Flanagan, Johnson like the bizarre

IT’S NOT OFTEN THAT A customer can walk into a comic book shop and purchase a work from one of the men who had a hand in creating it.

However, that is just the experience comic fans can have at Jay and Silent Bob’s Secret Stash at 35 Broad St. in Red Bank. Store manager and Middletown resident Walt Flanagan, 40, and Highlands resident Bryan Johnson, 40, have created two miniseries, 2005’s “Karney” and 2007’s “War of the Undead,” each on sale on the shelves of the store known as “The Stash.”

The pair met in 1978, Johnson said, after Flanagan moved from Woodbridge to Highlands, and it was Flanagan who introduced Johnson to comic books.

“Walter’s always been into comics,” Johnson said. “In fact, I’d say Walter got me into comics. I bounce in and out. Sometimes I get interested, sometimes not.”

Explaining his love for the medium, Flanagan said, “The art and the characters drew me to comics early on and I never lost my passion for it.”

The pair first met local filmmaker Kevin Smith around 1988 when Smith got a job at the Highlands Recreation Center, where Flanagan worked.

Flanagan has worked for the Stash, owned by Smith, since it opened on Monmouth Street in 1997 (it moved to Broad Street in 1999), while Johnson moved to Los Angeles to work at Smith’s West Coast store for a few years before returning to New Jersey.

Both “Karney,” in which a collection of sideshow performers terrorize a small rural community, and “War of the Undead,” which features such classic monsters as Frankenstein and the Wolf Man battling zombie Nazis at the tail end of World War II, were written by Johnson and drawn by Flanagan.

“I’d say we share a love of the bizarre, like the decidedly not mainstream,” Johnson said.

“We grew up in the ’70s, it was really a decade of weird movies,” said the writer, citing “Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark” (1973) and “Race with the Devil” (1975) as influences.

According to Johnson, when it comes to collaboration, “Basically, Walt says, “This is what I want to draw, this is kind of the story I want to do,’ and we come up with a synopsis and Walter basically draws whatever he wants and then I’ll go back and put dialogue in.”

Flanagan said inspiration for “War of the Undead” came from “just a big love of the Universal monsters and just wanting to draw a book where they were forced into the role of being somewhat heroes rather than monsters.” Not coincidentally, the Wolf Man in the book hails from Highlands.

“Undead” sequel, Marvel pitch

The pair said they plan on releasing a sequel to “War of the Undead” this year and hope to pitch a one-off issue to Marvel Comics based on the Legion of Monsters from the 1970s.

When asked if their cameo roles in Smith films such as “Mallrats” and “Dogma” have turned them into local celebrities, Flanagan said, ” “A fan who knows his stuff will recognize you, but I certainly don’t get recognized outside the store.”

That lack of notoriety can result in some happy situations at the store for Flanagan, as his and Johnson’s works share shelf space with the Marvel and DC classics.

“That’s real cool, when someone comes in and buys (one of the comics) and has no idea that the guy who’s selling it to them did it,” he said.

Jay and Silent Bob’s Secret Stash is at 35 Broad St., Red Bank. Call (732) 758-0508.

For more information on “Karney” and “War of the Undead,” visit http://www.idwpublishing.com.

We highly recommend both books, and especially suggest you stop by The Stash in person, where the guys will be happy to sign ‘em for ya if you’re lucky enough to catch them behind the counter. We’ll be watching for the “War” sequel, as well.