Rich Stahnke is an artist living here in the larger Charlotte Metro area, and he’s a popular recurring guest at the long running Charlotte Comicon.
Matt: Rich, let’s jump right into it…sorry, not sorry. How did you get started with New Pain Productions’ Jump comic book and specifically comic book pros, Keith Champagne and Tom Nguyen?
Rich: You mean New Pun Productions? Ha! See what I did there? I stumbled into working with New Pain by dumb luck. I stopped by the home of fellow Charlotte comic guy Andy Smith’s house one day, and we were talking in his studio about his upcoming projects. He told me he had a short story that was supposed to run in Heavy Metal Magazine, and the deadline was just a couple weeks away, but he didn’t have a colorist. I told him that if it wasn’t a huge story, I could knock out the color work for him. The fact that it was something already sold to Heavy Metal was a big motivator for me. Heavy Metal is one of those comic/magazine mainstays that we grew up with in the 70s and 80s. Andy, bless him, was kind of hesitant, and said he hadn’t really seen my color work so he wouldn’t just say yes to my helping out. So, he sent me a couple pages of the story to color as an audition. I knocked the pages out and sent them back. He showed them to the writer of the story, who approved and brought me on to the project. That writer was Keith Champagne. The three of us had two installments of that story run in Heavy Metal and then the mag apparently ceased publication not too long after that. The story (called Cuda-for the car driven by the main character) is still unfinished.
So, a few more months passed by and Keith contacted me and asked if I’d color a variant cover for the New Pain book Daybreak! Of course, I said yes and I colored the Ale Garza variant to issue #1. After that, I contributed something to all four issues of Daybreak!, including illustrating a short story that ran in issue #4. From there, I got plugged in to doing the colors for the Jump title. Keith and I are going to be releasing a new title soon that we co-created. He’s writing/lettering and I’m doing the art.
Tom Nguyen is Keith’s partner in New Pain Pro. I’ve colored a couple of Tom’s variant covers but we haven’t worked on a book together yet. Keith and Tom formed New Pain to be their publishing imprint when they released a book called The Switch about 4 years ago.
Matt: I like the concept of the cliffhanger endings in JUMP. What is the New Pain Challenge?
Rich: The New Pain Challenge is for anyone who buys the books and the challenge for the readers is that they’re tasked with trying to figure out how the book/story can actually continue. If your readers check out the Kickstarter page for Jump #2, they’ll clearly see that the main character, The Jump, went and got himself killed. Not a dream! Not a Hoax! Not an imaginary story! He dies. If a reader can predict how Keith makes the storyline continue, then they win the opportunity to be written into the next issue as a character. No one guessed correctly after issue #1 and the ending of Jump #2 is a doozy, so I’m curious how people will predict the book can carry on.
Matt: Are the rumors true? Is the New Pain Handbook like the beloved Marvel Handbook from the 80’s?
Rich: 100% true! You and I (and Keith) are very similar in age and we grew up in that golden time for comics that people call the 1980s. This crowdfunding campaign (and the previous one) actually offers two books that you can pick from (or hopefully buy both). Jump is one and The Official Handbook of the New Pain Universe is the other. Someone out there may think it’s premature to release a handbook for a comic universe that’s still finding its legs. New Pain is sort of a toddler of a comic company, but between the comics they’ve already released into the public, and the ones coming down the pipeline very soon, there’s quite a few characters to run profiles for. I don’t know how many pages the book is going to end up being, but if it comes in under 60, I’d be shocked. I’ve seen some of the pages and it’s straight old school handbook. Nice character shots, drawn by numerous artists and Keith is really laying out a ton of background and origin info for the entries. For people who have already bought some New Pain books and for potential new fans, there’s a lot of good stuff hidden in the entries and there’s data that makes it clear that this is one big, interconnected universe. The Daybreak! lead heroine is slated to appear in Jump #3 and there’re connections between characters from The Switch and the new title coming up called P.U.N.C.H.
Matt: You do the colors and variant covers for JUMP and the New Pain Handbook, right?
Rich: I’m the interior colorist for Jump, I have colored some of the variant covers, and I drew variant covers for both issue 1 and 2. For the handbook, I colored the cover illustration, which is by Carlos Reno, and I drew and colored some- but not all- of the interior character entries.
Matt: Congratulations on hitting your goal on the Kickstarter. What are some of your favorite remaining stretch goals?
Rich: We’ve hit the initial fund-raising mark and have a couple weeks to go, as of the time of this interview, and the stretch goals are kind of fluid. Keith runs the campaigns and he’s a big proponent of adding pages/material to the books themselves, as opposed to throwing in a mini-poster or sticker, etc. With Daybreak! #4, the back up story that I illustrated was added to the book as a stretch goal. I think this is seen as a way to add more value to what you’re getting. The first stretch goal for Jump #2, is supposed to be another back up story added to the book. If that goal is hit, I believe the page count is going to jump up to 36 pages.
Matt: Dang it, Rich, you made me just pledge!
Rich: All part of the plan, Matt. I really enjoy working with Keith and I feel invested in the company, so I intend to convert as many people as I can into New Painiacs!
Matt: What’s up next for you? (Please tell me your Drunken Monkey series will return).
Rich: I have a few irons in the fire. The October issue of Wyldblood Magazine, which specializes in fantasy and scififiction, is supposed to feature my artwork on the cover. I think there’s an issue of Alterna Comics’ anthology book, It Came Out On A Wednesday, has one of my pieces slated to appear pretty soon and it may be their fall issue (but I’m not certain when). The very next comic book that you should be seeing with my work inside, should be the book that Keith and I have co-created. It’s called P.U.N.C.H., which stands for Pubescent Undercover Neuro-Diverse Cryptid Hunters. The first issue is completely done and we premiered it at HeroesCon this past June, with a special con variant edition, since Keith, Tom Nguyen, and I were all guests at the show. Creating this book with Keith has been great. We spit-balled all kinds of off-the-wall ideas and it all came together as a funny, violent, hodge-podge of concepts and characters. I like to say that I threw a bunch of spaghetti at the wall and Keith made it all stick. I think we’ll be launching a crowdfunding campaign for P.U.N.C.H. within a month, or so. We have to wrap up the current campaign first before we unleash that book on the public. As for the Furious Fist of the Drunken Monkey—that book has never really gone away, I just tend to take extended breaks from working on it, to do other projects. But! Good news for you, is that I had to step aside from the computer to do this little interview. While on the computer, I was working on Drunken Monkey #7, which is roughly 80% complete. I intend to have this issue finished and in hand by the time the December Charlotte Comicon rolls around. Who knows, you may even be seeing the Drunken Monkey appearing in the future with the logo of New Pain gracing the cover.
Matt: Will you please return for another interview when you get closer to your next project? Also, we would love to have you on the Guardians of the Geekery podcast.
Rich: I can’t say no to you Matt. We’ve actually known each other for what? 20 years, at least. I’d love to come back and talk again and I’d love to appear on the show as well. I’ll be your Huckleberry, Matt. Thanks for the opportunity to talk about my comic stuff!
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New Pain Productions Online Shop
Kickstarter for New Pain 2-In-1: NPC JUMP #1-2 and THE NEW PAIN HANDBOOK!
