Josh Ulrich’s newest venture in the wonderful world of webcomics is Jackie Rose, a pulp-adventure comic set in 1946 following intrepid treasure hunting redhead & title character, Jackie Rose.
I got a sneak peek at this comic awhile back and I’ve been eagerly awaiting Josh’s release of this work. The first page of the comic just launched last week, and page two went up today – with a new page promised weekly on Mondays.
I corresponded with Josh to get some insider information on Jackie Rose.
EBEN07 (07): What were some of your chief inspirations for Jackie Rose?
Josh Ulrich (JU): I would say mostly fun 80s movies like The Goonies and Indiana Jones. The idea of classic, over the top adventure. That’s really the driving idea behind Jackie Rose. To make a really fun and exciting comic that doesn’t take itself to seriously.
07: You’ve done two comics, Wizard & Snort and Newman, that drew on fantasy settings, and Jackie Rose has that pulp adventure setting – were you looking to get out of fantasy or just start something new?
JU: A little bit of both really. I’ve been itching to do a pulp adventure comic for quite some time, but I’ve never been able to come up with anything I was really happy with. Newman had a very, very long gestation period that developed slowly into what you see today. I still love working on Newman and the fantasy genre, but I really needed something entirely different to work on. A whole different kind of world that’s not quite as dark. I think it was when I discovered Johnny Crossbones for the first time last year that I decided I really wanted to work in this genre.
07: Both D. Bethel and I are big fans of Johnny Crossbones, too. Great comic – so what can we expect from Jackie Rose? Other characters? Any big secrets you want to tease us with?
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Jackie Rose is a very high adrenaline comic. It only updates once a week, but it gets moving very fast. With Newman I like to take my time and pace the storytelling much slower. Jackie Rose on the other hand will get you into the action much quicker.
The story starts out in 1946, just after WWII, but you will notice rather quickly that this is NOT traditional 1946.
We will be meeting Jackie’s partner in crime, Eddie Ripcord, very soon. There will be plenty more interesting characters revealed along the way.
I won’t give away too many details, but you can expect gun fights, car chases, air pirates, robots, horrible experiments, and ancient secrets just to name a few 
That sounds pretty awesome – it sounds like you’ve plotted out a full story for Jackie Rose. Does that mean you’ve got one full story in mind or will you be telling multiple adventures?
I’ve got the first major story movement pretty well planned out, but there will definitely be multiple adventures. Just how big each of these will be is yet to be determined.
Serialized pulp! Love it! So obviously, treasure hunting female lead character, some fan-boys may dismiss Jackie as a “Lara Croft knock-off” so what makes Jackie Rose different and brings something new to take the sexy adventure heroine archetype forward?
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I think anybody who gives this comic a real chance will see that Jackie has very little in common with a Lara Croft type character. Jackie is more rough and tumble then she is sexy seductress. She’s also much more down to earth. She still lives at home with her dad and keeps a night job that she hates just to pay the bills. Jackie is all heart, luck, and determination rather than a precisely skilled, swan diving, british, millionaire.
I like making characters that are flawed and relatable. Having an unstoppable ninja assassin as your lead character might be cool sometimes, but it’s hard to cheer for somebody who always wins and is great at everything they do.
While she may have a similar “Tomb Raiding” profession, I think honest readers will get past that stereotype rather quickly.
From what I’ve seen of Jackie Rose, I couldn’t agree more! How did you come up with the great name, Jackie Rose?
Well, there is nothing really magical about how I came up with the name. I guess it stems from a Fallout 3 character I used to have named Julian Rose, but Jackie felt a bit more scrappy. I don’t really know where I get my name ideas from, they just pop in my head!
Well, it really fits the character. So, if you’re at a bar and order a Jackie Rose, what do you think would be in the glass?
What kind of cocktail, eh? Woof, that’s a tough when I’m not really a drinking man, so I’ll just stick with what I know, Jack and Coke. No pun intended
How about Jack & Cherry Coke? She’s a red-head after all! Great looking comic, Josh. Looking forward to the future pages of Jackie Rose!
Check out JACKIE ROSE by Josh Ulrich
