Brant was a fan of comics as a kid and it stuck with him into adulthood. These days he's also an aspiring comic creator. This column discusses his personal journey from fandom to the annals of the creative society that is the world of comics. Brant's current comic series is Wannabez and this is his journey. (If it's you're first time joining him, you can visit the link at the bottom of the article to start the journey from the beginning.)
THE INTERVIEWS
Prior to WW Chicago I gave my first ever interview with the Catch Da Craze podcast. Scott was also interviewed, but I'm not sure that it was his first. For me it was a year of firsts in 2008. I was a convention virgin as Sam Vera put it, but we all know about that WW Chicago trip and the con after it, Mid Ohio.
After Mid-Ohio, sometime in the winter, Scott and I would embark on another interview adventure that led us to meeting some people who would all become very good friends soon after. See, Chuck Moore had befriended a group of people up in Northern Kentucky earlier in 2008, I believe around Free Comic Book Day, and had become friends with these people up at a place called Comics 2 Games. Chuck was also, of course, doing the Related Recap podcast. And he got this idea to interview Scott and I at the shop since it was fairly close to Scott, and Chuck and I could ride up together.
This was before C2G moved into the bigger store, so it was a pretty small shop, but still a cool shop with really friendly people, like Bill Love. I walked in and was led to a tricky staircase that we would descend into the lower level, which was the base of operations for Blue Line Pro. Awaiting us there were a number of people including Bob Hickey, Mike Hickey, Darren and Krista Mueller and Jackie Hernandez. I knew of Blue Line Pro prior and had ordered products from them. Heck, I had even inquired about job openings at one point in the past. But I didn't know anyone by name, and I certainly hadn't met any of these people before. But they welcomed me and then Scott in like they had known us our whole lives.
I know around CR we tend to boast about each other and sing the praises of our makeshift family, but truly these people were genuinely kind and accepting even though they had never met me or had no idea who I was. You don't see that every day, and I am still floored to this day by that warm welcome.
We didn't get right into the interview. Instead, there was a meeting going on that we had walked into about Blue Line and other stuff. They had ordered pizza and were waiting for it to arrive. It would had have made sense if they had asked us to wait upstairs until all that business was finished, but that's not what they did. They invited us to stay and share lunch with them while they talked business, which they did. Then they politely excused themselves upstairs so we could do the interview.
I admit, for some reason I was a little nervous. Sure, I had done one podcast interview already, but that was over the phone. Now I'm sitting here staring at a microphone. I was no stranger to microphones having sung in church for years (our choir was very small, so we each had a mic for several years), and I had sung in front of mid-sized crowds before, so it wasn't that. Talking about myself and my projects, though, intimidated me a bit. It's funny how not too long after that interview, literally just a few months later, I would start my own podcast that in just a few weeks will reach its one-year anniversary. But at the time I was very nervous and didn't know quite what to do with myself. I think Scott and Chuck will attest to the fact that I was fidgety and shaking a little bit.
But once we got into the actual interview it went pretty smoothly. We had fun and plugged our stuff plenty. It was a fun experience that introduced me firsthand into the world of podcasting and sparked that desire to do something down the road, which would become Zone 4. But we'll save that for another week.
After the interview we shopped a little and picked up some books, and talked to everyone. Scott and I popped out for about an hour to check out another shop in the area, Comic Book World, where we set up a signing and sold some books. I missed the signing as I got very sick, and though Scott showed up the weather kind of killed the traffic a bit. But he had fun.
We oddly haven't done a lot of interviews since the podcast. I had one on Jazma and Scott may have had one or two for other projects, and we've done a few for CR and UVN, but that's about it. Talking about all this interview stuff has made me want to get myself out there more once we have more product to show.
But the most important accomplishment of this particular interview with Chuck was the meeting of the people mentioned above. These people over the course of a relatively short time (literally just about at the year mark now) have become very good and close friends. I've made several trips up to Florence to hang out with them, even shared hotel rooms with them. I met John Wilson up there as well at one point, and Bill Nichols, Eric Adams, and various others in the CR extended family. Had I never done that interview, I'm sure I still would have met all of them. But because of the interview I met them much sooner than I probably would have otherwise. So I look back on that particular interview with great pleasure as a pivotal point in both my professional and personal life.
-B
Past Columns - Start the Journey at the beginning! Click here to check out all the past Journey of a Wannabe columns.
Brant W. Fowler / Writer, Letter, Creator, Reviewer, Columnist and Comic Related PR Coordinator
Brant W. Fowler has been a professional comic book letterer and logo designer for three years, and has been a freelance editor for the past five years. He has also worked with graphic design, writing and many other area of skills for several years honing his talents. You can learn all about what he's up to by visiting Gonzogoose
Design. Brant is also a member of the core
operations team at Comic Related.
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