Thursday, December 05, 2024

The Tale of the Multieyed Lady

So, lately we’ve been on something of a Kickstarter journey, in that we’ve discovered and backed several over the past year. While backing Kickstarter comics can be something of a mixed bag, we’ve been generally pleased with the comics we’ve acquired. To be sure. Most of the comics that we’ve backed were by creators known to us, every once in a while we come across a creator and comic that completely surprises us. Such is the case with The Multi-Eyed Lady. This eight-page B&W comic is about a young girl and her friends who rises to save their town.

The comic was created by Juan Espinosa’s 10 year old daughter, Grace. Juan Espinosa is the founder of Bearded Man Comics and creator of a number of comics, including Adventures of a System Admin, Hackerstrip, and El Galipote. Grace is his fifth grader daughter who is also passionate about comics, so much so that she determined to write her own, hence the birth of The Multi-Eyed Lady, which she produced with the help of Topan Prakasa who illustrated the comic.

The Multi-Eyed Lady is a superhero story centered around a diverse team of heroes which is led by Guadalupe, who has the ability to see everything around her the Multi-Eyed Lady and Sir Strong, her husband, James, who — as his name implies — has super strength. The pair are joined by Alan, their tech-savvy partner, who performs Overwatch duties for the team. May, a very skilled tracker, Edgar their weapons expert, and Mary who is an accomplished spy. Together they fight against the criminals in their neighborhood, one of them who is the evil Witch Maya. As it turns out, Maya, is May’s sister. Unfortunately, Maya has become corrupted by greed and power and turned against her sister.

The comic’s story begins with Guadalupe and James reflecting on their double lives as both a married couple with friends and families as well as superheroes. From there we are introduced to Alan who has created a device that will allow the team to be alerted to crimes and to track Maya’s malicious activities. As stated, this initial comic of Grace’s is a B&W 8 pager. The comic itself highlights themes of friendship and loyalty, while showing all the abilities and personalities of each team member.


The story, though simple, is well told, and the art is clean and crisp, rendering a fine first effort for Grace and Topan. For our own part, we stumbled across the Kickstarter completely by accident and was so tickled by the concept of a fifth, grader producing her own comic that we felt compelled to back the project. Having received the comic, we are very happy that we did, as it was a pure delight to read. As can be expected, the comic (the story of which is wrapped up in this initial issue) is the first installment of a longer, ongoing series. We certainly hope Grace experiences enough success with this first issue to continue her foray into the world of indie comics.




Thursday, November 21, 2024

An interview with Guy Dorian, Sr.: The coming of COR!

Here is yet another older interview I did some years back that appeared on another web page with which I am no longer associated. It has been my intention to bring that older work here, and with this interview I have just one more article to bring over. anyway, here we go...

This is part two of a two-part interview with Guy Dorian, Sr. the First half  can be found here:

C.O.R. premiered at the New York Comic Con in 2016. where Guy Dorian, Sr., Ian Dorian, and Matthew Pallotta had giveaways of the Zero issues of both Law of Resistance and C.O.R. and were signing their books. Also present was Janine Fackque creator of Quandary.

Guy Dorian, Sr. is something of a Renaissance-level artist, he can draw, paint, watercolor, sculpt, build, write, and dance (he can’t sing). His his first comicbook work published at Marvel in New Warriors #48 (1994). Some of his other comic work has included UltraForce, Hari Kari, Bad Girls, Hakkiro Soul Quest, and many others. Not just making an impression on the comics themselves, Guy has worked on many trading card sets for both Marvel and DC Comics.

In addition to all of his comicbook work, Guy has built up his portfolio in a variety of different art fields, such as toy designs (for WWF/WWE), trading cards, coloring books, magazines, stickers, billboards, newspaper comic strip ads, and more, the list goes on and on. Beyond his artwork, Guy is also a sought-after lecturer, focusing on fine art as well on professional comicbook art. Currently he is working with the Jack Kirby Museum and Research Center on big projects, as well as character development for Marvel Comics Avengers Assemble, and a self-published comic entitled COR (discussed here), that he is working on with his son (Guy Dorian, Jr.) and others.


RJS: Tell me about your new project, COR.

GD, Sr: Well, COR is a project by myself and a company called PKMM Entertainment. I can tell you this character COR is something I’ve always wanted to do. He has the intelligence of the entire internet and intelligence of all those who are connected to the internet at his beck and call. He has translucent skin on parts of his body, that shows the red glow of his veins system. He’s a character who is flawed by his own birth, and by his own species to which he is the sole heir. This all occurs with the help of a woman he meets by the name of Anat.

He goes on a journey to ultimately discover where he came from, who he is, and why he is here. The book is written by the very capable and talented independent screen-writer, Guy Dorian Jr. (my son), illustrated by myself and inked by the phenomenal Bob Wiacek. Some of my good friends and fantastically talented icons of the comic industry are on board for collaboration on stories, pages, and covers of this great series. Some of those artists that I have the pleasure of working with are Sal Buscema (who took over as Guy’s inker for the rest of the entire series as well as on the other books on which Guy is working), Herb Trimpe (the zero issue has an article about Herb Trimpe and features one of the last illustrations Trimpe ever did), Paul Gulacy, Michael Golden, Rich Buckler, Larry Hama, Louise Simonson, Joe Sinnott, Neal Adams, as well as Janice Chiang on letters. And I can’t forget my son’s writing partner, Cody Ciezlekowski.

All of this is brought to you by the visionary named Matthew Pallotta. He is the executive vice-president of PKMM, and the executive editor and vice-president of PKMM Entertainment. Matthew is a visionary, and an incredible talent in the industry of electronics and soon to be of entertainment.

RJS: What prompted you to create this story?

GD, Sr: Nothing necessarily prompted me. My brain is always running at a thousand miles per second, I am always thinking of new intellectual properties, stories, characters, worlds, products and series. You name it, my brain never stops running, never stops creating, never stops thinking, never stops taking me somewhere to creation.

RJS: From what I already know about it, it seems to be a far cry from superhero stuff for which you are perhaps best known.

GD, Sr: It’s a collaboration originally with my son. We are both into fantasy and science fiction as well as some superhero ideals, ideas and characters. We started collaborating on projects and our thoughts came together to create something totally original. It can be considered a sci-fi fantasy, based around a hero. But make no mistake he is a superhero, just not in the same sense that we see men in tights. He’s a hero and anti-hero, but in the course of the story he’d be classified as a hero. I guess you’ll have to read the story to find out. As far as if it is more difficult, I guess I have to say everything is both easy and difficult because I never look at anything or any project or any story without trying to put my all into it. At various times, it is just both simple and extremely difficult.

RJS: Will this be a limited run series or do you intend for it to be an ongoing series?

GD, Sr: The story will be debut as a six-book miniseries, and then turn into its own full ongoing series.

RJS: Besides COR, do you have anything else that you have in the works you want to discuss?

GD, Sr: At the moment this book is everything, but I do have another major project I’m working on. That project is a sculpture of none other than Jack “King” Kirby, the greatest comicbook artist who ever lived. It will be a life-size sculpture and monument dedicated to his memory for his fans from all around the world. I have been involved with the Kirby Museum for quite some time now. In discussing, and going over this project a development that has come out of it is that I will be a guest speaker, doing a lecture and physically drawing about Jack Kirby’s art…why he drew what he drew…and that was true from the time he was an early professional all the way through to his greatest successes.


RJS: I noticed that Ian is also working on a new project and both of your projects are being pitched on the same website. Are you guys going to be self-publishing them together?

GD, Sr: My brother’s project is called Law of Resistance or Resistance. It is a story that was created by my brother, Ian and Jim Krueger. Our development of COR, was an influence on the creation of Ian and Jim’s character. Matthew Pallotta played his part, which was then developed by Ian and Jimmy and ultimately scripted by Jimmy. My project is called COR – Controlled Organic Robotics. I created the initial character from my son’s descriptions and writer became co-creator with me working and developing the story. He also has a partner who was involved in the writing and his name is Cody Ciezlekowski. The energy of creating this project is my favorite part of character creation, and I am very happy to be now working on the issues.

RJS: What other kinds of things do you think you’d like to do going forward?

GD, Sr: I’m pretty much doing them. My main thing right now is continuing to work with a great group of amazing iconic professionals as well as continuing work with my son on COR. The character of COR is just a blast to work on! The story, the characters, the energy out of the book… it’s just all me and just really who I am! He’s a science fiction, retro-dial…and yet a new creation that has gotten so much praise over the last few months. We haven’t even released the issues yet. The character that I have created, COR, has a mixture of Black Panther meets the Alien meets Machine Man meets Terminator…it’s just one of those types of characters that you know when you make it that clicks. A character that will stick, a character that will stay, the response by fans and by professionals alike has been overwhelming. It’s an honor to be able to be a creator, an illustrator, an artist, a sculptor,  a painter, and especially a comicbook artist! To just be involved in all these things in the industry in an artistic sense it’s really just the greatest thing. I absolutely love what I do and everything that is being done right now on these issues!

These novels which are first going to be a six-book series, and then a graphic novel and it will be continued as series of novels is all being brought together by the amazingly intelligent and charismatic mind of Matthew Pallotta. Matthew and PKMM put together this group of phenomenal talents in the comics industry to create PKMM Entertainment. Much like Steve Jobs, he has been involved in working with advanced technology solutions, and computers for many years. In his job, he has worked for the federal government for his entire life, creating and developing software solutions and his intellect has been so broad-based. He’s created so many things in that space, that he just could not be contained. He loves the comic industry, he loves the movie and game industries, he loves science fiction, fantasy, superheroes… you name it! He’s putting everything out there to make sure that this new company, PKMM entertainment is a viable working entertainment company that does things right, by using all the greatest talent that he can find on the planet.

I almost forgot to mention my brother is working on his project with anchors such as Bill Sienkiewicz, Mark Texiera, Joe Weems, Matt “Batt” Banning, and many other extremely talented big wigs in the business. On my book, COR I have been working on the title in some capacity as anchors and pencil is collaborating with me are John Livesay, Bob Wiacek, Rich Buckler, Joseph Rubenstien, Herb Trimpe, Michael Golden, and the great Sal Buscema, as well as possibly Michael Kaluta, and a few more. And let’s not forget the great Janice Chiang on letters for both books.




COR, and all artwork associated with the character, including COR logo is copyright © & TM 2015 & 2024 PKMM Entertainment/Guy Dorian, Sr. COR published by PKMM Entertainment. All rights reserved. All material relating to COR may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed in any form
without the written consent of Guy Dorian & PKMM. All trademarks and logos are © copyrighted by their respective parties.

The text to Funnybook City is © 2015 & 2024 Robert J. Sodaro, D.B.A. Freelance Ink. All rights reserved.


Robert J. Sodaro is a noted comicbook historian and journalist who began reading comics during the early ‘60s while sitting on the newsstand in his Uncle’s grocery store. He has been writing about them in the early ‘80s, and wrote for virtually every print comicbook publication published during the ‘80s & ‘90s. These days, much of his writing can be found here or on HubPages.com.

Thursday, November 07, 2024

Guy Dorian, Sr. interview: The Marvel Years

Here is one of my older articles that originally appeared on a website with which I am no longer associated, hence I wanted to repost it here in my blog for all to see. This article is from 2016

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If you don’t know who Guy Dorian, Sr. is, then you simply  haven’t been paying attention. He had his first comic work published at Marvel Comics in New Warriors #48 (1994). Guy so impressed his editor, that it was just the start of his career at Marvel. He’s worked on Marvel Comics Presents, Daredevil, Night Thrasher, and many projects over the years. Some of his other comic work includes work on UltraForce, Hari Kari, Bad Girls, Hakkiro Soul Quest, and many others. Not just making an impression on the comics themselves, Guy has worked on many trading card sets for both Marvel and DC Comics.

In addition to all of his comicbook work, Guy has actually expanded beyond comics, and has built up his portfolio in a variety of different art fields, such as toy designs (for WWF/WWE), trading cards (again including for the WWF), coloring books, magazine covers, stickers, billboards, newspaper comic strip ads, and much more. Some of these other works include Hercules and Xena watch designs, character development for the Silver Surfer cartoon series, Star Wars Comics to Color and the list goes on and on.

Even beyond to his artwork, Guy is also a lecturer focusing on fine art as well on professional comicbook art, and is available for speaking engagements at businesses and corporations. Currently he is working closely with the Jack Kirby Museum and Research Center on big projects (that he discusses in this interview), as well as character development for Marvel Comics Avengers Assemble, and a self-published comic that he is working on with his son (Guy Dorian, Jr.) and others.

We recently caught up with Guy and (finally) got the chance to talk to him about his very busy, very full schedule.

RJS: So when did you break into comics?

Guy Dorian, Sr: I broke into comics at the age of 22 almost 23. I had tried for about two and a half years to get into Marvel, with the help of my brother Ian, Mark Pacella, and Dan Panosian, as well as my wife’s willingness to wait, and also my aunt Trudy who helped me financially to go back and forth into New York.

Thanks to my brother’s connections with Mark Pacella, I became his assistant. When I met Dan Panosian both he and Mark brought me into Marvel…Dan took me into Marvel to see the editors. So after two-and-a-half years of trying to bring up samples into Marvel — which was a wonderful place to hang out back in those days — you could hang out in Marvel and talk to everyone and meet everyone; and I would do my samples right there at Marvel. The editor I had seen first was Ralph Macchio. He looked at my work and said it will take you about two-and-a-half-to-three years to get in; he was right on the money. Finally, after many years of struggle, with my wife and I eating peas out of a can for our lack of money, and many tears on the train ride home, I walked in to Rob Tokar’s office where he was doing New Warriors and showed him my samples. I went into his office he started to look at my work, and he got a phone call right then. He seemed to be on the phone and I didn’t want to interrupt him so I decided to leave thinking…“Oh well, I guess I won’t have a job again.” But as I was walking out he said, “Hey, what’s your schedule like? I think I have a job for you.” Just like that, I began my first job at Marvel.

Actually as I recall now my actual first work was through the Daredevil office with Editor Pat Garrahy. Pat was Mark’s editor, I believe, and said, “Hey, why don’t you do some samples of Daredevil…here’s a script.” It was a backup story. That was the first actual paid work I got — I got paid $50 per page for those pencils. He then bought a pinup of Daredevil from me but it was never published. He also bought a double-page splash pinup of the Fantastic Four. So that was really my first work. As I mentioned before, I started my work on I believe issue #48 of New Warriors, and Rob Tokar purchased a pin-up of Nova from me.


RJS: What was it about comics that drew you to them?

GD, Sr: At the age of maybe eight or nine my brother Ian and I saw comics on the stands and were amazed by them. Comics by Jack Kirby, Walter Simonson, Neal Adams, John Byrne, Michael Golden, Herb Trimpe, Sal Buscema — to name a few, had captured our attention. The Fantastic Four, The X-Men, The Incredible Hulk, Captain America, Iron Man, Spider-Man, Batman, Superman, Green Lantern, The Flash — not to mention the cartoons and audio books that we purchased as well as toys. These things made us want to draw comicbooks. At a very early age my twin brother (Ian) and I studied from artists like Michelangelo, Leonardo DaVinci, Albrecht Durer just to name a few. We were both sent to a gifted school and there we gained a lot of confidence that we could actually acquire those high heights of becoming professional artists.

RJS: You really have bounced around not only in the kinds of books you’ve done but the type of art you’ve done. Everything from comics to tour designs, to — as you told me at Winter Con; sculpting and landscapes — how do you explain that?

GD, Sr: Sr: Well, I bounced around because I consider myself an artist first not only in the field of comics but in many forms of fine art. I have always loved to draw paint, watercolor, sculpt, build, write, and dance. I’ve even done acting. I’ve worked on comicbooks, toys, games, movies, I’ve been printed in comic strips, coloring books, trading cards, toy boxes, t-shirts, calendars, you name it. I’ve done hundreds and hundreds of commissions that have been spread all around the world from portrait art to paintings to pen and ink drawings of scenes, places, people, everything. Of all things I am most asked to draw its usually comicbook characters. I started out spreading my wings in the ‘90s while I was at Marvel and I spread into the toy companies such as Toy Biz, Courier International, and just toys as well as others. I worked on such things as The Tick, Pony Trails, The Three Stooges, Wind in the Willows, Hercules, Xena, Nerf Guns, Power Rangers, WWE (at that time WWF) figures and trading cards and any other toys I could work on.

RJS: Do you think that art is art and that it is something genetic or do you think that is a learned trait? I get that you can teach technique, but do you believe that some people are simply predisposed to be better at it than others?

GD, Sr: Well as far as art is concerned everyone can learn technique, whether or not they are good or bad, people can learn…well, at least the average person can learn how to use technique to make art that looks interesting. There are a lot of techniques that through practice people can use to do works of art that may seem to be okay to fantastic depending upon how well they learned the medium…How well they learned those techniques, but some people like myself have a different sense. Where we can just see art as design, structure, light and shadow, color atmosphere, texture, energy and feel it. See it and embody it, because it’s just how we see the world. Whether we never took one lesson or took a hundred thousand lessons, we would be able to produce artworks of high quality that are beyond what most people would normally be able to do. But if you asked me to sing I can’t do it. How lame.

RJS: Given that you seem to be doing all sorts of art these days is there any that you prefer more than others:

GD, Sr: No, there is no one type that I prefer over another. I prefer the challenge of creation, the challenge of inception, and understanding. I prefer the challenge of accomplishment and reaching a goal. I prefer to be tested, and I prefer to conquer and achieve. Whatever type or style of art or medium that is required, those are the factors that make me enjoy them equally no matter what they are.

RJS: Your brother, Ian is also a very talented artist in the same field of comics. Is there any rivalry, friendly or otherwise between you two?

GD, Sr: There is no rivalry between the two of us. We do try to influence each other to do better and push each other. We can work well together at times and other times we don’t work well at all. I would say that you know I started out as a professional when I was 22, my brother started out doing small parts of some of the projects that I had when I was younger and working in my early twenties. Ian went off to college to get his Master’s degree and become a professor, and became a professional stone carver, sculptor, as well as painter, illustrator…you name it he has the degree to prove it. So now that we’re both professional illustrators working in comics and for the same company! It is very special, and we actually bonded even closer because of that. We both worked on the 2015 Avengers Assemble calendar, but the one that has more of the buildings on it was done by my brother. We worked with Chris Sotomayor’s SotoColor on that and that was a fun job in some ways and in other ways it was very difficult. So we’ve worked on the Avengers calendar, commercial art that will be used for many things over the next few years on clothing; shirts, pants, shoes, books, hats, you name it…my brother was mostly the counselor and I was mostly the inker. Sometimes he did a little drawing on the computer and sometimes I felt that a little change of the figures in the illustration would improve the result. All in all, it was a fun gig in the end…and very rewarding to do that Avengers Assemble 2015 calendar.

RJS: Have the two of you worked on any projects together before in the past?

GD, Sr: Yes, we have. We have worked on different projects to help one another out at different times such as back a long time ago when I was working on toys for tour companies, (I had done many different things from many different companies) he had helped me with some scopes for Youngblood. He helped with trading cards for the WWF, which is now called the WWE. We have worked together on stories, some eight-page, some book length stories, that 2015 Avengers Assemble calendar, illustrations for consumer products, and animation as well as more projects that I cannot think of at the very moment.

RJS: Is there any existing character you’d like to work on that you haven’t already?

GD, Sr: There are several. My number one character that I’d like to work on would be The Incredible Hulk, others would be Dr. Strange, Man-Thing, Mister Miracle, Machine Man, Black Panther, possibly Spawn, as well as the X-Men… maybe Green Lantern. I have illustrated most of those characters on or in some capacity over the course of the 22 years as a professional. I have, I could say a lot of them were done on a trading cards as well as some paintings and such, but as far as full issues most of the main few that I mentioned in the beginning were my big hitters. Oh, I forgot to mention of course the Fantastic Four! I did come up with a story based on one of the characters of the Fantastic Four that I would like to pitch to Marvel. I do have a great writer involved — a very famous one — to help me pitch that.

This is part one of a two-part interview with Guy Dorian, Sr. the second half of the interview can be found here.


The Avengers, all members of the Avengers, The New Warriors, Daredevil, and all artwork associated with those character are © & TM 2015 Marvel Entertainment, Inc. All rights reserved.

Coping with the New Activism poster  © & TM 2015 PKMM Entertainment/Guy Dorian.

Funnybook City, and this article is © 2015 & 2024 Robert J. Sodaro, D.B.A. Freelance Ink. All rights reserved.


Robert J. Sodaro is a noted comicbook historian and journalist who began reading comics during the early ‘60s while sitting on the newsstand in his Uncle’s “Mom & Pop” grocery store. He has been writing about them in the early ‘80s, and wrote for virtually every print comicbook publication published during the ‘80s & ‘90s. These days, much of his writing can be found on Hubpages.com/@robertjsodaro.

Thursday, August 29, 2024

Mort Todd Talks About Making Comics



This is another of my older articles from a website that I am no longer associated with, so I wanted to repost it here. This article is from 2015

Mort Todd has made his career in comics, animation, and entertainment. As a youth, he began drawing and writing comics and working as editor of his camp newspaper. Then in high school he drew ads and record covers for local clubs and bands. As a teen, he moved to New York City and began creating classic garage punk album covers from Crypt Records. At 23 he became the Editor-in-Chief of Cracked magazine working with legendary artists like John Severin, Bill Ward and Steve Ditko. Todd went on to make headlines by getting renowned Mad Magazine artist, Don Martin, after a 32-year career to jump ship from Mad to join Cracked.

Currently, Mort’s media company Comicfix develops licensed properties for publishing, film, TV and animation. For the last year, Comicfix has been putting out an eclectic variety of comics, mixing the classical aspects of the comics people grew up with, along with a modern sensibility. The incredible talent involved ranges from legends of the comics industry, to some very familiar names as well as promising new talent. We personally got the opportunity to meet Mort when he headed up Marvel Comic’s music comic division (pitching him a possible adaptation of Meatloaf’s Bat Out of Hell II: Back into Hell album), and recently got to chance to ask Mort about Comicfix and some of his other on-going projects, including resurrecting Charlton Comics with the help of his friends, including Roger McKenzie and Paul Kupperberg.

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Robert J Sodaro: You have a long history in comics ranging from editor-in-chief of Cracked magazine, and Marvel Music to having worked on Superman, Spider-Man, Barbie, and Looney Tunes. Now you are the owner of Comicfix, a media company. How did you go from one to the other, or is your work with Comicfix merely an outgrowth of your earlier comicbook work?

Mort Todd: Ever since I was a youngster, I’ve been interested in every kind of media: TV, film, animation, music and print, and I’ve been fortunate to dabble in all of it. Comicfix is indeed an outgrowth of what I’ve done and an outlet to create the above mentioned media.

RJS: You recently launched a crowd-sourcing fund-raiser on patron.com entitled Mort Todd is creating comic books and graphic novels, where you are seeking funding for a couple of distinct lines of comics. Tell us what that is all about.

MT: I started Comicfix in 2000 to develop comic properties for TV, film, and licensing. Over the years I’ve collaborated with a variety of creators with the same goal. While initially Comicfix featured all my own properties, I’ve launched some distinctive other imprints under the Comicfix umbrella. Writer Brad Hamlin had created a full line of characters, the Secret Society, for the web and print that I’ve visualized under the Mystery Island brand. I did some work in the ‘80s for publisher Ron Frantz and his B&W ACE Comics line and we’ve partnered up to re-release some of those titles in color and create new ones. And a group of like-minded nuts have come together to reanimate the spirit of Charlton Comics with our Charlton Neo line. There’s a lot of cost in creating these comics and not a lot of reward until you make some progress. The Patron campaign is to attract fans of what we’re doing and to help operating costs until we can reach a wider audience.

RJS: How can people contribute to that, and how is that campaign going?

MT: Like a lot of grass-root campaigns it’s had a slow start, but is growing as people hear about it. Those interested can go to the link you mentioned above and donate whatever they want, from $1.00 up, to be a patron of the comic arts. For a dollar they get access to our Pix-c web comic site where we have over a dozen strips with new episodes posted weekly by a bunch of talented creators doing comics ranging from heroes to horror and humor. Donate more and you get print comics, posters, t-shirts and even original art.

RJS: What do you think is the fascination with a company like Charlton Comics? Sure, a bunch of creators came out of the company, when it was operating years ago, but why do people (pros and fans alike) seem to care so much about this company and its characters?

MT: Charlton was always the underdog when compared to bigger publishers like Marvel and DC. As a smaller company they were more willing to experiment with their titles and try out concepts the larger companies wouldn’t do. And the creators had the freedom to do more wild stuff than they would be able to with the big guys.

RJS: With the help of guys like Paul Kupperberg and Roger McKenzie the Charlton line really seems to be taking off, you have three titles either out or in the works and have more on the way. Do you think that you’ll actually be able to resurrect the company as a going concern, or do you just plan on publishing “Charlton-themed” comics?

MT: We’ll be putting out at least six Charlton Neo titles a year, and hope to increase the output if response warrants it. Like the original Charlton, we’re such a small concern that creators are free to do their own thing, and all the features are creator-owned. The Charlton Arrow is an anthology book featuring a mix of genres. Charlton Wild Frontier is a Western comic featuring some Charlton characters like Cheyenne Kid and Kid Montana along with new ones. Paul Kupperberg’s Secret Romances is an oddball romance title with all stories written by Paul and a bunch of different artists. In the works are Charltoons, a funny animal book, and Roger McKenzie’s Total Frenzy Comics and Unusual Suspense. The last two titles are print versions of some Pix-C strips, including revamps of some Charlton characters. Also with ACE Comics, we’re reprinting Charlton’s Hot Rod comics from the ‘60s. Ron Frantz acquired the rights and we are printing from Charlton’s silver prints, used to publish the original comics.


RJS: Who currently owns the licenses to those characters, and how do you get to use the Charlton name and characters if you guys don’t own the license?

MT: Charlton went out of business in the late ‘80s, so a lot of the material is in the public domain. They did sell off some of their assets to others, most notably their action heroes like Blue Beetle and Captain Atom to DC Comics, so we stay away from those and utilize their less well-known, but still beloved, characters.

RJS: In addition to Charlton, you are also publishing ACE Comics and comics under the Comicfix logo, can you tell us what those comicbook lines are about, and how they differ from the Charlton titles.

MT: ACE features the properties owned by Ron Frantz, including Skyman and the Face, which were drawn by Steve Ditko in the ‘80s. We’re also reprinting some of those character’s Golden Age stories to celebrate their 75th anniversary this year. Ron also has many great titles that were scheduled but never released back then that we’ll be putting out, like an incredible graphic novel by C.C. Beck. A few of the ACE titles are reprints, like the Classic Hot Rod and Racing Car Comics, but we have some new material planned as well. Comicfix does a little of everything, from horror to photo comics and tend to be the properties I’ve personally created or own.

RJS: Do you think your ability to attract both seasoned pros and newbie creators to these titles has to do with the overly-corporate nature of the current state of comics?

MT: Sure. Comics are mostly superhero titles now, with stifling continuity. Our books offer creators the opportunity to expand the comic medium with different concepts and characters and try out things you couldn’t do at the “majors.”

RJS: It seems that the Big Two are allowing seasoned pros with extraordinary talent to slip out of their grasp, do you think that has to do with a perception that “older” creators are simply passé, and perceived (either by the corporations or by the fans) as no longer being relevant?

MT: When I got into the industry in the ‘80s it appeared that if you had been doing comics for the last 20 years, Marvel and DC weren’t interested in using you and they were in search of the “hot” new talent. People like Steve Ditko and Gene Colan couldn’t find regular assignments and I was glad to work with them. And it hasn’t changed since then; the “hot” artists of the ‘80s & ‘90s now find it hard to get work. Again, I’m more than happy to work with anybody that has talent.

RJS: Do you see the revival of Charlton, Ace Comics, and Comicfix to be viable concerns and that you’ll be able to increase your audience share as you move forward?

MT: For sure! Comics are more popular than ever, but more limited than ever. Mainstream comics aren’t too attractive to a wide audience as they are all about superheroes and have a vast continuity with never-ending chapters that potential customers can’t just dip into. Our books have shorter stories, more variety, usually told in under 10 pages, so the casual reader can read a complete adventure without having to buy 50 issues of crossovers. There is a wider potential audience for these kinds of comics than the current hardcore comic fan market attracts.

RJS: Any plans of getting Diamond distribution?

MT: Indeed. That is one of the goals of the Patron campaign, to be able to fund print runs and sell via Diamond.

RJS: Given that distribution for Independent, small press, and “non-corporate” comics is so difficult (and that Diamond’s rules and regulations are so restrictive) do you foresee any chance of a new distributor stepping up to handle the comics that Diamond doesn’t or won’t distribute?

MT: Possibly. We’re also looking into alternate distribution to reach those who wouldn’t normally enter a comics shop. Of course it would help to have a property that is also exposed on other media platforms like TV, film, or animation and we’re working on that, too!

RJS: With Hollywood looking at comics as its new source material, do you think that Indy comics stand a chance against corporate comics in that marketplace?

MT: Yes. Good story-telling will always sell. And a surprising number of independent, non-superhero comics are making it to the theater and TV screens.

RJS: What (else) are you doing to get attention and distribution for your line(s) of comics? And what else do you think is a viable way to get your comics out into the marketplace.

MT: Licensing is the best way to get your product known outside of comic fandom. We’re close to signing a film deal for one of our titles Sadistik, The Diabolikal Super-Kriminal, which is a photo comic with a worldwide cult following. I’m confident that with a successful release it will open the floodgates with others looking at our properties and in turn attracting readers to our books.



RJS: How difficult is it for Indy/Small Press comics to get out into comic shops?

MT: It’s mostly an issue of capital. It takes a bit of money to get the ball rolling what with having to bankroll editorial, printing, and promotional costs for a while before you see any return. And it also helps to have some content that people will actually like and look forward to with continued release!


Charlton Arrow, Charlton Neo, Pix-Call artwork displayed, as well as all material mentioned in this article is © & TM 2024 their respective copyright holders. All rights reserved.

Funnybook City is © 2024 Robert J. Sodaro, D.B.A. Freelance Ink. All rights reserved.


Robert J. Sodaro is a noted comicbook historian and journalist who began reading comics during the early ‘60s while sitting on the newsstand in his Uncle’s “Mom & Pop” grocery store. He has written about them for virtually every print comicbook publication published during the ‘80s & ‘90s. 

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