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When I first met Rich Koslowski he had a couple
books, one being How to Pick Up Girls If You're a
Comic Book Geek. After I read that book I was
hooked. Rich has written some very funny stuff
with the characters from that initial one shot,
and more recently his excellent graphic novel
Three Fingers won an Ignatz Award. Rich is a very
nice gentleman and always a pleasure to talk to.
At Wizard Chicago, I caught up with Rich and asked
him about his work with Archie, his new graphic
novel The King (a mystery-adventure story about
Elvis,) about winning the Ingatz Award, about the
future of my favorite 3 Geeks, and the ultimate question of
Archie buffs everywhere "Betty or Veronica?"
Sidra:
First, I'm going to ask you a kind of
goofy question. 3 Geeks, 3 Fingers, is this just
a coincidence or do you have an obsession with the
number three?
Rich Koslowski:
It's just been an absolute
coincidence, sort of. Actually, I did kind of
have this master plan hatched from the beginning.
It started off with naming the company Three
Finger Prints as an homage to the old Disney
artists, who were always drawing the cartoon
characters with three fingers, and kind of an
homage to my dad, who's a butcher, because
butchers are notoriously missing a finger. So, in
a weird twisted way that became the name of my
company and then the book was just the 3 Geeks
naturally because there were three characters.
Then I thought, well, I'm going to have fun
starting to play up this three theme. The first
miniseries was a three issue story arc with a lot
of threes in there-a lot more if people really
look-a lot of things with the number three. Three
Fingers was a book that I had in mind when I
started the 3 Geeks and the 3 Fingers logo. I
knew eventually I was going to do a story about
why these characters had three fingers, but it
took five years to do it. So the book Three
Fingers has come out and people are starting to
notice, "What's this three thing? What's this
three thing?" And hopefully one day it will all be
revealed. I've got this big master plan, epic
plan, but it's a few years down the road. So
you're going to have to wait for the final answer
on that.
Sidra:
Last time we talked you were working on a
graphic novel that was supposed to be out this
summer. What happened with that?
Rich Koslowski:
I had an eye injury. I got a
finger to the eye playing basketball that tore one
of the muscles and I had severe double vision for
six months. I had to have surgery where they actually
couldn't correct the bad eye. They had to cut the good eye
to match the bad eye. They intentionally damaged
it. So, all my projects were put on hold for 8
months while I went through that ordeal which was
horrible. So yeah, The King was my book with Top
Shelf that was supposed to be out this summer but
will be out next summer. It's back on track again.
Sidra:
Can you tell us a little about The King?
Rich Koslowski:
It's my version of what happened
to Elvis Presley. Did he really die that night,
didn't he? It's going to be a bizarre tale.
There's going to be some humor, some adventures,
some drama, and some faith based subplots to the
story. It's going to be very interesting and I
did it because Chris Staros, the publisher at Top
Shelf, is a fanatic about Elvis. He does the
pilgrimage every year on the anniversary of his
death. I just kind of offhandedly said, "Hey if I
come up with an Elvis story would you do it?"
His eyes lit up. Absolutely we'll do it. We'll do
a limited hardcover, we'll do two color, we'll
push it, and we'll do a real good launch with it,
market it. So over the next two weeks I came up
with a very interesting story line he loves, and
we're going to do it.
Sidra:
You've started working on the 3 Geeks again
what brought that about?
Rich Koslowski:
The only reason I ever stopped
doing them was to do the graphic novel, Three
Fingers with Top Shelf. It was a scheduling
thing. It was just very time consuming process to
do a bimonthly comic, which was what the 3 Geeks
was. But I missed them so much and the fans kept
asking me to do them. So, I was able to set aside
a 6 week period where I could do a one shot. So,
I decided if I was only going to do one issue a
year, I might as well make it worth it and make it
double sized. So, it's a 48 page issue. I've done
them now for two years and I think I'm going to
keep doing that-one a year, double size.
Sidra:
You won the Ignatz Award and were nominated
for the Harvey and Ursa Major Awards for Three
Fingers. How does it feel to win and be nominated
for all that?
Rich Koslowski:
It's validation. I'm still kind
of in the middle tier of success sales-wise in the
industry.
Not a break out hit. Definitely not selling
record sales on my book. So, when you get validation
that way, by winning awards, it helps. I was very
happy. To be honest I was ecstatic about it, and
to win the Ignatz, I was really overcome
emotionally. It was a big release when I won. I
got choked up, and I didn't think I would. It was
really bizarre. It's validation. Your peers are
telling you that you're doing something right and
that you can hang in there and keep going.
Sidra:
How goes your work for Archie?
Rich Koslowski:
Archie is great. I have no
complaints about Archie. They keep me as busy as I
need to be. That's my day job. It's great because
my day job is also comics related. So when I come
to shows, I push my stuff that I self publish but
I also have my Archie stuff that I can put on the
table. I have an occasional Archie fan who will
come buy the artwork. Most artists here have day
jobs that are not comics related. Mine happens to
be comics related-it's wonderful.
Sidra:
Okay, here's the ultimate Archie question,
Betty or Veronica and why?
Rich Koslowski:
You know, we were just talking
about this last night in the car. You want to go
for Veronica because she's sexy and naughty, but
she's never actually going to put out for you.
She's a tease. Betty's the good, all-American,
wholesome girl. You know she's going to treat her
man right. She's a safer bet. I'm going to go
with Betty because in the long run she's going to
be there for you. Veronica is not. She's all
about the money.
Sidra:
Do you think Archie is any easier to break into as a professional
than say Marvel or DC?
Rich Koslowski:
Probably equally as difficult for
different reasons. Archie does not do as many
titles as DC or Marvel, so there's not as much
work to be had. They're very loyal to their
artists. You know, you really have to, for lack
of a better term, you literally have to die at
Archie to be replaced, which is a great thing.
I'm not saying that to be funny or factious at all.
They're loyal to you. If you do your work and you
get it done, they're going to keep you employed.
There are more titles at DC and Marvel, but
there's also more competition. So, they're equally
hard for completely different reasons.
Sidra:
Is there anything you would like to add on about
what you're doing and how things are going?
Rich Koslowski:
No, we talked about my new
projects and I'm just happy to still be here doing
it, still happy to have a fan base, and as long as
I keep moving forward and not backward I'm going
to keep doing this. And I keep taking baby steps
forward every year. I'll be around hopefully for
a while yet.
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