You learn things in life. Sometimes your gut is right. You see, I liked Moonstone Books right away due to what I thought was a smart way of approaching the market but not always their product. While I did not always like their product, I figured, that somewhere down the line they’d have a high enough profile to become a player in the industry and affect sales, formats and trends. I believe that that time has arrived as the product coming from Moonstone now is uniformly good, while still presenting the reader with numerous different genres to consider, and I have heard that the formats to come in the near future will help expand their reach, and hopefully that of the industry. The publisher at Moonstone is Joe Gentile and he has also been a fine talent writing stories for Kolchak mysteries and more. I have found it very rewarding personally getting to know him, and this interview is a result of that.
AN: How and why did you start up Moonstone Books?
Joe Gentile: Oh lord, can I answer that with "because for a brief moment, we all lost our sanity"?
AN: Sure.
JG: ...Otherwise, the more mundane answer would be that Dave Ulanski, Rafael Nieves and myself were part of a Chicago publisher that never got off the ground. We had all of theses unpublished projects, so...
AN: Moonstone featured many comics featuring Horror as a genre, and Horror Comics in the last five years have grown in popularity, do you feel at all responsible for that?
JG: Wow, wouldn’t that be cool? No, I just think the time was right for horror.
AN: With the comic industry being a small place, at least at the moment, how do you stay in business in it?
JG: That’s a funny question. We are very persistent, and continually try to think outside the accepted norm
AN: High Adventure and Pulp comics have not yet "taken off" but you've managed to create a niche with them. How do you build interest in characters whose main appeal is nostalgic when the market is shrinking?
JG: Well, our plan was to GROW the market by bringing in readers who haven't had this kind of material available to them. Plus, part of our niche are characters who have a cult following, just not a comic following. We were hoping that fans of those characters would either come back to comics if they've been gone, or try them for the first time. Before we put out a single book, we advertised outside of the comic market, to let prospective readers know we were here.
AN: Why has the industry in your opinion been progressively chasing younger and younger talents?
JG: It’s a reflection of how society is as a whole today.
AN: Lately Moonstone has been pushing towards a greater market presence. Why is that, and how do you see Moonstone's place in the industry?
JG: Because we need readers to ask their retailers for our books. After almost 11 years, we still get the "I cant find your books" or "The Phantom is a comic again?" e-mails. There was a time that retailers and readers cried for "diversity", so ok, here we are! I don’t believe we need more superheroes in this market.
AN: I see Moonstone as being perhaps small but important to the industry...
JG: Gee, you are MUCH too kind. Unless you're talking about my height...!
AN: ... that is, you publish a variety of genres, in different formats, and have had a variety of licensed properties. In other words, you have existed since 1995 using a publishing model that seems to now be the new means for small publishers to survive. Did you happen upon the path you've taken, or was it the result of an assessment of the future of the industry?
JG: Oh, ok, now that was a nice comeback after the "small but important" crack...thanks for giving us that intellectual benefit of the doubt! When we did the BIG Moonstone push...five years ago(?) we were really thinking along the lines of "what's not present in the industry now", and "how to market outside of the industry". I'm not saying we're geniuses by any stretch, nor was everything we tried the right idea, but we did learn a lot.
AN: What is the future of Moonstone?
JG: Um, "bright"?
AN: What are you doing in the near future that is different and new for the industry?
JG: Oh, man, you KNOW we got something up our sleeve, don’t you? We got some COLOR books that will surprise, I believe! Plus, we got some new formats that will at least make folks take a little longer than 5 minutes to read a book! We also have a few surprises that cross over to other mediums as well. Plus, some products aimed at a different audience that may not be reading our books now!
AN: Do you plan upon continuing to pursue a variety of gaming company character licenses or is that no longer viable?
JG: For now, we are holding pat with what we have.
AN: I've mostly discussed here with you your role as publisher, yet, you've written many stories at Moonstone. Do you plan to continue in your creative role as well as publisherial role?
JG: I appreciate you remembering that, Alex, really brings a tear to me eye... Yes, since before Moonstone, I worked as a freelance writer for many many years, I will continue to do stuff here and there. I have a couple of bold tales to tell coming up shortly, including the first (and strangest) MOONSTONE TEAM UP tale!
FINAL THOUGHTS:
Thank you Joe Gentile it was great fun.
I hope readers make it a habit to preorder Moonstone books and to ask their retailer to carry the same. We need to support the innovators of the industry and reward their diligence.
CALLING ALL READERS
Either upon message board or to me through e-mail please let me know who you think was the best writer, artist and writer/artist of 2005 and what work deserves the credit for the best of 2005. This is not a contest per se, as I do not have a great stack of give away material or special art pages or signed comics, I simply want to gain a feel for your picks of 2005. I think it is always important to know what others think because there is no way a person can afford to read all the titles that have come out, or works from even one of the big 6 of Dark Horse, DC, DDP, IDW, IMAGE, & MARVEL. When sending your list, if you can, tell me what you thought were the best comics vis a vis publisher. Finally when you send an e-mail please send a mailing address so that I might place all the names in a pool and pick one for something fun. Thank you.
