Comic Book Yeti Interviews Editor, Andrew Irvin, sits down with Nandor Fox Shaffer, writer of various ongoing and completed titles, including Man-Child and The Fabled Offering.
COMIC BOOK YETI: Nandor, thanks for bringing your recent titles over to Comic Book Yeti for coverage. How’s everything going over in Missouri?
NANDOR FOX SHAFFER: My pleasure! I’ve been following CBY for years and try to catch every episode of the Cryptid Creator Corner Podcast when I can. Love what you guys do. As for Missouri? I gotta say, sometimes it can feel pretty isolating over here but I’ve been encouraged and surprised to discover how many comic book creators and filmmakers got their start in our “Show Me State.” James Gunn, Jim Lee, David Pepose, Matt Fraction and others spring to mind…so that gives me hope there’s room for someone like me, too.
By the way, I just had a thought. I’d like to posit that “Show Me State” refers exclusively to comics, since the medium emphasizes “showing” and not “telling.” Let’s start a petition.
CBY: You can take that all the way to the Statehouse if you get the numbers! Glad to hear you're keeping up with all the hard work Byron and Jimmy keep putting in. To start, can you tell us when and where our readers can find The Fabled Offering and Man-Child? From what I can tell, you’ve got a couple different crowdfunding campaigns in the mix. How long have both of these projects been in the making?
NFS: For simplicity’s sake, I want to encourage everyone to please head on over to the Man-Child #3 Kickstarter campaign before it ends so they can purchase copies of all my titles. This is the best avenue to support my work at the moment. The Fabled Offering, as well as my full catalog including the previous two issues of Man-Child, is available as add-ons during this campaign. The Fabled Offering campaign just wrapped up fulfillment on my end. Backers are getting their books in the mail as we speak and it’s my favorite part of making comics besides the actual “making them” part. From conception to finally shipping the books out to backers, The Fabled Offering was a 2-3 year endeavor. I consider it my most successful project to date from both a financial and creative standpoint, but it was also the most challenging. That’s how these things go, right? For now, I’m treating The Fabled Offering as a one-shot because it tells a complete story but I’m already hearing from readers that they want more, so we’ll see about that, haha.
Man-Child has been in the works for about 5 years. I first came up with the idea shortly after Stan Lee passed away at the end of 2018, and it was through this grieving process of my own after losing him that inspired the story. It’s going to be a six issue miniseries and although the entirety of the story has already been scripted, I’ve been limited to do one Kickstarter campaign for it per year. We’re slowly but surely getting the story out to the public, but making comics isn’t easy…and it’s definitely not cheap.
CBY: I certainly understand the time and resources that go into putting comics together, particularly when just starting production. Before we dig further into these titles, I want to recognize your creative collaborators on The Fabled Offering, illustrated by Marco Roblin and Man-Child, illustrated by Jay Mazhar. Both titles were lettered and designed by DC Hopkins. How did you pull together your team for both of these books, and what went into recruiting the talented range of variant cover artists?
NFS: I came across Marco Roblin’s work scrolling through my Twitter/X feed one day. Some of his pages from Numinous Nomads, a book he was working on at the time, were getting shared around and I immediately stopped scrolling and supported the book on Kickstarter. He’s one of those artists that stops you in your tracks. I had originally been working with another artist on The Fabled Offering at the time who was a traditional painter but when that suddenly fell through due to unforeseen circumstances, Marco’s visceral style instantly came to mind and I reached out to him about his availability. He was on board from day one and is the most enthusiastic artist I’ve had the honor to work with. I remember being so frustrated having to “start over” on a project, but in hindsight it was for the best because without Marco, this book would be completely different and a lesser work for it. His artwork—especially his colors—transports you to another plane of existence, and that’s exactly where our story belongs as a sci-fi fantasy epic. He’s also a fantastic collaborator that brings his own ideas to the table with a lot of passion, which you don’t always find. We’ve become such good friends through it all. I cannot imagine working with anyone else on this project.
The same can be said for Jay Mazhar for Man-Child. I scoured the internet for weeks trying to find an artist whose figure work and storytelling sensibilities matched that all too rare Silver Age feel married with an equally palatable modern day style but I kept coming up short. Then I came across his work on an obscure art forum that’s no longer up and running anymore. This was the guy. And if I remember correctly, Jay was initially hesitant about taking on a superhero book of this complexity but I couldn’t let him get away that easily, haha. I knew he had the “right stuff” for this book. There was no doubt about that in my mind so after a little convincing, we were off to the races and that’s when the magic started
Both The Fabled Offering and Man-Child would not appear nearly as professional as they do if it were not for DC Hopkins. I’m telling you, DC’s lettering and design work makes all of us look better. Similar to my experience with Marco Roblin on The Fabled Offering, I had hired another letterer to work on Man-Child at the start but when that fell through, connecting with DC became a very positive change for the series.
Sometimes it’s just timing, but persistence and seizing opportunities wherever I see them has led me to partner up with some of the most talented artists in the industry for variant covers. Make no mistake, teaming up with artists such as Jim Rugg, Tony Harris, Tom Reilly, Marco Rudy, Well-Bee, and now Steve Epting for Man-Child #3 has been a dream come true for this longtime comic book fan. It’s the highest honor to share my stories with these industry pros and for them to like it enough that they want to come on board. My bucket list is shortening faster than I ever thought possible at this point in my career and I’m extremely grateful.
CBY: Starting with Marco Roblin’s work on The Fabled Offering, I immediately thought of some of the concept art by Brian Froud for The Dark Crystal and Dave Dorman’s Tales of the Jedi art. These may be specious connections on my part, so can you share a bit about what influences and aesthetic reference points you intended to evoke in developing the project with Marco? What can you additionally share about Marco’s technical process for achieving the look you envisioned.
NFS: I put together a 30+ page visual guide for Marco when I sent the script to him and in it, I detailed every location and character as specifically as possible. Out of all the projects I’ve created, The Fabled Offering required the most heavy lifting with its conceptual visual flavors. I pulled a lot of concept art from properties like Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, TRON and others while also looking at ancient Mayan and Greek art. In terms of comics, I see a lot of Cam Kennedy’s work on Star Wars: Dark Empire in Marco’s own as well as some hints of John Paul Leon, Jerome Opena, Bill Sienkiewicz, and even Moebius to a certain degree. He does it all, so I really wanted Marco to spread his wings and go for it. I remember getting the first couple of pages from him and I asked Marco about what kind of paper and pen he uses and Marco then responded, “It’s all digital.” I could’ve sworn he was inking traditionally because of how much grit and texture he leaves on the page, but I could not have been more wrong. I rarely gave any suggestions or notes because he and I were in sync on nearly every aspect of the book. We were more concerned with the “mood” of the page rather than the literal, accurate colors of an object, animal, or location. Our thinking was, “We’re nowhere near earth, so why shackle this exotic world we’re building to its appearance?”
CBY: Yeah, I am similarly stunned to hear he is not taking a traditional pen and paper approach. Man-Child definitely has a bolder, cartoonish look by comparison, which you mentioned Jay Mazhar pulls from some classic Silver Age aesthetics. Old Fantastic Four and The Flash come to mind, and heavy nods to Stan Lee are thrown in the mix, central to the story set-up. What central inspirations did you and Jay discuss as you built the look and feel of the title? How did you make sure you were on the same page?
NFS: I was heavily entrenched and absorbed in droves of silver age as well as golden age comics while I was writing Man-Child, and I’d say that obsession clearly comes across to readers, especially as the series alternates between The Monarch-Crier’s story and Rufus Boston’s story in tandem. I intentionally focused on much of Stan Lee’s early work at Marvel and did my best to try and imitate his voice and vocabulary while attempting to reverse-engineer the classic Marvel Method for my own scripting purposes. While Stan was more or less “the idea man,” I don’t think people give him enough credit as a wordsmith. Both the images and the words leap off the page with him at the helm during those formative years. The density is astounding. I hadn’t discovered Jay’s work yet while I was writing the book but once we got the character designs out of the way and we began working together, we were set. Jay knew exactly where I was coming from and his style – from his tight but bold linework to his smooth colors – naturally lends itself to that bygone era. I barely remember us needing to work out any kinks at the time, except for the occasional silver-age panel layout or cover reference that we’d go back and forth on.
CBY: While you’ve not yet launched further campaigns for Seasons, which is heading into Vol. 3, it looks like you’ve got a diversified slate of titles you’re working on in parallel. How do you balance your priorities and schedule your releases to avoid stepping on your own toes or overloading your schedule as you work towards completion on everything?
NFS: I’m still figuring that out, haha. From a creative and business standpoint, I felt the need to diversify my line of books as quickly as possible because I wanted to show my readers and potential publishers I may work for someday that I’m not a one trick pony. I’m a comic book writer, so throw anything at me, any genre or character, and I can deliver. I’m of the opinion that your best business card as a comic book creator is your latest book. There’s also the need for creative challenges to help maintain my growth as a writer, too. Having some versatility is key because in the midst of opening yourself up to other types of stories, you learn so much about what goes into a specific genre, how to pace a story in that specific genre, and what works or doesn’t work within them. A wide range of titles on your con table doesn’t hurt sales either. Not everyone is going to want my superhero book, but maybe they’ll want my sci-fi or supernatural title instead.
CBY: Not only are you writing multiple titles concurrently, you’re also managing the publication of your comics through Foxhole Comics, your publishing imprint, and it looks like you’re picking up steam. Balancing your writing and your promotion/sales responsibilities, how do you structure your time to ensure you are able to ensure both productive creative time and effective self-management as a creative?
NFS: Multitasking is not my strong suit. When one process begins, the other ends. I can barely market myself if I’m in one of my writing phases and barely write if I’m in the midst of promotion. I’m somewhat of a binge writer and need all my focus to be on whatever story I’m currently trying to mold. It’s important to me that my stories have an ending in mind and that ending is solidified before I share it with the world. All of Man-Child and Seasons have been scripted and while I’m perpetually editing myself, I’m also working on other stories behind the scenes. If I tried to wear my creative and business hats at the same time, I think both endeavors would suffer and so I try to allow myself breaks. If I’m not in the middle of a campaign, I should be writing. If I’m not writing, I should be promoting my writing. That’s how I keep myself organized.
CBY: It sounds like we organize our writing time in a similar manner. Given the diversity of narratives you’ve been crafting, can you unpack your world-building process for our readers? You’ve got mythic weapons and bloodlines, secret identities and costumes, building parallel realities in parody, etc. - what do you do to build an atlas or index of your characters, their interactions, and the world in which they interact?
NFS: All roads lead to a nexus point. For all of my stories, I try to anchor every part of the world to its characters, who are further embedded within the story’s themes. I approach my stories as if everything about them are extensions of a central idea I’m attempting to explore. This keeps the narrative from going places I don’t want it to go, providing a more confined, focused playground, if you will. This doesn’t mean the characters can’t take a life of their own and shake things up a bit, but this process helps me to know if I’m headed in the right direction with the plot and opens pathways regarding how the characters might find their agency within it.
With The Fabled Offering, for example, every piece of the story leads back to Grand Princess Aurelia’s critical journey towards Gefyra Mountain to present The Ancient Cizin with an offering. Her motivation for doing so, every interaction she has during this journey, and the conclusion of her journey points to a core conversation that I’m trying to have with the reader. I believe all my stories tend to do this as well (whether I succeed at it, I’m not sure, ha). Now, when it comes to keeping names, terms, locations, continuity, and things like that straight, I tend to keep my stories small enough so that they don’t overwhelm me or the reader.
Too much emphasis on the fauna or the history of a particular race’s genealogy is fine for providing context to a scene, but I’d rather spend time on the page exploring what that fauna or race has to do with my protagonist. If there’s no relation to them or the subtext underneath what is actually occurring within my story, I don’t really see a point in spending time on it. However, it depends on how expansive you want your story to be and if you can communicate that well enough to the reader, of course.
CBY: Yep, "narrative utility" is the term I've found most useful for keeping things aligned to the central plot thread. As of The Fabled Offering preview material, you’re 27 years old. As someone a decade older, I think a lot about what I’ve done for the past decade, and how it informs my narrative focus in my own writing. Beyond your listed influences (George Lucas, Jonathan Hickman, Steven Moffat, Ed Brubaker, and Scott McCloud), what specific creative influences and support within and beyond your community have been most formative in guiding your creative direction?
NFS: I’m learning something new from other creators in the indie community on a weekly, even daily, basis. I’m always looking to see what’s working for people in the crowdfunding space who are a lot more successful than I am and hoping I can somehow replicate that for myself. I’ve made so many positive connections. This past April was my first time attending C2E2 and chatting with other creators and industry pros like James Tynion IV, Chip Zdarsky, Kyle Higgins, and Tim Seeley really encouraged me to keep pushing. I don’t do many cons due to costs and that’s definitely hindered my reach and customer base but now that I’ve built up my catalog of books, I’m gaining the confidence to hit bigger conventions in the future. There’s a lot of great people in comics and there’s a lot of great stories in the past few years that have influenced me. The two writers that come to mind are Tom King and Rick Remender. Without King’s Mister Miracle or Remender’s Seven to Eternity, I don’t think I ever would’ve written Man-Child or The Fabled Offering, as both stories were directly inspired by those seminal works.
CBY: It's great to get encouragement in your process from those who have gone through a similar journey. My convention exposure has been limited, but they seem like very positive experiences when you bring respect and dedication to the equation. What artists would you ideally like to collaborate with in the future whom you haven’t yet had a chance to work with in your career thus far?
NFS: Ah, the list. Where do I start? Greg Smallwood, please. He’s right at the top. Then there’s Gary Frank, Doc Shaner, Mitch Gerads, Jorge Fornes, Steve McNiven, Alex Ross, Steve Rude, Jason Fabok, Ryan Sook, Bryan Hitch, Jerome Opena, and the list goes on. We’ll get there or die trying!
CBY: That's the only way to do it - we all die eventually, so we might as well give it a good run, and we certainly work better in collaboration. Now, apart from your own work, which we’ve been digging into today, what other creative works (other comics, films, music, literature, etc.) have been providing you with inspiration lately? What should our readers check out after giving your latest comics a look?
NFS: The current Ultimate Comics line from Marvel has been so exciting to see unfold. I’m currently getting all the titles and they’re gearing up for something big, I can feel it. On the other side of the coin, I think what DC has in store for readers with their ALL IN initiative and Absolute line of books is going to be spectacular. What Geoff Johns and the Ghost Machine crew are doing over at Image is raising the bar, no doubt. Besides comics, I haven’t had much time to read proper novels but I’ve been eyeing Tom King’s A Once Crowded Sky on my bookshelf for a while. If you need a good cry, I re-watched the Duplass Brothers film Paddleton on Netflix a few weeks ago and also finished re-watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer this year and can’t believe how phenomenal that show is. I grew up watching it as a kid but as an adult writer today, I have an even greater appreciation for it. And this might come as a curveball, but I’m in the midst of going through the entire Frasier sitcom series starring Kelsey Grammer for the very first time and of course the humor is spot on, but there’s some legitimately great drama and performances in there too. Oh, and the new Snow Patrol album that just dropped is on repeat. Can you tell I’m an early 2000’s kid?
CBY: I think you've just locked it down for us, Nandor (and you reminded me that I've been meaning to try Frasier Fantasy). Thanks for stopping by the Yeti Cave to chat about your latest comics! Any portfolio, publication, and social media links you’ve got to share, this is the time and place.
NFS: Thank you! I hope we can talk again soon. Here’s my Linktree — https://linktr.ee/foxholecomics — that’ll lead those interested to my crowdfunding campaigns and social media accounts. Please subscribe to my newsletter — foxholecomics.substack.com — as well as my YouTube channel — Foxhole Comics — for all the latest updates from me. Also be on the lookout for THIS INK RUNS COLD anthology being published through Allen Spiegel Fine Arts in 2025. I’ll be in some wonderful company (Brian Michael Bendis among them) and have a short story in there drawn by cartoonist Scott Morse!
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