ZapTown

Sooo…back in 10,000 BC, the Earth was visited by Commander Mithras. Mithras landed on the continent of Atlantis, and within a hundred years he’d managed to genetically alter our ancestors to almost twice their size to serve as a labor force. Mithras later shacks up with the mortal Gaia (who wears the Mark of the Elements on her face) and they have a bunch of kids, each with their own unique gifts. But, there’s also a severed hound head used as a vessel for a voice coming from the center of the Earth, and the agents of Operation: Heavenly Sword who land in Canaan and meet up with Adam and Eve, and THE battle at the Dawn of Time. Did I mention that Noah (yes, that Noah) shows up too?

That brief description only scratches the surface of Jesse Moynihan’s ongoing weekly web comic Forming.

Jesse was kind enough to take some time from his schedule to talk to ZapTown about his epic: “Forming is my attempt to reclaim our origins from people who want it to be boring”. Elaborating, Jesse explains: “Yeah it’s just a personal peeve I have about the advancing of the Materialist religion. It’s a way of perceiving things that has proliferated through most circles of the radical and conservative Left. I don’t know if I can truly sum up all of the thoughts I have on this topic because it’s based on years of anecdotal observation and personal interactions with friends, strangers, and ghosts. I’ll just say that I believe in a Super Reality; meaning that I pretty much believe in everything. For me, this is a much more rewarding way to engage reality and I try to inject that point of view into Forming.  To propose that our planet and our lives evolved by pure chance is only one small piece of the puzzle. It certainly is true, but only a partial truth because reality is big enough to encompass infinite truths. That is the reality of the Macrocosmos. “

The Battle of the Dawn of Time.

A story of this size and scope could easily fall prey to its own complexities and heaviness. One element that Jesse uses to keep it accessible is the manner in which the characters speak to each other.“The reason I use modern vernacular is because I’m trying to put myself in these people’s shoes. I’m trying to illicit responses from them that seem real to me, so I have to make them talk like me. It’s a jump in logic that I hope readers don’t mind. My only other option is to have them talk like it’s an episode of Legend of the Seeker. And I wouldn’t be able to write that shit. Actually when dealing with this kind of mythic subject matter, it can be hard to avoid certain types of corny, fantasy dialog. I try my best but some situations demand it, especially when dealing with uncorrupted gods. In those scenes it’s kind of fun to write that way.”

(This is not how they talk in Legend of the Seeker)

Good stuff, eh? But don’t take my word for it, you can experience Forming all on your own, and for free. Yes, the origin of mankind is just a click away and is updated with new content every week in the form of wonderfully painted pages usually consisting of up of 18 panels per page, with each page taking around 15-20 hours a week to complete. “Before I began writing the series I did about 7 months of research on subjects that I wanted to include somewhere in the story. The research continues but I decided at some point I had to actually start the thing. So I’ve scripted about 30 episodes in advance and took a break from that to draw episodes. I’ve just started back up writing again to make sure I’m taking it in the right direction. I have a sketchbook of character references to keep them consistent. I use Photoshop to clean up smudges and spelling errors, but nothing more than that. I feel like Photoshop is a black hole that can swallow you if you’re not careful, so I try to keep the process primitive.”

I asked Jesse about his decision to publish Forming in web comic format, which is risky in itself with virtually no financial compensation and the challenge of standing out in a sea of otherwise mostly crappy comics: “Free web comics are pretty much what’s expected so that’s cool with me. Previous to doing this I spent two years in my room, working on a graphic novel. I realized, in that time, no one knew if I was alive or even working on comics anymore. The web gives me the freedom to instantly distribute color comics everywhere at almost no cost. And as I release my stuff from week to week, readers can be there on the journey. It’s way more connected and interactive. The plusses of web publishing heavily outweigh the minuses.”

At one point in our exchange, Jesse describes Forming as a “big sprawling octopus and I hope it will eventually sprawl out so far that I will be consumed by it!” Speaking as someone who has already been consumed by Forming, I encourage you to take the journey as well by visiting Jesse’s site as soon as possible. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a game of Incredible Blocks to play…

Samples from Forming included in this article are the sole property of Jesse Moynihan.