Mary Boys by Karl Stephan
ABOUT THE ARTIST:
My name is Karl Stephan and I’m from Bristol in the UK. I write and draw (and publish) independent comic books. My latest project is called Mary Boys and it is currently funding on Indiegogo.
Mary Boys is about four teenage Knights Templar from a backwater English town. Their guardian and mentor is an old Catholic priest named Parrish who raised them in the ancient Templar fighting arts. Many year prior Parrish was the victim of an attempted robbery which left him with a bullet in his skull and flashbacks to a past life when he was a member of the original Order of the Knights Templar hundreds of years ago.
The Mary Boys are quadruplets born with a rare genetic condition that causes enlarged hands and feet, distorted facial features and prevents sufferers from growing any body hair. Hence their strange appearance (I can draw normal people, honest!). Their condition also affects the way they metabolize alcohol. Drinking beer gives them almost superhuman strength strong and endurance (unlike the rest of us who send drunk texts to people we … shouldn’t).
The story takes place in Basham, the Boys’ home town, which is riddled with many social problems thanks to a huge retail corporation driving out small businesses, resulting in job cuts which left large sections of the community impoverished and resulted in a rise in organised crime.
Parrish prophesied that Basham will suffer a great biblical apocalypse unless it is purged from its evils so the boys roam the streets at night with their cricket bats, heavy boots and lager cans to bring in the needed salvation by force.
The ‘Mary’ in the title is a reference to the Boys being Catholic and also to the mysterious image of the Blessed Virgin being ever present in their nocturnal missions, guiding them in their fight against gangsters, hooligans and wrong ‘uns, including Basham’s own police force.
To raise the necessary funds to cover printing and shipping costs, which is where you lovely people come into the picture. In return for your monetary support, you will receive print copies of both 24 page comic books and other incentives as well, including art prints, emroidered patches and digital copies from my published comics catalogue.
A bit about the comic: My chief stylistic inspirations for this project are golden age artists like Jack Davis, Will Eisner and Wally Wood. Save for the lettering, all the art is traditionally illustrated with paint and ink, so it will have that old school feel to it. Please download a sample of the first 7 pages in the link below.
This Indiegogo campaign covers the first two issues, which contains the Boys’ origin story and introduces major characters and themes.
Sound interesting? Please join the mailing list at: https://maryboys.blogspot.com/
I’m on twitter too https://twitter.com/MaryBoys1
Social Media Links:
https://maryboys.blogspot.com/
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0wyrrvyb_rzDPBN8GqJF-A
https://www.instagram.com/maryboyscomic