Steven Hyden, Post-Crescent staff writer

Brian Defferding was well on his way to a mild-mannered life when BLAMMO! an exciting alternative swooped in and saved the day.

"I realized 97 percent of people hate their jobs," the Menasha man said. "What if I had the opportunity to do what I love and make a living off of it?"

Defferding came to this realization in 1998 while attending Winona State University in Winona, Minn. Defferding, an Appleton East High School graduate, was a criminal justice major at the time. But now Defferding's mind turned to his childhood passion: comic books.

Defferding started drawing his own comics when he was 14, inspired by books like "X-Men" and Frank Miller's noirish "Sin City" stories. Now he wanted to leave Winona State to study comic book illustration at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design.

It sounds crazy, but sometimes a superhero has to follow his gut. Besides, comic books are hotter than Johnny Storm from the Fantastic Four. You can't throw a rock without hitting a recent Hollywood movie that's based on a comic book.

There are the usual suspects, such as "Batman Begins" and "Fantastic Four," which are among the box office hits of the summer. Then there are movies based on cult comics like Defferding's fave "Sin City," "American Splendor" and "Ghost World."

Some day there might be a movie version of "School," Defferding's new comic book series about a murdered 12-year-old girl who haunts the hallways of her old elementary school to uncover the identity of her killer. The first issue just came out and has been generating buzz on comic book message boards.

"I love ghost stories," Defferding said. "I love the romance of it, of having such a strong emotion to come back and make things right."

"School" is on sale at local comic book stores and through Defferding's Web site, www.deftoons.com. A comic book store in Oregon already scooped up the book.

Defferding, who holds down a day job as a computer networker, has high hopes for "School," which began five years ago as his senior year arts school project. He has issue two ready to go, and issue three is in the works.

"If I can make a living out of 'School,' I would die a happy man," Defferding said.

Michael Seuss of Appleton also is looking to carve out a career in comic books. In fall he will start classes at the Joe Kubert School of Cartoon and Graphic Art, a three-year art college in Dover, N.J., considered to be one of the best training grounds for prospective comic book artists.

Like Defferding, Seuss flirted with working a regular Joe job before taking the plunge into comic books. He attended the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh and bounced among chemistry, graphic design and computer science majors. But Seuss' heart wasn't in it. During class he was constantly drawing, just like he did when he was a kid.

When Seuss heard about the Kubert School, "I thought, 'Maybe I could do this,'" he said. "I was like, 'Screw everybody. I don't want to listen to anybody. I'm going to follow my heart.'"

Mick Gayan, manager of Powerhouse Comics in Appleton, said it is common for comic book fans to eventually pick up a pen and do their own stories.

After reading so many comics, "I think you end up thinking, 'I can do my own character that's better than that,'" Gayan said.

Local comic book artists like Defferding and Seuss might look to Sean McKeever for inspiration. McKeever, a comic book writer whose credits include "The Waiting Place," "Sentinel," "Inhumans," "Spider-Girl," "Mystique," "Mary Jane" and "The Incredible Hulk," was born in Appleton and lived in Muskego and Eagle River before making his name in comics. Just last weekend McKeever won an award for Talent Deserving of Wider Recognition at the Oscars of comic books, the Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards.

McKeever's work is littered with references to Wisconsin. The teenaged hero of "Sentinel" is from Antigo. The hero of his book "Gravity" is from Sheboygan.

"The Waiting Place," which is sort of a comic book version of "Dawson's Creek," is about a northern tourist town very much like Eagle River, a place where "we'd drive an hour and a half to Wausau to go to a mall, and drive three hours to Appleton to go to a good mall," McKeever said.

While McKeever wants to eventually break into film and television work, he always will do comic books, he said.

"It has a lot of what I like about books and a lot of what I like about movies," he said. "It can be really cinematic and also be really personal."

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Steven Hyden can be reached at 920-993-1000, ext. 296, or by e-mail at shyden@postcrescent.com.

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On the Web

For more information on Brian Defferding and "School," go online at www.deftoons.com.

For more information on Sean McKeever, go online at www.seanmckeever.com.