Before Canandaigua native Will Perkins became a successful illustrator of the graphic novel series “Goblin,” published by Dark Horse Comics, he was a bored liquor store clerk.
After deciding his previously intended profession as a high school English teacher wasn’t for him after all, Perkins killed time at work by jotting down ideas for stories on the cardboard dividers used to separate liquor bottles.
Some of those ideas eventually made their way into the 2015 graphic novel “Beware…” a “Twilight Zone” and “Goosebumps” inspired-story illustrated by Perkins and written by his older brother Mike, set in a fictionalized version of their hometown. Volume one of “Beware…” titled “Citizen Science,” was published by 215 Ink, a comic book publishing company the brothers eventually took over as art director and editor-in-chief, respectively, renaming it Invader Comics.
It was at a New York Comic Con toward the end of the aughts that Will Perkins met a fellow 215 Ink creative, the writer Eric Grissom, beginning a partnership that yielded the story of an orphaned goblin named Rikt who is forced to find purpose and belonging in a world that despises him. Perkins said the story of an existential struggle is indispensable to the fantasy genre.
“It has to be,” he said. “Fighting back the darkness.”
Published in 2021 by Dark Horse, “Goblin” follows Rikt on his quest to avenge the death of his parents. Three years later, Grissom and Perkins will release the second book in the “Goblin” series, “The Wolf and the Well,” on July 16.
“The ability to directly connect with someone,” Perkins said, “preferably a child who hasn't completely developed who they're going to be, and giving them either an adventure to escape into or just something to have fun with — it's great.”
Escape is exactly what Perkins sought when he was kid, and it was that intention that led him to pursue illustration.
“All I ever wanted was to be left alone to draw,” he said. “I don't know which started which, because I was always a shy kid. But put me in a quiet corner and give me pencils and paper, and I'm happy.”
Although the two books that comprise the “Goblin” story tell a continuous narrative, Grissom and Perkins designed the volumes to be enjoyed as individual tales, and each has a different thematic focus and tone.
For Perkins, that tone became emotionally charged when his father died during the creation of the first “Goblin” book. The artist says the individual drawings in the story remind him of specific moments. “For something like “Goblin,” which is all about that anger and frustration of family taken from you, suddenly I could tackle this thing with a new vigor,” Perkins said. “And suddenly I could feel myself being able to access more of that to dump it into the work.”
Perkins and his father, Scott Robert Perkins, bonded over movies — westerns and fantasy movies in particular — and Scott was supportive of Will's career shift as an artist. Perkins sees his work as the illustrator of “Goblin,” a fantasy western book of sorts, as a fitting tribute to his dad, to whose memory the first book was dedicated.
In contrast, “The Wolf and the Well” finds Rikt dealing with new, challenging questions, even as he encounters an orphanage he might call home with others who could be family. The young goblin must figure out what and whom he’s willing to risk losing in order to achieve happiness.
“Everybody always talks about finding their people,” Perkins said. “But sometimes it takes longer than others. And I think a lot of art comes from that search.”
The creative collaboration between Perkins and Grissom is somewhat unique in the comic book world, in that the entire process — from writing and line art to coloring and lettering — is all done in-house, rather than outsourced to other artists. Perkins handles all the illustration, including the colors, while Grissom does the lettering at the end to better cater the storytelling to the images.
“When I get a script from Eric, it comes with a bible — things about the world, each character's wants and desires, that kind of stuff,” Perkins said. “So I can understand these actors in this book, essentially.”
Fellow Rochesterian and graphic novelist Dave Chisholm, who has found his own success through illustrated music biopics featuring Charlie Parker and Miles Davis, among other projects, said he admires Perkins’s dedication to the illustration process.
“He’s fearless in doing all of it himself,” Chisholm said.
Despite the success of local illustrators like Chisholm, Perkins and others, there is an under-the-radar element to the creation of graphic novels that goes beyond the solitary act of creating the stories and their accompanying visuals behind a drafting table to its reception by the public at-large.
“It’s a really great comics culture here,” Chisholm said. “There should be more made of it, you know?”
Perkins has several upcoming signing events at local bookstores, including Eastview Mall’s Barnes & Noble in Victor on July 20; the Webster Barnes & Noble on July 27; and an event at Hipocampo Children’s Books in Rochester on July 30.
For more details and a complete list of events through September, go to willperkinscomics.com.
Daniel J. Kushner is an arts writer at CITY.