I’ve bought a lot of comics, too many to read. It’s impractical how many comics I own. I would have to read like three comics a day for ten years to finish reading all my comics, so when I get back from a comics shop, I try to at least flip through everything. So wasteful. People say, “What the hell do you buy all those comics for, if you don’t ever read them?” I try to be patient to them, because obviously they can never understand. I explain, “It’s not about reading. It’s about having.”
I haven’t read too much of Steve Rude’s work, even though I own a fair amount of it. For that matter, maybe I haven’t read too much of anybody. I like flipping through comics though. When I do read them, I don’t necessarily especially enjoy them. But I think, psychologically, reading them gives me comfort, and gives me a hint of remembering what it was like to read them as a kid. A hint of the memory of that excitement when I was younger, and that fun, and that magic. I joke that for me, reading comics is like an old, withered man who watches porn every day, and he’s seen so much of it that he can’t even get off on it anymore, but it’s the only life he knows, so he continues popping those tapes in and staring at the tv screen, without enthusiasm. Every now and then, more and more rarely, I’ll stumble onto something that I think is fantastic. But for the most part, I’m just going through the motions when I read a comic.
Of what I have read of Steve Rude’s, I absolutely loved a couple projects he did. First was a Spider-Man limited series, which I bought from him at San Diego 2001. Later, I read his Superman Hulk team-up, which I may have enjoyed even more. Whenever I flip through his work, I’m always taken by his layouts. They’re so simple and clean, and tell so much. He has a slightly retro feel with his line work which I enjoy.
I had met Steve at San Diego, and thought he was really sweet and friendly. He spent a lot of time looking at my artwork, and giving me suggestions, and even taking time to draw a few layout sketches of how he might do certain panels differently. I thought he was so kind to do all that.
I had visited his website regularly, bought some books from his website, and even some original art. Through the website, I was always communicated with through his wife, Jaynelle. And that didn’t bother me, although I would have loved a note from “The Dude” himself. But I understood he was busy making art. I thought it was smart to be able to have someone who could help out like that.
Finally I got up the gumption to ask about a possible pin-up for my comic. Jaynelle wrote back, telling me how much it would be, and it was more than I hoped to spend, so I thanked her for the info and told her as much.
But I always thought Steve would be able to do a great giant monster pin-up. I’ve always felt he’s a great Kirby-style artist. He’s done a number of works, especially pin-ups or convention sketches, that just absolutely nail the Kirby zing, in my opinion. I finally decided I would be willing to just bite the bullet and pay what they had asked.
Checking in occasionally at his website, I saw Steve was keeping busy for a stretch and wasn’t taking commissions. But after a few months, they announced time for pin-ups again, so I got back to them. I reminded them who I was and what I wanted, and agreed to their price for a monster pin-up. They were real sweet about it. They said there were a few pin-ups ahead of me, and then Steve would start mine.
This was right before San Diego 2004, and at first there was talk he might have it done by the convention, and be able to bring it and save me shipping. But it turned out he hadn’t even started it yet. I popped by his booth and introduced myself, and showed him some of the other pin-ups I’d gotten. I had just released my first issue, so he flipped through it, and asked if he could have a copy, just to give him an idea of the feel of the book. He hoped that would spark some ideas for his pin-up.
A little later, I actually got a phone call from him. It was really exciting to get a phone call from Steve Rude. He said he was ready to do my pin-up, and just wanted to make sure he understood the concept. We spoke for a while. I let him know I just wanted a giant monster, in any style he’d like, in any setting.
Having flipped through my book now, he told me he really admired that I was self-publishing. He knew it takes a lot of risk and spunk. I think he could relate to my position, and was feeling in a similar situation. He told me he’d found this character he really enjoyed, the Moth, and he felt he could continue telling the Moth’s stories for years, but he was having trouble getting a company to back the project. What I would learn over the months and years is that he shopped it to a number of publishers, and finally got Darkhorse to pick up the Moth for a giant-sized issue, followed by a four-issue limited series. But after that, Darkhorse decided The Moth wasn’t making high enough sales figures for them, and they dropped the title. I believe Steve continued to shop it around a little more, without any luck (at least not to his satisfaction), and in the winter of 2005, finally made the announcement he would make his own attempts to self-publish the title, alongside his first big project and love, Nexus. I’ll write more about that in future entries.
Maybe a few weeks or months after that enjoyable phone call, he called again. He said he had been looking at my book, and how it had a very creepy, dark feel to it. He said he researched a bunch of the old Kirby monster books, and thought, those monster stories were kind of stupid stories anyways. But Kirby had done some other horror stories at about this same time. Real creepy, almost Gothic-type horror stories. So Steve started getting into this idea, and really went with it. He said he even came up with a kind of story within the page. So he was calling because he wanted to know if it would be all right if he went with that sort of theme? I told him, “Look, I encourage you todo anything you want, and get creative, just so there’s a giant monster. Giant monsters is the theme, but take that any direction you feel like.” And he said, “Well, it doesn’t really have a giant monster in it. And it’s done.” And I’m thinking, “The only thing I asked for with this pin-up was that it have the theme of giant monsters, and you’re telling me you didn’t put a giant monster in it?” But of course I didn’t say this.
He was real sweet about it. He said I could take a look at it, and if it didn’t work, I could send it back or he’d redraw it or something like that. But of course I didn’t want to do that. Sure enough, it came in the mail, and that pin-up has personality. It’s a total retro-horror piece. And he’s got a whole story told in that picture. A whole strange magical world, almost reminds me of Steven King’s Carrie, where innocent objects are coming alive all around us, without actually being alive. And if you look around there are definitely monsters throughout the image. The longer you look, the more of them you see. You could even argue that some of them are giant monsters. The pin-up demands a little more engagement on the part of the viewer. It’s a sort of odd-man-out compared to the other pin-ups. But I don’t think that’s a bad thing. I was just so flabbergasted that I had asked him for a pin-up of a giant monster, and he didn’t bother to put a giant monster in it.