Finders Keepers is off to a great start. And while I get the glory, my publishing partner is the unsung hero that made Finders Keepers possible. So here’s everything you need to know — or could want to know! — about the guy behind the guy:
Q: Finders Keepers kicks butt. Who is the publisher?
Russ: 3 Finger Prints, which is owned and operated by Rich Koslowski (www.richkoslowski.com), an award-winning comic book artist and writer. His impressive collection of work includes his recent collaboration with writer JD Arnold on the critically acclaimed BB Wolf and the 3 LPs; his absolutely hilarious, must-read comic-book series The 3 Geeks; award-winning docu-style Three Fingers; Elvis-themed The King; and Santa Clause-meets-Die Hard romp, The List. He is also a regular contributor to Archie comics, and is a licensed artist for Family Guy and The Simpsons.
Rich is a regular on the comic-book convention circuit, and publishes some of his work under his own banner, 3 Finger Prints, which will be the publisher of Finders Keepers. This is his first publishing venture representing an outside author.
Q: Russ, why did you choose to publish under 3 Finger Prints?
Russ: Rich and I first met at a comic book convention in Silver Spring, Maryland, in the late 1990s, although we really came together at the 2007 San Diego Comic-Con. Rich has long been an enthusiastic supporter of Finders Keepers. There’s a real synergy between us.
Q: How so?
Russ: Even though Finders Keepers is a novel, there is a lot of overlap between the audience I’m targeting (and think will enjoy it) and Rich’s comic-book audience. If you like comic books, you’ll like Finders Keepers, as I intentionally wrote the novel with chapter-to-chapter cliffhangers, multiple characters and lots of humor.
Rich: Agreed. Finders Keepers is is not just a sci-fi/fantasy novel, but a character-driven novel as well. The dialogue is what really put it over the top for me, and separated it from the ordinary sc-fi romp. Writing real dialogue is an art! Russ nailed that aspect of this book quite well.
Russ: Flattery will get you everywhere!
Q: Rich … how do you feel about Finders Keepers being the first publishing project for 3 Finger Prints that you haven’t written yourself? What drew you to Finders Keepers?
Rich: Russ really knocked my socks off with Finders Keepers. I’ll admit, when he asked me to read it I was more than a bit skeptical if I’d really like it … and what do you tell him if you don’t? … I mean, we had become fast friends working the cons (comic book conventions) together. But I was absolutely blown away and devoured the book within days! I quickly became as involved as possible helping Russ in whatever capacity I could. We eventually started tossing the idea around of my publishing Finders Keepers.
Russ is the first “outside” author I’ve taken on, so I’d hope that says a lot about how confident I am with his work. As a huge sci-fi/fantasy fan (LOVE Terry Pratchett, Peter David, Neil Gaiman), I’m pretty selective on what I like. Russ’ book more than holds up against the best of the best!
Oh, and the cover art kicks @$$!
Q: Speaking of the cover … who is the artist?
Russ: That is a Rich Koslowski original, and it’s pretty amazing. He really blew me away, as I expected he would. The colors alone totally pop. The main concept came together quickly, but it took us a little while to settle in on the background, and then Rich sent me this idea—this dusk setting—and immediately I said, “that’s it!” It wasn’t the way I was thinking about the cover, which is exactly why I don’t do art. When it
comes to the visuals, I’m often too literal-minded. But Rich told me from the beginning, “Trust me, this is going to really kill. I’ve got some ideas.” And he was right. I love it.
Q: How did you guys decide that Rich would also create the art, as well as publish?
Russ: It was pretty organic, actually.
Rich: I wanted to do the cover and Russ agreed. As there are a lot of characters in Finders Keepers—and it’s a character-driven book—I wanted to feature as many characters as possible on the cover, but also focus on the three or four main characters. So I did a massive wraparound cover with the secondary characters on the back and the main characters on the front. It also had to be “cosmic,” so I had a lot of fun with that jar! It’s the focal point of the design and I think it works very well.
It is very dynamic … very eye catching. I think people will dig it.
Q: Who came up with the design? Was that Rich?
Russ: Mostly … yes. Since Rich knows Finders Keepers so well, I pretty much gave him license to come up with whatever he wanted. Rich sent me some original pencils, which I liked quite a bit, and then made some suggestions. What really knocked me out was the idea of having a wrap-around cover—the total artwork is on both the front and back cover, so that if it were laid out flat, you would see the entire piece like a mosaic. I never would have thought to do it that way, but then, that’s why Rich is the
artist, and I’m just the writer dude.
Q: Rich … the front cover has four of the main characters leaping into the air, reaching for a jar that appears to be glowing. What’s going on there?
Rich: They’re all fighting for that jar … the jar that holds the universe’s DNA, man! It’s kind of important, and they all want it. ‘Course, some of them are the bad guys and some are the good guys, so we want the right people getting it.
To learn more about Rich Koslowski and 3 Finger Prints, click here:
http://www.richkoslowski.com/about.cfm