Mort Todd is a comic artist, writer, and creator who has been a major force in comic books since he was a teenager.

“I was always drawing as a youth and became editor of my summer camp newspaper,” Mort said. “I appropriated their mimeograph machine and started self-publishing comics by junior high.”

Moving from Maine to New York City , Mort met Dan Clowes and other teens and began Psycho Comics and other titles. He also sold stories to DC comics, Marvel, Fantagraphics, and Kitchen Sink before becoming editor of Cracked magazine.

“After that I started my own company, put out a Bill Ward magazine, a bilingual humor comic,” Mort said . “Later I launched the Marvel Music line working with bands like Alice Cooper, KISS, the Rolling Stones, and Bob Marley with work by Neil Gaiman, Kyle Baker, Gene Colan and other great talent.”

Currently, Mort has his own company Comicfix, which did newspaper strips (Speed Racer, Molly the Model) and is now focused on, but not limited to, the Sadistik photo novels, featuring the adventures of a Super Criminal. Mort is also working on a few scripts that are being considered for film and TV.

T.E. Pouncey: Can you tell us a little about how you came to be involved in Cracked magazine?

Mort Todd: Cracked had been bought by a new publisher and relocated from Florida to New York and needed a new staff. They had already hired a veteran of humor magazines to package the issues and I was hired to be an in-house assistant editor. The publishers were concerned that the editor they hired was a little too old to know what was “hip” to make fun of and I was only about ten years older than their target audience. I soon discovered the editor was recycling old stuff from Sick and other humor magazines (just pasting the Cracked logo on the pages) and getting kickbacks from contributors. Many of the Cracked regulars, like John Severin, would not work with this guy so it was up to me to get them back in the fold. The publishers considered me too young to take over the reins so as they searched for another editor I decided to put a few issues together myself and proved that I was up to the task and became Editor-in-Chief. Besides getting a lot of my favorite artists on board, like Severin, Steve Ditko, Gene Colan, and others, I was able to give the first “pro” work to my friends Dan Clowes, Peter Bagge, and Rick Altergott.

TEP: You will go down in pop-culture history as the man who brought Don Martin from Mad magazine to Cracked. What was it like to work with Don Martin?

MT: Don wasn’t as wacky as his drawings but was a very droll guy. For some 30 years Mad had owned the copyright to Don’s work as well as his original art. By the time I was at Cracked he was legally blind and not happy that he didn’t have the rights to his legacy. I simply called him up, offered him the same page rate and let him keep his copyright and artwork so he skeedaddled right over to Cracked. Physically, he kind of reminded me of Lee Marvin. He was tall and slim, had a silver pompadour with lightning bolt sideburns and always wore shades. Cool!

(Because 10 isn’t enough — and who has time to read 12?)

The word “genius” is used so often that it’s lost all impact.

However British comic writer Paul O’Connell is nothing less than a comic book genius. Creator of the The Sound of Drowning series of comic stories, his work has been called “a devastatingly funny, misanthropic and strangely beautiful carnival of delights” by 3 a.m., Magazine. Mark Stafford at The London Cartoon Museum has said of O’Connell’s work: “Paul O’Connell’s Sound of Drowning strips are my favourite Brit finds of recent years. He has a knack for nailing a specific kind of urban unease, for detailing the fantasy lives of the impotent, and our disquiet at the gulf between our shiny expectations and the shabby reality around us. Highly recommended and bloody funny too.”

O’Connell said some of his comic book favorites have been American superhero comics, Mad Magazine, the legendary U.K. Science fiction comic 2000 AD, and the European editions of Heavy Metal.

T.E. Pouncey: Your biography of Charlie Parker was one of the best I’ve ever seen presented in any medium. What interested you to write about him?

Paul O’Connell: I think Charlie Parker is a very interesting artistic figure. He took an art-form (jazz) and did things, not just with the form, but with the whole idea of ‘music’ that people had never conceived of. I think innovators are always fascinating. You want to know what makes them tick, what their secret ingredient is, how did they get to be so ‘special’. Or at least, I always do!

TEP: You wrote a wonderful story called It’s A Small Press World about rivalries among comic book creators. Why do you think comic books continue to be dominated by the superhero genre, when so many fans seem to want an alternative?

PO: Why are superhero comics the dominant form of comics? It’s a good question when there are so many other possibilities. It seems sad to me that with the enormity of the vocabulary that comic strip creators have to work with — every word, image, and emotion since creation — that so many people just want to write, draw, and read about men in tights. I don’t know. What do the experts say? It’s beyond escapism. It’s pretty weird. No wonder comics have a hard time being taken seriously.

(Because 10 questions aren’t enough — and who has time to read 12?)

Stephen Lindsay is the creator and author of a self-published comic book Jesus Hates Zombies: Those Slack Jawed Blues [check out the GoD review here]. This week it was announced that Alterna Comics will be publishing the next printing of the trade with an exclusive cover by Michael Bracco this December! Lindsay has also written a JHZ story scheduled to appear in the Alterna Tales #2 anthology, due to be released this month [read the GoD review here].

Stephen Lindsay is a 30-year-old married father of two. He lives in Rochester, NY and works as an Art Director for a small marketing firm.

“I’ve really always been interested in comics, typically gravitating more toward the darker, edgier stuff,” Stephen said. “Growing up, my favorite comic stories were both penned by Frank Miller (although I didn’t realize it at the time). These were The Dark Night Returns and Daredevil: Born Again. Then I moved away from comics and didn’t get into them again until recently, when I found Robert Kirkman’s The Walking Dead.” Stephen is just beginning his professional career in comics, “But as long as I can tell stories that find their way in front of people, and some people dig them, then I’m happy.” he said.

T.E. Pouncey: How did you come up with the idea for Jesus Hates Zombies?

Stephen Lindsay: The idea for JHZ really grew out of a more straight forward zombie comic I was writing. I started questioning the place that story I was writing would have in a market where zombie comics were being released more and more often, and I tried to think of something more original. For some reason, a pissed-off Jesus cracking zombie skulls popped into my head and literally made me chuckle out loud, so started playing around with it. The more I thought about it, the funnier the idea seemed to me. And that’s how it started.

(because ten questions aren’t enough — and who has time to read twelve?)

Ms. Preble is an award-winning teacher, a jazz singer and pianist, and the author of The Queen Geek Social Club and its soon-to-be-published sequel Queen Geeks In Love (both available from Penguin Books). A self-admitted geek, Laura is a science fiction fan and currently lives in the San Diego area with her husband, jazz saxophonist Chris Klich and her sons Austin and Noel.

T.E. Pouncey: I thoroughly enjoyed your novel. Are any of the elements in The Queen Geek Social Club autobiographical?

Laura Preble: Actually, the book is sort of like how I would have been in high school if I’d had better clothes and more confidence. Other than that, a lot of it is based on various elements of the schools where I’ve taught (West Hills High and Mar Vista High in San Diego, CA). I study my students, then take pieces of various kids, stitch them together, and create new characters. It’s kind of like Frankenstein, but with less lightning.

TEP: Do you create a character and then visualize what they look like, or do you visualize a character and then create their personality?

LP: I think I usually have a voice in mind first. For Queen Geeks, I woke up one morning at 3 a.m. and just had this idea, and the character of Shelby in mind. Her appearance developed as I developed her personality; the smart-ass attitude and wry observations definitely shaped her appearance. Plus, she looks a little like me if I’m having a really good day and have access to a foggy mirror.

TEP: The character Shelby Chappelle in TQGSC has a great robot sidekick named Euphoria. Which robot would you rather hang out with, R2-D2 or C-3PO?

LP: Geez. That’s like asking someone to choose which child they’d abandon on The Titanic … but if I had to pick, I think I’d go with C-3P0 because he actually talks. R2-D2 is much more down-to-earth and actually more intelligent, but since he just beeps and sounds like static from a faint radio station, it would probably bug me.

(Because 10 are not enough — and who has time to read twelve?)

In 1992, Bart Alexander Thompson created the first incarnation of Approbation Comics. In that early version he hand wrote, drew, lettered, and distributed Xerox copied “ashcan” copies of his vision. In the following years, Bart devoted his time to creating and cultivating characters and storylines, watching trends, and researching the graphic illustrated novel industry. His first full color, Diamond-distributed comic book was Vampires Unlimited: Shades of Things to Come.

Since 2005, Bart has worked as a professional writer, editor, and letterer working for companies such as Alias Enterprises, Arcana Studios, and Dead Dog Press. With limited funds, Thompson has been able to publish numerous small press titles including Myriad, Vampires Unlimited, ChiSai, Chaos Campus: Sorority Girls vs. Zombies, Amour, the Evil Inside, and more.

T.E. Pouncey: Your work on Vampires Unlimited was amazing. With so many people doing so many variations on the vampire myth, why do you think vampire stories remain so popular?

Bart A. Thompson: Thanks again! I think vampires are popular because they represent sexuality and strength. Who wouldn’t want to be able to fly and lift cars and stuff? There is also something very seductive about the vampire lifestyle… as humans some of the coolest stuff happens at night (nightclubs, bars, most dates, etc.) and that’s the only time vampires can be out and about, so they occupy themselves with the more fun side of life. The only drawback to it all is being forced to only drink human blood and killing every night, which in a morbid since is sort of sensual.