You can listen to the episode by clicking: Episode 111
Every so often we get the opportunity to talk to someone extraordinary, this is not one of those times Extraordinary is too small of a word. Chris Eliopoulos may have has simple beginnings, just a young boy who liked doodling at pizza parlors. From there, he has gone on to having a small empire.
Chris got his break in comics to be a letterer, working on thousands of books over the years. During this time, he mad friend and had some incredible opportunities, including one to set up his own digital lettering shop. Virtual Calligraphy (VC) now completes the majority of the Marvel digital lettering.
His love of drawing never diminished, and he was able to contribute to a few books before he got the opportunity to develop a series dear to our hearts, Franklin Richarrds, Son of a Genius. A truly fun and entertaining series that utilizes his great whimsy and talent to create a unique take on the child of our second favorite team of four.
But that is not all. Chris is also the co-writer and artist of the very successful I Am series of books. These children’s books look at the fascinating lives of histories most important figures. Presenting them in an easy to digest format.
And then, just to cap it all off he also has his own TV show. Xavier Riddle and the Secret Museum, which is about Xavier, his sister and their friends at the Secret Museum. They time travel to the past to interact and learn from historical heroes.
This just goes to show you that your dreams can come true, even if you only want to draw on napkins in a pizza parlor.
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Eighties Action by Kevin MacLeod Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3703-eighties-action License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Jeff and Rick Present 
Jeff and Rick,
I remember Jeff dropping me a hint that this interview was great and informative a while back in an exchange here in the replies. I had forgotten that until I started listening to this episode. Wow! Chris is even more influential than I had initially thought. There were things I didn’t realize until this interview.
Some takeaways from your conversation; I did not realize Chris had started Virtual Calligraphy! I had always been under the assumption that it was a group of letterers. I just thought how great it was that Chris was able to rehire the group of letterers on staff at the beginning of the company. Maybe it’s from reading too many comics, but Chris’ letter fonts stand out much like Todd Klein.
Takeaway 2- I’m surprised he hand lettered a good portion of Savage Dragon with Erik Larsen. It is not surprising to me given Erik’s general DIY aesthetic on the book since he started publishing in 1992. Erik has lettered some stories himself by hand and I always suspected from his interviews that he would gladly remain in that late 70s early 80s mode of storytelling. I had to share this interview with the only pod dedicated to the Savage Dragon title.
Takeaway 3- I did not realize how much Chris did on Son of a Genius. In the period where that title was being put on shelves, I think my money was on a bunch of other titles. Had I knew the title incorporated Katie Power, I would have bought the book. Now I’m looking for copies online and goodness, I am not having much luck.
I always enjoy Carrie’s interaction with the guests and it is so cool that she gets some solid advice from them. Chris Eliopoulos seems like a real cool guy to get to know, and his Xavier Riddle show was a nice surprise in my summer school. I was working computer lab during the month of June and a surprising number of students would watch or play games of the show through the PBS site.
I hope Rick is recovering well from Covid and that it was a mild strain. I hope you guys are having a good start to the summer covid not withstanding. Until next time friends!
I remain,
Jeremy Dawe
a prince
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Jeremy!
See, I told you it was gonna be great, didn’t I? My spoilers are always the best at not being spoilers! 🙂 We were in the same boat as you in regards to Chris. I looked up his bio and said “This guy has done some stuff”. Then we talked to him…wow…jaw dropped. Chris is ridiculously accomplished and combos that with being an amazingly nice individual. He is seriously someone that I would like to be friends with in real life, and not because of who he is in the industries, but because of who he is as a person. The limited interaction that we had with him made me want more. Again, seems like a super cool guy.
Thanks for sharing this with the Savage Dragon pod. Used to like SD back in the day. Didn’t keep up on it or have any of them myself, but I would read a buddy’s issues when I was at his place hanging out.
It is funny to find out that Chris was the originator and driving force of FR: SOAG. I always thought that it was a Marc Sumerac gig and that Chris got plugged in as the artist. Once again the adage of “when we assume” pops into my head. Rick would be the one to ask about where to get these. He picked the trades up for me from somewhere mysterious and forbidden…I will say that instead of he told me and I forgot where he got them from.
Prior to this interview I believe that I had seen an image of Xavier Riddle and that was it. After…well, let’s just say that it is on my need to watch list and move on.
Rick is well recovered from his Covid, which is great. What was not so great was the cold that my house got before him getting it lasted longer than it took him to recover from it. We were sick for 6 weeks. Sucked……especially since we are dealing with the never ending remodel project.
Stay wonderful,
-Jeff
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