The celebrated Mr. K reveals the line-up for his latest book of interviews, including with Mark Waid, Gerry Conway, Roy Thomas, Tom King and MORE…
Our pal and 13th Dimension columnist Paul Kupperberg on Tuesday formally announced the details of the third book in his trilogy of interviews with (largely) DC Comics heavyweights and stalwarts — Direct Creativity, which follows Direct Comments and Direct Conversations. It is now live on Kickstarter.
Rather than me tell you what it’s all about, I’ll turn it over to the comprehensive press release. And if you want a real taste of what’s in store — and you do — click here.
Paul Kupperberg Launches Kickstarter for Direct Creativity: The Creators Who Inspired the Creators
Veteran DC Comics and Archie Comics writer and editor Paul Kupperberg (Superman, Supergirl, the Doom Patrol, Peacemaker, Vigilante, Life with Archie) announces the launch of the Kickstarter campaign for his new Crazy 8 Press book release, Direct Creativity: The Creators who Inspired the Creators.
Direct Creativity is a collection of new one-on-one talks with 18 comic book creators about the people, comics, books, movies, and television that sparked and inspired them and drove them to create. The line-up of talent represented in Direct Creativity includes writers and artists whose work spans the 1960s to the current day, including D.G. Chichester, Mike Collins, Gerry Conway, Mike DeCarlo, J.M. DeMatteis, Dan DiDio, Marc Guggenheim, Joe Illidge, Barbara Kaalberg, Tom King, Mark Millar, Mindy Newell, Mike Avon Oeming, Chuck Patton, Christopher J. Priest, Rick Stasi, Roy Thomas, and Mark Waid.
In his introduction to Direct Creativity, 13th Dimension editor and publisher Dan Greenfield notes, “Of the dozens of conversations Paul has recorded for posterity in these books, one thing stands out: They are almost all exactly the same, but also wildly different — and it’s those diverging details that make this trilogy of interviews impossible to put down.”
“Almost every one of the creators tell of discovering comics early and having their passions ignited for the medium,” said Kupperberg, “but some took longer than others to achieve, or even recognize, their goal. Christopher Priest was interning at Marvel Comics at 17. Mindy Newell was a 30-year old working nurse with a young child when she decided, on a whim, to try out for DC Comics’ New Talent Showcase program. Artist Denys Cowan was interning for Rich Buckler at 14 years old. Writer Tom King spent seven years as a CIA counterintelligence agent before pursuing a career in comics. But they all shared a single-minded determination to break into their chosen profession, come hell or high water.”
The Kickstarter campaign offers signed copies of the Direct Creativity: The Creators Who Inspired the Creators paperback, either by itself or with a PDF e-copy, or in combination with signed copies of one, two, or all three of Paul’s previously published books about comics (and PDF e-copies): Direct Comments: Comic Book Creators in their Own Words, Direct Conversations: Talks With Fellow DC Comics Bronze Age Creators, and Paul Kupperberg’s Illustrated Guide to Writing Comics.
“I know backers have come to expect stretch goals and elaborate rewards in their Kickstarter campaigns,” Kupperberg said, “but as I learned from the Direct Conversations Kickstarter, readers don’t need a lot of frills to want to read a book of conversations with creators about their lives and careers in comics.”
—
Click here to back the Kickstarter campaign. It will be live for 21 days. The book is due to be published in April 2024.
For further information, contact: pkupperberg@gmail.com
—
MORE
— PAUL KUPPERBERG: My 13 Favorite DIRECT CREATIVITY Quotes, Part 1: CREATIVE INFLUENCES. Click here.
— PAUL KUPPERBERG: My 13 Favorite Comics Discussed in DIRECT CONVERSATIONS. Click here.
—
PAUL KUPPERBERG was a Silver Age fan who grew up to become a Bronze Age comic book creator, writer of Superman, the Doom Patrol, and Green Lantern, creator of Arion Lord of Atlantis, Checkmate, and Takion, and slayer of Aquababy, Archie, and Vigilante. He is the Harvey and Eisner Award nominated writer of Archie Comics’ Life with Archie, and his YA novel Kevin was nominated for a GLAAD media award and won a Scribe Award from the IAMTW. Now, as a Post-Modern Age gray eminence, Paul spends a lot of time looking back in his columns for 13th Dimension and in books such as Direct Conversations: Talks with Fellow DC Comics Bronze Age Creators and Direct Comments: Comic Book Creators in Their own Words, available, along with a whole bunch of other books he’s written, by clicking the links below.
Website: https://www.paulkupperberg.net/
February 6, 2024
Put my hat in for the project. Good luck with the Kickstarter, Paul.