Welcome to Action, Ohio

Hi there, and welcome to the online production blog of Action, Ohio, a webcomic created by Neil Kleid and Paul Salvi. All this month, you can head over to the Zuda Comics site and vote for us out of nine other comics - if, at the end of May, our comic wins, we'll be given a year long contract by DC Comics/Zuda in order to tell more of the story.

This blog is where Paul and I will give you some behind the scenes stories, sketches and offer our thoughts about comics and some cool images you can use to help get the word out. it's also a place for you to come and tell us what you think (you can also comment at the comic when on the Zuda site!) and get in touch with who and what we are.

A bit about me - I'll let Paul introduce himself:

I received a Xeric Grant to produce a graphic novella entitled Ninety Candles and in early '06, Brownsville, my graphic novel about the Jewish mafia, debuted from NBM Publishing. I have written for Marvel (X-men Unlimited #14), Image Comics (The Intimidators, Comic Book Tattoo), Puffin Graphics (the adapted Call of the Wild), Slave Labor Graphics (Ursa Minors!), Papercutz (Tales from the Crypt) and Random House/Villard (Postcards) and am currently working on mini-series and graphic novel projects for IDW Publishing, NBM, EW.com and niche Judaic publisher, Seraphic Press. I am also a founding member of the Chemistry Set, where you can read two issues of my comic, Todt Hill, and write a bi-monthly column, TAKE THAT!, for Blog@Newsarama. Feel free to look through my website: www.rantcomics.com

Action, Ohio is a labor of love for me; a project I've been working on for over six years. It's taken many forms and encompassed many characters, themes and storylines to get to it's current state. It's weathered collaborators, editors and artists and I couldn't be happy to find it in Paul's hands and on the Zuda site. I'm a firm believer in the instantaneous power of the webcomic and the wider audience a comic like ours can receive via the internet. If our comic had been self-published or even done up through a house like Image (where, who knows, it could eventually end up?!) I doubt it would garner the eyes and views it's getting at Zuda. Our hope is that people dig it enough to vote for it in order to see more.

Trust me when I say there's more story to see. And you'll love it.

Over the next month, I'd like to blog about the origins of the comic, inspirations and influences and introduce some of the characters you might see should we continue. I hope you feel comfortable enough to stop for awhile in our small town in Cuyahoga County, set a spell in the general store and watch the heroes go by.

-Neil