I'm Neil Bramlett, I run Out of Step Arts and Greg Ruth is one of the artists in the
collective.
I've known Greg since, the best I can figure, 2007 about.
I discovered his work at our local library, Freaks of the Heartland, it's kind of one
of my first experiences getting back into comics as an adult, read comics as a kid,
lots of superheroes and X-Men and things like that, Archie.
But as an adult, I kind of grew out of it and I really realized that they made stories
like Freaks of the Heartland horror stories with brilliant art.
So once I found that, you look around the internet, discover Greg's site and he used
to have a forum on Greg things.
It was a really unique environment, it's probably about, maybe about seven to ten regular posters
would come in, Greg was always really kind, very giving of his time, a lot of the people
who were coming and typing and posting things were artists and Greg was never, was, you
know, I'm up here and you're down here, let me look and see what you're doing.
Everybody were peers on there and it was really, it was a really good environment, lots of
fun we had and it was kind of funny, a lot of the artists are now continuing on in their
careers and starting to make a name for themselves.
We were this small internet peer group and I think a lot of the people I've never even
really met in person, it was just all that online interactions and the forum and the emails
and just the sharing of work, a matter of fact I never met Greg in person until this
year.
None of them all those times, you know, I can say I'm a friend and stuff, never really
met him.
You know, he's always been really good to me, very supportive in me starting out of step
arts.
It is a collective of artists that I have put together.
I do representation, I do art sales, it's support services, it's a little bit different
for each artist that I work with, depends on what they need.
I want to keep things kind of small and, you know, I don't want to feel where I'm, you
know, ignoring one artist for another and, you know, I've been doing this going on my
third year now, so still kind of new at it, still trying to flesh things out, figure out
what's needed.
I try to make contacts with publishers who are looking for artists, set up gallery shows.
He was one of the first artists that signed on with me.
He's actually represented through Alan Spiegel, so he does all his, you know, contracts and
book deals and things like that with him.
But Greg said, well, you know, I can sell my art to whoever on my own or whatever I
want to do with it, you know, that's not part of our agreement.
So he was very supportive, like I said, and having him involved, even if it was just,
you know, I had like five pieces of his art or, you know, some project would come out
and he'd want it for sale for a limited amount of time and he would let me run it through
the site.
It was real instrumental in me being able to develop out of step art, develop the collective
that I have now, you know, having his name just associated with it.
It's like, oh, well, you know, I have these artists and I'm also working with Greg Ruth.
So people think, oh, okay, well, this guy, you know, he's legitimate, he knows what he's
doing, I can trust him, you know, if he's working with guys like Greg Ruth.
