Friends take serious steps with comic books series

INDEPENDENCE, Mo.

Parents who think comic books are a waste of time haven't met Seth Clark, Jason Egli and Wil Vezeecke.

The 19-year-old Truman High School graduates created "Statistics," a comic book that will be published with hopes to spark sales across the nation and at retailers such as Barnes and Noble and Amazon.com.

"If this one takes off real big, we'll start our own company, but that's a minute chance," said Clark, who does the inking and draws the covers for the comic.

The guys met their junior year in high school and became fast friends.

"I was drawing a picture of Spider-Man in class and Wil was like, 'I like comics, too,' and we became best friends instantly," Clark said.

Egli, who created the story behind the book, came into the picture shortly thereafter.

"I told Wil I liked to write, and he said I should write him a comic book," Egli said.

All three men have collected comic books since they were children. Vezeecke has more than 3,000, Clark has about 1,500 and Egli probably has half that many. Their rooms are covered with posters and pictures of their favorite heroes.

"Wil just tacks his up there," Clark said. "I frame mine. I think it looks classier."

"Hey, watch it. I just tack up mine too," Egli said.

Vezeecke is proud of his collection.

"I'm going to have to get an apartment for them some day," he said.

Each has his favorite characters and buys five to 10 comics a week.

All three said their love for comics started when they were young.

"My mom or dad would by them for me with the groceries," Egli remembered.

Vezeecke said he has loved comics since he was about 4 or 5.

"My dad brought some Spider-Man and Captain America comics home, and that's basically how I learned to read," he said.

The guys went to an August comic book convention in Chicago, where Egli submitted a script about Omega Red, an X-Men character, to different companies.

A few months later, the guys received an e-mail from I-Quest, a company that attended the Chicago convention, asking them to submit a book for a contest.

I-Quest posted "Statistics" on its Web site with several other books, and the winners were determined by the number of votes they received. "Statistics" received the most votes, so I-Quest will publish it, along with four other books in the "I-Quest Chronicles" in January. Six more installations will follow monthly.

"We were so surprised that they had that much faith in just a script (Egli) Jason wrote about another character," Vezeecke said. "And then we won the contest. We were shocked and amazed. It was exciting."

The guys juggle their comic-book ambitions with the rest of their lives.

Clark, who will begin art classes next semester, is engaged and works full time at a barbecue restaurant. Vezeecke is a full-time student at Penn Valley Community College and has a restaurant job.

"It's back and forth, kinda hectic. We just do it," Egli said. "It's like an assembly line. I have to write the script before giving it to Wil, and he has to get done before Seth can start."

The guys would love to make comics their careers, but they have backup plans.

"That's the ultimate goal," Vezeecke said. "It always has been since I was a kid."

Clark agreed.

"I could live being an art teacher, but I would not be as happy," he said. "This is all our ambition. I'd do it for free if I could live off it."

Egli, too, will go into teaching if writing doesn't earn him a living.

Vezeecke's backup plan lies in graphic design, but he may become an art teacher if neither comics nor graphic design work out.

Besides "Statistics," the men have other comic ambitions.

Vezeecke is working on another comic with his brother, while he and Clark are creating one about vampires.

Vezeecke and Clark dream about working for Marvel Comics or DC Comics, while Egli would like to be a writer for Image Comics.

All three want to continue working together, whether on original material, such as "Statistics," or on existing characters.

"We want to get started off and get noticed doing our own thing, but hopefully someday we will move to Marvel or DC and work together on something big," Vezeecke said.

Egli describes "Statistics"' main character, Eric, as the All-American overachiever.

"He's got a typical job at a library and lives in this town that is seemingly perfect and very comfortable," Egli said.

However, in the first issue, Eric suffers a massive headache that leaves him hearing voices.

"He's in a coma-like state, and the voices say the people and the town are seemingly wrong, that people have lied. And it tells Eric he now has a gift to see the true nature of people," Egli said.

So, the internal struggle begins. Egli initially based Eric's character on himself, Clark said.

Egli said the story is a sinister look at society through the eyes of a man who once saw society as perfect.

"It's more of a naive look to the world," Egli said.

A Josef Stalin quote inspired the story's name: "A single death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic."

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On the Net:

http://www.statisticsproductions.com