John Siuntres' excellent "comics' conversation site" features an interview with me on the site this month. Based in Chicago, you can tell John's an old radio pro. I had an absolute blast talking with him, as he'd really done some research on our company and asked some questions and made some observations no one's articulated to me before. The lead-in: "When fans get tired of the mainstream comic fare, there are a number of publishers who consistently publish stories with fresh ideas, genres, and themes. Since 1999, AiT/Planet Lar publisher Larry Young has been churning out his own line of miniseries and graphic novels that stretch the medium to its widest story and art possibilities." certainly was quite flattering.

Puts all the political intrigue that can occur when one publishes comics into perspective: that with all the ego-assuaging and hand-holding and crying that happens behind the scenes is mostly transparent to the audience who just perceives high-quality entertainment.

One of the things John got me to say was how I'm like Cameron Daltrey in Joe Casey and Charlie Adlard's Codeflesh: "He has his regular job during the day as a bail bondsman and then goes out and beats up super-villains at night. He's never asleep. That's the part I responded to personally, because, I mean, running your own business... if you go to sleep, that's time you're not working on your business." So that's why I never sleep... just a guy with gloved fists hitting things to make things right.

Lots of love for Smoke and Guns, Demo, and Last of the Independents, too, and secrets revealed.

+++++

Kirsten Baldock lets slip her next book for fans of her work:"KB: My next book is called Satisfaction Guaranteed. It's basically Jimmy Stewart meets Blade Runner. I love that kind of stuff! The main character, John, is a Jimmy Stewart kind of guy living in a 'city of the future' (circa 1950) kind of suburb. A predicament with his wife forces him to go into the "big city," which has evolved into a William Gibson-envisioned futurescape. As you can imagine, John's in for a hell of an adventure from the moment he pulls his tail-finned monstrosity of a car into hovercraft traffic headed into the city. This book has got everything you could want; it's got robots, sexy housewives, flying cars, Harold Lloyd-esque antics, atomic kitchens, adventure, romance, timesaving gadgets, and an attractive yet befuddled leading man who just can't seem to get things right."