Kevin Paul Shaw Broden
Writer/Illustrator of FLYING GLORY
Beginning with his enjoyment of comics, Kevin knew he wanted to tell stories and to do it with art. Kevin received a BA in Art (emphasizing Narrative Illustration) from California State University, Fullerton (Fullerton, CA); before that, he worked on the HORNET newspaper as a reporter/illustrator while earning his AA at Fullerton College and was part of a team that won an Honorable Mention from the Columbia Scholastic Press Association.
One of Kevin’s early jobs teamed him with some of the talent that launched Supreme for Image Comics. You can even find a special “thank you” to Kevin in SUPREME #1. He storyboarded the video for BiGod20’s “One,” as well as videos for John Wesley Harding and Kristin Hersch as part of Summer Arts in Humboldt, CA. Also, he’s been contracted to do illustrations for commercials and television series pitches. The books GARDNER’S GUIDE TO WRITING AND PRODUCING ANIMATION and GARDNER’S GUIDE TO PITCHING AND SELLING ANIMATION (written by FLYING GLORY AND THE HOUNDS OF GLORY partner Shannon Muir) feature all inside art done by Kevin, and GARDNER’S GUIDE TO PITCHING AND SELLING ANIMATION also features sample bibles and scripts co-written by Kevin and Shannon.
Kevin has also gone on to learn computer graphics, both illustrations and 3D animation. He trained himself in Lightwave and unofficially interned at one of Hollywood’s major CGI production houses. That said, he hasn’t spent all his creative juices only in art. Kevin also developed and wrote a pilot for an animated television series that was shopped around to studios, and in 2007 pitched a live-action “tween” series to several major cable network Also, in 2003, Kevin and Shannon received their first opportunity to write for an animated show in production, but with an interesting twist… they became the only “Western” writers on a show in Japan entitled MIDNIGHT HORROR SCHOOL. They wrote two scripts together, and Kevin also did a third with the company’s US representative. The original scripts were written in English then translated into Japanese for production. The show began airing in Japan in 2004 and is now available in that country on DVD. He continues to write and draw, and most of all he’s a storyteller. In fact, in recent years, he has broadened his canvas to tell tales by adding voice acting to his repertoire of talents. Additionally, he has had the opportunity to work in a production capacity for animated programs, including for Splash Entertainment.
Comic books and super heroes have been part of Kevin’s life nearly all his life — ever since he was a kid sitting alone in a hospital waiting room and the chaplain there felt sorry and gave him a copy of SUPERMAN and THE FLASH. Early in his life, Kevin had a problem with reading, probably more a lack of desire to read, but his parents took him to a special reading program to help. The teachers there thought that the comic books would help in his reading, and they did, so his parents never looked down on his four color collecting. From there he went on to enjoy authors such as Harlan Ellison and Ray Bradbury.
Today, Kevin continues to love comic books and has a dream to be able to do his own. Like all kids reading super hero comics, Kevin created a ton of costumed heroes — many of which were pure copies of Superman, Batman, the Flash and so forth. It wasn’t long before he began to expand beyond the normal and sought out new ideas and stories for his characters that took them away from their carbon copy roots.
Flying Glory began as the need of a girl character in the midst of all his muscular men in what at the time he simply called “MYUNIVERSE” of characters. Then while participating in an on-line comic writing workshop, Kevin began to write about Flying Glory… and her heroics and character went in directions he never dreamed when he first drew her. The script turned out better then he expected and received praise from his fellow writers. After that, Kevin wrote four more comic scripts, and developed an idea of where the character would go. He even began shopping the property around to see if a publishing company might be interested. There was one nibble at the hook but nothing more came from it.
Feedback indicated a possible blockade to selling Flying Glory was that the stories took place in the “Golden Age” of super heroes, during World War II. So, after meeting Shannon Muir in his comic workshop, he chose to work with her to find ways to develop the character in a more modern setting. However, he didn’t want lose the character he already had, so chose to make the Flying Glory for the new millennium the granddaughter of the first. This one creative choice has opened up many new avenues the characters can take both in the past, present and future. Now, two decades later, of FLYING GLORY AND THE HOUNDS OF GLORY story content have come alive for readers all over the world to share with more to come.
Kevin has also written novels. His first novel was CLOCKWORK GENIE – a blend of fantasy, romance, and murder mystery. It was quickly followed by REVENGE OF THE MASKED GHOST – About a masked mystery man in the style of the 1930’s pulp novels. Following on the heels of the Masked Ghost, Kevin has been writing more pulp mystery adventure stories. His story “The Man Who Stole Manhattan” appears in the anthology BLACK FEDORA from Pro Se Productions, and can be considered a distant prequel to FLYING GLORY AND THE HOUNDS OF GLORY. In Pro Se’s anthology NEWSHOUNDS, Kevin has written the lead story “Stop the Presses!” about murder in printer’s ink. Additionally, he’s published stand-alone short stories available as e-books, including follow-up stories to both CLOCKWORK GENIE (“The Cop Who Wouldn’t Die”) and REVENGE OF THE MASKED GHOST (“A Tale of the Scarlet Spirit: In the Clutches of Convicts”), and the stand-alone short stories “Murder on the Cosplay Express: A Kent Bronwyn Mystery” and “No Easy Way to Die”.
Oh, and yes, he does have FOUR NAMES. It’s a family thing, but it’s come in quite handy. People remember him by the long name, including television producers. Now if only they would give him more work so he could see those four names up in the credits.
FOUR NAMES OF PROFESSIONAL CREATIVITY
Find out more about Kevin Paul Shaw Broden
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Shannon Muir
Writer/Lyricist/Creator of THE HOUNDS OF GLORY
Shannon knew she wanted to write since age eleven, beginning with stories crafted using weekly spelling words. An interest in animation, coupled with contacting several animation writers in her teen years encouraged an interest in comics and animation. Eventually, this led her to move to Los Angeles in 1996 to pursue a professional career. Before she left, Shannon put up a fan website for the series VOLTRON, including the stories she’d sent to the show as a teen. Originally envisioned to help her make the break from fan to pro, her VOLTRON website is considered one of the foremost in the fan community. World Events Productions, the company behind VOLTRON, later partnered with her to develop the official starmap for the show. She regularly appears as a guest on the LET’S VOLTRON podcast, and even was a Media Guest at VOLTCON 2022, a yearly convention devoted to the VOLTRON show and other robot shows of the era.
Once in Los Angeles, she went on to work for Sony Animation, where her first job was as a Production Assistant on JUMANJI: THE ANIMATED SERIES. Her hard work quickly earned her a promotion to Production Coordinator on EXTREME GHOSTBUSTERS, also for Sony. However, wanting to pursue her dream, Shannon left production to better her background as a writer and attend classes at UCLA Extension in Los Angeles. With her coursework complete, she returned to animation as a Production Coordinator on Nickelodeon’s INVADER ZIM, and most recently worked as a Production Coordinator on the preschool series SAY IT WITH NODDY. She also worked as Project Management Coordinator for Animation World Network, and has moved into work with virtual worlds. She’s held other jobs between the animation gigs, including a year in the IT department of a music publishing company, as well as working in production and technical aspects of websites geared for children and families.
Shannon’s first big break as an animation scriptwriter came in 2003 when she and Kevin got the opportunity to write original scripts for the Japanese series MIDNIGHT HORROR SCHOOL. Together, they wrote two scripts, and she did three of her own — all of which were translated from English to Japanese. The shows began airing in Japan in 2004 and now are available on DVD in Japan only. She also wrote a monthly column on Animated Insights for non artists at Suite101 and later at Digital Media FX while still working toward that first big scriptwriting break. Her first book, GARDNER’S GUIDE TO WRITING AND PRODUCING ANIMATION, came out in July of 2007 and covers the animation process from deciding on an idea to final marketing and distribution. An e-book follow-up, GARDNER’S GUIDE TO PITCHING AND SELLING ANIMATION, carried a release date of 2008.
Shannon completed a Professional Certificate in Screenwriting and Television and a Professional Certificate in Project Management from UCLA Extension in Los Angeles, and also has a BA in Radio-TV and English from Eastern Washington University (Cheney, WA). In summer of 2005, Shannon received her M.A. in Communications from California State University, Fullerton (Fullerton, CA). Shannon is an advocate of lifelong learning. Currently, she is working on a Masters of Library and Information Science at San Jose State University, expected to be completed in 2025. Her Creative Writing emphasis included studies in fiction and poetry; it is her poetry background she uses to craft the lyrics for FLYING GLORY AND THE HOUNDS OF GLORY. Shannon neither sings nor writes music, but wishes she had the talent; “What Flying Glory and her band do on paper is about as close as I’ll ever get to that dream,” she says.
Though the idea of a band was Kevin’s idea, Shannon ended up on the project when she kidded that he’d never be ableto write the lyrics for them. She’s had a lot of input in the development of the band members, and soundman Nate Tsushihashi is her own creation (his last name from a family that treated hers generously when her father was stationed in Japan).
Shannon continues writing primarily new adult fiction, more recently has ventured into New Pulp. Her most recent New Pulp releases are “Tropical Terror” in CROME DOWN ISLAND, “Hidden History” in EXPLORER PULP, and “Tropical Terror” in the anthology CRIME DOWN ISLAND from Pro Se Press. Other stories include the stand alone short story “Ghost of the Airwaves,” “Tragic Like a Torch Song in the anthology THE DAME DID IT, and her New Pulp debut “Pretty as a Picture” in the anthology NEWSHOUNDS from Pro Se Productions. New adult focused series and collections books include: THE PHOENIX COLLECTION (combining THE PHOENIX RISES and THE PHOENIX BURNS); THE HEART’S DUTY COLLECTION (featuring now out of print titles including THE HEART’S DUTY and TOUCH THE STARS); THE WILLOWBROOK SAGA which begins with the prequel BY THE WILLOW BROOK, then EVERYTHING CHANGES and continues through DOWN TO THE ROOTS and FILL THE INNER CIRCLE; as well as the TRUTH REVEALED series that starts with the prequel SEEDS OF TRUTH, then HALF TRUTH AND FULL LYE, and continues with ON THE SEARCH FOR TRUTH. Anthologies of short fiction and poetry are LIVES REFLECTED, AT THE END OF INNOCENCE’S ROAD and SEARCH FOR A WOMAN. Also available is a book collecting all her full lyrics as well as the history of the FLYING GLORY AND THE HOUNDS OF GLORY webcomic over its first ten years (later released in a fifteen-year edition with added material), entitled FLYING GLORY FLASHBACK. Her first published story was part of the anthology ARIA KALSAN: MYSTERIES OF THE FUTURE.
Shannon owns a very eclectic music collection and has also worked in the music business. Her favorite artists are Deborah Gibson, Howard Jones, Echoing Green, Depeche Mode, and Madonna. However, she’s also got favorite Pet Shop Boys, Erasure, Depeche Mode, Nine Inch Nails and Garth Brooks tunes too. Additionally, though best known for her history in the VOLTRON animation fandom, Shannon’s been a longtime fan of the 1980s animated series JEM and ROBOTECH, both of which influence her work in the depicting of lives of musician characters.
Find out more about Shannon Muir
Both Kevin Paul Shaw Broden and Shannon Muir are listed in WHO’S WHO IN NEW PULP, available in print and on Kindle.