Interview with Jessie Garza - President of Viper Comics

In my search for a new and exciting comic, I came across Black Harvest by Josh Howard. The kind people at my comic shop informed me that this artist had been published right here in Dallas by Viper Comics. Viper Comics has been publishing comics here since 2001 with Jessie Garza as its president. Jessie’s been into comics since his childhood. From buying Spider-Man comics at the local 7-11 to running his own comic book shop in San Antonio to put him through college. Years later, having founded Viper Comics, Jessie is now continuing his dream with a new studio in the works.

What is your education background?
Well I studied Criminal Justice as an undergrad at University of Texas in San Antonio, and as a graduate I went into Public Administration at Texas Tech.

How did the company start?
In December 2001, my partner and I were about to open an online collectable shop. It was going to be a place to find all things vintage from action figures to 8mm films, just anything that has a nostalgic feel to it. As we were getting ready to launch it, we decided to do something on a grander scale. You see, even though we obtained quite a bit of inventory, we figured that it would only sustain a few people working. It really wouldn’t be something that we could say, “This is what I’m going to be doing for a living.” We wanted to create something a little more tangible, and that’s why we created the publishing company.

What was the most challenging project?
They’re all challenging.

What do you do?
With our projects we tend to work closely with creators. At the same time we allow them to be themselves. We don’t like to change people’s ways of doing things, we are not about rewriting or redoing. Basically we get a project that are in the process of being done or already completed, and help with the presentation. Cover, artwork, design, we try to make a nice tight package for the project. We decide if we want to do a single issue, a mini series, or graphic novel.

Are the projects creator owned?
No. Everything we put out, we own jointly with the creator.

Who do you like to work with?
We like to work with up and coming people. Take Josh Howard, for example, we were the first company to take a chance on him. People turned his book down many times, but we took it, we helped develop it, we put it out. Now Howard is known nation wide. He’s wrapping up his work for DC and Black Harvest for Devil’s Due. Howard will be coming back to start a Dead @ 17 as an ongoing series, and he’s working on a new project called Eve for us.

What are projects are going on right now?
We are working on The Middle Man Volume 2. We’re getting it ready to take to print.  A Dummy’s Guide to Danger is coming out this July. Dead @ 17 is out in August, and A Bit Haywire in November.

Bill Nichols from Sketch Magazine stated that comics need to evolve, what do you think about that?
Oh yeah. There is not much money in comic books. The real money is in graphic novels. The thing is, people have this stigma about going to a comic shop, that it’s geeky or nerdy. But with graphic novels you can reach everybody, now in book stores like Barnes & Noble or Borders.

What about digital?
Digital is okay. But I think that the audience wants something more tangible, something they can hold. Now with phones, iPods, and PSPs coming out, I think those formats will work. But I think then artwork and the structure of storytelling has to be specifically for that format. I don’t think you can just cut up panels, which some try to do, work very well.

So what’s in the future for Viper Comics?
I would like to get this company to the point where we are not just seen as a publisher, but as a studio. It all started with people emailing us to see if we could do work for them, and we kept turning them down. We were just so busy focusing on publishing, but we took one job here, another job there, and they keep coming. It’s all been word of mouth, people referring us to do projects. They like the work that we do and we’ve gotten to the point now where we actually structure it to bring in more clients. And our studio, Black Mamba, should be going public within the next few weeks.

What projects will Black Mamba take?
Storyboards, ads, posters. We’ve been approached by movie studios to do character designs, develop concepts, background stories, even scripts.

Ever think about going into animation?
Funny you should mention that. Since we are starting a branch to the company, we’ve been looking at that. One of my partners has been working with an animator on some Flash cartoons. They are in the developmental stage of the project, but the concept that they pitched me on is really going to be stellar. Something a little bit different and I think people will have a liking to it, I’m really excited. But that is one of things we are looking to start in the near future, to be able to do Flash projects for a company, to be able to do it right with good quality artwork and sound. Like Happy Tree Friends, that level of quality or better is what we want. We have a way to go, but with the new studio, and they way we are branching out, it’ll help speed up the process.

Do you have any advice for students?
It’s a lot of hard work, with little or no pay, until you get yourself established. But I think that anybody with talent and a high level of commitment, if they stick to it long enough, it’ll happen for them. It’s just a matter of hammering away and not giving up. People never fail, they just give up.
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