INTERVIEW: CHUCK DIXON & GARY KWAPISZ ON CIVIL war adventure

This publish is Filed Under:

Home page Highlights,
Interviews and Columns

Civil war Adventure

Chuck Dixon and Gary Kwapisz have helped almost every major comics publisher, including a unforgettable run together on Marvel’s savage Sword of Conan. Recently, they developed their own company, history Graphics Press, and their initial introduce is Civil war Adventure. Westfield’s Roger Ash just recently contacted Chuck and Gary to learn more about this new undertaking.

SPECIAL OFFER! All copies of Civil war adventure offered with Westfield this month will be signed and include a mini poster!

Westfield: how did you come to begin history Graphics Press?

Chuck Dixon: Well, Gary and I have understood each other for years. We worked together on savage Sword of Conan and rather a few problems of Punisher war Journal back in the 80s and 90s. We stayed in touch besides that was done and about two years ago Gary asked if I’d be willing to compose some Civil war scripts for a comic he was thinking about doing. I didn’t requirement a great deal of encouragement. I always liked working with Gary and I’m into all things historical and take pleasure in the research study aspect.

Gary Kwapisz: I had been out of comics for a few years and had been doing other picture work, some movie stuff, books, etc., but I was getting tired of that and was believing about perhaps doing some painting, when Chuck asked me to do a short western story he had. I did that and it made me recognize how much I like doing comics! I had just checked out Shelby Foote’s huge three volume history of the Civil war and I was blown away at how great the stories of the war were!

These were the type of stories I always have wished to tell, they were terrible and sad, funny and poignant; they ran the whole gamut of human experience and they were all real! and they are our history and they still matter! So when I started looking into the Civil war and began to recognize how prominent it is, I decided I was going to go ahead and do my own book. I understood Chuck had done some self publishing , so I called him and to ask him some concerns and when he heard what I wished to do he stated he wished to partner with me on it. The rest is history!

Westfield: Why did you decide to lead off with Civil war Adventure?

Dixon: There’s a large, prepared audience that’s familiar with the American Civil War. It’s weird to state that it’s our most “popular” war but it is true that it seems to catch most folks’ imagination. The drama is all there. A nation divided, brother against brother. And, for a great deal of Americans, it’s a war that occurred in locations we’re familiar with.

Kwapisz: The Civil war is really, truly big! There are most likely a dozen books published every month on it. and then there are the reinactors and the museums and civil war round tables, and the stories as I’ve stated are just great.

From the story The Devil’s Due by Gary Kwapisz

Westfield: The book consists of a number of shorter stories. What are the advantages, or disadvantages, of doing that instead of one big, long story?

Dixon: We wished to create a type of graphic novel/anthology hybrid. There’s a seventy page legendary story but then smaller pieces ranging from four to twelve pages. plus great deals of one page illustrated “fact” pieces. This lets our meant audience (young adult) sample the book in little bites before diving in. We truly desired a visitor friendly approach.

Kwapisz: The Civil war stories are of all sorts, some are legendary battles and some are three panel gags! one of the big advantages of self publishing is that we don’t have to follow any preconceived format. We can do it up as we see fit. If the story works out to four pages, fine! If you decide you requirement six, we can make that work too! We have the high-end of letting the story be what even page count it needs to be.

Westfield: There is a great deal of factual detail in the book. how much research study did you do for the book? how did you balance fact and fiction in the stories?

Dixon: Gary and I are both compulsive visitors so it’s not truly a chore. In fact, that part is the most fun. There’re so many great stories in the Civil war years that the issue is selecting only a few. I believe at the beginning of the process I was more knowledgeable about the war. but Gary has blown method past me in the exhaustive reading he’s done on the subject. The person understands his stuff.

Kwapisz: now that I’m doing some composing I can’t believe I get to sit around in the middle of the day reading! I feel guilty, like I should truly be doing some genuine work! but now, I am working. So for me, I view the research study as a luxury! For me, when the story concepts come they just handle a life of their own. and they just seem to work themselves out

Westfield: While at least one of you has a hand in all the stories, you also have some other creators working with you. how did you decide who else you wished to work with on the book?

Dixon: first criteria: can you draw horses?

I relied on my Argentine amigo Enrique Villagran because he’s a history buff also and I understood he’d do an incredible job on the Custer stories (we have another one in the next volume too). He draws great horses and has all the visual ref to make the details accurate.

Sylvestre is a person I wished to work with also and he was willing to draw a complex story about the river war with great deals of demanding detail. His story is gorgeous.

Esteve Poll is another tremendous skill that I satisfied with a Spanish friend of mine. We wound up working on Dynamite’s The Good, The bad and The ugly comic together. but the story of the doomed Union sniper in this volume came first. Esteve has also drawn a story for the second volume that Gary wrote.

From the story home again by Chuck Dixon & Gary Kwapisz

Kwapisz: I see what we are trying to so as something like the EC war comics and so I would like to have other artist bring their different styles and storytelling to the book. right now we don’t have much money, so Chuck and I do the bulk of the work, ‘cause we work cheap! In the future we would like to work with a wide range of interested artist.

Westfield: are there plans for more books from history Graphics Press?

Dixon: We plan at least six volumes in the Civil war adventure series. even more if they prove prominent enough. but then we’ll move on to other segments of American history.

Kwapisz: Self publishing has been a whole great deal more work than I believed it was going to be when I first conceived this project! between working on the second book while trying to offer the first and trying to stay out of foreclosure has been a task! I online in SW Virginia, which is Daniel Boone country and his stories are wild! I would like to do them too. but we have to take care of the books at hand first. one of the big insights I’ve had self publishing is how creative and tough being a service person is! having always worked on the creative side of the business, I’ve had the artist’s tendency to look down on the service people, but not anymore!

Westfield: any closing comments?

Kwapisz: It’s been interesting the reaction we’ve gotten to our book from different people. Our buddies in the comic biz have been surprised that the book isn’t boring! They believed we were doing some new version of the old classics Illustrated! While people in the Civil war world have expressed surprise that it isn’t Sgt. Fury and his shouting Commandos! I like to believe of what we’re doing as a new version of EC’s Blazing Combat!

Purchase

Civil war Adventure