Inspiration Surrounds Us

How a Father Inspired a World

Hello, everyone!

I’m writing you today about something very personal, but I wanted to share it because it is very much a part of Stealth Hammer and the world we’ve been creating. It’s also not something happy and uplifting like we try to make the comic. Well, hopefully it may be uplifting, or somewhat inspiring by the end. You never can tell how someone may internalize what somebody else is expressing.

Last week was an impossible week for our family as we had to say goodbye to my father-in-law. He had a rare condition that caused a decline in his health over the past few years. He fought it with everything he had, but in the end it was time for him to find peace.

You may be wondering what my father-in-law had to do with an all-ages superhero comic like Stealth Hammer. By the end of this, I think you’ll agree that he had everything to do with it.

It would be easy to make the connection, since the main character of Jami is based on my wife, that without my father-in-law there would be no person to inspire this creation. And while this is certainly true, it goes well beyond that. My father-in-law was a character in the story as well.

So many writers will tell you that you write what you know. Thankfully over the last few decades, I got to know my father-in-law pretty well. He was one of the kindest and most generous men I ever knew with his family and his friends…even with people he barely knew. He just liked helping. He had an adventurous spirit as a mountain climber. He also believed in never giving up. He was known for quoting Henry Ford with “Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right.” This sound familiar to characters we know in the Stealth Hammer world?

Dr. Everett had a few inspirations that helped create him. I had influences from the Mega Man video game series with the characters of Dr. Light and Dr. Wily. Their rivalry played a part in the conflict I created between Dr. Everett and Dr. Alexander. But the main inspiration for Dr. Everett’s personality was my father-in-law. He was industrious. He was joyous. He had that twinkle in his eye when all felt right with his world.

When Joel started drawing Dr. Everett in his style, he decided to incorporate some of his own father in the sketches. He put some of his Dad’s mannerisms into the character, such as his tongue sticking out when he would be focused on something. You can see some of these physical mannerisms in the pages of the comic and in the early sketches by Joel seen below:

Sadly Joel’s father passed away not that long ago, and those mannerisms he put into the character already became a way to immortalize his memory.

Dr. Everett became a blend of fathers we knew so well, which was the best thing that could happen. This made him a more grounded and real character even though he was surrounded by crazy technology and supernatural elements. He became a Dad.

My father-in-law saw the work we put into this story, and it convinced him how much of a worthwhile project it was. Every campaign we did, he would check in to see how it was going. Only weeks ago when my sister-in-law told him that we had launched the Kickstarter, he responded “They’re gonna get it! They’re gonna do this!”

Every campaign we ran, my father-in-law also helped give us a boost in the middle. He wanted to contribute, but he wanted to help bring an audience in as well. So usually during a Kickstarter, he would let us know that he would match the dollar amount of any backers that came in during several days of the crowdfunding. He always wanted to be anonymous (hence why I have not said his name in this newsletter), and he wanted to show people that someone out there really believed in what we were doing. That didn’t need a name. He didn’t want the attention on him but on the project.

To honor the support he gave us in every way for every issue, we are going to follow his lead. For the next week, we’ll match the amounts pledged by any new backers on the latest Kickstarter. This will help us get the boost that we need to hopefully get across the finish line by the end.

So if you have been holding back waiting for the right time to jump in on this latest campaign, well, the time to act is now. If you know someone who would like this story, the time to share it with them is now. You can make an even bigger impact! Just click the button below and find a reward that works for you:

I want to thank all of you who have supported us in so many ways over the years. We’re going to continue creating the story you have come to love with real characters in a larger-than-life world. I hope you’ll help us get there.

I’m going to close this update a little different than I normally do. I want to share a panel from Stealth Hammer issue #2. Back when we created it, we had no idea the depth of meaning it would have in a time like now:

Ryan Drost