Broken Frontier

Welcome to our third edition of Indie Spotlight! This time around, The Mighty Ten Questions will be answered by Chad Lambert, creator of Point Pleasant, out this month from Ape Entertainment. Give the book a shot!

The Mighty 10 Questions!

1. Who are you and what is your book?

Chad Lambert: I am no one you've ever heard of, and write a whole bunch of stuff you've never read. My new book is Point Pleasant. Sample pages are available here.

2. What's your book about? Can you compare it to any other books out right now?

Point Pleasant is historical account of the mothman and the West Virginia folklore that surrounds it, all with a fictional subplot involving time traveling cryptozoologists from the distant future. From an Indian curse during the Revolutionary War to the fall of the Silver Bridge, over 200 years of paranormal history is covered in a 32-page one-shot. It's hard to compare it to anything else out there, because I don't think anything of this magnitude has been done before. There's a lot of stuff packed into this book. I guess you could call it a 'docu-drama' without all the boring crap.

3. Who are some of your major influences?

Dave Sim has had an incredible impact on my writing style and my career. People always focus on his contribution as an Indy publishing icon, but he is an amazing writer. Although it is a comic book cliché, Frank Miller changed the way I read comics. Not just because of his "dark style" that everybody and their brother have since stolen, but his pacing and dialogue really revolutionized the storytelling aspect of superhero comics in ways that will be studied for hundreds of years after we're dead and buried.

4. What inspires you?

Anything that is original. I've read some Indy stuff over the last couple of years that has blown my mind. I love to read something that leaves me with the feeling that I'm a no-talent hack. I love to be both challenged and intimidated by a great story.

5. Would you ever like your book to be mainstream, or are you pleased with where it is?

Point Pleasant is a very alternative book. It was intended to grasp and hold true everything that makes small press cool. I'm thrilled that the guys at Ape Entertainment took a chance on it. Small press creators have no idea the creative power they have to make comics that are different and original and have meaning to people. At the end of the day, that kind of stuff is all that matters.

6. Do you aspire to make it into the mainstream? For instance, if you were offered a job at Marvel or DC would you take it?

Is this a rhetorical question? [laughs] I think everyone who gets in the business aspires to get called up to the big leagues and I would certainly jump at the chance if the right opportunity came along. I'm really enjoying small press, though. I'm getting a chance to make books like Point Pleasant and Possum At Large, which are really satisfying projects for me. It also affords me the chance to work with some of the best talent in the business. The artists who contributed to Point Pleasant will be household names VERY soon.

7. Do you aspire to stay in comics? Or do you just want to tell a few stories and be done with the medium?

I'll stay in comics as long as comics will tolerate me. This has been a dream come true so far, so everything else is just icing on the cake. Unless I lose my shirt self-publishing a huge turd and go bankrupt, I'd like to be around a while.

8. Do you have any other projects lined up?

I've never written superhero stuff before, so I'm working on a mini-series based on The Revisionist, a character I created several years ago. He's popped up a few times in short story form in the pages of Digital Webbing Presents, but I really want to stretch my legs and flesh out the rise and fall of a costumed hero in a way that's never been done before. It has been a lot of fun so far. There are no rules when you do it yourself, and I've found it to be a liberating experience. Hopefully we'll see The Revisionist series pop up in 2005.

9. What books are you into right now?

I just finished No Dead Time by Brian McLachlan and Tom Williams (Oni Press) and thought it was one of the best graphic novels I've ever read. I also stayed up all night a while back and finished Alex Robinson's Box Office Poison (Top Shelf). In the mainstream press, I'm totally addicted to Y: The Last Man from DC. My favorite non-picture book is obviously John Keel's The Mothman Prophecies. That book will scare the crap out of you… I guarantee it! The movie didn't do this book justice.

10. Where can folks go to see more of your work and purchase your comics?

Point Pleasant is available at www.apecomics.com and my self-published book Possum At Large can be seen at www.possumatlarge.com.  

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Don't forget gang, we're always taking submissions from indie creators. Just copy these questions and send the answers to J.P. at JPDorigo@brokenfrontier.com.