Former comic book artist Chris Walker created the Anti-Matter web series.
Self portrait courtesy Chris Walker

“The basis for the humor in Anti-Matter is that as a comic fan, you’re hanging out with your buds and probably being an ass at someone’s place of business,” Walker told Wired.com in an e-mail. “I know because I was that guy. I’d come by Hanley’s and talk smack on new comics every Wednesday with everyone in the store right up until closing, at which point they would kindly ask me to leave.”

Walker launched Anti-Matter in September after working for nearly a decade at Marvel and DC Comics. In the new “Bag and Board” installment, debuting Wednesday and exclusively previewed in the clip embedded above, two pompous nerds (played by Davram Stiefler and Johnathan Fernandez) get tricked by the sexy store manager (Kirstan Perry) into treating comic book storage as a competitive sport that supposedly requires both “brains and brawn.”

Anti-Matter’s “Kung-Fu” episode profiles a geek (Stiefler) who fails hilariously when he tries talk like a thug. “Hierarchy” (embedded below) zooms in on a comic book store know-it-all (Justin Tyler) as he lectures a Green Lantern-infatuated co-worker (Julie Katz) on the distinctions between nerds, dorks, geeks and dweebs. The rigid caste system, he says, is “nature’s way of saying ’sorry’ for only giving you three emotions: anger, lust and a more extreme form of lust.”

A North Carolina native, Walker moved to New York in 2000 and worked as a colorist on Wolverine, Batman and Spider-Man comics before roughing out the idea for a workplace sitcom in the vein of The Office, WKRP in Cincinnati and Arrested Development. Early scripts sat in a drawer until Walker heard The Guild creator Felicia Day give a speech at the 2008 Streamy Awards.

“She said web series are about people not waiting for permission to make their art,” Walker said. “And that you should go out and just do it.”

Comic fans can be notoriously nit-picky critics but so far Anti-Matter, cast largely with improv talents from The Upright Citizen’s Brigade, has earned the seal of approval from cognoscenti including Incredible Hulk writer Jeff Parker.

“Jeff said I really nailed the tone of comic stores,” Walker said.

What do you think? Do the characters in Anti-Matter ring true? Weigh in below.

Follow us on Twitter: @hughhart and @theunderwire.

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Authors: Hugh Hart

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