Kickstarter is getting loads of projects off the ground—from the OUYA to Amanda Palmer—the fundraising platform provides a diverse spectrum of ventures. Joe Martino is heading the first Earth Prime Time endorsed Kickstarter for comics. The Mighty Titan is the story of a superhero from a two-time cancer survivor and Dad. We talk to our hero Joe in a week where the world can use a powerful example of hope from the men and women in capes.
Thanks for taking the time, Joe!
We met at our party at Boston Comic Con this year and you signed my Shadowflame book. Thanks for that! Did you have a good time at theLeague party?
I had a great time at the party. Boston Comic Con was a blast and I can’t wait until next year! I felt very welcome and it was really fun. If all goes well, The Mighty Titan #1 will have it’s real world debut there this year.
The Mighty Titan covers were blowing up my Facebook feed and I thought, “Whoa, cool — those look awesome, I’ll check that out later.” And when I did—I saw there was more to this story than your typical superhero story. You are a cancer survivor and you want to share the story of survival. Care to tell us the origin of the Mighty Titan?
The real world origin of Titan is a sad one I guess. I found out I had kidney cancer at an early age. I was 33.
I was waiting to hear about orders for the Chanting Monks release of Ripperman and went to a new doctor. A routine ultrasound of my liver showed that I had a tumor on my right kidney. I was floored. I mean, I had kids, I was married, I had a great day job and was living my dream of writing and drawing comics at night. My whole life fell apart and only until 2 years ago have the pieces been picked up. While I was home from surgery (Incidentally, the original Ripperman Graphic Novel came out the Day of my first cancer surgery, October 20th, 2004) I was thinking about wanting an outlet for all this angst. I was going to write a story where Shadowflame gets cancer. But that didn’t work for me. Shadowflame didn’t have any support structure or family to play off of. I decided to create a new hero. Titan was born of that. I still have the drawing that I did in front of my TV back in December of 2004. Time passed and I put out Shadowflame and Ripperman through Arcana and the Titan thing kept gnawing at me. So, last year I started jotting down ideas. Ideas turned into plot and plot turned into script.
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