Many of Steve Welsh’s friends do not know him as a “comic book guy.”

They may know the Petoskey senior as a former mayoral candidate in his hometown.

Or as the guy who had a live segment of G4’s “Attack of the Show” filmed in his apartment.

“(Welsh) is extremely intelligent, and rather worldly,” said Petoskey junior Andrew Keck, WMHW’s sports director and host of SportsZone on Thursday, a show that Welsh is a regular guest. “He’s really big into comic books, but also movies, sports, (and) technology.”

Welsh, a lifelong fan of comics, has been developing his own comic book for about two years, based on another interest of his.

“I’m a huge buff of anything Ancient Egypt,” Welsh said. “I’ve considered for years doing Egyptology for a profession. (The comic) would be the god Osiris reincarnated into a current person, and they basically have to become a protector of Ancient Egypt and its artifacts. The first story line would be him figuring out who he was.”

Matt Blair, Welsh’s hometown friend and roommate, said his friend’s comic work has been a long-running personal project.

“It’s been a pretty private thing, because I think he wants it to be perfect,” said Blair, a Mid-Michigan Community College student. “It started out as a hobby, and he kept adding to it and adding to it, and perfecting it over time.”

Welsh plans to write and illustrate the book, although he has considered having another artist draw it.

“I’m more adept at writing,” Welsh said. “I do musical writing, comic book writing. I’ve been thinking of doing screenplays.”

Welsh cites inspiration from famed “X-Men” writer Chris Claremont and Doug Moench, creator of Welsh’s favorite character, Moon Knight. He also said Claudio Sanchez, lead singer and guitarist of Coheed and Cambria, is a major inspiration.

“(I like) the fact that he’s doing it the opposite way I am,” said Welsh, who also is a musician and songwriter. “He writes the songs first, and then writes comic books from that. A lot of my lyrics come from my comics.”

Welsh was born in Anchorage, Alaska. His family moved to Petoskey when he was eight years old. He ran for mayor of Petoskey when he was 19, and won 13 percent of the vote.

Blair said his friend’s campaign both was fun and good for local government.

“It seemed like it gave a lot more attention to actual city government, and how things ran,” Blair said. “Young people actually paid attention to it because they actually knew somebody who was running for it.”

Welsh is a broadcasting major and plans to move to Los Angeles in hopes to get a job at G4 after graduation. He said he has become friends with many producers at the channel, and regularly plays video games with them over Xbox Live.

He hopes to work in the film industry as a writer or director, and has hopes of one day being hired as a writer by Marvel Comics, although he admits he always finds writing to be an arduous process.

“As much as I don’t want to do it for a career, writing is going to be what I’m doing,” Welsh said.

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