If some stranger strikes up a conversation with you today as you're browsing the new releases at your favorite comic book store, be open-minded. He may end up being the Bill Willingham to your Matt Sturges. Sturges is an Austin resident whose profile as a comic book writer is on the rise. Nine months ago, he was able to "happily" walk away from his job developing educational software. Much of his success is due to his friendship with Willingham.
The two met in the '90s while shopping for comics at Austin Books. With a few other pals from the store, they formed a collective of aspiring writers.
Several years later, Willingham had become one of the most acclaimed writers in comics, thanks to Fables, his series about fairy-tale characters in the modern world. When it came time to launch a spinoff, Jack of Fables, Willingham asked Sturges to write it with him.
"He had been critiquing my work for years, so he knew exactly what I was capable of," Sturges told me at last month's Dallas Comic Con.
The 20th issue of that collaboration goes on sale Feb. 27. Before that, we'll have new issues of Salvation Run, a miniseries that Willingham started then handed off to Sturges, and Shadowpact, a Willingham- created series that Sturges took over several issues ago.
Sturges does write one book with no ties to Willingham: Countdown to Mystery, a miniseries that is scheduled to end in April. The next month, Sturges will launch a new anthology series, House of Mystery , which will take him back to his days of swapping stories at Austin Books.
Sturges said the series will be set in a bar, where the staff never gets to leave.
"They're trapped there, and they don't know why," he said. "To alleviate their boredom, instead of charg- ing money for food and drink, they charge stories."
Sturges said he'll write the scenes set in the bar, while guest writers will handle the bartered stories. The first guest writer on board? Willingham, of course.
Ask Dan about his Bill Willingham at dkoller@quickdfw.com.
NEWSPAPERS TURN TO SUPERHEROES
BLACK HISTORY GETS GRAPHIC
It's the first Wednesday of Black History Month, and Minnesota-based Capstone Press is celebrating by releasing eight volumes in its Graphic Library series. The subjects include Bessie Coleman, Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, Jackie Robinson, Wilma Rudolph, Harriet Tubman, Nat Turner and Booker T. Washington. Each graphic novel retails for $7.95.
