Review Fix chats with Faith Fallon creator Steven Penella, who discusses his origin in the industry and hopes for the series.
Review Fix: How did you know a career in comics was for you?
Steven Pennella: The first comic book I picked up was Amazing Spiderman #121 when I was in the third grade. That did it for me. I went to the Kubert School in 1982 and graduated in 1985. It took me until August of 2016 to get Faith Fallon published by an independent publisher in the US called Insane Comics. Luckily, I own the character because Insane folded in 2018 and I was able to find another publisher. Currently the series is available through Markosia, a publisher in the UK.
Review Fix: Who inspires you creatively?
Pennella: Right now, I tend to follow many artists and illustrators on social media and many of them are not comic book artists. I pick up things here and there.
Review Fix: What inspired this comic?Pennella: Faith Fallon is based on an old idea of mine from my Kubert school days. The real inspiration was to get it off the bucket list. I was pushing 50 and I never got a lick of the comic book life; because I sucked at drawing in my 20s-late 40s. I’m a graphic designer by trade and I finally took the plunge in 2010 to start working on it .
Review Fix: How is it different or special?
Pennella: People that enjoy horror, noir, or streaming miniseries will like this.
Review Fix: How do you want it to be remembered?
Pennella: I hope that I’ll be remembered as a good husband, father, person and creator.
Review Fix: Anything else you’d like to add?
Pennella: The comics business is hard and unforgiving; Don’t expect to make it your life’s work like Jack Kirby did. Learn something else related to art.
Review Fix: What’s next?
Pennella: Good question, at 57 I’m not sure if I’ll ever do another creator-owned graphic novel or series but I’ll continue to improve on my craft and see where it takes me.
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports.
Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders.
His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023.
Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief.
Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale.
Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.
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