by Mike Rhode
StoryBox Comics Fair, organized by Adam Griffiths, was held recently in a brewery in Silver Spring, MD. Along with some stalwarts of the DC Conspiracy, I met some local cartoonists new to me. Jeremy Vinar, and his wife Ashley of Perilous Adventures Studios were selling collections of their comics. Ashley is the writer of their new book, Roll Your Way, while Jeremy is the cartoonist behind it and the studio's other comics.
What type of comic work or cartooning do you do?
We currently self publish the Perils and Roll Your Way
graphic novel series. The Perils series starts with Perils Ahead with a
story that follows Neil, a dungeon janitor of sorts, tasked with cleaning
up after adventurers and resetting the traps by the mysterious dungeon master.
Things change for him after a certain adventurer enters the dungeon and
stirs things up. The sequel in the series is also available and titled
Perils Below.
The Roll Your Way series is a choose-your-own adventure
style book, but instead of choosing you roll a 4-sided dice to determine what
page to turn to at different points in the story. There are currently two
books, each self-contained stories about two different adventuring parties
trying to complete their quest. Depending on how well the reader rolls, the
characters may or may not get a good ending.
How do you do it? Traditional pen and ink, computer or a
combination?
I’ve switched it up a little for each book but it's always a
combination of the two. Typically drawn and inked on paper then colored
in the computer. For Perils Below I did ink washes on the paper as
well. It just kind of depends on what I’m into at the time.
I’m pretty sure for the next book though I will try full
digital using Clip Studio.
When (within a decade is fine) and where were you born?
I was born in the 80’s in Maryland. Raised in
Germantown and later moved to Frederick. My wife and I now live in Frederick County, MD. We both went to high school in Frederick (rival high schools) and
met when we were teenagers working at a craft store.
What is your training and/or education in cartooning?
I went to the Savannah College of Art and Design.
Graduated in 2004 with a degree in Illustration, but originally went because of
their sequential art program.
Who are your influences?
Being a child who grew up in the 90’s, that era of comics
had a huge impact on me. It is the reason I love making comics so much.
Although stylistically I suppose I’m much more cartoony then traditional
comics.
If you could, what in your career would you do-over or
change?
This is a tough one. The thing I always think of first
when I think of regrets is going into so much debt for art school. It's
been a massive weight on me for my entire adult life. But it’s really
hard to say how things would have been if I hadn’t.
I also regret flip flopping my goals so much early on.
I went to art school to learn sequential art (comics) but half way through I
thought I should do something that would have more of a chance for a paying job
(since i was racking up so much debt). So I switched to illustration, but
even that didn’t really make sense. What I actually ended up doing after
college was working as a video game artist. Ultimately after 11 years of
that and layoff after layoff I decided that my dream was always comics and I
need to refocus on that.
So I have a regular day job now to make ends meet and work
on comics in my spare time.
What work are you best-known for?
Ha I wish I knew!
What work are you most proud of?
Really any of the comics we’ve put out in the past 8
years. I just love it. The Perils series is very personal to me so
I really like that one. But the Roll Your Way series is special because
it was my wife's idea and she writes it. So we get to work on it
together. It seems to be our best seller because it's such a brilliant idea.
What would you like to do or work on in the future?
I have a third Perils book idea I’d like to finish some
day. We also have a third Roll Your Way we have been on and off working
on for years and would really like to get that going too.
Outside of our own work, it would be amazing to fulfill that
childhood dream of drawing a comic for Marvel someday. I imagine that is
the dream of most people who are my age.
What do you do when you're in a rut or have writer's block?
Take a shower. It’s the best place for your mind to
wander.
What do you think will be the future of your field?
Gosh I don’t know. I don’t know if it's a widespread
trend or just me but I’ve gone back to buying mostly physical copies of
books. For a while it seemed like digital was going to be the new way to
read comics, but for me that didn’t last. And I like having a physical
copy of a book to sell to people. Something about it is just nicer.
What local cons do you attend? The Small Press Expo, Awesome
Con, or others? Any comments about attending them?
We have done SPX a couple times in the past and it's been a
very good show for us. It's just hard to get into with vendors being
chosen by lottery vs. being juried like most other conventions. We have
done Awesome Con and Baltimore Comic Con for many years. They are usually
okay for us, but it's hard to table at those types of conventions for
self-published comic book sellers. People there are mostly looking for
the big properties they know and love and not new indy comics they’ve never
heard of.
What comic books do you read regularly or recommend? Do you
have a local store?
Lately I’ve been reading the new Gargoyles comic that picks
up after the cartoon from the 90’s. It's written by the creator of the
show Greg Weisman and it's really fun. That was a favorite show of mine
from my childhood.
Do you have a website or blog?
Our website is perilousadventurestudios.com
How has the COVID-19 outbreak affected you, personally and
professionally?
At first it wasn’t really a big change for me because my
regular day job was work from home already. Sadly though it ended up
being devastating as I lost my father to COVID in early 2022.
What comic books do you read regularly or recommend? Do you
have a local store?
