Mark Wheatley Talks About The Return Of Nucleus

Art At An Atomic Level

Mark Wheatley’s Nucleus was a fanzine he created years ago which he has brought back for one more bumper issue and Tripwire’s consulting editor Scott Braden spoke to him to find out more…

Scott Braden: How did Nucleus begin? Give me some history:

It was 1968, I was a 14-year-old kid. I knew about fanzines from a friend and I started corresponding with (Fantagraphics’) Gary Groth. He and I were sending letters back and forth. I was able to get one of my illustrations published in his Fantastic Fanzine that he was running off on the copy machine at his father’s office. It seemed like I had sent him 200 drawings and he used one. And let’s face it, I was just a kid with enthusiasm unbound. I wanted to have more of my stuff come out. So, I thought I would publish my own fanzine to make that happen. I was lying in bed one morning, and I thought, “What would I call it?” I decided to call it NUCLEUS – and then it would be the center of the comic world. Wouldn’t that be clever? (Laughter). I could then call my Letters’ Page, “The Core of Correspondence.”

NUCLEUS ran from 1969 to the last issue – Issue 9 – coming out in 1974. During that time, even comics superstar Howard Chaykin published his first comic, a story in issue 7 of NUCLEUS. “For Nova Christus” was Chaykin’s tale, which was an Ironwolf prototype before the now comic book icon unleashed the epic space hero at DC Comics. NUCLEUS also published early fan work from Dave Cockrum, Marc Hempel, John Workman, Mike Kaluta, Bernie Wrightson and others.

“But I also learned printing because of NUCLEUS. I worked for the printer who was printing my fanzine. I worked for the printer; I knew printing when I went to college.  By then I had already done some professional work – I designed some ads for banks and stuff. So I co to college and in my Freshman year I ended up kind-of teaching a course.  In the second semester my Art History professor had some sort of family emergency and left. They had no one to replace him with but somebody in the curriculum seemed to think I had enough on the ball keep the class going. I can’t even imagine such a thing today, right?

It was just before college opened that Wheatley answered a note on the student bulletin board and became the art director of the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Commerce his sophomore year. He held down this full-time job, because of its flexible hours, while attending school. 

All of this grew out of my fanzine work. I knew all the stuff you got out of college even before I attended school. What I wanted to learn from college was some technique, drawing, craftsmanship – all of the stuff that I need to bolster the skills I had already picked up.  Of course, in the 1970s, it was bad form to try to teach any of this to an artist because it might infringe on the imagination. I didn’t get it in college so, I have never stopped studying.

A lot of the art and comics you have been seeing now on the internet for Nucleus I have been working on for over three years. I’ve been holding back over the past few years. Now I’m showing a lot of it, trying to get everybody to back the project on Kickstarter. So, it looks like I have suddenly exploded with new work. Unlike when I’m working on tight deadlines for clients, I had the luxury of time for this new work for NUCLEUS. Time for research. Time for false starts and do-overs. And I could allow each piece to find its own way, become what it needed to be.

Over the last decade or two, I could feel the danger that my enthusiasm for comics and the art form might wane. I was looking for ways to reignite that enthusiasm by doing paintings from life, books like Dr. Cthulittle and Songs and Giants, and the Edgar Rice Burroughs: Visions of Adventure portfolio. These projects are all things that I was attached to and enjoyed as a kid. Robert E. Howard, Edgar Rice Burroughs, illustrated books, etc.

I was looking for a new way to return to my comics series, but many of the publishers with any real penetration into the marketplace want to either control creations or own it. We may have heard something about Fables recently that underscores this. I didn’t want to give my properties to a company that would essentially remove my influence. So, this seemed like a great way to return to my characters and do stories. And the central story in Nucleus gives me the opportunity to point out what was always in my mind, and that is that all my characters are connected. It is the Wheatley Universe!

In fact, NUCLEUS includes a 16 track music CD titled “The Multi-Musicverse.” The CD is my original music, filled with theme songs I personally recorded for my comics and graphic novel series throughout the years. The melodies for “Breathtaker,” “Frankenstein Mobster,” “Mars,” “Radical Dreamer,” “Return of the Human,” and more will enrich your readings of my comics and graphic novels. In a different life, I might have had a career in music. Back in the day, I turned down recording contracts with Columbia and Capital simply because I was already contracted to create monthly comics. Joining me on this musical adventure are guest musicians Rich Rankin, Ted Steranko, Timothy Truman, Frances Cincotta, and others. Some of these names will be familiar to comics fans! And the disk has been masterfully crafted by Rich Mouser, a luminary responsible for shaping the soundscapes of notable acts such as Transatlantic, Dream Theater, Neal Morse, Weezer, Oleander, and Spock’s Beard. A sonic architect of this magnitude ensures that every auditory facet is presented at its best.

NUCLEUS X is over 150 pages. The basic idea is that there are three 52-page volumes in a box with heavy duty covers. And because of the long comics story I’m including, it is very possible that I will add another four pages to one of the volumes to allow it to be in one place. But I am making that decision when I am doing the final layout – and I am laying out the last couple pages right now. In addition, there are two 11 x 17 posters devoted to the joy of reading, a set of bookmarks and trading cards, and a set of three rolled prints that will be included and shipped separately. There also are a number of cool add-ons including several giclee prints that showcase my paintings that I am also very excited about. They have been popular; people have really been ordering the art prints. They will be shipped out separately as well.

I’ve been blown away with the support from fans and retailers. I’m offering a discounted bookstore reward level for retailers. And I hope more stores take advantage, since this is their only option to carry NUCLEUS.

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