was a big publisher for me. I collected the original Aliens, Predator,
Sin City, The Thing from Another World, Creepy, Eerie, and Dark
Horse Presents. EC Comics set the benchmark with Vault of Horror
and Tales from the Crypt—still a joy to read. Another big influence
was a 1991 UK comic magazine called Toxic, which contained stories
by Pat Mills. It featured some comic book stories like Marshal Law,
Accident Man, Boogie Man, Psycho Killer, and Coffin, that are all
still, to this day, fresh, dynamic, real, well-paced storylines, with
awesome art to boot. Marvel, I have always loved Amazing SpiderMan, but I always like the bad guys, so I only really collected them
when the Green Goblin, Venom, or Hobgoblin were in the runs. Also
Tomb of Dracula and The Punisher. I was always keen on them, but
they were hard to get, back in the day. DC-wise, the big set for me
was always The Dark Knight Returns and also Batman Year One.
Again Frank Miller, but it was such a game changer for Batman.
There was so much good stuff from early DC, like House of Mystery
and The House of Secrets. Ok, I could go on…HA HA!
SP!: CLAIRE, MOST WOMEN WOULD TELL THEIR HUSBANDS TO
GROW UP AND STOP WITH THE COMICS AND GRAPHIC NOVELS.
OBVIOUSLY, YOU SUPPORTED HIM. WHAT WENT THROUGH YOUR
MIND WHEN GEORGE FIRST SUGGESTED OPENING CULT EMPIRE?
CL: As a designer and someone who went back to full-time education to qualify, I was fully aware of how I felt being restricted in the
daily grind, not being able to be creative, and wanting to change
my life around. I knew that George was very determined, passionate, and knowledgeable in what he wanted to achieve and that
was/is exciting. Don’t get me wrong, using the house like a warehouse while I was still coming to terms of being a mother for the first
time and constantly falling over boxes of comics did create many
an atmosphere; nights of sitting, bagging and boarding comics for
comic cons and days spent sitting in the house waiting on deliveries while juggling a baby… it’s not been easy, but it’s challenging,
it’s an adventure, and I love seeing how enthusiastic he is about
the business. Especially now we have two boys, it is our mission to
make it work for their futures.
SP!: JAMES, THE DETAIL NEEDED TO PULL OFF A GOOD
ILLUSTRATION MUST BE DEMANDING. WHAT WOULD YOU SAY
THE TIMELINE IS FROM THE CONCEPT GEORGE GIVES YOU TO
THE FINISHED PRODUCT?
JD: It varies according to the type of illustration needed, whether it
be a character design, interior page, front cover, etc. Working from
doing thumbnail breakdowns of the script to producing a fully
colored final page can take anything from 14 to 24 hours, depending on the level of detail and the panel count. I’m always looking
to bring my average time down, but some pages just draw you in
(no pun intended!) and you end up spending many more hours
working on them than planned.
SELF PUBLISHER MAGAZINE 2014
7