Tom Marvelli has always wanted to do this.

For as far back as he can remember, Marvelli has dreamed of creating his own comic books, telling his own stories with his own art. Now, after decades of working on other peoples’ projects in the comic book and toy industries, Marvelli has ventured out on his own.

The Barrington resident started Another Door Comics and is releasing a graphic novel series titled “The Boy in the Bot.”

“Even my wife jokes, she says ‘You are living your best life right now,’” Marvelli said. 

It took a long time, decades really, for Marvelli to fully commit to this “passion project.” For years, he was focused on telling other peoples’ stories, creating illustrations for other peoples’ products. But a few years back, Marvelli made a promise to himself that at some point he would return to what he truly loves. 

“I want to have something that my kids will have that is truly mine,” he said, adding that his new graphic novel, “The Boy in the Bot,” is just that.

Kid in the Hulk mask

Growing up in the 1980s had its advantages, just ask Marvelli. 

Kids were surrounded by the fantastical — comic books, Star Wars movies, GI Joe cartoons during the day and the Incredible Hulk on TV at night. 

As a kid who liked to draw, Marvelli found himself sketching superheroes whenever he had time. 

“I even have photos of me back in the day wearing a Hulk mask,” he said. 

His interest in illustration caught the attention of his teachers — Marvelli would sometimes fill the margins of his test papers with drawings and sketches. In middle school, he began taking advanced art classes. By the time he was in high school he was taking college art courses. 

“I always had great teachers who encouraged it,” he said.

Marvelli attended Purchase College in New York and majored in graphic design… “because I knew you could make a living in graphic design.” He minored in sociology and took business courses at night. 

After graduation, he took a job at a Minuteman Press, then caught a break when he was hired by Macy’s to handle all sorts of illustration work. He drew storyboards for their TV commercials and even had the opportunity work with Peanuts creator Charles Schulz. One of his co-workers from Macy’s had moved to Marvel, and before long Marvelli heard that Marvel was looking for an art director. 

“It was the start of a dream job,” Marvelli said. 

He began working for Marvel in 2001, and handled all sorts of tasks. He worked in publishing and on the consumer products side — action figures, T-shirts, hats, sneakers, hard line categories to soft line categories, Marvelli did it all. If he spotted an eight-year-old boy wearing a Spiderman T-shirt or carrying an X-Men lunch box, chances were very good that Marvelli worked on that product somewhere along the line.

“Obviously, it went really well,” he said. 

His rise from fan to creation hit home one day years ago when he went shopping. He was in a shoe store and popped over the kids section to see what Marvel lines they were carrying. 

“I see this kid and his mom and he came running over to the Spiderman shoes. He didn’t know the person who drew the image was standing right next to him,” Marvelli said. “Once upon a time I was that kid who was looking at that (superhero product).

“That was the first time where my stuff had that kind of impact on somebody. It was a global business. My stuff went globally. Definitely, that impacted me.”

Eventually Marvelli left Marvel and went to a different company. He liked the new job, but with each stop on his career path Marvelli seemed to move closer and closer to the business end of operations and farther and farther from the creative side. 

He ventured out on his own. Marvelli and his wife started their own company, helping with product development, as a licensing agent, and with packaging illustration and graphics. Marvelli said he has always found happiness with the art. 

“For me it’s about storytelling and character development,” he said. “No matter what the medium, it’s really about character development and storytelling.”

The next stop in his career journey led him to Rhode Island. Hasbro, which is based in Pawtucket, reached out to Marvelli and soon after he was relocating to the Ocean State. He moved his family to Barrington and began working on all sorts of fun projects with Hasbro. And it was during his time that Marvelli made himself a promise — “I made a promise to myself that I would go back to things I love doing for myself… the passion projects.”

Marvelli spent his nights and weekends, any free time really, working on his own project “The Boy in the Bot.” And when Hasbro downsized, Marvelli was ready to shift his work into high gear. 

“Three days after the lay-off, we were up and running with this project,” Marvelli said, adding that he had assembled a team of artists to help with the work. 

The Boy in the Bot

It is all about the story, and for Marvelli, much of the story is pulled from real life. 

Years ago, while he was working at Marvel, Marvelli learned that his father was diagnosed with cancer. Three years later, he was gone. 

“The emotions that all humans go through … I wanted to translate that into this narrative,” he said. “And while it’s science fiction, it’s still about a boy who loses his father.

“The Bot is learning about humanity and emotions and what it means to be human. The boy is learning about who his mother and father were through the bot.”

Marvelli described the writing process as an experience where he felt like he was living with the characters in the graphic novel. 

“When you’re writing these characters, you’re dancing around the perimeter until you enter this world. It’s a weird imagination thing — you see the characters, you’re in the room, you’re just writing it down and translating the information,” he said. 

“The most rewarding part,” he added, “is that you’re doing every part of it.”

Some days he is working on the cover art, while others he is writing, or focused on the marketing or product design or social media or fielding interview requests. 

“Like a jazz drummer, I’m getting to hit every drum,” he said. 

Marvelli said he knows there have been other stories of boys and robots, but his story is unique, he said. It’s from his own life. 

“The Boy in the Bot” has already grown a lot of interest through kickstarter and Indie-Gogo. It made its debut at the Baltimore Comi-Con late last month, and will be at the New York Comi-Con this month. 

Meanwhile, Marvelli and his team are already working on Book Two of the series. 

“I would like to get this thing into people’s heads faster,” he said. “I want to tell the story, I want to share the story. But it takes times. That’s one of the things it’s hard to come to terms with.”

Marvelli said early feedback for “The Boy in the Bot” has been great. 

“Everyone loves it so far. People can see this as a movie, they can see it as an animated show,” he said. “They really want to see what happens next.”