What’s The Story about?

It’s right there under the title. This is the most transparent comic I have ever wrote. It’s a simple idea and a simple story but it’s how it’s done and what it teaches that will really tug at you in the end.

Book details: page length- 48 pages, appropriate for all ages, full one-shot story, nice print quality, and color accuracy.

ABOUT THE SOUNDTRACK

Working on a Matchstick Comics project is always an adventure! The characters, the storyline, and the amazing illustrations have an impact on my compositional output. Man + Bot is no different...

The focal point of Man + Bot involves a journey. As Micah and I discussed ideas, we thought that few things epitomize a journey like a road trip or evoke a sense of road-trip nostalgia more than a mixtape. The mixtape is a quintessential audio art form: the taking of songs from different musicians, artists, and bands and weaving them together into a cohesive whole. Mixtapes are an expression of personality, inner thoughts, hopes, heartaches, and dreams. These are the ideas I had in mind while composing and compiling the collection of music before you.

The tracks on the mixtape were recorded at different times, in different places, and on different gear. Like a well-loved cassette mixtape, volume levels vary and the fidelity of the audio quality varies from track to track. Additionally, all of the audio was processed through the same set of filters to give the tracks a little bit of old-school grit, like you found this mixtape after a couple of years of sitting in a cardboard box in your garage or under the driver's seat of your car.

I really wanted to give space for Man's experience. The ebb and flow of the Man + Bot Mixtape underwent a few iterations before we landed on the order as it stands. My hope is that you will sense the journey of Man + Bot both as you read and, even if done separately from the comic, as you listen.

Ryan Mackey

(a.k.a. synaxis et al.)