DRAWING IT ALL TOGETHER. UW-Stout graduate Mitch Gerads has worked on titles such as The Punisher.

When Mitch Gerads received his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from UW-Stout 10 years ago, he never dreamed he’d end up illustrating comic books. With an emphasis in graphic design, his first job out of college was designing cereal boxes for General Mills in Minneapolis. When the graphic design firm lost its account with General Mills, Mitch was out of a job.

“At that point I figured I can either go back into graphic design or I can give comics a shot, since that was always something I wanted to do since I was a kid,” Mitch told me.

“At that point I figured I can either go back into graphic design or I can give comics a shot, since that was always something I wanted to do since I was a kid,”– UW-Stout alum Mitch Gerads, on how losing a job designing cereal boxes led to a succesful career illustrating graphic novels

Now, one of Mitch’s first graphic novels, titled The Activity, has been greenlit to be made into a movie by Paramount Pictures. Getting to that point wasn’t easy, though. Before The Activity, Mitch did a lot of self-publishing. He attended conventions, networked, and met a lot of people. This led to his first job coloring the book Starborn, which is how he met writer Nathan Edmonson. The two soon discovered their mutual love for military thrillers and began doing research and brainstorming for what would become The Activity.

“We got into it and started coming up with ideas for a made-up team within this real-world organization,” Mitch said. “We started putting scripts together in a book, Image Comics picked it up, and there we were.”

Through their research, they discovered a group called the Intelligence Support Activity, which is essentially the army’s version of the CIA. The Activity follows a direct action group similar to the ISA and was originally going to have a science fiction feel.

After releasing a few issues, however, they started getting letters from people in the military commenting on what they got right or wrong.

One letter in particular stood out to Mitch. In one of the earlier issues, he thought it would be cool if a character used an Xbox controller to operate a robot. Shortly after releasing that issue, a U.S. Army Ranger got into contact and explained how he appreciated that part because he had been doing the same thing for years.

“That’s when it kind of dawned on us that the real-world stuff was way more interesting than the stuff we could come up with in our minds,” Mitch said. They worked to make the series as real as possible while still making it entertaining as well. They made certain that they were depicting things as accurately and realistically as possible.

Mitch has already read the script written by screenwriter Ken Nolan (who also penned the screenplay for Black Hawk Down) for the film adaptation of The Activity. After reading it, Mitch was interested in how Nolan, who had read the graphic novel, kept some aspects of the source material and changed others.

“The script has taken a lot of liberties; it changes a lot from the book,” Mitch said. “But at the same time, it somehow manages to get 16 issues of that book into one script.” Mitch was pretty ecstatic when Paramount gave the green light for the production, and he is excited to see how it progresses from here.

Since working on The Activity, Mitch has illustrated The Punisher for Marvel Comics and is now working on a new book for Vertigo Comics (part of D.C. Comics) titled The Sheriff of Babylon. Written by Tom King, who was previously a CIA operations officer, The Sheriff of Babylon is a crime book that follows three main characters in 2004, right after the invasion of Baghdad. A seemingly iniquitous murder occurs, which ultimately brings these three people together and unravels a much deeper story. It’s a special project because King was stationed in Baghdad, and this will be his first time talking about the war he saw.

“It’s a hugely personal book for Tom, and it’s become that way for me,” Mitch said. “It’s the best work I’ve ever done, the best work he’s ever done, and we are beyond excited to get it out there.”

Learn more about Mitch Gerads at www.facebook.com/mitchgeradsillustration.