Underworld

by Lovern Kindzierski, G.M.B. Chomichuk (Illustrator), Mike Carey (Illustrator)

Hector Ashton staggers out of the St. Boniface Hospital psych ward and falls into the Red River. In his delusional state he thinks that he is Odysseus and has been swept into the river Styx. By the time Hector manages to struggle out of the river, he has washed up in the club district of Winnipeg and believes he is now deep in the Underworld. Hector will have to face the trials that Odysseus himself faced on his journey as he makes his way back to sanity, his home and family.UNDERWORLD unites Lovern Kindzierski and GMB Chomichuk, two of Winnipeg's most successful creative minds for the first time, in a book that weaves a tale through the streets of their city, the mind of Hector and Homer's mythical epic.'A fearless experiment in storytelling combining challenging subject matter with a singular visual signature, Underworld’s many layers reveal the simplest of only we determine the outcome of our stories.' - Jason Wilkins, Broken Frontier

128 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 12, 2015

About the author

Lovern was born in the small town of Arborg, Manitoba in 1954. His father was a partner in a small trucking company and his mother waited and managed for the local Canadian Legion. The first house his family owned was a converted chicken coop without running water and equipped with an outhouse.
Lovern graduated from Arborg Collegiate in 1972 and enrolled at Red River Community College, where he attended the first year of their Advertising Art course. The following year, he entered the work force as a printer’s assistant at Bulman Brothers Printing. After several years as a printer he quit his job and enrolled in the Fine Arts program at the University of Manitoba in 1982. He graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Art, Honours and started his first work in the comic book industry as George Freeman’s assistant.
Lovern eventually won representation by Star Reach Agency and found colour work at 1st Comics on the Elric series. Shortly after he completed a try out book at DC Comics. Lovern was engaged by DC to develop a look and colour for the book John Constantine: Hellblazer, which was to become a flagship title for the Vertigo imprint.
Lovern, with the aid of his cousin Christopher Chuckry developed a computer colouring method with the use of Photoshop and started a company called Digital Chameleon. Their method redefined production in the entire comic book industry and graphic field.
While residing over Digital Chameleon as creative director Lovern had his first comic book story published. He wrote and coloured the short story, “So This Is Christmas”, which was illustrated by Tim Sale for the benefit book Within Our Reach” published by Marvel and Star Reach.
Lovern went on to write Agents of Law for Dark Horse Comics and the Victorian for Penny Farthing Press. In 1997 he wrote, “Tarzan: Le Monstre” for Dark Horse Comics and was nominated as best writer based on the six issues those stories spanned. Since then Lovern has written several other comic books and contributed short prose pieces to several anthologies.
In 2011 Lovern signed a deal with Renegade Arts Entertainment to colour the graphic novel, “The Loxleys & the War of 1812.” Shortly after that he signed the deal with that publishers to put his creator owned series, “Shame” into print. Shame was followed by the graphic novel, “Underworld” and this year the “Shame” hardcover collection will be released. Lovern is presently working on “Necromantic” a new creator owned series from Renegade Arts Entertainment.

Reviews

[Chad · Rating 1 out of 5]

A man escapes from a mental hospital. He believes he is Odysseus travelling through the underworld instead of Winnipeg. Meanwhile he is mistaken for a drug dealer while he works out his issues with his wife and son in his head and decides to no longer be crazy. This is terrible. The art makes it even more difficult to follow.

[Corey Timmins · Rating 1 out of 5]

The artwork of speaking characters was such that I could not tell who was talking. After 6 pages i gave up.

[Ak]

0 stars. Just terrible.