Writer/Artist Skottie Young has made a career out of reimagining familiar concepts and characters. His work for Marvel has included unique and critically acclaimed takes on iconic characters like Spider-Man, Deadpool, and the inhabitants of L. Frank Baum's classic Oz novels. His most recent assignment for the House of Ideas is writing the Strange Academy series, a superheroic spin on the wizard academy trope. His creator-owned work includes fresh takes on familiar fantasy stories like Image Comics' Middlewest and I Hate Fairyland.
It's no surprise that Young has joined the growing number of comic creators looking to revolutionize how creator-owned content is delivered -- via a subscription-based Substack hosted digital comics imprint. Subscribers to Young's imprint and newsletter, Stupid Fresh Mess, will receive new comics like The Unbelievable, Unfortunately Mostly Unreadable and Nearly Unpublishable Untold Tales of I Hate Fairyland. They'll also receive access to past creator-owned work, giveaways, Zoom hangouts, exclusive artwork, and more.
CBR spoke with Young about his plans for Stupid Fresh Mess and I Hate Fairylands' upcoming revival at Image Comics. Also included in this interview is a sneak peek at artwork from The Unbelievable, Unfortunately Mostly Unreadable and Nearly Unpublishable Untold Tales of I Hate Fairyland created by artists in the following order: Dean Rankine, Rachele Aragno, Aaron Conley, Greg Baldwin, Scott Brown, and Joverine.
CBR: Let's start by talking about Stupid Fresh Mess becoming a Substack hosted comics and content creation platform. What were some of the facets of this arrangement that you found appealing as a creator of original comics content?
Skottie Young: My wife and I used to run my online store for years out of our house where we sold original artwork, signed comics, graphic novels, and prints. As my schedule started stacking up, and kids started stacking up, [laughs] and my wife's photography business was taking off, we decided to shut it down for a bit while we focused on all of that.
In 2019, I brought on our friend Megan Hodges to help relaunch the online store with my new company, Stupid Fresh Mess. To help spread the word about that, we started a newsletter. Over the last year and a half, we built a really strong community with that and wondered what other things we could do with that direct connection to the readers, art collectors, and all-around awesome people. Then along comes Substack. It's a hybrid between a newsletter and a blog with the ability to offer premium subscriptions for special content. We were already publishing a regular newsletter so when they offered a grant to help produce brand new content delivered right to subscribers' inboxes, it just made sense.
Anyone who has made independent comics knows it's not an easy or cheap task. This took away some of the financial risks and allowed me to start writing and drawing my own comic. It also allowed me to reach out to some really talented creators and bring them on board to have some fun making comics.
What can you tell us about the length of the comics that will be delivered via Stupid Fresh Mess? Will they be in a traditional full issue style format? Or something new?
The first comics I'll be posting for premium subscribers will be shorts stories for The Unbelievable, Unfortunately Mostly Unreadable and Nearly Unpublishable Untold Tales of I Hate Fairyland. These will be around 10 pages and feature some amazing creators like Aaron Conley, Scott Brown, Greg Baldwin, Rachele Aragno, Dean Rankine, and a few other of my pals from around the industry! And as soon as I'm further with the project I'm writing and drawing, I'll start serializing that as well.
How frequently do you envision the comic deliveries being?
My plan right now is one story per month on top of all the other bonus content I'll be providing for premium subscribers.
Subscribers won't just have access to your new creator-owned work. They'll be able to read past titles as well. How will that work?
I'm offering PDFs of old, long-out-of-print art books and will be doing full audio creator commentary for many of my old comics from Image to Marvel! I've learned so much about storytelling by listening to years worth of DVD Directory Commentaries and wanted to offer a version of that for my subscribers as well!
Let's talk a little bit more about your return to the world of I Hate Fairyland. What made you want to come back to the series? What do you want people -- who have yet to discover the book -- to know about it?
I'm launching the Untold Tales of I Hate Fairyland short stories on the Substack as a way to refresh everyone on that wacky world they fell in love with as well as introduce Gert and the Gang to all the readers who might not have discovered it yet. Then later this year, I'll be relaunching I Hare Fairyland as an ongoing series at Image Comics with artist Brett Parson (Tank Girl, The Goon)
I Hate Fairyland was first published in 2015. I wrote and drew 20 issues. I loved that book so much but I had a few other ideas I wanted to explore and it's hard to do that when you're doing a creator-owned book almost entirely on your own. So, I decided to take a break from drawing interiors for a minute. I had been drawing monthly comics for almost 20 years at the point and was in need of a vacation. [laughs]. I started to miss those characters but I also knew I was too busy to dive back in alone. I still have more stories I want to draw outside of IHF so I needed to team up with some of these badass artists I love out in the world. Luckily, they all missed the book as well and were happy to jump on the magic carpet ride!
Will the Stupid Fresh mess Fairyland comics only be available digitally? Or are there plans to release individual issues and trades in print as well?
Untold Tales of IHF will be collected into print editions as well.
Not sure if we'll launch as a series or go straight to graphic novel format with that, but it will absolutely be available in print when it's ready! I've found that digital and print audience are either different or they're like me... They’ll get the digital and the print. I'll always be a book on a a shelf guy. I love that my kids have years of graphic novels to grab off the shelf and discover. I also love having a digital library to travel with. I'm a two worlds are better than one kind of a nerd and I love it!
Finally, are there any other new comics projects in the works at Stupid Fresh Mess that you can hint, tease or talk about?
Not quite yet. I like to wait until I have a lot done before I start spreading the word. But I am developing a new project that I'll be returning to the drawing table for. Everyone should drop by skottieyoung.com and check out all the goodies we have for you there. Original art, prints, signed comics, and graphic novels with bookplates, and skottieyoung.com exclusive covers to various comics!
