By Mike Luoma • 9/17/09

Interview With Vito Delsante

Vito Delsante is an Independent comic book creator who has also had a bunch of work published by the “Big Two.” He was one of the members of “The Chemistry Set” - his new comic “FCHS” began on the web collective's site. He's got a pretty cool day job relating to comics, too, as manager of New York City's “Jim Hanley's Universe.” Cosmic Book News' Mike Luoma sat down with Vito for some Q&A about the new comic and Vito's adventures in comic book creation.

Mike Luoma: Hey Vito... I see you have a Wikipedia page! You must be famous! Your mom didn't write that did she? You ever make stuff up and add it to the entry? Ever find something crazy in there? It seems a little outdated, actually...

Vito Delsante: Nothing too crazy. I think the craziest thing on there is that I manage Jim Hanley's Universe, and that's only crazy because I try to keep my work and my career separate, but that's kind of difficult when they both involve comics. You're right though...it is out of date. Anyone want to help me out here?

ML: Let's get down to the matter at hand – congratulations on the upcoming graphic novel release!

Vito: Thanks! It took a while to get it together...on my end writing, and getting it prepared for print...it's a labor of love, so to speak. Heavy on the labor, but plenty of love.

ML: How about introducing those who might not yet be familiar with “FCHS” to the general concept behind the comic? Is is really “90210” meets “Archie”?

Vito: Yeah, or you can call it, Love & Rockets meets American Pie. FCHS is a little bit teen sex comedy and a little bit teen drama. Add in some semi-autobiographical anecdotes for flavor, and you have our book. The first of four volumes, I might add. The book follows seven friends though their Senior year of high school, starting with their last day as Juniors. The first volume takes us from June to September, so we see them coming back to school from summer break, and we see their break. I think everyone will find this familiar territory, no matter where they grew up.

ML: Tell us a little about your artist, Rachel Freire. How did you two come to work together?

Vito: We both met working at Hanley's. I'm her boss there, which I'm sure sounds worse than it actually is. Rachel has a habit of drawing on any stray piece of paper she can get her hands on, and everyone was just floored by her natural talent. Around the time that she was hired, I started formulating my next webcomic for The Chemistry Set, which, sadly, is on an extended hiatus. It just made sense to work with Rachel on something, and FCHS was that book (although, back then, it was called Sparkplug for some stupid reason...hmmph!).

ML: AdHouse Books is publishing FCHS. How did you and AdHouse Books find each other? Whose idea was it to do the Free Comic Book Day issue?

Vito: I've known Chris (Pitzer) for a while and we've always gotten on like old friends. I never thought he'd be into FCHS or want to work with me, to be totally honest, and so you can imagine how shocked I was when after MoCCA two years ago, after I handed him a mini comic of the strips on the Chemistry Set, he e-mailed me and asked if we had a publisher. I'm sure it had more to do with Rachel's art than it did with my story, but still...it's a great honor, for me, to work with AdHouse.

The Free Comic Book Day issue was all Chris' idea. We were looking to get this new property in as many hands as possible, to get as many people as we could to just look at the book, and Chris took a huge leap of faith with us.

ML: Has the FCBD issue helped to raise the profile of the book?

Vito: I'm not sure. There's a certain buzz behind the book, and it all stems from people who DIDN'T see the FCBD comic. Word of mouth...that sort of thing. We had folks come up to our table at Heroes Con this year saying that their store didn't order the book or it ran out...it's nice to hear it ran out, but when I heard the other, former, excuse, it kind of bugs me because...hey, I'm a retailer, too. The comic was online, so it's not like no one knew what the book was about or what it looked like.

ML: You've also released the comic for the iPhone through ComiXology – how's that going? How much of the book is on there to read? More than the FCBD preview?

Vito: We have 25 pages, which is 7 more than the FCBD issue and five pages less than the full first chapter. That's a pretty healthy chunk, if you ask me. I'm not sure how it's doing, but I saw that it was one of the top 25 downloads at one point, so that's a good thing! The true test of how well the ComiXology experiment is will be in the pre-orders.

ML: I've heard you're also offering a “prequel” to the graphic novel on Facebook Can you fill us in on those details?

Vito: Well, the idea came from a good friend of mine, Steve Saffel, and when he talked us into it, he was really just thinking of viral marketing, but I realized that, with the ComiXology deal...some people don't have iPhones. So, we came up with a prequel story, one that takes place during the Junior year for the characters at FCHS, and fills in some of the relationships for the characters. This strip is available on Facebook, my site (incogvito.com) and Rachel's site (rvfreire.blogspot.com). This really comes down to having something for everyone. You might not have seen the FCBD issue, so you can download it to your iPhone. Oh, you don't have an iPhone? Here's a free comic. Anyone that has the FCBD issue and an iPhone is really making out like a winner in this situation.

ML: There's a lot of talk these days about offering elements of your work free to create interest in your work and hopefully generate sales of some kind. You're “giving away” some elements of FCHS – it seems like you embrace this idea. Do you? Whether you do or not, you're employing the idea in your marketing for FCHS – is it working?

Vito: I don't know if I embrace it wholeheartedly, but there are elements that I do subscribe to, sure. I think that ever since Diamond made their order minimums, everyone...publisher, creator, everyone...has been trying to find a way to...circumvent the new rule. Not circumvent per se, but work around it and with it. It's not easy, believe me. Do I want to give things away for free? Not if I don't have to. Does it work? I don't know. I mean, you've seen how hard it was for me to get this interview, right? Building an audience for a book with no history, by a creator whose work in the industry has been sporadic at best (me) and an artist who has never worked on anything before (Rachel)...that's tough. AdHouse and Chris have been nothing but supportive, but the reality is that if we don't meet certain order minimums, the book might not come out. That's just a harsh reality of the industry we're working in.

ML: We've looked ahead to the future and FCHS... a look back shows you've already built up a pretty impressive resume! You've written everything from Scooby Doo to Babe Ruth and Beowulf (not all in the same comic, mind you). You obviously love comics – do you remember how you first discovered comic books as a kid?

Vito: It was either through my dad, who encouraged my love for Batman, or by watching Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends. I know that the latter led to my first ever comic purchase, but my exposure had to be earlier than that. I'll blame it on my dad. He knew how much I loved the Batman TV show, so I'm sure he introduced me to comics.

ML: Were comics your “calling” as a writer? Did you want to be a writer first, or was “comic book writer” from the start?

Vito: I wanted to be an actor, actually. That led to writing screenplays, which then led to comics writing. I still think I'd like to do some acting, if only because it's where I think my true calling is, but there's something about comics. I don't know what it is, but I feel like there's a great marriage between the written word and art that you can't get from film or TV. It's closest to being on stage, but it's pretty unique.

ML: You've done some work for the “Big Two”, but have continued to publish independently. Do you have a strong DIY ethos? Are there benefits to doing it all yourself?

Vito: GREAT QUESTION! I don't know what the benefits are, meaning, I'm not sure how to sell anyone on doing it all themselves. But personally, I am very hands on. I like to put together projects from the ground up. I'm either a great editor in training or a huge control freak...haven't figured it out yet.

ML: How do you find the right artist for a project? Do you write with an artist in mind? Or do you find your artist after the script's complete?

Vito: Generally, I come up with ideas first. After that, I'll seek out an artist. I won't do any scripting on it until I get a design sheet. I feel like this: comics are a collaboration, and there are two owners to every property; the writer and the artist. I like to have input on the look of the character, and I love getting input on the script. Once I get a character design, then I get excited for the idea, which is now an intellectual property. This sounds weird, but once I can see the character, I can "see" him/her inside and out and really get their voice down. It's like writing a script for Matt Damon and Jude Law gets cast. Once that happens, you have to do a rewrite or two. For me, I want to cast my character first and then get to work. Hollywood could never do that.

ML: Your writing for the big two includes stories for Batman, The X-Men, and Superman. Any more “Big Two” writing in your future?

Vito: Not in the foreseeable future. For one, they're not exactly calling me and offering me work and also, I'm having a lot more fun doing my own things these days. As a creator, I feel like I can do really good work, maybe even great work, but for it to have impact, the work has to be on my own characters. This is because the Big Two have shareholders, and lawyers, and big corporate structures that only care about developing IP's and at that point, the creators are exchangeable. I don't think you can have a Walt Simonson Thor run today because the business doesn't work like that anymore. Creativity isn't limited, but there is a ceiling. Vertigo has it right with Fables, Scalped and a few others. Brubaker/Phillips' books at Marvel are close, too. I love a lot of Marvel and DC characters, but I want to do stories that last...indelible stories that can't be written away by the new hotness. The only way to do that is to do it on my own.

ML: I recall a Superman story you wrote that was supposed to be coming out in Superman Confidential. That title went through seismic disturbances before it was canceled. It must have been an emotional roller coaster, seeing the book solicited, pulled, solicited again, title canceled... yikes! The happy ending is the story saw print as Superman #676. What was it like watching that play out?

Vito: Depressing and that's putting it mildly. I was happy with Superman Confidential. To me, that was a great book for a guy at my level. A great proving ground that, with fingers crossed, might have led to bigger and better. But ultimately, the story was canceled...and then the book. So, imagine you wrote something, got paid, and it never came out. To most, who cares? You got paid, right? But to me, I'm trying to build a career, so I'd rather give the money back to see the book in print. And as a result, you question whether or not you're any good...maybe you should quit. I had a lot of people, friends and even the editor, talk me off the ledge. When the book was resolicited as Superman, it was a pyrrhic victory because, if anything, it signaled my last ever work at DC.

ML: What writers are you into? Who inspires you creatively? Music? Movies? TV?

Vito: James Ellroy, Donald Westlake, Lawrence Block...a lot of crime writers. Greg Rucka, Dan Slott, Mark Waid, Kurt Busiek, James Robinson...one of the highlights of that Superman comic is that I fall between Kurt and James, so I got that going for me. Frank Darabont...anything he does is gold to me. Music, I'm all over the place, so I can't even start, but suffice it to say, I have a very full iPod. All my artists inspire me greatly, too. I see their work, and I want to write.

ML: Looking ahead... What do you foresee in the future for comics?

Vito: For me? Getting out before I become crankier. For the industry? A shift to a monthly graphic novel model with webcomics being the new monthly. That's just a guess.

ML: Speaking of the future... FCHS is out in November, but more importantly it's available for pre-order right now... How important is pre-ordering?

Vito: EXTREMELY. A lot of folks don't realize that fans don't order comics, retailers do. And no one wants to spend money unwisely. So retailers really do live and die on pre-orders when it comes to books like FCHS.

Do you know there was a time when Previews wasn't a publicly consumed monthly magazine? That only retailers got it? So, think about this for a second...the power has been given to the consumer, in a way.

You, whoever you are reading this, can look though a retailer's catalog, point to something on page 200 and say, "I want that, Mr. Retailer." You fill out a short form and two months later, in most cases, that order is filled, you pay for your item (or if you paid up front, pick up), and you go home happy.

For the folks looking to order FCHS, I created a short order form (.pdf) for them to fill out and take to their local comic shop , so I've brought you one step closer to getting the book. This really is the most important step in the process, right there with the actual order being placed. Telling your retailer you want something isn't enough...you have to show them.

ML: Where online can people go to find out more about you and your work... besides the Wikipedia page?

Vito: www.incogvito.com or vitodelsante.com! I'm "incogvito" on Twitter, and I have a Facebook and a MySpace page, so you can find me. I once gave my number out on Facebook, around the time of Superman #676 and someone called me! They didn't believe I'd do that!

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