Faith Erin Hicks, creator of Zombies Calling.
Short story: I stopped in at The Beguiling to check to see what the price for Legion of Super-Heroes: An Eye For An Eye was (and of course ended up buying it), and Faith Erin Hicks was there doing a signing (along with the creator of Dramacon, but I am not so much with the manga, although everybody seemed to think it was very good so if you like manga, maybe you should read it or something), and she was doing a little sketch inside every book she signed.
So Chris Butcher (who will soon be receiving a mysterious accolade, but you did not hear that from me) asks me if I am there for the signing, and although I was not and admit this, hey, I figured I’d pick up Zombies Calling at some point. So I get in line for the signing, and it turns out that Faith Erin Awesome Hicks is doing a sketch in every book to boot! Score!
Except I have no idea what I’d want her to sketch, so when the time comes…
FAITH ERIN HICKS: So what would you like me to draw in here?
ME: (I totally blank, and then…) How about Batman?
FAITH ERIN HICKS: (doubtfully) Batman.
ME: (fuck it, I’m rolling with it) You’re in a comic shop. It’s natural to draw Batman.
FAITH ERIN HICKS: …I dunno…
ME: The three things any comic artist should be able to draw on demand are Mickey Mouse, Snoopy, and Batman. Back me up here, Chris.
BUTCHER: (doing his best “I don’t know this jackass” look) You’re on your own.
FAITH ERIN HICKS: Would it be okay if I drew one of my own characters dressed up as Batman?
ME and BUTCHER together: Hell yes.
Because, come on, that is even better than just a drawing of Batman!
So now I would like to say that Faith Erin Hicks is awesome, and an amazingly good sport for playing along with my totally unreasonable demand and drawing her main character Joss as Batman (and labeling it “Bat-Joss” to boot) in my copy of Zombies Calling, which incidentally is a fine and extremely affordable little graphic novel published by Slave Labor Graphics which you should all seek out and purchase.
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Pixplz?
You should totally check out Dramacon too. It’s is a romance/humor/drama book, but it takes place at a convention. It’s also told from the perspective of a small press manga creator. Svetlana comes from an Animation background and while most of the book is ‘manga style’ she does switch to a ‘NA style’ here and there.
The first volume is so good that once you get done reading it, you wind up reading it AGAIN because it was so good. The 2nd volume is more dense. The 3rd I haven’t picked up yet.
I honestly feel that in her first GN, Svetlana produced a book that 90% of all comic artists spend their whole lives trying to do and failing. Excellent writing, pacing, characterization, etc..
It has my highest recommendation.