Comics Spotlight in the Spotlight

Categories: Comic News|Published On: October 25, 2002|Views: 5|

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Comics Spotlight publisher Charles S. Novinskie left the comics industry
when Topps shuttered its comics imprint in 1998. He didn’t stay away long,
though, returning last year with his company, Ground Zero, that produced
licensed products for a number of titles. This year he launched
Comics
Spotlight with a Spider-Man-themed first issue. With a background working on
such fan-oriented publications as
Amazing Heroes and Comics
Interview, he definitely knows what he wants his magazine to
be.

Your second issue has a crime comics theme. What’s in
it?

It will be making its debut at the Baltimore Comic-Con this weekend
and be on sale in comic shops next week. The issue is an overview of the world
of crime comics-past and present. We have some wonderful interviews with Will
Eisner, Frank Miller, Don McGregor…as well as the new class of crime writers
and artists-Brubaker, Rucka, Rosemann, Andreyko and others. We also take a look
back at the brilliant career of Charles Biro as well as a peek at Dr. Fredric
Wrentham’s attack on comics in the 1950s. Anyone interested in the crime comics
genre will want to check out this issue. We also have two spectacular covers, a
Detectives, Inc. cover by Gene Gonzales and a crime characters cover by
the very talented Claude St. Aubin (see this week’s Off the Presses for
more!). By the way, we run a contest every issue in which we give one lucky
reader the original cover artwork, just our way of saying thanks for supporting
us.

What’s coming up after that one?
Our next issue, out in
three short weeks, is our first single-company special. We’re particularly proud
to be doing an all-CrossGen issue. CrossGen has some very exciting comics and
continues to buck a lot of negative trends in the industry. Their growth has
been a real role model for the rest of the industry-and we’ll be working hard to
capture that exuberance in the issue. After the CrossGen issue, we’ll be
spotlighting Marvel’s Ultimates line in January.

What are your goals
for Comics Spotlight?

Well, we’re really setting out to publish a
magazine that is unique to the industry-rather than just duplicating the other
fine magazines on the market. We hope to keep it a PG-13 magazine if you will,
because we really believe that you can’t alienate the younger readers or else
there’s no place for the market to draw new readers from. We also want to
portray the industry in a positive light by focusing on the positives. And, of
course, one of our goals is to increase circulation (laughter). Actually, we’d
like to increase from a quarterly to a bi-monthly schedule in
2003.

What else is Ground Zero working on?
People should know
that Ground Zero is actually the company I started two years ago with Jeff Hams.
We started out producing lithographs and evolved into the publishing venture.
We’ve produced a number of signed lithographs and exclusive t-shirts. I’m proud
to say that we produced the Wolverine/ACTOR t-shirts that help support comic
creators during their times in need. We’ve also produced shirts for Jimmy
Gownley’s Amelia Rules! and Alex Simmons’ Blackjack. We seem to
have developed a rapport with a lot of the independent publishers.

How
have the reactions been to the magazine?

Great! When I left Topps Comics
in 1998, the industry was in decline. I couldn’t imagine this type of magazine
surviving in that market. Today the market seems to be on the upswing. Diamond
Comic Distributors has been supportive of the magazine, and we especially have
to thank all of our great advertisers for their support. From CGC, to Heritage,
to Gemstone Publishing, everyone has been on board since our first issue. And of
course, all of the creators that have taken time to be interviewed have gone the
extra mile to provide sketches and the sort of behind the scenes info that fans
like to read about. We keep getting better and better with each and every issue
and we look forward to helping expand the industry through the pages of
Comics Spotlight!

What do you think of Scoop so
far?

It’s great! I read it every week. There’s always something I didn’t
know before, and there’s a lot of insight into the history of comics and other
media. It’s also cool to see Comics Spotlight in there occasionally.
Thanks!


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