This wonderful place we all visit doesn't appear magically. Granted, I had a general idea of what we wanted to do, but, I've never run a web-site before. Making movies and music...child's play...This web-site was beyond my abilities.

It wasn't until my plea for help was responded to by rickflag1, that this site was able to be what it is today.

I thought it appropriate that my next interview be with Robert Johnston (rickflag1), the mastermind behind the web-site and the magazine... and newly named as EB30 Director of Operations.

rickflag1: No worries. I usually look on the site everyday as well, and always look out on the internet for new content, as you can all see every time I post something new about getting the proper amount of sleep or whatever.

jmp63: What can members do to help you out?

rickflag1: Well, you can all participate by just being yourselves. Live your lives, and share your experiences with us here at EB30. If you have any ideas for the magazine, or the website that you think would fit, we are more then helpful to getting that up there. This "experience" is for all of us.

jmp63: What do you see as our biggest challenges in the immediate, near, and long-term futures?

rickflag1: Our Biggest challenges, are going to be branching out at the cons. Headtrrip1 did an excellent job of getting those signatures, and Tezlon, is going to be getting an EB30 T-shirt signed, along with the help of our very own annarose, we love you anna! Not to mention what you did Jon, at the Wizard World Chicago Con! great job by the way. But getting the pro's to take us seriously enough, to allow us access to them, and coordination with the charity org's, will be the hardest part. But as long as we keep our hearts and minds set on just helping people, we can do no wrong.

jmp63: We made a decision early on for our focus to be charity...we could have tried to make some money on this whole thing. Why do you think we made that choice?

rickflag1: This serves a dual purpose. 1st: This actually helps people, and helping people is good for the soul, or the spirit, or whatever it is that you call you inside. 2nd: This gets us front and center with our favorite comics creators (not to mention other types of venues and shows). I love this idea, that we can get this thing so big, that they "know" who we are, and open the doors for us, to come on in, and get those shirts signed, and auctioned off for the charity we are working for at the time. If we do this right, that's exactly what could happen.

jmp63: What got you into comics? Your first experience you can recall that made you an enthusiast...

rickflag1: What got me into comics? Batman & The Outsiders. I used to go to this little store back in my home town of Port Huron. Michigan, and buy comics off the rack in there. I was just amazed at the different comics there. It was wondrous to me. Then, over the years, I began to have ideas of my own...I worked on drawing, writing, and when I was in 6th grade - this is going to sound dumb, but I drew a robeast from Voltron, and photocopied it, and handed it out to every single kid in my class. Why? To this day I have no idea why! LOL! But years later, I met this guy named Larry Lonsby Jr. And I worked on some comics with him. He and his bro's had this little underground comic company called Darkworld Comix. I joined them early on, but didn't really produce much for them, just a few little things here and there...I am friends with Larry to this day, and he is the EB30 member TEZLON. I have known Larry, probably since 1988-89. So, with this feeling of wanting to do comics, I had to think of a way that could best get me in that direction, and that was Graphic Design. So I went to college, and ended up learning Graphic Design, Web Design and Video Editing. And here we are.

jmp63: What would you want to be in comics as a pro...artist, writer, editor...?

rickflag1: I would want to do it all. I love creating. My dreams come to me in comic form, and I write them down all the time. My stories, write themselves, the characters tell me where they want to go. At the same token, I'd do any grunt work, because a sound understanding of how things get made, is just as important as being the guy that gets top billing on the front of a comic. I like to be humble in my endeavors. It makes you realize, that there is always someone smarter and better then you out there somewhere.

But, I don't want to sound like any one million of those fanboys out there with the dream of breaking into the industry. I'm trying to avoid that. I just love comics and storytelling, and that's what I want to do. Whether I make it tomorrow, or when I'm 70 - IT WILL HAPPEN. :)

Cheers!

Jon/jmp63

7-2008