Michael Zulli and 'The Fracture of the Universal Boy'

This past weekend I had the pleasure of seeing a gallery opening at Nucleus Gallery (http://www.gallerynucleus.com/) in the town of Alhambra. Among the featured artists were Michael Zulli (http://www.michaelzulli.com), Juao Ruas (the current Fables cover artist for DC Comics), Shelly Wan, Rodrigo Luff and Baron Storey. Click here to see all of the exhibited artwork. Zulli had created some amazingly detailed pieces for the exhibition that featured ethereal images of ancient Persian envoys, Morpheus, Judas Iscariot, and a magician among other characters. His lovingly exact pencils were even more enhanced by a background wash that toned the images blue and sepia and leaf green. It was this showing that lured me to LA among other things that I will save for another dispatch. To see a photo of Zulli click here to got to my friend Kyle Cassidy's Live Journal post. Kyle had the enviable job of making photos for Zulli's website and future projects.

Having talked with Micheal Zulli the night before the opening, I found him to be both demoralized by the comics industry and ever hopeful for the future. He is now embarking on self-publishing his first graphic novel, 'The Fracture of the Universal Boy'; away from the publishing industry. He was able to use the amazing website Kickstarter.com which helps creatives ask the public to fund their artistic efforts. In return the contributors get a reward from the artists for their funding contribution. Whoever came up with this idea deserves a medal. Zulli was not only able to get 100% of the funds he needed to start publishing, $17,000 USD, but a whopping $32,794 USD from 523 people including yours truly. The 200+ page graphic novel is due out in June of 2011.

I must tell you that Michael Zulli is one of the nicest people you'll ever meet. He answered my questions with an unexpected enthusiasm. He loves creating art and has been doing so since he was a child. Of the past 20 years in the comics industry he says that he has been an artist who happens to draw comics, not a comic book artist. His recent break away from companies like DC Comics and Marvel Comics is a step toward a more comfortable place where he is working on the art he wants to create rather than drawing someone else's creations for dirt pay. His liberation from the industry seems long overdue considering the poor treatment he's received from certain editors over the years.

Zulli even hinted that there might for a future Puma Blues project with writer Stephen Murphy after 'The Fracture of the Universal Boy' comes out. I wait on baited breathe.What's happening with Michael Zulli has been happening with many comic book and graphic novel creators who want to create and own their own work. With internet crowd-source funding sites like Kickstarter that dream is now becoming a reality. It's a democratic liberation of the tools of publishing and marketing for writers and artists. If artists like Zulli can find their own backers, it's a new day for writers and artists who would never have thought they didn't need the instrumentality of a publishing company.