Welcome back, you voracious viewers you, to Into the Fancave, the article about YOU the fans. This week’s star is new friend of Multiversity, aspiring writer and eggplant parmesan connoisseur Matthew Boren! Click below and delve into his fancave!
Joshua Mocle: So Tell us a little (or a lot) about yourself.
Matthew Boren: Well. My name is Matthew Stewart Boren. I really wish my name had been Matthew Stewart, which is quite more regal sounding, and resonates with Patrick Stewart, one of the greatest actors you and I have ever known.
JM: You shall get no argument from me, sir! What comics are you currently digging?
MB: My favorite comics right now? I’m loving Wildstorm. I’ve ALWAYS loved Wildstorm. I grew up with Wildcats, Gen 13 and Stormwatch. I’m 27 right now, and I can’t think of a comic that created my ideas of the superhero more than Wildstorm’s creations. Other than that, I religiously follow Marvel. The Incredible Hercules, and I love me some Secret Avengers. Green Lantern & Batman have always been my favorite DC heroes though, and in a world of 1-dimensional gods that DC has, the more human heroes always stand out to me.
JM: Don’t know many humans that can will anything they imagine into existence with space voodoo, but I get what you’re saying! You mentioned you grew up with Wildstorm. That said, how long have you been reading?
MB: I started reading comics in 1992- which was the same year my family moved to Saudi Arabia. I had about a year of Batman the Animated Series and Xmen. After that, I had two grandmothers who sent me Spiderman, Spawn, and Batman comics through secure APO military mail till I got back to America in 1998.
JM: What about comics appealed to you while you were young? And how has that appeal mutated as you got older?
MB: I loved Jim Lee’s X-Men, Spawn, Amazing Spider-Man drawn by Mark Bagley. Honestly, in a world where all women in “unchaste” clothing and the word Israel were blacked out by the religious police, I read anything I could get my hands on. Even Marvel’s G.I. Joe comic held a special place in my heart if I could get it at the local bookstore or US military outpost. When I got back to the states, It took me a few years to figure out my niche. In 1998, anime was a new thing, so I was drawn to manga…Dragonball Z, Ruroni Kenshin, and Evangelion. My taste for American comics disappeared.
JM: So when and how did it return?
MB: A good friend of mine my senior year of high school, named Lucas. He introduced me to Ultimate Marvel, Vertigo, and various other gems like The Authority.
JM: Ah yes, the classics! Did you find those books appealed to you more as an older person, or did you still kind of view them with kid goggles on and getting a peek at some “dirty” comics?
MB: The older I get, the more I get out of any comic. I just started reading through the full Run of Morbius the Living Vampire, and found there are far more adult themes in there than there were when I was !2.
JM: Interesting realization. Now that having been said, do you think comics are even still being written for kids?
MB: Honestly? I don’t’ think so. I think writers do a good job of keeping the REALLY dark stuff out of comics, but the fact that there are “only for kids” Marvel super heroes and DC superheroes really speaks to how the medium is going. In fact, just yesterday my girlfriend and I were in our local library and she was looking for a book by Victor Gishcler and I realized he was the guy writing X-Men right now.
JM: Indeed he is! What do you think caused this shift away from kid friendliness?
MB: Well, I think it’s a trend from the early Frank Miller days all the way to now. I go back and read comics from the 80’s, like Alan Moore’s Miracle Man, and I realize comics haven’t’ been for kids the majority of the time I’ve been alive
Continued belowJM: Excellent point. Shifting gears a bit: would you ever want to write comics yourself?
MB: A long time dream (would be) to write my own comic . I have ideas ranging from standard super hero fare to a long running fantasy epic.
JM: Interesting. What’s stopping you?
MB: Time, money and talent. I can write but I cant draw worth beans
JM: Well, you shouldn’t let that stop you! You’d be surprised how many up and coming artists there are out there looking for scripts! Wrapping up: if you could give one bit of advice to someone looking to get into comics, what would it be?
MB: Connections connections connections…and originality. I have Geoff Johns and Ethan Van Sciver on my Facebook and talk to them on a regular basis. Go to conventions, get to know people, find out what the industry wants. BUT aside (from) that, come up with your own IDEA, make it and print it. Robert Kirkman and his Walking Dead success is proof of that. I just watched the fourth Episode of TWD, with my mother of all people, and she doest like anything!
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