MEGAZEEN #4

    By issue 4 we were starting to feel our stride, and we were still publishing on a strict quarterly basis. We now had a pool of artists regularly producing, and more were popping out ofthe woodworks, whatever that means. I also think I was getting more in tune with Crossett's vision of the book and didn't have such a stick up my butt, so for once I don't recall fighting over anything.

Kneon Transitt gave us our full full spread cover (above). MarkMelton and John Finlay brought the second installment of 6th Seal of Revelation. And then we had some new blood.

This was the first Megazeen appearance of Jesus Marquez, who quickly became one of the best friends I have.Marquez had sent a copy of his comic, Live By the Sword, to Crossett, who then sent it to me. I have since regularly begged Marquez to let me reprint that comic or display it on the web, but he won't let me because he's come a long way artwise. This is true. But the story is brilliant. The story that appears in MZ4 is a background story of Live By the Sword.

Psycho Ann Neko's Megazeen debut was also in this issue. I'm not a manga fan by any stretch, but Ann's work stands out in amazing ways. She captures the human spirit well, and has a unique talent for bringing the humor out.

Corey Isaac made his one and only Megazeen appearance with a super hero called Ol' Skool. Couldn't tell you what it had to do with Christianity. We just thought it was cool and we think Corey's cool. If I had been thinking like this for issue 3 we would've run Aaron Richardson's comic too.

We ran two interviews. Crossett interviewed Todd Webb, who was (and still is) regularly producing books and web comics that are awesome in their simplicity, and whom Will Eisner had proclaimed "the future of comics. Mark Melton was dying to get more involved so he interviewed Mike Miller, who had done lots of varied work for Marvel, DC and others. He had also been VERY outspoken on the Christian comics Yahoo group, during some heated battles that are still talked about in hushed tones today. He said things we agreed with, he said things we disagreed with. I remember Mark was nervous, thinking that maybe we shouldn't even run it, which is probably why we ran it.

Thanks to a recent limited reprint, you can buy it here.