three guys attend Comic Book Club

I attended my first Comic Book Club: Live! show last night along with fellow deviants, Matt Bergin, good friend, publishing professional, and Indy co-creator of the Division 18 comic. That's him in the foreground as Pete and I sadly try to find the address.


Also, Pete Brett, my good buddy, and exciting new fantasy author with his debut novel hitting stores this March: The Warded Man (from Del Rey Books). The book is already out in the UK entitled, The Painted Man, and it's already a best-seller. Here's a photo of Pete with the UK edition (published overseas by the Voyager imprint at Harper Collins).


We've been meeting for years at Midtown Comics, where we buy our weekly comics, talk shop over lunch, and we figured it was finally time to check out this cool little show.

Comic Book Club is a live comic book talk show, hosted by a couple of comics fans: Justin Tyler and Alexander Zalben (as well as Pete Lepage - currently away on his honeymoon. Yes, comic book fans can actually find love and get married).

The show is held weekly, every Tuesday night at the People's Improv Theater on 29th street, a.k.a. The PIT (note the subtle G.I. Joe reference).

Last night's featured guests were the two people behind the exciting new comics magazine, the COMIC FOUNDRY, and that's Laura Hudson (senior editor and the main writer of the mag) and Tim Leong (creator, art director and Editor-in-Chief). Issue #4, the political issue, just arrived in comic shops everywhere this week, be sure to pick up a copy. [that's me with my free copy from the show]

Gratuitously shameless self-promoting note: I have written a small piece which appeared in CF issue #3, and I'm working on one for CF issue #5 due out at the end of the year, oh yeah!

Laura and Tim were great guests, explaining how they wanted to create a new magazine to appeal to comics readers across the board. Readers who like to cross genres, and read everything from indy books to manga to superhero fare.

In essence, someone just like me, who grew up reading superhero books, and will always have a place for them, but also someone who found there are other great indy books out there, like Optic Nerve which I discovered while in college, and added, over time, to my regular reading of Marvel, DC and Dark Horse comics.

I agree that they've created a special comics magazine and that is why I wanted very badly to work with them on it, as I think it speaks to a large audience and treats interest in comics as a lifestyle which it is to me.

The Comic Book Club guys were funny, good interviewers, and put on a good show. I would have liked a bit more participation from the audience, more like a panel at a convention. There was an opportunity before the show to write questions down for the guests, but I feel a show like that is fluid, and on the spot questions might have worked to better effect.

Overall, it was a good time, and I'll be paying attention to their guest list for future shows. Plus - you can't beat the cheap $5 ticket cost for this fun show.