Indie Comics Writer Dan Price on “Bigfoot,” Stan Lee, and Web Comics

I met indie comics writer Dan Price at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center during Awesome Con in June 2022. He was there with his table next to Dennis Valencia — creator of “The Celestial Knight” — promoting his books. Dan’s most famous creation is “Bigfoot Knows Karate,” but we also talked about some of his other titles, including “The Latex Avenger.”

INDIE COMICS ZONE:
Tell me a little bit about your book.

DAN PRICE:
“Bigfoot Knows Karate” is the story of a gentle cryptid warrior who lives in a world where anyone can be the hunter and anyone can be the prey at any given time. The first book is a story of four acts. But the main grabber is that he fights Kung Fu ’Thulhu and a cryptid throwdown of the century. I think the book is “Godzilla vs. Kong” meets “Kill Bill” with a twist.

So, if you like books that are they’re not going to just give you the story. You’re going to have to work for it a little bit. Sorry, I was an English major. I’m going to make you’re willing to work and go for a bit of a ride… “Karate” is the comic for you for sure.

INDIE COMICS ZONE:
Oh, oh my gosh. I don’t know how to say …

DAN PRICE:
Right. It’s “Kung Fu ’Thulhu.” We had such a good time with the Kung Fu character. He’s kind of based off Max Cady from “Cape Fear” meets Macho Man Randy Savage. Okay, so I like bizarre… I like outlandish, and I like absurd.

I mean, previous projects I’ve done like this one over here. Latex Avenger. He’s got a sidekick, “Spermicidal Foam Will.” Add them together, they repel crime 99.9% of the time. I like crazy stuff. I and you know, whether it’s a full blown, indie comedy, or superhero satire, or something that’s more action adventure psychological thriller — there’s still a chock full of humor in this book, and “Bigfoot Knows Karate.”

We really tried to bring something new, different and unique to the table. And then that’s indie comics, right? I mean, you got the standard fare from you know, company A and company B. And they’ve been doing it well, for 80-100 years, or whatever they’ve been doing. I’ve seen their characters. I know what they can do. Now, let’s try something new and unique. This is where the new ideas are — here in artists alley, right? That’s what I’m all about and trying to make that happen.

INDIE COMICS ZONE:
You’ve done a couple of other books?

DAN PRICE:
I’ve also done a book called “Masters of the Obvious,” but I don’t have that with me. After I did “Latex Avenger,” about eight issues of that seven, eight issues. After I did that, I got picked up by a company called Town Comics out of New York. And they did they liked Latex Avenger. But they said “Hey, you got to get the rubber off his head. You got to change his name, get rid of the sperm lightning logo.”

Again, they didn’t do that type of work, which is fair. But this is indie comics — and I can do what I want. So, I said to him, “I’m not going to do that. But I’ve got this other project called ‘Masters of the Obvious.’ It is a sci-fi space parody. You had characters like Dr. Biclops — he has two eyes. The Visible Woman — you can’t miss her. Dorkulon, the geek robot. The amazing Todd, what’s amazing about him what’s not and LeBron, the snapping turtle. Don’t make him snap. You wouldn’t like him when he snaps.

They flew around in a battle toaster called the U.S.S. Screensaver, and had pop culture adventures throughout the galaxy. I did that we did that as a webcomic and was collected into a big edition. And I’ll have those for ComicPalooza next month.

INDIE COMICS ZONE:
Wow! What was the process like — putting a comic out as print and as a webcomic? Have you gotten a lot of reaction?

DAN PRICE:
Oh, yeah, people liked it. You know, they read it as the webcomic. And they wanted that collected edition. Plus, we did a lot of extras in that book, too. A lot of behind the scenes stuff actually sketches and things. There’s probably about 15 pages of extras in that in that collection. And then that rolled into a whole other thing, because the people at the Stan Lee Foundation saw that and they liked that.

They had myself and artist Bonn Adame do something called “Excelsi-ish! The Uphill Adventures of a Boy Named Stanley.” And that was the that was a creater-owned project. We hold the copyrights on it. But it was based on the idea of Stan Lee was a little kid. What would his life be like in the neighborhood? He had characters like instead of Galactus who fought with the neighborhood bullied Galaowitz. And Galaowitz had a little little toady who that hung out with them were carried a skateboard and had a silver shirt. His name was Harold.

I really wanted to do that project because of the editorial. So that was a challenge. You wanted to try something different. I got and then I came back to comics. I took a seven-year break and then I came back to comics with Drew Edwards’ “Halloween Man.”

For more information on Price’s comics and other projects, check out his site at www.bigfootknowskarate.com. NOTE: Price and Edwards collaboration, “Halloween Man Meets the Latex Avenger,” was funded via IndieGoGo and will be available soon.