The People’s Publisher

Ladies and gentlemen, I am delighted to present to you an interview with a man formerly known as Matthew Toner. He now goes by the name Hey, you… Zombie!

Julian: Now then Matt, let me start off by thanking…

Hey, you… Zombie: GRNXLZ!

J: Sorry… I’ll remember that from now on. So Hey you… Zombie, thanks for being here with us today.

H: (Burps)

J: The question that is on a lot of people’s minds is this: how did you come up with the concept for Zeros 2 Heroes?

H: GRAGHT DUBG TSINK UGTRH KINDJKLOSPEJ. UDINDSTEUH KDOMRIH TUSIEJ UWKOGHJ HXY HKIKW BJDUTR KOSGAYU DH UENBKJXC! (laughs) ERJYF KON H YBDJUS KIRPLK IBYTD GSIENH BFJUS OFUE KIFH, JAUEJKIBDMBXK. (Burps)

J: Hmmm…

H: (Farts)

J: Uh…ok… I understand you studied economics at university.What business model did you refer to when setting up Z2H initially?

H: YHGDSCULI JKSDFUS, HDSJKAYFWKQU;LQ JHCXIULSDHSD GCVSKBS HDGKS SGFUKW BCJDSF. BCSHDFGERUI.

J: Good grief! Listen Matt–

H: GRNXLZ!

J: Right. Sorry. Look, Hey You Zombie… as a professional economist, can you count to three?

H: H YBDJUS KIRPL OFUE KIFH, JAUEJKIBDMBX EJKIBD!

(Z2H Creative Director Jessica Clark enters the room)

Jessica: Hey, you…Zombie! It’s snack time. Come get your scrambled brains.

H: BRAINS?

(Hey, you… Zombie jumps from the chair, but the chains hold him down. Jessica proceeds to spoon feed Zombie the mess of raw, scrambled brains)

Well folks, that was as much as I could get out of Matt Toner during the interview. Do you see now what running a business can do to you?

See you in the funny papers!

Julian

There’s a band around town that performs under the moniker Fake Shark! Real Zombie! I first saw the name a couple years back on a poster advertising a gig of theirs. Now, being a zombie fan from years ago, I got what the band was referencing. There’s a scene in the 1979 film Zombie (aka Island of the Flesh Eaters) where a zombie and a shark go at each other under water. The shark was indeed rubber, and the zombie was, in essence, real. The zombie won, and I am left wondering if a sequel could not have been made with a zombie shark, thus crossing the zombie genre with the man VS animal genre (Jaws, Cujo, Them, etc). Instead we have a band regaling the desperate homeless in the delightful Downtown Eastside of Rolf Harris‘ beloved Vancouvertown.

Terrific Tom Irony’s Slaughter Incorporated blends many of the aspects Zombie fans love about the genre. There’s gratuitous violence (natch), but there’s also the diaspora of characters and their reactions to a phenomenon that can go out of control. Artist Sexy Steve Goad got the concepts right off the bat with the creation of the pinup of the book’s protagonist Gregory Heathcliff. Here’s his first go at it (dubbed “pencils” even though Steve works directly with paint from the start):

As pencils, they were approved. So Steve moved onto the so-called “inks” stage. You know, Steve is the second sequentials painter I’ve worked with (the other being Krazy Kuba Kujawa on Jazzy Jason Cook’s Blake Undying) and I’m starting to see as an editor the best way to proceed under those circumstances. So far, the painters I’ve been working with start right off the bat with colour and paint. As a way to monitor progress and keep track of revisions, the artist’s first upload will be considered Pencils_1. If revisions are requested, the next upload would be Pencils_2 and the last Pencils_3, because Z2H artists are contracted for two revisions per iteration (pencil. inks. etc…). The next set of revisions would be uploaded as “inks”. Here is what Steve presented under the “inks” step:

All that was needed was a final tweak and Voila! Pinup is done! Next stop: Page X!

Be sure to check out zeros2heroes.com and the ZedWorks Gallery for more eye-poppin’ art!

See you in the funny papers,

Julian