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| Transfuzion Logo |
Gary Reed's one of the best publishers of all time and since I read comics from Caliber from its early days until his new publisher Transfuzion.
I've decided to ask him for an interview with 14 questions and he kindly acepted .
Many great comic authors appeared through Caliber that are major stars today like:
David Mack, Greg Ruth, Vince Locke, Guy Davis among several others.
Gary was always a low profile kind of guy and I always loved his position in life; he doesn't take anything for granted and knows really well the comic book medium and busyness.
Check the interview out and you'll notice what kind of man he's and his vision of the comic book medium and market.
1. How did the idea appear to do a comic publisher such as Caliber with
an huge amount of styles on writing and drawings that gathered all the info
with influences on other arts? (In here I'm remembering "Sudden
Gravity" by Greg Ruth that was a bit inspired on "The Kingdom"
by Lars Von Trier and on your own works "Saint Germaine", (that on
some ways reminded me of Gogol tetralogy, most particularly of Nevski Avenue
among others) "Renfield" with Bram Stoker Dracula Associaton,
"Ghost Sonatta" with Strindberg and "Inferno" with
Dante's influence and all the other works that appeared by Tome Press
illustrated by Gustav Doré among many others).
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| Sudden Gravitty by Greg Ruth |
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| The Kingdom By Lars Von Trier |
Gary Reed: Caliber started in a rather non-descript way. It wasn’t an organized strategy but rather a somewhat compulsive response. Guy Davis and Vince Locke had their respective titles of The Realm and Deadworld and were looking for a publisher. They were frequent customers at one of the four comic stores I had at the time and I’m not sure when the decision came but I decided to publish them myself so I formed Caliber. Knowing I had those two titles, which both had a following, I came up with the idea of doing an anthology which would become Caliber Presents. At the same time, a local film company was finishing up with their low budget movie, Moontrap, that starred Star Trek’s Walter Koening and featured Bruce Campbell in a supporting role. Guy wanted to move on from The Realm so he and I came up with Baker Street. A customer of mine heard about the publishing launch and brought in a series he was working on and this :was Jim O’Barr and The Crow. So, that was the initial formation of Caliber. With the process of getting the information about the books to the distributors, it took about six months although the first Caliber issue of Deadworld shipped a few months before anything else did because it was already at the printer from the former publisher.
Once the company got up and running,
I was swamped with submissions and I knew I wasn’t just going to publish
everything that came across my desk. The
comics market was very exciting at the time as the medium was pushing in a lot
of different directions and there seemed to be a much higher appreciation of
the literary aspect of what comics could be.
I knew I wasn’t interested in superheroes, especially since most of our
books were black and white, although I did do a few. I was looking for intelligent comics with
something to say. I didn’t strategize a
particular genre theme or anything, it basically came down to what I personally
liked although there were a few that I wasn’t that enamored with but I felt
they were good comics and should be published.
So, that was pretty much my philosophy on which books got picked up…what
I liked and what I thought deserved publication…they didn’t always coincide.
2. Did you thought at the time that a company as Caliber was
an increasing value on the comics market?
Gary Reed: I never considered the value aspect
of the Caliber line. I mean we did do
collectible aspects but overall, the goal was just to put out good books. The redeeming aspect of the value of the
comics going on to me just meant that there was a demand. I would go back to print on some books to try
and fill that demand.
As for value affecting the content
part, sure, I think that by doing good books, you’re adding to the comics
market medium with some substantial work. I felt the more books out there that appealed to the widest possible
audience could only help the comics market grow and reach people who formerly
thought comics were synonymous with superheroes. I think we helped foster that quite a bit as
a lot of horror fans picked up Deadworld even though they didn’t buy
comics…same with fantasy fans picking up The Realm. Baker Street and The Crow introduced quite a
few people to comics. Later, with Tome
Press which was the line of historical and literary material, we had far more
sales from outside the comics market than in it. Ah, if only the Internet had been around then. At the end of Caliber, the ‘net was just
ramping up although I think we were one of the first publishers to have an
online store but no one wanted to send credit card information online so they
would call toll free to pay for their order placed.
3. Regarding once again "Saint Germaine", did you
saw it as a possible replacement for the Sandman Series? (You know
that "Saint Germaine" is one of my favourite series
ever). As a mere note, I don't know if you knew at the time, but in
Portugal we've a Saint Germaine that's a Saint associated with
killing demons and protecting houses and his statue can be seen on some of
our villages in Portugal.
Gary Reed: No, I never saw Saint Germaine like that. I’ll admit that Sandman was an influence just like Alan Moore’s material was at that time was. Essentially, it showed me that you could write sophisticated material and it could find an audience. And by sophistication, I don’t mean to imply better but rather the sense it could be multi-layered and structured in different ways. I was always interested in history and so by creating a character that was an amalgam of different people throughout history, it allowed me to delve into that. The supernatural aspect allowed me to do that with the character but a lot of potential readers who were interested in the historical part didn’t want to deal with a supernatural character. But I loved doing that series and keep planning on doing more.
4. What do you think of "The Walking Dead"
comic books and series? Do you think that they were inspired on your
"Deadworld" series? (On my opinion there all lots of things in
common.)
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| Deadworld |
Gary Reed: Well, this is becoming an
increasingly touchy subject. I have
never read the comics but have caught the TV show. I’m sorta catching up on it as I don’t have
time to watch that much TV so everything is on DVR. Some of the similarities are a bit striking…the
guy cutting off his hand and attaching a blade to it, the leader of a band of
people with a wife named Laura and a son named Carl who has to kill the old guy
of the group because he got bit…the idea of covering yourself with zombie flesh
to walk through the zombies…the religious family that our group ends up
with…the female with swords who keeps her pets chained up…a town ruled by a
megalomania leader…but the RV vehicle was different as Deadworld had a school
bus. So, yeah, some similarities. My first thought was that I didn’t want to be
“that” guy claiming it was a rip-off, or at least derivative, but I really do
have to set aside some time and evaluate it. I’ve been contacted by a couple of lawyers who want to pursue it but
they seemed more the ambulance chaser type.
I don’t know at this point. But I
do get a little pissed off when people see all the Deadworld collections coming
from IDW as well as the new mini-series and claim that I’m jumping on the
zombie bandwagon. Deadworld was first
published some 25 years ago and yes, the schedule has been erratic over the
years but there’s still at least 75 issues out there.
5. Regarding Negative Burn (the best anthology ever),
how was it for you to promote and publish some of the best stars of comics
today? People like: Gaiman, Moore, David Mack, Bendis, Michael lark, Vince
Locke, Brian Bolland, Paul Pope, Michael Gaydos, Phil Hester, Guy Davis
among many others. Were you pleased with "Negative Burn"?
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| Negative Burn - Cover by Paul Pope |
Gary Reed: Negative Burn was developed by
primarily Joe Pruett along with Jim Pruett and some other guys and when it
first launched, it was to replace Caliber Presents which ran, I think, 24
issues. Caliber Presents had featured
quite of those names but with Negative Burn, the big difference was that Joe
secured a lot of big names who did not make their mark at Caliber. Mack, Bendis, Lark, Locke, Davis, and others
pretty much made their names at Caliber and were in the first anthology series,
but Joe brought in many others as he was working from a different base. Also, at that time, Caliber had a much more
visible presence than the early days so we were more of a known quantity. So, I think it was a bit easier to attract
the big names but again, it was Joe mainly, that actually did the work and
getting them and he put the issues together. At Caliber, we released 50 issues of Negative Burn, a remarkable run for
an anthology. It was nominated for a
number of awards and deservedly so.
6. I Remember one story written by you with Lord Byron, Mary Shelley
and Percy Shelley near a bonfire trying to write the best horror story ever
(and Mary wrote Frankenstein), Do you think that Frankenstein was a bit of an
autobiography story by Mary Shelley over being married with a guy (Percy
Shelley) that had lots of people inside him?
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| High Caliber - With Percy Shelley story |
Gary Reed: That was “To a Poet Dying Young”,
illustrated by Galen Showman who also did Renfield and was the main artist
behind Sinergy (the collection was re-titled Sin Eternal) which was an updating
of Dante’s Inferno. The short story you
mention appeared first in the High Caliber anthology graphic novel which were
all original stories by the Caliber talent crew at the time. My center of the story was how much creative
people give up of themselves sometimes when they embark on their
endeavors. It was based on a real event
of Percy Shelly having died and the others were so distraught and when they
burned the body, it appeared the heart wouldn’t burn. The character that we emphasize with is a
struggling writer who desperately wants to be part of the group, you have to
remember that Byron was the rock star of his age, and just wanted to be one of
them. Mary Shelley lets him know that
there’s a price to pay and it isn’t worth it.
As for the Shellys, I don’t think the idea of Frankenstein grew from
Percy, but rather from the idea of vitalism.
At that time, it was believed all life had a vital force and it was
being debated at that time as understanding how basic chemistry and biological
systems were fermenting into different ideas. In their era, they started questioning any kind of mysterious force and
if you examine all the stories that the group wrote, they all dealt with some
aspect of Vitalism. Dr. Polidori, who
was also part of the group, may have written the first vampire story which
again dealt with a vital force but this one was contained in the blood.
7. Caliber had amazing series on my opinion
"Baker Street" and "The Marquis" By Guy Davis, "Saint
Germaine", "Deadworld", "Ghost Sonatta", "Red
Diaries", "Renfield" by you, which one do you see as your
favourite one and that holds a special place on your heart?
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| Baker Street with Guy Davis |
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| Saint Germaine with Vince Locke |
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| The Marquis by Guy Davis |
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| Renfield with Galen Showman |
Gary Reed: Obviously, my stuff holds more of a
special place but I published some stuff I really liked a lot such as Sudden Gravity,
Go-Man, and Fringe. I think those were
my three favorites. As for my material,
Baker Street has a special place as it was my first comic. Deadworld because of how long its lasted but
its only been the last few years that I feel its really what I want to do so
I’m loving the new series. Ghost Sonata
is one that I think is very under-rated, Red Diaries was one I really enjoyed,
but as a complete package, I think Renfield is my favorite. I was thrilled when it was used in a
University literature class. However,
Saint Germaine is probably the one I enjoyed the most and would love to get
back to. I think it is the most “me” in
the sense that I’m doing what I really wanted to do. I’m actually launching another series, a
murder mystery set in early 1900s and I will be doing something similar that I
did with Germaine as I’ll be incorporating a lot of historical elements into
it. But it won’t have the supernatural
elements, more of chronicling experiences.
8. Another short story that I really enjoyed was a
short story over the character : Rasputin (and I was amazed on how much you
knew over european history with some of your stories). Do you view
yourself as an avid world history consumer?
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| With various artists - Transfuzion |
Gary Reed: Yes, I am an avid fan of
history. There are certain time periods
that just fascinate me and Russian history is one of those. I did the Rasputin story you mentioned, also
as a new story in High Caliber, with Michael Lark. One of my favorite movies was The Red Tent
about survivors in the arctic and I loved the narrative structure of it so I
adopted it for this story. I also
brought in Rasputin in Saint Germaine as well as Helsing. He’s a great figure. In my biology classes I teach, I bring him up
also when discussing genetics and how the Russian royalty fell because they
lacked a simple understanding of genetics.
9. I also remember a tiny story that appeared on High
Caliber "amongst the stars" by Jim Alexander and I still think that
it's the best science fiction story told in comics format and I compare it easily
to some of the best works of Philip K. Dick
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| My favourite Philip K. Dick book |
Gary Reed: That was one of the leads in the
comic version of High Caliber and that
was a short lived flip book and Amongst the Stars was in the first two issues,
flipped with Ghost Sonata that ran four issues. Jim has released Amongst the Stars into a single comic and I think both
physical and digital copies are available.
Since Caliber had an wide range of writing themes like
: Adventure, History, Biblical stories, Children stories, Science-Fiction,
Action, horror and Humour, which theme do you think was
your favourite one during Caliber days?
Gary Reed: That’s hard to say, I mean, it all
depends on the story. The theme or genre
shouldn’t dictate the story and if it does, well, then that’s the focus. I’m not too much into genre fiction where the
genre defines the story. I like good
stories and they can be set in any genre.
So, guess I can’t really say what themes I like or don’t like…it all
depends on the story.
10. Was it difficult to close Caliber comics for good for
you?
11. Do you think that you're targetting the same public that loved Caliber with Transfuzion?
Gary Reed: No, not generally. Transfuzion primarily was all reprint books,
much of it from Caliber. It’s branched
off to some new material but Transfuzion doesn’t have the same awareness that
Caliber had, but at the same time, Transfuzion has some advantages that Caliber
didn’t have and most of the sales are online from sites like Amazon and
others. As for appeal, I think that in
recent years, diversity among the comic offerings is fairly broad so there’s
less need for a specialty publisher. Of
course, most of the comics market still want their comic format and at
Transfuzion, it’s all graphic novels…no comics.
12. What do you think of the comics market nowadays?
Gary Reed: On one hand, I think the quality and
diversity is fantastic right now and there are incredible works available but
these are primarily what is labeled as the independents. So, the other hand is
that the market still seems mired in the superhero world. Personally, I have no interest in the spandex
lines even though I grew up with them.
The characters may have the same names but they’re not the same
characters and with all the rebooting of the lines, whatever happens is
irrelevant because in a year or two, it will be a moot point. I do understand, however, that the characters
have to keep changing because the limited audience doesn’t want to read the
same thing over and over. The problem is
that no new characters from the two major publishers are replacing the original
ones and so they have to reuse the masthead characters over and over. To me, it would be like trying to keep Harry
Potter going and just reinventing the concepts and novels every few years so
eventually, it becomes totally unrecognizable yet still has the name of Harry
Potter. The majors have to figure out
some way to bring in new characters to build around but the audience seems to
want only the old ones. I look at it just
as do with the Hardy Boys…as a kid, I read every book at least twice but then I
moved on. Same with the superheroes,
I’ve moved on. I still have a fond
memory of them but I don’t want to read some twisted version that only has the
name in common.
13 . Do you see technology as an enemy of comic
books with E-books, I-pads and with lots of info everywhere on the web?
Gary Reed: No, just a shift of something that’s
going to happen however I feel about it.
I personally don’t like to read on a computer or tablet as much as the
physical, but I do because lots of times it is just more convenient. It’s nice to have a library at your fingers
all the time. The digital isn’t the
enemy although I do wonder why some publisher are selling out to it so fast. As a publisher, sure, I deal with it but I’m
not sacrificing the physical books as right now, it’s not feasible. Undoubtedly, it will be in the future but I
don’t know how long that will take and then I’ll adjust accordingly.
14. Do you think that the comic book industry will start to fail as a
published format or do you've the impression that perhaps it could happen like
on the 90's? (when people took lots of photocopies of books but wanted the
"real thing")
Gary Reed: I think it’s likely there’ll be
comics as long as there are books. The
comics market is already a small niche market and will likely be able to stay
that way for awhile. The collectible aspect plays a role and of course, the
tactile crowd who want a physical book also play their part. But you have a whole generation coming up
that won’t be making a choice between physical and digital, they’ll only know
digital. In their minds, they won’t be
picking one over the other, they’ll just go with what they know and that
doesn’t bode well for the physical books.
Everything has their day in the sun, as they say, and perhaps the comic
format is going to go the way of newspaper strips and pulp novels, just like
digital squashed CDs, vinyl, VCRs, film cameras, and the like. They may still be around but not like they
used to be. Technology is to bring new
products and devices and that always means they’re replacing something else.
