This is Comickeespeak, episode 418, Indie Challenge for April.

Welcome to Comicke Speak. I'm Brian Deamer, and this episode is sponsored by in-stocktrades.com.

If you're on the market for some trade paperbacks, hardcovers, or manga, just go to

in-stocktrades.com and you can save up to 40% off, and if you order $50 or more, you'll get

free shipping. How awesome and easy is that. Just go to in-stock trades.com.

Okay, so this episode, Indy Challenges for April. We have Sparks from Catastrophic Comics.

We also have Strawman Number One from Xenoscope. And then we're also looking at a dummies guide to danger lost at sea from Viper.

So we're going to start off with Sparks from Catastrophic Comics. And Sparks is the brainchild of William Cat, who you all know as the greatest

American hero. How awesome is that? So we're going to talk to William Cat and we're also going to

talk to the writer of the story, Christopher Felino.

Sparks is set in 1948.

Sparks centers on masked vigilante Ian Sparks,

who discovers that the price for being a hero is much too high.

It's a dark, relentless story about self-discovery, heroism, failed lives, and redemption.

It's eight issues, 32 full-color pages, with a cover price of $299.

So on the website, there's a quote from Bill that says,

this has been a lifelong dream to be involved in my own line of comics,

and now I'm putting my money where my mouth is.

So where does your love of comics come from?

Oh, God, as a kid?

Yeah, where does it all start? I'm sitting at a dime store, riding my bike up to the corner of Dime Store,

at the corner of Burbank and Woodman,

...