Kicking it With Jim Zubkavich of SkullKickers

The sleeper hit of 2010 concludes this week on comiXology with issue #6 readying for release tomorrow! In honor of this occasion series creator and writer Jim Zubkavich was nice enough to answer a few questions about the series, it’s creation and the rpg games of olden days that helped influence the awesome comic that is Skullkickers!

comiXology: Thanks for your time, Skullkickers is quite possibly one of the most exciting fantasy comics to hit stands in the past year!  What do you think of the representation of High fantasy and sword & sorcery in the sequential art medium currently?

Jim Zubkavich: Fantasy is generally underrepresented in the comic market, which always boggles my mind, but I’m hopeful that we’re heading in to a new trend of increased demand for fantasy-centric books. The genre is tailor-made for comic storytelling with big colorful visuals and imagination-laden settings.

comiXology: How did this project come about in the first place and how did you first meet your fellow creators?

JZ: Skullkickers originated as a couple short stories put together for Image’s Popgun anthology series, and they’re available for free on comiXology as Skullkickers #0. Those two self-contained short stories were about a pair of monster killers without any morals and readers responded well to them, so Erik Larsen (Image Publisher at the time) expressed interest in seeing more. It took a couple years to finally pull together the creative team and get the book organized, but I’m obviously happy now that we’re putting out regular issues.

Edwin Huang, our line artist, is a recent art school graduate who originally applied for a position at the UDON studio, where I work on video game and movie art projects, and I was impressed with the quality of his work and professionalism. The studio didn’t have a space for him at the time so I stayed in touch and gave him extra feedback on his portfolio. Soon after he and I were teaming up on Skullkickers.

Misty Coats, our colorist, came on board the team after being recommended by another illustrator I’ve worked with named Emily Warren. Misty’s sample pages were so on target and perfect for the series that they’re actually in the first printed issue practically untouched.

Marshall Dillon, our letterer, is an old friend who has lettered comics at UDON for years. His natural sense of storytelling and well thought out sound effects make the whole ting come together.

Working on a creator-owned book like this is a delight and having such professional people to collaborate with makes it even better.

comiXology: Often it seems that traditional table-top gamers and comic book fans stand at opposite ends of the same spectrum, any chance you could elaborate on the balance Skullkickers seems to so effortlessly achieve in appeasing both sides of fandom?

JZ: I think the key to Skullkickers straddling that divide is that we’re tapping in to the feeling of RPG-style adventure rather than focusing on stats and specific in-jokes. The book is purposefully inclusive and plays with bigger fantasy and action movie tropes instead of catering to gaming fans only. Readers who game will enjoy the familiar elements we poke fun at while non-gamers can just dig into a wild action-filled ride.

comiXology: The characters of Baldy and Shorty are a great fresh take on the traditional mercenary duos of old. How were these guys created?

JZ: It’s not a very dramatic origin, I’m afraid, but that’s oddly appropriate given how the characters tear holes in standard epic fantasy tales.

Chris Stevens, the original artist on the Popgun short stories wanted to draw a fantasy short story, but didn’t want it to be the typical ‘knights in shining armor’ kind of stuff. I came up with the idea of these two mercenary morons and we were off to the races.

Although they have similar violent attitudes, I wanted to make sure they otherwise contrasted each other – different sizes, voices, outfit colors, hair choices (or lack of hair)… easy to describe and easy to visually pick out on the page.

comiXology: In a standard d20 gaming system how would their stats read?

JZ: Funny you should mention that – I actually got Robin Laws, RPG designer guru, to stat up the boys as bonus material in the back of our fourth issue. They’re stated up more like a pair of monsters than heroes, which is pretty on target considering the havoc they cause.

We’ll be back with Jim later this week. Luckily we were able to score a copy of Baldy’s steller stat sheet. Check it out and go download issues #1-5 while you wait for issue #6 to drop this wednesday!

Kevin Colden Rules The Night Part Two!

Earlier this week we brought you the first part of our exclusive interview with award-winning comic creator Kevin Colden. With his in inclusion in the all-new Strange Adventures anthology hitting stores soon we continue to chat with Kevin about his past experinces on the Con circit and his involment in the Xeric Foundation. For part one of the interview scroll down. For part two simply read on:

comiXology: So, how did winning the Xeric Grant help your career? And do you have any advice for creators out there looking to apply for it?

Kevin: The Xeric helped me in an odd way – because I turned down the grant money, Fishtown got a bunch of press and by extension really launched my career. But that happened because a number of my colleagues looked at the refusal of the money as a shot across the bow of print comics – which, for the record it wasn’t. I just had more experience in web and figured I would be more successful promoting it online. But the Xeric Foundation changed its guidelines a few years ago to accommodate webcomics. The Xeric people were wonderful throughout the entire process, and they’ve done great things for so many people – it just happens that I had a unique experience with the grant.

comiXology: Your Eisner nominated Graphic Novel Fishtown dealt was based on true events. What first drew you to turn the true story of a group of Philadelphia teenagers into a groundbreaking Graphic Novel?

Kevin: I was trying to process the actual event. I wanted to write a book set in Philadelphia, and in the course of my research for another idea, I found the story. There’s a pretty common misconception that the book was supposed to be factual. It wasn’t, which – I thought – was made very explicit in the book itself. The idea was to try and process a real-life horror through fictional means, and in the process question the nature of truth. But it’s entirely subjective, and intentionally avoids moralizing, which is something we see in European storytelling far more than in America, which is why I seem to have a lot of fans in England.

comiXology: Much of your work has been anthologized both online and in print. Can you describe the process involved in working with other creators to deliver a collaborative anthology of stories versus working on your own on a long form comic project?

Kevin: Working with other creators is like herding cats. That’s why comic artists have never unionized like we should have half a century ago. I learned that early on, and tend to be a contributor more than a a leader of men, as it were. But I’m the first guy to the party because I love talking to other creative people. So I can really only speak for myself when I say that a deadline and a paycheck are the easiest ways to get anything done, period.

comiXology: Many independent comic creators have made it a point to get to as many conventions as they can, as someone who has done his time on the convention scene, do you think it’s worth it overall?

Kevin: I certainly have done (and still do) my time on the circuit, and it works for me. For years I spent a lot of time on the con floor and avoided the afterhours scene, though of late I’ve become something of a fixture there. But I’m a fairly social and (dare I say) entertaining guy, and if you’re asocial or an asshole it may actually hurt you.

comiXology: Any chance you could share with us some of your influences? What comics are you currently reading and what in your opinion are the comics that everyone should read?

Kevin: I absorb everything. But if I had to list influences – all of the E.C. guys, particularly Bernie Krigstein, Larry Hama’s G.I. Joe run from the 80′s, the original TMNT comics, the majority of Tundra’s output – especially Dave McKean’s fantastic Cages; everything Rick Veitch has done. I take a lot of inspiration from film, mostly anything in the Criterion collection that’s not in English.

comiXology: Now you’re also in Band? Is that something that goes hand and hand with your career as a cartoonist or is that a different type of artistic expression you practice?

Kevin: It’s all tied in, I suppose. I’ve been doing both comics and music for so long that they’re both automatic. The music is a hell of a lot less lonely, but more collaborative which has its ups and downs. But it’s all part of the entertainment world, and you meet the same types of great and awful people in both sectors. It’s just fun to be onstage and make records.

comiXology: In conclusion what are your thoughts on digital comics as a whole?

Kevin: As much as I love a good pamphlet comic, they’re vinyl records and digital comics are MP3′s. They both have a place, but more people are buying eBooks than print books now, and the same will happen with comics – but not with the existing comic shop audience. The tablet computer is the modern-day equivalent of a 7-eleven spinner rack; regular readers can stumble in and buy an issue on impulse. “Batman? I like Batman. Wait – Batman is a comic book, too?!” That type of thing. It’s what I’ve been saying forever – you make it readily available at reasonable price point and people will buy it. Why do you think I was so keen to publish on the web four years ago?

An Interview with Molly Crabapple: Part Two (In which John Levaitt joins the party!)

Last week the blog at comiXology brought you an inside look at Dr. Sketchy’s Anti-art school and the first part of our interview with The Puppet Makers and Scarlett Takes Manhattan co-creator Molly Crabapple. Today we’re keeping the ball rolling with part two of our exclusive interview with Molly Crabapple as this time she is joined by her Dr. Sketchy cohort and comic book partner in crime John Levaitt the current creative director of Dr. Sketchy’s Anti-Art school.  For part one of the interview scroll further down this page; for part two simply keep reading!

comiXology: Thanks for joining us John, our last question was on Puppet Makers? Care to share any insight on how the project came about?

John: Sci-fi and French History are both big hobbyhorses of Molly and I, and we felt the Sun King’s Court felt like something out of science fiction anyway. Plus, who wouldn’t want an excuse to draw all those baroque gold fripperies.

comiXology: Cool, now what have been some of your influences both in comics and out, what would you recommend folks read these days?

Molly: Right now I’m obsessed with Joan Sfar, the French comics creator who did The Rabbi’s Cat, The Little Vampire, and Klezmar, and who directed the new Gainsbourg movie.  His stuff is so tender and human and anti-authoritarian and whimsical that you find your face contorting into emotions you thought you had long since buried.  In comics, I also love Kevin O’Neill, Marjene Sartrapi, The Sandman, the usual suspects.

Outside: Toulouse Lautrec, Aubrey Beardsley, scathing political cartoons from the time when political machines ran New York, and popular illustration, like the stuff on matchbooks and the back of cubes of pool chalk. What should you read?  Joan Sfar.  Yes, read Joan Sfar, so I can gush to more people about him.

John: I’m currently in lust with Jason Lutes’ Berlin books.

comiXoloy: If you guys could travel back in time to any particular era what would it be and why?

Molly: I’m not too big on time travel.  God bless birth control, and the internet. It’s much more interesting to cull the coolest aspects of
an era while leaving the suppurating syphilis sores behind.

John: I think as long as you’re at the top of the social heap, any time is fine. Unless you’re in one of those places where the top people get sacrificed to keep the sun shining. Then not so much.

comiXology: Now you’ve gotten to step into the world superhero’s in the past in addition to some of your more recent independent work. If you could have a superpower yourself what would it be? And for that matter are their any mainstream characters out there right now you’d like to work on?

John: Telekinesis seems like the most practical, but I don’t need another excuse to never get off the couch. I’ve always wanted to write Dazzler, actually. But as a Edena Monsoon-esque washout. Faded Disco Queen and all that

Molly: I wouldn’t sleep.  Just work.  Can coffee be a superpower?

comiXology: With books like The Puppet Makers and Scarlett Takes Manhattan available for digital download right now, do you see the digital marketplace as a viable way to get your work out to people?

Molly: I do!  comiXology is an amazing platform, and I think your interface for reading comics is extremely elegant.  However, I got to say I’m pretty old school and don’t have an ipad or a kindle.  I like to have books I can drop.

John: Completely. I think the digital marketplace is going to blow up comics in a huge way. And just for vanity’s sake, I love the way my stuff looks on an iPad.

comiXology: Alright last question. What can readers expect from you in the future got anything in the works that you could tease us with?

John: We’re currently working on another graphic novel that one of my friends described as “Like the Music Man, but evil.”

Molly: Me and John recently signed up to do a new graphic novel with First Second Books, titled Straw House. It’s the tale of an immortal carnival that brings truth, and destruction, on a small rust belt town in the 1950′s.  We hope we to do a good job.

comiXology: We have no doubt it will be great, thanks for taking the time to answer a few questions guys!

Molly and John’s books can be read both in print and exclusively through comiXology. Check out their awesome comics along with over 6,900 others and don’t forget to check  back often for all the latest updates on new comics coming out, new sales going on and brand new interviews with folks creating comics on the cutting edge!