Classic cars, friends and laser guns in space are all part of the world Mike Moman has created in his comic book Oldsmobiles with Laser Guns. 

Moman has self-published his comic book and will have the third issue coming out soon with some potentially being able to read it at the upcoming GPop Cultural Fair (Oct. 19-20). 

“I've been doing art my whole life, but this is the first time I actually did something where someone gave me money for it,” said Moman. 

The first issue of his science fiction buddy-comedy comic was released last year, and then earlier this year, the second issue became available. It's already gaining a bit of a fan base. 

“There are people that have been asking, ‘Okay, so they're going to the asteroids, what's gonna happen?’” said Moman. 

“God, did that feel good, that they wanted to actually know what happened next.”

Oldsmobiles with Laser Guns is through and through Moman's creation as he writes, sketches, and does the line art, colouring, and shading himself. He does get a second set of eyes from an editor before sending it to the printers. 

“I had no idea what I was doing, I had an idea of how to write a script, and I got to actually learn how to write a comic book script and how to do storyboarding for a comic book, and I didn't know how to do line art.”

Still, Moman felt a need to tell a story as a way to share his thoughts and beliefs. 

“I can't stand injustice; I can't stand feeling cheated; I can't stand feeling hurt, but I never found a good way to release that,” he said. 

Moman recently attained his law degree in Australia and is now working to begin practicing in Canada.

“I wanted to get this story out of some things that have been bothering me and I thought, Oldsmobiles with Laser Guns is really the vessel for all of this kind of injustice that I see in the world.”

He noted that although the comic is a comedy, it still has depth and is set in a science fiction world because it’s a genre that can push boundaries. 

Moman used Star Trek as an example with the first interracial kiss on television between Kirk (William Shatner) and Uhura (Nichelle Nichols).

The same moment on television also helped inspire Moman to pursue his comic book idea. 

“I've called it my James Earl Jones moment in comparing when when the actress (Nichols) spoke to James Earl Jones about that, she said to him that she wasn't too sure if she should do that scene because of the public outcry of doing the first interracial kiss, and him saying, ‘but you must,’ and I had that moment for myself, ‘but you must,’ with this comic.”

Oldsmobile with Laser Guns has floated around in his brain for years; he first wrote it as a punk rock song and then as a comic when he was a teenager. 

“I was in a punk band band, which I still do play in today, so I guess I haven't matured much there but one of the songs that I'd written was called Oldsmobiles with Laser Guns, which is about my mom's Oldsmobile, the Oldsmobile that I kind of grew up driving around in and I thought how funny it would be to make that a comic book.”

Teenage Moman would make the comic based on “a couple of guys in a really bad situation.”

“It was maybe a little bit too campy and slapstick, but you know, when you're 15, I mean, you have no idea what the heck you're doing,” he said.

He would go on to make some more comics as a teenager, which he described as “really bad superhero ones.” 

“I still have some of the sketches and some of the pages that I made of this really bad comic book where it was just a couple of guys, some friends, that were in a really bad situation.”

The characters and story have evolved since his teenage years, and he puts himself into a fantasy world and asks who he would want to be in those situations with.

He based the characters on his friends and wanted humour to come from the dialogue of the three friends. 

“It's in where people are talking, where you get that humour and really a natural conversation that you're seeing, where you can just relate to it in that way,” he said.

“These guys (characters) genuinely love each other, but they hate each other at the same time.”

He said the story will evolve to explore each character’s personalities, and how they overcome things like self-loathing, anger, and trust issues, among some of the challenges.

The dialogue feels real within the comic, something Moman gives credit to his years of experience in radio. 

“I was in radio for about a decade; one of the things that I think I honed in on was how to write dialogue because when prepping what I was going to be writing, what I was going to be saying, it all had to be written the way I would actually say it, not the way something was written out.” 

Pop culture references make their way into the story, such as using a modified Rocket 88 engine as seen in the Adam West Batman television show. 

Issue 1

The first issue came to fruition by the creator asking for people's help on Facebook. 

“I want to make this comic, and if you want to give me money to help me make this comic, that would be cool and neato, but you don't have to.”

The response was people donating money to help him create it, friends of friends donated, and he raised about $800. He then knew he needed to make his comic, and funds continued to come in.

“I ended up having enough money to get 300 copies printed without putting any of my own money, because, you know, I didn't have any,” he said.

The funds he makes from the comic go back into making it, whether it's buying equipment to create the comic or merchandise like stickers; he says the funds help keep it going. 

“Anyone that's doing something artistically, you've got to still have a little bit of a business sense, if anything, just to keep maintaining it. 

“There's nothing wrong with doing that because it's no different than a person making the most beautiful painting in the world and then asking a coffee shop if they'd hang it on the wall and sell it for them. 

“The exact same concept, because without that, how are they going to buy their next batch of paints.”

Costs are kept down by Moman doing much of the work on the comic, which helps ensure the issues will continue on. 

“It's few and far between to find someone that is willing to put themselves out there for both their writing and their art,” said Moman, noting many comic creators today are hiring help from other countries to do the art. 

“It doesn't sit with me that well that a person wouldn't be at least willing to try and because then, if they had a tremendously good story, now they're always going to be limited by how much money they can get to ensure they can get the art done.”

He noted when he finished the first issue that he believed it was the best drawings he had done in his life. 

“Then issue two comes along, and I'm like, issue one is the worst I've ever drawn in my life, but I wasn't afraid to be exposed like that, to let people see, hey, this is just where I was at, and I was so comfortable showing this to you. 

“I think the stories just kind of shines through, even the bad art.”

The future

Moman said that now that he has gained more skills in comic creation, he hopes to begin to build a community in Grande Prairie. 

“There are a couple of incredibly talented people that are making comics here that just aren't getting the appreciation,” he said.

“I think that if more people would look at the independent comics scene and just pick something up, they'll probably find something they absolutely love. 

“You don't need to know anything about Oldsmobiles or laser guns to enjoy Oldsmobiles with Laser Guns, and you really don't even need to think too hard. 

“I may have a really deep story being built there, but it's very surface level, easy to read.”

He believes the comic will be about 20 to 24 books, but also has ideas for other comics moving into the future.