RICHARD: How does such a situation affect a company like yourself? In terms not only of time and finance, but also motivation and confidence?
SEBASTIEN: 88MPH is owned and run by myself alone. The creative team is scattered throughout the USA and Canada and I work with them over high speed internet. I've financed everything I've done so far from my own money, there is no investor just plain old me.

Some people might say that I am crazy to have risked my money on these projects, that are based more on passion than any real desire for profit, but sometimes crazy works. Tron didn't, but Ghostbusters is still alive and kicking.

Motivating myself is not that hard, I do it based on my desire as a fan to own these books. I truly enjoy working on them. However business being business, money has to be earned so everything can keep moving forward. In that sense, stress can do nasty things on my moral, there is always a chance no one will like what we do. I don't think that will be the case, but if the last year has taught me anything it's to expect the unexpected. Luckily I have a great team working for me; Andrew's always been there, helping in many ways more than just writing, and Steve, Serge and Blond are the same. I have nothing but praise for them. This book is theirs; I'm just in the background shouting encouragement.

People says that comics don't sell like they used too, and I guess that's true. I wish GB could sell 50 thousand copies a month, that would be incredible, but that's just not realistic right now. However, I think once people see the caliber of book we're putting out, we'll do okay. It's to the point now where I'm sick of talking about the book as a theoretical, I want to get it in print and show the world what we've been working on for the last year. I think a lot of people are going to be surprised at just how good it is.

I have learned a lot since 2001, and I've made my share of mistakes, but I have also learned from them. In comics (especially licensed comics) there will always be situations you can't control, just like in any other business. However the nature of what 88MPH is doing puts us in the public eye where one can be judged very harshly, especially when the facts are not all there for people to read.

88MPH is not Devil's Due or Dreamwave, I don't imagine that I could be as successful as they have been. However the quality of what we do is equal to theirs, Andrew, Steve, Serge, Blond are all pros and their collective talent makes Ghostbusters shine like I never thought it could. I am really proud of that book. My company might not be big, but it is here to stay.

I may lack comics experience, but I am a hopeless dreamer, a nostalgic and I am deeply passionate about the work I do. And if people try one issue of Ghostbusters they will see that a whole lot of passion went into its creation.

RICHARD: How about this whole licensed property thing anyway? It seems to take the worst aspects of work-for-hire, a lack of creative freedom, and combine them with the worst aspects of creator-owned, a lack of security and cash flow. Why put yourself through all this?
SEBASTIEN: Working on licensed properties is obviously quite different than working on your own material. It depends on what you want to accomplish in this business, in my case I have the desire to work on Ghostbusters, so I accept the rules of the game and abide by them. But to be brutally honest I don't feel "restrained" at all.

As far as creative freedom goes, we have a lot. Sony is really great to work with, I have nothing but praise for them. They understand what we want to do with this title and are very supportive. Obviously we have to keep things on a certain level (equivalent to a PG-13 movie), but beyond that we can do pretty much anything we want. In the first four scripts, Sony has only requested about a dozen changes, and most of those were typos. So, while other companies might feel constrained, I don't. I'm very lucky to work with a licensor who shares my vision for these characters.

As for the security and cash flow, those are risks I am willing to take because I love the property and want to work on it. Also, I know there is an audience for this title. The problem with most creator owned books is that you have to create your audience from scratch. With Ghostbusters, there is a huge audience out there, we just have to let them know we're here, and produce work that is good enough to get their attention. So that takes away some of the financial risk. Of course, I may be wrong, but I don't think so. And besides, I want to do this. Sure I might fail, but I might not. Everything is a risk, at least this is a risk I will have a lot of fun taking.

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