Richard: What do you get out of teaching about comics and cartooning?

Stan: A diversified income stream. Ha, seriously, I get lots of things out of it, including a great deal of satisfaction knowing that I'm opening up a world of communication and storytelling for a lot of my students. More than once I've been told by teachers or parents that they've never seen their child so engaged and absorbed in a class project. In addition, it helps me out, allowing me to reflect my lessons on myself and dissect my own process to figure out whether or not I'm communicating a story or joke effectively.

Richard: What is "SubCulture" about?

Stan: SubCulture is a look into geek culture through the eyes of a colorful cast of characters, most of whom hang out at Kingdom Comix, their local comic book store. It affectionately pokes fun at comics fandom, role-playing gamers, video gamers, and more. The recent SubCulture: The TPB release collects the 4 issue mini-series that I would more accurately describe as a "nerd romance."

Richard: How was "SubCulture" started?

Stan: SubCulture was started by the writer, Kevin Freeman, who has been an avid comics fan and former comic book store employee. He has been itching to write about his humorous observations. We found one another on Digital Webbing's message board. Between my art samples and common experiences and influences, we clicked, and the rest is nerd history!

Richard: You also write and draw the webcomic "Opal-Sales Diva" how is that going?

Stan: Well, that never did go anywhere. The company that hired me to draw those ended up balking at posting them online, and instead began looking at publishing a collection of them in book form. I don't know if they're even still around, as their website is down. I hope those strips eventually see the light of day -- they're pretty good, if I may say so myself, even though the racier ones were vetoed.

Richard: Do you enjoy being able to both write and draw?

Stan: Oh, yes. That skill makes my freelance career possible. At this juncture, I'm keeping myself afloat in Ramen and Big K Cola because I can find folks willing to hire me for my illustration skill. I'm still trying to get my writing to payoff in that manner, but I'm making progress. REVVVelations, which I write, but don't draw, is one of the top viewed webcomics on Webcomics Nation, so someone out there likes my writing work.

Richard: What is a "Zombieature"?

Stan: A Zombicature is a caricature or someone zombified! This is one of the things I'm best known for on the convention circuit and in the local art scene here in Denver. I take a digital photograph of my victim and basically rot them away. It's great fun for me, as I like to imagine how folks became zombies and what they've been doing since they became zombies and integrate all of those gory details into their drawings.

Richard: How did you get a pin-up in "Jesus Hates Zombies: Those Slack-Jaw Blues"?

Stan: Actually, found out about Jesus Hates Zombies on ComicSpace and immediately fell in deep, passionate love with Stephen Lindsey, the writer, in a totally unhealthy, stalkerish way. At any rate, I began drawing it without telling him and e-mailed it to him when I finished it for the pin-up gallery. Actually, I had no idea that it would be published in the book, but I'm glad it was (I just wish my byline was more evident). If your readers haven't seen it, it's basically a recreation of the Last Supper painting where almost everyone at the supper table is a zombie, and Jesus is blowing them away with a gun in each hand.

Richard: What is Squid Works Comics?

Stan: Squid Works is a cooperative of self-published comic creators based in the Denver, Colorado area. Our site (www.squidworks.com) houses the catalog for our listed members, but we also have many non-catalog members that come to our monthly meetings and to our forum for peer contact, critiques, and exchange of ideas.

Richard: Why are you a part of the Colorado Alliance of Illustration?

Stan: The Colorado Alliance of Illustrators is something I joined to help me learn about other avenues of marketing myself outside of the comic industry as a fallback, as it seems that the payrate outside of comics is a little better than it is inside of the comics industry by-in-large. It also provides me with ideas for marketing my comic work in ways that maybe comics publishers haven't thought of before. Unfortunately, I've been too busy working on what I have going to really fully implement anything. Gah. Let's just say this is a part of my continuing fact-finding mission.

Richard: What do you have planned next?

Stan: Well, if I get another of my irregularly-updated The Wang comic strips done, I plan to collect them in a book that I hope will debut either at ComicFest in April or at the San Diego Comic Con in July (probably the latter). In addition, I'm getting ready for a rotation of a current gallery show at the FU Gallery in Denver that runs through the end of April, and I'm getting ready for my Summer Camp teaching season. I'm also in the process of doing a dry run of my Graphic Novel Illustration course with a couple of my Squid Works buddies which will run for 15 weeks at the Community College of Aurora next fall.

Richard: How did you make your start as an artist and writer?

Stan: Well, since college, I've been working on a superhero parody comic mini-series called the On-Campus Crusader, which is the predecessor of The Wang, which you can see on my Webcomics Nation account as the Pre-History of the Wang. So, I've been a control freak from up front. So, dividing the labor has actually been a more recent phenomenon which I fell into as I decided to become a full-time freelance comic artist and cartoonist (I got laid off).

Richard: What comics did you read as a child and do you read now?

Stan: Honestly, I didn't read many comic books growing up and certainly didn't go out of my way to follow any storylines. I was mostly a comic strip fan. Most of what I read now are self-contained stories. Some of my favorites include 2024 by Ted Rall, Too Cool to be Forgotten, by Alex Robinson, Blankets by Craig Thompson; but I have gotten addicted to The Walking Dead by Robert Kirkman (surprise, surprise!).

Richard: How can someone contact you?

Stan: It's best to reach me via my website at www.squidworks.com/Stan . There's a link on my page to send me an e-mail, or chat on our forums, and of course you can always click through to SubCulture and leave me a comment on our strip blog.

Richard: Any last words of advice?

Stan: If you are an aspiring creator, figure out a way that you can keep drawing and/or writing without bankrupting yourself. If it is indeed a passion for you to create comics, then you'll enjoy doing it whether or not you're making money at it. When I was a full-time stockbroker working 10 hours a day, but still finding time to draw each night 3-4 hours a night, I think that was a sign that this was indeed my calling. Find that in your life, whether it be in comics or not.