Civil War Adventure

Chuck Dixon and Gary Kwapisz have worked for nearly every major comics publisher, including a memorable run together on Marvel’s Savage Sword of Conan. Recently, they formed their own company, History Graphics Press, and their initial launch is Civil War Adventure. Westfield’s Roger Ash recently contacted Chuck and Gary to learn more about this new undertaking.

SPECIAL OFFER! All copies of Civil War Adventure sold through Westfield this month will be signed and include a mini poster!

Westfield: How did you come to start History Graphics Press?

Chuck Dixon: Well, Gary and I have known each other for years. We worked together on Savage Sword of Conan and quite a few issues of Punisher War Journal back in the 80s and 90s. We stayed in touch after all that was done and about two years ago Gary asked if I’d be willing to write some Civil War scripts for a comic he was interested in doing. I didn’t need a lot of encouragement. I always liked working with Gary and I’m into all things historical and enjoy the research aspect.

Gary Kwapisz: I had been out of comics for a few years and had been doing other illustration work, some movie stuff, books, etc., but I was getting tired of that and was thinking about maybe doing some painting, when Chuck asked me to do a short western story he had. I did that and it made me realize how much I love doing comics! I had just read Shelby Foote’s massive three volume history of the Civil War and I was blown away at how great the stories of the war were!

These were the kind of stories I always have wanted to tell, they were terrible and sad, funny and poignant; they ran the whole gamut of human experience and they were all real! And they are our history and they still matter! So when I started looking into the Civil War and began to realize how popular it is, I decided I was going to go ahead and do my own book. I knew Chuck had done some self publishing , so I called him and to ask him some questions and when he heard what I wanted to do he said he wanted to partner with me on it. The rest is history!

Westfield: Why did you decide to lead off with Civil War Adventure?

Dixon: There’s a large, ready audience that’s familiar with the American Civil War. It’s weird to say that it’s our most “popular” war but it is true that it seems to capture most folks’ imagination. The drama is all there. A nation divided, brother against brother. And, for a lot of Americans, it’s a war that happened in places we’re familiar with.

Kwapisz: The Civil War is really, really big! There are probably a dozen books published every month on it. And then there are the reinactors and the museums and civil war round tables, and the stories as I’ve said are just great.

From the story The Devil's Due by Gary Kwapisz

Westfield: The book consists of a number of shorter stories. What are the advantages, or disadvantages, of doing that instead of one big, long story?

Dixon: We wanted to create a kind of graphic novel/anthology hybrid. There’s a seventy page epic story but then smaller pieces ranging from four to twelve pages. Plus lots of one page illustrated “fact” pieces. This lets our intended audience (young adult) sample the book in small bites before diving in. We really wanted a reader friendly approach.

Kwapisz: The Civil War stories are of all sorts, some are epic battles and some are three panel gags! One of the big advantages of self publishing is that we don’t have to follow any preconceived format. We can do it up as we see fit. If the story works out to four pages, fine! If you decide you need six, we can make that work too! We have the luxury of letting the story be what even page count it needs to be.

Westfield: There is a lot of factual detail in the book. How much research did you do for the book? How did you balance fact and fiction in the stories?

Dixon: Gary and I are both compulsive readers so it’s not really a chore. In fact, that part is the most fun. There’re so many great stories in the Civil War years that the problem is choosing only a few. I think at the beginning of the process I was more knowledgeable about the war. But Gary has blown way past me in the exhaustive reading he’s done on the subject. The guy knows his stuff.

Kwapisz: Now that I’m doing some writing I can’t believe I get to sit around in the middle of the day reading! I feel guilty, like I should really be doing some real work! But now, I am working. So for me, I view the research as a luxury! For me, when the story ideas come they just take on a life of their own. And they just seem to work themselves out

Westfield: While at least one of you has a hand in all the stories, you also have some other creators working with you. How did you decide who else you wanted to work with on the book?

Dixon: First criteria: can you draw horses?

I turned to my Argentine amigo Enrique Villagran because he’s a history buff as well and I knew he’d do an awesome job on the Custer stories (we have another one in the next volume too). He draws great horses and has all the visual ref to make the details accurate.

Sylvestre is a guy I wanted to work with as well and he was willing to draw a complex story about the river war with lots of demanding detail. His story is gorgeous.

Esteve Poll is another tremendous talent that I met through a Spanish friend of mine. We wound up working on Dynamite’s The Good, The Bad and The Ugly comic together. But the story of the doomed Union sniper in this volume came first. Esteve has also drawn a story for the second volume that Gary wrote.

From the story Home Again by Chuck Dixon & Gary Kwapisz

Kwapisz: I see what we are trying to so as something like the EC war comics and so I would love to have other artist bring their different styles and storytelling to the book. Right now we don’t have much money, so Chuck and I do the bulk of the work, ‘cause we work cheap! In the future we would love to work with a wide variety of interested artist.

Westfield: Are there plans for more books from History Graphics Press?

Dixon: We plan at least six volumes in the Civil War Adventure series. Even more if they prove popular enough. But then we’ll move on to other segments of American history.

Kwapisz: Self publishing has been a whole lot more work than I thought it was going to be when I first conceived this project! Between working on the second book while trying to sell the first and trying to stay out of foreclosure has been a task! I live in SW Virginia, which is Daniel Boone country and his stories are wild! I would love to do them too. But we have to take care of the books at hand first. One of the big insights I’ve had self publishing is how creative and difficult being a business person is! Having always worked on the creative side of the business, I’ve had the artist’s tendency to look down on the business people, but not anymore!

Westfield: Any closing comments?

Kwapisz: It’s been interesting the reaction we’ve gotten to our book from different people. Our friends in the comic biz have been surprised that the book isn’t boring! They thought we were doing some new version of the old Classics Illustrated! While people in the Civil War world have expressed surprise that it isn’t Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos! I like to think of what we’re doing as a new version of EC’s Blazing Combat!

Purchase

Civil War Adventure

Be Sociable, Share!

•