Historically, those were turbulent times, and there is plenty to show: from PM Sharon's 2005 Disengagement Program, through Shalit's abduction by terrorists, to the 2nd Lebanon War in the summer of 2006. Those are all still politically charged topics, however, and my goal isn't reigniting the debate or take a political stand, but to show how those big events look from backstage, and showcase the lives and struggles of support staff in the army – explore how those soldiers could still be secretly heroes and villains without being combatants.
Plus, I always thought this eerie bunker would be a great setting for a mystery. The Pit itself is a character."
Creative Process
"The pilot took a while to form; I was 26 by the time it came out, featuring experiences from when I was 19. Ideas and memories had bounced around, cooked and coalesced for a long while. Eventually I wrote a skeleton script with a short description of every scene and a page allotment for it, then I went to layout and dialogue. I decided on the rigid 9-grid early on to make it easier for me to plan a script without layout (establishing in text that this panel would be 2/9 horizontal, that panel would be 1/9 and so on). It made good reading flow and consistency."
Influences
"For fun I mostly read more colorful adventure comics like Girl Genius, Runaways, Ms. Marvel, Unbeatable Squirrel Girl. The kind of comics that are more akin to my other title, Sonica. I grew up on the colorful works of Israeli artists Uri Fink and Michel Kichka (and I was later fortunate enough to be published by the first and taught by the latter). I don't generally like horror/ suspense stories. I remember watching a lot of Battlestar Galactica, Stargate Universe and especially BBC's Life On Mars when I worked on Sherman. LOM was an especially big influence on the Sherman's Pit spirit, with Manchester PD attitude reminding me of the brass, their shady offices inspiring The Pit and Tyler's hallucinations inspiring Sherman's."
Reception"Well, so far Sherman has been surprisingly popular in Europe. There is a significant market for horror/ suspense/ mystery comics in Germany. I try to make that world more approachable through my writing, explaining the various quirks and catch-22s of army service when I can, simplifying and ironing out when I can't. And let's not forget that the lower ranks of the IDF are made of conscripts, not professionals; Most of the characters are average college-age people who got caught up in it because they had to, rather than making a career decision."
Future Plans"Right now there are three issues out, but only one translated to English. I plan to launch a Kickstarter for a TPB containing issues 1-4 (approximately 80-90 comic pages) this September, once I finish working on issue #4. The book will be printed in both English and Hebrew – if the stretch goals allow it, I'll also translate to German. This would mark the halfway point for the current arc, which is to be concluded on issue 8. I already have the general plot planned out until that point.
Ideally, I'd like to continue this series for two more 8-issue arcs, the second one featuring The Pit during the war,and the third finally revealing Sherman's lost past; but we'll cross that bridge when we get there."
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