Bart Sears: The First Among Equals

By Mike Jozic

Coming off of a run on Marvel's ill-fated SPIDER-WOMAN, Bart Sears has made a dramatic return to comics this November with his latest project, THE FIRST. Mike Jozic had the opportunity to speak with Bart about his renewed interest in comics, his new assignment and his subsequent move to Tampa where CrossGen is headquartered.

THE FIRST is the fifth title to be published by CrossGen Comics, and with fellow creators Barbara Kesel and long-time collaborator and inker, Andy Smith, he will have a hand in chronicling the stories of the original rulers of the CrossGen universe as they seek out the answer to the newest mystery that has brought them out of seclusion; the sigil bearers.

Mike Jozic: For people who may not be familiar with CrossGen's line, could you describe THE FIRST, and maybe touch a little on the characters and world they inhabit?

Bart Sears: Oh, boy.

MJ: Is this something I should be talking to Barbara about?

BS: She would put a better spin on it.

My take is that they are basically gods. They've created everything and, over the centuries, they've grown lax and lazy; kind of sedate. Kind of boring, actually, and until the appearance of these sigil bearers - beings of incredible power that they didn't have anything to do with. So, they're very curious about these sigil bearers and they can't quite be lazy anymore. This new thing has happened that has screwed up their whole lives and everything that they thought was their doing. Suddenly, there's something here that isn't, and they don't understand it, are a little bit afraid of it and want to find out what it's all about.

MJ: So, they start meddling in the affairs of these mortals?

BS: Yep, and nothing good can come of it.

MJ: Are these indifferent gods, or malevolent gods?

BS: I guess they have been indifferent. I mean, [on] all the worlds they've created that they can exist on - whether people know they're gods or just visiting - they have [kept] relatively out of the picture. They've just gotten used to their things, the status quo. So, I don't think that they've been really malevolent or benevolent.

MJ: And what sort of a threat do these sigil bearers pose to THE FIRST to make them worry so and bring them out of isolation?

BS: As we saw in an issue of SIGIL, one of THE FIRST meta- sigil bearers, [they discover that] somehow [Sam] is able to drain power from it. They don't know how or why that's happening, but apparently these beings are tied to them, even though they didn't create them. Or at least, if one of them did create them, he's not talking.

If that makes sense.

MJ: [laughs] How is it for you, having been with super-hero comics for the last few years, to come onto a hard fantasy book like THE FIRST?

BS: I've always viewed super-heroes as powerful, majestic beings with kind of a regal bearing. That's how I viewed a lot of them. And THE FIRST are the epitome of that, so it's very natural for me, even though I've always tended towards the super-heroes.

There really isn't much difference. In essence, it's all heroic fantasy; it's just the trappings that are all different. And, again, these guys are more in line with what I've always wanted to draw.

MJ: What was it that drew you to both CrossGen and THE FIRST?

BS: Well, I'd pretty much had it with comics in general. I was tired of the grind of freelancing, dealing with the companies and all that stuff. I was starting to look into other areas when they called me from here in sunny Tampa. So, I came down for a visit with Mark Allessi and that was it. I believe in everything the company stands for. I believe in what were trying to do here, which is to do high-quality comics on a monthly basis. To think of the fans first and all that good stuff that you've probably read about if you've read anything about CrossGen.

MJ: So, you're coming onto THE FIRST fresh off of SPIDER-WOMAN...

BS: Yeah, all I was doing on that was breakdowns even though it was rarely credited as such.

MJ: [laughs] You don't sound very enthusiastic about your time at Marvel. Were you generally unhappy with SPIDER-WOMAN and BLADE, the work you were doing at that time?

BS: Yeah, pretty much. I was doing breakdowns pretty much for time and financial restrictions, and just wasn't completely happy doing that. It just seemed like there was no way out of doing that for me.

All I've ever wanted to do was sit down and draw quality comics, and it's been a rare instance when I've been able to actually do just that. And that's pretty much all I'm supposed to do here, so it works out very well.

MJ: You haven't had a really solid, monthly gig since JLI, is that right?

BS: No, the last one was X-O at Acclaim. They were putting it out twice a month [where] I was doing one issue, and Andy was doing the other issue. That was going fine until they pulled me off of X-O to do all these other projects that never materialized. I sat there for four or five months with no work, getting paid, and then they told me that I owed them money and that was it. I could either pay them back, or leave.

MJ: You owed them money?

BS: Yeah, it's a long story that I just don't want to get into, but [it came down to] contractual things that they managed to maneuver around me without my knowing.

MJ: Will the focus of THE FIRST be on the actual gods themselves, or will we be reading these stories through the eyes of others who encounter them, a la MARVELS?

BS: Surprisingly, THE FIRST issue starts out with almost no focus on them at all. And then, by the end of the issue, the focus starts to shift and, by the end of the second issue, it's fully on them. That's kind of the way the story unfolds.

MJ: So, there will be a steady focus on THE FIRST.

BS: Oh, yeah. But, the possibilities are infinite because of all the worlds and all the gods. They've all created their own [worlds] and who knows how many. It's just got huge scope.

MJ: Would it be unfair to compare THE FIRST with JACK KIRBY'S NEW GODS?

BS: I don't know if it would be unfair. To be honest, I haven't found anything like that since I was a kid. My memories of it are rather old and fuzzy.

I think there'll be more depth to this, if anything. I think that there is a whole lot of depth that's only going to get realized as we get farther and farther along.

MJ: How much input do you, as the artist, have on the story end of things?

BS: She writes it, I draw it, and in-between we talk about it quite a bit. And Mark has a lot of input, too. It's pretty malleable. I mean, she's open to ideas, and I'm pretty open to ideas so we tend to collaborate really well.MJ: I see you're working with Andy Smith again. Actually, I don't remember the last time you weren't working with Andy. [laughing] Are you guys joined at the hip?

BS: Pretty much. I've tended to work, in general, with guys that I think are very high-quality with what they do, and Andy certainly falls into that category. He was willing to come over here and hang, so I was more than happy to [work with] him. Not that I had much to do with it except saying, "Would you like take this," and he said, "Alright."

I think he does great work. As you know, he's a skilled penciller but he was inking GREEN LANTERN, and when this came about, he was pretty eager to jump and I was real eager to have him. We work well together.

MJ: I was looking at the preview that's floating around...

BS: Oh, the eight page thing.

MJ: Yeah, the leaflet. Anyway, it's really great stuff.

BS: Thanks.

MJ: I don't want to sound mean, but it's been a while since I've looked at your guys' stuff and thought, "Wow, that's fantastic!"

BS: I just haven't been able to "wow" in quite a while because most everything I did at Marvel was breakdowns, and everything I did was really under the gun. I was pretty sick of comics for quite some time.

MJ: It's been going on for a while?

BS: Yup. I got sick of how companies behaved. I was just tired of the whole thing and didn't have the energy to go on, quite frankly, so I was looking elsewhere. But, talking to Mark and seeing what it's like down here at CrossGen, seeing all the great work everyone was doing, it got me energized and reminded me that I did love comics at one point. And now, I pretty much do again.

MJ: When CrossGen first announced the return to the Bullpen style of making comics, and that if you wanted to work for the company you had to move to Florida, I heard a lot of speculation about whether or not they would be able to attract talent that way. Was it a difficult decision to pull up roots and move to CrossGen?

BS: Oh, yeah. I've been divorced for ten years and my three kids still live in Syracuse. I've seen them every other weekend for those ten years and all the odd times in-between. I was living seven houses away before I moved but I had to make a decision for all of our futures.

It was not easy and it's still not easy.

MJ: Your bio on the CrossGen site says, "he believes the close-knit, family oriented attitude will allow him the chance to draw the most dynamic comics of his illustrious career." Does that pretty much sum it up for you?

BS: Yup.

MJ: Is it strange going from the freelance work to doing the bullpen stuff?

BS: Yeah, as a freelancer you make your own distractions. A lot of times your friends and family do because you're home all of the time. As a freelancer, your time is completely your own, whereas when you work in the bullpen, we've all made the decision to come here and work. There are distractions during the day that you don’t make. You have a meeting on a story, or there’s color questions or whatever. You’re pulled away from your board for different reasons and you have to make the mental adjustment that these are your breaks, not the time you want to go play video games, or whatever.

It wasn’t a difficult adjustment; it was just an adjustment.

MJ: Do you find that the work is improving since you are in contact with everybody there?

BS: Yeah, you get energized. I’ll go over and look at Jim Cheung’s stuff and get all jazzed, and then come over here and work harder. I can turn around and see how the inks are turning out, or go around the corner and see what Mike’s doing on the color. It’s real cool.

MJ: How much involvement do you have with the process after you’re done penciling the pages? Do you keep up with what’s going on with the coloring end and things like that?

BS: Oh sure, we all talk about it at almost every step and if anybody has any ideas about whatever, we throw it out there to be used or shot down. We pretty much all know what we’re doing, so we’re all fairly confident in each other’s abilities.

MJ: How is it working in a universe with only two key writers? Having a very small core of books and only the two writers doing the lot, it would seem that there would be an incredible amount of focus there.

BS: Well, I guess there are only five issues of each book and at this stage we don’t have a lot of continuity yet.

MJ: So CrossGen’s “shared” universe hasn’t really impacted on any of the titles?

BS: No, no, each book is separate and distinct and there are no cross-overs. None of that gimmicky sales stuff.

MJ: Do you know if there are any plans to do a cross-over eventually?

BS: I don’t think so. That’s our thing, you know? No cross-overs, no special covers, no gimmicks like that. We have the CHRONICLES which can deal with different things like that.

MJ: That’s true.

BS: Right now we’re relatively focused. SIGIL is its own entity and happens to be in the same universe, but I can’t imagine there will ever be a story that starts in SIGIL and ends in SCION.

MJ: That’s not exactly what I meant by a cross-over, although that is the popular view of it. Twelve book-ended issues, all coming out during the skip week. What I was talking about was, by nature, THE FIRST would seem to be the most likely to come into contact with the other characters in the other books because they have access to every world. It’s not a big event, but there is a shared universe.

BS: But that’s because that’s what they do. I don’t think you’ll ever see the star of SCION ever show up in SIGIL. I can’t imagine that. If for some strange reason the story had to go that way, I don’t think we’d fight it, but I just can’t imagine that happening.

As far as I know, anyway.

MJ: I remember reading somewhere that THE FIRST were originally going to be a continuing story in CROSSGEN CHRONICLES, but were so popular that a monthly book was created for them.

BS: Yeah, they were going to be the beings that book focused on as they told their stories.

MJ: So CrossGen hadn’t actually intended on expanding their line of books quite so soon.

BS: No. I think it was [because] we’re fan-oriented [and] they wanted to know more. They saw the CHRONICLES’ quarterly basis wouldn’t get them out there enough to get the story told, so they decided to do it on a monthly basis.

MJ: How is the fan response to the books right now?

BS: So far it’s been pretty good. Really positive and we did great at the shows this year. It was really quite tremendous [of] the fans that just…showed up. Essentially we had one or two books out at the time and the response was really positive, really strong.

MJ: When Marc Alessi originally announced his intentions to enter the comic book market, he also said that his goal was to reach a broader audience than just comic book readers. Do you see that reflected in the people buying the books right now?

BS: Yeah. I think with MERIDIAN, they brought in a lot of young girls that actually read that book. SIGIL has captured more of the sci-fi fans and I only think that’s only going to grow.

MJ: When the last bunch of creators broke away from Marvel, there was a strong fantasy element to the work they produced afterwards, like TELLOS or BATTLE CHASERS, and even Humberto Ramos’ CRIMSON. What do you think is at the core of this movement towards fantasy books?

BS: I think part of the problem is that nobody has ever taken the fantasy market seriously. And everything they’ve done has been watered down fantasy, and obviously creators like it. And I think the fans have been yearning for it but there just hasn’t been anything of real quality for them to get behind.

MJ: With the exception of Cross Plains Comics, which only recently came into being, the only other time I can think of that anyone tried any fantasy books was DC’s TSR line.

BS: They did a lot of stuff, but I don’t think they did it as strong as they could have.

MJ: Do you think it’s cyclical? There was a lot of fantasy and sci-fi floating around in the seventies, is this just the time for these kinds of books again?

BS: I don’t know. I think god stories and good art is a constant.

MJ: So it doesn’t matter what it is, as long as it’s done well.

BS: There has to be some base interest, but if it looks good enough, and the story is told interestingly enough then people will like it.

MJ: Do you know if CrossGen will be tackling more than just the direct market? Will they be targeting newsstands and bookstores in the future?

BS: I’m sure down the road we’ll do many things, but hopefully we’ll keep making good comics and we’ll sell them to people who will buy them.

	Mike Jozic has spent the last several years interviewing comic book creators and other entertainment related personalities for various publications. He has been published both online and in print, with his work appearing in The Comics Journal, FearsMag.com and Silver Bullet Comicbooks. He maintains his own website at www.meanwhile.net and currently serves as the Features Editor for SBC.