My 5-Cents
+Dave Hill's Dark Regards & Jim Shooter
I prefer to pay with cash. Stuff like take-out food and random supplies. Which means I often come home with physical change jangling in my pocket. Pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters. At home, I have separate containers for coins, including a plastic pumpkin basket filled with quarters. We often need quarters for washing machines and dryers. Parking meters, etc. I've been separating and saving coins like this for almost three decades.
The other day, I found three quarters in my pocket. And rather than dump those quarters in the plastic pumpkin, I decided to hold on to them. See if they came in handy.
On my way to the studio, I ordered Chinese food lunch for me and my studio mate, Whitney. The price came to $15.70. My eyes lit up. I handed the proprietor a twenty dollar bill and three quarters and asked for a five dollar bill back. As she pulled out a five dollar bill from the cash register and began searching for a nickel, I proudly announced, "No worries, ma'am. You can keep the 5-cents." Like it was a gift from god.
She gave me a look that said, "Really?"
I was interviewed by Joel Meadows for Tripwire, "Dean Haspiel Talks A Life Of Indie Comics To Tripwire.”
Excerpts:
"After decades of hustling for work, I became allergic to pitching to publishers. The business of comix dispirited me. In 2023, I kinda quit comic books. I looked back at my career and wondered where I went wrong and where I went right. My career was schizophrenic. I was spinning too many plates. I wasn’t known for anything more than taking off my shirt in public. Something I haven’t done in years. And having become a veteran cartoonist, I had less tolerance waiting for a greenlight to draw my stories. Only to be offered a low advance you cannot live on — with more than half of your creator rights taken away. All the while doing most of the promotion for the possibility of chasing a royalty. Some people “never got a dinner.” I never got a Dark Knight. And that’s when I decided to put on a publisher’s hat and crowdfund my first “Deep Cut” comic book with COVID COP."
"If I learned anything from working for the mainstream is that it comes with constraints and corporate concerns and sometimes that kind of editorial challenge can grow you as a professional story-maker. And sometimes those constraints can feel a lot like restraints and that can be a drag. And you own none of it. Alas, for all my freelance experience the last 25+ years, I don’t think I’ve hit the page count nor put enough proverbial asses in seats to be invited to a corporate retreat to hash out next years mainstream superhero stories. And that’s okay. I can help change the comic book industry for the better in other ways."
"I’ve yet to make a great comic book. I have no idea what that looks like. What that reads like. So I try and try again. I believe there’s a fail safe switch inside all creators that makes damned sure you never create the perfect thing. Because, if you did, it would be game over. Nighty night. Sayonara suckers. So, you strive to hone your skills, energize your talent, learn your craft in real time and in public, warts and all. And be aware. Don’t get too stuck in your head. Look around. Look up. Open your heart. Open your mind. Experience new things. Find joy."
You can read the entire interview HERE.
I was honored to be asked to draw a cover for Dave Hill and Artyom Topilin's DARK REGARDS #4, published by Oni Press.
Here's the hype:
THE END IS HERE! Dave Hill (Tasteful Nudes) and Artyom Topilin's (EC's Cruel Universe) insanely autobiographical epic of a comedian-turned-metal-band-frontman who tested the patience of Norway's most extreme black metal butchers is sure to end on a high note! As Monte's life hangs in the balance-held hostage by Lucifuge, the leader of Dave's Norwegian arch-nemeses who've traveled halfway around the world to confront him-Dave and Witch Taint must prove their music to be more grim and brutal than anything ever heard by humans ears . . . or possibly be savagely murdered in cold blood if they can't get it together. Talk about pressure! Dark Regards comes to its devilish denouement!
In Shops: Aug 27, 2025
GRUMBLINGS
Once again, the NYC Rent Guidelines Board approved increases on stabilized apartments while most tenants (including myself) make less income every year. I don't begrudge landlords needing funds to run their buildings but sometime soon, they will no longer have steady tenants to rent their apartments. More and more new "neighbors" only last a year or two before they split The Big Apple. And maybe that's the plan? Apartments will become akin to expensive hotels where millionaires deliver food to billionaires.
RECOMMENDATIONS
My friend, filmmaker, songwriter and author, Onur Tukel published a new novel that he wrote and illustrated called Run Werewolf Run. Onur is one of my favorite creators who honors my “no permissions, no apologies” policy in all of his work. A super sensitive, complicated misfit with a heart of gold. He reminds me that true art still matters — warts and all.
I share an art studio warehouse space with cartoonist/teacher Mindy Indy, who is having an exhibition, “Storyboard To Stars,” in our Sweet Lorraine Gallery on Weds., July 9th from 7-9pm (183 Lorraine Street, 3rd floor in Red Hook, Brooklyn, NY).
On VITO x DINO #24 — “God Only Knows,” Vito Delsante and I remember Sly Stone and Brian Wilson. And we theorize the five commandments that Moses dropped, broke and lost in Mel Brooks’ "History of the World: Part 1."
On VITO x DINO #25 — “Versus,” we talk about building pantheons and the idea of gods versus superheroes, missed opportunities that we weren't even offered, and a lively game of musical Versus!
On VITO x DINO #26 x Steve Bearfield — we hand the reins of the show over to listener, Steve Bearfield, a burgeoning comic book writer and fan of the show. We talk about his formative years, Jack Kirby, and he asks us what properties we would make a comic out of. We also answer what kind of serial killer we'd be.
Vito and I also talked to the super kind folks at SPLASH PAGES.
REMINDER
I’m a special guest at SPX 2025!
This summer, I'll be teaching two sessions of a two-day comix making course at The North Fork Arts Center in Greenport, NY. Click HERE to register.
REST IN PEACE
A literal giant has passed away. Jim Shooter sold his first comic book script when he was 13-years old. He helped define The Legion of Superheroes for DC Comics and would come to help redefine many other beloved characters. He would go on to become the editor-in-chief of Marvel Comics and oversee my era of Marvel. The one I grew up reading in real time. Chris Claremont & John Byrne's X-men. Frank Miller & Klaus Janson’s Daredevil. Walter Simonson's Thor. John Byrne's The Fantastic Four. Roger Stern & John Romita Jr.'s Spider-man. David Michelinie & Bob Layton's Iron Man. Bill Mantlo & Sal Buscema's The Incredible Hulk. Doug Moench & Bill Sienkiewicz's Moon Knight. Etc./etc. Culminating in Secret Wars and a New Universe. Shooter was a controversial figure both in stature and stance. He insisted on certain kinds of comics that rubbed some creators the wrong way and the gnarly business of comic books eventually got him fired. But it didn't stop him from launching Valiant Comics and other comic book companies.
The first time I met Jim Shooter was in 1995. I was living on 14th street between avenues B & C in Alphabet City of Manhattan. I was walking out of my apartment building when I see a taxi cab pull up and a large man hop out of it. Immediately I knew who it was. The unmistakable frame and face of Jim Shooter. He started bolting down the block like a giraffe and I yelled out "Jim Shooter?" He stopped and turned around and we met face-to-face. I thanked him for his tenure at Marvel, helping shape some of my favorite comic books, and told him I was a comic book artist (I didn't have many credits at the time but I believed in myself). He handed me a business card that said Broadway Comics and told me to email him. And then he sprinted off -- late for a meeting. I must've emailed him but never heard back. I didn't take it personally.
The second time I met Jim Shooter was about a decade ago at a comicon. My table was right next to his. I remember how nice yet self-deprecating he was. Last time I saw him was October 2021 at Baltimore Comicon. He was asked to present a few Ringo Awards and kept fumbling the names. He was genuinely embarrassed yet funny. In some ways, Jim Shooter was not only the herald of my Marvel Comics but he was also my Stan Lee. Both Lee and Shooter were controversial creators and businessmen. But the work they left on earth was above and beyond.
See you in the gutters—
—Dean
Instagram / Website/Blog / Nightwork Studio / Etsy / VITO x DINO
Cash is Queen!
I think only New Yorkers must understand the joy of having that change in your pocket when paying for something calls for it. At least 5 times a week, I'm reaching into my pocket for change I thought I put in there and realized that I forgot to when I changed pants.