Red Hook-based cartoonist, and The Star-Revue’s very own Dean Haspiel won Best Short Story at the ninth annual Ringo Awards in Baltimore on Sept. 26 for his comic Chest Face.
Held annually at Baltimore Comic-Con, the Ringo Awards celebrate achievements in the comic book industry. The awards are named after Mike Wieringo, the late comic book artist known for his work on titles including The Flash, The Fantastic Four and Superman.
Chest Face is a single-issue comic that blends pulp noir, body horror and satire. The comic beat out Detective Comics #1100, a landmark issue in DC Comics’ long-running Batman series.
“In a lot of ways this award just validates me finding the joy of comics again,” Haspiel said while accepting the award from creative duo David Dastmalchian and Leah Kilpatrick.
This is Haspiel’s second Ringo Award. He won Best Webtoon at the inaugural ceremony in 2017 for The Red Hook, his webcomic about a thief turned superhero protecting Brooklyn in a world where it’s broken away from the rest of the city.
Haspiel first conceived Chest Face after his friend Charlee McElvy, founder of Xion Studios, invited him to contribute a short story to an anthology he was working on at the time.
“I didn’t know who Chest Face was at first, but I kept laughing at the idea because it was so absurd,” Haspiel told the Star-Revue. “He can look mean, and he’s a tough guy, and he’s kind of written like a noir-character, but he’s a stand-up comedian. He’s tragic like most comedians, and that can be the funniest thing about them.”
In Chest Face, Chester Faccia is a down-on-his-luck comedian who is transformed into a hulking monster with a healing factor after being lured into what he believes is a blood drive. A greedy corporation is responsible for his mutation and considers him its property. Now on the run, Chest Face must evade capture while trying to perfect his comedy routine.
As he developed the character, he drew inspiration from the creations of legendary comic artist and New York City native Jack Kirby, including The Thing and Arnim Zola.
After the original story gained traction, Haspiel expanded it into a 24-page comic during an artist residency at Yaddo in Saratoga Springs.
For Haspiel, who has spent much of his career working with large and small publishers, winning an award for an independently published comic is gratifying—if bittersweet.
“The thing that’s so curious to me is that I won an award for a comic you can’t find in a comic shop,” he said.
According to Haspiel, self-publishing provides him with greater creative freedom and a more direct connection with his audience. However, without the wealth of resources of larger comic publishers, print runs of are typically limited, and many of his fans interact with his work first and foremost through the internet.
“I prefer print over pixels,” Haspiel said. “I understand we live in a world where it’s becoming harder to find pulp. Although lately I have been happy to see people reading actual books on the subway. So I think it’s kind of like vinyl. It’s coming back.”
Haspiel’s next project is Antimatter, an anthology collecting stories from across his career, including Chest Face, The Red Hook, COVID Cop and more. He hopes the collection will introduce readers to a broader range of his work and potentially get a larger print run.
“At the end of the day all my comics are love stories,” Haspiel said. “I know that can sound sentimental, but it’s the truth… Somehow I’m always inserting that ideal or those ideas into my work because, to me, that’s what makes it meaningful.”
