I want to talk specifically in this interview about your recent work, because you have been very busy, both as a publisher and as a creator. I had been making my own homebrew superhero comics, and like everyone else, Zap turned my head around. Tom was in San Francisco when Zap came out and sent me a copy. He introduced me to a lot of things, but in terms of the undergrounds, first it was “C” Comics, a proto-underground comic by Joe Brainard and Ron Padgett. Tom was in his late twenties and I was a teenager in the '60s, so we absorbed a lot of that spiritual thinking that bubbled up from the counterculture.ĭid he introduce you to comics, or the undergrounds? It grew out of the hippie ethic, I think. I don't know if that's from a shared upbringing or what, but it seems to be a common theme in your respective work. You both had a deeply spiritual aspect to your work. It's really heartwarming to see how many people he touched in his lifetime. I don't know if you've seen any of those. I've seen some very nice tributes to him online. Jason Bergman: I want to start by offering my condolences on the loss of your brother Tom. I caught up with Veitch via Zoom to chat about all of these works, the educational comics business he runs with Steve Conley, why you won’t find any of his recent work on the shelves of your local comics store, and how after three decades, Swamp Thing #88 is still too controversial for DC Comics to release. Fueled by the freedoms offered by modern publishing tools, Veitch has brought older work back into print, created Panel Visions, an experimental line of single panel graphic novels, restarted his Rare Bit Fiends series, and committed himself to finishing his long-dormant magnum opus, King Hell Heroica. Interviews “I Really Am an Underground Cartoonist”: Talking to Rick VeitchĪ mainstay of independent comics for decades, the last few years have seen an explosion in creativity from Rick Veitch.

The Maximortal by Rick Veitch