Out of the Dragons Keep archives comes our interview with creators Jay Odjick and Matt Austin. We thought it would be cool to revisit these two cats, who are working hard at bringing their work to the attention of comic book fans! So, please have a read and enjoy!

Jay: I brought along Matt Austin, the esteemed inker, letterer and jack of all trades of Power Hour for this interview, just to help me remain coherent and on point. To try to answer the question, tho; more or less, my lack of ability to keep a job, I would have to say. I am sure my parents would agree.

One day I just sat down and started drawing, and it turned out I was pretty decent at it.

Kidding - but I LOVE when guys say that - "I didn't start drawing till I was 29 and I got my first comics work at 29 and a half!" That's not my story - I have wanted to draw comics since I was a kid.

Matt: Isn't it every kid's dream to get into comics?

JO: Well, I figured out early in that there were only so many things I was interested in that society would allow me to do and still retain my freedom. So I started drawing a lot more as I got older. I actually got my first rejection letter from Marvel when I was ten.

Fell out of it for awhile, for the typical reasons, then got my first job drawing a few years back. Always liked drawing, and always wanted to tell stories. Put em together, I figured.

DK: With "Power Hour" now online and building a fan base from those that visit the site. Need to ask, who is involved in the production of the series and how did "Power Hour" all come together and land the spot at Poop Shoot?

JO: The Power Hour team is myself and Matt - we have known each other for awhile now - he runs a forum called Super Buddies that you can check out at www.superbuddies.net/forum and I used to post a lot of art there. We got to talking about teaming up on a pic or two and the results were great, I thought.

Plus, Matt inks digitally, which I think is cool, because we can go back and forth and only scan things once, plus I get to keep all my original pencils and we don't have to photocopy. He rocks, and makes my art look good.

Basically, I write the strips, pencil em, and Matt inks em and letters em. Sometimes we end up coloring together, other times, it's been me.

Power Hour came about from me wanting to create a webcomic. I was meaning to do one while I had the free time to draw some pages. Better to make a comic than just draw some pages I figured. I was talking with Chris Ryall, the editor at the Shoot and I told him I was looking at doing a webcomic, and asked him if he would be interested in checking it out. He said he would be, so we pitched him some character designs and samples, and here we are.

MA: From my end, I'd been tinkering around with digital inking in Illustrator. Jay asked me if I thought I could handle a full page. The character design isn't all that complex (says the tracer), and we're not heavy on backgrounds (yet), so the job isn't that tough. Given the fact that this isn't my full-time gig, I wanted to get a few weeks worth of pages in the bucket before we went live. It's been a learning process for both of us, I think.

JO: Me moreso than anyone else maybe, because up until now I used to draw whatever I wanted and just throw words in here and there. Matt asked me for a "script", and I just laughed it off, until I realized he was serious. So I had to research that and look it up in the dictionary. Then, learn to write. Steep learning curve.

DK: For those not familiar with "Power Hour", please bring readers up to speed; who are the primary characters and what's the plot line?

JO: The strip revolves around a team of superpowered individuals. I hesitate to call them super-heroes. I mean, you could make a case that they are. I just wouldn't! Heh! Basically, this really rich guy wants a team of superheroes so he puts one together comprised of some characters who may seem familiar at first; but quickly reveal themselves to be slightly off kilter from what we have come to expect.

It's a lot less edgy, but I describe it as Justice League meets Family Guy.

JO: A love of superheroes - and the things that happen around them that no one talks about or touches on a lot of the time. I like looking at them from a different point of view - not so much making fun of them as - okay, in some cases, making a LITTLE fun. But it's all love, baby!

MA: I'm just geeked about the whole idea of our work being seen. That's what keeps me going at it.

I like the way he neglects to mention the blackmail. This is why I work with the guy!

DK: With "Power Hour" being an online comic, what have been the pros and cons versus the series being a printed in the traditional comic book?

MA: Pros - We don't have to worry about printing costs or distribution. Right now, the only overhead we have is our own time.

Cons - Probably that time thing.

JO: Yeah, we'll skip right past the stock answers and go right for the real deal: It's cheap. Heh! In all seriousness, printing and publishing comics is expensive and a tough road to hoe. (Are we allowed to say words like "hoe?")

With Power Hour, we are exposed to a pretty wide and varied audience. The site gets about 7 million hits per month - so ultimately it acts as way to show people my work and do comics the way I want to do them! The guys at the Shoot have been great - Ryall is the man.

So far, we have gotten along great and he has been a tremendous supporter of the strip.