What is Super Sad Squad?
Super Sad Squad is an independent creative publishing project founded by Nathan Young in 2015 in an effort to pursue illustration, creative writing, print production, and bookbinding. For over ten years, it has grown into an ongoing comic and publishing venture encompassing original comics, artwork, children’s books, merchandise, and an online community.
The project’s primary series, Blank Verse, is an ongoing character-driven comic featuring a cast of more than ten original characters.
Bringing these projects to life requiring the development skills well beyond traditional illustration, including 3D modeling, texturing, lighting, fabric simulation, character posing, rigging, rendering, pre-visualization, and storyboarding. These tools are used to construct and visualize complex scenes with detailed environments, props, and fully rigged characters before producing the final artwork.
Through merchandise sales and reader support, Super Sad Squad developed an in-house publishing operation. Using printers, an industrial-grade paper cutter, and professional binding tools, we have printed and hand-bound more than 100 comic books, personally fulfilling and shipping orders to readers throughout the United States and Canada.
The original “Super Sad Squad” illustration from 2015.
FAQ
Who writes and illustrates Super Sad Squad’s content?
All of Super Sad Squad’s material is created by Nathan Young.
Are the characters of Blank Verse based off of anyone in particular?
They aren’t, but their personalities take inspiration from various aspects of myself as well as people I’ve come across.
Are there physical copies of Blank Verse available?
YES! I began printing Blank Verse myself at the end of 2021 and sell them through this website to folks who want a tangible version either as a keepsake or just to support the project. The print version differs slightly from the webcomic with some updated dialogue and with a black and white look…since that’s all my printer can produce at the moment.
Have you got any plans outside of Blank Verse?
There are a few ideas being kicked around but it’s hard to find time to branch off into other stories at the moment. Blank Verse is definitely not the last comic I’ll do, though.