For this profile, J1 Studios interviewed Big Bang Comics founder Gary Carlson and Allen Berrebbi, who is in charge of web and business evelopment.
In what year did you start?
GARY – I started in the year 1981 with my comic book Megaton. I did Megaton through 1987: eight issues and a few promos. I took a break in 1987 due to a changing indie comic market.
Some of the guys who drew for me at Megaton became big stars: Erik Larsen, Rob Liefeld, Angel Medina, and Butch Guice. Erik and Rob were among the creators that left Marvel Comics and started Image Comics around 1992.
There was some interest in me again. I wrote a book featuring Vanguard at Image Comics. I did the book featuring Berzerker (another Megaton character) at Caliber Press. The back up stories in Berzerker featured Golden Age super heroes honoring Superman, Batman, and others, and especially their creative artists and writers. They were created by myself and comics partner Chris Ecker.
The backups became more popular than Berzerker and evolved into its own series – Big Bang Comics in 1993 or so. We’ve been publishing it continuously since then.
How many titles do you publish?
GARY – Big Bang is the flagship title. Over the years we’ve had a few other titles: Dr. Weird, National Guardians, and various Knight Watchman titles.
How large is your team?
GARY – Our creative team remains Chris Ecker, myself, and Edward DeGeorge. Ben Torres has drawn most of the Knight Watchman titles. Sterling Clark headlines the National Guardians. Allen Berrebbi runs the website and digital endeavours and business development. And Pedro Angosto has written numerous titles over the years and ran our Facebook page for a few years.
What’s your company philosophy and/or what sets your company apart from other comic book companies?
GARY – Our motto is “Remember when comics were fun”. We have tried to honor the creators from the Gold and Silver Ages of comics that we grew up on. That’s still our goal but it’s harder to find artists that love those styles and can ghost them.
ALLEN – One of the reasons I fell in love with Big Bang Comics is because they are fun escapist classic superhero comics. Done in earnest, not as parodies or knock offs. They truly honor the old styles and done in a loving pastiche way. They feel familiar yet different. To me, they are comfort comics. Plus Gary and Chris are terrific guys with an incredible history that needs to be shared.
How did the move to more digital media affect your company?
GARY – Our books have never been super profitable and it got harder to finance the books myself. The move to digital and print on demand issues made it a lot easier to keep producing the books.
ALLEN – The Heroes World debacle led directly to the distribution wars which had a devastating effect on the industry that still has not fully recovered from. Along with diminishing number of comic shop outlets, it became harder and harder to make it work within the traditional system. Thankfully, innovations like digital and print on demand have enabled this labor of love to continue for over 40+ years. An incredible feat in comic books.
Visit Big Bang Comics’ website here: https://bigbangcomics.com/
