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What initially drew you to comics?
I was a huge fantasy & sci-fi fan growing up in the 70s. Star Trek, Batman, Superman, The Hulk, Wonder Woman, Lost In Space, Star Wars, and the animated Lord of the Rings were all on TV or in the theaters. We had all those great Ray Harryhausen films like Jason and the Argonauts and Clash of the Titans, and Japanese monster movies like Godzilla and Gamera. I read all the Conan books, Tarzan books, Elric, John Carter, Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, etc, etc. I loved all that stuff. The problem was, I tore through it and started to run out. That’s when I learned that a lot of those had their own comics that came out once a month, sometimes more, with NEW STORIES, and fantastic artwork.
So what got me interested was just trying to get more of the things I already loved from TV, film, and books. Once I was there, I started to find all these other cool stories that you couldn’t get any other way. I loved making up my own stories, and I loved drawing. Here was this way of putting both of those together. I’ve just never gotten tired of it.
What was your inspiration behind Nico Bravo?
I’ve always enjoyed making up my own stories, so I’m always on the lookout for new ideas. I was living in Brooklyn. I had been making comics for several years, but I was also working part-time at this great comic book shop. There were tons of cartoonists living in Brooklyn at the time, and there were always cartoonists visiting NYC from all over the world. So any time I was working there, one of my cartooning heroes could walk through the door just to shop. I got to meet several of my favorite creators that way. That’s when the idea for a kid who works in a store where heroes and gods come to shop came to me. And that turned into Nico Bravo, the story of a kid who works in a general store for gods and mythical creatures.
What scene or panel sequence did you most enjoy drawing?
I paged through my copy of the new book, Nico Bravo and the Trial of Vulcan, to kind of refresh my memory, and there are so many scenes I loved drawing in this one, it’s hard to choose. I usually have a policy against showing the last page of a book, but if I were to answer this honestly, it has to be the last page. It gave me the chance to draw nearly all the major characters from the entire series so far in one scene. I love looking at it!
ABOUT THE BOOK
All our favorite ancient myths and legends get an epic makeover in the third volume of Mike Cavallaro’s hilarious graphic novel series!
Got a problem? The seasoned staff at Vulcan’s Celestial Supply Shop—a kid named Nico Bravo, a sphinx named Lula, and a unicorn named Buck—have got just the thing in their inventory of magical merchandise.
Vulcan is on trial, accused by the evil Ahriman of breaking the Cosmic Rule—interfering in the plans of a fellow god! His only hope is finding five powerful artifacts scattered across the globe. But is there more to this quest than meets the eye?
