Passion for comics persists with Michigan-based creators at Motor City Comic Con

While many comic cons across the country have increasingly centered on the pop culture craze, the core inspiration to celebrate comics still survives if you know where to look.

Most comic con attendees flock to the Hollywood celebrities, jaw-dropping cosplayers, movie cars — and other forms of fictional transportation, like the flying bison Appa from Nickelodeon's animated series "Avatar: The Last Airbender" — and the aisles and aisles of art and merchandise, but under the radar remains the group of comic book creators, several of them local to Michigan and the Motor City.

Dave Acosta, a comic creator from Garden City currently living in West Bloomfield, is known for his work creating covers for "Elvira: Mistress of the Dark" for Dynamite Comics, his own work "Terrorwar" and his collaborations with local writer Saladin Ahmed on the "Dragon" series for Image Comics.

Acosta has been in the business for 15 years, but his love for illustrations and comics goes back much further.

"I've been drawing since I was a kid and I used to come to the Motor City Comic Con when I was little. ... I've pretty much been obsessed with comics since the first 'Batman' movie in 1989, that's when I really started getting into it," he said Saturday while sitting at a table scattered with sketches at Motor City Comic Con, which runs through Sunday at Suburban Showplace Collection in Novi.

When he was in college at University of Michigan-Dearborn taking English literature classes, Acosta recalled, he was getting into trouble with professors when he turned in creative writing assignments in the form of a comic strip. While good dialogue is important, he argued, visuals add another component that only awakens the storytelling.

Now, the same principle applies in his work with Ahmed; while his collaborator writes the script, Acosta draws the illustrations and helps bring the words to life.

"Like the auto industry, everything is like a production line in comics, from script to art to print," said Acosta.

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Just like Acosta, Jay P. Fosgitt, a comic book creator of his own graphic novel series who has also worked with popular names like "Sesame Street," Dream Animation, "My Little Pony," G.I. Joe, Marvel and Disney, credits Motor City Comic Con with his beginning in the comic world.

"I was at the first Motor City Comic Con back in 1989. ... I always knew I wanted to be in comics, so I created my own graphic novel and I came out to (Motor City Comic Con) and other conventions and showed it to professionals in the industry that I admired and that's what ultimately led to people endorsing my work and suggesting me to editors or publishers," said Fosgitt of the work that led him to the big name publications with which he has worked.

While Fosgitt currently lives in metro Detroit, he grew up in Saginaw, which he says has been a huge influence on his work. For example, in his most popular series, "Bodie Troll," the main character Bodie Troll is a creature reminiscent of Sasquatch, just too cute and cuddly to actually be scary.

"A lot of things that happen in my storytelling is very influenced by aspects of Michigan. Our dialect, our way of saying certain words and things is very apparent. ... My characters will say things that I've picked up from Michigander-speak," said Fosgitt. "And I love northern Michigan. ... That influences a lot of the landscapes that I draw, because I do a lot of big, mountainous, forest-y landscapes in my comics, so Michigan has been a big influence in that regard too."

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K. Lynn Smith, an artist and writer from the Lansing area, admits that the biggest influence her home state has had on her work is in her graphic novel about cryptids, "House of Lowther," which features the famous Michigan Dogman.

Like the others, Smith has been into illustrations since she was a kid but fell in love with comics by a different route.

"I got it in my head that I wanted to be an animator. ... I wanted to do the 2D animation, which would be drawing the same thing over and over again for months and months, and I realized maybe this is not what I want to do, so I started doing comics on the side," said Smith. "I started getting more and more audience, and then people were giving me money for something that I was posting for free, which was wild, so I veered into this comic world. ... I do this full-time, it's my job now; I'm living the dream."

Smith is now most known for creating her own graphic series "For Goodness' Sake," among others. But at Motor City Comic Con, she stayed busy between customers doing 30-minute commissioned pet portraits — another thing she admits she has in common with other Michiganders.

"I do shows all over the U.S. and going to shows in Michigan or even when I'm in other parts of the U.S. and I'll talk to people and they go, 'Oh yeah, I'm from Michigan.'... It seems like Michigan breeds a lot of creative people," said Smith. "Michigan's got its own little creative community."

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Local creators keep the love for comics alive at Motor City Comic Con