Bryce Abood is a Wichita-based musician, storyteller and writer who has just published his first book, “Shamu.” With the publication of that work, he can now add illustrator to his resume.
The work begins by detailing an experience Abood had in childhood, then takes a series of fantastical twists and turns that are frequently dark and often funny.
Abood recently spoke with KMUW about the inspiration for “Shamu” as well as his decision to self-publish his work and take the leap into illustration. "Shamu" is available wherever books are sold.
The interview has been edited for clarity and length.
What was the genesis of this story that you tell in “Shamu”?
It is in fact inspired by a true story, where I went to SeaWorld in the early ‘90s when they were still picking kids to ride on Shamu. I got picked. I did in fact go down to the tank where I was inches away from a mouth that I could fit wholly inside. [I was] too terrified to [consider riding]. The last true moment that’s in the story is my mom did actually say, “Don’t you know how hard I prayed to God that you would get picked to ride on Shamu and then you did get picked and you wouldn’t go!”
Through the years we would retell this story at gatherings. It’s a funny story. But the more we would tell it, the more I would start to imagine. What if that was the moment, that visceral reaction that I had, had somehow determined the rest of my fate? Like I had gone off God’s plan or God’s will for my life by not riding on Shamu? That’s the setup for the story. Most of the other story didn’t happen because it gets way fantastic and crazy and out there. But that’s where it started.
I think it’s classic storytelling in way, starting with a child’s fear and then kind of exploding it.
I’m not going to say that I have nightmares about orcas. Even as a kid, we would tell the story and I thought it was more funny than anything. I was four, and I will never forget this image of this alien monster rising out of the water and opening its mouth and then going, “Well, hop on!” [Laughs.] Absolutely not. No.
When did you turn the corner from telling the story and thinking about it to putting it down on the page?
Ahoy Comics is a publisher who I’ve done some work with. I love them. If you ever see Ahoy on the shelf, no matter what the title is, pick it up. Some of the great ones are “Hashtag: Danger,” “The Wrong Earth;” they’ve got one called “Edgar Allan Poe’s Snifter of Terror,” and another called “Edgar Allan Poe’s Snifter of Death.”
All of their issues, in the back, have two or three pages of bonus content; prose or text only, stories. … I had originally written up “Shamu” as a story to submit to that. But Ahoy has a pretty consistent [voice]. Even in their most serious and heavy comics, there’s still some levity and a lot of fun. Not necessarily jokes, but there’s always levity. When I wrote up this story, the text-only version was very dour. It wasn’t right to submit. I did like it. I thought it was still fun in my own way, but I thought, “This isn’t right for that.”
So [then] I had this piece that I think was four or five pages. I just kind of sat on it. It’s been about four years now. Every once in a while, I’d go through my hard drive and think, “Oh, yeah, this thing is kind of fun.” Then, the past couple of years, a local artist, Erick Nkana, has a real cool book called “Somewhere Between Violet & Envy.” It’s a collection of poetry and art. He gave it to me when it came out and it’s been sitting on my shelf, and when I looked at it, I would think, “I want to make something like that.”
I’ve got another friend, a Twitch streamer, Megaplotte, she has a really cool ’zine that she put together of erotic photos, but all taken on a Game Boy camera. It’s really fuzzy and grainy. My friends create stuff that I look at and say, “I wanna do that! I wanna make something like that.” I got a scanner and some Sharpies, and I got some paper and here we are! Self-published! [Laughs.]
The illustration syncs up nicely with the genesis of the story.
I worked for years to finely-tune and develop that art style! [Laughs.] I don’t draw! I love to make little doodles, and that’s always been the extent of it. This is easily the most illustrating that I’ve ever done. It does have a very childlike quality because the skills basically stopped maturing in that department, when I was about six or seven! [Laughs.] I’m proud of the layout of the pages, and I’m proud of how the art syncs up to the kid narrating the story at the beginning. I definitely got lucky with [the art style working with this story]. I don’t really know how many books I could do like this. The art style felt special for this, and so I just kind of leaned into it. I’ve got a lot of illustrator friends, and I think that if this were really, really detailed and illustrated [by professional] it might not have the same charm.
Tell me about the self-publishing part of this. That seems like a bold move to say, “I’m going to put out my own book.”
It honestly didn’t feel that way. You don’t have to pitch to anybody. You don’t have to go out there and say, “Hey, here’s my idea. As a publisher, do you support this?” And then you have to cross your fingers. I’m also not stuck with a bunch of inventory that I have to distribute myself. I don’t have boxes of this book laying around. It’s all print-on-demand through bookstores. I got hooked up with a website called Ingram Spark. Ingram is a distributor and publisher that’s been around for a long time. Ingram Spark is their new, independent [wing]. You submit your work, pay a small fee, and then you’re good to go.
It really didn’t feel bold at all. It just felt like, “I could do this right now and just be done with it. Let’s just get it out.” And the fact that they are in 99 percent of bookstores made it seem convenient and easy.
You’ve described this as a horror story but there is some levity.
I do a lot of writing and a lot of it is this tone, this weird, quirky tone. I’ll have an R-rated script but it’s not so serious. I do try to find that balance often but most of the time it just comes from being myself on the page and watching what develops as I’m exploring what the concept is. I never like to take things too seriously so even in my work if I’m going to be analyzing stuff like religion or death or taxes, I’m going to be treating with some levity because otherwise I won’t finish writing it! [Laughs.]