Let’s Talk About Shrive
You are probably asking yourself, who is this marvelous hero better than Superman and Batman combined? Well, it ain’t close, but let me tell you about my friend Shrive. Shrive is a creation of mine from back in college. All I wanted to do for my entire school life was make a comic book. So when the time to make my thesis came, I jumped at the chance to create him. It was my goal since before I got accepted to Mount Ida College. I started with a basic superhero concept; it’s kinda hard to remember, but I just did some free drawing. My inspiration was Spider-Man and Deadpool. I’m a huge Deadpool fan, which might come as a surprise to anyone who read my thesis, because it’s not exactly a colorful work of art. Yes, Shrive The Purifier was created in a mostly black-and-white comic book. That is, I still have a copy in a frame on my wall. I was so proud of my work. But I knew I wasn’t good enough to publish traditionally. Then I found out about free ways to publish books, like Amazon KDP or Barnes and Noble Press. So I decided to print my thesis work repackaged with extras in my current style, and publish it. No success, but I wasn't exactly advertising it well. But that’s the past. I’m talking about the next project called Shrive The Smiley Gang. This version is now available to view on my website, on my portfolio page. No spoilers, but Shrive is in for the fight of his life against the Smiley Gang, who are wreaking terror on the city of Osterhold. Let’s expand further.
What is Flesh Paper
Now, it’s a grotesque name, yes, but it really isn’t that bad; it’s a symbiotic creature that can be found in tiny strands that take over its host. So the thing about Flesh Paper is that it’s everywhere in the city, passed around like a drug to the weak-willed. It offers a hallucinogenic effect on its host. That turns them into drone-like creatures called round heads. These creatures are also known as husks, which is their technical name. But still, the round heads' bodies bend and break to form very thin, splintered bodies; they turn their hands into harp-like, broken, blade-like features. Think a sword arm made from a compressed skeletal structure and its symbiotic skin. The dealers are literally how they sound: drug dealers looking to spread the substance as far as they can. Yet they can’t help but take a sample for themselves. The difference with the dealers is that they can retain their own minds for some unknown reason, but don’t think I’m making it up as I go. This has been stuck in my head since 2014. So the dealers take the Flesh paper and disperse it, and the poor victims get eaten alive. The only one that can stop them is another Husk; I’m talking about Shrive himself.
The tainted Hero
Yes, Shrive is a husk. He goes out into the streets every day hunting down Flesh Paper. Is it just to feed his own habit? Or is his real goal to save the world from the hurt, from the pain that it causes? You’ll have to follow my series to find out. Shrive is like any other person; he has wants and desires. He even has a girlfriend named Clare. But there are other questions, like: does he eat? How does he pee? Can he escape the suit as Spider-Man did with Venom? It’s hard to say what his daily life is like outside hunting down Husks and spending time with Clare. But yes, he is part of the problem. When he absorbs someone’s Flesh Paper and frees the host. they are often disfigured, with broken bones and hands that will never be healed from the crunching and tearing to form the arm blades. Even worse for the ones that had it the longest; often they have to be identified by their teeth or blood sample. This keeps Shrive on edge with some of the people that think he’s doing this intentionally, that think he’s part of the problem. But believe it or not, he has his fans. They see him every day taking down dealers and roundheads. For life is a luxury for a husk. But you have to wonder. How long has Shrive been a Husk? What is the state of His body underneath the symbiotic skin? What do his friends understand about his condition?
Friends and Family
Shrive might seem like a wanderer at first glance. But he is, in fact, strictly rooted to this city. He has a home with his girlfriend Clare. He has many acquaintances. Like Officer Guin, a busybody cop who always thinks that Shrive is up to no good. Shrive loves messing with him. And of course there’s Clare, the love of his life. How long have they been dating? I haven’t yet decided, but if they’re living together, it must have been a long time by now. Clare is a kind woman who helps take care of Shrive in both good and bad moments when he struggles with the deaths of the Flesh Paper victims. More will be revealed later in the following issues. Such as: Who is Clare’s best friend besides Shrive? If anybody asks, look out for Harriet.
Dark and Whimsy
A lot of you think that I always focus on the dark stuff. Whether it’s my heavy use of black and white in the past. or my dark themes that I honestly don’t find that dark at all. Look at The Wizard of Oz, the book, not the movie. It’s a little girl walking into a horribly dangerous world that is also absurd; I’ve mentioned this in previous blogs. My goal is to mix colors and greys. My hero is white with black eyes and yellow bells. That little touch of color brings out the lightness of the book. If you read Shrive The Purifier, all you’d see was black and white, a little red, but yellow bells on each page that Shrive inhabits. That means something. My creation, Shrive, has grown into a picture of light and colors and, of course, absurdity. I’ve taken my skill with abstract art that I’ve gained since college, which can be seen in my coloring book Welcome to My Madness. If you want a free sample in color, check out my portfolio under Art Therapy. But now let’s talk about the dark. It’s very easy for me to create dark images; I’ve grown up watching Swartzenager movies, Batman: The Animated Series, and anime in general. That’s where it comes from; I’m not some horror freak. Shrive's darkness is in crime-fighting, more specifically when it revolves around Flesh Paper as his area of expertise. What I’m trying to do is create a story worth reading, darks and lights, happy and sad. Shrive is some happy-go-lucky guy with hallucinations and humor. But he’s also serious and brutal. He has no issue pummeling the Husks and ripping off their symbiotic skins. Because he knows it’s for the greater good. Now I wish for you to go read my new comic, Issue 1 of Shrive The Smiley Gang. And see the absurd and harsh world I created.
Click Here to Find Shrive The Smiley Gang. If you're interested in seeing where this story came from, click here: Shrive The Purifier.
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