Email: richard@zeuscomics.com
Websites: www.zeuscomics.com, www.thevariants.com

Bio: Richard is the out retailer and owner of Zeus Comics in Dallas, Texas.

Established in 2000, Zeus Comics has received eleven local press awards and the 2006 Will Eisner Spirit of Comics Retailer Award.

Since its inception, Zeus has hosted an award-winning, semi-annual mixer for LGBT comics fans. Past guests have included Prism Comics, Marc Andreyko, Lea Hernandez, Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and Gail Simone.

Zeus also hosted CAPE, the Comic and Pop Culture Expo, the largest Free Comic Book Day event from 2004-2008.

In 2004, Richard was featured in The Advocate as a real-life Michael Novotny from Queer as Folk.

In the Fall of 2009, Richard along with Ken Lowery and Joe Cucinotti launched The Variants a scripted comedy web TV series. Based on life inside a comic shop The Variants follows five employees of Zeus and features two openly gay characters.

RECENT PRISM COMICS FEATURES

NEW PRISM GUIDE HITS COMIC BOOK STORES WEDNESDAY, JUNE 6!
[News, Posted 6/4/07]
Los Angeles, CA – The wait is over! Prism Comics’ latest publication, Prism Comics: Your LGBT Guide to Comics 2007, distributed exclusively through Diamond Comic Distributors, will be available at comic book and special shops starting Wednesday, June 6! Prism Comics' fifth annual guide, packed with 144 pages of LGBT comics fun, contains over 30 pages of original comics pages, over 37 pages of creator listings and over 57 pages of interviews, articles and other features, plus—in a…

PRISM COMICS' 2007 GUIDE MOST AMBITIOUS EVER
[News, Posted 4/24/07]
Los Angeles, CA – Prism Comics, the comics industry’s premier LBGT advocacy organization, is proud to announce the publication of its biggest and brightest annual guide so far: Prism Comics: Your LGBT Guide to Comics 2007. In June, the guide will be on shelves in comics and specialty shops served by Diamond Distributors. Customers interested in buying a copy should ask their local shop to order copies of the book. Prism Comics' fourth annual guide is 144 pages of fresh, original, gay…

ZEUS COMICS IN DALLAS GIVES AWAY 200 FREE ISSUES OF MANHUNTER #25!
[News, Posted 8/15/06]
To celebrate the release of DC Comics’ Manhunter issue #25, Zeus Comics in Dallas, Texas is giving away the first 200 copies free! “We’re passionate about Manhunter. What better way to turn comic readers onto this amazing book than by giving it away,” Zeus owner Richard Neal said. Manhunter follows the life of Kate Spencer, federal prosecutor by day and vigilante by night. A reluctant hero, Kate takes on villains and criminals that fall through the cracks of the…

PRISM STORMS SAN DIEGO COMIC-CON 2006!
[News, Posted 7/10/06]
Atlanta, GA - Join Prism Comics at San Diego’s Comic-Con International 2006 for our biggest year ever! Besides our ever lovin’ Booth, we’ve got a slew of panels and creator signings, parties and mixers galore! Here’s the lowdown on events from Wednesday, July 19th to Sunday, July 23rd: Our Booth number is 2148! Write that down. We’ve got a super-prime spot this year, on the same aisle as the mega-DC Comics booth, so we won’t be hard to find! Come meet us (we’re…

ZEUS STARTS FREE COMIC BOOK DAY WITH MIXER
[News, Posted 5/1/06]
Zeus Comics kicks off a weekend of festivities for Free Comic Book Day with its award-winning mixer for gay and lesbian comic fans on Friday May 5th, 2006. Guests of honor at the event include famous comic writers and artists such as Gail Simone, Marc Andreyko, Lea Hernandez, Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and Bryan Hitch. The guests at this years gay and lesbian mixer are responsible for positive representations of gays and lesbians in comics. "Openly gay writers such as Roberto and Marc highlight…

RECENT OFFSITE FEATURES

"THE VARIANTS" MAKE EVERY DAY NEW COMICS DAY
[Source: Queer Sighted, Added: 3/4/10]
One of our favorite web series is the supremely silly The Variants, a gay-flavored sitcom about the employees of a Dallas comic book shop. (You don't have to be a hard-core comics nerd to get all the...

THE VARIANTS OF COMIC BOOK STORE LIFE…
[Source: Examiner.com, Added: 8/9/09]
And you thought your comic book store was crazy. THE VARIANTS is a new webseries by Richard Neal, Ken Lowery and Joe Cucinotti, set in the confines of the Zeus Comic Shop in Dallas, TX…

“THE VARIANTS” DEBUTS
[Source: Dallas Voice: Instant Tea, Added: 8/8/09]
“The Variants,” a Web series written and produced by gay-owned Zeus Comics on Lemmon Avenue, went viral Wednesday… OK, maybe not viral, but sorta bacterial.

DALLAS’ ZEUS COMICS AIMS FOR VIRAL VIDEO STATUS WITH NEW WEB SERIES
[Source: Dallas Voice, Added: 7/31/09]
“Barry and I both play unapologetically gay characters, but extremes of ourselves,” Neal explains. “Joe is the heterosexual who can be socially awkward, the nerd who pines for the girl he...

ZOWIE! SHE'S GAY!
[Source: Dallas Voice, Added: 6/25/09]
But all good things must come to an end. And this week, the end came … with a new beginning. Batman was replaced as the central character in the Detective Comics book. By a woman. Who’s a...