Erik Bitmanis writes,

"What's with the Giant Baby?" This was the first thing that Dave, my roommate, said to me as he set down the script to the comic. The only immediate answer I had for him was a shrug of my shoulders.

The answer is much longer than one could easily put in a single sentence. Sam Wyerznowski, and this giant baby that is about to smash him to bits, are part of a story that I've been developing for over four years. I had other ideas and other stories pop up along the way, but for some reason, everything drifted back to Sam Wyerznowski and his wonderfully messed up online world.

It didn't originally begin as Sam, or as an online world, or even a comic. I began writing what I thought would be a blockbuster movie. Only 21 years old, freshly landed in Australia, all your ideas seem pretty fantastic at that point. At 21, usually the first story you come up with is some brutal version of a hitman/secret agent story that is a straight rip-off of all your favourite action movies mashed into one (And it was). It's wonderful and delightfully awful all at the same time.

Thank goodness that story never made it to light. With some life experience, and the story in the back of my mind, little did I know that in 3 years this would all lead to the beginning of Hard Wyred.

First came the realization that despite the fact I wanted to make this as my own blockbuster movie, I didn't have the millions of dollars to pull it off (still don't). Nor did I have any connection in the film industry, despite owning a DSLR camera.

"Well, maybe I could shoot this as a low budget independent ."

That was my first thought. Yet, once the cutting of set pieces and action scenes happened, the story I wanted to tell wasn't there anymore. It was gone. All the things that I wanted to see come to life had vanished. I once again shelved the script.

Now I had read comics before, V for Vendetta still stands as one of my all-time favourites, but I never considered creating in the medium. It all seemed so foreign. Yet, when I stumbled into my first script, Grant Morrison the invisibles #1, I really got into it. I still didn't fully understand how to write one, but damn were they interesting!

So I read, read, and read. Demolished any comics I could get a hold of. I quickly developed some favourites (Hello Snyder's "Batman" and John Layman's "Chew"). I knew what I wanted to do now.

I wanted to make a comic.

Research was the name of the game. Research and practise, and repeat. Until what I was writing was getting some nods of approval. Still wasn't exactly what I wanted, yet. So I kept practising. Many worlds and characters would cross the page, but it was one that stuck out when my oh-so-kind roommate read a script I had just finished.

Sam Wyerznowski.

"This is good man. Very good."

Thanks Dave, that is all I needed to hear.

So began what has now become "Hard Wyred." I re-wrote the script, tightening the plot and pacing in places. More feedback from a variety of people, more nodding heads of approval. Finally I was letting myself think, "maybe I have something here."

Too bad I can't draw worth a damn. No problem, I'll post an ad on DeviantArt, and wow what a response! So many great and amazing artists out there, with a variety of skillsets. Than I saw Josh's character comp.

"That's Sam," was the first thing that popped in my head.

I talked to Josh further, sent him the script to see if he would still be interested. Not only did Josh like the script, he came up with these amazing ideas of how to draw different scenes that I had not even asked him about. Needless to say, he was the ideal person to bring Sam from words to life.

When it came to finding a colourist, I had one signed on almost immediately after finding Josh. However, with a broken tablet piece, and a busy work life, the colourist dropped out before any work was done. Scrambling now to find a new colourist, posting to as many forums as I could. I had already at this time began advertising for Hard Wyred and an impending Kickstarter. Now my little schedule was in flames, and the all the responses coming in were just not the right fit for the tight schedule. Enter Gwen, miracle colourist.

As soon as I opened her reply I immediately sent back "when can you start?" Her colours sprang off the page. Adding an amazing depth to the whole piece. Gwen was in, crisis averted.

I had already picked out my letterer weeks before the colourist crisis. Saw his work on a Reddit post for another comic he was part of. The letters brought the eye around the page in such an easy fashion. All it took was a quick email to express my interest. Jamie and I were in business.

From there was a rollercoaster of emails, pages being fired back and forth, but at long last we made it. Our Kickstarter was launched on May 2nd, and we couldn't be more proud. We hit our 50% funding goal on Wednesday May 6th. An unbelievable journey so far, with so much more to provide.

So when Dave asked me "what's with the baby?" and I just shrugged. Dave looked back down at the script and smiled. Seems the exact answer to what he was looking for was the magic in the story.