Ed McKeogh spent his early years watching cartoons as well as sci-fi and horror B-movies from the 1940s and ’50s on a portable black-and-white television. When he wasn’t soaking up the antics of Dr. Shock, the ghoulish host of a Saturday afternoon horror show based in Philadelphia, McKeogh was perusing the comic book rack at the local drug store.

“When I was a kid growing up in Philadelphia, I was in what they called the Greater Northeast, and there wasn’t really a lot to do. So, I ended up watching a lot of television on Saturday afternoons,” recalled McKeogh. His exposure to the black-and-white monster movies as well as the comics he discovered sparked a passion and laid the foundation for what is only now becoming a reality.

As a pre-teen his parents began dropping him off at the Saturday Art League, a program run by the Philadelphia public school system for elementary school-aged artists. For three years McKeogh was instructed in the ways of drawing bowls of fruit, musical instruments and even shoes. While it wasn’t exactly his idea of a good time – he’d have rather been catching up on the Saturday morning cartoons! – it did afford him a chance to learn about techniques like perspective as well as light and shading.

After earning Merit awards every year for his potential, McKeogh’s desire to create art waned. Instead, he chose to engulf himself in the creative talents of others. Over the next several years, McKeogh delved deeper into the world of comic books – by this time he had found a comic book specialty store only a short bus ride away from his home – as well as fantasy novels and television.

There were a few times McKeogh says he even considered pursuing life as a comic book creator, but his parents’ emphasis on academics was in opposition to this fantasy.

“I was kind of torn between meeting their expectations and what do I do about this affection for this medium,” stated McKeogh.

During his years in high school and college, McKeogh says he would occasionally submit his work to comic book giants Marvel and DC.

“I frequently got a very kind ‘this is not what we’re looking for’ letter, because I really didn’t know enough about continuity: how to tell a story from panel to panel, page to page, how to do the pacing,” McKeogh recalled. “So that indicated to me that I was sort of at the wrong end of the learning curve.”

McKeogh graduated from LaSalle University with a bachelor of arts in communication arts in 1986.

“Once I graduated from college, it was sort of like, I need to do what I need to do to survive. So it was get work, and you’re suddenly on the treadmill and some things just get pushed off and pushed off and pushed back,” McKeogh said of his post-college career path which led him through a series of jobs as a copyeditor and writer in the mortgage banking, healthcare technology and role-playing game industries. He also spent 10 years as an A/P specialist.

What changed everything for 43-year-old Ed McKeogh, however, was the birth of his daughter, Rowena, two years ago.

“Once I had a child, I started to think, ‘I’ve got to be a good example. I can’t tell my daughter what to do, I have to show her what I’ve done, and that’s the only example that’s she’s really going to be able to follow’,” explained McKeogh. “So I really started kind of hunkering down and doing more artwork. It’s sort of a trial-by-error process. I do the best I can at that moment and learn from it and then apply what I learn to the next project.”

McKeogh, his wife Rebecca and their daughter moved to Peachtree City in July 2006 to be closer to Rebecca’s family. Since then McKeogh has been acting as a stay-at-home dad while working on his renewed passion for creating art.

After joining ComicSpace, a website similar to MySpace with a community of over 25,000 comic fans and creators, in December 2006, McKeogh was introduced to the Small Press Idol competition early last year.

The Dimestore Productions’ online comic book contest deadline was only two weeks away from when McKeogh initially learned of it. “I just sort of sat down and tried to rush through a concept,” he recalled. “To this day I’m grateful that I made it past the first round. The stuff I submitted was very rough and a couple of the judges took a chance with me and I decided, ‘I can’t mess with this – I really want to take it more seriously now.’ So I really put a lot more effort into the second round and it paid off.”

The contest attracted 115 entries. Like the hit television show, “American Idol,” Small Press Idol contestant projects advance by public voting. Round 1 called for a series pitch and rough cover artwork, which were reviewed by a three-judge panel. Approved projects advanced to Round 2, which required a logo design and character portraits with accompanying biographies. Public voting at Dimestore’s website determined which projects advanced to Round 3, which required three pages of sequential artwork. A combination of public votes and the judges’ reassessment of each entry’s potential determined the top six titles that advanced to Round 4.

McKeogh’s entry, “Translucent” follows an eclectic quartet of reluctant adventurers that protects the fictitious, brightly lit science-city, Luminopolis, from all manner of bizarre threats. The story is set in a retro/timeless era, vaguely reminiscent of post-Second World War America, but with plenty of anachronisms to keep things visually interesting.

The journey that began for McKeogh in late February of last year lasted longer than he initially expected. By July, after making it through the first two rounds, and then voted by the fans through the third round and into the finals, McKeogh was busy creating a #0 issue of “Translucent.” Pre-orders for the six finalists’ projects went on sale at Dimestore’s online store on July 9, 2007. After two weeks, based on sales figures, Dimestore determined the winner of the contest’s coveted grand prize package, contributed by the contest sponsors: complimentary publication of a four-issue limited series, a Flash-animated game based on the winning concept, and a comic book art supply kit.

The six finalists’ #0 issues were pre-sold at dimestoreproductions.com. Each #0 issue, priced at $3.50, features a full-color cover, a 12-page story created specifically for the contest, all the contestant material produced for the first three rounds of the contest (including the judges’ commentary) and bonus pages featuring the issue’s respective characters. All six finalists’ books are still available for purchase on the website.

While McKeogh may not have earned the top spot, he did manage to finish third in a pool of highly-talented comic book creators. Part of what makes this accomplishment such a success, however, is McKeogh’s unique status as a one-man-band. The other five contestant projects featured a team of creators working toward a common vision while McKeogh writes, designs, pencils, inks, letters, colors and gray-scales his own comic. “It really gave me an appreciation for the process,” McKeogh admitted. While he had done smaller projects on his own in the past, this was the largest he has undertaken so far.

“I’ve done a couple continuity pieces so far, this one being the longest and the most elaborate, and also the most time consuming because I was doing everything: penciling, inking, you know all those different processes. And it was sort of learning by the seat of your pants. It’s like learning how to use Photoshop to do certain things, learning how to use Illustrator to do the lettering and word bubbles. So it was a great experience and it was just sort of an incremental thing, but it’s more focused now that I have a real purpose behind it not just to satisfy me, but to provide an example for my daughter,” explained McKeogh.

Of the competition, McKeogh said, “Breaking into the mainstream comic book industry can be difficult, and the self-publishing route is an expensive proposition. Small Press Idol not only offers the opportunity to get published, but also provides incredible exposure not otherwise available to relatively unknown artists. Each round created an opportunity to learn more about the craft of making comics—both technically and artistically.”

McKeogh credits his wife and family with part of his success. His wife, Rebecca, even made the suggestion of making one of his characters a woman. That character, in turn, became one of the most compelling aspects of the book.

“My wife is very supportive of my art. She’s very much encouraging me to do what it takes, in the long term, to make this my full-time occupation. And that’s my goal as well,” stated McKeogh. “When I was in the contest, she was looking on the Internet to see how things were going, how the voting was going. My in-laws were, my brother-in-law were, my brothers and sisters were. By my getting involved with it, it galvanized the whole family and everyone was interested. So it became a family affair and it was a lot of fun.”

Now, seven months later, McKeogh continues to refine his concept and plans to continue creating stories through comic books with his production company Attn: 2-D Tale Studios.

“Making a living as an artist...is just really difficult. So, everybody has to inevitably fall back and have that day job for a steady income and benefits and that kind of thing. So that’s sort of where I’m trying to find the balance now,” McKeogh said. “I’m still looking for work because I’ve been a stay-at-home dad for a little while. So I’m looking for work, trying to refine the ‘Translucent’ concept a little bit better so I can continue to tell stories and then spend time with my family, which is really important.

“It’s a fun process. When you are doing what you love, it doesn’t feel like work, and none of this felt like work. It’s that bliss thing that Joseph Campbell talks about. I wish everybody had that opportunity and it would be great to be able to make a living doing something that you love. So that’s my goal. That’s my long-term goal.”

To find out more about Small Press Idol and Dimestore Productions or to order your copy of “Translucent,” visit www.dimestoreproductions.com. To learn more about Ed McKeogh and Attn: 2-D Tale Studios, visit http://www.comicspace.com/illustrate_ed or email Attn2DTale@mac.com.

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