C. Edward Sellner

Artist, Creator, Publisher, Writer

C. Edward Sellner is a writer, editor, and artist, founder, Publisher and Chief Creative Officer for Visionary, and the creative architect for the Visionary Creation. 

Born in 1967, Sellner grew up on a farm in Maryland, where he once more resides. He pursued a life in ordained ministry until 2007, when he retired early to focus full-time on his creative career.

He is a published writer of comics, film, and audio dramas, as well as an author of prose, fiction, and non-fiction. His artwork has been displayed in galleries, locally and internationally, published in print and online, and featured in prime-time television series.

Sellner focuses his work through Visionary, where he oversees all creative projects, work-for-hire, and in-house services. He is also the primary architect of the Visionary Creation debuting in 2023.

Portfolios

WRITING: Audio Dramas / Comic Scripts / Prose / Screenplays
ART: Coloring / Commissions / Concept Design / Illustration / Sequential

Feature Interview

How long have you been in the entertainment or creative industry?
All told, I guess about 18 years now. The first several were very sporadic involvement while my life was focused elsewhere, then the shift started happening in 2007, and I made the jump to full-time creative and freelance work in 2009 and never looked back.

You left the ministry to go into writing and creating fiction? That’s quite a leap; how come? What happened to move you in that direction?
Both have always been part of who I am. I’ve been a creative type since a child, still have the very first comic I created when I was about 5 or 6 years old, an issue of Superman, by the way. Ministry, however, was also very important to me, and I felt very called into that in high school and pursued it as a primary focus. I was a very dedicated-driven kind of guy in that work, worked very long hours, and gave myself fully to it for 25 years. I always knew there would come a time I’d be ready to step back, and then the creative life could become the center. That happened in 2007.

I loved my life then and love it now; they are very different callings, but both are very fulfilling.

How’d you get your start in the industry?
I had done a few submissions dating back to college age, all amateur hour stuff, and nothing developed. I actually got my foot in the door on a more business angle, helping some small publishers and studios with management, marketing, and development. Did that for a couple of years and then decided I wanted to build my own thing, which led to Visionary.

Visionary is quite a name, kind of sets a high benchmark.
It does, it does indeed, and that was quite intentional. I think a name can be a pretty powerful thing and say a lot about the company and the people behind it. I wanted to set out to create a company that forged its own path and did its own thing. I wanted a name that was something to grow into, rise up and live out. I think it’s been a good name for us, and we still work on living up to it every day.

So, what kind of credits do you have to your name? You seem to wear a lot of hats.
I guess it does seem that way, huh? Wow, what all have I done? As I said, I managed a few previous operations, helping launch one small publisher, and expand another studio operation, so I worked a lot of angles on that end of the business. I’ve got professional credits in published work as an editor, writer, colorist, and artist. I’ve written prose, both fiction and non-fiction, that’s been published in newspapers, journals, books, and online. I’ve written screenplays, including full-length features, down to short-form web series. I’ve done coloring work on a variety of projects, as well as cover and print illustration work that’s been featured in comics, books, and television. There’s a lot more than even most folks who follow me know, as a lot of it was done on the side, under pen names, or as ghost work back when I was starting out.

The last few years for me have been all about building the studio, so my hand has been in, to one degree or another, on every project that bears our name, most especially the Deadlands line we launched.

What’s your role as Publisher and CCO for Visionary?
It varies. It can range from very involved hands-on work where I’m actually crafting the story, involved in the art, and overseeing a project at every step like I’m doing for my own books I’m prepping, to more of a backup oversight role working with full teams doing the actual creative work and I provide the support.

What’s the deal with this Visionary Creation?
The Visionary Creation is my own baby, an exciting, transmedia, shared worlds setting based largely on my own writing and art but expanding to include other creators as we go. We’ll be launching that later in 2023.

Dude, you sound busy.

You have no idea…