(artwork above by Giuseppe Ferrario)
My family of Superheroes comic that never was. I’ve tried several times to dust this off and make it an actual book, but something always derails progress. You would be surprised how many people have actually discouraged me from making “another superhero comic.”
The Great Scotts were a normal family who was on a road-trip vacation, visiting tourist sites along the interstate. They stopped at a roadside attraction promising mysterious caverns. While exploring the caverns, they lost their way and fell into a deep pit where a murky pool belched out a mysterious mist.
These mists gave each member of the family strange and wonderful powers:
Mom gained the ability to soothe and heal any member of the family. Her code name became Mother Nurture.
The oldest sibling, Sissy, gained super-strength and invulnerability. Her code name became Sissy-punch.
The middle sibling, Charlie gained sonic abilities. He can mimic voices and sounds and emit a powerful blast of sound waves. His code name became Metal Mouth.
The youngest sibling, Simon, gained the ability to control minds. But he’s not very good at it yet, so it only works when commands people with his code name: Simon Says.
Dad gained no obvious abilities. He remains the defacto leader of the family and team and goes by the Code Name Family Man.
My first drawing of the Scotts was not very good. And I knew that I needed someone who could draw proper comics to take a crack at it.
I asked a wonderful webcomic artist name Bachan if he would be interested in working with me on the project. Bachan drew the family, tightened up their designs, and even took a crack at some sample pages. Check them out below:
The first arc of the book would follow the family gaining notoriety for their heroics and drawing the attention of the diabolical Mother May-I. She planned to kidnap the Scott children and drain their life energy to extend her own. Dun-dun-dunnnnn…
The story had a really dark moment where the villain tries to convince Family Man that his family died in the caverns and that his super-power was conjuring illusions of them with his mind to avoid facing the trauma and grief of losing them. She tries to convince him to allow her to drain this super energy to destroy these “constructs of your family” as she called them. Only then would he be free of their memory and the pain of their death.
Super dark right?
Maybe it’s good the book never got made.