Free Comic Book Day will heat things up this spring on Saturday, May 5, 2018. Gemstone Publishing will offer the latest edition of The Overstreet Guide to Collecting with comic pages and articles on colleting comics and other memorabilia. J.C. Vaughn, Gemstone’s Vice-President of Publishing, provided Scoop with a look at the cover and what can be found within its pages. You can find this FCBD offering in the January 2018 issue of PREVIEWS from Diamond Comic Distributors. It can be found on Page 46.
Scoop: We officially have a cover for the Free Comic Book Day Overstreet Guide to Collecting and it’s a humdinger. How did the Three Stooges end up as Valiant characters?
J.C. Vaughn (JCV): The folks at Valiant have been super supportive of our efforts to share the fun of collecting. We came up with a few ideas, settled on The Three Stooges, and then we reached out to American Mythology, which publishes new adventures of The Three Stooges. They, in turn, went to C3, which controls the Stooges. It didn’t take long for everyone to come together. Then we turned to Brendon and Brian Fraim, frequent collaborators of mine who also regularly do the Stooges for American Mythology, to illustrate it.
Scoop: It sounds like all those involved were excited about the project. Were they?
JCV: Dinesh Shamdasani, Fred Pierce and their team at Valiant were, as I mentioned, supportive from the outset. The folks at American Mythology and C3, likewise were great. I’ve been privileged to work with Brendon and Brian Fraim for many years on a wide variety of projects ranging from creator-owned comic books and comic strips to projects for Gemstone. They always come through in style. Valiant colorist Gabe Eltaeb nailed the look we wanted on the cover. Valiant’s Managing Editor, Robert Meyers coordinated that. House Imagi, who I’ve worked with a number of times, handled the interiors. Great job by them. And Marshall Dillon, one of the best letterers in the business, handled the lettering. Gemstone’s Mark Huesman, as usual, put the whole thing together and served as its main editor, though everyone on our team had a hand in that.
Scoop: Will the interior match the tone of the cover?
JCV: It definitely aims to have the same tone. As you can see from the five sample pages, it’s a trip into a modern comic shop on Free Comic Book Day. It’s fun, energetic, and enthusiastic about the world of collecting. The Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide and our other books are very serious about collecting, but not so serious that we can’t have a good bit of fun.
Scoop: Last year Overstreet’s FCBD edition held content on different approaches to collect comics. Will this issue explore other ways to collect comics?
JCV: Absolutely. Comics and a number of other things you can find at many comic shops. We’re in a fantastic era for those of us who enjoy and collect different niches of pop culture, and we wanted to reflect that in our Free Comic Book Day issue.
Scoop: You mentioned other types of collecting. What will readers find in this issue?
JCV: Whether we’re talking original comic book art, movie posters, games or more, many comic shops offer a really wide selection. We tried to reflect that, as well as showcasing content that you can find in our “How To” line of books.
Scoop: What’s on tap next in the “How To” line?
JCV: You’ll see some of that in the book. The Overstreet Guide To Collecting Tabletop Games, due in June, is a book we’re very excited about. Gemstone’s Carrie Wood and Game Trade Media’s Rick Ankney are collaborating on it. So far, it’s amazing, and I think the finished product will be even better than that. And there’s more to come, but at the moment we’ll keep it to that.
Scoop: One of the great things about Free Comic Book Day is that it pulls in new readers every year. Will there be content in the Overstreet comic that’ll appeal to the newbies?
JCV: Everything we do at Gemstone is designed to inform new readers and collectors at the same time it edifies experienced collectors. We do our best to make sure that everything is as accessible as possible, but at the same time we don’t ever want to dumb things down. As a group, whether just starting out in the hobby or well seasoned in it, collectors are usually very intelligent people. Engaging them, making them think, and perhaps getting them to look at things differently, that’s always one of our goals.
Scoop: The next edition of The Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide will be out about two months after Free Comic Book Day. At this stage of production, can you give us a sample of what collectors will find in the next installment?
JCV: We have a great article by former DC Comics President and Publisher Paul Levitz about Action Comics #1, a fantastic look at Marvel’s critical 1968 expansion, a detailed review of the comic book history of Planet of the Apes, and more. We’ll begin announcing our covers in the next few weeks.
The Overstreet Guide To Collecting - Free Comic Book Day 2018 is featured in the January 2018 edition of PREVIEWS from Diamond Comic Distributors. Please let your retailer know that you want this issue!
