A Decade of Blood, Sweat, and…Brains

Justin White, Bryan Kreusch, and Myself

10 Years ago I sat at a tiny 4′ table next to two guys I hardly knew in a comic book store I had just started to go to and poured my heart out to a bunch of people I had never met. It was on that day that the 3 of us released our first comic, a 10 page #0 issue introducing the everyone to the world of ZKS Zombie Kill Squad. At the time we thought we were kings of the industry and beamed with pride in every way imaginable. We thought, it couldn’t get any better than this. We were dead wrong.

What started as a plea for us to get our foot into the comic book industry turned into waterfall of experiences for us. Fans loved us, locals ate us up, and stores were happy to stock us. We were taken aback and immediately humbled by the out pour of love we got from everyone.

Justin and I at GeeksCon
Justin and I at the Claremont Packinghouse
Justin and I at our first Wondercon

We were invited to do all different sorts of shows and neither of us said no. The popularity allowed us to not only launch a second book, but to also be invited to do a signing at San Diego Comic Con.

ZKS: Spotlight Kayla
Justin and I signing at SDCC

We loved doing shows. Meeting new fans was always so humbling for the both of us. We even got to do free comic book day and participate in 24hr comic book day for 8 years in a row.

Justin and I at Free Comic Book Day hosted by 4 Color Fantasies
Me signing at Wondercomics

Eventually people started to take notice of our hard work and hustle. And so, without realizing that is was happening, our little family grew.

Albert Carreon, Cameron Dortch, Justin White, and I
Chris Hernandez of Zombie Playground Publishing, Justin White, and I at Comikaze LA
Justin White, Daniel Whitfield, Joey LaBartunek, Richard Duron, and I at Free Comic Book Day
Cameron Dortch, Kayla, Andrea and Adam Broehl, Anthony White, Sean Dortch, and I at Wondercon

A growing family meant a growing cataloge which eventually led us to running 2 of our own comic expos as well as 3 Zombie Beauty Pageants.

Alo and the Steamnauts and I
Our second Inland Empire Comic Expo
Zombie Beauty Pageant year 1
ZBP year 2

But no matter how large or how small our family became, Justin and I never forgot where we came from and what got us there. 10 pages, 10 years, and hoards of zombies later we are still here.

Which leads us to now. In a few weeks Forbidden Panel will be launching a Kickstarter campaign to help us raise money to put on The Return Of The Zombie Beauty Pageant!! If we can reach our goal then we will be bringing back to ZBP for one last run, a grand finale. So keep an eye out here and on our social media pages for that announcement.

And finally, thank you. YOU. Our fans, our friends, our families, without whom none of this would have been possible. I never thought I would be here, 10 years later, still writing ZKS comics and working with FP. You have all made my dreams come true and allowed me to take my life in a direction I never thought possible. Thank you.

Thank You 4 Color Fantasies for having the balls to not only stock us but include us. Your trust in us helped us be here 10 years later. There are so many people that were involved in keeping us alive for a decade. I wish I could list you all.

And thank you Justin for trading a website for a comic book. Who knew 10 years later I would still owe you that website.