In the Beginning...
Versus began where most other things end; with zombies.
With the zombie film revival brought on by release of such films as Shaun of the Dead & the remake of Dawn of the Dead, I noticed a trend develop in both comicbooks & B-Movies in the years that followed. Various types of characters (& sometimes, very famous characters) were being pitted against the undead. Everyone was fighting zombies & I decided it might be fun to come up with a fight of my own.
I eventually came up with the idea of having pirates go up against zombies but after sketching out some designs, I wasn't really sure what to do with the idea, so I left it on the backburner. For quite a while. Fast-forward to 2009, & the idea had finally floated back to the surface of my mind. Once again though, I wasn't sure what to do with it. Should it be a series of comics? Just some cool artwork? In the end, inspiration came from the place where I'm always guaranteed to receive it; the pub.
One of the pubs in my town has an old boxing poster framed above one the booths & I was sitting in (or standing near maybe) that booth one night and it hit me; I'd design a 'Fight-Night' style poster, but instead of having boxers posing at the top & bottom, I'd have my two combatants.
So, I got to drawing Pirates Versus Zombies, with the intention of simply posting it on Facebook for all my mates to see & enjoy. But, as I was making the poster, I started coming up with other battles; Samurai Versus Vampires; Knights Versus Werewolves; ooh, I should have a battle with mummies involved...was roughly how my thought process went.
I posted Pirates Versus Zombies on the 22nd of July 2009 & it got a pretty decent reaction. When I announced shortly afterward that I was planning on making more of these 'genre mash-up/fight-night' style posters, I got an even better reaction. I ended up posting Versus on DeviantArt as well as creating a 'VersusComicbook' profile on Facebook & both led to me getting people from all sorts of places involved & enjoying the series.
Audience Participation
I've always believed that art should involve people as much as possible & had been considering allowing people to make suggestions for Versus 'Battles'. I wanted to challenge myself artistically; to learn new things & draw subjects & concepts I hadn't really attempted to before whilst also getting people involved & having fun.
Versus: The Blog
On March the 26th, 2011, I decided to reboot Versus as a blog. Due to moving in with my girlfriend & finding a new job, I'd had to leave Versus on the backburner for a while & upon returning to the series, I was eager to expand on what I'd already done & also wanted to attempt to bring the series to a larger audience. However, I wasn't keen on just picking up where I'd left off as I felt that doing so may alienate potential new fans. I also needed a bit of time to finish the work I'd been doing before my hiatus, so starting again seemed like the best idea.
Versus can be found on Facebook, Twitter, Flickr & Tumblr.
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