Badr Milligan 0:00

In this episode of the short box.

Hank Kanalz 0:02

I was moving a file cabinet last year and I came across the paperwork that we filed to start Image Comics. And I found a couple other early iterations of the logo. Rob had the idea of a big giant eye, and um we had a couple iterations. And I have this distinct memory of Eric Larson's comment on one of the versions.

Badr Milligan 1:20

This is episode 515, and today I'll be joined by Hank Kanalz. He's the publisher of Clover Press. Now, if you're unfamiliar with Clover Press, Clover Press is a boutique publisher based out of San Diego, California. They're most known for their prestigious art books, which, if you're watching the video version, I've got the Mike Del Mundo one here on display. Beautiful piece of artwork right there. But yeah, they're most known for their uh very nice, prestigious art books, which celebrate the artwork of some of the biggest names in comics like Mike Del Mundo, Tyler Kirkham, David Mack, they got a Jorge Jimenez art book, and a whole bunch more. But they also offer a wide selection of comic books too, like Kevin Eastman's Totally Twisted Tales, they also have a bunch of premium hardcover collections like Milton Kniff's Terry and the Pirates, they also have the entire Amazing Spider-Man Classic newspaper comics as collected editions as well. And speaking of the company's connection to Marvel, it was announced over the summer that Clover Press would be bringing back Marvel Masterworks, which is Marvel's longest-running line of premiere hardcover collections. Marvel had uh abruptly canceled the line last year in 2025, much to the dismay and disappointment of many longtime collectors. But no worries, Clover Press, they're here to save the day. We'll talk to Hank about what fans can expect from this new run of Marvel Masterworks and the first wave of books that will feature the uncanny X-Men, Supervillain Team Up, the Mighty Thor, and the Tomb of Dracula. But before we get into that, big shout outs to our sponsor and supporters, including Gotham City Limit Comic Shop. It's not only my local comic shop, but it's the longest running sponsor of the podcast. It's also the best comic shop in Northeast Florida. If you live in Jacksonville, you can go visit them today on Southside Boulevard. But if you don't live in the area, or maybe you're like, yo, gas is way too expensive to be driving anywhere, good news, you can buy comics from them online at GothamCityLimit.com. And I want to give a special heartfelt shout out to the loyal supporters over on the short box Patreon. Thank you to all the Patroni homies for your support. Thank you for helping me keep the lights on here at Short Box HQ. If you enjoyed the show and you want to be counted among the short box elite, well consider becoming a short box patroni at patreon.com slash the short box. Once again, that's patreon.com slash the short box. If you like the show and you want to help me keep it going and growing, check it out. Thank you so much in advance. Now, without further ado, let's bring on our guest of honor today, calling in all the way from LA is the publisher of Clover Press, Hank Kanalz. Hank, what up? Welcome to the show. Hey, how are you? I'm doing well.

Hank Kanalz 3:51

Thanks for having me.

Badr Milligan 3:52

Hey, hey, I am excited to uh have you on the show. I uh told you before we hit record that your name carries weight, man. You got a really good reputation. I won't say uh I'll reveal later on uh some of the things I've heard about you, but a lot of good stuff. Uh you got an interesting history in the uh the world of comics.

Hank Kanalz 4:09

Looking forward to it.

Badr Milligan 4:10

Hell yeah. Now, Hank, uh I'm gonna start off by saying, just full transparency for the listeners, okay? We are recording this episode on Thursday, October 15th. The the kickstarting for the Marvel Masterworks uh uh campaign is actually coming to an end at like at midnight tonight. And you guys have crushed, smashed, whatever adjective you want to use, the original goal you guys had of the modest $10,000 to bring this project to life by, and I had to Google this, all right. According to Google, you guys have smashed this, the original goal by 2600%. Yeah, raising over $277,000 for this campaign. I think it goes without saying, people are excited about more Marvel Masterworks, right? People want their masterworks for sure. Is there any plans to extend the campaign for any longer or add extra bonus items? And uh I guess any plans to help the folks out that might have like were a little too late to the campaign.

Hank Kanalz 5:10

Sure. I mean, like for the longest time, people would always ask, when does the campaign end? When does it end? And without fail, literally an hour after it ends, we get the email of, oh my gosh, I missed the ending. Is there any way we can still back this? Um, so Kickstarter, um, I I want to say it was last year, have uh they've added what's called late pledges. Oh so you know, it it would be great if everybody who's listening to this, if uh they're interested, uh, they can still go and they can still pledge. Uh obviously we would love people to pledge uh during the campaign, and then you know, prices do go up when the campaign's done. But uh, but yeah, you you still have an opportunity to to go and and back uh back this campaign in case you missed it. That is like the the biggest challenge is getting the word out, right? Like letting people know that this exists.

Badr Milligan 5:55

Yeah, for sure. And it feels like with the the rise of Kickstarter and things like Backer Kit and Zoop and all of these kind of uh uh crowdfunding campaigns, it is a lot to keep track of. You know, like I there's been a couple of campaigns where I've narrowly missed the deadline, or I've missed the deadline completely, and now I'm like, well, I hope they can come out, you know, for something for us late bloomers. Um but that's awesome to hear. Uh for anyone that is interested in this, I will have a link to the uh Kickstarter campaign in the show notes. You can also just go to Kickstarter.com and search Clover Press. It should be among the first things you find. Now, with that out of the way, Hank, I wanna I wanna I wanna test your Marvel Masterworks knowledge because that's something I heard about you is that you've got a lot of information stored in that brain of yours. I wanna I wanna hit you with some trivia, all right? Let's just play some trivia. Your first question: When was the Marvel Masterwork line started? 40 years ago. Nice, or 1987, actually. Next year will be the 40th anniversary. There we go. Ding ding ding. Insane. I remember like what was your first uh this is not a part of the trivia, but uh now I gotta ask, what was your first memory of the Marvel Masterworks? Like, what was your first instance of of learning about for me?

Hank Kanalz 7:03

It was the X-Men. That was the the so I I saw them coming out, of course. That that was uh it came out at the height of my collecting years, like you know, so I was the rabid fan, still amp, but um spying everything because you could buy everything that was coming out, and then for me, you know, the my my my two hot uh series were X-Men and Titans, right? Titans at DC. So uh when the Masterworks for X-Men came out, I I had picked up a couple of back issues for X-Men, but it was great to have it all collected in one book, in one hardcover book.

Badr Milligan 7:34

Nice. I was trying to uh I was looking at my Amazon history and then my my Gmail because I was like, what was the you know, what are some of the Marvel masterworks I've bought and the only thing that was returned? And I know I think I've bought a few of them in person, not online, because I think those are the like perfect books to find at like used bookstores or secondhand shops, you know, like it's a great way of just and they're usually like pretty cheap. One of my earliest memories is buying the Silver Surfer Masterworks, and I think I was like a broke college kid, so all I could afford was the trade paperback version, not the nice, you know, deluxe hardcover one. So yeah, it's nice that you can you can you have a chance to upgrade now. Yeah, for sure. Okay, uh back to trivia. I got one more, I got two more questions for you. What was the first volume of the Marvel masterwork that was released? Oh, I should know that.

Hank Kanalz 8:22

Uh it wasn't it uh wasn't it Fantastic Four? That was actually volume two. Okay, Spider-Man.

Badr Milligan 8:28

There we go. Amazing Spider-Man Volume One. It collected uh his first appearance, and then I think the first 10 issues of uh uh Amazing Spider-Man. Uh so we'll give you half a point on that one, and then last but not least, hang how many volumes in total have been released since the inception of the Marvel Masterwork line up until obviously last year? 389. So crazy. When I learned 389, that is insane.

Hank Kanalz 8:55

It is nuts, and um, there are people if if you take a minute and go through the comments uh on our campaign, it's an amazing community. It's so engaged and so excited about our continuing. But there are people who have all 389 of them. Wow. Um, whether it's the regular version or the marble, the variant marble editions that they did. Love that. Um and then of course you you read the the comments of like, I've got 380 of them. I'm just missing nine. And so they have their checklist of the ones that they're missing. Yeah, and they're hoping we go we go back to press and reprint them. Because some of them on the secondary market, yes, you can get some very cheap, but some of them are super expensive.

Badr Milligan 9:33

I was just about to ask what what are some of the like really hard to find or out-of-print ones that that are always on. What comes up all the time is X-Men, right?

Hank Kanalz 9:40

Those are the ones that are really expensive and hard to find. But yeah, it's uh people are people are going crazy for it. So we're we're here for it. We're here for it all.

Badr Milligan 9:47

Hell yeah. I I will say I feel like hardcover, I think collected edition collectors are on a different scale when it comes to like the passion they have for like you know, filling out their collection, making sure that they've got them all. You know, I think uh you see in a lot of like those type of forums and threads how serious they get when even like the spine art changes or the numbering is different, the typeface is different. I do love the passion behind the collectors of things, you know, of series like Marvel Masterworks.

Hank Kanalz 10:16

Yeah, no, it drives me nuts. If you're collecting a long ser a long-term series, the spines have to match, they gotta line up as best as possible. Now, there's gonna be a little bit of variance when you know when you change printers or the paper stock changes, because you know, people we run out of a certain kind of paper, so you gotta change paper stock. But um, to overtly design the spine to be different drives me crazy. So that's something we're pretty passionate, Clover about keeping spines looking good.

Badr Milligan 10:45

Yeah. Hank, I mentioned uh uh your title at Clover Press is Publisher for the layman out there. What does a publisher do? And and I'm also curious, like, you know, I mentioned we're recording on Thursday. What is a tip about, like, what have you done this week? Like, uh what's this week been like?

Hank Kanalz 10:59

Well, I came back from New York Comic-Con, and uh a lot of what we do is, you know, this week in particular, we're setting print runs for some of the books that are going to press. Um, so we're reviewing some uh books, they're called Make Readies that the printer makes to show us that they're ready to go to press. Like a proof. And it's for it's a proof, right? It's uh the the page orders are correct, the cropping is good, uh, the colors looking pretty spot on. Uh so we go through that and then we give the okay to print. So that's a big chunk. Um at Clover, you know, we're we're a little smaller than your bigger houses, and so we wear many hats. So one of the things that I work on are like the surveys that we put out for our campaigns, our Kickstarter campaigns. We're also uh putting the final details together for our next campaigns that are gonna be following Masterworks. So we've got uh three that are in the works that are coming up fairly soon. So we got to get going finishing those campaigns, and then we've got to make sure that all the other trains are are running. And if if they're not running on time, that they're uh getting back on schedule and back on track.

Badr Milligan 12:05

Were you at San Diego Comic Con? I was. Okay, I think I might have missed you when uh when I was at your booth. I had a chance to meet uh your colleague Zach. Um and he convinced me, and he he sold me on that, I ended up buying it, but the amazing Spider-Man Pocketbook Facsimile, volume one, which I liked it. Oh, you're grabbing it? Oh yeah. I ended up reading that whole thing uh in one sitting at on a recent beach trip I took. Oh yeah, it's awesome. This is I think, folks, I think this might be one you uh if for my audio listeners, this might be one yet you want to watch the video version. I've got a couple of uh props, and it sounds like Hank's got a couple things within his arm's reach. But um, yeah, that pocketbook facsimile is awesome. Like to take the amazing Spider-Man news strips, which I'm kind of like, I've always seen the nice hardcovers that I think IDW put out a few years ago. I've always seen those at like my favorite secondhand store. Um, but it's like a blind spot I got. So, and now that, but I'm not gonna bring a giant hardcover to the beach, but that was perfect to put in my bag. I knocked it out in one sitting. I found the the structure, just the way that you guys composed. You know, you took this this naturally horizontal newspaper strip, and the way you guys just kind of messed around with the uh the the placement and how in a more you know uh this pocketbook format was really interesting. I'm like, I I'm really feeling this. Yeah, you buy another one? Because we've got another one coming. Here's the thing I like this so much. I ended up gifting this to a buddy of mine because I was like, I know I love this, he's going to love this even more. So actually, I need to buy volume one and two when it comes out to replace the one I gave. Uh that's how Cesar, that's how much I love you, brother. All right, you got my only copy. But um now that's great to hear, man. So uh you you had mentioned the campaigns. I guess tell me more about the decision to leverage Kickstarter um and campaigns rather than like, you know, uh going the direct market route and and just printing books, you know, at a certain cap and level. I think I I read in an interview you meant you said something to the effect of like you view campaigns more like a promise or something to that effect. Can you speak to that?

Hank Kanalz 14:10

Well, uh it if if we do a campaign, we've already committed to doing the book. So if you know whether or not the campaign succeeds doesn't matter, we're gonna do the book. But the the the big plus about the campaign is it helps get the word out and it really does help raise the funds that it takes to do uh uh books of this nature. The books that that we create and and publish aren't cheap, they're you know they're higher end. So the campaign really helps literally kickstart a project for us. Something like Marvel Masterworks, though, they've got such an intense fan base. Uh people were just so upset, downright pissed when uh when Marvel put the line on hiatus. And um one of the Clover founders, Ted Adams, uh he has all 389 of these books. And he just he happened to mention, he goes, you know, obviously it's not working for Marvel at the numbers that they're doing. Um it doesn't make sense for them to continue it, but a book that doesn't work for them could still work for us. We should we should look and see if they'd be interested in letting us take it on. So uh I sent I sent a note out over to Marvel asking if they would ever consider our taking that over. And uh they responded right away and they said it's it's like so funny you sent this email because we were just talking about finding a home for Masterworks, and we were wondering if Clover Press would be interested in in taking it on. Because up until that point, we've been doing the Marvel art books, and uh and they've been liking those books. Uh so it was really a great match uh and a great uh set of timing circumstances to uh to start working on this project. We like to do books that we like to see, and this is uh a perfect example because you know, uh Ted and I, you know, more more so Ted with his complete collection and then the rest of us with the sporadic purchases over the years, love these books. We're we're we're book snobs, right? Um so we like the format and we wanted to continue. Uh so it worked out.

Badr Milligan 16:08

I want to uh talk about you the decision to start the line off with the four titles you announced, but but really quick, just for in case someone is like, man, the why does it why does Marvel Masterworks sound so familiar? Can you can you in your words, what separates Marvel Masterworks apart from the numerous other lines and collections and hardcovers that collect vintage Marvel comics?

Hank Kanalz 16:29

So so it collects the release of the comics in the actual order that they came out at the time and uh doesn't skip anything, and they put it in a format that is digestible as far as story arcs and the months that are collected in the book, and they take the opportunity to upgrade the quality of the reproduction materials. So whereas some other books might just be a scan from an old book or um not printed on the greatest paper, or you know, a collection might be missing a couple key issues that were released but didn't really fit for that collection, so they they they chopped them out. This is complete, it's for the completest, and it's gonna be the highest fidelity reproduction possible. So, in some cases, we'll reshoot the art from the originals if we have access to them. We have a squad of uh re-chutchers and remasters that work with the original material like right at hand so they can match it as close as possible. And you know, given given the kind of work that we do with our other lines, it kind of holds up to what we want to do, which is preserve some of this uh material for future generations. Um preserve them in a tangible, uh, high-quality format.

Badr Milligan 17:48

I think that's the part of all of this that intrigues me the most is the archival aspect and how there is so much I I know there's like a few names in the industry that you know a lot of people like you know vouch for in terms of like, yo, this is the guy when it comes to preserving artwork, scanning, and you know, taking original art and and you know making it digital. Who is doing that for Clover Press for Marvel Masterworks? Who's the guy?

Hank Kanalz 18:12

So for Masterworks, it's Corey Saddlemyer. Um he's been the guy who's been working on the Masterworks at Marvel for the last 20 years, probably, maybe probably longer, uh, but at least 20 years. And so he's been doing a fantastic job. There's no reason to change that. Uh, we want to maintain the quality. And uh and Corey has some ideas to even increase and improve upon the quality. So we're working on incorporating those ideas into the line.

Badr Milligan 18:35

Hank, have you had a chance to like uh I don't know, like uh hold uh see the the original like art? Like I'm just curious, what's it like getting to work with the archival material, the original art? Like, does anything jump out at you that maybe you wouldn't have noticed it had it been in like you know, a trade or something like that?

Hank Kanalz 18:51

Uh you know, it's it's interesting because the the the original art for the era that we're working on right now, you know, it's it's been decades, so there's been a you can see the aging um on the art. So it doesn't look like it did when it was originally shot for the books. But the cool thing about what we can do now is that we can scan the art and then digitally adjust the levels. And um the the cool part, sort of like when you see on the artist editions, is seeing how the balloons have been pasted up, or in many cases were actually um lettered on uh on the artboard, and then the artist will will work around the balloons, looking at the corrections that have been made, um, whether that's an artist's mistake or an editorial change, and seeing how they take the art and stat it, and then they paste it in and then they uh make it look seamless. Um it's not so seamless on the originals. But uh but when you shoot it and then shrink it down and then uh recolor it, it's it's as if you were back in 1985 working on this book. That's awesome. That's that's been great. But that said, uh you know, Corey's team is spread out around the world, and so uh everything kind of gets farmed out, and then it all gets brought together by Corey, and he puts the books together and turns them in.

Badr Milligan 20:12

Ultron, I like hearing that. That's awesome. I can only imagine how the quality, the the specs on these cameras they're using to like, you know, shoot these at these images. That is that's gotta be something to watch. Yeah, it's real nice. You know what? Uh uh have you ever been to original art expo? No, I've heard a lot about it, the one in Florida, right? Yeah, Hank, you gotta come down. I went to it for the first time this year. Um, I think it was only their second show ever, or maybe third or something like that. But everything you're saying, like, yeah, that's like the the that is what I left with, you know, uh having to I've never seen this much art, original art in one place. And so, you know, like accessible. Like, you know, they're letting you handle it and flip through bins, and you know, like to your point, it was crazy to see like these splash page, I forget what the technical term is like blue chip or or blue something, uh or blue line, I forget what it was called, but getting to see, like you mentioned, like where they've uh whited out like a word balloon and they've slapped on a new one or they've inked over it, like it just makes me appreciate the the texture, you know. It gives it like an extra sense of texture and life and history, you know what I'm saying? The yellow wing. It's yeah, original comic art is so awesome to see in person.

Hank Kanalz 21:23

Yeah, that's so that's uh because of that, that reaction that you have. Uh one of the things that we added to the campaign are some original art reproductions. So uh it it's you know, it's it's the next best thing to holding and having the original art, is a replica of that art. Some some key pieces, which is pretty cool.

Badr Milligan 21:43

All right, I want to get into the uh the the four titles y'all will announce so far. If you don't mind, walk me through the decision to start this new line of Marvel Master, which sounds like a very seamless transition. You you got the OG that was on there uh that did the original run. Now he's working with you guys to bring this to life. You got the first way. That you guys announced uh is X-Men, Thor, Tuma Dracula, and Super Villain uh team up. Why start with those four?

Hank Kanalz 22:07

So uh when you hear it, you'll be like, oh, that makes total sense. X X-Men, super popular series. This is the Claremont Jim Lee that kicks off their arc. This is the March to X-Men number one, the best-selling comic book of all time. Um we had to start with that, right? Um, supervillain team up, very Doctor Doom related, um, coming out right around Avengers Doomsday. So everyone's thinking about Doctor Doom. That was a great new volume one that's kind of done in one, so it's not like we're committing to a brand new series because it's complete in this book. It's over 500 pages. Wow. Amazing. Then uh Tomb of Dracula. Uh it was important to commit to finishing some of the series that Marvel started. Uh, I think one of the things that most everyone was uh most upset about when the line went on hiatus was, you know, I have five volumes of Dracula, I only need one more volume. Yeah. Please, right? Can't you just do this one volume? And uh the answer is yes. So we're doing that volume. And then uh the last one was Thor. And uh again, you're in the middle of probably the most iconic run on the title and the character, Walter Simonson's Thor. It set the standard for all things Thor for years after. Uh, you see his design work and his story elements in the movies. Um, everybody who works on Thor or uses Thor, um that's their that's their Bible, right? Uh their multi- multi-volume Bible. So we couldn't just leave that hanging. So it was a good mix, I think, um, of a you know, a little bit of new, a little bit of uh current, and then just committing to and helping folks tap off their collections.

Badr Milligan 23:50

I love hearing that. I love hearing that you guys are putting the collectors first, like the folks that have been with it uh day one or you know, uh whatever, have 20 volumes or whatever it may be that you guys are thinking about them and their bookshelves and helping them, you know, reach a satisfying ending while also offering, you know, something new with supervillain team up. Right. I gotta say, now that I think about it, I've purchased my dad probably a lot of Marvel Masterworks, specifically the Fantastic Four ones. But hearing you save Marvel Supervillain uh team up makes me think about the Marvel Essentials. I don't know if you ever got into those, but those were my gateway into comic books. They were like really cheap to buy. No one else, I think, was buying the, you know, I was like 15 years old reading Marvel, like reading old Marvel, everyone else is reading like image and stuff. Um so I've got a very like uh uh I don't know. Supervillain team up was actually a book I recently bought my dad in the last five years. And he was like, wait a minute, they collected this? This people actually remember this. Now I can't wait to tell him, Oh, now you get this prestigious uh hardcover. Yeah. Now um you said the word committed, and I gotta give you props, uh really Clover Press props for the commitment to making this line successful. The the campaign says that you guys are not only releasing one variant set, but like a total of three. You got the the the standard uh uh Marvel Masterwork set, you got their classic variant set, which I'm a huge fan of that variant set. Something about like the mass head, uh, you know, the way that they shrink the main image. There's something very classic to it. But you guys are also doing giving your own spin to it and offering uh something kind of unique uh uh to this set. Uh can you speak to what's the new thing, the main kind of big draw that you guys are doing? Sure.

Hank Kanalz 25:30

So we have the clover edition, and you know, we we recognize that the people who have been collecting these are not gonna switch over to the clover edition right away. Eventually, we hope they will, but we know that they want to collect in in the format they had. So we wanted to offer that to them. Uh again, the super vocal fandom is the the marble, the marble marbles. Uh, those are the variant ones, and they they had decided to start their series with that style because they loved it so much. Um, but 40 years, that's that's a long time for the same trade dress. So we're gonna continue that, but we wanted to introduce something new for new readers. We wanted something that a new reader could jump in on and call their own and and decide to commit to that clover edition. So when we go back and reprint some of these uh 389 volumes, some of the ones that are out of print, when we go back to press, we'll still offer the original and the and the variant, but we'll also offer the clover edition so that people can start building their clover collection. But on top of that, uh something that hasn't been done up until now, too, is we'll be offering signed editions. So each one of these volumes will have a key person involved in the book signing the book itself. So you've got Chris Claremont signing the X-Men, you've got Marv Wolfman signing Tomb of Dracula, you've got Walter Simonson signing Thor, and uh you've got uh Steve Engelhart signing um Super Hill and Team Up. So uh a really cool feature uh that's an opportunity, and that'll be offered in our slipcase. So one of the things that we really love to do with Clover are slipcase editions. They just, you know, they class up a book in your bookshelf just that much more. Uh so we have a line of slipcases that our clover edition will slip into. Uh it should only get on the Kickstarter or through Clover Press.

Badr Milligan 27:22

Can I ask uh the Clover Editions look awesome? I I I I love the composition, like especially like this X-Men one, how Storm's Head is just right above like that banner. Who who did that who designed these? That's all Robbie Robbins. He's our he's our uh founder and designer. He is extremely talented. Uh I love that it, like I said, that you guys are uh are committed to the OG fans while also offering something like brand new. Like these are very striking, very well designed. Like, very big fan of these. Yeah, Robbie did a great job. He's a fantastic designer.

Hank Kanalz 27:53

How big is the Clover Press team? So, you know, we've got we've got uh we've got a few people in in our San Diego office. I'm up in Los Angeles, uh, and then we have uh two folks in Canada, one in Vancouver and one in Toronto. So we're sort of spread out too.

Badr Milligan 28:08

So I guess when did you get involved with Clover Press?

Hank Kanalz 28:11

So I think they founded Clover in 2019. Uh uh Ted and Robbie, who had founded IDW, uh, left IDW and started Clover Press when I was at DC. So I was at DC in 2019, and I remember Ted reaching out um to talk about a rights issue for something that they wanted to take on at Clover. So I helped them with that. And um they put out their first book uh in March of 2020, uh, the same week that essentially the world was shut down because of COVID, right? Yeah. So fantastic timing. Couldn't do anything about that. And then I was laid off from DC and sent word around that I was looking for work, and uh the guys at Clover were like, hey, would you be interested in in joining up? And uh we had a couple chats and it worked out really well. We got along super well, and I started in May of 2021. So it's you know, it's been five years. It sure doesn't feel like it, but it's been five years and it's been great.

Badr Milligan 29:15

I gotta say, man, uh, you know, I I think, like you said, it's it's very particular timing to launch a brand new publisher and then the world shuts down. But I think it speaks more so to what you guys are doing in the path that, you know, the reception that you guys, you know, survived that trial by fire. That could have gone like completely different. I know a a ton of uh businesses and indie publishers that went under because of that, but you guys are still around. And I mean, the amount of I mean, the the the the website, I'm like, holy shit, there's a whole different section over here. I had no idea that you guys were also publishing your own comics. You got your own imprint. Um, I guess uh I guess could you speak a little more about some of the other things that that you guys offer as well? I mean, I'll we'll definitely talk about the art books here in a sec, but what what are some of the other, I guess, things that people might not be familiar or associate Clover Press with?

Hank Kanalz 30:02

Sure. No, so we have uh we have a few creator-owned projects that we're quite proud of. The most recent one, which is also uh on Kickstarter right now, is uh Cal McDonald by Steve Niles. Uh and you know, Steve goes uh way back with Ted and Robbie with Thirty Days of Night, and uh Cal McDonald has been a property that he's worked on off and on over the last several decades. And so he had a prose novel that he wanted to put out and came to us uh asking if we would take that on. And uh we're huge fans of Steve and his work, and so that was a no-brainer for us. And we've done some other prose books. Uh, we we have a book called Diablo House, which is kind of like our House of Secrets, House of Mystery kind of book. Um, and that's another prose book. Also a graphic novel that was published through IDW. So we, you know, we've been dabbling in that horror space uh for a little bit, uh something that we all kind of dig. At Clover, you know, we pretty much, I think I said this already, we we want to publish books that we like to read and publish books that we want to see on our shelf, right? So we're we're fans at heart, and so that guides a lot of our decisions on what we uh end up publishing. But uh we have another OGN coming out this uh December. Uh I I Love Apocalyptic Zombie Misfits, and that's by uh Doug Wagner and Daniel Hilliard.

Badr Milligan 31:23

Doug Zagner.

Hank Kanalz 31:24

Those are the guys who do uh plastic and vinyl and narco over at Image. Yep. Uh this is a great book. It's uh it's at its heart it's a family road trip kind of book, but it's uh disguised uh with with uh zombies and um monsters and shapeshifters, and uh they're being hunted uh uh across across the land. Uh so that's a fantastic read. And then we've got uh a couple other books coming up. Oh, another one, uh Till Death, which is another horror, uh kind of a romantic horror story uh by Michael Schwartz and uh Rachel Schaeffer, and uh art by Gia Cardinale. Uh that one's coming out in December as well. Uh it's it's another horror OGN. We've tried periodicals, it's just uh periodicals really aren't uh uh the right fit for us right now. Sure. So uh we're we're sticking with books.

Badr Milligan 32:20

So if I'm not mistaken, you guys uh did you guys are I know you guys are putting out the hardcover collection of this series, but was Bear Pirate Viking Queen published through Clover Press or just the hardcover?

Hank Kanalz 32:32

It will be so it's not it's not out yet. Uh so we'll be doing a Kickstarter for a deluxe hardcover edition of that. So good gravy. I mean, Sean's story is amazing, but the artwork, oh yeah, um the watercolors is insane. They're insane, so it really deserves a larger format, in our opinion. Um and those those guys have been fantastic in letting us take that on. But we're we're also gonna be previewing their next series, uh Samurai in in the collected edition. Um so you don't want to miss that one.

Badr Milligan 33:03

Hank, how many uh uh Kickstarter campaigns uh do you have under your belt at this point?

Hank Kanalz 33:08

We probably lost count. We're probably we're probably approaching 40. Wow. 40.

Badr Milligan 33:14

And I mean I'm I'm assuming all of them successful, have met their goal, uh, you know, went into overtime, all that good stuff. Do you have any I guess any any tips? I guess I guess what what's the biggest uh uh how different is your approach to Kickstarter now versus you know Kickstarter campaign one? Oh goodness gracious.

Hank Kanalz 33:33

So uh I would say it's interesting. So so we used to do the whole thing with the stretch goals, and um uh we we put a lot of stress on ourselves by uh uh setting super high goals that you know if if we didn't reach, then the campaign wouldn't fund, right? Um and we'd always reach it, but a whole lot of stress. So we've we figured out that it's let's take that stress off and not worry about the stretch goals and just put together the best possible campaign with the best possible tiers so that everyone who hits that page will will say, okay, I'm committed. Like if if if we can capture their attention, then we want to make sure that there's something on the campaign. Uh there's a tier for everybody, right? So there's a tier for someone who just wants to experiment. Marvel Mashworks is a great example. You can just buy one one of the books. But when you offer four books, that makes fulfillment like exponentially more complicated because there's gonna be a ton of different combinations of of what people are are gonna be backing. But if you're a hardcore collector, you also have like the top tier, which is you know it's a thousand dollar tier. So we don't expect everyone to back that tier, but there are uh many people who do. So there's something for everyone. Uh it doesn't matter what your budget is. Uh, same thing with the with a a non-masterworks kind of campaign. You you can just get a digital PDF of the story, or you can get the top-of-the-line book offering with all the autographs and all the prints and all the stickers and all the extra stuff. Yeah, yeah. Um, so you have the whole range. So I think that's how it's changed. I think in the past we would get into our own heads and overthink things. And I think I think we're much more streamlined now, and I think it shows when you scroll through a campaign. It's it's a very easy to follow thing.

Badr Milligan 35:38

Yeah, I gotta say, this one was it was real easy to follow. It sounds like you guys have uh it sounds like you specifically have have gotten more confident with all the reps and uh the different campaigns. Um, Hank, a random question for you. What's your favorite format to read uh comics in? Floppy, trade, hardcover, omnibus, oversized collected edition, treasury? I don't know. What's your favorite?

Hank Kanalz 35:58

I as a kid I love the treasuries, there's just something magical. Yeah, yeah. And I was I was smaller because I was a kid. So that treasury was just like, oh my gosh. Yeah, and you look at them now, it's just like wow, it's they they don't look as big as I remember them being when I was little. But I I I like the hardcover. Um, I I like the durability of the hardcover and the size. I think, I mean, I I have I have several omni omnibi, uh, and those are not good for a rainy day to read in bed. Those are good for reading on a desk, right? Yeah, um, so the hardcover for me is the so I'll take the dust jacket off and then I'll read the hardcover. And then when I'm done, I put the dust jacket back on.

Badr Milligan 36:41

Yeah.

Hank Kanalz 36:42

And that's because I don't want to wear and tear my dust jacket.

Badr Milligan 36:45

I respect that, yeah. Yeah, you got to protect the dust jacket. They're like too delicate. And sometimes I like looking at the interior art, especially like when they think about the interior side of the dust jacket and they give you like an alternate uh art. I really like that. I'm also a treasury guy as well. And I'm staring at a couple of like, I don't know if the treasury is the right word, but what I guess it would be like the whenever they collect like Wednesday comics, I think they put out a really nice hardcover that was, I think, treasury size. I'm a big fan of the treasury size. You know, it's like it's bigger, it's not like uh you know, like it's I don't know, just something about same. There's just something about getting like the full scope of it. It feels like this is what the natural format for comics. Lately, though, I have been really getting into the compact line from DC. Um, as someone that's always on the go, whether I gotta go into the office or go into the beach, I do like the the the just I don't know, the compactability of something like a compact comic or just a trade too. I don't like to be too precious when I'm like reading.

Hank Kanalz 37:44

Yeah. Well, I mean, so those compact comics, those are those harken back to what were called the digests back in the day. And I had I had a I have a whole shelf of the DC Comics digests and uh similar size, thinner, and and we were looking at those uh when I was at DC about how we would bring those back, and it they eventually became the the compact comics. Um for me, because I got old man eyes, it's just a little small small for me. Yeah, yeah. But I like the transportability. And so what I what I liked about my DC digest, and what I like about these compacts, you can throw it in your backpack or your overnight bag, and that it's fun to to take that out and read it. And then you don't, for me at least, you don't care about if you know if it gets little dings or dented.

Badr Milligan 38:29

Same, it's ten dollars. It's like I'd buy a little one.

Hank Kanalz 38:32

Yeah, so uh so I love that because at its heart, you know, comics are meant to be read. And what while we love to create bespoke editions, we want comics to be read at the end of the day. So I'm a big supporter of Compaq Comics. I'm I'm certainly a big supporter of our own pocketbook. Yeah, and I'm glad you like those because we are planning on doing uh more of those. Though that one, if we can go back to that for a second, that is it's it's a facsimile because that was the actual book that was published in 1980 by Pocketbook. Exactly. Yeah, yeah, it's why it's called the Pocketbook. But they only did two of them, and I do think a lot of the appeal to that is the the trend with the Compaq Comics. It's it's a combination of the nostalgia of the material and the fact that it was a book that wasn't done in 1980. And so many people say, I still have my originals, right? But uh, we are planning on doing new ones, so they won't be facsimiles, but they'll be brand new, but they'll be collecting the strip material. Sure.

Badr Milligan 39:32

And I think uh and once again, it it's not only the format that I like, like the transportability, that's a great word, the transportability of it, but it's also the fact that you guys are doing well, I mean, I I know that this one is a facsimile, but I guess just the idea and and seeing like, oh, the decision, you know, I'm thinking about like the decision of like of the formatting. You're taking a horizontal newspaper strip and breaking it apart where it might be two pages on or two panels on one page or three or maybe one for the splash effect. You know, it's the closest we'll get to a splash page for a newspaper strip. I think that part to me is is the is the cool part. It's like, oh, this is the same but different. And you know, uh just the the artistic approach on breaking these up. So yeah.

Hank Kanalz 40:14

It it flows differently. Yes, it's the same material, but just flows differently.

Badr Milligan 40:18

Well said, yeah.

Hank Kanalz 40:19

Yeah.

Badr Milligan 40:19

All right, you know, Hank, I want to get into uh I want to take a break from asking you the questions and let some of my friends ask the questions. This is the part of the show I like to call the short box friends and family segment. Correct. Big go, big shout out. I love that sound drop. Okay, Hank, this is the part of the show where I shut up for a minute and I let someone else ask you the question. Because you are such a popular guy, I had uh no problem getting some voicemails from some uh folks that uh that you'll definitely recognize. Okay. So, with that being said, let's go ahead and queue up our first voicemail. I'll leave this as a surprise and reveal it at the end, but here we go. Here's your first one.

Tyler Kirkham 41:00

Hey, what's up, guys? Hank, what's going on, dude? This is Tyler Kirkham. How are you? Hey, just wanted to say uh, you know, thanks for for helping me get that art book put together. You know, I I remember meeting you the first time, and uh, you know, I was I know I was a little slow on getting you everything, but it was a fun ride. I love how it turned out. It was beautiful. You guys did a killer job. You guys have us definitely set a new standard for uh you know these art books and all the the rewards that come with them. From the prints to the stickers to everything. They're they're beautiful, beautifully done. The marketing's incredible. I'm I'm really looking forward to doing a DC book with you guys. So let's make that happen, anyways. Have fun on the uh on the podcast. That's awesome.

Badr Milligan 41:45

Tyler's awesome. He is. He's uh he was actually um uh here in Jack's doing a signing at Gotham City Limit. Um, and I seen him sign a bunch of these uh art books, which uh I was kinda uh my my local comic shop owner uh I think sold all of his, and he was kind enough to let me borrow his copy for this episode to have as a little prop. But man, one thing I didn't notice was this amazing, like like this red. Uh what do you call this? Like it's printed in this glossy red. Yeah, that's the gilded edge. Thank you. The gilded edge. It's yeah, I mean that the bookmark too is already like this little ribbon bookmark, hardcover, like uh nice size, so you can see all the details in the artwork. Yeah, this is a really good copy. Thank you. Uh, I guess let me ask you a question on this one. Uh, you know, Tyler mentioned wanting to do uh, and if there's anyone that has probably plenty of extra artwork to do a second art book, it'd be Tyler Kirkham. Um what makes an artist worthy of an art book, whether that be like the Marvel art of treatment or something else? Like, what do you guys look for in artist when you're considering, like, oh, let's, you know, work with him to do an art book?

Hank Kanalz 42:50

Yeah, you know, it's it's interesting because I had that conversation with a few artists at New York Comic-Con, and it's it's amazing to me how modest some of the most amazing artists can be, which which is the answer, right? It's like if you have artwork, if you are an artist whose art speaks to us and speaks to others, you know, the then you're in the running. Again, we make books that we want to see. So, you know, there's there is not a single book in the line uh that has artists that I don't love their art. The uh so first and foremost, that's the criteria, right? But you'll also notice we have such a variety of artists, because for me it's important that uh we have something for everyone. So we have folks who have committed to buying every single one of our art books, and then we have folks who just buy their favorites. And it's uh it's crazy to me uh how similar folks' tastes are in art, and then how diverse they are. So uh As we build the line, it was important to me and for our team that we have uh diversity in style, diversity in generations, and diversity to approach. You take a look at uh what David Mack does and what David Nakayama does in their night and day, but they have they both have huge fan bases, they're both incredible artists. Um, they both tell a story in a different way on the on their covers or their interior art. You know, what one is usually all 100% paint, the other one is usually all 100% digital, completely different approaches, but they're both amazing artists. So for me, it's the diversity, right? I I don't I didn't want a line of art books that were all the same kind of art. Um and I think we're succeeding in that. Oh, yeah. And and then, you know, we we get a lot of requests and we listen. So, you know, never think that we're ignoring you and we pay attention.

Badr Milligan 45:02

Who's been the most in-demand artist that you guys get constant, you know, uh requests for?

Hank Kanalz 45:07

Uh uh Peach Mamoko. Oh, yeah. That was all right there, yeah. Okay, I can see that. Absolutely, right? Uh Jim Lee, always on the list. Okay. Uh, but they uh but uh they just they just did uh a Jim Lee book. Uh we didn't do it, but uh uh Pug W did that book. Uh I get a lot of uh requests for George Paris. So rest in peace, yeah. You know, he's got you want you want to talk about uh uh body of work. He's probably got enough for two volumes uh for both Marvel and two volumes of DC. So uh so yeah, we're having a good time with that. Another thing, you know, we like to work with people who are um fun to work with, who are enjoyable to work with. So uh yeah, that's kind of an unspoken criteria, but I think it should be spoken more. There's so many nice people in our business, and so uh we love working with nice people.

Badr Milligan 46:00

Yeah, no, that's that that that'd be top of my priority list. So good to hear. Okay, uh let me move into let me play you another voicemail for you. So that was Tyler Kirk and big shout outs to Tyler. Here's another voicemail for you.

Ben Kingsbury 46:12

Hey, Hank, Ben Kay from Gotham City Limited Comic Shop down here in sunny Jacksonville, Florida. Thanks so much for taking some time to be here today. So, from a retailer perspective and a personal perspective, I'm I'm like the hair club president. I'm also a member too. I back a lot of the Clover Arts art press books on Kickstarter as well as stock them in the shop through the standard distribution centers. The bonus items are a big draw to Kickstarter for me. Uh, for example, I love the Tyler Kirkham puzzles and sticker packs and art prints that we got with the most recent Tyler Kirkham art books. However, as I'm sure you know for a business, putting that money down early on a Kickstarter does kind of stink from a cash flow perspective. Uh I wonder, have you guys ever considered producing some of those extras, those puzzles, those stickers, et cetera, uh, for retailers that we can purchase through the same distribution centers that carry the Clover ArtPress and other books you guys carry? Well, I'll leave you here to answer. Thank you so much for what you do. We literally couldn't do it without you. And remember, short box nation, I'll always take it to the limit. Peace.

Badr Milligan 47:23

There we go. Big shout out to Ben. Wow, he knows to work a podcast, doesn't he? Yeah. Yeah, he does. Look, he's the longest running sponsor of the show for a reason. I like working with him and he sends in great voicemails. Um, I especially love giving him the opportunity to approach any episode from a retailer perspective. Yeah. And that might be Hank, the most retailer-specific question I've ever asked him. Uh uh send in.

Hank Kanalz 47:45

Yeah, and so I I love that, by the way. And you know, he says he couldn't do it without us, we couldn't do it without him. So uh big shout out to Ben K and thank you. Um, that's a great question, right? So these extras that we do though, they they are meant to be incentives for the campaign. So um it it's a it's a different kind of arrangement we have with Marvel. And so we we have the rights to distribute the books and the portfolios into comic shops and into bookstores, but we don't have the rights to distribute stuff like the puzzles and the stickers and all that through the regular channels. So I I totally understand where he's coming from. Being a business that also depends on cash flow, uh, it's it's super hard for him to commit to that uh so far in advance. But the fact that he's interested in that is uh is something that I'll take note of and I'll see if we can't solve that problem for him in some way.

Badr Milligan 48:42

Hell yeah. I love hearing that. And you know what? Speaking about incentives and and you know, driving people to uh support the campaign, I do want to just quickly mention some of these amazing uh extras that you got for the Marvel Masterwork campaign. You guys have, I'm just kind of scrolling really quick. You guys have a gold pack that has seven six by nine prints by Jim Lee. He's got his Jim Lee X. I mean, that Colossus is awesome. Uh Jim Lee, John Bishima, Gene Cole, and Walter Simonson. You guys are offering these eight four by six fact files, which if they're printed in this format, it would be they look like uh what do you call it, like the comic book dividers, but they they're they're awesome. Uh, you guys have a sticker pack featuring the artwork by Jim Lee, Walter Simonson. I especially love the corner box sticker pack a lot. Um, you guys have buttons, you guys are making journals too. Those are my favorite. Those are die-cut journals. So the cover has a die cut in there, which pops out. I see it. That's awesome. You guys have a stationary set, a Marvel Masterwork stationary set. I think I need that the most because I'm always looking for a notepad. You guys have mini prints, you guys got a magnetic clasp collector's box. The list goes on. Like I could be here all day. Uh the original art reproduction prints, like you mentioned. Yeah, you guys got all your bases covered. Is that the fun part? It is.

Hank Kanalz 50:05

That box is so cool too because it holds all the extra stuff and it's about the same size as a masterworks. So it'll it'll sit on your shelf right next to your masterworks. That's cool. So damn. Oh, I mean, uh, did you see the the there's the double-sided puzzle too? It's a thousand-piece double-sided puzzle by Jim Lee. So it's got his original art on one side and then the final colored cover art on the other side. Oh, wait, is it this one where uh Havoc is in the back doing the X and no?

Badr Milligan 50:32

That's a walnut.

Hank Kanalz 50:33

No, it's the it's the one with Black Widow and Captain American Wolverine.

Badr Milligan 50:36

Oh, that's what the oh shit. I thought that was just a book. That's a double-sided puzzle. Holy wow. Dang, you guys got it made. I mean, it's like good, you guys got all the good stuff in here. All right, that's cool. Hopefully, yeah, I would be excited to see if you guys could offer these as standalone items. That'd be great. Big shout outs to Ben. All right, Hank, I got one more voicemail for you. I'm very excited to play you this one. Um, because uh this dude right here has has been your biggest champion for a while now. So let's go ahead and play this voicemail for you.

Mike Del Mundo 51:06

Yo, yo, what's up, Hank? Hope all is well. Really glad that you're on the short box show. Super dope show. I'm sure you're giving out all the deep dives and all the cool and crazy things from the from the image era. And I would say one crazy huge memory of just meeting you and knowing you is I never knew that you created the image logo. And that was wild. Like for the whole time, I never even questioned who did that logo, which was my bad. But the fact that you did that, man, it just it's just mind-blowing. So, one question I have was do you still have the sketch or the original image that you created for the logo or any of the thumbnails? That would be like super dope to see. Um yeah, man, that's that's my that's my question. And man, like if you could show that off on the show, that would be crazy. That'd be a gift. All right, brother.

Badr Milligan 52:05

Peace. That was Mike Del Mundo, the one and only. He's been on the show twice now, and every time he's mentioned, you know, just how dope it's been working with you. Um I guess I failed to mention too that you know in the intro that you you've got a long comic, you've already kind of like mentioned it, you know, working at DC uh and all that, but you've had a long comic, you know, history in comics prior to landing at Clover Press. You designing the eye was eye opening to me, no pun intended, but I got that shit off. Um I guess did you have any of the old thumbnails or like you know what it could have been?

Hank Kanalz 52:39

I probably have it in my files. Like, I I I mean I'd have to dig deep in there. I was moving a file cabinet last year and I came across the paperwork um that we filed to start Image Comics. Wow, so it was you have to file a DBA, a fictitious uh namestake business doing business as, right? Um so I found that paperwork and I found a I found a couple other early iterations of the logo. Um, you know, it uh Rob had the idea of a uh an eye, a big giant eye, and um we had a couple iterations, and I remember one version that I had knocked out. So I would design design a few things, fax them out, because this was back in the early 90s. So I'd fax them out to each of the image uh founders, and they'd fax back their comments, right? And uh I just I had this distinct memory of Eric Larson's comment on one of the versions, and he says that it looks like a soup can. And uh and it was it was a lot uh more narrow, um ugly. Uh it wouldn't work for uh for a logo, but uh you know, he just scribbles on the on the facts back, it looks like a soup can. Try again. So it you know, fax out another one. So I should I should dig those up and uh and find those.

Badr Milligan 54:00

That was a lot of fun. I learned today that uh that logo is one of the few intellectual properties that the company actually owns. I was like, wow, yeah, very interesting. And I guess I should mention, you know, like I said, I failed in the intro to mention there's just so much to talk about with Clover Press and the Marvel Masterworks. I guess I should mention, you've mentioned, you know, you worked at DC. Uh, I'm just looking at your Wikipedia. It credits you as at one point senior vice president of Vertigo uh and integrated publishing at DC Comics. You were the general manager of the Wild Storm brand for DC Comics. Uh, it mentions, you know, uh you designed the eye, that's here in your in your Wikipedia. You wrote various comics for publishers such as DC and especially Malibu Comics. And uh news to me, but you were contributed dialogue and lettering for the first issue of Image's first published comic, Rob Liefeld's Youngblood. I didn't do the lettering. That was uh lettering was Diane Valentino, uh Jim Valentino's wife. That's why you can't believe everything you see on Wikipedia. That's right. Yeah, it was the dialogue for sure. Yeah. Man, I I I guess what's your earliest or most prominent memory of working at Image at that time? I mean, what was it like to be a part of history now, right? Like like ushering this completely new thing, this groundbreaking company and this new team of superheroes. Like, what I guess what memories do you have of working there?

Hank Kanalz 55:22

It was uh, I guess surreal would be the best way to describe it. Um so I I was there for the early days and then had moved on to Malibu Comics, and then after Malibu was purchased by Marvel, was at Marvel for a while, and then after Marvel laid people off, um, went to DC and was there for a good chunk of time. Um, but for for the image stuff, it was exciting because I mean it's it sounds cliche, but you could feel the electricity in the room when things were coming together. And there, you know, there was a time where certain founders were not ready to leave Marvel, and there was a time where they were all you know, it's like, you know, now's the time, we've got to do it now, we gotta do it now. And then it'd be like, no, we gotta we have to wait. You know, and if you look back at what they had uh waited to do and um and what they did after they left, um it it all makes a lot of sense. But there's a picture that every time there's an image anniversary, they run the picture, and it's the founding fathers of Image and me, right? And I'm not a founding father uh by any stretch. And Will's Pratasio was not there at that meeting. Um and I I have a very vivid memory. This is at Mark Silvestri's house. Um, and Garib Sheamus was he basically said, no, you've you've got to get, you've got to get in this picture. We're gonna take this picture. And so we we took that picture, and it's what they use every time they talk about the founding of imagery. And at a certain point, someone photoshopped uh uh Will's Partascio's head and put it on my body, trying to replace me in the picture. Yeah, so I'm not sure. Hey, give my man Hank credit, damn it.

Badr Milligan 57:03

All right, that is offensive, no.

Hank Kanalz 57:05

Yeah, so so I I get I get stopped still, people think I'm Will's Pratasio, but um, but I'm not. And Wils is great. I get along great with Will's.

Badr Milligan 57:14

So Hank, I I guess I I failed to ask, like, how did you get involved with with were you working in comics prior to that? Like, how did you get involved with the image crew?

Hank Kanalz 57:22

Yeah, I was trying to break in. Um, uh, I was friends with Rob Liefeld. We were part of uh uh uh what's it was called an amateur press association, an appa. It was called Titan Talk. It's sort of like a uh a fan club for people who um were huge fans of a particular thing. And for us, it was uh Marv Wolfman and George Perez's uh new Teen Titans. And uh I was living in Texas at the time. Uh Rob was in California, and uh I ended up moving with my family in my senior year of high school from Texas to California, and Rob and I just started hanging out and then just started talking about how awesome it would be to be in comics. And he was doing sample pages and I was doing sample scripts, and we put together a pitch for Titans West at the time. Uh, so we were West Coast guys, and and Titans were based in New York, so yeah, there was a Titans West in the older comics, and we thought it was time to bring back the Titans West. And since we were West Coast guys, we thought we'd be the perfect people to do that. So we pitched, uh we pitched DC on that, and uh they said they liked it, but you know, we didn't have enough experience to have uh our own series out there. And Rob ended up getting a bonus book in a is a program that DC had called bonus books. So he got a short story to do in the bonus book, and he also got assignments at Marvel right around the same time. And I got a bonus book assignment. I wrote the uh flash number 19, so it's the origin of blue and red trinity, uh Russian super speedsters. Um, and then uh we took elements of uh of the Titans West and and created Youngblood. And then so that you can actually see it in the the Titan talk issues, right? Um we printed the write-ups, the the character designs, um the premises of the story. Rob did like a I want to say a five or an eight-page sample story that I think he's reprinted a few times in his in his you know his big books and his compilations of Youngblood. So it's a lot of fun and went from there.

Badr Milligan 59:30

Hank, you have just you probably I mean, Mike told me you are probably have a well, just a an endless list of stories. Can I get can I ask just one story in particular? Do you have any Jim Lee stories? You've shared some Rob Leifeld stories, you shared that uh uh the the thing about Eric Larson. Any good Jim Lee stories, just out of curiosity? Yeah, um good golly.

Hank Kanalz 59:50

I mean, I worked with Jim for so long at DC. Um well, I mean, this was fun. Uh so as a Wildstorm, and uh we were trying to figure out what to do for the Christmas party that year. And Jim's Christmas parties when he uh was Image are legendary, right? He would he would have like um he he would he had like I think it was like a circus theme one year and all that. But this was a really cool time for us at Wild Storm. We decided to do the Christmas party at in Vegas, and so if you were to get to Vegas, the Christmas party would take care of your lodging and your meals, and uh we all went through the Star Trek experience. So Jim is a huge Star Trek fan. Um, and and we many of us are so that was a real highlight to go through the Star Trek next generation experience in Vegas for the Wildstorm Christmas party. So that was pretty cool.

Badr Milligan 1:00:48

Man, Hank, I've never been more confident that a guest deserves uh uh a second you know interview or part two, but I I feel very confident saying I would love to have you back on to pick your brain more about that. But sure, we have already spoken pretty long about uh the current campaign going on with Clover Press and Marvel Masterworks. Like we said at the top, the campaign uh will be over by the time this episode comes out, but it sounds like they will be extending it uh for uh late backers, and you can still get in on that. Hank, I will ask one last question for you. And that's you know, we've talked about Clover Press, you know, uh you weren't shy, admitting, hey, we're we're a smaller boutique publisher, we focus on bespoke books, uh, which we've I mean, I've c have the evidence. These books are amazing. In your words, what can a boutique publisher do that that a larger publisher just can't like what what can you guys do exceptionally well that maybe a larger publisher just can't find?

Hank Kanalz 1:01:42

We can pivot, right? Um and then you know it's it it makes it hard when you don't have those deep pockets. Um, so it makes you very resourceful, but uh we can make decisions a lot faster. Um, and I think what we've been trying to do, and I think we're we're doing and we would continue to do is we love working direct to consumer so we have that uh feedback loop with our end consumer, right? So we we have a pretty good idea of what folks uh like and don't like and want more of. And um, if we deal directly with the consumer, that changes the the financial um mix of of the success of a book. So we're able to do more things, right? So if another publisher isn't able to do certain things, we might be able to because we don't have the same overhead structure, we don't have the same metrics uh that we have to meet uh that uh that a larger company has to because they have to they have a responsibility to their shareholders to make a certain kind of profit.

Badr Milligan 1:02:51

So we can do things for the love of doing them. So that's a better way to put it. Leaner, faster, and more direct to the consumers. I like that. I lied. I have one last question for you, Hank. Is there anything else that people should be on the lookout for from Clover Press in the coming months or even uh uh early next year?

Hank Kanalz 1:03:08

Yeah, so we're you know, we plan on continuing masterworks. We want to be able to do uh a book a month release. We'll we'll probably continue to do them four at a time, but uh at the at the end of the day, it'll be averaging out to one a month. But for the immediate future, keep a lookout for our next DC Art of book. It's the DC Art of Ricardo Federici, amazing painter at DC.

Badr Milligan 1:03:30

Wait, pause. Yeah, you bury the lead, Hank. I thought we were friends. Ricardo Federici is getting an art book. Yeah, he's amazing. I have only ever I oh I I'm sorry for interrupting, but look, I've only ever been able to enjoy his artwork online digitally. Because I always like his covers always sell out. I think I maybe have one or two, like a Superman cover, but yeah, that dude is like tapping into the ether. I don't know what source, I think he's tapping into Kirby's source beyond Kirby's source wall. Some of his covers and art are like mind-blowing. And you guys are working with him for an art book? We are.

Hank Kanalz 1:04:04

Uh that's that's gonna be next up, and then right after that is uh the Marvel art of Peach Mamoko.

Badr Milligan 1:04:10

So oh, nice. Come on. Yeah, that's you guys are just gonna be printing money when that campaign comes out. Yeah, hell yeah, that's some exciting stuff. I uh I'm looking forward to it. Hank, this has been fantastic. Uh, ladies and gents, this is the Short Box Podcast, and we just finished talking to Hank Canaultz about Clover Press. We talked about Marvel Masterworks, we got uh a little nerdy about our favorite uh way to read comics, collected editions. We got to talk about uh freaking image history, and we're just scratching the surface at that. A lot of good things that we talked about here. Um, but once again, Clover Press Marvel Masterworks, they're keeping it alive, they're keeping it thriving, and as you can tell, they got a lot of great things uh coming up. So I'll have a link to the current campaign in the bio. I also advise that you give uh Clover Press a follow on on social media, go to their website. Like I said, I'll have all of that linked in the show notes. Hank, you've been great. Thank you so much for hanging out. Thanks for having me. It's fun. I'll come back. Hell yeah. There we go. All right, Chore Box Nation, thanks so much for listening. Uh, you've been great. Stay tuned for the outro, and I'll catch you next week, all right? Peace.