The Unspoken Story (The Rollercoaster of creation)

Dont write a book about Voodoo

HELLO FRIENDS!!

Its been a bit since i have done a real post! As many of you know, I went on vacation for a week on a cruise to the Bahamas and then to Mexico. This trip was much needed and it was a blast and i cant wait to go one one again. I ever finally got to visit a Mayan Temple something that i have wanted to do for a long time. If you follow along in my journey of writing. I have written about the MEXICAN DAY OF THE DEAD (Voodoo Nations) and Mayan Temples (Coins Of Judas: The Gambler). Other cultures that arent from a white boy from NH perspective. I love to learn and discover new ways to look at things.

Voodoo Nations has been a journey to me, and it has been one of the most stressful comics that I have worked on. So, i wanted to do a deep dive into the origins of Voodoo Nations and its creations.

In 2019 i was asked to write a pitch for someone about Voodoo. The creator sent me this

I have an idea that's kind of a mix between drag me to hell and thinner. Remember the earthquakes in Haiti? Well a Haiti dr living in America flys out to Haiti with his assistant to help out. He runs across a Haitian priestess who begs him to save her husband, but with all her efforts he cant save him, so she has him with a voodoo magic, ( I wanted a simple title like voodoo lands)

I wrote a pitch for a series called VOODOO LANDS. Here was the pitch


Issue 1 - A missionary goes to Hati after the earthquake. She starts helping people and getting a good rep. A local Haitian desperate for food shoots up the hospital and kills the missionary’s husband. The missionary can’t heal him but a friend of hers a local Haitian talks about a voodoo priest that can help. She takes him there and he resurrects him. They flee Haiti

Issue 2 Ever since the resurrection the husband has not been able to go out into the light and only comes out at night. He starts to believe that perhaps he’s a vampire. He flies to New Orleans for help and the wife follows him. The wife in her journey of trying to find her husband finds another voodoo priest that says her husbands body may be back his spirit is on the other side. She learns about the day of the dead of the dead and goes to mexico

Issue 3 The couple go to the day of the death in Mexico and travels to the land of the dead to find her husband’s spirit. They have to battle tons of spirits and issues but in the end, they find out that the original voodoo priest still has it

Issue 4: The couple returns to Haiti to confront the voodoo priest and see what has happened to Haiti since they fled

This is a world-treading story that would give you tons of cool things to draw and I think could be a fun little tale with lots of turns and spins

That was my original pitch. It was very similar to what i came up with later but it was set in Haiti. The creator once he saw my idea. Explained that he wanted more of a MURDER/SLASHER comic. He wanted some nudity and the book that he wanted to make and i wanted to make didnt line up. Also, while doing my research on Voodoo. (Vodum) I didn’t feel great about using HAITI. That country really takes that stuff seriously, and i didnt feel safe doing that story in that setting.

After a couple of months. I asked the guy if i could develop the story and he gave his blessing

Now, I had my Voodoo story, and as I have shared in the past, this story was very personal to me because its a fictional story about a time in my life when my father died and i changed as a person but my wife stood by me. I wrote Voodoo Nations for my wife. She is the one person who has ever loved me without limits, without hesitation—completely and unconditionally. And, to this day, I don’t understand it. I don’t always feel worthy of it.

The heart of Voodoo Nations comes from a time in my life when I felt lost. My father had passed, and I was changing. Grief weighed on me like a curse, twisting my sense of self. I didn’t know who I was anymore, and I feared I would never again be the man she had fallen in love with.

In this story, that struggle takes the form of a corrupt voodoo priest, spreading despair and breaking spirits. But beneath the supernatural horror, the message remains the same—this book is a love letter to my wife and the strength she carries. It’s also my attempt to express what love feels like: powerful, unyielding, and sometimes terrifying in its depth.

So, I had a pitch—and now I needed a partner. At the time, I was determined to make an impact and prove this wasn’t just a hobby. I needed a second series to follow up, and that became Broke Down and Four Dead Bodies.

That’s when I met a creator named Luke Stone. We were both Christians, and he immediately recognized the Christian undertones I wanted to weave into this book. He was working on a superhero project of his own, and we shared the same drive—to grow beyond the creative boxes we were placed in.

Luke helped bring the original visual design of Voodoo Nations to life and drew the first two issues. In my opinion, no one does Bishop Lucas better—he nailed the design and truly understood the character.

Luke was a down-and-dirty kind of creator. He didn’t always want to dig too deeply into the weeds of story, but we respected each other’s roles—I handled the narrative, and he handled the art. That said, he still understood the emotional and thematic weight of Ash Wednesday and what I was trying to accomplish with this story.

Luke and I created something really special, and I was genuinely excited about it. He was my first local collaborator—he lived in Florida—and Voodoo Nations took off quickly. We landed a few comic store exclusive covers, did a bunch of press, and made the book feel like something bigger than either of us had done before. Our Kickstarter numbers were stronger than anything either of us had seen, and it gave our other series a boost since we were now sharing an audience.

I felt like I had finally found a partner who got it. We made what I believed was a fair deal: modest pay for both of us and a shared stock of books we could sell to help fund future issues. It was a win-win.

But everything changed on August 9.

Without warning—or explanation from my point of view—Luke publicly declared himself part of Comicsgate. (He has since left the movement.) It was a shock and, honestly, a devastating blow. Comicsgate is not something I support or want to be associated with.

If you’re not familiar with Comicsgate, here’s a solid video that explains what it is—without all the noise, hate, or agenda.

We lost a few backers and my partnership wasnt something i looked forward too. Here is his post at the time

My definition of COMICGATE and what Luke stated in his post are very different. So, I had an ORANGE CONE PRODUCTION meeting with my wife, Jerome, and myself to discuss the situation. I want to be clear—I don’t want to be associated with a COMICSGATE creator or create books that align with that movement. At the same time, I don’t believe in cancel culture or silencing voices.

In the spirit of full transparency, we also considered that if we let LUKE STONE go, he might frame it as being “cancelled” to generate attention and use it as leverage to promote his own book, which he was launching immediately after this project. So, we kept him on and we kept silent. I spoke to Luke only to tell him that i wish he gave me some warning. He informed me that he didnt think that was needed because its his life and we moved on too ISSUE 2

Issue 2’s in my opinion are the worst. Issue #2 of a comic is often the hardest to write because it comes after the excitement and energy of the debut issue, where everything feels fresh and full of potential. Now, the real storytelling begins—you have to deepen characters, raise stakes, and move the plot forward without the benefit of first-issue novelty. It’s a delicate balancing act: give too many answers and you kill the mystery, give too few and readers feel lost. Plus, Issue #2 tends to be slower and more exposition-heavy, which can feel less exciting to write or read. It's the "middle child" of storytelling—crucial for building momentum but rarely flashy. On top of that, creators often face self-doubt or time pressure after spending so long perfecting Issue #1. But when done right, Issue #2 sets the fuse that makes the rest of the series explode.

With the Comicsgate controversy now hanging over my head, I set out to create the best issue I could for the series—but I was scared. Scared that by publishing this book, I might be cancelled. My DMs were flooded with messages from people asking questions, trying to understand the situation. At the same time, many readers didn’t care at all. That contrast—from intense scrutiny to total indifference—shifted how I felt about the project. What started as pure excitement slowly turned into dread. I knew pitching the book around would be difficult with the Comicsgate association attached to it. (I did pitch it once and it was accepted—but only if I removed Luke’s name. I wasn’t willing to do that.) This book was a LOVE LETTER to my FAITH and too my WIFE. It was now something that i struggled to care about. To make matters worse our first print run was 100% damaged and done wrong with pages out of order. So, this book just kept beating me down.

So, we moved forward and did the media push for Voodoo Nations #2. Luke and I didn’t talk much, but we did our best to promote the book. He attended shows I couldn’t make, and we leaned into the book’s diverse appeal in hopes of driving sales—because at the end of the day, this is a business. But things took a turn when Ethan Van Sciver (EVS), the so-called “leader” of Comicsgate, made a public statement that I found extremely offensive—specifically toward women and their place in the industry. I called him out publicly on Twitter. After that, some of Luke’s fans took issue with my stance. A few even pulled their support from the book. Luke felt my comments were hurting his fanbase. The irony of that wasn’t lost on me.

We decided to part ways. Luke asked me to buy him out. Now, i really didn’t need to buy him out. Our contract said i owned everything but i wanted to be fair and i gave him some money to seperate. We signed the contract at our last public signing together and i paid him. The next day, LUKE STONE got COVID and was in bed for about a year fighting for his life.

That made ISSUE 3 awkward.

o, I hired a new artist for Voodoo Nations #3—Gillard Goulart—and we began production. He brought some amazing new designs and inks that really leveled up the series. As a marketing guy, I was eager to share the news and promote this creative shift. Originally, Luke and I planned to release a joint statement about the transition, but due to circumstances beyond his control, that never happened. On top of that, we were deep in the COVID era, and I was genuinely worried he might not make it. I can't count how many times I prayed for his recovery, even though I was still carrying hurt from everything that had happened.

Despite all of it, I chose not to make a public announcement about Luke stepping away. He was fighting for his life, and I didn’t want to add any stress to him or his family. I even donated to a few charity events supporting his health. Thankfully, he pulled through, and I’m sincerely grateful for that. While the situation caused me stress, I never hated Luke.

Since then, he’s gone on to create Fund My Comic, a solid alternative to Kickstarter for creators who feel that platform doesn’t suit them. While it’s heavily used by Comicsgate creators, if you're not concerned about the politics of comics, you might find something there that speaks to you.

https://www.fundmycomic.com/

So, with our new team. We made the issue, and i was finally on track to make this issue amazing. So, we funded ISSUE 3 and went to ISSUE 4. This had its own problems.

Issue #3 came together with very little trouble, but Issue #4 quickly became a struggle. As I was writing it, I realized I couldn’t wrap the story up in just four issues like I had originally planned—I needed a fifth to let the characters breathe and to give the ending the weight it deserved. I rewrote that issue three or four times, trying to force it into a tidy four-issue arc, but it just wasn’t working. Creatively, I knew pushing to five issues was the right call, but logistically, it created new hurdles with scheduling, budgeting, and momentum.

At the same time, ORANGE CONE PRODUCTIONS had a packed slate. We were juggling multiple campaigns and projects, and Voodoo Nations—despite being so important to me—ended up sitting in a folder, ready to launch on Kickstarter, but stalled for what felt like forever. During that delay, just when we were finally preparing to go to print, my colorist accidentally deleted several critical files—he thought the folder was his and not mine. That setback caused a wave of stress and frustration. I was very lucky that for whatever reason my Letterer had already downloaded the files and we found them.

All of it—creative rewrites, scheduling chaos, technical disasters—just added to the strange feeling I had that this book was somehow cursed. But at the same time, the fact that it kept fighting to exist reminded me why I believed in it so much. It wasn’t easy, but nothing worth finishing ever is.

So, now we are at ISSUE 5.

This rollercoaster of a book has finally reached its end. And yet, even now, there's still a bit of drama. I originally planned to release the trade paperback at the same time as the final issue—you may have even heard me say that—but rising tariffs made it feel like the timing just wasn’t cost-effective. We even have a great original back-up by some great creators that we needed to push down the line for a future release.

This book means the world to me, and I wanted to share its origins to give you a glimpse into just how much happens behind the scenes to make these stories a reality. It’s truly a miracle that indie comics get made at all. It takes grit, determination, and above all, love. I have a deep love for storytelling—and I truly love this story.

From a narrative standpoint, I believe this final issue delivers something really special. It’s a powerful, heartfelt ending, and I remember crying while writing it. It be a love letter—to my wife, and to these characters I’ve lived with for years. As of now, I have no plans to return to this world. This is the complete story of RJ and Brent. It has an ending. And despite all the hurdles and hardships, I’m proud of what we made.

I’m incredibly grateful to everyone who’s been part of this journey—from the artists who created variant covers, to those who helped behind the scenes. Thank you to my wife, to Jerome, to Luke, to Gillard, and to everyone else who helped bring Voodoo Nations to life.

So if you’ve been waiting to experience the full story—this is it. Now is the time.

Please consider backing it on KICKSTARTER.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/orangecone/voodoo-nations-final-issues-1-5-plus-trade

Travis Gibb

ITS A KIND OF MAGIC


PS- Before i go!! Please, dont forget to nominate us for the RINGO AWARDS. It only takes a second and means everything to our company.

https://ringoawards.com/