The Real Deal Rides again

In about 1996 (97?) I went to the secret indie cartoonists beach party at the San Diego comic con, it was pretty good, big fire, beers, etc. While there someone came running over waving around a book asking if anyone had ever seen it before. It was a copy of The Real Deal. "Of course," I told them, "Fuck Berlin, The Real Deal is the best comic in America!" I was told moments later that Jason Lutes, creator of Berlin, was standing behind me. To this day I stand by that statement.

About five years ago I got in touch with one of the creators, RD BONE and eventually exchanged a few emails with them about getting some issues to sell at cons, he claimed most of them were destroyed by a flood some a few years earlier, but he'd look around. I never heard back and Ho12 books got in the way and I never fully pursued it, much to my disappointment.

In 2008 the guys over at ComicsComics got a hold of Real Deal co-creator Lawrence Hubbard, and started selling the books at shows and the response has been unbelievable, people love the Real Deal.

last week at the Los Angles event, Art in Time, Johnny Ryan got up on stage and interviewed Hubbard about the Real Deal story and the comicscomicsmag.com guys taped the whole thing. It's pretty great, check it out...

L.A. Rumble

In the interview Hubbard mentions that he's revamped the RD website, which I encourage you to go to and spend, spend, spend. He claims if there's enough of an interest issue 7 & 8 mightsee the light of day, which would be a dream come true. He also says he might do the Small Press Expo in September, at which Ho12 is a regular exhibitor. If that's true, I'm fucking psyched.

www.realdealcomix.com

UPDATE:

Here's a video of the discussion.