RICK SPEARS Zolo strikes again with an Instant Messenger interview--which we're actually beginning to enjoy since, despite the motivation being Zolo's laziness, these interviews really bring you the Q&As in their most precise and truest form... which is actually kinda rad. Zolo once again delivers coverage on a groundbreaking new creator who is probably below the radar for most cult film addicts but is definitely someone you'll be quoting on your MySpace blog in the immediate future. A comic book with Misfits & Drive Like Jehu references, Wal-Mart-bashing, Mike Diana love, and zombie parties... Teenagers From Mars should be at the very top of any Shifter's summer reading list. Rick owns & operates Gigantic Graphic Novels with partner/illustrator Rob G. Buy their shit NOW!

Zolo: What CDs or MP3 do you have in heavy rotation these days?

Rick: I've been getting into the streaming radio on iTunes and checking out all kinds of new stuff. A lot of reggae for some reason and Belle & Sebastian.

Zolo: That's surprising and interesting... not because there's anything wrong with reggae or B&S, but because of the indie rock/punk references throughout TFM. Are those references more to do with the characters than your personal taste?

Rick: The stuff in TFM (Black Flag, Big Black, Misfits, Pixies, and so on) are really some of my favorites, but I try to reach wide with music. I have to listen to music as I work and I'm constantly looking for new sounds. I really like to write to ambient stuff and soundtracks work well. Something about the reggae beat keeps me going--and B&S now because I'm working on something that has to do with them... but I can't really talk abut that yet.

Zolo: What about Drive Like Jehu & Jesus Lizard. Is that you or Rob there? Or Macon [TFM's main character)?

Rick: All 3 really. And Rob is really good at remembering things that I forgot we even talked about. Macon is a huge Jesus Lizard fan and Rob just stored that info away and put him in the shirt later.

Zolo: What's your favorite political or celebrity scandal?

Rick: Wow, uhhmm... I liked Nixon and Deep Throat... but all the fun in that is gone now.

Zolo: Damn that's old school. Were you psyched when he finally revealed himself or was it too little too late for ya?

Rick: I wish he had keep it a secret. It was a great mystery and story. It's like if they ever prove who killed JFK... all the fun would be gone.

Zolo: Who do you think played the better Deep Throat role: Hal Holbrook or Linda Lovelace?

Rick: Heh-- I've never actually seen the movie.



Zolo: Like a punk song, TFM's theme dwells on teen angst versus corporate Americana, but unlike punk the savior is comic books instead of music & the scene. Do you see alternative comic books as being rebellious in the way indie/alternative music can be?

Rick: Yeah they can be and I wish more were. The zine world was really that way for a while but a lot of that has seemed to move online. There is a real great indie comics scene, but it's not like music where you can go see a band.

Zolo: How do you think the internet has changed the zine and indie comic book scenes?

Rick: The number one thing it has done is given us the ability to market and promote and sell books without the heavy capital investment it used to take. I mean we have kids reading TFM in Japan, and that is all about the internet.

Zolo: With TFM, you and Rob do a very impressive job of incorporating an authentic punk sensibility into a comic book, a feat rarely accomplished. Tell me a little about the creative-collaborative process you two used to create the series.

Rick: I went to film school and TFM started as a screenplay, but then it evolved into the comic. I met Rob through a mutual friend and we hit it off. He did the sketches and nailed the characters right off the bat and so we got to work. The punk side just comes from growing up in Va. and hanging out in Richmond and DC and the people there and the music.

Zolo: Where did you go to film school?

Rick: VCU Virginia Commonwealth University. Rob went there, too, but we didn't meet until we both moved up to Brooklyn.

Zolo: Do you have aspirations to write movies as well or are you focused on writing comic books for the foreseeable future?

Rick: I'm writing comics right now and that's what I enjoy. I'd like to do movies someday--sure, but with comics I can get away with murder and I'm having a ball.

Zolo: What are your plans for your publishing company, Gigantic Graphic Novels?

Rick: We put the collected trade of TFM out in March, and our first original graphic novel Dead West (a zombie western) came to comic shops in July (it will hit bookstores in September). Beyond that, we have a bunch of original stuff from some amazing underground creators in the works, and, of course, much more from myself and Rob G on the way.

Zolo: TFM features kids vandalizing thinly-(transparently?)-veiled Wal-Marts, beating up creepy grown-up peeping toms, cursing out their middle managers, shoving a gavel up the Mayor's butt, assaulting cops with non-lethal weapons, and deifying embattled illustrator Mike Diana. But unlike other punk-inspired or socially aggressive comics, TFM has a youthful earnestness and low body count that makes the sociopolitical transgressions far more subversive. Were there any roadblocks brought up as a result of the series' content?

Rick: No. And I was so disappointed. That just shows how below-the-radar comics are at the moment. It's always movies and video games that people bitch about and I want to get comics back in the mix. Comics need to be dangerous again.






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