RETURN TO SNAKELAND Instagram Comic
When author Jason Gusmann began posting his semi-autobiographical novel Return to Snakeland on his blog in 2012, he never expected a stranger would ask to illustrate it or that a groundswell of support would help turn it into a printed graphic novel. Artist Aaron O’Brian discovered that Gusmann had written about his shared teenage obsession — Buffalo’s abandoned grain elevators, particularly one nicknamed “Snakeland”—and immediately contacted the author. Snakeland was a notorious teenage party location, but O’Brian was more interested in the artistic possibilities provided by the dilapidated structure and the Satanic graffiti that littered the place. Gusmann and O’Brian immediately set to work on telling a story that previously lived in legend and gossip: that of the several murders and suicides that took place in Kenmore, NY, a suburb of Buffalo, in the mid-1980s. Using Snakeland as a symbolic backdrop, Gusmann and O’Brian had managed to detail a macabre history lesson that still has startling relevance today.
After the podcast established Return to Snakeland’s bona fides, Gusmann and O’Brian began their Return to Snakeland Instagram comic, a serial based upon the old 3-panel daily comics in the mold of Little Nemo and Terry and the Pirates. The nature of the strip format required more spectacular and fantastical coinciding storylines, so along came aliens, demons, young love, a Hand of Glory and a soundtrack of various indie rock songs circa 1985, in addition to the original framework of murders, suicides, and murder/suicides.
Both the Volume One and Volume Two collections of the Return to Snakeland Instagram comics are sold online through Gutter Pop Comics as well as at their brick and mortar store in Buffalo, NY.
RETURN TO SNAKELAND Graphic Novel
Return to Snakeland 