For 2017’s Free Comic Book Day offering, Gemstone Publishing will distribute educational support material with a combination of comic and text. To gain a better understanding of what the issue will include, Scoop talked to Gemstone Vice-President of Publishing J.C. Vaughn.

Scoop: What’s the story behind The Overstreet Guide To Collecting?
J.C. Vaughn (JCV): We wanted to do something introductory and very encouraging for potential new readers who might discover or rediscover comic shops on Free Comic Book Day, and simultaneously we wanted to showcase our “How To” line of books about a wide area of collecting. The Overstreet Guide To Collecting is the answer to that.

Scoop: How did you accomplish that?
JCV: Comics are a fantastic storytelling medium, even when the story you want to tell is factual rather than fiction. We used both the comic book form and other highly visual storytelling to get our message across in a way that – we sure hope – doesn’t talk down to anyone, but rather shares our excitement about collecting comics and several other niches.

Scoop: So, unlike the past few years, during which Gemstone did issues of Comic Book Marketplace, this one is more of an actual comic book?
JCV: Definitely. It’s a comic book/text hybrid. It’s very visual and highly accessible to new readers. It’s also a great refresher for more experienced fans, too. I was able to team-up with my frequent collaborators Brendon and Brian Fraim, who I worked with on Vampire, PA and Antiques, for much of the art. We also have work by Breathtaker and Mars creator Mark Wheatley and regular Overstreet contributor Gene Gonzales, and the cover is by Billy Tucci with colors by Brian Miller and Hi-Fi.

Scoop: Is it offered along with the Free Comic Book Day titles?
JCV: Along with the CBLDF, we’re apparently the pioneers of a new category of educational support materials for Free Comic Book Day this year. You can find our listing on page 47 of the January 2017 edition of PREVIEWS. There are a lot of great selections this year, and we’re very happy to be one of them.

Scoop: What kind of material will the book cover?
JCV: First and foremost, it’s about comics, both collecting and grading them. But it also introduces a handful of other key areas that we’ve also covered in some of our books, including collecting movie posters, concert posters, and video games. It’s a really great mix, things readers might well find in today’s comic shops.

Scoop: What format is this publication?
JCV: It’s a standard, full-color comic book-size selection.

Scoop: How did you get comic characters from other publishers in this issue?
JCV: One of the great things about being The Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide people is that other publishers know us, know that we love comics, and know that we want to promote collecting to as many people as possible. If we’re successful, everyone wins. That’s why our friends at Archie and Valiant and a number of great creators such as Jimmy Palmiotti, Matt Wagner, Billy Tucci, Beau Smith, and John K. Snyder III let some of their characters pop up in our pages (and on our cover).

Scoop: With that in mind, do you consider this to be a community-building publication?
JCV: Absolutely. Anything that facilitates more folks collecting, particularly collecting comics, is something that benefits the entire hobby and industry.

Scoop: In addition to your work at Gemstone, you also write comics as well. How was writing this one different than writing others?
JCV: In one sense, it was very different. The story we’re trying to tell isn’t exclusively tied to the visuals we’re using to tell it. In other ways, though, it was very much the same process. The writer has to describe what he or she wants to see in a panel or on a given page, the art team has to illustrate, color and letter that, and the production team has to put it together so it all makes sense.

Scoop: Have you written other educational comics?
JCV: I’ve edited some, including one that created the play concept for a line of toys, and I’ve written a number of informational pages for various Overstreet books from Gemstone. This, though, is the first lengthy piece I’ve done like this.

Scoop: Do you expect this to become a new tradition – educational support materials in comics?
JCV: I don’t know how to answer that other than to say “I sure hope so.” Many of the people who have been involved in free comic book day, from the publishers to the retailers, have done a superb job of making things accessible for newcomers. That said, collectively we can always do better. Every group, no matter what industry, tends to drop into group-speak and group-think, which has the opposite effect of what our industry is trying to do. Creating this kind of material can help guard against that and heighten the positive effect of everyone’s efforts.