AUSTIN HAMBLIN and COLTON STRATHMAN welcome us into their SANCTUARY
- Luis Godoy II
- Jun 18
- 5 min read
Luis Godoy II sits down with Austin Hamblin and Colton Strathman to dig into their forthcoming comic, Sanctuary, now running through July 7th on Kickstarter!
COMIC BOOK YETI: So Austin and Colton, welcome to the Yeti Cave! First off, Thank you for letting me get an early peek at Sanctuary. There’s a lot to love about the story and the art. You really get the sense that even though Megan and Leroy give each other some light hearted jabs they care about each other as friends and the art has tons of energy in every panel. Before we get into Sanctuary Specifically, I’ve got a few questions about each of you. What brings each of you to comics?
AUSTIN ALLEN HAMBLIN: I was a reluctant reader. Sometimes I’d read some comics in Disney Adventure, or Nickelodeon magazine, but I was “too cool” to read. One Christmas my uncle Dean got me a gift card to Barnes and Noble. I used it to buy reprints of the Lee/Kirby and Fantastic Four because that wasn’t “real reading”. I read it in a few days and wanted volume 2 I was hooked.
COLTON STRATHMAN: My earliest comic book experience was with manga. I was a big fan of the Dragon Ball Z anime when it was airing on Toonami. When I saw they had a comic book version at Barnes and Noble, I had to pick some up! I enjoyed them a lot, but at some point I fell off. In high school, my love for comics was renewed when my family got an XBox 360 that was bundled with Marvel Ultimate Alliance. This sparked my interest in those characters and I decided to take the plunge. I started buying trades of different characters as well as event books and have been hooked ever since!
CBY: Nice, based on the digital preview I was able to read, you have a history of working together, can you explain what each have done together before and what brings you together again, as that a huge sign that you have fun making comics together.
AAH: This is actually our first collaboration! I met Colton at a con almost exactly a year ago and we hit it off. The more we talked the more we realized we had a lot of the same taste and philosophy about comics making. I think this is the first of many things we will do together!
CS: Austin was great about writing scenes that got me excited to draw! He was a great collaborator, so even though it was our first time working together, we created something that brought our sensibilities together seamlessly. I look forward to working together with him on future projects!
CBY: How would you describe Sanctuary, what would be your elevator pitch? What is the “X meets Y?”
AAH: Mad Max, but by Kevin Smith. It has action, but has humor and a lot of dialogue.
CS: Yeah, Austin’s description is pretty spot on! Visually, I really tried to bring a lot of high energy action to the page. There are also definitely some manga influences in those panels (e.g. lots of speed line and motion blur).
CBY: Very cool to hear, what was the inspiration behind the story of Sanctuary? (side note: I read Sanctuary before checking out the Kickstarter page and it definitely has the feel of Mad Max)
AAH: When we started talking about collaborating I asked Colton what he wanted to draw. He sent me the character designs for Leroy and Megan. Said he wanted a story with them, but also wanted to draw monster trucks. So I made it happen!
CS: Exactly! I really wanted to do a story where I’d get to draw vehicles. It had been a while since I had drawn a comic that featured many cars or trucks, and I figured if I was going to draw them, I might as well go extreme and make them monster trucks. After that, centering the story around bounty hunters in a post apocalyptic world just sounded like fun!
CBY: With Sanctuary being a black & white One-Shot, Without spoiling anything, and if when Sanctuary is successful, would either you be open to returning to this world?
AAH: Yeah for sure. So this is a character driven story inside a very interesting universe. I think it’d be fun to explore other characters in this universe and tell about what they have to do to survive.
CS: I’m definitely down to come back to this world. There’s a lot more to explore here. There are definitely more exciting stories to see from Megan and Leroy, and I’d even be interested to see other characters’ perspectives from this universe.
CBY: Are there any type of rewards you’re really excited for people to see/back? Would adding a colorist be a stretch goal for the campaign? Or do you want to keep the black and white Sanctuary?
AAH: The plan is black and white! I’m a big fan of black and white comics. Maybe because it’s cheaper or maybe because I grew up reading a lot of manga and underground comics. We have some cool rewards: original pages from the comic, sketches from Colton, and even a “So you want to make comics” Zoom. We will answer any and all questions about making comics and give guidance!
CS: Yeah, the plan is to keep this one black and white. I love my comics in color or in black and white, but I think this book works particularly well without color. It helps highlight the grimy, bleak world these characters inhabit. As far as rewards, I’m really excited to offer original pages and definitely want people to go for the custom sketch cards. I’m curious to see what characters our backers ask me to draw!
CBY: That’s awesome, are there any other comics you’re reading that you think other people should also be reading but aren't?
AAH: I recently read Naked Kaiju Woman and it was so much fun! My go-to creator I think that is under appreciated is Mike Kingston. His comics Headlocked, Tales from the Road, Friday Night Bigfoot, and Vampiro Rockabilly Apocalypse are all amazing!
CS: I recently read the first issue of RoboWolf by Jake Smith. It was awesome and super fun! If you haven’t checked that out, now’s the time to pick it up and throw it on your pull list. Free Planet by Aubrey Sitterson and Jed Dougherty has been really cool and interesting. They just released their second issue, and I think it’s definitely one people should check out!
CBY: Thank you to each of you, where can people find your other creations and where can they find you on social media?
AAH: I’m all over and easy to find! I’m on Instagram, Facebook, Substack, BlueSky, and Tik Tok! https://linktr.ee/austinallenhamblin
CS: My stuff is mainly posted to Instagram at this point. Check me out @cfsdrawing!
CBY: This was Luis from Comic Book Yeti, signing off with another interview from the Yeti Cave. Be Good, Do Good, and Read Comics!
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