Jack Kirby (left) and Mat Barnett (right) discovered a shared enthusiasm for comic book storytelling, eighties movies and aliens. These three key ingredients came together to form the basis for this miniseries concerning the adventures of a pre-teen alien with anger management issues, who finds himself stranded on Earth and whose possible salvation lies in little league baseball.
Jack RB Kirby (Writer)
Hi. I am Jack and I write the words for Alien in the Outfield. I work with Mat at the Department of Extraterrestrials and in my spare time I write for the popular blog site Nerdly. You can read my stuff here. You can also read The Wacky Adventures of Glen and Jack, a webcomic I used to do almost entirely for my own amusement, here.
My preferences in comics range fairly narrowly, from books about science going wrong by Image to books about grown men dressed as Bats by DC. My introduction to sequential art was through the wonderful Calvin and Hobbes, a series whose style and mood I hope Alien in the Outfield manages to capture, at least a little.
I also like reading, cooking, reading about cooking, Tottenham Hotspur Football Club and am in a hard rockin’ band, though we don’t have a name yet. I also run quite a bit but I don’t really like it.
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Mat Barnett (Artist)
My name is Mat and I draw the pictures for Alien in the Outfield. I originally trained as a Fine Artist and have used this fact to justify over a decade of prankish capers, foolhardy hijinks and heroic bursts of general immaturity. I am responsible for just one solitary solo gallery exhibition of paintings. This work was well received but a mixture of poverty and working class guilt ensured my subsequent artistic career has been somewhat erratic. At different times this has involved faking my own death, invisible football matches and occasionally dressing as a woodland animal. Creatively speaking, I am still working on my difficult second album.
I first came to comics for McFarlane’s run on Spiderman but stayed for Watchmen, Bone and Strangers in Paradise. I currently enjoy Saga, Morning Glories and Revival. In the midst of this, Batman remains the only caped constant.
In my spare time I write for a handful of magazines and websites, mostly about art. You can read more about the other odd little things I’ve been up to on my blog. I also like folk music, maps, bad poetry and Raisin Wheat cereal.
This is the first time both creators have attempted a wholly self-published venture and this website has followed the development of the comic, from idea to actuality. Whilst the comic was production, Jack and Mat maintained a blog to record their ill-informed attempts to handle every aspect of the creation, production, distribution and marketing of our little comic. Sharing art, script and all the inevitable furious correspondence with printers and service providers that we have time to blog, they hope that – in time – this site might not only become a vindication of the independent can-do spirit – but might even result in a useful resource for other creators who are following the same path.
And so, dear reader, in a gesture of equal parts service to the independent comic community and optimistic self-promotion, Jack and Mat hope you will enjoy sharing their cosmic adventure in comics self-publishing and extra-terrestrial sports excitement!
Alien in the Outfield 