Robert Luedke is the Founder, Author and Publisher for Head Press Publishing.
Both Robert and his Eye Witness Series, have been featured in such diverse media outlets as: Fox News, the L.A Times, The Washington Post, Family Net TV, CBS news, ABC news, The Harvest Show, The Christian Examiner, Christianity Today, Publishers Weekly, Wizard Magazine, Comic Buyers Guide, World Magazine and the USA radio network.
He has been labeled, “One of the leading lights in evangelical comic circles,” by religious writer, David Crumm, (Detroit Free Press & Readthespirit.com). And it seems the world is beginning to take note! The second book in the series, (Acts of the Spirit), was a winner at the 2007 Hollywood Book Festival (in the category of comics), took a silver medal at the 2007 Independent Publisher Awards and was a finalist in the 2007 FOREWORD Magazine book of the year awards. The third book in the series (Rise of the Apostle) was the winning graphic novel in the 2008 USA Book News, Book of the Year Awards and also a finalist for the 2009 FOREWORD Magazine Book of the Year Awards.
Were you an avid reader of comics as a child?
If memory serves me right, I bought my first comics at the age of six (A Fantasy Masterpiece-with the original Puppet Master verses FF story, and a Wonder Woman). But what’s funny is, I was always drawn to the visual nature of the medium from the beginning and read them by just looking at the pictures for the first couple years. I don’t think I actually got around to reading them cover to cover till I was about 9 years old!
How’d you get started in comics and graphic novels?
My dad was a lithographer, so he always brought my brother and I boxes of blank pads of all sizes for us to draw on. We created a whole universe of characters…many of which were extremely derivative of Marvel characters of the day. Instead of Spiderman, we had Spider; instead of Iron Man, we had Shell and so forth.
In high school I began a habit which I carried on into my college years…drawing a weekly comic strip for the school newspaper. I always held on to my love of comics and even turned on a bunch of friends to the medium right up to my college years. But back at that time there was no colleges or trade school anywhere near where I lived (Milwaukee, Wisconsin) who offered courses in drawing for comics, so I just kept drawing on my own and learning things from talking to artists who I met locally or at conventions and studied a lot of original art pages.
My first published work in comics didn’t appear till 1995, when I finally decided it was time to take the plunge into self-publishing my own sci-fi creation, Template (which I had been developing for a couple years previously). So, I sold my two comic shops around the Dallas area and used my profits as seed money to launch Head Press Publishing.
Self publishing has to be a tough road. You handle most of the duties yourself (writing, drawing, coloring, etc.) What advice would you have for folks self-publishing their own works or thinking about starting?
Given the state of the economy and the way the comic industry seems to be evolving, I’d say if I was a young man (or women) just starting off I’d utilize the web comic format for sure. It saves you from having to spend the large amounts of cash you’d need to print, allows you to start building an audience for your work immediately, and gives you an online platform to begin selling your creations and associated products, as well as marketing your talents. Also, working with companies to get your stories up on portable applications seems to be the wave of the future (like for iPod or iPad).
What was Template about?
Template was about people with advanced powers of the mind…but set in a world without super-heroes. The main character, Jason 4, was the “template” or model for the next step in human evolution, the Psycho-sapien. The series was partially inspired by Jim Shooter’s work on Harbinger (for Valient) and I had a lot of fun with playing with how people in the real world would react to someone using metal abilities like telekinesis or image projection.
The series featured a lot of action and political intrigue and oddly enough many of the characters and situations that popped up in the Heroes TV show, got their start over a decade earlier in Template (but not to say, that anyone borrowed them of course…heh,heh). Though it was recognized as one of the Ten Best Indy Comics of 1998, by the now defunct Combo Magazine, I could never build sales high enough to make it profitable and eventually had to shut it down after 8 total issues and a couple spinoffs.
Sounds cool. Will you have copies for sale at the show?
Yes. I always sell complete Template sets at my shows. It always amazes me, that no matter what part of the country I’m at, I’ll always meet a former fan of the series that wondered what the heck happened to it.
The same things goes for the anthology I also published during the late 90’s, No Justice/No Piece (which was a fundraising vehicle I created to benefit the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund). Each and every show I’ll sell a set or two..especially to fans of Warren Ellis, since it has the only story he ever wrote where he’s a character.
What your probably best known for now is your Christian Graphic Novel series, Eye Witness. That won some awards as well right?
Yes…the second book in the series, Eye Witness: Acts of the Spirit, was a winner in the category of Comics at the 2007 Hollywood Book Festival, took a silver medal for graphic novels at the 2007 Independent Publisher Awards, and was a graphic novel finalist in the 2007 FOREWORD Magazine Book of the Year Awards.
The third book in the series, Eye Witness: Rise of the Apostle, was a winner in the category of comics/graphic novels in the 2008 USA Book News, Best Books Awards and was a finalist in the 2009 FOREWORD Magazine Book of the Year Awards.
Tell me about Eye Witness. What’s the premise for it?
Eye Witness is a very unusual concept, since it combines a modern day action-thriller, which centers around a forensic archeologist (who also happens to be a skeptic) with a Bible adaptation that spans from the last week of Jesus’ life through the events chronicled in the Book of Acts. Journalist David Crumm summed it up best when he said, “Think of a marriage of Indiana Jones and Eugene Peterson’s Message Bible translation.”
Ok…as a Christian Graphic Novel, it’s obviously going to appeal to folks with sturdy religious beliefs. But does it have something for everyone? What does Eye Witness have that would interest your average agnostic?
That’s just the point of the series…I didn’t write it necessarily for people who were already believers, but rather “your average agnostic,” who might be a lover of comics and graphic novels. You see that’s what I was for the first 39 years of my life and a year or so after my accepting faith I was inspired to share this story as a way of reaching others who might have been in a similar place as me.
I crafted this series deliberately for who I was as a teen…a skeptic, who didn’t attend church and never really picked up a Bible. I feel the Book of Acts is one of the greatest action-adventure stories of all time, as well as being one of the most undersold. So my goal was to really highlight the action, adventure, emotion and supernatural qualities of the story to really make it come alive for those not familiar with the source material.
OK. You have me interested. Have anything else planned for the near future?
This fall I plan to release a slip-cased set of the entire Eye Witness series. I’m currently developing an omnibus edition also, that will include about 40 pages of material that never saw print in the individual graphic novels, but at this point I’m not sure who will publish it, since we are in discussions with a couple of other larger publishers about it.
From that point, I’ve got a file full of ideas in various stages of development. Once the dust settles on the Unknown God tour, I’ve just got to sit down and figure out which direction I want to go next.
It all sounds great Bob, looking forward to getting my hands on some copies. But now we come to the “nothing to do with this interview” questions. Ready?
What are your favorite movies?
The Great Race, My Favorite Year, Gangs of New York and almost anything by the Coen Brothers.
Besides your own, what are your favorite comics?
Since I’ve been locking in my studio full-time the better part of the last 8 years I haven’t got to read a lot, but I’m kind of a comics nostalgia buff anyway. The silver-age work of Lee/Kirby on FF and Thor is unmatched. I was also a huge X-Men fan before it was cool…going all the way back to when Neal Adams made his imprint on the series, through the Byrne/Claremont teamup. And lastly, Frank Miller’s original Daredevil run was a favorite of mine back in the day…since it was an extended opportunity to watch him develop both as an artist and storyteller.
Hot Fudge Sundae or Banana Split?
Hot Fudge any day!
What’s the last thing you assembled?
The Avengers?
And finally…you’ve just won Millions of dollars in the Lottery, what’s the first thing that Bob Luedke buys that’s 100% just for himself & because he’s always wanted one?
A candy apple red, 1966 Corvette Stingray.
