My time to interview Robert, was set for 10:40-10:50 so I arrived at the station in Oakland at 9:58, right at 2nd Street and Alice. It's a warehouse district with a lot of produce warehouses and other buildings of that nature. I walked up 2nd Street, past Harrison, past Webster, then onto Broadway and down past the Probation dept. at 4th and Broadway, (I was a juvenile, it was the 70's, don't ask...) on down to the Convention Center at 10th and Broadway, just a few blocks ahead of De Lauer's 24 hour newstand where I would "acquire" my comics and wrestling magazines while in junior high school, again...don't ask...I loved being back in downtown so much, that I didn't know how much I missed it until I was there. I mad it to the Convention Center at 10;20, got a bottle of water and caught my breath, that walk seemed a lot shorter 33 years ago...From there I went and took a look at the con floor while the guests and the dealers were setting things up, and waited for my time slot with Robert I chatted with another person who was scheduled to go after me. Before I get into the interview itself, the audio of the interview can be heard on the "Geeked Out" podcast soon, I want to talk about how the interview came about.
My first opportunity to meet Robert was at WonderCon in Oakland four years ago, I was working on a documentary about conventions and was at WonderCon to interview a few comic people for the project. While there I saw that Robert, who wasn't advertised as a guest that year, was standing by the Image Comics area, so I approached him and introduced myself and told him about the project and asked would he like to be involved. He said he'd love to and was gonna be at several panels, but was only going to be there a couple of hours, but gave me his number and said to call him when my cameraman arrived and we could shoot. Unfortunately there was some travel issues and my cameraman didn't arrive until hours after Kirkman had to leave, so I called him up and explained the situation and he was so nice about it and told me that if we in San Diego that we could do it then. I never forgot that. In any hobby or professional field you will meet some genuinely nice people, and it was immediately clear that Robert was one of them.
Since I've been doing this blog, and participating on "Geeked Out", http://freedomtrainonline.com/?cat=4, I've begun to get more and more involved with the comic media and conventions, as I guess by definition I am a member of the comics media as such. So when it was announced that Image was holding their first con, I wanted to attend and speak to a few creators for this blog. Then inspiration hit me. Why not record the interview for airing on "Geeked Out"? I heard Michael Dean, the Freedomtrainonline.com founder and mastermind, who I do "The Prince Podcast" with, do a field recording of an interview on the show once and thought it was a great idea. So I got in touch with the people at Skybound, where Kirkman's books are published, more on that in a bit, and asked if it would be possible to get a few minutes with him for a chat. They said that he would love to do it and in addition connected me with Shawn Kirkham, the Director of Business Development. I sent Shawn an email asking if he would like come on the air as well and talk about what was coming from Skybound in the upcoming months, he said that he would to so we planned to meet up after I was done with Robert.
When it was time for my interview, I walked into the meeting room where he would be meeting members of the press before the con opened at 3:00, and introduced myself and the first thing he said was "I remember doing something with you at WonderCon a while back." It was so cool that he remembered that chance meeting back then, and we sat down and as I was setting up my recorder and checking my notes, he and I just chatted like a couple of buddies. There was no air about him at all. This man has several popular comic books and his show on AMC is setting viewership records, and has been renewed for a third season with 16 episodes up from 13 the first two seasons, so if had an attitude it would understandable given his current level of success now. But there was none of that. If a person didn't know what he did, his demeanor would never be an indication of his present success. Just a good guy to hang out with. Among the things we got into was how he can write things like The Walking Dead, and superhero comic Invincible, and the all-ages Super Dinosaur, or the just released crime fiction title Thief of Thieves. All four have such dissimilar tones yet all come from the same mind, and he told me that he writes a given title depending on the mood he's in at that time. If he's a little down, he'll do The Walking Dead, if he's in the mood for some big action, he'll work on Invincible, if he's feeling like a kid, he'll do some Super Dinosaur, and if he's having a dramatic vibe he'll do Thief of Thieves. It's amazing how he can keep such diverse universes separate in the creative process. We got into the upcoming "new" Invincible, to steal from an old Brady Bunch episode, "someone else fit the suit", diversity in comics and some things going on with The Walking Dead. (And he busted me when I called a major character "The General" and not "The Governor") I asked him about the debate he had with Brian Michael Bendis about doing Creator owned vs Major Publisher work (DC and Marvel), and he went into some great detail about wanting the independence to do one's own thing, and I asked point blank if he would ever go back to a Major publisher, and the answer was "Absolutely not." It was made clear by his passion and body language that he is really enjoying doing his own thing now, and in my opinion, the current success aside, he would still be doing his own thing given the choice. There's no hostility to the other publishers, he's simply more interested in telling the stories he wanted to tell about characters that he created and cares about. Definitely take a listen to "Geeked Out" for the full audio, I can't do it justice here. It's fitting that we had this conversation in the hours before the Image Expo. Image was formed 20 years ago by a group of comic creators who wanted to do their own thing, and over the past 20 years the majority of them have done exactly that. Erik Larsen who has done every single issue of his book The Savage Dragon, and wants to do it forever, and he joined the chat when I was speaking with Shawn Kirtkham. This company and the creators involved are about passion for what they are doing and Kirkman said that you can tell when a person "phones it in", and that is what the expo is all about. Celebrating independence in creativity, and passion with art and it. Image is the best place for people like Kirkman, Larsen and the other Image partners, and this weekend it was all showcased.
After speaking with Kirkman, I gave Skybound Director of Business Development Shawn Kirkham a call and we met on the convention floor, at Jim Valentino's table across from the Skybound booth and hung out. Now before I get into the discussion with Shawn I want to point out that in my civilian life I am an Attorney and Shawn is the Director of Business Development. Two seemingly lofty titles....on paper. But in actuality I was in Adidas sweats and Shawn was in camouflage shorts, with tattoos on his legs, we both stand over 6 feet, looking like a pair of Offensive Linemen. And were just a couple of guys who love comics just shooting the breeze on the con floor, then Erik Larsen showed up for a bit. It was all really cool. Shawn talked about things upcoming at Skybound and how he got involved, Erik talked about moving and his work on the upcoming "Supreme" book. It was a lot of fun and a lot of good information was shared while we were having a good time, which I was guess captures the spirit of Skybound, Image Comics and Image Expo.
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As I sat down and listened to the recordings from the expo, the one common thread was fun. All of the people I spoke with were having a great time at the expo, talking about something they love being involved with. And it definitely showed at the first day of Image Expo and I know that it will come through on the recording, once the episode is set I'll be making that announcement here. It was a lot of fun and look forward to doing it again in Seattle at the Emerald City Comic Expo!
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