Hairy heroics

Veteran superhero artist Karl Kerschl
finds his true voice in Web comics

NO TIGHTS AND CAPES: From Ragni

by RUPERT BOTTENBERG

Though he’s risen through the ranks of mainstream comic artists over the last decade and a half, notably for work on titles like Superman and The Flash, Montrealer Karl Kerschl, a native of Welland, Ontario, admits he’s not the biggest superhero fan. He’s more interested in the themes that transcend the genre, even the medium—“Loyalty and brotherhood,” he says.

“I get excited by characters who are honest and sincerely written, and who genuinely need each other in order for the story to be told. When one of them has to rise above whatever he or she is accustomed to in order to help the other, those are the moments that resonate with me. There’s heroism in that, but it goes beyond traditional genre classifications.”

LOYAL TO THE
BROTHERHOOD: Kerschl

Fifteen years in the often miserable trenches at DC and Marvel have led Kerschl, who still does select work for his old clients, to go beyond as well. “To be fair, there are times when drawing an issue of Superman or The Flash is spiritually rewarding, because you’re capturing these honest moments. But in any media, those moments are few and far between.”

Greater rewards first came with an independent project, a comic book accompanying a self-titled EP for the Canadian band Ragni, in 2007. In 2009, Kerschl intends to revisit and in fact reverse that relationship. He’s fashioning a storyline and initial art, related to his research into East Coast Canadian ghost stories, for Ragni to build their music around.

More immediately, Kerschl intends to maintain the momentum of his excellent weekly Web comic, The Abominable Charles Christopher, a complex tale of talking wildlife, of which a new episode is uploaded every Wednesday.

“My whole career has been drawing superheroes, for the most part, but I felt something was missing. If I look at my old sketchbooks from when I was 10 years old, it’s all animal drawings, cute cats and pandas and things.

“I didn’t know anything about the business of Web comics, or the community, which is vast and very gracious. It’s turned out to be far more powerful than I anticipated, in the best way imaginable.”

The titular protagonist, a Sasquatch sorta thing, is the only character with no voice. “He’s basically a sounding board for every other facet and foible of humanity. I don’t give this a lot of thought, but if I had to define it, I would say he’s absolutely innocent, absolute naiveté in basically a human world. He has a childlike look at our world, and all the characters around him display all the flaws—and delightful strengths—of human beings, all through my own filters.”

Kerschl’s strip debuted in June, 2007, and since then has built up a daily readership of 7,000, never to mention snagging a prestigious Eisner Award nomination. “I’m excited that it was recognized, but more than anything, that recognition has said to me that if I just do what I instinctively feel is right, then people will be drawn to it, understand and appreciate it.”

FACETS AND FOIBLES: From The Abominable Charles Christopher