AMBER LOVE 16-MAY-2013 If you ever thought about giving up on making your independent comic books, give a listen to a real warrior who has prevailed through cancer, divorce, and Superstorm Sandy. JOE MARTINO, the creator of THE MIGHTY TITAN, SHADOWFLAME and RIPPERMAN joins me on VODKA O’CLOCK this week.

Download on iTunes or listen here.

Joe’s approach to comics started in high school commercial art. He is self taught in the comic art process. As a lifelong fan of comics, Joe gravitated towards superheroes. Joe weighed in on the issues that usually rate entertainment content for age appropriateness: sex and violence. He said he sees less issue with nudity than with violence but TITAN only includes “typical” superhero violence like you would see in a SUPERMAN cartoon or comic.

“I was living the American Dream. I had a house, two cars, a good job, I was doing what I love at night..” ~JM on the day he got his cancer diagnosis

RIPPERMAN came out the day Joe had his first cancer surgery. When SHADOWFLAME came out through Arcana, Joe found out he had cancer a second time. The first time he tried to have a strong attitude but the second time, Joe did not mask his emotions to anyone around him.

In THE MIGHTY TITAN, Joe chose to establish Chicago as his hero’s home base. I asked Joe why he went with a real city rather than creating one that could suit his every need. He feels the story gets a sense of grounding by using real locations and Chicago has some fascinating architecture.

Having lived through cancer, you might be surprised at what super power Joe said he would chose. What would you pick?

So far, no one has cosplayed as any of Joe’s characters. Let’s get this ball rolling! Shadowflame, Ripperman and Titan have very cool designs. There should definitely be people interested in making this happen.

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Founder and Editor-in-Chief of AmberUnmasked.com and Vodka O'Clock Podcast. Author of The Farrah Wethers Mysteries, comic book short stories, prose, and non-fiction. Cosplayer and figure model.