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Matthias Schultheiss

I was 23 years old when I wrote and drew THE SINNERS for Piranha Press in the summer of 1988. For some reason, the cover art wasn’t done until early 1989, and the graphic novel(la) was released in June, ’89. I.D. magazine gave it three (out of four) stars and called it ‘mystical’, and AMAZING HEROES also gave it three stars, but THE L.A. READER gave it their “Critics Choice: Book of the Week” award in November, ’89, comparing it to the writing of Albert Camus and the art of Edvard Munch.

At the time I was very heavily influenced by the German and Austrian Expressionists, as well as Munch, their predecessor, but my literary tastes were more in keeping with the Russians (Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Andreyev).

DC’s publisher Jenette Kahn promised me the moon, saying, “Create ten, twelve graphic novels in a row, just create! You’re on the cutting edge!” I finished the second graphic novel HARDCORE, and a third one, called A WINTER WITHIN, was verbally agreed upon, but a contract never materialized. It never progressed beyond the script stage. In retrospect that third book was probably a bit too much like Rudyard Kiplings’ THE LIGHT THAT FAILED, but I was unaware of it at the time. Piranha Press had been a ‘loss leader’ (read: tax write off) for DC Comics for a year, but radical shifts in editorial policy were made in an effort to obtain commercial hits with ‘arty’ material. What really hurt the success of THE SINNERS, in my estimation, was the failed attempt to get it into bookstores. This graphic novel and its followup were only seen by the direct sales/comics shop fans (of mostly traditional fare), so their intended audience didn’t see them. I did a short story for FAST FORWARD #1, Piranha Press’ anthology comic book called “Rising Hill.” I was probably listening to too much Nick Drake music when I wrote and drew that one.

Amazing that this was all only a few years before the Image Comics boom. It was a different world then, the zenith of the black-and-white boom and alternative comics/indie titles of the ’80s. As Scott McCloud said in UNDERSTANDING COMICS, “We thought it was only the beginning, a new plateau. Instead it was the end of everything.”

I had six scripts successively rejected at Piranha Press after that, and knew it was time to move on. One of them was accepted by Dark Horse Comics and published in 1990-91 over six issues of DEADLINE: USA, called “Silence”—also very expressionistic.

Bernie Krigstein, best known for his innovative storytelling for E.C. Comics in ’53 – ’54 (“Master Race”, “The Flying Machine”, “Key Chain”, “Catacombs”, to name a few) was a gallery painter when we met, and I was a frequent guest at his Union Square, NYC studio in the mid to late ’80s. He very much liked the design work in my drawings for THE SINNERS. I was devastated when he passed away suddenly in January, 1990. It seemed the ’90s heralded some radical changes in both my personal and professional life, and there were some very dark, difficult days that followed. But Christ has pierced that darkness and quite literally saved my life, and I am happy to use my God-given talents to glorify His name in art and literature (via my Calvary Comics imprint) and in music (playing guitar in the worship music team at Times Square Church in NYC).