Where in the Hezbollah have I’ve been?????? Well I took a little all inclusive state paid vacation and now that they’ve managed to flush most of the toxin from my system…I’m back with a vengeance like a bad sequel… or maybe a bad cold sore… as some would say…I’m hear with Super Real creator Jason Martin as we near the long awaited release of issue #3 on 9/27 check out www.superrealgraphics for more info. As for the 1st and 2nd issues I think Jason has touched new ground with this book. It’s a reality series….Whoa Whoa Whoa!!!!!...Before you put the gun under your chin and fire… hear me out…As tiered as people are with new reality series….Believe it or not the majority of the free world has found some sort of morbid fascination with these shows…..Why you ask…???... Because there FUCKING real that’s why and you can’t write better shit!!!! Whether it’s Buffy and Jason and 5 other rich gorgeous teenagers forced to live in a mansion for a year…Or its poor black Jerome the crack dealer trying to out run an L.A. police chopper in his underwear. Let’s face it America just loves this shit….So why not a comic book in which 5 good looking kids are granted super powers and the cameras capture it all from stage one on…???
Jason Martin does this and does it well, some may call issues 1 & 2 slow…But I say he set the stage he plugged the plot holes (brilliantly I might add) I.E. “Why would the Government allow this???” To find out the answer…buy books 1&2 and you couldn’t come in at a better time with Issue #3 just around the corner.

Lets talk to the one man show Jason Martin himself

PBR Tell us a little bit about Jason Martin

Well, I’m 34, and happily married in Portland Oregon (the GREAT Northwest), with a pet Chihuahua, Choco! Super Real is my first published work, and the realization of a lifelong dream, that almost got lost along the way, when I stopped reading and drawing comics for about 10 years after high school. I was a passionate fan of comics ever since the original Star Wars movie, and the Marvel Comics adaptation. I started tracing every image of Darth Vader and the Storm Troopers and bounced from one Marvel book to the next until discovering comic shops and independent books likes Cerebus, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in the early 80’s. I picked up some Age of Apocalypse X-Men books on a whim some years later and was hooked back in with great books like The Max, Ash, and Gen13 to name a few! I often refer to my time away from comics and the drawing board as my “dark period” for a number of reasons. It’s easy to think about what could have been if I hadn’t stopped, but I’m just glad to be doing what I am today.

PBR Tell us about all the roles you play…. “There has to be stress” as Writer, Artist, letterer, CEO of Supergraphics Press, Production Manager, Promotion Manager Etc.

Stress? People always talk about how hard self publishing is, and you know that going in, but until you’ve done it, you just can’t respect how much work it is. And I say that when asked, not to complain, but just to be straight, and I also always think, I’m not sure many more people care as much about this stuff as I do, and maybe that’s why I spend so much time and effort on it, but perhaps you have to care this much, just to do it!! Ha ha! I love to draw, but more than that, I love to create and tell stories. So self publishing is the best way to do that. Sure, I’d like to work in the industry in general, but why not aim high? Any way, no matter how hectic it is, it doesn’t matter, I love doing it. I really do.

As for the roles, there’s creative and business, and it’s all in the off hours. I’m fortunate enough to have a situation that affords me time for everything, but I often find that the hours I do have are easily consumed with the business end of things, and it’s always a struggle to get to the creative side.

I often wonder, even if this was full time, would that be enough to manage everything?

So, yeah there’s stress, but I try not to treat it that way, because ultimately it’s all fun. The challenge is to keep that perspective in the face of everything!

PBR Using actual photos as back grounds (brilliant) what’s the story behind the concept

Well I’d love to tell you it was planned, to play with the concept of reality and comics, reality TV merging with comic book superheroes, and all that, but that’s just a happy accident. It really goes back to what I mentioned about stopping drawing and reading comics for a period, when I got back into drawing, digital cameras were just emerging/becoming popular, and it really struck me how one could use them as a tool for comic book creation. I thought, why not use digital pics for backgrounds? I’d always loved comics and animation, and I loved animation that blended cell characters with filmed surroundings, so I really just wanted to play with that.

Also, in the time I was away, digital tools had emerged for coloring and printing comics, and I realized I didn’t HAVE to use inks, something I’d never wanted to learn anyways, as I always thought penciled artwork was superior to inks, it seemed to have more expression and energy, so I just worked on coloring straight from pencils too. The two techniques really help make the artwork stand out, I think. Lots of people comment on it.

To me it’s just an extension of creating art, which is what comics are, artwork that tells stories. I love art in all it’s forms and techniques, so I just take that approach to comics, you can do whatever you want with it, as long as it tells the story. There’s no need to stick to the production processes established by the big publishing companies. Especially since those were born of needs that no longer even exist. You know?

Besides it’s fun, and I want the reader to have fun too of course! So hopefully if I’m having fun, so are they.

PBR Realty shows and America’s growing fascination with them your thoughts and why…???

Okay, my thoughts, no prob, but the “why” portion is throwing me. Is that why are we fascinated with reality TV, or why did I focus on it?

It’s funny, with reality TV, it’s pretty divided, people either like it or they don’t. I mean, how many times have you heard someone say they hate, or won’t watch reality TV? To me any time you say you hate something categorically is closed-minded (unless it’s country music), and I come from a pretty open-minded upbringing, so I’m down with giving things a fair shot. I like reality TV, I like it a lot. Maybe it’s because it gives you a window in to lives and experiences you wouldn’t otherwise, just like any form of entertainment. I love it. I can see WHY it has detractors though, but to just write it off across the board seems odd to me.

That said, I like to think Super Real is for everyone. I worry that perhaps the vocal reality TV hating contingent write it off because it’s based on reality TV, but really, if they give it a shot, I’d hope they’d see it works either way. I don’t think you need to be on one side of the camp or the other to appreciate the story. I liken Super Real to “Survivor with super powers” (among other things), and if you think about it, Survivor is a lot like a super hero comic book, you have a group of diverse people put together, in extreme circumstances, and they have to use their abilities to succeed. Sounds like a super team comic book to me!

PBR Beyond Super Real… any thing new or on the horizon you can hint on…???

Beyond Super Real? Well, no, it’s a little early for that. Super Real is an ongoing, of sorts. There is a definite arc to the story, about six issues. From there, it can go on in a number of different directions. My plan, at this point, is that it spins off into something else, a bit broader (or focused, depending on how you look at it). There’s a core story in Super Real, beyond the reality TV super power concept, that can continue on and go it’s own way, but if the book itself is popular enough, there’s no reason it can’t go on in some form or another too. You’ve really got to see where this thing goes to understand, and I can’t elaborate on that, not yet. While it’s taken me an inordinate amount of time to get the book up and running, it’s really benefited the story, I think, and should make for some really exciting developments in that regard as we near completion. Otherwise, there is something I’m working on right now I can talk about, a Super Real Special, where we take my scripts and give them to some cool artists I’ve met and worked with. I’m in the middle of it right now, and really excited about it.

The special is titled Super Real VS The Comic Book industry, and it pits our five enhanced reality show participants against stand-ins for comic book icons! It's going to be a really fun book, with some over the top action (and there might even have a big name or two attached to it too). It should be solicited in December for shipping by February '07, so keep your eyes peeled for that!

Since I’m releasing Super Real on an every third month schedule, and about a month behind currently, I’m looking to use the special in-between issues 3 and 4, to get the schedule back on track.

The cool thing is, the special will really read like issue 3.5, and feature each cast member using their enhancements in really cool ways. Since that’s the thing everyone’s anxious to see, and since the story had an initial slow build, it’ll be really nice to give everyone this special where that’s all we do is play with the toys so to speak, and have the concept just cut loose. So, besides amazing cool artists, and the full concept at play, I think the plot of the special will grab lots of attention… it’s a little early to say what it is, but I really think it will help get the book noticed!

So I’m very much looking forward to that!! I’m hoping to have it solicited as soon as August… keep your eyes open for that!

Thanks so much for having me, I had fun with the questions, and hopefully caught the eyes of some new potential readers along the way! Give Super Real a shot if you haven’t, I really think you might be surprised!!

Thanks, and STAY TUNED, Jason

Thanks a lot Jason
and God Bless Rehab

Byron