Life can be two-dimensional for Forest Park comic book author Sean Lindsay and his wife, Sara.
Lindsay, who goes by the name ‘Krazy Krow’ is author of online comic “Spinnerette.” In Lindsay’s online comic book universe, Heather, a female graduate student in Columbus, Ohio, is infused with the DNA of a radioactive spider and grows four extra arms. The comic is a tongue-in-cheek parody of Spiderman, as interpreted through anime art, one page released every two or three days.
In real 3-D life, Lindsay and his wife have just finished a Kickstarter campaign, Oct. 18 raising $56,995 from 921 backers to publish a 128-page full color graphic novel, book four in the series. This is the Lindsay’s fourth Kickstarter, and they’ve raised more than $175,000 since 2012.
Sean Lindsay has been publishing the comic online — a page at a time– since 2010.
Sean said he wanted to write about “small town superheroes” who were real people.
“I wanted to publish a superhero comic from an outsider’s perspective,” Krow (Lindsay) said.
Sara Lindsay agreed. “In the beginning Spinnerette is kind of clumsy, she’s a new superhero learning the ropes,” she said. Spinnerette is taken under the wings of Korean-American “Mecha Maid” an ALS patient, confined to a wheelchair, until she puts on her super-powered exoskeleton. Jeff Coleman, aka “Tiger” is an African American Columbus cop who conceals his supersuit under his uniform and treats the two as his daughters.
Spinnerette wears a fat suit to disguise her four extra arms. She fights supervillains, shooting webbing out of her…
“Her webbing does come from the base of her spine, like a real spider,” said Sean.
“It’s not quite a parody, but I’m poking fun at mainstream comics,” he said.
Back in college, Sean drew a comic for his university paper in Alberta, Canada, and was always a fan of anime comics.
He doesn’t draw Spinnerette, though because he says he doesn’t have the skills. He contracts professional comic artists, colorists and letterers in Argentina, where Japanese anime-style comics have been wildly popular for 20 years.
To get the word out, the two posted Internet ads on other comic sites.
One day, someone linked to their comic from Facebook and they got 10,000 new fans, Sean says. They decided to self-publish an actual paper comic book, which they then flogged at comic conventions in Alberta, Baltimore, Chicago and Atlanta.
Sara manages the business end of the comic.
The two fell in love and realized they both loved comic books – but they had to learn each other’s comic book landscape.
Sara had a shelf full of traditional superhero comic books, especially Teen Titans. Sean was a manga reader.
“Our comic book worlds collided!” Sara said. She actually studied spiders in graduate school during fieldwork in Kentucky when she got a master’s degree in ecological science.
Sara makes her own appearance in the Spinnerette world – as arch-villain Greta Gravity, henchwoman of the evil Dr. Universe. Greta, heavily-bosomed and clad in lederhosen, has been recreated as a plastic statuette to give away as a Kickstarter prize.
Right now, Sean works as an automotive engineer and Sara works at Marion Cheese Market. But the two dream of quitting their day jobs and working on the comic full time. They will use the Kickstarter money to publish 4,000 copies of a first four-color volume of the comic in a high-quality print run.
Their garage is filled with pallets of purple-spider plush toys, comic books and plastic figurines – all Kickstarter prizes. Other prizes include original artwork, a pdf of the comic, and a Skype conversation with Krazy Crow.
The Lindsays are riding the viral Internet sensation wave as long as they can – and shipping comic books all over the world.
They knew they had hit a milestone when a girl approached them at a comic convention wearing a homemade Spinnerette costume, complete with six arms.
“When you have your own cos-players (costumed super-fans) you know you have something,” Sean said.
