When we were up at ItzaCon over Thanksgiving Break, I picked up a
fabulous book from an independent comic company called Ghostwerks.
If you read my review last month you know that the book they have out
currently is Champion of the Children, and I absolutely adore it. While
I was up at the con I picked up a couple of their ashcans also. They
have many really cool and inventive new comics to produce. While I
was at the con I decided that it would be cool to interview the guys
that put out such a good book. When I went to the table the art
director Michael Lagocki was there and I got to interview him about
Ghostwerks, Champion of the Children and what they might be doing next.
Be sure to check out their website after you're through reading this
interview, and if you haven't already bought and read Champion of
the Children, you should.
Sidra:
What is Ghostwerks and what do you do at Ghostwerks?
Michael Lagocki:
I'm the art director for Ghostwerks. I do a lot of artwork in the books
and writing. We have five members of Ghostwerks, we split things up
pretty evenly. One of our members, Mario, is our business manager. The
other four members of Ghostwerks are all artists or writers. The book
that we just put out is done by three different artists, and it's a
good book. We break up the work evenly. We all different abilities and
skills. We all kind of teach each other and learn from each other.
Sidra:
When did you first become interested in comicbooks?
Michael Lagocki:
I, personally, have been interested in comicbooks since I could read.
My parents brought me a lot of comics when I was a kid and I always
loved them. I think most of the toehr guys have been into them since
they were kids, too.
Sidra:
Did you think that would ever grow up to do comicbooks?
Michael Lagocki:
Yeah, I always thought I would. It was the only thing I ever gave
serious consideration to once I was a teenager. It was the only think
I wanted to do or really had a passion about. I still do a lot of
freelance artwork. I paint, and I draw. I do logos for businesses
and stuff, but my real passion is comicbooks.
Sidra:
So what would be your favorite medium?
Michael Lagocki:
Favorite medium?
Sidra:
Art medium: pencils, painting . . .
Michael Lagocki:
I like working in pen and ink. That's the medium for comics and that's
what I've trained on all my like because that's what I've wanted to do.
I paint a little too, and I do some color work and some computer stuff
too, but I'd still rather just sit here and draw with a pen like I am
right now.
Sidra:
Did anyone in specific inspire you to create comicbooks?
Michael Lagocki:
Yeah, for me personally the big one is probably Frank Miller. Miller's
Dark Knight Returns probably that really solidified how I wanted to be
an artist, and what kind of comics I wanted to do in my life. It really
opened my mind up to all the kind of comics that I wanted to do.
Sidra:
How did you folk come to form Ghostwerks?
Michael Lagocki:
Well, the five of us were friends from college. We all went to the same
college and we all graduated from the University of North Texas. We got
to know each other there and we always were sitting around talking
comicbooks and drawing comicbooks. So we always said that we'd want to
do something like this, and then earlier this year in January things just
started to fall together. We all lived in the same area. Two of us moved
in together, and we proposed starting to meet regularly. We talked about
what type of comicbooks we would like to produce and now, ten months later
here I am holding it in my hand.
Sidra:
I read Champion of the Children yesterday, and it's a very well done book.
I was wonder how the concept came about.
Michael Lagocki:
The concept for the book is the creation of Corance Davis. He's one of
our members. He's the guy that wrote the entire book. He's been kicking
it around in his head for the last few years. He's a black guy, and he
always felt that black characters really weren't represented well in
comics. He wanted to do work for kids. He teaches on the side; that's
what he does professionally. He teachers high school actually, but for
this book he had in mind a younger audience. Ghostwerks was working on a
lot of things when we started, but this is the thing that we had the most
passion around. So, this was the first thing we put out and we've gotten
good responses so far. Everyone seems to like it.
Sidra:
This is a great children's book was this done on purpose? Do you think
there is a lack of children's books in the industry currently?
Michael Lagocki:
It's weird and ironic actually. Comic artists always complain that people
outside of comic only see it as a children's medium and complain that they
see it as low art, but in reality if you look on the stands right now there's
not a whole bunch out there for kids. I think Corance's feelings on what
was out there is that it wasn't really executed well. People think of it
as something that's being done for kids, so they don't put as much care
and effort into it as they would for a book where you readership is adults.
So he wanted to make a smart book for kids. I think it's really accessible
to adults too though. The reality of the situation is that more adults are
reading comicbooks than kids, and we've gotten the book into the hands of
more adults that we have children. And the results have been really
positive. I think it's a perfect book for kids, but adults seem to love
it too.
Sidra:
The shading in Champion of the Children is inventive and it's the perfect
way to bring out texture in a black and white medium. I was wondering
how did you do it?
Michael Lagocki:
Thanks, that was important to us. It was done in Adobe Photoshop. You know
if look at a lot of independent comicbooks they end up looking like coloring
books. The artists don't spot black so they don't have a lot of grey in it.
Just because you print a black and white comicbook, it doesn't mean you can't
put as many greys as you want. In a way you take the artwork into photoshop
and you almost paint it. It a lot of ways it's like the book is colored. It's
just colored in tones of greys. You can see there's a real variation in grey.
It's not just white, black and grey. There's tones the way from white to
black. We wanted the artwork to pop up more. We knew we couldn't afford a
color book yet, but we didn't want to make it look stale. We didn't want it
to look like a coloring book.
Sidra:
Are you planning on making Tales of a High School Horror into a book eventually?
Michael Lagocki:
Did you get to read Tales of a High School Horror?
Sidra:
Yes.
Michael Lagocki:
Did you like it?
Sidra:
Yes, I though it was very cute. I liked it.
Michael Lagocki:
That's one of mine personally, that I did before Ghostwerks was even founded.
I reprinted it as a little ashcan to give out to folks at conventions. I
definitely want to produce a Tales of High School Horror book through Ghostwerks.
I love doing it. It gets great response. It's one of the funnest things for
me to draw on and write.
Sidra:
So what can we expect next from Ghostwerks?
Michael Lagocki:
We're kicking around a lot of things. You're definitely going to see another
book from us. Hopefully in the next three months. The book we're working on
right now is an anthology, Ghostwerks #1. It'll give everyone a chance to
put some of their stories in it. Like I said Champion of the Children is a
creation of one person, and everyone here has ideas the want to do and ideas
that they have. We'll probably do Ghostwerks #1 next. We're already working
on more Champion of the Children stuff. Another Champion of the Children one
shot will be coming soon. We'd love to do an ongoing series someday, and it's
beginning to look more and more like we're going to be able to because the
response has been so good. And Tales of High School Horror, you'll see a
Tales of High School Horror comic coming soon.
Sidra:
How will we be able to get a copy of these?
Michael Lagocki:
Well the best thing to do is to check out our website
. Not
only do we have a list there of every retailer in the state that carries the
book, but you can order the book directly from us if one of those retailers
is not around you. You can also order from www.mycomicshop.com
which is the biggest online comicbook retailer, and you can see us at conventions
we do a lot of appearances. You can check our website for those appearances too.
We do an appearance every couple of weeks or so in the Texas area usually.
