Brian Marshall & The ROCK 108 Morning Show - "Iowa Comic Book Writer Austin Allen Hamblin"

So it's interesting here on the Rock 108 Morning Show.

I've had the joy and the privilege to talk to a bunch of different people.

You got stand-up comedians, you have musicians, you have professional wrestlers, but I've never had the chance to talk to somebody who has their own comic book and he's local.

Austin, Alan, Hamlin joining us on the rock, want to wait morning show.

Hello and welcome aboard.

What's going on?

You have been kind of messing around with this whole comic book thing for a little while, right?

Give me the backstory on this.

Yeah.

I got my first self published book of comics out when I was still in high school.

I was, uh, it was a 2012.

I was a senior.

I kind of knew that I wanted to do this.

So I, um, no one was going to take like a 17 year old seriously when I started making them.

So

I had a job and I started hiring artists and I just kind of did it.

It ended with me where I am now, but the cool thing was like, I walked through the halls of my high school with the box of comics and people were handing me money and I was handing them comics and it wasn't just students.

It was faculty and janitors and secretaries.

It was everybody.

Austin, Alan, Hamlin joining us here on the rock, one, eight morning show, the new book that you have been a part of big guns, stupid rednecks.

And this is a several book series, right?

Yeah, there's three issues in total.

The first issue is already out.

Second will be dropping October 30th.

And, uh, yeah, it's like a whole complete story.

It's not like a Marvel or DC comic.

You could jump in, write an issue on, don't have to know anything.

And, uh, it's the ground running with a lot of fun.

So tell me what that is.

Cause there's some that may not know what this is about.

Big guns, stupid rednecks and a nutshell is after a bunch of strange disappearances in the Southern part of the United States,

Clint, a retired detective, searches for his White Trash brother Clay and ends up being abducted by aliens and finds himself in the arena for intergalactic cable's newest hit show, Big Gun Stupid Rednecks, which pits Rednecks against each other in gladiatorial combat.

and his brother is the reigning champion with 27 kills.

So this big gun Stupid Rednecks is a three book series.

This is available now for people to pick up.

Where can they get it?

So if you want a physical copy, limited edition comics in Cedar Falls, Iowa, D Dreams comics in Iowa City, or directly from the publisher at bandofbards.com.

That's bandofbards.com if you're looking for a digital copy on this one.

What is your involvement with it?

Do you pen?

Are you the artist?

I mean, there's several different things you have to do to get a comic book out there.

So it's like a super collaborative medium.

And so there is three of us that made this book happen.

Myself, I wrote it.

And what the scripts kind of look like is they look kind of like a movie script and a novel kind of combined because each I lay out what's in every panel, what the light source is.

with the dialogue, what the viewpoint is, you know, whether you're, you know, bird's eye view, worm's eye view, looking from the side, all of that stuff.

And then this was illustrated by Mariana Maria.

She is a Brazilian artist who graduated from SCAD and she drew and colored it.

And then my friend, another local guy from Coralville, John Ira Thomas, he put all the word balloons on and did like the design for the logo and stuff.

So the three of us

together made this super fun comic.

It's big guns, stupid rednecks, one more time where they can pick up the book.

Limited edition comics in Cedar Falls, Iowa.

Daydreams comics and collectibles in Iowa city or straight from the publisher's website at band of bar.com.

In our midst here in Eastern Iowa, we have a comic book writer, Austin Allen Hamlin.

Thanks so much for joining us on the show today.

Yeah, thanks for having me.

The Rock 108 morning show.