going green

Stoner hero-centric 'Super-Bud' is a new Philly comic book, with a chronic hook

It's X-Men meets Half-Baked, the writers say.

HIGH AND MIGHTY: The second issue of the Kickstarter-funded Super-Bud, by Mike Dean, Tim Radecki and Tim Lattie, will be released, they estimate, in the spring.
Super-Bud Comics/Tim Lattie/Giulio Batawp Rincione

A current events lesson you already know: In October, Philadelphia decriminalized marijuana. Earlier this month, Alaska, Washington, D.C. and Oregon followed Colorado and Washington state in allowing the recreational sale and taxation of the drug. 

This is both ideal and tense timing for two Philly comic writers, who have just successfully Kickstarter-funded the second issue of their green-tinged comic series, Super-Bud. 

“We don’t want to have our first issue start before marijuana is legalized, and then years later we’re coming out with our final issue and all this stuff is already behind us,” says Mike Dean, 29, co-writer of Super-Bud. “We don’t want to miss the boat.” That’s the trouble with Kickstarter or D.I.Y. funding — it’s a slow process.

But for now, Dean, writing partner Tim Radecki, 30, and illustrator Tim Lattie, 33, have caught the bud boat at just the right time, creating a comic series that appeals to not just weed aficionados, but directionless millennials, general comic fans and action lovers alike. They’ve called it X-Men meets Half Baked. 

So, oddly, two guys writing a story connected to weed culture might find it creatively inconvenient if the whole shebang is legalized tomorrow — they’ve already planned six issues.

“It would definitely change our story a bit,” Dean says.

Super-Bud follows Danny, a down-on-his-luck college dropout who watches from the couch as his contemporaries live big lives.

In the first issue, released in February on DriveThruComics.com and produced solely by Radecki and Dean, the small town where Danny lives — called Emerald Oaks, get it? — is shaken when a pharmaceutical company moves in and begins experimenting with medical marijuana. 

“The company is trying to come up with what they call ‘Project Canna-plus,’” Radecki says. “A successful experiment is taken from a lab, and this drug dealer spreads it through town, not knowing the ramifications — after smoking it, these people start experiencing superpowers.” 

Weed smokers as superheroes? There’s a real send-up of the burnout stereotype. Radecki and Dean assure that’s intentional.

“It’s also fun to play with the idea of a superhero,” Radecki says. “Put [superpowers] on somebody who has good intentions but might not be as smart as Spider-Man, and might not have the moral compass that Spider-Man has, that’s what Danny is.” 

As an ensemble cast is introduced, Dean says, readers will have oth-er characters to latch onto. But they’re not all stereotypical stoners. 

So it’s not all Bluntman and Chronic? 

Radecki laughs.

“As much as we love Kevin Smith, I was like, ‘Eh, I don’t want to do that.’ We’ve been getting a lot of response from the marijuana subculture, which is awesome, but at the same time, we’re trying to tell a really detailed, great hero story,” he says. 

“It’s hard not to get pigeonholed,” Dean adds, explaining that while some characters are variations on the burnout type, the series means to show that not everyone who partakes is Jeff Spicoli. “There’s a lot of people out there from different walks of life who have different relationships with marijuana.’ … We’re going to explore all of that, if we can.” 

They’ll do so alongside Lattie’s illustrations. 

“We wanted to sell comedy first, and also be able to sell the action. We needed to find somebody who could do both,” Radecki says. They estimate that the second issue of Super-Bud will be finished by spring. 

So, brass tacks — is every comic fan yearning for a superhero who, well, smokes weed as much as they do? Are all the world’s comic writers passing blunts as they pen panels?

“There’s plenty of people I know who read comics and never smoke or have anything to do with it, and I know plenty of people who smoke and just don’t have time for comics,” Dean says. “But there’s definitely … a nice overlap.”

Asked what the two hope readers will take from the series, Dean considers the premise.

“Who’d want a superpowered stoner?” he says. “The idea of it is off-putting. But if you just let us take you by the hand and lead you down this path, you’ll see why that person still has merit. That person can still be someone you believe in.”