Wetumpka comes to life in-between the pages of Mike Uhlir’s “StarFell”
Every small town has its quirks. Some might be famous for a local landmark, or well known for their art scenes. With its famous “Big Fish” house and a nationally acclaimed art gallery, Wetumpka certainly has both of these, but there is something else that makes it particularly unique. Because, unlike most small towns, Wetumpka was the site of a meteorite crash around 83 million years ago.
The impact of the meteor can still be seen in the landscape of Wetumpka. Up on the Bibb Graves Bridge, which adjoins the town across the river, the meteor’s lineage can clearly be seen in the way that rocks in the river jut outwards, away from the impact, miles away.
It was this unique story that first inspired Mike Uhlir to create “StarFell,” which he describes as a throwback to the sci-fi horror films of the ‘50s and ‘60s.
“The pitch I normally give is it’s basically kind of like, ‘Goonies’ meets ‘Stranger Things,’” said Uhlir. “But since it’s set in the ‘60s it’s kind of more like, ‘Stand by Me’ and ‘Sandlot’ meets ‘Stranger Things.’”
Set in the fictional town of StarFell, Alabama, “StarFell” is a story about a young group of kids living in a town in the ‘60s where a meteor that fell thousands of years ago has been mutating the environment, wildlife and sometimes even the people in the surrounding area.
The main protagonists of the story are a group of children working together to fight back against the monsters overtaking their town. And while the town in the story is called StarFell, it is a fictional representation of Wetumpka.
Why Wetumpka?
Uhlir said that the idea came to him one day when he was walking around Wetumpka. A native Floridian, Uhlir moved to Alabama about six years ago, so for him, much of the state was new and interesting.
“It was this one afternoon walk around the town where (the) whole start of this whole story flooded in,” said Uhlir.
The combination of the charm of the town, which Uhlir said reminded him of Mayberry from The Andy Griffith Show, and the true story of a meteor that forever changed the landscape of the town inspired him.
But Uhlir didn’t just want to create a story that was loosely based upon the town. He wanted to create a story that stayed as true as he could make it to the location itself. In fact, many of the key locations in the “StarFell” comic are real locations that can be visited in the town.
One prominent Wetumpka location that has a twin in “StarFell” is the Elmore County Museum. At the beginning of issue #2, the heroes are all gathered inside the museum as they prepare to go out and face the monsters overtaking their town.
The museum wasn’t just a haven for the characters. Uhlir said that Sharon Fox, the curator for the real-world location, was a wealth of knowledge for him.
“Anything I couldn’t find online, (I would) just go into the Elmore County Museum,” he said.
A lover of history, Uhlir is knowledgeable in a wide array of Alabama historical trivia. He carried that love for history over into “StarFell,” and put a good deal of effort into researching the history of the town as part of his work. Still, while the book pulls from history for inspiration, it is not meant to be a piece of historical fiction.
“As of right now, most of the accuracy in the comic books has to deal with just the physical locations in the town itself,” said Uhlir.
Throughout the series so far, Uhlir has made a concerted effort to match locations in the comic with real world locations. In fact, every location in the comic is based on a real corresponding location in Wetumpka. The only exception is the home of Levi, one of the main characters, where he lives with his grandmother. Levi’s grandmother’s house is actually based on Uhlir’s grandmother’s home.
“My grandmother’s house isn’t in Wetumpka, Alabama,” Uhlir said. “My grandma’s house is in Lakeland, Florida, but I put her house in the comic book, and I put my grandmother in the story.”
Other iconic locations include the impact crater where the meteor hit, Gold Star Park, the old jail, the Bibb Graves bridge and the Jasmine Hill Gardens.
Most of these locations are easily accessible. The Jasmine Hill Gardens, which served as the model for the Voltaire’s home estate, is currently closed to the public, though you can easily find pictures online.
Wrestling with real history in the story
While Uhlir said that he did his best to stick to the town’s historical landscape geography, there are a few liberties taken. Perhaps the biggest was the adjustment in time.
“For narrative purposes, I really had to back it up a wee skosh,” said Uhlir.
Instead of having the meteor’s impact be millions of years ago, it is a mere 60,000 years in the comic.
Set during the height of the Civil Rights Movement, the comic takes place in a tumultuous point in America history. As of issue #3, there has been no real indication of the conflict of the time, but Uhlir isn’t planning to ignore the historical importance of the set time period. Uhlir says one of the reasons the issue of civil rights hasn’t come up in the comic yet is that he wants to make sure it isn’t simply glossed over.
“I just feel like sometimes when movies come out today, it’s almost like it’s just a checkbox,” said Uhlir. “It shouldn’t be a checkbox, it should be like, ‘Hey, let’s talk about it. Let’s really kind of get into it.’”
Uhlir doesn’t plan on tackling the issue alone. He intends to use three different character perspectives to examine it, and to bring in other writers to assist. He wants to show the perspectives of an African American character, a white character and a non-human observer as they live through the Civil Rights Movement.
Creating StarFell
“StarFell” is Uhlir’s first professional work as a comic artist, but he has experience working in the video game industry as a designer and in the film and commercial industry, and pulled from those experiences for his work with “StarFell.”
While working for a video game company, Uhlir worked to create characters and storylines.
“I worked for a videogame company in creating the intellectual property for those companies,” said Uhlir. “Like, creating the characters and the storylines. And it was just something I really loved and enjoyed.”
His work in the videogame industry gave him plenty of experience to draw upon as he worked on designing characters and laying out the narrative for “StarFell.”
In addition to himself, Uhlir has a team of four others. Lucas Assis draws the art for the comic, Guilherme Sabino serves as the colorist, Tiffany Crook serves as an editor for the book during the pre-production phase helping Uhlir with overall plot points and deciding on the number of panels per page and Leo McGovern assists with editing dialogue and handles some of the lettering for the comic.
Of the team, Uhlir is the only one who lives in Alabama, so the StarFell team works entirely remotely.
In order to make sure that the locations in Wetumpka are properly captured for the “StarFell,” universe, Uhlir has numerous reference photos that he sends to the artists to help them faithfully capture Wetumpka and put it to the page.
Additionally, Uhlir puts together 3D models for characters and scenes to demonstrate how he wants each scene laid out.
“I model (a scene) and then give it to the artists that way they can pivot and rotate around the scene to put the characters on themselves,” said Uhlir. “…there’s a lot of back and forth. But as far as the actual, inks to paper — or in their case, stylist to computer monitor — they still draw the actual interiors of the comic.”
Uhlir describes the whole process as a lot of work, but says he’s pleased with all the work that they are able to accomplish.
“I’m extremely happy and proud of all of them,” said Uhlir.
Uhlir also still loves the town of Wetumpka, which continues to serve not only as his inspiration for the story, but as a good place to help him focus and think.
When he finds himself struggling with the story, he walks through town. He said that if he is in town, then he’ll probably visit Gold Star Park, which has several spots featured in the comic, and according to Uhlir will have several more as the series progresses.
The future of StarFell
While Uhlir originally planned for the entire series to contain around 10 issues, he now expects it to take him at least 20 issues to complete the story, but isn’t concerned. He said the important thing right now is to pace himself to avoid burnout.
“What I do is, I just focus on the short term goals, and then just tackle one at a time, and that’s kind of how I look at the book,” said Uhlir. “You just finish one page at a time; don’t get overwhelmed.”
And, while he isn’t quite ready to quit his day job, Uhlir says that the business is doing well. He is planning to launch a Kickstarter for a collected volume of issues #1-3, and he is hoping it will also help him fund issue #4.
Long-term, “StarFell” is just the beginning for Uhlir’s aspirations. He also wants to create comic books that are connected to the StarFell universe, but separate from the main story.
“I kind of want to do a comic book that actually focuses more on the historical aspects,” said Uhlir. “Weird history, things that happened in this area like in the 1800’s, 1700’s…and make little short stories, kind of like a “Tales From the Crypt” style comic book, but it’ll be like tales from StarFell.”
Ultimately, Uhlir’s goal is to license StarFell to a streaming service and have it adapted into a show. It’s not a goal that he expects to see come to fruition any time soon, but for now, he is content to continue creating stories he loves and hopes others love them too.
“I just wanted to create something that anybody could read and jump into and just escape for a little bit and go into this other world of fantasy,” said Uhlir. “And I know it makes me happy, so I just hope it makes other people happy.”
You can learn more about Uhlir’s work on the “StarFell” official website.
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