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Interview

Michael Dowers p2

Editor of Treasury of Mini Comics Volumes One and Two Michael Dowers talks about gathering artists for the anthologies and movements in mini comics...

READERSVOICE.COM: Which artists were you most glad to meet or contact for your previous anthologies, like Newave! or the Tijuana Bibles anthologies?

MICHAEL DOWERS: I don’t know about meeting or contacting people, but some of the work that was created and produced over the years in collaboration with comrades like Steve Willis, Jim Blanchard, Denny Eichhorn, and Ashleigh Talbot (Triangle-Slash) were extremely satisfying. I am also very proud to have been able to show off art by creators like XNO, Rick Geary, R.K. Sloane, Gary Whitney, Fiona Smyth, Travis Millard, and Ron Rege come to mind.

RV: Once you made a call for submissions some 18 months ago, for the Treasury of Mini Comics, what was the process or production schedule after that?

MD: What schedule? I was pretty disappointed in the amount of submissions. A very small percentage of mini comics people actually sent their work in. Most of what I accepted for the books I had to go looking for it.

RV: What things do you like about the mini comics in Newave! The Underground Comix of the 1980s, and the style or innovations in the minicomics of the Treasury of Mini Comics Volumes 1 and 2?

MD: I like all kinds of mini comics. If they are good that makes them even better. The NEWAVE book was about an art movement that happened from the latter 70’s to about 1992. Before technology and computers stepped in. The “Treasury” volume will try to show the changes in a “social” way. Mini comics will always be a part of the alternative world to maintain their creativity… Hopefully by laying the comics out side-by-side, changes in the way the creators saw the medium over many years will shine through.

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-copyright Simon Sandall.