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[i1] Jim Harris is a native of Skokie, Illinois, and has been writing and publishing SHADES OF BLUE under the Amp Comics name since 1999. Cal Slayton hails from Plano, Texas, and is the artist on SHADES OF BLUE. The comic, which won its team a place on the Ninth Art Lighthouse Awards Roll of Honour for Best Debut in 2001, is shortly to come under the publishing banner of Digital Webbing Press.
BIG NEWS:
HARRIS: SHADES OF BLUE, Volume 2, Issue 1, published by Digital Webbing Press, hits stores on Wednesday, April 23rd. It picks up the story where #10 of the Amp Comics series left off.
BIG BUSINESS:
HARRIS: I've been into comics since I was five years old. I immediately was hooked by THE FANTASTIC FOUR, then moved on to SPIDER-MAN and THE X-MEN. When I was in high school I began writing, and it just seemed natural that I would want to combine my two passions together. Once I had created characters, they started to become real and whispered their stories into my ear. I literally wouldn't be able to sleep at night when in college because these characters would be having conversations with each other, so I just decided that I had to sit down and start writing.
After a few years my friend Rachel Nacion, who was also a writer, suggested we actually do something with these stories. So we created Heidi Paige, the star of SHADES OF BLUE, and dropped her into my little universe - and it all went from there.
SLAYTON: I was just always a fan of comics and cartoons as a kid and later in life, a fan of filmmaking. I love storytelling mixed with art and it's been my lifelong ambition to be creative as a career. Hopefully I'll achieve that one day.
BIG TROUBLE:
HARRIS: The biggest challenge is getting the name SHADES OF BLUE onto the lips of retailers and their customers. Publicity is so important in the small press comics game, because there are so many books out there. You have to differentiate yourself, and get them to know they'll be missing out should they choose not to order your book.
Our other challenge is that we're so much better today than we were when we first started publishing SHADES OF BLUE. I feel a lot of people may have picked up SHADES OF BLUE #1 and been disappointed, so they didn't stick with us. The truth is, that was our first comic work ever and it's been a constant learning process. The good news is I think for the past 6 issues or so we've been putting out top quality product, so it's a perfect time for a relaunch to reintroduce ourselves to the public. And we do pretty thorough story recaps each issue, so new readers shouldn't feel like they won't know what's going on.
SLAYTON: As an artist, the biggest challenge for me is getting out of a creative slump. I'm pretty good at churning out pages (never missed a deadline) but some days I just don't have what I need to produce a good stuff, so it's best not to try to force it out. I also love the challenge of making a captivating cover, something that jumps and grabs your attention. I recently got an e-mail from a new fan of the book, who bought our trade paperback because he said the cover caught his eye. I loved hearing that type of stuff, it makes my day.
[i2] BIG SPENDER:
SLAYTON: I think Jim recently sold his extensive collection of vintage LOVE IS... cartoons for quite a pretty penny.
HARRIS: Yeah, self-publishing is expensive. My day job pays pretty well (I'm in real estate management). Although, who knows what will happen after my wife and I have kids! There may be less comic money to go around, although sales have been picking up dramatically, so we can probably afford to have less money available from my savings!
BIG AMBITION:
HARRIS: Given no limits, I would tell the story I'm telling right now, but I'd take my time with it. This is my ultimate story - these are the ideas I came up with a long time ago, and have perfected since. For reasons that will become more clear as the story progresses, this is a very personal and important story to me. However, the financial constraints put on me as a self-publisher force me to push ahead with the general story, without taking some time off to tell fun tales about my characters and their classmates that don't necessarily involve the overall mythology of the series.
SLAYTON: Wow, if you take away all the contraints, I don't know. Heck, I'd be happy playing the SHADES OF BLUE storyline all the way out. I'd also like to get my creator-owned project SPOOKYTOWN off the ground someday.
BIG UP:
HARRIS: I always look forward to work by Warren Ellis, Grant Morrison, Mark Waid and Bendis. They're the best writers around today!
SLAYTON: For me it's Mignola, Allred and Timm.
BIG TIME:
HARRIS: I have dual ambitions. Actually I have many ambitions, and most of them include being a good husband and, in the future, a good father. But professionally speaking, I have dual ambitions. I really enjoy my day job, and want to be the best businessman I can be while still maintaining my personality and my creativity. I used to fear my job, I used to fear being labelled a "businessman" because I had this image of becoming jaded, and wearing business suits, and becoming cut-throat. But the truth is I've realized that you can take anything that has a stereotype associated with it and turn that on its head. I can still be myself and be a successful businessman. I don't have to become jaded, or cut-throat, or wear a boring suit to be successful.
It's something my wife and I realized in our marriage - just because you buy a house in the suburbs and settle down doesn't mean you're going to become one of those boring people who live vicariously through their children, or form their lives around the PTA and Little League baseball games. We can still be ourselves and live in the suburbs and have kids. We can do it differently and still be great parents. It's the same thing with my day job.
So in relation to comics, I don't have to give up being a creative person and being a writer to enjoy my day job. The two can co-exist, in fact they must co-exist, because I don't have it in me to give up being a writer, and I need my day job to make a good living.
So as far as writing goals go, I'd have to say I'd love to write some of the characters I grew up reading, such as THE X-MEN, SPIDER-MAN, THE TEEN TITANS, THE FANTASTIC FOUR and THE AVENGERS. I love superheroes. And why not? They're just characters, like any character in any other book, but they can do really cool things! You can still develop their personalities and put them in interesting personal situations in between all the fighting.
SLAYTON: I just want to make a decent living as a full time comic book artist. That's all I ask out of a career. Sure, I'd love to do some of the big titles, make huge bucks and be a fan favorite but it's not really necessary for me.
BIG FINISH:
HARRIS: Personally, I want to be remembered as someone who gave every part of himself to the people around him and didn't waste a single day. Professionally, I want to be remembered as someone who loved to entertain. When my readers tell me how much they enjoyed an issue of SHADES OF BLUE, it means a lot to me. I'm so happy to know that my writing was able to affect a certain part of their day so much that they took the time out to tell me so.
SLAYTON: Professionally, I want to be remembered as a guy who put out a lot of great comic work over a long career. Personally, I'd like to be remembered as a nice guy who tried to live right.
BIG DEAL:
HARRIS: You can get copies of SHADES OF BLUE either by ordering them bi-monthly from Diamond (tell your comic shop to order from Digital Webbing!), by e-mailing me, or by ordering a subscription from Digital Webbing. We have 10 issues of the Amp Comics series available, as well as a trade paperback collecting issues #1-5 of that series. So if you're interested in any of those, drop me a line!
Today's BIG THINGS is the last in this special second anniversary week-long launch. Look out for more big answers from the small press in future weeks, right here at Ninth Art. And remember - if you're a small press creator with big ideas, get in touch and let us know.
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