[The following editorial appears in Shards #6, New Blood #25, Blood of Ten Chiefs #14, Jink #3, and The Rebels #3. --MK]
RP here. From time to time, I intend to share the spotlight (or hotseat, as you will) with the other Warped folks. So, without further ado, some words from Warp's resident jack-of-many-trades, Barry Blair...
Well, as I write this it's mid-December and most everybody's thoughts are turned toward
Christmas. (Indeed, our gala Warp Christmas dinner is this very evening.) Going on about Christmas
spirit is all well and good but the issue you read this in will most likely appear after the big event. So I
thought I'd do an editorial to answer a lot of questions I was asked throughout this past convention
season. Richard, Conrad and I ranged from Chicago to New Jersey to Baltimore to San Diego and got to
meet a whole lot of our great readers. We had a blast! In fact, the highlight of the year was hooking up
with Wendy in California at the season's end - she's been out on the west coast working on the Elfquest
movie and the work she showed us was fantastic!
Anyway, that's for another editorial. Right now, I'd like to explain what I do here at the Mighty Warp as Managing Editor.
Actually, that title was used only because "He who looks at submissions, does guest covers, inks occasional backgrounds, chases talent, nags free-lancers, and buys office goodies" wouldn't fit on a business card. One of the main things I do (or rather, what takes up a lot of my time when I'm not drawing New Blood or antagonizing our PR man Conrad) is to look at submissions that come here from free-lance artists or writers who want to do work for us. How we look at these submissions is what makes Warp Graphics so different - so special.
Of course we get a lot of not so good stuff, and that's to be expected. Not everyone can be the next Jack Kirby or Wendy Pini. However, we do get a whole bunch of submissions from artists and writers working in the field who should know better.
Long time readers of Elfquest know right off what I mean when I say Warp is a different type of publisher than most. Wendy and Richard have always produced a world full of life, and characters that seem to many people to live. This is no accident, and I like to think we are keeping the tradition alive. We have no huge strapping men in leotards with big guns and little heads killing everything in sight, our women don't bite people's necks or steal men's souls. We try to produce stories that don't hinge on fight scenes, and we don't go for high body counts.
You would be surprised at how many envelopes we get filled with pictures of the Punisher or Wolverine. Now, if you were going to try to get a job at a company, wouldn't it behoove you to see just what this company produces first? Or am I, as the submissions editor, supposed to be so blown away by these funky superhero drawings that I should leap up shouting, "Stop the presses, I found someone to do Shards!" Forget it!
The truly marvelous and rewarding part of this job is finding the real talent. These are the ones Wendy says who "have it."
I am still trying to find out what the hell "it" is and when I do I'm sure Richard will want to bottle it, but I do have the ability to recognize it when it stares up at me from an opened envelope. I am proud to be the guy who brought you Delfin Barral, Steve Blevins, Craig Taillefer, David Boiler, and Bern Harkins. Believe me, for each of these guys there were at least fifty others - many are called but few are chosen. I guess the point I'm trying to make is that what we have here at Warp is not a bunch of free-lancers just doing a job and moving on, but some really talented individuals who genuinely care about what they do.
Warp Graphics is unique in the industry in so many ways. My personal favorite is the hands-on relationship among the various departments - production, editorial, promotion and bullpen are physically close to each other so as to link the creativity throughout. Where some bigger companies seem to lose touch with the feel of each project, we are able to let our titles "talk to" each other. For example, I look at The Rebels as the sister book to New Blood because although they happen thousands of years apart, events in both books reflect one another, as you will see in upcoming months. Wendy and Richard have a secret plan for the entire line that is the actual framework for our ongoing universe. Also on the boards are some exciting projects such as mini-series, specials, a map of Abode and a map of the local star system.
One of the things I think I brought to Warp is the artistic method we have used in doing a bunch of interconnected books. A universe needs a "look," and if one person falls down for some reason, it's good to have someone else who can pinch hit. The tough part has been finding a group of artists who can do this as the need arises. I perfected this way of doing things back in 1986-87 at Aircel Studios in Canada, where we produced Elflord, Samurai, Dragonring and a host of others. We were able to produce all these comics and kept a consistent artistic style on all of them.
At Warp we have taken this process a step further and assigned steady art teams to each book and created a specific look for each title. The trick, as I mentioned before, has been to find crews that can do this as well as pinch hit on the other titles to help out each other.
Wendy and Richard, in letting others in to work on their books, have left some pretty big shoes to fill and at times it is a daunting task continuing someone's vision. I think we have a handle on things and they are only getting better, especially with friends like you, the readers, behind us. I'm looking forward to what the new year has in store!
Keep watching...