[heroic music] ♪ ♪ ♪ - 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.

It is loud, it is crazy, it is GalaxyCon 2025 from Raleigh, North Carolina.

- Even though it was a sweltering 100 degrees, fans packed the streets outside the Raleigh Convention Center enjoying live music, entertainment, and food trucks.

GalaxyCon is a pop culture convention with a focus on giving fans a chance to meet their favorite celebrities, actors, and even comic creators.

Inside the air conditioning, I made my way towards Artist Alley to talk comics.

The great thing about cons is running into familiar faces.

I ran into Jay the Teller at HeroesCon and I'm running into here at GalaxyCon.

Jay, what is the difference between Heroes and GalaxyCon for you?

- Well, both of them are phenomenal.

They both have two different fields, right?

Heroes is more so like a comic book comic con, like for the comic book enthusiasts.

GalaxyCon is a pop culture comic con, so the pop culture enthusiasts.

Both of them are incredible.

Both of them pose obstacles and hurdles for vendors in different capacities.

But overall, the entire comic con space has been very rewarding, very fulfilling, and I get to meet great people like you.

- So one of the things about being a new publisher is that you're trying to introduce yourself to new audiences, to introduce your characters to them.

So how has it been for you today talking to folks who are maybe interested in something different?

- Disinterested is the word that you're looking for, but I appreciate you being very nice about that.

It's not for the faint of heart.

I was just talking to someone today.

This is real, this is real behind the scenes right now.

- The showroom floor is now closed.

- All right, there it is.

Man, we're fugitives right now.

So long story short, it's very difficult bringing, introducing, creating a new IP because I'm going against Spider-Man, Ninja Turtles, all of these established IPs.

It's not for the faint of heart.

You have to be in it for any new creators out there.

You gotta be in it for the long haul.

You gotta be prepared to hear the no's because out of every 12 no's, there's gonna be a yes.

And over the years, over the years, that yes will turn into more yeses.

And so it's not easy.

It's an arduous task, but me and my team, we're up for it.

It's tooling, baby.

- Surrounded by celebrities like William Shatner, Susan Sarandon, and the cast of Beverly Hills 90210, it seemed that cosplay was the number one attraction.

GalaxyCon has a lot of great cosplay, and it's not often you see someone dressed up as Lilo from The Fifth Element.

So what is it about that character that made you wanna put the time into the costume?

- Well, honestly, I've always loved the movie The Fifth Element, and I've been actually been here just last year.

And I thought about it then, but I was like, too ambitious, plus it's a crop top.

But I decided to do it this year just cuz it's a character I love, movie I love.

- And what about this convention?

I mean, there's a lot of people in costumes.

What's that community like for you?

- Honestly, it's really welcoming and warm and fun.

Everybody is so nice, and everyone has amazing costumes too.

So it's really a sense of community, for sure.

- And The Fifth Element came out, gosh, it's more than 20 years ago, which is really sad.

- Yeah, '92, '93, something like that.

- Egads.

So you're dressed up as a character in a movie that you really love.

It's gotta be great when people recognize you.

- It is, it is.

And actually, I got a few in there.

They were like, multi-pass or like, gone good.

So it's fun, yeah.

I definitely like their recognition.

I think I did Poison Ivy last year, and that was fun too.

- In Artist Alley, I ran into British-born artist Mike McCone, best known for his work at Marvel and DC Comics.

American comics are different than comics in Great Britain.

And I'm wondering, what was it about the American style that attracted you so that you would want to come to this country and work for so many years in this medium?

- Well, comics in England, I think that they're probably more, they're better drawn, but they're not as exciting.

So they're kind of like the detective shows on TV.

I guess the craft is a little better, more time spent on it, but it's just no substitute for the kind of excitement you get from a Jack Kirby comic or a Gil Kane comic, and that's what really I was into when I was a kid.

- And when you decide to come to the United States to work, is it something where the company has seen your work already and they are inviting you to come in, or is this something where you're just sending them submission after submission?

- Well, I've been drawing comics for DC and Marvel since I was 19 years old, and I didn't move here until I was 40 or something.

So I'd been working in comics for a long time before I moved here.

But at the time I was drawing Spider-Man, and that gave me a little bit of leverage to have Marvel sponsor my work visa.

So without comics, I wouldn't have been able to move here, for sure.

- And we're at GalaxyCon, it is a big, loud, crazy place.

You're probably doing commissions and whatnot, so how difficult is it for you to meet with people like me, meet with fans, and still be able to do the business side of a convention?

- I've done so many conventions now that it's not really a problem.

I don't think I deliver my best work at conventions.

So anything other than simple drawings of headshots, then I'd encourage people to let me mail them to them.

And I never really know how good something is until a couple months after the fact, when I see it posted online.

And I just bury my head in my hands and say, what was I thinking of drawing that?

But I think people understand that.

It's like seeing a live band.

You're not gonna get the album, but you get a good representation of it.

- Back outside the convention center, I ran into cosplayers Michael Lynough and Emma Minor.

Cosplay is a theme here at GalaxyCon, and we have two great cosplayers.

So I'm out of the loop as far as pop culture goes.

What characters are you?

- I'm Soul Bad Guy from Guilty Gear Strive.

- And I'm Ava from Guilty Gear Strive.

So what is it about this video game, anime, whatever it may be, that made you wanna spend the time and the money to put the costume together?

- Yeah, so it's a video game, and I really just like it.

I really like the game very much, and the characters just really appeal to me.

So that's what made me wanna cosplay as Soul Bad Guy.

- And you got this great prop.

I'm imagining this took you quite a bit of time to put together.

So again, you're investing all of this time and effort into it.

What is it about the character that really speaks to you that makes you wanna go ahead and spend the time and the money?

- Well, I think she's just a really cool character.

Her backstory was really interesting to me, and I just really like her prop.

So he was fun to make, so yeah.

- And there are a lot of other folks in costume here.

How does it feel to be part of that community?

You're one of many in really cool costumes.

- I really like it.

I think it's really cool because it's a community, and you can make friends with everybody here.

And it's just really nice, cuz everybody's really welcoming and nice.

And you get to take pictures with people.

So it's pretty cool to see people who like the same things as you.

- And if you are going to come back next year, is there something where you're gonna take the same costume and maybe refine it?

Or are you gonna pick a new character that you really are excited about?

- Oftentimes we pick new characters, so we have a lot of fresh characters that we do.

- Back inside the convention center, I ran into friend of comic culture, writer Jeff Messer, to talk about his latest project.

You have co-written another book about one of the greats of comics, Marshall Rogers.

So can you tell us a little bit about the process of writing a biography for a great artist like Marshall?

- Well, hey, thank you for asking.

And this is hot off the presses.

This just came out this week, so, and we're at the end of July, cuz I know people will be watching this later.

But this is great.

It was a fun project.

I knew very little about Marshall Rogers other than his Batman art and a few other things.

And after Dewey Cassell and I had written the Mike Grell book for Tomorrow's Publishing that went to San Diego in 2019, they immediately asked us, so what's next?

And we had no idea, so they pitched it to us.

And we thought, we could sink our teeth into this.

Somebody that I didn't know that much about, but wanted to know more about because of the impact on the industry he's had.

And of course, immediately the pandemic happened.

And we had started interviewing people, and it kind of got put on hold.

And so it really took a lot longer to finish than we had hoped that it would have, but everything happens in its own time.

We were able to go back and do second interviews with Steve Englehart.

We were able to do these great, we started to do a great interview with Terry Austin.

And after one question was asked, he wrote an entire five-page essay off of that one question.

And I said to him, just stop the Q&A, just you write anything you wanna write.

And he wrote these eloquent remembrances of Marshall Rogers, who he and Steve Englehart, what I learned was, they all felt like he was a kid brother.

They were very protective of him and of his legacy, because he took a lot of lumps over the years.

He was very slow and meticulous.

He had a hard time maintaining a long run on a book, and editors bumped heads with him a lot.

And he had a lot of inner demons that he dealt with, which are all covered in the book.

And we wanted it to be a warts and all, he was not a perfect guy.

He was a tremendous talent that had so much more potential than I think the world ever fully saw.

But he's an icon because of this one glimmering moment of his career, when he and Englehart and Austin redefined Batman for generations to come.

And so his impact was significant.

And I see so many other artists and people who see the book or they see the project, and you just see this childlike glow in their eyes.

Like, man, I'm such a Marshall Rogers nerd, I love his stuff.

And so to me, that's the biggest reward as well, is seeing how much it means to a whole generation of artists.

- So you talked about the research.

You're doing interviews, you're going out with, mentioning, talking to collaborators and whatnot.

But how much of the research is, now you've gotta go into the long boxes, or you've gotta go into the omnibuy to try and find that example so that you can be a better informed interviewer?

- No, absolutely.

I spent so much time in comic shops and on eBay, finding, cuz like I said, he didn't do a lot of long runs on books.

And there was a lot of fill in issues here and there on GI Joe or Justice League Europe or what have you.

And then some independent books and things like that.

And I tracked down scores of these that I had, some of them I had never seen.

And I was able to read them.

And of course, some of his early independent work with Don McGregor, the Detectives Incorporated stuff.

I had had those issues in that graphic novel for years, but I got to revisit it and sort of rediscover it, this new filter.

And it was truly an amazing journey to immerse myself into that again.

And to read all those Batman stories fresh for the first time in decades was a real eye opener and a lot of fun as a fan.

I got to geek out too.

- Artist Mark Morales is best known for his work inking some of Marvel's most successful books of the 2000s.

What is it about a convention that is appealing?

Cuz I know it's three or four days of travel, of sitting at a table, a lot of talking, but it's also different from when you're in the studio.

So how do you sort of choose and decide which one to go to?

- A lot of times it's word of mouth.

Other friends of mine come to it and they say it's a good one to go to.

Or like I said, sometimes we make it like a trip.

My wife and I will come down, we'll go to the convention, and if we wanna see an area, we'll vacation after that.

So there's a lot of reasons, really.

- Now you work as an ink artist.

So you're collaborating with a penciler.

How does that relationship work?

Is this something where they're giving you free hand to do the finishes, or is this something where all those pencils are really tight and you're having to go in there and get all that detail just right?

- It all depends.

Every situation is different.

I'm old enough to remember when I started in the 90s doing comics.

And sometimes you get pencils that are, the pencils were a lot looser back then.

And then you could go in there and you could really add your own imprint to it.

Probably since the 2000s, they've been a little bit tighter, so they kinda want you to do what they drew.

But it all depends.

It depends on the relationship you have with the penciler and if they trust you to add stuff or subtract stuff and make it work.

- And a lot of the workflow now is somebody's gonna scan their pencils or they're gonna work digitally entirely.

So are you still the analog pen, board, ink, or are you the computer?

- I'm old.

I've been doing it the way I did it from the beginning, and I'm gonna go down doing it that way.

And also, I mean, honestly, I'd say maybe 25% of my income every year is just selling artwork, like you can't hang a JPEG, but you can hang this.

So it ends up where I keep doing it the old fashioned way.

I'll do finishing touches on it digitally, but for the most part, it's still only pen on paper still.

- And again, you mentioned that you come to the convention to sell some original artwork, how do you sort of value what a page is worth?

- It's a nebulous thing.

It's like sometimes it's the artist that's drawing it, sometimes it's the story, the characters in and out of costume.

It all, slash page, talking head page, it all depends.

It's like there's no real rhyme or reason to it, it's just signed out like a feel.

- And the last question, you've worked on a lot of those iconic books, a lot of movies have been inspired by things that you've worked on.

Is there a particular project that you look back at and say that was the one where we really hit the highest watermark?

- There's probably a couple.

Thor with Olivier Coypel and J. Michael Straczynski I thought was really strong.

It was sort of like a vertigo book, but with Marvel Comics stuff.

Some stuff happened, eventually acting stuff, but a lot of character building.

And just for fun, the Secret Invasion, because it had the whole Marvel Universe fighting each other, and Skrulls.

That was fun.

- Outside the convention center, I had the chance to speak to another enthusiastic cosplayer.

Cosplay is a big part of GalaxyCon, and you are wearing a costume that looks like it's taken you quite a lot of time and effort.

What is your costume and what is it about cosplay that makes you want to devote that much time?

- So this is a show called Tekkaman Blade.

It was popular in the late 90s for those who didn't have cable and didn't get to watch Gundam Wing.

This project took about two and a half months.

It is all EVA foam with some balsa wood framing.

I actually learned how to do LEDs to make this costume work.

As for what makes it great, I'd say the creativity.

I mean, you see these characters, everyone is bringing a character they're passionate about to life.

They're having fun, they're role playing, they're interacting.

This is a space where people can feel, who are just outcast from society, can feel normal for the first time.

And honestly, I love that for them.

- There are hundreds of conventions all across the country.

So what makes creators choose one over the others?

I asked the great Mike Grell how he decides.

- Luck of the draw, actually.

I had some real serious health issues starting last year.

Everything kind of went to heck, the wheels fell off.

I was hospitalized in July with bleeding ulcers, which led to rheumatoid arthritis.

I lost complete use of my right hand in September.

Couldn't hold a pencil to sign my name until mid-November.

Had one good week where I could draw a bit, maybe two hours a day.

And after the first of the year, I wound up with more health issues and was diagnosed with cardiac stenosis, aortic stenosis.

Which is basically, I had a heart murmur for about ten years, and it got radically worse all of a sudden.

So I went in and had, it's called a TAVR, which is a mechanical valve replacement.

Just over a month ago, I had my 30-day checkup.

My cardiologist pronounced me perfect, which my mom would be so proud.

[laughs] And she said, I'll see you in another year.

So I guess I'm good for another year.

It's been a miracle, really.

It's so much better now.

I did one show this year in Huntsville, close by where I'm living in northern Alabama.

And that was just a couple of days, and it was easy going.

But then because of the scheduling for my valve transplant, I had to postpone a lot of shows.

And this is my first one back on the road since I had the operation.

And I'm feeling great.

It's a huge, huge difference.

As far as the rest of it goes, what makes you choose one show over another?

After all these years, I prefer the ones where they treat me the best.

And the ones that are the most fun, really.

Mike Broder and I have always gotten along really, really well.

They've always looked after me.

And the other shows that I have chosen to do always be on my list, Heroes Con and Baltimore.

Because those shows are strictly comics, very much oriented toward the comic creators.

And they basically treat you like royalty.

And I'm all about the creature comforts at my age.

- Now, I noticed that you're working on a commission.

I'm just wondering, it is physically taxing to sit and draw.

I mean, at some point you feel maybe you have to get up, you've got to stretch, but you've got to get this work done.

So how do you sort of, I mean, obviously you're giving me your time and I appreciate it.

How do you manage your time so that way you get everything done, you make the fans happy, but also you're able to do all the things you need to do?

- I get up and walk around when I have to pee.

[laughs] And the rest of the time when I come to a show, I put my butt in the chair in the morning and that's where it stays.

I don't leave the table for lunch.

I have lunch here.

I want to keep working as much as possible.

If I've got people who have booked commission, I feel a responsibility to get that done for them.

And in as expeditious a manner as possible.

And frankly, I don't like having to take homework home.

A few years ago, I would take as many orders as I could and I'd stay up sometimes all night drawing to get them all finished up.

Right now, I still object to the idea of having to give money back.

So I always make sure that they're all finished up before the end of the show.

But right now, I like to finish up before the end of the day, so I don't have to worry about drawing back in the room.

- I made one last stop in Artist Alley to speak with Howard Chaykin.

The writer artist continues to push boundaries in the medium, creating thought provoking comics across genres.

Howard, you recently did an adaptation of a series of short novels called Fargo.

- I did.

- And you did a crowdfunding for that.

So as somebody with a storied career in comics, working in indie comics, working for the big publishers, how do you sort of approach the idea of crowdfunding?

- I hated it, everything about it.

I found it stressful.

I did no actual work in regard to the crowdfunding, but the experience was humbling, humiliating, aggravating, and stressful.

Because I have a very realistic idea of where I stand in the commercial community, and I have no commercial footprint whatsoever.

And my audience is one of a cult, as opposed to, I mean, I'm the Randy Newman/Van Morrison/ Robert Altman of comics.

I mean, I know how good I am, but it doesn't mean to a tree.

And it was extremely stressful.

I did not like the experience, and I will likely never do it again.

- But let's talk about the experience of creating.

So you read something, you're inspired by it, you decide you wanna make the adaptation.

So what's that process like?

- It was pretty easy.

I mean, the novels themselves are rather formulaic.

They reflect a kind of, how old are you?

- 54.

- Okay, I come of a generation, the last generation of men and women who travel to their jobs on public transportation.

These books were made to be read in a couple of trips back and forth to the job.

They're blue collars sticking in your back pocket paperbacks.

And I cleaved very closely to the adaptation of Hell on Wheels.

I combined some characters and I shortened some sequences.

But overall, I did a pretty straight up adaptation of it.

The sequel, which I've written, called Panama Gold, I was much looser with.

And I'm very happy and very proud of the work, because I enjoy doing work that reflects reference, research, recreating a lost world.

I like historical fiction both as a reader and as a maker.

And Fargo gave me an opportunity to deal with a period that I find really fascinating.

I mean, the Fargo novels sell themselves as westerns, but they're not really westerns.

They are high adventure novels that take place in a transitional time in American history, before our entry into the First World War, when the West was still a viable alternative.

But that the 20th century had really evolved and taken its place.

I mean, one of the Fargo novels, as a matter of fact, opens with an opening sequence with Fargo doing stunt work and consulting work on a silent film.

So I'm of the mind that the American West was tamed in order to be filmed.

And that the movies were the last product of the American West.

And I think there's a strong relationship between the western and the high adventure story that Fargo is, with the historical self-acknowledged narrative of the United States.

I mean, as I was saying to your colleague, while the West was happening, my great-great-grandparents were keeping my great-grandparents away from being Cossack raped.

So I don't have any real context for the Civil War and the post-war West, but I grew up in a time where all we gave a **** about was cowboy movies.

- And it's funny because westerns have become the fictional history of America.

I mean, most people weren't cowboys in gunfights, and that seems to be this mentality that we've taken.

So as you are exploring this, I guess, pulp novels, these easy fictions, are you seeing that they're sort of building on that narrative, that rugged individualism that may or may not have existed?

- Well, I mean, anecdotally, the character of Neil Fargo, my understanding is, was inspired by the character of Fardon that Lee Marvin played in The Professionals.

There were a whole spate of movies that were post-1900 westerns in the 60s and 70s.

The Professionals, The Wild Bunch, The Wild Bunch is sort of the hub of the mandala.

The Professionals was Lee Marvin, Burt Lancaster, Robert Ryan, Woody Strode, Jack Palance, Ralph Bellamy, Claudia Cardinale.

It's just a great movie.

And my understanding is that the character of Fardon impressed John Hess so much that he created a fictional backstory, he created an alternative version, and that's where the character comes in.

And I really love the franchise.

And as I say, writing the character and drawing the character was a challenge, but I'm bored by Super Dragon, Monster, Laser, Mutant.

It just doesn't interest me in the least, either as a consumer or as a maker.

The fellow who we were speaking to earlier when you showed up was trying to talk me into not liking the new Superman movie.

And I like the new Superman movie, but I saw it last Sunday and I barely have any recollection of it, because it's basically like eating pizza.

It was fine while it was happening, but it didn't stay with me.

It's a Superman movie for me.

And I'm sure I'll love the new Fantastic Four movie, which I hear is really lovely.

But I don't expect it to resonate with me in a way that, say, The Wild Bunch did, or The Professionals, or The Adventures of Robin Hood.

I just don't have a great deal of enthusiasm for pulp material as a constant consumer.

I don't read the stuff.

I don't read comic books.

I derive the same pleasure I once did from reading comic books from making comic books.

You've heard all this.

And it's just, I mean, the Eisner Awards were last night.

I guess in San Diego.

And my Eisner Award came ten years too late.

It was long overdue.

And it's sitting in my garage behind my dog's food, because I really don't care.

It's like being nominated, it's like the world's tallest midget.

It's just not that big a deal.

The taste and standards that are brought to these awards have no bearing on actual quality.

They are subjective and, generally speaking, content obsessed.

And the content is often just dreck.

- I want to thank you so much for watching.

Even though there's plenty of GalaxyCon going on, we've run out of time.

Until next time, we'll see you soon.

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