SPX Spotlight 2014: Mike King Intro-View

Welcome to another entry in the 2014 SPX Spotlight series!  For the next month, Panel Patter will be highlighting creators and publishers who will be at one of the best conventions, the Small Press Expo.  You can check out all of Panel Patter's spotlights for SPX from both this year and prior years here.

New for this year are Guy Thomas's "Intro-views," where he talks briefly to a creator who will be at the show. Enjoy!


I am super lucky to get to meet so many cool people my first year at SPX. One of these awesome individuals is Mike King, a cartoonist from the woods of Arkansas.


Mike is prolific, producing at least two pages a week out of a planned total of 2000. He works mostly with inks, producing pages that are heartfelt, funny, and often touching. I asked Mike a couple of questions as an introduction and warm up for SPX:


What are your favorite comics to read?


King: I usually don't have a lot of time to read comics, but I try my best to follow people I consider my friends like Wesley, Dyemond Obryan, Rory, Rachel Dukes, and Nate Galbraith. I also tend to see a lot of my partner Benji Nate's comics. In my tiny amounts of spare time I have been rereading two internet comics I liked when I was in either high school or middle school Achewood and PvP. Achewood needs to print more books because that thing is golden and I hate reading on the computer.

What are you working on right now?



King: Right now I am halfway through my comic Lion's Teeth on issue Ten. I am just focusing on doing 2,000 pages of material and letting myself do whatever I want before I commit to a real project. The idea being that by the time I am done I will know what I should be doing instead of jumping into a project that lock me into something that doesn't work. Hopefully I can finish it up in the next year or two and do something more concrete, but I am enjoying myself.

What can we expect to see from you at SPX?



King: Smiles. And I will have issue Ten out and hopefully issue Eleven, but I can't promise anything. I think issue Ten might be the best one so far, so I am okay if that's all I get done in time.


Look forward to a longer interview with Mike King after SPX, here on Panel Patter.


Can't make it to SPX? Neither can the site editor, so don't feel too bad! You can find Mike at his website.