MICHAEL KELLEHER (Penciller/Colorist/Digital Designer) MICHAEL KELLEHER looks up from his Convention booth. He has a computer set up to show off his coloring, and the rest of his table is decorated with his art, print-outs of coloring, plenty of comics he's colored, and business cards. Realizing it's time to do an interview for this website, Michael finds someone to watch his table, and we duck out to the snack bar area to have this chat:

SPOTLIGHT: Mike, thanks for taking the time to talk with me.
Mike: Not a problem. I'm glad to do it.

SPOTLIGHT: Great. Why don't we start with the basics. Give the readers your name, rank and serial number.
Mike (laughs): Well, my Name is Michael Kelleher. I am a freelance artist. I work on my home in Southampton, MA. I have a beautiful wife and the obligatory two kids and a dog. The perfect nuclear family.

SPOTLIGHT: Southampton? Is that anywhere near Boston?
Mike: Not really. I'm about 2 hours from Boston and 3 hours from New York City.

SPOTLIGHT: That must be cool, being able to go to two major cities like that.
Mike: Heh. Yeah right. Like I ever get to leave the house.

SPOTLIGHT: Well, I've seen you at conventions all over the country, so you must get out once in a while.
Mike: Yeah, I usually make 4-5 shows a year. All on the East coast though. The farthest I've ever gone for a show is Detroit. Motor City Con.

SPOTLIGHT: Now, were you born in Southampton?
Mike: No, I was born and raised in Springfield MA, the birthplace of Basketball and home of Smith & Wesson. When I was in my early twenties, my wife and I moved to Easthampton, MA, then we bought a house in Southampton in early 1999. It's a cool area. We are about 15 minutes from Northampton which was the birthplace of the Teenage Ninja Turtles, home of The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, and an all around mecca for artistic creativity.

SPOTLIGHT: Sounds like a great place for comic creators.
Mike: It was for a while. We had the Words and Pictures Museum and Kitchen Sink was based here, but of course, they are both gone now.

SPOTLIGHT: Was it easy to break into comics with that type of artistic community at your disposal?
Mike: Well, I never really tried to break into the industry. I just kinda' eased in. Back in 1991 I wrote, drew and published my own comic called LEGEND KILLER. From there, I expanded and started publishing other titles with the help of some friends. I picked up a book called SECTION 12 which was written and created by Len Mihalovich and also published another great title called ARMEN DEEP and BUG BOY written by Dan Langan and Bill Shafer who now do the book called GLUEBOY, which I do some artwork for.

SPOTLIGHT: Were your books successful?
Mike: Not financially, but we got a lot of recognition within the independent publishing community. I was working as a printer at the time, so printing the comics was relatively cheap. We even put together a card set containing the work of dozens of independent publishers. I lost my shirt on that project due to production problems, but it opened a lot of doors and taught me some inmportant lessons about business.

SPOTLIGHT: So when did you start branching out from self-publishing? Mike: Back in 1995 or 96 I met a guy named Andrew Ford who was doing a small press book called RIB. I was a fan of the book started talking with him through the mail and at some conventions. At one point he asked if I would be interested in drawing RIB as a full size book. I jumped at the chance and Andrew got us picked up by CALIBER after a couple of failed attempts at self publishing it. From there, LIGHTNING COMICS published one of my books called PERRY which I illustrated and co-wrote with a guy named Toby Mays. Since then I've been doing nothing but freelance work.

SPOTLIGHT: Are you still a printer or do you draw full time?
Mike: No, I quit the printing industry back in 1997 and have been doing comics and graphic design full time since.

SPOTLIGHT: You keep pretty busy then?
Mike: You know, it comes and goes. One month I'm drowning in work, the next month I'm worndering if I'm washed up already.

SPOTLIGHT: What about unpublished work?
Mike: I have a LOT of that. I worked on a book called JOE LIBERTY that has yet to see print. I illustrated a book called DARKHEART, never saw print. Lots of short stories but most of them are owned by other people, so I have no say as to what happens to them.

SPOTLIGHT: Okay, just a couple more questions and then you can go.
Mike: Good, I'm getting hungry.

SPOTLIGHT: Do you have any cool stories or annectdotes relating to your profession as a comic artist?
Mike: Cool stories? Hmm... Lets see... I was an extra in the movie CHASING AMY. That was pretty cool, but not a very interesting story. Oh, I once had an inadvertant conversation with Mr. and Mrs. Dick Ayers.

SPOTLIGHT: Inadvertant?
Mike: Yeah. A few years back at the Motor City Con, I was having dinner with Andrew Ford at the hotel retaurant. we were bitching and complaining about the industry, blah-blah-blah. Anyway, I had mentioned a great letter I had recieved from Bobbie Chase at Marvel back around 1991. I was telling Andrew how cool and supportive she was regarding a submission I sent to Marvel. Anyway, this woman at the table next to us breaks into our conversation and starts telling us how wonderful Bobbie Chase was. I didn't mind her entering the conversation, I just thought it was odd that she did. Well,we talked for a while, her husband didn't really say much, just nodded and smiled occasionally.Eventually the conversation led us to talking about Marvel in the 60's. That's when the womans husband got into the mix. It took me a minute before I realized it was legendary Marvel artist, Dick Ayers.  He started telling us first hand stories about Stan Lee flambouyantly acting out the personality of a new villian he created by pretending to flail around a long cloak and lumber around as if wearing heavy armor and bellowing an evil laugh. He called the character Dr Doom. Mr. Ayers also went on to tell us stories of how he sometimes had to draw an entire 22 page comic based on one paragraph of plot, and no script. Again, maybe not an interesting story for me to be telling. But I thought it was cool.

SPOTLIGHT: Well, Mike, Ive taken up enough of your time. Any last words of wisdom or comments to your fans. Mike (laughs): Well, as sparse as they are, I want to thank the few loyal fans I've had over the years. The ones who faithfully visit me at the conventions and always have a great attitude about comics in general. They make the whole experience worthwhile.

SPOTLIGHT: Thanks Mike.
Mike: Thank you.

LIST OF CREDITS 

As Colorist: 

Banzai Girl 1-4, Annual (Sirius Comics) 
Lady Death: Bedlam (Chaos Comics) 
Iron Empires TPB (Dark Horse Comics) 
Rob Zombies Spookshow (MVCreations) 
Night of the Living Dead Barbaras' Chronicles (Dead Dog Press) 
Aya  (AK Comics) 
Rakan (AK Comics) 
15 Minutes (Slave Labor Graphics) 

Witches #2-4 (Published by Marvel)
Birds of Prey # 71-73 (DC)
Justice Society of America (DC)
Spider-Man Marvel Age #15 (Marvel)
Punisher #12 (Marvel)
X-Men Marvel Masterworks (Marvel)

As illustrator:

Negative Burn #40 (Caliber Press) 
RIB #1-5 (Caliber Press) 
PERRY #1 (Lightning Comics) 
The Next Wave (San Diego Comic Con) 
No Justice...No Piece #1  (Head Press) 
Glueboy #1-4  (Creative Comic Chimp Press) 
League of Super Groovy Crime Fighters #5 (Ancient Studios) 
Occupational Hazzards (CD Comics) 

LINKS:

Michael Kelleher Illustration and Graphic Design