What inspired you to create the comic, Living With The Geekz?
Living With The Geekz came about initially as an idea for a sitcom that revolved around the members of the “Geekz In The City”, a podcast that stars me and my closest friends. After we shot the pilot episode, complications happened with the files and we were slightly discouraged after that. Then soon after, the world shut down due to COVID-19. It became a trying time for most people in more ways than one. With the bit of spare time on my hands, the idea came to me; let’s make the sitcom a manga! I brought it up to my friend and he felt as strongly about it as I did. We sat down to write the story together and then eventually I found the artists to illustrate our manga.
Can you tell us more about the storyline and plot of Living With The Geekz?
Living With The Geekz is about a character named Bah. He has 1 main mission when he’s introduced to the reader; to move out of his family home before he turns 26. This is a common thing we see today in our society as most young adults have a desire to move out but could face certain financial difficulties while doing so. Bah eventually finds what he expects to be the ideal apartment in the city with a roommate who he hasn’t met yet. He sees a heading stating “MUST BE COMFORTABLE WITH 6” and assumes it means $600 for his share of the rent. Bah fills out the paperwork in haste. The following week he is on his way to his new home. Along the way Bah encounters 4 individuals, 3 of which he hopes to not run into anytime soon during his stay in the city. Unbeknownst to Bah, the people he encounters are going to be a major part of his life from that day forward. This is a slice of life comedy that revolves around the theme of first impressions, and moving beyond these preconceived ideas to understand just who someone is.
It looks like this is your first web comic series, why now? And do you plan to release more issues of Living With The Geekz?
Now was as good a time as ever. Again, due to COVID the world was put on pause, thankfully our inspiration wasn’t. Also, right now there is a large focus on digital content and media. We’re online all day everyday, so it’s important to give options to people who are constantly online. Creating a story that people could enjoy & relate to was our goal, glad to say we achieved that. People who have read our manga even reported back to us to say that they had inspiration to make a comic before, but didn’t get around to doing it. As for future releases, we definitely have more Living With The Geekz on the way. Starting January 1st, 2021, our Kickstarter will go live, this way we can cover creation costs to get our manga to the public. We have some awesome pledge benefits & rewards that come with our Kickstarter. We believe this is one of the best routes to connect to our supporters.
What does it feel like to have your first comic publication?
It feels amazing. Being an African American male, from East Orange, New Jersey, it is all too easy to get lost in the surroundings. Being an anime fan since an extremely young age through adulthood, some crowds may not be as welcoming or understanding. The most important part in all of that is to (as cliche as it may sound) remain true to yourself.
Can you talk to us a little about your creative process for this comic?
Our process involves a lot of late nights, and bouncing ideas off of eachother. Nothing too fancy. Half of the time I’m at my friend’s apartment on my computer while he’s on his computer & we just let the idea hit us. Since the manga has been inspired by our own respective lives we tend to look at those around us and see how we can incorporate them into our story.
What is your long-term vision for Living With The Geekz?
What we see for our manga is getting it to a certain number of issues where we can leave our supporters beyond satisfied with the story. This is something we want people to look back at and re-read time & time again.
Learn more about the Geekz In The City franchise:
