Comixtalk was a very nice concept zine consisting of interviews with small press and Obscuro comix cartoonists. This was one of Kevin Collier's publications out of Nunica, Michigan.
Kevin had come from the more mainstream fannish side of comic art enthusiasts. This was a network older and larger than us underground comix-inspired Newave troublemakers. But he made an honest effort to bridge the gap between his home camp and the more remote and alien world of what was left of Newave in the late 1980s. It was an admirable try and the few issues of Comixtalk are now valuable historical source documents for anyone interested in the history of Newave comix.
In some ways Kevin was ahead of the curve. Anything new, dangerous, progressive and possibly profitable quickly gets co-opted into mainstream culture and becomes the new norm. He was making an honest effort to treat us seriously before Fantagraphics moved to Seattle and soaked up all those Newave cartoonists into their commercial fold. In this regard, Kevin needs to be respected as a visionary.
The motive behind my involvement with the Fan camp was I felt we Newavers could perhaps get some of the more mainstream influenced cartoonists to open up their artistic vistas if they could see our work and realize they didn't have to mimic the Big Boys in order to express themselves. It was the arrogant evangelical side of me, I suppose. But I did get to know many fine cartoonists through the network Collier was part of and had to rearrange my world view of cartooning as a result. I had to accept it is OK to be a fan, since there were so many decent people and great cartoonists who used that as their premise.
This interview comes from Comixtalk no. 1 (August, 1987).
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