Imagine you’re a cancer research scientist in Cambodia conducting groundbreaking research. Everything was going well until someone began stealing your highly inbred mogwuis (fluffy chinese demons that you must never get wet), an essential component to your research. You’d investigate this situation yourself but there are some test tubes that need to be taken out of the centrifuge back in the lab. What you need is a top notch team on the job so you can focus on your research, you’re curing cancer for Pete’s sake. You call the A-Team, yes, the one with Mr. T. It goes straight to voicemail, curses! What to do? What to do? You pace back and forth in front of some mogwuis, quietly cooing but more so drooling in their cages, and then it hits you. B-SQUAD! You remember seeing a late night infomercial about them, they seemed very reasonably priced. As you reach for the phone, you think to yourself, what’s the worst that could happen…B-Squad: Soldiers of Misfortune is an action adventure humor comic book series about a cut-rate mercenary group which is sent out on missions of the ridiculous and deadly manner. Every issue, one member of B-Squad will meet their maker and find out what happens when you go towards the light. The ill-fated member is not chosen by series creator Eben E.B. Burgoon, but rather a small gambling token called a “teetotum”. One spin of the token and that character is pushing up daisies by the end of the issue.
The first issue of B-Squad introduces the reader to the squaddies as they’re paying their last respects to a recently fallen member. In the midst of their goodbyes they meet the new recruit, Hadley Hamlin, a color-blind Navy Seal that endangered his last team during a raid due to a poor choice of camo. Following the brief introductions they are handed new mission orders which sends the squad to Cambodia. The mission: investigate suspected poaching at a cancer research facility studying the healing effects of little fluffy Chinese demons known as “Mogwui.” In B-Squad’s attempt to defend the mogwui, they’re ambushed by the poachers who turn out to be members of the 66% Percent (not a typo), a group of hipsters who believe the facility is using the mogwui to commit high dollar insurance scams.
Burgoon is bringing B-Squad to life with the help of series illustrator Lauren Monardo – and they are raising money on Kickstarter to finish out the series thru August 31st! The goal of the Kickstarter has already raised approximately 150% of it’s goal, and broke it’s $3000 in 8 days to assure the completion of issue one! Currently, the objective is to raise funding for future issues and keep the comic consistent on a monthly basis – the sky is the limit for B-Squad! Stretch goals are set in place to generate capital to continue the series as far as the fans are willing to take it. Six following issues are planned, and as the kickstarter raises more money, more issues will be unlocked!
Eben Burgon is a local Sacramento comic creator and co-created another series, Eben07, about the janitors that clean up after James Bond. Burgoon has partnered with Tapigami as the next setting for Issue two and Issue 3, turning last year’s SN&R Best Visual Artist into a super-villian bent on total global collaboration! They’ll be celebrating the comic book’s successful Kickstarter and hopefully pushing it to new heights on August 22nd at Tapigami’s downtown plaza art studio, Exhibit S, from 7pm-10pm. Backers will be treated to a one-of-a-kind B-Squad experience zone. Loads of fun!