Comfort and Adam are the six-time Harvey Award nominated husband-and-wife Action Faction responsible for the critically acclaimed series The Uniques, Uniques Tales, and Rainbow in the Dark. They are a 100% symbiotic duo sharing the writing, pencilling, and coloring duties equally. Their long awaited massive how-to book, The Complete Guide to Self-Publishing Comics (Random House) released in May of 2015 – and now, at long last they have returned to their first series, The Uniques. In 2016 they will continue their work on The Uniques as well as release their first webcomic called, Kitty Game, with artist Corinne Roberts.
We wanted to know a bit more about them, and they graciously agreed to an email interview before Comic Con Honolulu.
Who most influenced your work?
Art wise there are so many people who’ve influenced us over the years, but if we’ve got to pick just a couple it would have to be J. Scott Campbell and Adam Hughes. The fun, character centered pages and cover work still drives us to be better even today. Writing wise it’s the great Mark Waid and Brain Michael Bendis who had the biggest impact on us. There storytelling was the gold standard for us growing up. It’s worth noting that we and our work is also heavily influenced by the TV renaissance which started in the early ’00. We’ve learned so much from shows Battlestar Galactica, The Wire, Game of Thrones, Venture Bros. and Parks and Rec – we wouldn’t be the same creators without them.
Who are your real life/fictional heroes?
Wow, that is a huge question. Hmmmm… as typical as it may sound, both sets of parents are in many ways our heroes. People who inspire us to be better. Two sets of people who followed their own paths, defying odds and expectations, and gave us the courage to strike on our own path when the time came. Heroes are people who help shape lives, and our parents absolutely helped shape ours.
Have either of you ever eaten a spam musubi? Would you be willing to try one?
As Weird Al Yankovic fans we felt it incumbent upon us to try spam when we were young. The reaction both of us remember having was ‘hmmmm, interesting…’. Sadly these days we are vegetarians and may no longer carry the stomach enzymes require to eat and process such a delectable treat 😉
Would you recommend going the self-publishing route to other artists?
Absolutely! As two people who literally wrote the book on comic self-publishing we are two huge advocates of it! We are all living in the golden age of the self-publisher. It’s never been easier, or more affordable. Your fans can be people not just in your community, or across the country – but they can be all across the world. It’s not easy, but working with a publisher isn’t exactly easy either since with most contractrs you’re expected to do everything put pay for the printing costs. And since that’s generally the only real difference, why not pay for the printing and take 100% of the profits. We’ll say it again, it’s not easy, but in the long run it is worth it!
What is the best advice you received in your career?
The best advice we ever received was from our friend and mentor Bryan J.L. Glass. Early in our careers he asked us if we wanted to just be the creators of The Uniques (or first comic series) or did we want to have a career in comics. This was a really tough question because we loved doing The Uniques and could have been happy just doing that series for the rest of our lives. But to have a career in comics would mean taking a break from our baby, The Uniques, doing a completely different series. So we bit the bullet and created the 9 issue series, Rainbow in the Dark. A comic that made our careers gaining us numerous accolades and award nominations. It was our work on both The Uniques and Rainbow that got us our how to book with Random House.
Meet them at Comic Con Honolulu July 29-31, 2016.
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