First Comics News: What comics, have you had work in, put out by yourself, or by any other publisher in the past?
Terry Sala: There is no active campaign for our current comics project. We are shooting for May 2025 to launch, on Kickstarter. As far as my resume goes, yes, I have done quite a bit, all for Marat Mychaels’ Counterpoint Comics. Counting seasonal specials, I wrote over thirty issues of Notti & Nyce, most of which were drawn by Jerry Rascoe. I also wrote Do You Pooh, Walking Dead-Pooh, Hardlee Thinn, All-Out Pooh, Tiggomverse, Bad Girl Apocalypse, Poohverine & Tiggom, Battle Fairy & The Yeti and Ultimate Willie #1. Right now, I am working on two creator-owned projects: “The Just”, which is being drawn by Jerry Rascoe, and we’re looking at a summer release with a prelude ashcan comic book, coming out in the next few weeks. And this one, “The Rejects”, was drawn by Deacon Slade. These two projects will be my first time venturing outside of Counterpoint. I’m attaching the first five pages and a couple of other things.
1st: Who are the members of The Rejects?
Terry: Our group consists of six characters, all of whom will have powers emerge as the series progresses. While I won’t delve into their powers here to not spoil it, I will include their codenames.
So you and the readers can make of that what you will.
Peak (Anders Johansen) – the oldest of the team at 22. American of Norwegian descent. Peak refers to peak human. As such he is very confident, but also overly cocky.
SureShot (Nadia Mikhailov) – 20 years old. Russian. Also extremely confident like Peak, but her confidence is one born from her looks. She has always gotten her way due to her beauty. Spoiled. Has a mean streak. Was trained by her father with a bow & arrow.
Ellectronne (Elle Stewart) – 18 years old. Playful personality. Scottish. Always wants everyone to get along, and never wants to butt heads with anyone. Genius-level intellect. Is a people pleaser.
Expresse (Astrid Sorenson) – 17 years old. Shy personality. Danish. Is hesitant to fight but not to argue, as she is short-fused.
Mutation (Mason Davies) – 16 years old, the youngest of the group. Australian. Is fearful of everything as he is the youngest and smallest.
Stretch (Nebiri Petros) – 18 years old. Ethiopian (black). Was raised very poor, and he enjoys the simple comforts of food, shelter, and bed.
1st: Can you tell us what The Rejects comics story is about, like a synopsis?
Terry: As issue one starts, the reader will find out that there are six teens (young adults) who are being held captive. I’ll go ahead and spoil a little here…issue two will show that in the recent past, a large corporation rounded up thirty-six teens/young adults – some willingly, others not – from all around the world, who were all shown to genetically carry the genome for carrying powers, which hadn’t yet manifested. This group of thirty-six was separated into six groups of six. Our six have been thrown together, as their powers have not yet emerged, and none of the normal methods to get their powers to activate that were used on the other thirty, is working on them. As such, they are the ‘losers’ of the program; Rejects, if you will.
1st: Hence the title of this comic series. I see!
Terry: They desperately want to escape the facility they are at, as the corporation is torturing them, in the hopes that it will make their powers come about.
1st: How many issues will there be, and do you know when it is coming out? I’m also wondering, is this a Kickstarter, Print on Demand, and will this by chance be going to comics shops, as well?
Terry: Assuming it’s received well, it will be five issues released through Kickstarter campaigns beginning this Spring. We’re open to publishing through an indy company if the right one is interested.
1st: Have these characters ever seen print, before?
Terry: They have not.
1st: Correct me if I’m wrong, but it looks like one of your comics came out way back in 2005. Is this correct?
Terry: No. The first time I was published was in 2015. Notti & Nyce #9 and Do You Pooh both came out in January of o015.
1st: Fair enough. Did you create all these comics, writing and illustrating them as well? Or, do you work with other creators also, including artists?
Terry Sala: I only write. I’m a horrible artist, yet for some reason, the fans all seem to want remarques (art) from me. I just don’t get it. It’s a funny new trend, I guess. As far as artists I’ve worked with: Jerry Rascoe, Dietrich Smith, and Ron Williams have drawn almost everything I’ve written. There have been others who drew a few pages here and there, but those three are the main ones. Deacon Slade is drawing The Rejects. He is freaking amazing! He lives in Spain. I met him on Facebook in Rob Liefeld’s fan group, which I administer, along with Rob. He was posting a lot of gorgeous fan art, as well as entering the art contests, winning quite a few of them. He hit me up back in June of last year and asked me if I wanted to do a project with him. I jumped at the chance, and I told him to give me a little time to come up with a story and characters that played to his strengths. After bopping a couple of ideas around, in September, we landed on The Rejects. I feel honored that Deacon chose me. This guy…I don’t know where he’s been hiding, but I think he will surely surpass me in this industry, and leave me in his dust. He’s just that good.
1st: How long have you been at this?
Terry: I wrote my first published work eleven years ago, in 2014; it was released in 2015.
1st: Well, most creators are either gifted writers or artists, but not both. Look at astronauts, for example. They do just one thing, but what they all do is amazing, including Chris Hadfield, who I particularly follow in the news, (including online), because he is a Canadian, like me! So, I can sort of relate to him, on some levels. But I bet most astronauts cannot do what they do, whilst singing ‘Oh Canada!’ or ‘The Star Spangled Banner, while also juggling six orange baboons, and chewing gum, all at the same time! Smile. If I may ask, where were you born, and where did you grow up?
Terry: I was born and raised in a south Texas city called Victoria. It’s a medium-sized city, with around 80,000 people here.
1st: I’m in Canada. Nova Scotia, to be a little more exact. We also have a city called Victoria, on Vancouver Island. Just off the mainland from Vancouver, proper. How old were you when you discovered the existence of comic books, and how did you get hooked? When was this, and do you remember some of your favorite comics and characters from back when?
Terry: In April of 1973, when I was six, I bought my first comic: Captain America and The Falcon # 163. It had the Serpent Squad as the villains, and I’ve been obsessed with the Serpent Society/Serpent Squad, ever since. I even have a sketchbook of nothing but their members being drawn in it by artists I came across, at Comicons.
1st: What is it that is so special to you about the Serpent Society and the Serpent Squad? I remember that, when I was very young, my older brother James bought a then-new Silver Age ‘The Avengers’ comic book which was the very first appearance of the (very racist) ‘The Sons of The Serpents.’ Since that ground is serpent/ snakes-based too, perhaps now, you’ll start having Comicon artists draw for you The Sons of The Serpents, too? I attached the cover of Silver Age The Avengers # 32 just for fun (their first appearance) so that you can see what they look like! I have a complete run of the Silver Age titles Captain America (and) The Avengers I also added, right at the bottom, the cover of Captain America # 163, which you mentioned was the very first comic you bought with your own money. Readers like to see what is being discussed, as much as we can do.. Then, there is Princess Python, a member of The Ringmaster’s Circus of Fear. Yep, I attached a photo of that team down the bottom, too. Just so you’ll have to buy more ‘snake sketchbooks’. Heh, heh! As Bugs Bunny used to say, “Iams such a stinker!”
Terry: It was their looks, all colorful and edgy. And their powers and weapons were so flashy. Also, I guess there’s something psychological behind it being that it was my first comic. I’m very familiar with the Sons Of The Serpent. They’re okay. But the fact that they’re just regular guys with no powers made them not all that special to me. As far as Princess Python goes, she was eventually a member of the Serpent Society, as well. I had Jerry Rascoe draw the entire Serpent Society for me a while back. It took three 11×17 boards, and it is amazing. Worth every penny. My favorite comics as a kid? I bought every comic I could find back then, but my favorites were easily Uncanny X-Men and The Defenders.
1st: Those three large art boards are likely way too big to scan, but I was wondering if perhaps you could maybe take some cell phone pics of them, to include in your interview, since you were talking about them. Are they in color They sound amazing, either way!
Terry: I’ve scanned them in and “stitched” them together.
1st: That is amazing, Terry, thanks! And of course, I know our readers will be thrilled to see these! I also always liked both the Serpent Squad and The Serpent Society, but I also liked The Sons of The Serpent at Marvel in the Silver Age, because that was a good commentary on racism and why racism is so very wrong and just so very, very ugly. Are you familiar with Marvel’s The Sons of The Serpent? They had perhaps a handful of appearances, but not nearly as many as those other snake teams. Marvel’s The Sons of The Serpent hasn’t been in comics in a long time! I’d say they’re due for a revival. Or maybe not. There’s too much of that type of ugliness like that in today’s U.S. politics, right now! Why stoke that fire any further, right?
Terry Sala: As I said in answering the last question, I know who The Sons of The Serpent are. They just have nowhere near the pizzazz of the Serpent Society, so they didn’t do much for me.
1st: I completely get that. And there is the Kobra organization/group, over at DC group, and some other snake characters, for example, Copperhead. Were you a comics completist, like me, or were you only buying for certain artists, like a lot of my friends?
Terry Sala: I bought everything. I was a total completist on literally all things Marvel until “Fear Itself”. That was the worst comics event ever, and it permanently changed my collecting habits.
1st: I pretty much bought everything too, with a few examples, because, as a kid, I didn’t have that much money. Thankfully, comics were cheap then, unlike today’s prices on them! I have attached some scans, even though I said I’d wait on that. A Cap. American & The Falcon # 163 cover as a scan, in addition, to a couple of others I’ll put all your comics scans back on, once the interview is concluded. Myself, the first comic I remember buying with my own money as a kid was Doctor Strange # 170 And Fantastic Four # 97. The last one I remember buying as one of the very first ones I owned with my own money, was a Charlton The Phantom issue, but I don’t recall the issue # of it. The Creature who appeared in the Silver Age Fantastic Four # 97 was, of course, a blatant rip-off of the three classic ‘Creature’ movies: The Creature From The Black Lagoon (1954), Revenge of The Creature (1955, and it, Clint Eastwood’s very first appearance on film); and finally, The Creature Walks Among Us (1956.) As I’ve mentioned in other interviews for First Comics News, this Canuck is a huge Captain America fan and collector! Readers of THIS interview will be thinking, reading it, “Yeah, we know, Phil. We know!” Heh. Captain America is awesome! And I, too, bought Captain America # 163 when it came out in 1973; I’m a little older than you are. I keep lying and saying I’m twenty-six, but for some reason, nobody seems to believe me. I mean, I look in the mirror, and I think I have an honest face… Oh well. 
I liked Defenders as well, back then, though most of those issues and many other series I parted with, regrettably, several decades ago, the very day – early afternoon of that day – that I, still later that day, joined the Canadian Navy. The Halifax, Nova Scotia comics shop in question, the name of which was ‘Odyssey: 2000’ (a shop which no longer exists), paid me only one hundred dollars for over two thousand comics, at the time, including the Defenders issues. I’ve always regretted selling all those comics for such a pittance, but I’d taken them (to sell) on a train ride of 200 miles from Yarmouth, N.S. to Halifax, on my way to join the Navy in Halifax, and I could not take them with me, beyond Halifax. And so, I had no choice but to agree. And that $100.00 Cdn. At the time was a pittance for all that, even way back then. This would have been the summer of 1987. Fortunately, I still have the mass bulk of my entire lifetime collecting, in paid storage lockers. But I missed my almost complete runs of Conan The Barbarian (and) Savage Sword of Conan, some of which I have replaced, over the years. So, there is a little story of my youth. It’s only occurred to me right now, for the very first time, that had I thought of it, I could have squirreled them away into several train lockers at the train station in Halifax, which lock, with keys! Dang! Oh, well! I had letters published in Defenders # 34, and then, 34 (thirty-four issues later), another letter of comment of mine was published in Defenders # 68, coincidentally enough. I was an avid Marvel and DC, etc. constant letter hack to comics companies, back then, and as a result, I had hundreds of letters published. My first was in Marvel Premiere # 25, featuring Iron Fist. I still have all of my Captain ‘A’s, though. Have you ever parted with any comics that, later, you came to regret?
Terry: I sold everything I had, about 15,000 comics in 2000. The comic shop paid me $500 for them. Times were tough. I hate that I had to do that, but I’ve since reacquired everything important to me. I guess it was a blessing that I had them so I COULD sell them.
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