com and Vodka O'Clock Podcast. Author of The Farrah Wethers Mysteries, comic book short stories, prose, and non-fiction. Cosplayer and figure model.