[heroic music] [heroic music continues] [heroic music continues] [heroic music continues] - Hello and welcome to "Comic Culture."

I'm Terence Dollard, a professor in the Department of Mass Communication at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke.

But clearly we're not in the TV studio today.

We're in Durham, North Carolina, at the North Carolina Comicon.

Downtown Durham welcomed the NC Comicon back after a five-year absence.

Outside the convention center, it was almost like a street fair.

Inside, organizers brought in dozens of vendors and packed Artist Alley with amazing creators, like comic legend Arthur Adams.

So I have my copy of "New Mutants Special Edition Number One," which I read and re-read during the Hurricane Gloria blackout in New York.

And so now I've heard you say to people that you know, "Oh gosh, my older work might not be my favorite," so when someone brings you a comic like that, this means so much to me, you know?

How do you sort of handle the fact that as an artist you feel that you've improved so greatly?

- Well, you make a good point.

I mean, I did draw that.

I was probably 21, maybe 22 years old at the time, and it was such a big hit.

It was a bit of a shock to the system.

But mostly I remember I was somehow able to get away with quite a lot, because it was in the earlier days.

And so there's a lot of things, a lot of references, artistic references I made in it that I probably couldn't get away with now.

I think like Popeye shows up as a character, and the Starship Enterprise is there, and there's lots of weird stuff that nowadays they would probably be a lot more fussy about letting me get away with.

And yeah, there's, I look at it now and I think I probably could draw it technically more better now, but I think some of the things that make this an interesting work are some of the flaws, or some of the things that, that fans might not necessarily see as flaws, but it might be the thing that gives it a little extra something.

- Now you mentioned the Starship Enterprise.

I'm thinking of Ed Grimley in the story.

- He's in there.

That's true.

- Is this something that you as the artist, because it's that Marvel style, you're able to just throw that in and let the writer- - It was me.

Exactly.

It was a learning experience also working with Chris Claremont, 'cause this is the very first time we'd worked together.

So he, as you may or may not know, at that time, Chris, and most comic book writers worked plot style, which means they would give you a story that said, "Okay, this action has to take place "between issues or between pages three and five," something like that.

So it would give the artist leeway how to figure that out.

And I was just always putting in pop references in my work, and so there's, again, there's lots of strange characters that show up, and some that make more sense than others, like Hagar the Horrible is in there.

He might be more in the second part than in the first part.

At least he's a Viking, so at least he makes some sense in a Norse mythology story.

But it was, I'm just very fortunate that I was able to do it and that it had such a positive impact on people.

- And last question, in that second half, it was sort of a jam between different inkers.

When you got pages back and you see that, you know, maybe Walt Simonson pitched in, or you know, Terry Austin gave someone else a page, what's it like to see just somebody else's approach to your pencils?

- My pencils are very tight, and for the most part, so that second issue was done, there is a handful of pages that are by a bunch of different people, but the bulk of the book is by, inked by both me and by Mike Mignola, who was living in the same apartment building as I was at the time.

So most of that was pretty easy.

And it's been long enough.

I can't really remember all of the, the exact situation on that.

I don't think Walter inked any of the pages, but he inked the cover on that issue.

I'm trying to think.

I know Steve Leialoha inked a couple of pages, and Steve is a terrific artist, so I was happy to get one or two of those.

And I think Steve might have gotten one or two.

It's been so long ago.

I couldn't tell you now.

- I enjoyed spending time in Artist Alley at NC Comicon talking with creators I haven't met before, like writer Robert Venditti.

Robert, you have worked for a number of big publishers, Marvel, DC, Dark Horse.

And if I said Marvel and I'm wrong, I apologize, but it'll be next time.

- A little bit.

Yeah.

So, you know, you're working on some of the great characters.

We were talking before we started about your work on "Superman 78."

So what is it about the character of Superman that you think a lot of people don't get?

- Superman has always been my favorite character.

And I remember being in the theaters and watching the original Christopher Reeve, Richard Donner films.

It just always resonated with me, this sort of worldview of people being good, doing the right thing because it's the right thing to do.

I think a lot of people talk about that in a sense that there's some kind of outdated or, you know, too Boy Scout-ish or any of those kinds of things.

I don't feel that way about the character.

I think a lot of people sometimes will have an urge to maybe darken the character up for the darker times maybe that we live in and things like that.

To me, the darker the times, the brighter he shines.

And I always looked at the characters.

He came down from space, landed in the middle of Kansas, and the first two human beings he met took him in and loved him as his own, as their own.

Why wouldn't he think people are good, you know?

And so he espouses those values.

And I don't think that stuff ever gets old.

- I would agree.

I mean, I always found it a little disturbing when, you know, the image of Superman is the angry guy with the glowing red eyes and breaking people's necks, and I don't wanna say that too loud, 'cause I don't want people to, you know, get upset with me, but, I mean, everyone's Superman is their own.

But, you know, when you're working on a character, a legacy character like that, especially one that is tied to a particular film franchise, how do you sort of, you know, go through having a good story and yet making sure that editorial is happy with the fact that you're hitting all the nostalgia buttons?

- Yeah, I mean, I don't know.

That's kind of the job, I guess.

You know what I mean?

For me, this, I've done a lot of different things for DC.

It was different to do this, because you weren't really beholden to all the comic book continuity going back to, you know, in the 1930s.

You really were just beholden to the continuity of a handful of films, but you had all the characters and all of the ideas and all of the villains and things of that continuity going back to the 1930s that you could pull from, you know?

So we use Brainiac in our story, which is a classic "Superman" villain that goes back a really long time, but because of the freedom of doing it set in the film universe and not the comic book universe, we were freed up to do a lot of different things that would've contradicted comic book continuity, you know?

So to me that was what was really enjoyable about the job.

And we were lucky that the story was really well received and was done really well, and we're doing the second one now.

The first issue comes out on Tuesday, and again, we're using another classic "Superman" villain named Metallo, but we're putting it in a sort of Cold War Soviet/USA type story that were so prevalent in those era of films in the '70s and the '80s.

You had "Red Dawn," and "Red Heat," and all those kinds of things.

So it's all about taking all that stuff and being able to use it to fit into the continuity of the films, you know?

- And my final question's going to be about conventions.

We're here at NC Comicon.

As a writer, you know, it's sort of an anonymous job.

You're at home, you're working.

You might make phone calls to writer, to editors and artists, but you're at a convention and you're meeting fans.

So what is it about the convention that makes you want to attend?

- Yeah, I love for the reasons you just said, that it is kind of a solitary existence, you know, and I wasn't always a writer.

I mean, all the jobs I had, you know, growing up and into my twenties, I worked in retail, I worked in restaurants, I worked in warehouses.

You're always around a ton of people, you know?

Now I'm just sort of at home writing all the time, you know, and so it's nice to get out and interact with fans and see how they feel about the books, but also be around, you know, your work friends, other people that do the similar things that you do, and, you know, talk about story, meet new artists.

You know, some of my very best friends are people that I've met, you know, through comics and conventions over the years.

And so, you know, it's great to get out and be among it, and I'm really thankful to be able to come back to this convention, which is always one of my favorite ones to do.

The last time I was here was the last one they had in 2019.

You know, with Covid and all those things, I had kind of a break, and so it's nice to see it back up and so well attended, and all the people that are here.

So really happy to be able to be here.

- I'm talking with artist Jason Strutz, Jason, we're at NC Comicon.

You get a chance to meet some fans while you're out here, but tell us a little bit about your work.

- So I have been doing comics for about 10 to 15 years, working in generally the horror, spooky genre.

I have been working on Poe comics with Enrica Jang, who's now the director of the Poe House and Museum.

We've done a adaptation of Poe's "Cask of Amontillado," and a continuation of that story.

And I have new books coming out that I've been working on for about the past year, my first written and drawn book all by myself.

- That's great.

Now, the question I see on your banner, it says, "Medieval horror," so I'm wondering, what is it about different time periods that make horror seem a little bit more creepy to you?

- Well, the basis of horror is unknown stuff, so when you are dealing with an unknown time period, an unknown part of the world, it may be things that you're not familiar with and that can already put you off balance, and then the story can further push you in a direction.

- And I noticed that you have some original pages here.

Are you a traditional artist?

Again, pencil, pen and ink, or are you working digital maybe, and kind of incorporating the two?

- So I do a little bit of both.

So I, on my book, "Returned," I've written the script and I've done all the layout on my iPad.

So in that way it allows me to tweak the storytelling quickly and easily, whereas if I was doing that with pencil on paper, I'd be doing a lot of erasing, I'd be doing a lot of redoing of work.

So say I draw a great figure that I'm happy with, but it's just not in the right spot, or it needs to be bigger, that's a lot easier to figure out in digital.

And then I'll take that and print that out, and I've been doing physical ink art for my new book using a light box, and then bringing that back to the computer to work on color from there.

- And, you know, as somebody who is working on both the writing and the art for a book, how do you sort of balance your day so that way you can, you know, make sure that you're serving the writer's needs, the artist's needs, and also the human being who's gotta go and maybe get, you know, some groceries and take some, you know, naps or something?

- Yeah, absolutely.

It's a difficult balance.

The way that I worked on this book was pretty much just buckling down on doing writing, and not even thinking about art until I was happy with that story.

So my plan moving forward is to be always doing a bit of writing and a bit of drawing, but never drawing the thing that I'm writing.

Keeping them separate until I'm happy with a story, and then moving on to art, and then I bring in another writing project from there.

So it's generally been about a day or two a week that I'll dedicate to writing new projects.

- And if the folks at home wanted to find out more about you, where can they find you on the web?

- So I have a main website of strutzart.com, and I have my returnedcomic.com website, and that's gonna start hosting my comic in January.

- I'm talking with Timmy Heague, who is a writer here at NC Comicon.

So Timmy, you've got some great looking books here, including "Fear the Funhouse" with Archie Comics.

- Yeah.

- So tell me about your style of writing.

- DC Comics meets "Goosebumps."

Perfectly fitting in the world of Archie Horror, which it's been an imprint with Archie since 2013.

Started with "Afterlife with Archie," "Chilling Adventures of Sabrina," and 10 years later, here we are now with "Fear the Funhouse," which is perfect for the YA crowd.

It's YA horror, so if you've got someone who loves "Goosebumps" at home, this is the perfect comic for them.

- And it's interesting because YA and all ages books are really becoming a big part of building the comic audience, because they can tell a story in any genre.

- Exactly.

- And what I've noticed most about the Archie stuff is that it can be creepy and a little scary, but at the same time, there's a little bit of humor in that.

So how do you kind of balance that?

Making sure it's creepy, but not too creepy that you're going to, you know, scare somebody too much?

- The goal for writing Archie Horror for me is one I want it YA, so I want horror for the whole family.

You know, I want it all ages, but it's still Archie, that's the still core.

So by the end of the day, I need someone who's been a lifelong "Archie" fan, who loves Betty, Veronica, Jughead as they are, and Archie of course, but will read this and it still hits all the notes for them.

That's still the characters they love, but it's something new and fresh and creepy.

And I wanna write in a way where if someone has never known those characters, they read this and they still know their core elements, what makes them those characters, so after they read this book, they'll read then, you know, maybe a traditional "Archie" or another Archie Horror, you know, anything Archie, and the characters that they experienced in this, it still resonates with them in the same way in other books.

- One of the things I really like about Archie is that they're not afraid to take risks and present things in a new and different way.

So as a writer, and you've got a great idea, pitching it to an editor, are they going to say, "Hold on a second," or are they gonna say, "That's a great idea," and "Let's, you know, bend some more rules?"

- I'm super thankful for my editor.

Jamie Lee Rotante's just the utter best.

When I pitched this book, originally it was gonna be a evil doll Veronica versus Sabrina the Teenage Witch.

And Jamie introduced me to Evelyn Evernever, who's the star of the show.

And Evelyn is a bit of a deep cut character.

She appeared in like maybe seven, eight books in the '50s and '60s, and she always had a doll by her, her little doll Minerva, and she was a "Little Archie" character, and so thanks to that I got introduced a little Evelyn.

And what better way to have a killer doll book than have the creepy doll girl, Evelyn Evernever.

And yeah, that's why the overarching story for me is love Evernever.

And yeah, Evelyn's just a blast, and being introduced to her by my editor was just so much fun and I'm super thankful for it.

- And, you know, if the folks watching at home wanted to find out more about you and your work, where can they find you on the web?

- I am on all of 'em.

Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, just search Timmy Heague.

You can type in "Toybox of Terror Archie Comics" and you'll find me.

- One of my favorite things about Artist Alley is meeting people I've interviewed but never met face to face, like writer Brockton McKinney.

Now Brockton, we are at NC Comicon, and you said before we started recording that you used to help organize this show.

So what's it like being back on the other side of the table?

- It's fantastic.

I love this show so much.

I was the creative director for years.

These guys are all family to me, Ultimate Comics and NC Comicon.

So when they said "We're coming back," this is the first show I've done, as I was saying, in probably three years.

And so just getting back here and seeing everybody, seeing that line out front, you know, and everybody standing there, and everybody having such a great time, it's amazing.

Such a good feeling.

- And it's a different time.

I mean, I know that when I started going to conventions, it was a lot of people buying comics, and then slowly we started to see cosplay mixing in.

Now it seems like there's a lot more cosplay and a lot less people buying comics.

So what have you observed?

- It's a pretty good mix.

I love the cosplay element, because before it was just comic books, and that's great, but when people are coming that are attendees, especially younger kids and stuff, it's so fun to see these people dressed up and having a great time, and they do this big cosplay contest, and so much of this is like homemade stuff that these people are like putting all their time.

There's artistry to it, and so I think it's amazing.

It brings a really cool energy and vibe to a show.

And I was, again, that line outside, 50% of them were people that were dressed like me and you and 50% of them were like creatures and superheroes.

So yeah, there's something magical about it that's like really cool about any convention, but I think NC Comicon really brings in a bunch of the great people from around this area.

- And the other thing, I mean, your work is in multiple genres.

I see some "Mad Magazine."

I see your own comic, "Ehmm Theory," I see some work you did for Dark Horse.

What do you notice in the fans?

I notice from my own experience that superheroes are not as popular as they were 20 years ago.

So what are you noticing in contemporary readers?

- It, there's such a wide variety of people that love it.

And I think that like the Marvel movies and that stuff really got people back interested in superheroes and comic books in general, but then when people started reading, they realized there's so much else out there.

There's so many cool indie comics, and cool action stuff, and so that's always kind of been my bread and butter is that stuff.

So it's really nice, and I get people who come up to me that don't know who I am, but they're just like, "What is this?

"What is this?

What is this?"

And I get to turn 'em onto those new comic books, a Dark Horse book, or an Oni book, or some just create our own thing that we've just published ourself.

So it's, I mean, I've been here for whatever it's been, four hours, and it has been constant, people here buying books, talking about it, checking stuff out.

I also wrote a movie and directed a movie called "Reptchild" that's gonna be playing at the Carolina Theater at 4:30 today.

So it's always nice to see those people come in.

And then after all, I've noticed that after like the movie, then they'll come over here and check out the comic books, and check out everybody's comic books, and see the whole place.

So yeah, I think it's great to have that kind of diversity with the fans, and comics, and superheroes, and indie, everything.

- And I know you write in a lot of different genres.

If the folks watching at home wanted to find out more about your work and the variety of it, where can they find you on the web?

- Just if you look up Brockton McKinney on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, there's only one Brockton McKinney, thankfully.

And so I put all my stuff, I'm not great at it, I'm not great at social media, but I keep up with everything, and you can find out what new stuff's coming out and where I'm gonna be.

- Another familiar face is writer Jeremy Whitley.

You've written a lot of different books over the years, "Princeless" for the, I guess that was the one you and I talked about a few years ago.

- Yeah.

But we're here at NC Comicon.

What brings you to this convention?

- Well, I am from Durham, so I live just down the street.

This is Ultimate Comics, who put this on, is my home comic store, and I came out to see everybody, sell some books.

I have my brand new one from this year, "The Dog Knight," which is a sort of middle grades action adventure series that we started up this year.

So here to talk about that one, and sell a little bit of everything else.

- So all ages comics are comics literally for all ages.

They don't have to be for a younger reader.

They can be for any reader.

So what is it about that medium that makes you want to write in that, I guess for that audience?

- Yeah, I think, you know, it's an audience that I sort of to some extent fell into accidentally with "Princeless."

Like, "Princeless" was the story I wanted to tell, and I started writing it not really knowing what, you know, what age group it was for, and it ended up being, you know, something that fit well with middle grades and told a story that I think was very relevant to them.

And it's something that I really enjoy, because I love having fans who, you know, grow up on my stuff, who are very excited to see me at conventions, very excited to come pick stuff up, and that I can sort of like, you know, get these messages to in the form of comics that they can, you know, get excited about.

Which is really nice compared to, you know, there're obviously great adult comics readers, but I think, you know, my experience with working for Marvel and big companies like that is there's just as many people that come up and have a question about the, you know, lightning bolt being turned the wrong way on panel five, page 200 of something or other.

And, you know, they have a lot more tendency to gripe, whereas I feel like my all ages audience, they're always just like very excited to see me, to read stuff, and to tell me about what they got from it.

And they always have interesting things they pull from those, the books too, so.

- And when you're coming up with an idea for a book, is this something where you are, you know, thinking about what the audience is going to like?

Or is it just you've got some sort of itch that you need to scratch as you sit down and start writing?

- It's a lot more the second one.

At some point I have to think about what the audience would like.

I tend to maybe do that not as early in the process as I should.

So, you know, I sit down, and I like to write the sort of stuff that I would like to read, be it, you know, all ages stuff or adult stuff.

I want it to be stuff that's fun, that's inclusive, where I, you know, see characters like myself and my friends in the stories.

And I like to tell stories that I haven't seen told before, so I think that's what really interests me a lot more than, you know, what it is that people want to read, so much as like what is it that's not out there?

What is it that people are looking for that they haven't found yet?

- And if the folks at home are watching and they wanna find out more about you on the web, where can they find you?

- Well, my website is jeremywhitley.com.

It has all my comics up there, as well as links to where to buy them.

I'm also on Twitter, @jrome58, on Tumblr, on Bluesky.

anywhere you wanna go looking for me, I'm there.

- Spending time in Artist Alley at any convention is a lot of fun, but at NC Comicon, it felt a little more relaxed and laid back.

You could spend more time talking with creators and learning about their projects.

I spoke with writer/artist Bob Dry about his comic, "Ice in the Shadows."

You're here at NC Comicon, you've got a book called "Ice in the Shadows."

Tell me a little bit about it.

- Sure.

So "Ice in the Shadows" is a web comic.

You can read it online at iceintheshadows.com.

It's about a family who unfortunately gets caught in an ice storm, gets in a wreck, and then has to deal with some creatures they didn't expect to encounter.

And I've got all the art here at the show, so people have been flipping through it and really enjoying it.

- So it's a digital comic, but you're doing the art in the traditional manner.

So as an artist, is it something where you kind of like want to get away from the technology when you're doing the creation, or is it just, you know, you just have always done it this way?

- It was like you said the first time.

I wanted to get away from computers for a while.

So yeah, it's a completely hand-drawn, it's colored with water colors and then inks.

The other big thing was I wanted an actual art piece, an actual physical paper, ink, colored pencil, watercolor, something physical.

And I just like the look of sort of that older style, I guess.

We're surrounded by so much digital stuff, I wanted something different, so.

- You know, and the great thing about working in the traditional medium is that, like you said, you have the piece of art, but also there's just something about the, like the paper, the way it reacts to the ink, or the way it reacts to watercolor, or if you were doing a color pencil, how the texture's gonna come through.

So are you sort of leaning into the unique possibilities that the board might present?

- Yeah, yeah, big time.

Like one big thing is I've got a limited color palette, mostly just the blues and browns, and then traditional black India ink.

So I wanted it to look different than what you're seeing in mainstream comics.

And with indie comics, you can do whatever you want.

And I got the look I wanted and people seem to like it.

A lot of people are stopping, you know, flipping through the pages.

I got free postcards promoting it, you know, so hopefully it builds readership, just something different, so.

- Now I get the sense that this may not be your full-time profession.

So is it difficult for you to sort of find the time, if you have another day job, to do a comic regularly to keep the audience engaged and build readership?

- Well, I quit my job.

- Great!

So this is my full-time gig.

So full-time gig.

I started it, I started the comic this year, and sort of left my day job end of August.

And I'm just drawing as fast as I can, trying to crank out pages, and build an audience, you know, get people interested in it, which is a real challenge, because people typically don't break out of the characters they love.

So to get people to love new characters, it takes time.

- And it's really interesting too, because when you as a creator have something that you feel really passionate about, it can be tricky to sort of, you know, watch other people's reaction to it.

So you said people are here, they're flipping through the artwork, they really seem to be enjoying it.

So is that a sense of validation that you might not get just from, you know, clicks on a page?

- Oh yeah, for sure.

Yeah, I want to see what people think of it, and if they go through the pages.

The test is always, people tend to be hesitant to flip through pages.

There's so much stuff to look at.

So if they progress through the pages in an art book, that means they like it, and I feel like, hey, this may actually be something people want to read.

So that's good.

- And because you're working in the traditional manner, is this something where you're, maybe the end goal is to do some crowdfunding and get it published in a hard form, or maybe entice a publisher to work with you?

- I don't know.

I'm not that far along yet.

It's really at this point, I just want to raise awareness and build an audience, and get it done.

I mean, in so many ways it's really just hopefully get it finished, you know, see it to the end kind of thing.

I'm not too worried about, you know, how it's gonna make money or not.

- And if the folks watching wanted to find out more about you and the comic, where can they find you on the web?

- Iceintheshadows.com, and then also my website is bobdry.com.

You know, B-O-B-D-R-Y.com.

It's pretty easy.

- Well, that's all the time we have for this episode of "Comic Culture."

Thanks so much for watching.

We'll see you again soon.

[heroic music] - [Announcer] "Comic Culture" is a production of the Department of Mass Communication at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke.

[heroic music continues] [heroic music continues]