Only a month after launching his first animated comic book series “Crossblood™: The Spear of Destiny,” Boyer Animation Studios President and CEO Michael Boyer illustrated exactly why his business was worthy of funding during Tuesday night’s regional round of the Stanislaus Innovation Challenge in Turlock.
“There are some really tough competitors out there and some really good invention, so I’m honored actually and humbled that I got to first place,” said Boyer. “It’s amazing to me.”
Spearheaded by the Small Business Development Center, a subset of the Stanislaus Business Alliance, the innovation challenge was inspired by the San Joaquin Entrepreneur’s Challenge that functions along the same premise of supporting those with business ideas. With the aim of determining if local entrepreneurs' ideas have commercial potential, the Innovation Challenge held five preliminary competitions in various communities within Stanislaus County.
With the logo, “opening the door to animation imagination,” Boyer Animation Studios is an independent animation company that produces original animated cartoons and animated online comic book productions in different genres.
“I’m trying to create family friendly entertainment children’s books and animated cartoons for everyone,” said Boyer.
One animated children’s story book that Boyer has created is “Teegle the Beagle™,” which is tale based on a true encounter between a baby blue bird and Boyer’s pet beagle. Throughout the story, readers can follow along with text at the bottom of the screen as the story illustrations come alive.
Set around a hybrid alien-human named Crossblood, Boyer’s animated comic book “Crossblood: The Spear of Destiny” is based in part upon ancient alien theory. Readers accompany Crossblood and his fellow agents, which belong to an elite and benevolent legion of extraterrestrial beings that follow God, as they fight for the causes of good in the galaxy. This comic book story is the first part of a four-part series.
“These comic books are a higher literary level, not like standard book in depth story line,” said Boyer. “They talk about conspiracies and contain more text than what is normally included in a comic book.”
Boyer is also currently working on a number of other animated projects, including “Jikan Senshi: Legends of the Time Warriors™,” “The Webbs of Lousyana Parish Bayou Swamp™,” “The Three (Not So Little) Pigs™,” and “Office O’Smiley and his Safety Friends™.”
“What I’m trying to do is create a business that will constantly innovate and constantly develop new character ideas for comic books, children story books, animations, game apps,” said Boyer. “If we can grow this business we can hire more people around here. We can hire local talent, artists, writers, animators and game developers as we grow.”
“We can make the Central Valley the new Silicon Valley,” continued Boyer.
The 2015 Challenge will culminate in a “Money Round” competition between each of the five local event winners on Dec. 10 in Modesto. The first and second place winners of the final competition will share in $5,000 in cash and over $3,000 in professional services from an attorney, certified public accountant, graphics designer and a marketing firm to help them turn their idea into a reality. The final winners will also be entered into the eight-county Regional San Joaquin Entrepreneur’s Challenge to be held in Stockton in 2016 for a chance to win a share of $24,000 in cash and services.
The Modesto, Patterson, Riverbank, Oakdale and Turlock winners will compete from 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Dec. 10 at the Small Business Development Center Office in Modesto, located at 1020 10th Street Suite 102.
