The Journey to Roundhouse Hooligans
Part Issue #1
Welcome back and thanks for tuning in to what will be the part one, or as I prefer to call it Issue #1 in a series of blogs that will explain the history of Roundhouse Hooligans, an ongoing project where I will write about the humble beginnings of my Hooligans, where the idea originally came from, who inspired some of the characters, the hurdles and mistakes we made as well as the steps we took to create the comic. This blog series will continue up until the release of Book one!
So, without further ado, let me take you back to where it all started…
Where did this idea come from? To pin point the birth of any idea of my mine is usually hard but, I remember the exact time and place for this one! It was at a time when I was slowly finding my passion for the film industry, my desire to make comics, would come a little later.
This idea came to me one day while I was shopping at Bunning’s warehouse, for those of you who don’t know it’s a huge hardware store, you know the type, they sell power tools, timber, electrical goods, gardening tools, basically its where you and every other George A. Romero & TWD geeks wants to be when the Zombie apocalypse strikes. So…there I was looking at axes, power tools, pitchforks and shovels and… I swear to god, a freakin’ machete! The whole time thinking to myself how useful these would be for slaying an undead horde. I thought that would make a cool story, but…that’s kind of been done to death (pun intended) and I don’t want to write another zombie story, not when its already been done so well (looking at you The Walking Dead #TeamDaryl).
So the Zombie idea was out…but…there was still something there, the beginning of an idea. And, while working in my mundane 9-5 job at the time, I spent most of my shifts day dreaming about this idea (that wasn’t quite yet an idea??) and in all honesty, this routine continued for week with me, drifting off into my own mind and imagination and is probably the reason why I was eventually fired! OK, so zombies were out, but those tools those…weapons! I wanted to do something with it, something fun and original! In the end, as it , often is, the idea, my solution was simple. A small group using homemade weapons against an armed and powerful enemy. This small group, they would be outsiders, social outcasts (which is how I was feeling at the time, an outsider struggling to find his place, never quite fitting in) these vigilantes, these, these…Hooligans! YES! These mother fucking Hooligans! Kids, young adults, all outcasts, all different yet somehow the same, their uniqueness binding them together!
The Hooligans I created in my mind became the friends I always wished I had. They were loyal, always had your back, honest and accepted you for who you were never judged you. This would be the foundation around the heroes, a dysfunctional family that the readers would fall in love with just like I had. After all, I think everyone at some point has felt like an outsider.
Without giving away too much of the story here, let me just say, I wanted the Hooligans to go up against something big, something that felt impossible, something that they were forced into. I don’t just mean in a, “your backs against the wall its time to fight or die!” (though that’s kinda there too) I mean…When you see something wrong and you have the ability to help! When you see an injustice committed! Well friends… my Hooligans are left with no choice, they will stand up and say…fuck this shit! we ain’t walkin’ away, we ain’t turnin’ a blind eye! there’s no question about it, not if they believe they can make a difference! That is who the Hooligans are. Don’t be fooled into thinking they’re angels, far fucking from it. I said it before, they are the outcasts in this story. They do good, but they do it their way, a very special kind of justice is served when you cross a Roundhouse Hooligan.
End of the day, everyone loves a story about the underdog, going up against overwhelming odds and coming out on top despite of it. Roundhouse Hooligans is one of those stories, and so much more. it has a message behind it, friendship, love…sacrifice. It has heart. I think (hope) at the end of the day you will see the real enemy, the biggest danger they face every day, is their own demons.
So of course, I started writing. As a screen play at first, thinking it could be a great mini-series, live action or maybe even animated! Yeah! that would be cool as fuck! Not a movie though…No, not this story, My Hooligans needed more time than a few hours to flesh out all the characters. These friends I created in my mind all have extraordinary back stories, they deserved to have their story told. It became important to me, I owed it to them, after all, they were my friends and I’d do anything for them…
To be continued…
L.A. Keim & Brizeycon
