Interview With Osiris McCormick '26

Before Winter Break, we sat down with Writing, Film & Media Arts major Osiris McCormick '26 to chat about his new comic book, Pepper Jack. Read on below!

What is your history with this kind of art? Is this your first comic book?

First in general, no. I started making comic books when I was in third grade. They were mostly just pencil and crayon back then. Pepper Jack was the first one that I released. 

How did you come up with the idea? How did the project all come together?

I came up with the idea twice, I guess you could say. The first time was during quarantine. There was this YouTube channel with a story that I really liked, and I wanted to go for a vibe like that with one of my stories. That's what inspired the original Pepper Jack. Then I took about three years away from it, and in my sophomore year, came back to it. I went around asking people to work on it with me, and that's how it started.

So you collaborated with other people on this? Tell me about that.

At first it was difficult because I was much more shy than I am now. You don't have to be super outgoing to be a leader, but I would say that you have to have a lot of confidence in your project. Originally, there were about seven people working on the comic book total, but I didn't know what I was doing, and some of them left the project. I almost gave up on it, but when I joined Writing, Film & Media Arts, and I learned how to make scripts, I gave it another try. I made all the scripts, and was able to get back the people who were still interested in working on Pepper Jack. I found another person to work on the background art with me, as well as the social media management, and ended up with a group of five people.

I heard you recently visited your middle school to talk about Pepper Jack. Tell me about that experience.

In one word, it was warm. I didn't have the fondest memories of middle school. I was so shy back then, and people were distant towards me. Nerds weren't as accepted as they are now. Going back to that school and taking a group of kids through a presentation of something I made, and seeing them be interested in it and ask really deep questions—that made me feel like things have changed. And I've changed, too, because I'm here giving a presentation on a story that I wanted to tell people. They said they want me to come back. I would like to visit some other schools first, though. These presentations are meaningful as a way to get Pepper Jack out there.

Do you have any plans for the future of Pepper Jack? Will there be other books?

I have a lot of plans. I'm setting up the website, and I'm working on the script for the second volume. Since it will be our second semester of senior year, I'm hoping we can get a lot more done in less time. I'm planning to keep up the Instagram page and YouTube channel to make sure that Pepper Jack content is still going around.

What are your plans or your hopes for after you graduate from Walnut Hill?

Art. I want to keep making art and keep creating stories. I'm actually working on my family's old website that they made around the time I was born, called "Osiris Magazine." They always told me that they want me to take over and make it into something I would like. I want to make it an artist community. I already have a few people helping me, since I made it my senior project for WFMA.

Is there anything else you want people to know about Pepper Jack?

I think I sometimes don't give it as much appreciation as I should. This comic book was my motivation and drive for the past two years, and now that it's out there in the world, that's worth something. Now that's a story anyone can see. Before, when I made stories, they would only go out to the school, or my family, or my friends. Now I've made something that people from across the world can enjoy. The only limit is not knowing English, but I plan to translate it in the future. I want to keep working on this because it means a lot to me.