LUCIDMEDIA

Interview with Joey Endres of Megazeen

Written by Adam A. Donaldson Tuesday, 15 April 2008 03:48

Joe could you give our readers a little background on yourself leading into the comics industry?

My dad taught me to read with comic strips in newspapers before I was four years old. I was making my own comics by the time I hit kindergarten, and really discovered comic books when I was about eight or nine. In Junior High (like most geeks), I started designing my own superhero characters. In 1995 I answered an ad in Sam Kieth’s The MAXX to submit for an anthology book. That book later became Cross Press Comics, the precursor to Megazeen.

How did Megazeen come about?

Megazeen was born a few years later in early 2002, when Joseph Crossett and I wanted to get back into the game, so we began to actively recruit artists who would kick into an edgy, unique book that deals with some spiritual and moral issues. Although most of the pieces have a spiritual side to them, we didn’t want it to be cheesy or preachy. They’re supposed to be indie, raw comics that are entertaining and deep, not religious tracts. We want people to take risks with their work. It shouldn't be artificial or predictable, but it should rather be about genuine experiences, or genuinely funny or creepy or whatever.

How long has Megazeen been around?

Megazeen has been around since 2002. We’ve published 12 regular issues, 3 freebie convention specials and 3 issues of “Megazeen Presents” which are for artist solo efforts. As far as anthologies or indie series go, that’s a strong run. We owe it all to the commitment of our artists and creative people. The comics range from goofy to scary, from subtle to risqué. It’s really whatever the artist wants to do. We’ve tackled topics like comic conventions, lust, horror, and failure, we’ve presented some serials and some simple one-pagers. I like to think we’re showing stuff that hasn’t been seen before like this. Megazeen has slowly evolved over the years into other areas as well. We now host a second website, christiancomics.net, which holds a forum, a chat room, a gallery and a store for our comics as well as many others. This way, people have a way to sell their books, and fellowship and collaborate. I’ve seen a lot of good teams come out of those forums.


(Drawn By Kneon Transit)

What are your duties with the company?

I am Editor In Chief (I guess), and I write, draw, ink and letter occasional pieces. As editor it’s my job to recruit talent and select pieces for publication.

How many artists does Megazeen employ?

I wouldn’t call it “employ”. It’s mainly a volunteer thing, except for the commissioned cover art. We have over 75 artists that have contributed to Megazeen, from literally all over the world now. They do it for the same reason I do it, because they love comics and God gave them gifts to draw. They just like seeing print and being a part of what we do.

Do all of the artists work onsite?

They all work from home and send in their finished pages. I’ve only met a handful of them face-to-face, usually at comic conventions, but we email and talk all the time. It’s like distant relatives, we’re all family.

Is it all fun and games throughout the workday?

Mostly (smiles). Hey, it’s comics, if it’s not fun why bother. You get to draw and watch Star Trek at the same time, what could be better? Like any kind of work, there’s some stress. Deadlines, convention preparation, editing, nagging artists to get their work done, that kind of thing. But the end product is always rewarding.

Walk us through a typical workday.

You don’t think I do this for a living do you? Geez. I hemorrhage money on this thing. But I do it because I love it. I get the kids off to school, go to work (my REAL job, not this), come home, and then hit the comics stuff. Some nights I draw my own stuff, or ink or letter someone else’s work. Even the editorial stuff is fun, because that’s fellowship time when I get to spend time with the artists. I like to make sure I spend SOME time on it every day.

What are your favorite comics/publications?

The best book I have read lately is “KING!”, written by Tom Hall and illustrated by Daniel Bradford. It's a bout a washed out rocker battling zombies. Also the Megazeen vet Jamie Cosley's graphic novel “More Than Sparrows”. It's all about death, forgiveness and hope, and it’s so well presented. There’s also Pulp Crucifixion, which is like Australian Megazeen. It's really cool. In the area of mainstream I like Ghost Rider, Supergirl, Teen Titans. And on the indie scene I like obnoxious stuff like Milk and Cheese, and James Kochalka and Owly. Guilty pleasures.

I noticed on your site a competition called Comic Jam Wars. What is Comic Jam Wars and what has been your involvement in this competition?

Oh man that was cool! Back in the beginning of 2006 we had to assemble a team of artists with a comic shop to sponsor you. The idea was you do a complete 8 comic pages in 12 hours. On April Fool's Day at 12 noon they announced the topic “There is an alien in your comic shop”. I pulled together some Megazeeners: Tom Hall, Jesus Marquez, Keith “Inkboy” Betancourt and myself. I knew we had a great team—it was awesome to see the judges confirm it when we won Third Place out of over 100 teams. We were pretty wiped out when the thing ended at midnight-and we used every spare second! By the way, Ben Avery took First Place and he’s done plenty of Megazeen work too. It’s just awesome what you’re capable of doing with the right combination of people and when your heart is into it. It was one of the coolest things I’ve ever been a part of.

Is there anything else that you would like to add or say to our audience?

Yeah, I’d say they should check out the book! There are some great artists busting their humps to make an awesome comic! We just came out with the Megazeen Color Special, our first full color issue, and the Megazeen of HORROR, which is a spin on old EC titles like Tales from the Crypt. I drew a zombie story that Tom Hall wrote in that one, and got to co-write another story and ink a third. We’ve got the “Failure Issue” coming out this spring. I can’t wait to see it. I stepped down as editor for that one so I haven’t seen most of the content yet. And we’ve got an issue of one-pagers coming up soon, and a superhero/sci-fi issue on the horizon. We have no plans to stop this machine, no matter what the critics may say!

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I personally felt very honoured at end of this interview, as Joey Endres asked if I would be willing to kick in and illustrate a page for Issue #14! It will be submitted by March and I'll be sure to let you fellow Lucid Forgers out there know when you can pick up the next issue!