Island Comic writer hopes Internet gives him success

Ryan Quigley

Journal Pioneer

Canadian comic writers have been blowing up in the last few years.

Whether it is Bryan Lee O’Malley, of Ontario, taking on the world with his Scott Pilgrim books or Kate Beaton, of Cape Breton, going from her webcomic series to contributing a few comics for the New Yorker, Canadian artists are hitting it big.

Troy Little, of Kensington, hopes to become the next name to walk the path from obscurity to Hollywood, as he is putting up pages from his comic “Angora Napkin” online over the next few months.

The book, which was already released by IDW Publishing and won Little the Eisner award last year, will be put on the Angora Napkin website in build up to the follow up which he plans to release in the next year.

The “Angora Napkin” series follows the misadventures of Beatrice, Molly and Mallory, who form the bubblegum pop band Angora Napkin. The first book finds the girls trying to thwart a zombie apocalypse.

The graphic novel also seen Little produce a one-night TV show for Teletoon about the band. It debuted on Halloween night and can be found online also on the website.

The website will be updated three times a week with a new page going up every time. Monday is the first day of posts and he plans to continue through with the second one going online also.

Little said the idea was originally for the second book to be put online.

“When I was thinking about it I was like, well you know not everybody has seen the first book,” he said. “So I thought for the people who haven’t picked it up or come across it, cause it’s still a pretty peripheral read, let’s just start with the first book and try to get everybody up to speed.”

He said the opportunity the Internet presents is great for Canadian artists trying to get their comics out.

“With the (TV episode) online now I haven’t had a day go by where someone hasn’t watched it,” he said. “It’s kind of like screaming away in the forest until someone pays attention to me.”

He said the Internet levels the playing field for the independent comic book artist.

“I love the internet because it levels the playing field. As much as Marvel and DC can dominate the world of comic books, its just a dot com away from any other site.”

Little said he hopes the website generates enough interest and income to become self-sustaining so he can produce a book a year.

“It’s a bit of a gamble just to see what happens,” he said. “(IDW) were a great publisher but it kind of gets lost in the shuffle of their bigger titles, like G.I. Joe and Transformers, so I was trying to find a grass roots way to get around it.”

The comic can be found at www.angoranapkin.com