Walt Jaschek, writer of copy, content and entertainment, is a 2018 inductee iinto the St. Louis Media Hall of Fame. As a highly imaginative creator, he's at your service. Now.
“Journey Into Weirdness.” That’s the title of a comicbook pulp-adventure anthology Walt is writing and compiling for publication in 2019. Here’s the logo.
Below is the first feature completed for the anthology: a short, good-guys-versus-alien-monster adventure starring the Terranauts, a team of Earth-protecting explorers (created by my buddies Paul Daly and Don Secrease, as seen at HighAdventureComics.com.) The latest incarnation of the team, which evolves through various eras, is Terranauts: 2020. Here are the characters, designed and described by Don, followed by their first adventure, written by Walt. (Here’s the script.)
TERRANAUTS 2020
face
“THE CALL OF COLD DARK, PLACES”
Script: Walt Jaschek | Pencils, inks, colors: Don Secrease | Splash page pencils: Paul Daly | Splash page inks: Walt Jaschek | Based on characters created by Paul Daly and Don Secrease, and on loan with their permission.
P.S. Walt continues to develop features for the upcoming anthology…
…including his own, original characters. Watch for it in 2019. And remember the words of Hunter S. Thompson: “When the going gets weird… the weird get going.”
When I approached ace St. Louis illustrators Don Secrease and Bill Lux for help in bringing to life The Herobots and launching the characters in a coloring and games book, I was thinking of a bored 6-year-old boy. And myself.
It started with a specific 6-year-old boy. A crabby, impatient, hungry one. I don’t know his name. But he was part of a big crowd enduring a long wait in the lobby of a pancake restaurant with his mother. He was squirming, and I could tell he was desperate for some stimulation, any stimulation. His mother didn’t engage him; didn’t hand him a pencil and paper; or even her phone. (I guess I should be happy about that part.)
I felt the restless boredom radiate out of this young man, and I immediately I wished I had on me a coloring book young kids might like, about, oh, say, superhero robot action figures. I wished I could also hand him some crayons and tell him to “have at.” (With Mom’s permission, of course.) I even had a name bouncing around my mind: the HEROBOTS.
A few months later, after great work by Don and Bill, working from a script by me, we sent to the printers Herobots Coloring and Games Book #1. Here’s the front cover…
Here’s the back cover.
Here are a few pages from the story-to-color. The Herobots are actually action figures, you see, by day, living on the shelf of Sally’s Comics and Toys store.
The plot thickens.
And yes, there are also games!
The 48-page softcover is now available on Amazon and Barnes and Noble, but it’s the stack of hard copies I keep on me at busy pancake restaurants that I value most. Because these are the copies I can hand…
…to give random, bored 6-year olds. Bless them. Because I am one of them. Always. It’s why I create, I think. Or at least why I created this video preview of the first few pages of the book. Warning: the narration is by me. (Which you can turn off — just watch the captions!)
So, you ask, is the Herobots Coloring and Games book selling on Amazon and Barnes and Noble? We wouldn’t say it’s selling like, well, pancakes. But we don’t mind. It’s that moment of handing one to a bored kid — for free — that makes up for it.
Walt Jaschek and Don Secrease offer free, downloadable coloring pages of superhero robots: the stars of the Herobots Coloring and Games Book #1. Below, you’ll see the three Herobots — Props, Wheely and Fynn — along with their foes, TREX and the Terrobot. Want to download any and all for the young colorist in your life? Just drag the image to your desktop, click on it, and hit “print.”
Want more Herobots action? Take a look at the Herobots Coloring and Games Book, for young readers, on sale on Amazon and at Barnes and Noble.
Golden Adventures of Brett Hull #1: “Slap Shot to Destiny.” Publisher: The Patrick Company. Agency: Hinkle & Company. Writer: Walt Jaschek. Artists: Don Secrease, Bill Lux, Rick Burchett, Bill Vann. Here are the interior spreads! Enjoy this journey back to St. Louis, 1994. “Hold on to your seats, Blues fans,” the story begins. “We’ve got some kind of hockey game here at the Kiel Center tonight…”
The plot thickens. 
