Animated trio: Young entrepreneurs turn their passion for comic books into a career.

These are not the comic books you grew up with. These are not the tacky and cheap kiddy rags at the bottom of the magazine rack, or the mouldy-smelling rags buried at the back of some dingy used bookstore.

Comic books, if you have not noticed, are enjoying a healthy resurgence in popularity, their titles and quality of scripts even spreading onto the big screen.

No longer printed on the thin newsprint-like paper with ink that smears when rubbed, the pictures are digitized on a computer, the covers and paper are glossy, and they sell for $3 (US).

Now three young Sudbury entrepreneurs have set out to make their mark in this fast-paced and compact industry where only the best writers and artists survive.

Doodle Me Sane Comics, consisting of its punkish founder Richard-Louis Guerin, 25, Randolph Lalonde, 27, and Marc Froment, 26, is believed to be the only independent comic book publisher in Canada.

By and large running between 18 and 24 pages, the characters and plots of today's "graphic novels" are more grown-up with alternative and real-life stories that explore contemporary events.

Wildly popular in Europe and especially in Japan, where the books are three to five times thicker and are the most-read form of literature, they can hardly be considered juvenile fare, but have evolved into today's pulp fiction.

On any given day, the trio can be found in a downtown Sudbury coffee shop fuelled by caffeine and cigarettes, editing their scripts, sketching out characters and making business plans on their way to formally incorporating their company this fall. Their first series release will make its North American debut in spring 2002.

Comics have been an enduring passion for Guerin who has spent the past year growing his all-consuming writing and drawing hobby into a business involving 16-hour days filled with meetings with lawyers, accountants, advertising agents and e-commerce experts, all while learning the ins and outs of publishing on the run.

The more buttoned-down business world he is about to enter almost seems light years away from 50-cent story zines Guerin used to sell in high school with warped and twisted titles like "A Nightmare on Sesame Street."

"I never thought I'd actually like business, but since I've had to deal with it so much in the last couple of months, I've discovered I have a knack for it," says Guerin, who worked as a graphic artist and had a brief fling in College Boreal's funeral directorship program until instructors frowned on his blue hair.

"(Pursuing this venture) is what makes me happy every time I get up in morning. I had been fighting with this dream for six years."

In taking the financial leap last fall, Guerin moved back home with his parents, liquidated everything he owned, took out an $8,000 loan and invested close to $20,000 in the project. Other friends and associates pitched in money, some being offered shares in the venture in exchange for services.

He then assembled a team of friends, luring in Lalonde, a novelist, poet and private editor who left a telemarketing job to be his editor-in-chief, and Froment, their artist, who was recruited from a mutual buddy's tattoo studio.

While guzzling coffee, Guerin and Lalonde collaborate on the script, Froment pencils the characters and inks them before the package is sent off to a colourist in Winnipeg, then to a graphic artist in Barrie and finally on to their distributor Diamond Comics in New York for review.

Their first series, Rough Redemption, one of four fresh in the works, is expected to hit newstands by spring with the inaugural issue to be a Web-release. Based on the dark fiction and anti-villain comics Guerin used to devour as a kid, the Script and characters are "grounded into a darker, grimmer era."

They expect Diamond will order a minimum of 10,000 copies to be advertised in their trade magazine and shipped out to 5,500 shops across the continent. Succeeding titles - a closely guarded secret - will deal with high fantasy, situation comedy, and child-oriented material.

With publishing giants like DC Comics and Marvel Comics jazzing up old titles like Spider-Man and X-Men, professionals like screenwriter Kevin Smith have lent some credibility to the industry. And, conversely comic books have become fertile ground for Hollywood filmmakers.

Though movie script writing is intriguing, the three just want to survive the first three months after incorporation as investor money starts pouring in Deadlines must be met, a second artist has to hired and their financial plans must be further refined, he points out.

"This is an extremely hard industry to break into," says Guerin who calls the Internet an "invaluable" research and contact-making tool. "You have to fight and claw for every scrap of information."

Not expectant of any huge payoffs for at least the first couple of years, Guerin says he has invested too much of a financial and emotional stake to allow himself to quit.