First Comics News: How has your involvement in creating comics impacted your life?
Tom Beland: Comics came to me just before I lost my father to cancer and soon after, my mother too. I was in 5th or 6th grade and they gave me an escape from what was happening at home. Those Spider-Man, Fantastic Four, X-Men, Avengers, and Marvel Team-Up books were my Greek mythology to me. My mother also got me into reading Jack London, Ray Bradbury, and HG Wells by giving me the comics first, then telling me if I enjoyed the comics, the novels had even more fun in them. I also got into Star Trek from reading the Gold Key books and the cartoon show. For the rest of my life, I’ve bought those books because I love them and for what they did for me when my world was very dark.
1st: How did you start “Swear To God”?
Tom: I was working at a local newspaper in the late 80’s in Napa. I was a paste-up artist, which meant I used to build the advertisements. I’d look up clip art from big books, photocopy them, and cut and paste the art onto the ad. It was all done by hand at the time, this was before computers entered the job. Anyway, one day the editor of the opinion page couldn’t find a cartoon he liked for that Sunday and so he asked me if I had anything I could put into that space. I was a huge fan of Keith Knight’s strip, “The K Chronicles” which was about his life and experiences. So I did a strip in that style about a friend who bought a pet crab that died the next day, When he made a big stink about it at the pet store, he found out that his tank was too big and it drowned. The editor liked it and it ran that Sunday. After that, it became a regular Sunday cartoon. Logout
1st: How does it feel to have a comic book based on you?
Tom: Well, it’s not like I get stopped on the street and asked “Are you that guy in the comic strip?” It doesn’t work that way. No one around me really knows what I do. I find it liberating to talk about things in public like that, things that we have in common and don’t realize it. I DO get a lot of “I thought it was only me who did that.”
1st: You worked on several Marvel characters which was your favorite?
Tom: Spider-Man is my all-time favorite character, so to be asked to write him was sort of out-of-body. Those Fantastic Four books where they go to Puerto Rico are crazy special to me, both for the joy we had making them and for the response from the Puerto Rican community.
1st: Is M.O.D.O.K. at all like you?
Tom: That entire book was challenging for me to write. It had to feature Reed and Sue and I’m nowhere near Reed’s intelligence. I don’t have that in me. But after kicking the can around a bit, I realized that he was brilliant, yes, but he was also a guy who loved his wife. So I focused on that. MODOK was suggested as the villain and I groaned a bit at first because, again, I’m not really wired for brilliant characters. But when we added the local monkeys to the mix, he was very fun to write.
1st: You worked on “Puerto Rico Strong” How was that experience?
Tom: It was extremely flattering to be asked to put something in that book. The entire book is gorgeous with so much color. And the stories are all heartfelt and emotional. They really left me alone and let me say what I wanted to say. There was a bit of worry that the book was about how much of the book is about how people loved their island, and then I go on a rant about Trump’s visit, but I wanted people to remember what an ass he was during his visit.
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1st: What has been your best experience due to your involvement with comic books?
Tom: Getting them done. Finishing a book is the greatest feeling on earth. You take about these little concepts and ideas and get them all to line up and form a story that, hopefully, will move you. The feedback is probably the second greatest feeling. I also gained a LOT of self-confidence when it comes to my abilities. I didn’t go to college and I barely graduated high school. I thought only people who went to college made books. When I found out people liked my work, it gave me the confidence to make more and get better at it.
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1st: Are you currently working on anything if so what?
Tom: Actually, I have five sequels to Chicacabra, I’m just waiting on a publisher. And I also have a spinoff character from one of those books.
1st: Which do you prefer writing or drawing?
Tom: To me, that’s like asking me if I prefer inhaling to exhaling. They’re both one and the same for me. If I think of something to write, I immediately see the artwork in my head. And they both take a lot of time and effort. Sometimes I have to research things for the story and also for the art.
1st: What do you try to include when you’re writing a comic book story to capture the reader’s interest?
Tom: If the story takes place somewhere, whether it’s my home here in Santa Rosa, or back on the island, I love to look at any and all local folklore. There are so many cool stories to get ideas from. I really want to add things that the locals do. I have this running gag in the Chica books where Izzy rips on the tourists. How they look when they get off the cruise ships and how they all want to ignore the local places and go to Hard Rock Cafe or some chain restaurants. The reader should feel that the writer has actually been to the place they’re writing about.
1st: Do you enjoy doing cover art?
Tom: I do! Very much. It’s like doing con sketches. But that said, I immensely prefer the old-school covers that tell you what was going on inside the book.
1st: How do you fill your days when you are not working?
Tom: I work at a daycare here in Santa Rosa. It’s been very fulfilling as well as exhausting. I really don’t know how parents do it full-time. I’ve never had kids before so it’s been cool to see all the stages of life.
1st: What would you like to say to your many fans?
Tom: I know people want to know when my books are going to come out, but I really can’t give any answer. I’ve tried Image and IDW, but I never heard back from them. Not even a “thanks but no thanks.” I lost my sister to an aneurysm about eight years ago and working on those books got me through that grief. I thought those publishers would enjoy them too, but nothing came back.
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