Comic-book company has a hit with story about Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce

Comic-book author Michael Frizell has written about a variety of subjects from politicians to musicians to celebrities, but he passed on a chance to chronicle the life of singer Taylor Swift.

TidalWave Comics chose someone else to write that story, and it proved to be a smash hit for the company.

Frizell’s editor called later and noted the missed opportunity for the Springfield, Missouri author. They then discussed a potential follow-up to that Swift book.

Two subjects stood out to Frizell: Chiefs star Patrick Mahomes or teammate Travis Kelce.

“We hemmed and hawed and then he said, ‘Look,we gotta go with Kelce because it just makes sense. The Taylor book’s hot right now,’” Frizell recalled. “I’d been after him to do one on Mahomes for a couple of months. So let me do the Kelce book, and that’s where it all started. We got it done I would say about two weeks before the Super Bowl. So it was hot off the press when we released it.”

“Fame: Travis Kelce” has been another hit for TidalWave. Amazon shows it currently ranks in the top 50 of three Amazon best-selling categories. It’s currently No. 17 in Teen & Young Adult Performing Arts Biographies.

“The response has been really overwhelmingly positive. I know that it’s sold well,” Frizell said. “Several comic stores around the country can buy in and put their own variant covers on them. So I know that’s happened a few times.”

A variant cover means a different image on the front of the comic book. Artist Ryan Kincaid, who lives in Leawood and is at Planet Comicon this weekend, drew this one for the Kelce comic book.

This comic book doesn’t depict Kelce taking down Thanos or Lex Luthor (not that Kelce couldn’t take both of them out). It’s a biography of Kelce.

“I have zero interest in writing Travis Kelce as a superhero,” Frizell said. “My background is I have a master of fine arts in creative nonfiction writing. And so writing about real people and real things and trying to get in their head and that’s what drew me to the publisher.

“I have been writing some superhero books and some science fiction books for clients and things, but for the most part the bulk of my work has been writing about real people in real situations. And this is only the second football player I’ve written about.”

The other is quarterback Russell Wilson, and Frizell still hopes to do a book on Mahomes.

Kelce’s life story, particularly his troubles at the University of Cincinnati and his relationship with brother, Jason, appealed to Frizell.

“Whenever the publisher asks me to write about an actor or famous person who’s basically grown up in the business, I have zero interest in it,” he said. “I’d rather have somebody who’s fighting for this. And the relationship with his brother really did drive a lot of that story early on.

“I liked how they bounced off of each other early and their stories about each other on their podcast, and things where Travis was a little out of control and his brother had to kind of calm him down a little bit. I think that’s an interesting dynamic.”

Frizell chuckled and added: “My brother and I have a similar dynamic but on the older one.”