Comic book sales in 2021 topped $2 billion dollars, thanks in part to the massive popularity of movies adapted from comics.
And locally, two comic book creators have grown a dedicated audience for a series they created and publish entirely on their own.
Ace Nuckolls and Chris Rau published the first issue of “Magnus the Brave” in 2019.
It captured the basic premise behind the journey of Magnus — a super-powered barbarian who just wants to find out where his powers came from.
“He has no idea why he has them. And so he just kind of sets out on this journey to figure everything out,” Nuckolls said.
“And then along the way, he just keeps encountering people that want to hurt him, kill him and fight him. And they seem to know more than he does.”
Nuckolls is a special education teacher in Wichita and a lifelong comic book fan. He creates Magnus with Rau, a professional artist and teacher.
Rau teaches art in Kansas City, Missouri. He co-writes the series and handles all the art and layouts.
Unlike common industry practice, Rau hand-draws and inks a separate piece of art for each panel and then scans them into a digital layout.
It’s a painstaking process, but he says it pays off.
“That gives me some freedom to adjust things,” Rau said. “Maybe I want this to be a little bit bigger, or maybe I'm going to add a cool effect to this, or a transition from this to this. Or maybe this one's going to be smaller or maybe this one will be the entire page.”
The two met after Nuckolls commissioned Rau for a piece of art. They soon became friends and started spitballing ideas for a comic series that would ultimately become Magnus.
With the help of supporters on KickStarter, they published their first issue in 2019. And they’ve been able to publish two more issues since.
Nuckolls and Rau’s work draws inspiration from a number of comic book and animated series that came before it, namely Samurai Jack, Invincible, and some of the more brutal anime from the ‘80s and ‘90s, like Fist of the North Star.
Like those series, Nuckolls and Rau say they want Magnus the Brave to strike a balance between humor, colorful characters and intense action with violent sequences.
“It's one thing to have a really dark comic and it be violent,” Nuckolls said. “But whenever it's fun and popping, with like purples and blues and yellows, but then also gore, it's just kind of a fun juxtaposition.”
With both Nuckolls and Rau working full-time as teachers, they aim to publish a new issue each year. They anticipate the fourth issue will arrive some time in late 2023.
The current story arc will wrap up in issue No. 6, at which point Rau says the duo plans to re-release the first six issues in a collected edition. Those collectible items are key to growing the fanbase and brand behind Magnus.
“We'll have a number of different collectible pieces eventually,” Rau said. “Like right now, I think we have like seven or eight different pieces that someone could collect.”
While the comic book industry has seen a number of changes since its Golden Age during and after World War II, it’s still undergoing tremendous growth.
In 2021, the industry brought in more than $2 billion – a 62% increase over the previous year. Marvel and DC represent the bulk of those sales, but there’s still room for smaller publishers like I-D-W, Image and Dark Horse.
For creatives who want to go the independent route, Nuckolls has some advice.
“Get out there and make friends,” he said. “Talk to everybody, get everybody's card, follow them all on Instagram, follow them all on socials.
“Find an artist, find a writer, and just do it.”
You can visit Magnus the Brave’s Kickstarter page to learn more about the comic book series.
