Nelson

The concept behind Nelson is quite unique: A 43-year old tale about the life of Nel Baker, born in 1968, as told by 54 British creators, published by Blank Slate Books, in a 252-page collaborative graphic novel. (Is that enough numbers for you?) Did I mention that all profits from the book go to Shelter, the housing and homelessness charity? To mark the book’s recent release, Woodrow Phoenix (who co-edited the project with Rob Davis) took the time for a recent email interview. Once you’ve read this interview, be sure to enjoy CBR’s Mark Caldwell’s interview with Davis, as well as CSBG’s Greg Burgas explaining why he ranked this book as one of his best graphic novels of 2011.

Tim O’Shea: In the afterword for this book, you noted that there is “an invisible jigsaw in this book that you could put together if you knew where to look for the pieces. A secret history, a kind of group autobiography, comprised of memories and reflections from each of the creators of Nelson.” Did you always see the jigsaw pieces, or did the pieces reveal themselves to you as you compiled the book?

Woodrow Phoenix: Those pieces gradually made themselves apparent as we put the book together, really. Because the idea with the story was to ground it in recent history through the eyes of Nel, our protagonist, many of us used bits of our own lives. Things that we remembered, that we had seen or been told about, personal family history or items that had been in the news at the time. We based our stories on them or did ‘what if’ fictional riffs with them and Nel. You’ll notice a lot of real events are alluded to in the backgrounds of strips. There are a lot of pop music references, for instance. Before the late-1980s and cable & satellite TV, songs that were in the charts were the only music you’d hear on local or national radio and everybody had to listen to the same three or four stations because that was all there was. So they are a really good indicator of moods and styles in 1970s and 80s Britain, and most people used them for texture in their stories.

As the book progressed we saw what a good narrative engine the episodic chapter idea was. Because you could build an event into a story without having to explain what happened before or after it, creators could start anywhere. But they could ‘comment’ in their chapters on events that were significant to them from previous chapters. So by the time we got to the end I’d found out a lot of fascinating things about my fellow contributors!

O’Shea: Speaking of the book, you are one of its co-editors. How did the co-editing duties break down (who did what?) in terms of the collaborative editing of the book?

Phoenix: We shared the story editing equally, talking through every decision before we asked anyone to change anything. We asked everyone to follow the same process: read the story so far, then deliver an outline or script within three days. Rob and I would read and discuss it, then one of us would give the creator any notes or feedback necessary. They had another three days to come back with rough layouts which we would again discuss and comment on. Once we’d okayed them, the script and roughs were passed onto the next person in line to start them working. This way people could work on their final finished pages without feeling pressured to hurry, but the book kept moving, a chapter a week.

I had the extra responsibility of the design and production too. One of the main problems with anthologies is how the differing styles of many artists can easily make a book feel random and unfocused. So I knew a page design that framed all the artwork in the same way was going to be crucial to tie everything together. The running heads and no top or bottom bleeds give a consistency that makes Nelson feel directed and curated; no matter what’s going on within the page it’s all visually and thematically connected.

We were determined to make this book accessible to people who had never read a comic before. People new to comics struggle with figuring out reading order and what to look at first. So the other key thing I did to help consistency was to go over everyone’s lettering and balloon placements, making sure that all the creators were using the same “visual grammar” even if their styles weren’t remotely similar. Lettering is often the most neglected part of comics but speech balloons are the way that people connect with your narrative. Bad lettering will confuse and annoy your readers and destroy your comic. So it’s crucial to do it systematically and logically; even moreso on a large project like this. I did a lot of tweaking.

O’Shea: How did it come to be that certain creators landed certain years in the project, were they selected because “Hey creator A’s style is best suited for that year.” Or what was the criteria?

Phoenix: Some people really wanted a particular year, so they got it – but mostly it was about fitting styles to a time period, and putting the right people next to each other to get the most interesting transitions going. Rob had a idea of what style would fit a particular time in Nel’s life–childhood, teens, early adulthood, etc–and he decided who should go where. There was a little shuffling later on but 70-80% of the creators were happy with their position in the lineup and as you can see, the progression worked out really well.

O’Shea: I am not going to ask you for favorites, of course, but can you mention a few contributions that were far different than what your expectations were for a particular creator?

Phoenix: Almost no-one did what I expected they would. We picked people who wrote or wanted to write as well as draw. Few of us did literary naturalism, so it was definitely going to be pushing most contributors into new territory. Jamie Smart surprised me with the depth of his characterisation of Nel and her parents in just two pages for 1971. He managed to get so much personality and quirkiness into them so deftly and economically, it was an amazing gift to the book right at the beginning. There’s a three panel sequence in Sean Longcroft’s 1975 chapter that is just breathtaking in its appallingly casual depiction of a near tragedy. I keep going back to it. John Allison did some beautifully subtle character studies with just enough slapstick to throw you off the scent. Simone Lia captured the random madness of teenage (il)logic wonderfully well… I could go on. Nelson is packed with great moments.

O’Shea: In editing these various creators, were there any storytelling lessons you took away from the experience?

Phoenix: It’s a strange (but very telling) quirk of the industry that generally comics editors are not artists. They come from print media, publishing or even TV backgrounds and it isn’t considered important or relevant for them to know anything about drawing. I discovered that when I gave very specific art notes to creators–move this character up and put the speech balloon over here so that in the next panel your eye will go here, break this action into two panels, this should be an up-shot, move the horizon line down in this panel, etc–they were usually amazed and delighted to get storytelling advice that made sense and fixed narrative problems that they might have been stuck on. One person said that the total amount of useful, targeted feedback he had received in twenty years of drawing comics was less than he got from Rob and I in two weeks.

Rob and I have opinions and we aren’t shy about voicing them, which is the main reason why we did Nelson, to make a book that we thought needed making. But as a result of working with 53 people on this book and listening to what they have to say I think the low standard of basic narrative skills in comics and graphic novels today is due to inadequate editing as much as to artists having to learn as they work, with nobody correcting their storytelling problems or fixing odd tics and habits.

O’Shea: Any chance if response is strong enough, would you be willing to embark on a book of this scope and logistics again?

Phoenix: I really don’t know if I would do this again because it was hugely demanding both technically and emotionally. I had to keep the overall structure of the book in my head so that I could see where each story fit or didn’t fit Nel’s evolving narrative; that was easy for a while but thirty chapters in, the number of events and character arcs to remember were immense. I had to tell people their ideas didn’t work and deal with the fallout, which was sometimes sheer misery. Chasing copy, explaining rewrites, making suggestions and ensuring everyone was happy with what they ended up submitting. I had to juggle deadlines and corrections and check everything fit the design templates. There were some weeks where it left no time for anything else. Combine all that with the stress of living with a big cloud of uncertainty over my head about whether it was all going to fall apart in a huge embarrassing mess before we got to the end. My girlfriend Bridget deserves many fine dinners for proofing the final pages and helping me pull it all together.

O’Shea: What were the most challenging logistics of co-editing a project of this scope?

Phoenix: We were doing this by telephone and email; sometimes it took days to co-ordinate our responses and valuable creative heat would begin to cool before Rob and I could discuss a script. Luckily there were only five or six occasions where we didn’t see eye-to-eye, but when we didn’t we talked it through until one of us convinced the other or found an alternate idea that we could agree on. We rejected a story outline for one of three reasons:
a: it had already been done
b: it was too closed and didn’t give the next person anywhere to take it
c: it didn’t make sense

It was sometimes very tough to tell people to try again, which was mostly my job, for some reason… Some contributors who weren’t used to working with an editor did not take criticism well and that meant difficult emails or strained phone calls to make them understand it wasn’t personal. But once they saw that it was about technique or logical narrative flow and not anything to do with my (or Rob’s) own likes or dislikes, most people were okay with making changes. The book went along paths that I would never have chosen were I the sole writer, but collaboration is embracing what other people come up with and making it work. Whether you like it or not is irrelevant. You just have to find the logical departure point and take it where it should go next.

O’Shea: Had you always intended the book to be published by Blank Slate, or had you considered others? If not, what is it about Blank Slate that made you want to have the book produced and released through them?

Phoenix: Blank Slate Books was central to making this book a reality. Rob and Kenny Penman, of Blank Slate, had been talking about doing a book together. When Kenny saw the initial discussion Rob and I were having about the ‘collaborative graphic novel’ project he offered to publish it if we were serious about it. That transformed our really cool idea into a potential book and suddenly we had no excuse not to go ahead with it. We did some quick calculations and I ran the specifications past Kenny, he was supportive and positive and enthusiastic, and just like that, we had a book to put together! By the time we had our first production meeting in January we were already five chapters in. I’m really grateful to him for being such a calm, no-nonsense, straightforward person to deal with. He saw the possibilities for something new and gave us the opportunity to create it, he trusted us to deliver it and hardly asked us to change a thing. We couldn’t have found a better person to work with.

O’Shea: How did you all first find out about Shelter? Were the charity folks surprised to find out you wanted to do a book to benefit them?

Phoenix: They were very surprised. It was Kenny’s idea to donate the profits from the first printing to Shelter and we thought it was an excellent idea. Housing in Britain is so expensive and so tilted in favour of haves vs have-nots that most of us are only a few pay-checks away from being out on the street. Nelson is not really a ‘charity book’ though – it’s a book that is also benefitting a charity, if you see what I mean. There would have been no difference in the content wherever the money went.

O’Shea: You wrote of your contribution to the book “And because my sister died decades ago, but I still think about what our lives would be like if she had lived.” Was it cathartic on some level to delve into a piece that partially delved into your personal loss?

Phoenix: I’m not sure if cathartic is quite the right word. But maybe, yes. It felt like a good, important thing to introduce as a theme because we don’t have very effective mechanisms for coping with death as a society, especially the death of a child, and the lack of ways to acknowledge and deal with that loss makes bereaved people go a little nutty. It happens all the time and mostly we try and forget about it as quickly as possible, ignoring that the people it happens to are never the same again. My family went off the rails for a while in the face of that grief, though we knitted back together eventually. A couple of my friends whose children died had similarly bleak experiences.

I was surprised by the alacrity with which Sonny’s death was seized on by the other creators, actually. I had expected everyone to avoid dealing with it in favour of easier topics, but it became a dominant subplot right from the beginning. So that showed me my instincts were correct: there really isn’t such a thing as an undiscussable topic. It just comes down to how you present them.We’re all curious about how other people live, how they cope, how they feel. We only need the permission to ask the questions and we’ll be digging right in there.

MUSH!

I was immensely impressed in early December, when Stephen Colbert recommended Glenn Eichler & Joe Infurnari‘s new First Second book, Mush!: Sled Dogs with Issues, to The Colbert Report viewers. Admittedly, Colbert is slightly biased, given that Eichler (the author of the frozen tundra/talking sled dogs/quirky humans comedy-drama) writes for the Comedy Central show. However, while many of the show’s writers have projects they’d love to have promoted by their boss, it’s relatively rare when Colbert uses the show’s forum to promote his staff’s projects. As a result, once I saw the endorsement, I made a mental note to track down the creators after the holidays for a potential interview. By some stroke of luck, the book’s artist, Infurnari, instead contacted me in mid-December to see if I was interested in covering his latest project (you bet I agreed to email interview with him and Eichler). I appreciate the collaborators’ willingness to discuss the project, particularly when Eichler shared the origin of his honed sense of comedic timing (having worked in an “editing room for a lot of animated half-hours for TV” [he was a story editor for MTV's Beavis & Butthead in the mid-1990s, as well as creating and producing the television show, Daria]). Once you’ve read the interview, be sure to enjoy First Second’s preview of the book.

Tim O’Shea: Joe, I love the way you convey the intensity and energy of the dogs when they are working, how did you arrive upon conveying that particular style of kineticism?

Joe Infurnari: The story hinges on the idea that not doing what you love leads to discontentment and unrest. For the team of sled dogs featured in this book, running is their bliss and the time they spend not running breeds trouble. So it was important to make the times the dogs were running as full of energy and joy as possible.

Quick slashing lines, splashes of ink, dramatic foreshortening and powerful diagonals are some of the ways I tried to bring to life the rush of running through the trails. I also knew that if it looked quickly drawn, then that energy would come through in the movement of the characters. When it came to the final inks, I was very comfortable drawing the book and I think the art reflects that. The inks are decisive, gestural and full of energy.

The final piece to the puzzle was the use of sound effects to add a visual punch to the high action running sequences.

O’Shea: Joe, I appreciated the placement of sound effects (particularly the dogs’ sounds), how did you decide when to slip those sound effects into the page?

Infurnari: I like sound effects in comics. With Mush! I used them to not just be descriptive of the sounds of things but to also highlight some of the non verbal communication taking place between the dogs. So when Buddy feels Venus is responding to his amorous overtures, I punctuated his tail with a ‘WAG!’ When she responds with a withering quip his tail simply ‘sags’. Similarly, when Dolly tries to politely reject Winston’s advances, she moves her hindquarters away from him with a ‘scooch’.

Ironically, I also used sound effects to make the lack of communication and sexual frustration between the humans even more awkward. The ‘shlup’ ‘shlup’ of Patty mashing berries is a subtle and funny comment on her desire for more connection with Frank.

O’Shea: As collaborators, how quickly did you establish a rapport on this project, and had the two of you been familiar with each others’ work prior to this project?

Infurnari: I of course knew Daria and before starting Mush! I read Stuffed!, his book with Nick Bertozzi. That was a great book and I think it helped me understand what was needed for Mush.

Mark Siegel’s editorial style is to have his artists and writers work together directly so Glenn and I rather quickly built up a rapport.

Glenn Eichler: I have to say that I was not familiar with Joe’s work, but First Second’s Mark Siegel thought he’d be perfect for the book, and Mark has a great sense for that kind of thing (and was absolutely right). As for our working rapport, we were always in touch, but never working in the same room. Joe did his thing and I did mine, but when we did communicate concerning feedback or notes, I’d say our working relationship was great.

O’Shea: I enjoyed the comedic pacing of the book at times. There are panels where nothing is said, allowing the comedy to linger for a moment. How much discussion took place in trying to frame comedic moments like that?

Infurnari: Glenn and I both understand it’s not always what is said that is funny. Many times it’s what goes unsaid that can really be hilarious. I don’t recall how many of those moments were in the script and how many came out of our collaboration. Those moments just seem to naturally flow out of the characters and their situations.

Eichler: Often I had indicated in the manuscript where a blank panel should be… I’ve been in the editing room for a lot of animated half-hours for TV, and that helps develop a sense of timing. Obviously you can’t “freeze” for five seconds in a book, so we used blank panels instead.

O’Shea: Joe, the dogs in this story convey a range of emotion, to a great extent through body language (beyond the mere wagging of a tail), did you do a lot of experimental sketching trying to learn how best to convey emotions or how did you settle upon how best to emotionally wrangle the dog cast?

Infurnari: Doing this book taught me a lot about my own process. Unlike some artists who are able to nail the designs and style right from the beginning, I have to do the book to know what it will look like. The characters and their unique body language come out of living with them through the layouts, the pencils and eventually the inks. The more I drew them the more they would each gain their own life. I attribute the hard work of drawing, redrawing and living with them throughout the process of creating this graphic novel as responsible for really breathing life into these characters.

O’Shea: How much research did the two of you in preparation of doing this story?

Infurnari: In his character descriptions of the dogs, Glenn gave me their breeding. This was my launching point for developing the characters with the rest coming from just doing lots and lots of drawing. I also researched the Alaskan landscape, log cabins, the sleds and harnesses as well. The book was pretty light on research with most of the books focus being on the characters’ psychological states. They have issues after all.

Eichler: I read up on dog teams, the various breeds used, what type of dog is considered best for what position in the harness, etc. I had read a classic book about Alaska, John McPhee’s “Coming into the Country,” which taught me a lot not only about how Alaskans use dog teams, but also about what kind of person moves up there from the lower 48 to live in the bush.

O’Shea: Was there a great deal of discussion on the coloring of the pages between you two, or did Glenn defer to you on that Joe? I really like the wintery range used to convey the snowy landscape.

Infurnari: When Mark approached me about the book he said he was looking for something different from the color. A wintry landscape of mostly snow and sky is limiting of what can be done but I tried to inject as much color into it as I could without detracting from the characters. That was my other objective for the color; to really individuate the dogs. So after a few tests of the color, I showed Mark and Glenn what I had and I was pretty much given the go-ahead from there.

O’Shea: Glenn, the human characters in the book are named Boss and Boss’s Mate (clearly named from the dogs’ perspective). How early in the story’s development did you realize you wanted to take that approach?

Eichler: Probably when I first decided that we should see the humans from two points of view, their own and the dogs.’ The device of the names lets you know immediately whose perspective you’re seeing, and that’s also the reason that when the dogs hear the humans speak, it’s in nonsense syllables. In their scenes without the dogs, the humans call each other by their given names.

O’Shea: Glenn, how much of a struggle was it trying to pace out how much story you wanted to devote to human drama versus the dog drama that is the backbone of the story?

Eichler: It wasn’t hard at all. The book was always going to be about the dogs, so they got the main focus.

O’Shea: Question for the both of you, there appear to be metaphorical fences in this book (between people and between the dogs), in addition to the physical fences. Would you agree?

Infurnari: When I read the script, I was reminded of how in art and literature natural landscapes have often represented the depths of the human psyche. There’s something about the dark bottomless fathoms of the oceans, the mysteries of the forest or the wide open expanses of sand or snow that spark our imaginations. In Mush!, the barren isolation of the Alaskan landscape sets the scene for a story about the dogs’ psychological state and ultimately our own interior lives as readers. The fences in this story are boundaries preventing the dogs from being out in the open on a run where they are most happy. The trail is their bliss and the fences that keep them from it mark the breeding area of their issues.

Eichler: Well, definitely. No one can ever know or meld with another person (or dog) entirely, and the isolation in which they all live just throws those differences into brighter relief. But that same isolation also creates fences that enclose the people and the dogs, forcing them together because they really can’t get away from each other. I’m saying the book has a lot of fences. It’s best to read it with a pair of wire cutters.

O’Shea: Glenn, not to get bogged down in details, but naming one’s dog is often a challenge. You really did a good job of naming the team of dogs in this story, did that come to you quite easily as you developed the characters or was it challenging with certain characters?

Eichler: I hate naming characters as a general rule, but I tried for a mix of the silliness and anthropomorphism often found in the names that real people give their real dogs. I also wanted to touch on the way people will give their puppies names that turn out to be either perfectly descriptive of their adult personalities, or utterly wrong.

O’Shea: Glenn (from the book’s acknowledgements you thank the dogs “who talk to him when he sleeps”) how long have you heard the dogs talking to you?

Eichler: I didn’t write that. The dog dictated it.

O’Shea: Of the whole team of dogs, for both of you, did you develop an affinity for one of the dogs over the course of developing the story?

Infurnari: Definitely. For me, I loved Buddy and Winston the most because their particular physiognomy and situation gave me the most opportunity for some hilarious drawings!

Eichler: I always like all my characters. To write them you have to be able to understand and sympathize with the motives of them all, even the villains. That said, it’s hard not to love Buddy.

O’Shea: How much fun did the two of you have at the recent Cousin Corinne’s LIVE COMIX BLOCK at Book Court in early December?

Infurnari: Live comics readings are always great opportunities for pushing the material into a different comedic realm. I like to enlist the audience to do all the sound effects. With Mush!, I got no small amount of pleasure at conducting a room full of people into a resounding swell of grunts!

Eichler: It was my first time doing one of those, so I had a lot of fun. And I got to meet some people whom I respect a lot – including Joe! That was the first time we met face to face, if you can believe it.

O’Shea: Anything we should discuss that I neglected to ask you about?

Eichler: Where’d you get that shirt? I like it.

Memorial 2 (Cover by Michael WM Kaluta)

Wednesday marks the release of the second issue of writer Chris Roberson and artist Rich Ellis’ IDW miniseries Memorial, which centers on Em, a women recovering from amnesia only to have a magical shop with unique transportation abilities enter her life. The story also features a talking cat, an element that captured my interest (and as I learned, the cat talks like a comics associate of Roberson’s [your guess who it is as good as mine]). Last week I caught up with the Roberson and Ellis via email to explore their collaborative process. In addition to delving into the six-issue miniseries, I briefly learned about the advantage that Ellis finds in being part of Portland’s Periscope Studio. Once you’ve read the interview, avail yourself of IDW’s preview of Issue 1 and Roberson’s November interview with CBR’s Josie Campbell.

Tim O’Shea: In a recent CBR interview, Chris described this project as using “mythological tropes that are somewhat familiar but twisted.” Who had more fun twisting the tropes, Rich (from a visual perspective) or Chris (from a writing perspective)?

Chris Roberson: Rich may claim that he had more fun, but he’s clearly wrong, as I am having a BLAST.

Rich Ellis: If Chris is having more fun, then I am the person who benefits most from his enjoyment. The fun for me has been in the challenge of getting my head into the complex characters and wonderfully intricate world of Memorial.

O’Shea: With at least two or three of the six issues already in the can, I am curious if you two feel like you have established a rapport as collaborators? What assets do you both see each other bringing to this story?

Roberson: I knew from the first time I looked at Rich’s website that he would be perfect for Memorial, and I have yet to be proven wrong. I can describe a crazy bit of architecture or a character’s look or a setting, and as soon as Rich turns his hand to it he produces EXACTLY what I had in mind. Or improves it in a way that I hadn’t even anticipated. Some of the stuff we have in the upcoming issues just looks AMAZING.

Ellis: To put it simply, collaborating with Chris has been ideal. It usually takes time for a team to really understand each other creatively, but from the first synopsis I read, I felt like Chris and I were on the same page. As for what Chris brings to the story, he has said before that he’s throwing everything he ever wanted to see done in comics into Memorial. I can tell you personally that he was NOT exaggerating. Each script has included characters and concepts I have never seen anywhere else.

O’Shea: Without giving away too much, the first issue ends with a door opening in the midst of a seascape. Chris, could you describe your thought process when you realized you wanted to write that scene — and Rich, how challenging a scenes was that to draw?

Page from Memorial 1

Roberson: It was really just a question of Em stepping through a door and it being immediately obvious that she was in a MUCH different place. Originally I toyed with the idea of her ending up in some different city, or some rural setting, but there was something about the stark isolation of a desert island that seemed to fit.

Ellis: Drawing that particular page was actually a breath of fresh air. The most difficult pages for me in that issue were actually the pages in the shop. It is an important setting, and I was very focused on capturing just the right feeling for it. I wanted it to feel like the kind of place where you could find ANYTHING.

O’Shea: Another art/writing challenge, how do you feature a talking (and hilariously snarky) cat in one’s story without making the character seem cheesy?

Roberson: I didn’t realize he would be snarky until he started talking. I always hate it when writers talk about characters writing themselves or coming alive on the page, but the experience writing Schrodinger has very much been that kind of thing. But once I’d written a few issues, I mentioned to my wife Allison that for some reason I never had to struggle to imagine what the cat would say, and that I knew EXACTLY how he talked. It was like I heard his very distinct voice in my head. Then she realized that I had unconsciously modeled Schrodinger’s speech patterns after those of a good friend of ours. As soon as she said that, I knew she was right.

I’m not saying who the person is whose voice I’ve stolen for Schrodinger, but he works in comics. I’m curious to see if anyone can guess who it is. (To be fair, though, I’ve never heard him call a woman “toots.”)

Ellis: I think a lot of what makes Schrodinger work is how Chris chose to deal with him. Schrodinger is normal as far as he’s concerned, and in a story with a evil puppet and statues coming to life, I think he may have a point. I think of him as just being another character at this point, the main challenge for me being that I have to be creative with my acting.

O’Shea: How important was it to the two of you that this story be in color, and speaking of the color — how critical is colorist Grace Allison to the look and feel of this series?

Roberson: Memorial wouldn’t be HALF the book it is without Grace’s colors.

Ellis: It never occurred to me to do Memorial in anything but full color. From the outset I imagined Memorial to be a rich, vivid, and inviting place. I had previously worked with Grace on a number of different projects and she was my first choice for Memorial. Grace has been a part of defining the look and feel of every character and environment in the book from the very beginning. I can’t imagine the book without her.

O’Shea: Would it be fair to say you both have an affinity to a certain degree for urban fantasy (and would you agree Memorial has an element of urban fantasy to it)?

Roberson: “Urban fantasy” is one of those terms that used to have a much broader definition than it does today, and has come to identify a fairly narrow sub-genre. So if you mean writers like Charles de Lint, Emma Bull, Ellen Kushner … then yes.

But I think Memorial owes more to prose writers like Roger Zelazny and Diana Wynne Jones, which I suppose could be termed “urban fantasy” in the original sense of the term, which indicated fantasy stories in a contemporary setting, at least in part. With Em’s story, I’m trying to capture that same sense of the extraordinary and fantastic intruding into the real world. Hopefully we manage to accomplish it!

Ellis: I have a great love of fantasy stories in general. Knowing what I do about Memorial and where it’s heading, I find it entirely impossible to classify it as any one specific sub-genre.I describe it to people as a contemporary fantasy story in which ANYTHING can happen. I hope that answer isn’t too vague, but I think one of most exciting things about the Memorial universe is that, when it comes down to it, I can’t think of a type of story we COULDN’T tell.

O’Shea: Rich, one question for you solely, when struggling with a scene or a facial reaction or some other aspect of you art, how beneficial is it to be working in the talent rich environment of Periscope Studio?

Ellis: I cannot overstate how useful a resource being a member of Periscope Studio has been for me. Aside from the obvious benefit of NOT spending 60 hours a week alone in my apartment, I get access to a multitude of incredibly talented and experienced artists and writers. There is no problem that I can’t ask the room about without receiving at least six different solutions back. I work in the company of artists I admire and respect, and I can’t recommend it enough.

The only downside is that at some point my studio-mates found out I was very good at making ridiculous facial expressions for photo reference. So our studio’s iPhoto library holds enough incriminating photos of me to ensure the end of my career, should they ever be released.

O’Shea: Chris, since Rich got his own question, it’s only fair you get one as well: How did the Memorial team score Michael Kaluta for the covers?

Roberson: Getting the amazing Michael Kaluta to do covers for Memorial was entirely up to the fine people at IDW. We had originally talked about Rich doing the covers himself. But when IDW wrote to ask us if we MINDED if Kaluta did them instead, well … It’s not as if Rich or I were about to complain! It’s thrilling and a little humbling to get a chance to work with such a monumental talent, whose work I’ve admired for as long as I can remember.

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic-War

Over the past several years, writer John Jackson Miller has built a loyal base of Star Wars comic book readers, through his work on Dark Horse’s Star Wars comics line. This Wednesday, January 11, marks the release of the first issue in the Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic-War five-issue miniseries (a project which teams Miller with artist Andrea Mutti). While I had Miller’s attention in this email interview, I also opted to pick his brain about the realm of circulation and its related implications. Once you’ve read the interview, please be sure to peruse Dark Horse’s preview of the first issue.

Tim O’Shea: What’s the most enjoyable aspect of returning to the Knights of the Old Republic world?

John Jackson Miller: Zayne Carrick is a fun character to write. He was the Jedi student that didn’t make the grade, but who became a hero in spite of those low expectations. Zayne starred in the fifty-issue Knights of the Old Republic series — available in digital and nine TPB collections — and it’s fun to return to him here, where, once again, he’s completely out of his depth. This time, he’s been drafted into the Republic’s war against the armored Mandalorians. Not good — especially if, like Zayne, you’re against killing under any circumstances. That, too, makes it fun to return to telling Zayne stories — he has to think his way out of situations. Brute force is rarely an option for him.

It’s also a nice change of pace from writing about Sith. I’ve been writing the Star Wars: Knight Errant comics and novel for the last couple of years — and also the Star Wars: Lost Tribe of the Sith prose collection due out from Del Rey this July — and while it’s fun to come up with new and interesting ways to depict Sith evil in those series, the Sith aren’t the main enemy in the Knights of the Old Republic-War period. The Mandalorians differ in a lot of ways but most importantly, they’re not evil — they just have a different philosophy that is having serious trouble coexisting with the Republic’s. So that makes for an interesting difference.

I should note that we’ve crafted War so that you don’t have to have read the previous Knights comics — Zayne starts out all on his own, and we learn about the galaxy as he does. We will have some treats for readers of the previous series, but the aim is to make a jumping-on point here.

O’Shea: While the Knights of the Old Republic saga plays out several thousand years before the movies, would you say there are certain elements of the characters and the universe that are still able to tap into the appeal of the movies?

Miller: Oh, sure. Humor is one; Zayne’s master once said he was walking proof that the Force had a sense of humor. Zayne isn’t in a funny situation, at all, but his outlook is such that he’s fun to follow. He’s not intense, like Anakin Skywalker or Kerra Holt (from Knight Errant) — and I think his perpetual underdog status and earnestness recalls a young Luke Skywalker in a lot of ways.

And here again I think we try to convey events of galactic scope, as the movies did. War begins with a battle to try to stop the Mandalorians’ advance on the Republic — but as we’ll see as the story goes on, there’s a much bigger game afoot. So we have that drama playing out as well.

O’Shea: How excited are you that the book is being released digitally as well as in traditional print, allowing your potential audience to seemingly broaden to a wider range?

Miller: I think it’s a good thing. The reach of the comics expanded dramatically during the last decade, with trade paperbacks giving everything a second life; I think the expectation is that digital will become another leg of the table in this decade. Personally, I’m very much committed to the print format — where some house-hunters look for workshop space, I look for a good place for my library. But I think having the additional option for readers is the right thing to do.

O’Shea: You’ve dabbled in the Star Wars universe for a number of years, but still it clearly is a set of characters and worlds you love exploring. Why is that?

Miller: It’s because it’s open-ended, with a lot of opportunities to tell different types of stories. Knight Errant, for example, has given me the chance to explore life under totalitarian rule, and resistance against it. The Lost Tribe of the Sith stories are very nearly a sociological experiment, seeing how a group of Sith stranded on a planet with no technology survives generations without imploding. And Knights of the Old Republic has given us a chance to deal with the Republic more or less intact, but under threat from a different kind of external enemy. So the playing fields are very different and allow for very different kinds of stories to be told.

That said, it’s all Star Wars, whenever it’s set. The big themes of good and evil are always there, they’re just interpreted though different lenses.

O’Shea: I’m impressed with your restraint as a writer, in that you construct a series of pages full of action, but no dialogue or thought balloons of substance. Is that something you would have been comfortable trying earlier in your career–and how good did it feel to be able to do that with this issue?

Miller: I’m a big fan of old comics, but I always thought it was crazy to have long debates raging in the middle of a fight scene between combatants. There’s a place for repartee in a fight scene — we see it a lot certainly in Star Wars, during the escape from the Death Star — but Zayne is very much on his own for a lot of this first issue, so I wanted to let the action flow without getting in the way.

That said, something I did with War that I haven’t done in previous KOTOR comics is that Zayne is our narrator. I made a conscious decision in the previous series not to use a narrator during long stretches, because there were many characters in the story who weren’t what they appeared to be, and I didn’t want an omniscient narrator telling people what was true. But here, Zayne is on his own, and while there are definitely many surprises in the series, we’re discovering them just as Zayne does. So I give the microphone over to him.

O’Shea: Speaking of the art, how quickly were you and artist Andrea Mutti establish a narrative rhythm/rapport? Also, I was really struck by the coloring work of Michael Atiyeh–how satisfying is it when a story fires on all production cylinders (art, inking, color and lettering)?

Miller: Andrea’s work has been great. With any artist it’s just a matter of studying their work and then crafting pages that will play to their strengths. Every artist specializes in different things — the more you can match the story’s staging to an artist’s approach, the better.

And I’m glad you mentioned Michael Atiyeh, who really was a huge part of the success of the Knights of the Old Republic and Knight Errant series — as well as the Mass Effect books we worked on. Colorists are important in helping to maintain a consistent look on a title that has more than one artist, true — but they do so much more. Michael adds to the drama of scenes with his choices, and I try to work in a lot of opportunities in the script where lighting makes a difference. Another Michael, letterer Michael Heisler, is also aboard — he’s lettered just about everything I’ve ever done at Dark Horse, and always adds a lot to the package. And series editor Dave Marshall managed KOTOR and Mass Effect — so this really is a veteran team working together on this.

O’Shea: It’s interesting that the first issue of this project publishes letters about your Knight Errant work. Was it important to you and Dark Horse to reassure fans, in a sense: “I am starting this miniseries, but I am not turning my back on Knight Errant!”

Miller: Yes, I think so. There’s a five-months-on, five-months-off dynamic with some of the series, and in this case we scheduled Knights of the Old Republic – War exactly into the Knight Errant gap. War fits into the slot between Knight Errant-Deluge, just ended, and Knight Errant-Escape, which ships in June and is our best, most impactful story let in that line. So this is a logical place to put those letters.

O’Shea: You are a circulation expert, no doubt, but I am curious do you monitor the numbers on your sales or do you avoid looking at them–and just not worry about month by month sales too much?

Miller: One of the things that I preach on The Comics Chronicles is that while the month-by-month numbers of books that Diamond Comic Distributors ships are interesting, they aren’t the whole picture. And so while I certainly look at the monthly figures, I’m also aware of their limitations: first-month orders are impacted by the shipping calendar, time of year, and the volume of other releases just to name a few. But many more things go into the circulation of a comics story. In the years since the first issue of the original Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic series came out, for example, that story has now sold in more trade paperbacks than it did comic books — and the number of comic books is a lot larger than the initial number, too, due to reorders and reprintings. Something else we never see in the Diamond charts is the multiple foreign licensed magazines these stories appear in — and then, of course, there’s digital. So it’s a definite patchwork. I clearly think the monthly numbers are important, given my research work, but I tell people to put a lot more focus on what they say about the market in aggregate. The reach of any individual comics story is a lot farther than current sales charts can capture.

O’Shea: Which characters are you most pleased to get to develop and explore in this new Knights of the Old Republic–War story?

Miller: Dorjander Kace, the Jedi Master who’s volunteered to join the Republic in its war against the Mandalorians, is a character we’ll be seeing a lot more of. One of the big events of this era involves the Jedi renegade Revan rejecting Jedi neutrality and going to war against the Mandalorians; we saw that moment in the original series, and of course the character plays a big role in the later video games and in the just-released Revan novel. Kace is the highest ranking Jedi to go rogue and go to war against the Mandalorians — but as we’ll see, he comes at it from a unique angle.

I also have fun with Zayne’s superior officer, Republic Captain Dallan Morvis, who we introduced back in the original series as a secondary character — rich, entitled, arrogant, and thoroughly unlikable, Morvis hates Zayne’s guts. Which makes him an interesting foil for Zayne. It’s easy to tell a story where the allies like each other; this amps up the conflict.

O’Shea: Is there anything you’d like to discuss (that I neglected to ask you about) or thoughts you’d like to leave with Robot 6 readers?

Miller: I think the intent with the whole Star Wars line is to tell good stories — I think new readers will find that there aren’t many continuity demands in War. Yes, there’s a rich tapestry that we’ve all been working on developing — readers will find lots of moments in the original series that point to things we’re doing here. But we also tell a complete story here that stands on its own. Hopefully, it’s a first step into a wider world, as Obi-Wan once said!

Readers can find out more about the series at the official Dark Horse site and also my own website, where I maintain a behind-the-scenes page for every comic book I’ve ever done. There’s a lot of fun background there. Readers can also follow me on Twitter and catch my comics history work.

A snippet from Peanuts 1 (Art by Vicki Scott/inked by Paige Braddock)

Did you pick up Peanuts 1 yesterday? If you love all ages books, you should have. The first issue of this ongoing KABOOM! monthly features new stories by Vicki Scott, Paige Braddock, Shane Houghton and Matt Whitlock–and original Charles Schulz stories of course. In fact, Braddock wears many hats on this project. First off, she is the creative director of Charles M. Schulz Creative Associates. Secondly Braddock (also creator of the ensemble comedy comic strip, Jane’s World) inks the stories, as well provides colors on the cover. Anytime an all ages title like this new release from the KABOOM! gang (in partnership with Peanuts Worldwide) comes out, I want to shout it from the rooftops. On a personal level, I am overjoyed to interview Braddock in this brief email interview, as I have been a fan of her work since her days many, many years ago–on staff as an illustrator at my local newspaper, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. As much as I wanted to interview her some about Jane’s World and The Martian Confederacy (her collaboration with Jason McNamera), I opted to make the focus of today’s interview on Peanuts. My thanks to Braddock for her time.

Tim O’Shea: Were you involved in selecting the other writers of the stories, such as Shane Houghton and Vicki Scott?

Paige Braddock: Shane Houghton was selected by Boom, but I was familiar with his other work on Reed Gunther. Shane also did some test pages for Boom and we reviewed those at the studio. I met Vicki Scott during the Happiness is a Warm Blanket graphic novel project. It’s a funny story actually… I had met her husband, Bob, who was at the time an animator at Pixar. I knew his work and contacted him about working on the graphic novel. He was pretty busy so he suggested that maybe his wife could help out. I was thinking to myself, his wife?! Then of course his wife, Vicki, turned out to be this incredibly talented artist. Since that first project, she and I have collaborated on a couple of children’s books based on the Peanuts characters. Vicki also turned out to be quite gifted at writing and capturing the “voice and tone” of these characters.

O’Shea: What is the key to capturing the spirit of the classic Peanuts tales without blatantly trying to copy the late Charles Schulz?

Braddock: I think we are still working very hard to figure that out. Part of the equation is taking stories from the comic strip and adapting them by creating more cinematic scenes and character images from maybe a different viewpoint. Keeping true to the stories while creating art scenes and staging that you might not encounter in the comic strip. We’re also doing some short original stories which we review by committee here at the studio to make sure we stay on model. Lex Fajardo is the project manager for these books. He and our art director, Iain Morris, contribute in keeping us on track. Once we’ve run a story and thumbnails through our proofing process here we send them to Boom for their editorial review. This series really is a group effort. We also include some “pure Schulz” work in each issue. There are at least 3 Sunday comics that run in each monthly book. We figure most kids don’t read newspapers so at least this will give them a chance to encounter Schulz, unfiltered by other writers and artists.

O’Shea: I always thought the coloring on Peanuts Sunday strips were distinctly unique, are there certain colors that you avoid when telling a Peanuts tale?

Braddock: If you look at collections, like the 25th anniversary Peanuts book, the Sunday color is really vibrant and sort of unpredictable. I think Schulz wasn’t afraid to use bright colors or to use them in an unconventional way. Like, a pink sky, for example. Erin Samuels, who worked with Schulz has done the color Sunday work for at least the last 15 years. I think she’s done a good job of following his lead. For the comic books, we’ve had a lot of discussion about color. Just simply as a result of size and print quality we can do more with color for the comic books than we can do in newsprint, which tops out at 150 dpi. The majority view is that we’d like to push the envelope a little in terms of color and application (textures, fades, ect.) but we don’t want to use too many gimmicks that would distract viewers from Schulz’s simple character design. It’s going to be a balancing act for sure. When I first started working here at the studio I did some one-on-one Sunday color work with Sparky (Schulz). I was the first one to really use the computer to enhance the color on the strip. Sparky definitely was open to experimentation. He wanted to try things that I would have thought were too “out there,” but he clearly liked trying new things.

O’Shea: What makes the Peanuts universe (and its characters) so timeless?

Braddock: The short answer I think is “universal themes.” Schulz tapped into some collective experience that enables Peanuts characters to resonate just as much with a school teacher in Iowa as a business man in Japan. That’s a pretty amazing feat. I personally think it’s not just the universal themes, but the depth in which he deals with them. Schulz managed to achieve a certain level of depth within the discourse in the comic strip, without it seeming forced or trite. Peanuts seems real. I think it seems so real because Schulz put so much of his personal feelings, insecurities and doubts into each character. It seems real because it is real, if that makes sense. That sort of authenticity takes personal bravery and I think his vast readership obviously appreciated that authentic, voice.

O’Shea: How hard was it to work on the Peanuts story in between the other projects you are working on?

Braddock: It’s actually been a lot of fun. For me, this job started out as an art job. I was hired by Schulz to do illustration work. The job got sort of side tracked after Schulz retired, and I was asked to do a lot more “direction” and less hands-on artwork. So I’m really glad to be finally back to doing what I was hired to do. After 12 years at the studio, I’m a lot better at drawing the characters than I was when I started.

O’Shea: Anything we should discuss that I neglected to ask you about?

Braddock: There hasn’t been a Peanuts comic book series since Dell published comics back in the 1960s. As a fan of both comic books and Peanuts, I’m glad that comic shops will once again have Peanuts on their shelves. As a comic reader, I think Peanuts will be a breath of fresh air in terms of material that’s suitable for all ages. Some of the super hero stuff has gotten so dark and violent that speaking as a comic book fan, I’m glad there will be a “happy” alternative on the shelf.

American Barbarian

Back in 2010, when Thomas Scioli started bolstering his online presence and entered the realm of webcomics with American Barbarian, I was curious to see how things would play out (as may or may not have been obvious in my June 2010 interview of him). I’ll be honest and admit that now, more than a year later (and with far more of the project online to read), American Barbarian far exceeds what I expected. As much as I have always enjoyed and respected his Kirby-influenced approach to visual storytelling, after reading this double post Apocalyptic tale, I am far more impressed with Scioli’s funky ear for dialogue. It’s like reading a 1970s comic written by a minimalist version of David Mamet. Doubting my quirky endorsement of the work? Then realize AdHouse is collecting the webcomic for a 256-page/6 ” x 9 ” /hardcover release early this year. If you don’t trust my tastes, then you should definitely trust AdHouse publisher Chris Pitzer. To mark the upcoming release, Scioli and I did another of our quick email interviews. Before diving into the interview, let me take a second to agree with JK Parkin’s sentiment in this post, back in June, that DC Comics should have considered Scioli for one of the New 52 titles that it launched back in September. So I was surprised to learn (as you can read in this interview) that DC did not contact Scioli when assembling the creative team for the new OMAC title. As I edited this interview I realized it was hard to find my favorite part of our discussion, but it may be the revelation that the look for Two-Tank Omen came to Scioli in a dream. A close second was learning a bit about his next webcomic, Final Frontier. Feel free to chime in with your favorite part of this interview and/or Scioli’s work in the comments section, please.

Tim O’Shea: As an independent creator, the job of marketing your work falls to you. Do you think over the years, you have gotten more comfortable marketing yourself? On a related note, how did you decide upon doing this one minute trailer for American Barbarian?

Thomas Scioli: Even the largest comics publishers don’t seem to have a budget for promotion, so I’d say any creator, independent or mainstream, can benefit from doing their own promotion. It’s something that I’ve never been comfortable with, but do out of necessity. I think I have gotten better about it, because in the beginning, it would give me crippling anxiety, now it’s just mild trepidation. The idea for doing a trailer came from having seen other people do it. AdHouse’s own Afrodisiac trailer and [Top Shelf's] Infinite Kung-Fu [trailer] are two that made an impression on me when they made the rounds. It got me excited about those two works, so I wanted to do the same. I’d been dabbling with animation, back when I started AmBarb so it was a natural outgrowth of that, too. Once you start doing a webcomic it isn’t long before you realize, hey, why not just do a cartoon?

O’Shea: Did AdHouse’s Chris Pitzer contact you regarding the possibility of an American Barbarian book, or was it the other way around?

Scioli: It happened pretty organically. Comics is a small world, independent comics is even smaller. We’d been hanging out on the convention circuit. Chris had expressed an interest in American Barbarian from pretty early on, but there’s a wide gap between interest as, “that’s something I’d like to read” and “that’s something I’d like to publish.” When I got closer to finishing the book, I knew I had to start pitching it to publishers soon. I was dreading the thought. Chris had bought an American Barbarian pinup I did for the program book and art auction at HeroesCon 2010. At HeroesCon 2011, our tables were adjacent. One of the most common things people ask me at conventions is “When are they going to reprint the first Godland hardcover?” Since it’s been out of print for many years and goes for ridiculous prices online. The idea occurred to me, “Hey, Joe and I own this, so just because Image doesn’t want to reprint it doesn’t mean some other publisher might.” I half jokingly turned to Chris and said, “Do you want to publish a reprint of the first Godland hardcover?” Chris said no, but that he’d like to publish American Barbarian. It was as simple as that. I was ready to say yes right then and there, but I decided to wait until I got home and think about it first. The more I thought about it, the more sense it made. I had a long list of reasons why AdHouse would be the best possible publisher for it. And I like Chris so much, that the idea of working with him made it easy to say yes.

O’Shea: To you, what are some of the larger benefits to teaming with AdHouse?

Scioli: Before AmBarb, my audience was largely the wednesday comics store audience, viewing my work mainly from a Kirby nostalgia direction. When I started going all-in on webcomics, I noticed a totally new audience discovering my work for the first time. I think being with AdHouse gives it a different context where the full range of things I’m bringing to the table can be highlighted.

I feel like Chris Pitzer is strong in areas that I struggle with. He’s got a great understanding of book design, which is really important for a project like this that is going from an online context to book form. He’s focused on making the book an interesting object in and of itself. Since this is a work that I created entirely on my own, it wasn’t commissioned by a publisher, the main thing you need is a publisher who understands presentation. I know American Barbarian will get the attention it needs and not get lost in the shuffle. AdHouse’s line seemed to me to be carefully curated. Each release really counts. It’s gotten to a point where each new AdHouse book is kind of an event, you know? The Josh Cotter books, then Afrodisiac, then Duncan the Wonder Dog, Pope Hats, Forming. I feel like AdHouse has had this great track record of quality, where I’m benefitting from that goodwill, that American Barbarian is the next AdHouse book and that that means something. I think it’s a great way to have your work presented.

O’Shea: In the webcomic’s first chapter for several panels before his arrival you inject small panels teasing the impending arrival of Two-Tank Omen in a manner that reminded me of Walt Simonson’s teases for Surtur. Did that serve as an inspiration for you?

Scioli: I’m a fan of Thor, so it might be in there somewhere. It’s probably closer to the buildup to the introduction of Galactus, since the buildup and intro happen within the same chapter. Ditko tended to do more of the Surtur-style multi-issue buildup to a villain’s intro than Kirby did. Didn’t they mention Dormammu for months before he actually showed up in Dr. Strange? Spiderman always seemed like it had lots of silhouetted mystery villains hanging around making plans for ages before they’d actually make a move.

Specifically what I was thinking of, and I think it will be more apparent in the print version, is that I had an idea in one of my notebooks to have a subplot going on in a small panel at the bottom of each page, and to have that bottom panel slowly get larger and larger until it engulfs the entire page. I eventually found a use for that idea here, in the buildup to Two-Tank’s arrival.

O’Shea: Is it me or did you enjoy writing the dialogue for American Barbarian’s brothers and father? I cracked up when you had his dad telling the king: “you’re going to have to eat some shit.”

Scioli: Yes I did. I had to make that choice for this comic, how do people talk? I’d been doing the high and mighty fantasy speech in 8-Opus. I wanted to take a break from it and see if I could get away with some more direct, less polished speech. While I’m drawing, I’ll write temporary dialogue in the margins as a placeholder for when I can fill in something more polished. I’ve talked to some other artists who also do this, too. I thought it might be interesting to have them speak in that “first draft” dialogue. “Eat shit, Submariner!” rather than “Taste the full cosmic fury of mine awesome hammer Mjolnir!”

O’Shea: When Rick is carving revenge into his fingers you went to a completely different art style in two panels (pages 10 and 11) of Chapter 2, in fact at least with 11 it looks like it is a photo of actual hands. What lead you to try those panels that way?

Scioli: I don’t know. It was something that just came up in the course of doing it. I hadn’t planned to do it that way, until I sat down to draw it. I knew I wanted to reserve the right to draw any page any way I wanted to. That’s part of the freedom of webcomics. I knew fumetti, watercolor and collage were tools that I hadn’t used before in a comic, so this seemed like a good place to do it. In a lot of ways that’s the emotional focal point of the whole story, so if you’re going to do it somewhere, that’s the place for it.

O’Shea: Am I right in assuming you love designing zany-looking characters. Who do you consider among the American Barbarian cast to be the most outlandish looking character?

Scioli: You’re right, that’s my favorite part of the job. The most outlandish has got to be Two-Tank Omen. That was one that came to me in a dream, so I don’t feel like I “designed” it as much as some of the other characters. Gali-Leo is pretty weird and he was one that was very carefully constructed.

O’Shea: At what point in the story planning did you realize: “I want to have Rick driving a Honda in the opening to chapter 3!”?

Scioli: I wanted him to roll down the hill in some kind of vehicle. At first I was kind of picturing something like in the Simpsons driving game where you utterly destroy your car and drive around in a frame with no tires.

Eventually I decided I wanted this to be another point to include some photo-collage. That’s actually my car.

O’Shea: How is plotting and pacing for a webcomic different than your approach in your past projects?

Scioli: Here’s a big difference, which worked out really well: there’s no set length for the chapters. Each chapter is as long or short as it needs to be. I had 14-page chapters, 40-page chapters. Originally I had concieved of this as a 10-part monthly mini-series comic book. That means that I would’ve had to cram the 40-page chapter into 20-some pages or pad out the 14-page chapter. It lets the work breathe and find its own pace.

I also like how you can release it a page at a time. In a monthly comic, the only page that lingers is the last page. You have to wait a while for that next chunk of story, so that’s where the cliffhangers go. With a webcomic, every page is a cliffhanger. As a creator, you hate the fact that something you labored over can be read so quickly. The people who followed the comic as each page was posted read it in a timeframe that was a lot closer to the timeframe I created it in.

O’Shea: Am I right in thinking you love to use thought balloons for comedic effect (I am thinking in particular of the line “I thought that douche was her boyfriend” from Chapter 5).

Scioli: I’m a big believer in the thought balloon. It lends itself to humor of course, since it’s viewed as a quaint relic, but I think you can use it for serious effect, too.

O’Shea: The webcomic is currently at chapter 10. How many chapters will be covered in February’s release?

Scioli: There will be 10 chapters total, but chapter 10 is pretty long. That’s the whole story. After the story finishes, ambarb.com will host my next webcomic: Final Frontier.

O’Shea: Care to divulge some more details about Final Frontier?

Scioli: It’s the most straight-up superheroey thing I’ve ever done. There’s a whole universe of characters doing all kinds of crazy stuff. It’s tangentially related to American Barbarian.

O’Shea: Are there any extras that the American Barbarian book is going to offer?

Scioli: There are extra drawings and sketches scattered through the book as chapter breaks or design elements. There’s an awesome map of American Barbarian’s world on the endpapers. There’s no backmatter. The book is pretty much all story. The story ended up being a lot bigger than I thought it would be. That last chapter just kept going and going.

O’Shea: In a recent Twitter exchange with Kurt Busiek, you noted that there is a lack of plot (much less subplot) in some comics. How did that come to be, in your opinion?

Scioli: I disavow anything I post on Twitter. Anything I say on there is usually only how I feel at the moment I tweet it, and I usually disagree with it immediately.

I think that because Kirby-style action comics story-telling is my baseline, which is very plot-heavy, everything else tends to seem to my eyes, leasurely and anemic by comparison. But I probably tend towards an over-reliance on plot mechanics and need to learn to more fully utilize the other components of storytelling.

O’Shea: It’s a simple opinion at its core, but I still have to ask (based on this tweet) what is it about the writing process that is so enjoyable for you?

Scioli: That’s where it feels like you’re really playing with toys and having fun, when you’re in those early stages of figuring out the shape of it. The day-in-day-out drawing of a comic has its own set of rewards, but things happen so much more slowly, it’s not as enjoyable. I think it’s also because my early work was so much more focussed on the drawing. Writing was something I did to facilitate the things I wanted to draw, where now I’ve accumulated enough experience that I actually have feel like I have things to say, and a way of expressing them.

O’Shea: Please tell me that DC contacted you when they decided to include OMAC as part of the new 52?

Scioli: They did not. DC is the one big four company I’ve never done anything with. OMAC is a lot closer to what I’d like to see from mainstream superhero comics, a focus on visual bravura and clearly-choreographed action. It’s got that joy in the drawing process that I’d just mentioned. I’d been enjoying Giffen’s recent penciling work leading up to it. It’s beautiful. It’s my favorite of the new 52, and tellingly enough it’s by far the worst-selling. I know better than anybody what a tough sell the fake Kirby thing can be.

Tom Brevoort, photo by Luigi Novi

Let’s not mince words, the online presence of Tom Brevoort has provided hours of great reading for Robot 6 readers. Given his constant and unflagging willingness to interact with consumers via social media, Brevoort is a quote machine (His Twitter bio? “A man constantly on the verge of saying something stupid–for your entertainment!?”). There’s always a directness (some would say bluntness) to his manner online–making him the ideal subject for an interview. Last year saw Marvel promote Brevoort to senior vice president for publishing. 2011 was a year of some major successes for Marvel, as well as a year where some hard business decisions were made. In this interview, conducted in mid-December via email, I tried to cover a great deal of ground (we even briefly discuss DC’s New 52 success)–and Brevoort did not hold back on any of his answers. For that, I am extremely grateful. Like any high profile comics executive, Brevoort has his fans and his critics (and many in between), but I like to think this exchange offers some perspectives everyone can enjoy.

Tim O’Shea: Whether it’s in your job description or not, fan outreach via social media is definitely part of your job–clearly by your own choice. What benefit or enjoyment do you get from interacting with the fans/consumers?

Tom Brevoort: I’m not sure that I get a particular benefit, except maybe just being the center of attention for a few minutes—maybe everything I do is motivated by ego! I’m a whore for the spotlight! But I started doing this kind of outreach back in the formative days of internet fandom, largely because I like the idea of internet fandom. I know that, if the internet had existed when I was a young comic book reader, I’d have been on those message boards and in those chat rooms all the time, obsessively—just like a certain portion of the audience today. So I like the idea of giving back, of being accessible enough that anybody who has a question or a concern knows where to find me, or at least to find somebody with an insider’s track who might have the background and knowledge to speak to their point. In a very real way, it’s all an outgrowth of what Stan Lee did in his letters pages and Bullpen pages. Joe Q, I think, was really the first person to perfect that approach for the internet age. As EIC he was incredibly available to the audience in a myriad of ways. It’s a philosophy that’s very much woven into our DNA at Marvel. And for the most part, our fans are interesting, vibrant, cool people, especially when you meet them in person.

O’Shea: Much has been made of the miniseries cancelled in mid-arc, or announced projects killed, but I am curious to learn how it impacts you to see co-workers being let go in the recent round of belt tightening? When I ask this I don’t necessarily mean on a personal level, per se, but rather in terms of the loss to Marvel’s collective creative/editorial talent, how challenging is it to deliver the best product Marvel can produce when you lose some talented editors?

Brevoort: It’s terrific, I love seeing people let go into one of the worst job markets in recent memory! I’m sorry, Tim, but I don’t think it’s possible to answer this question in anything other than a personal way—or if it is, I’m just not that dispassionate about it. I certainly understand that a business is a business, but there’s also a very human face on all of this. The people who were let go were my co-workers and friends, none of them were dismissed for cause, they’re all great, talented people. But that’s the economic world we find ourselves in right now, and as somebody who has to keep an eye on the business as a business, I understand and accept that. And it definitely means that those of us that remain have to work harder to do the same thing—that’s just simple mathematics. An editor who was once dealing with six projects maybe now has to cope with seven, or eight, at least until we’re through the backlog of material that was initially in the hands of those editors no longer on staff. So it’s definitely a lot to ask—but we’ve got the best crew in the business at Marvel, and though we may all grumble from time to time, everybody steps up to get the job not only done but done with the greatest level of excellence that can be managed. It really is an extraordinary group of dedicated people. And, on the flipside, there’s now some editorial talent out in the marketplace with super-strong skills that any other company could benefit enormously from. So a word to the wise there.

O’Shea: When 2011 began, could you ever have envisioned Marvel having cancelled a miniseries before it even finished?

Brevoort: It’s an unfortunate thing, but yes, I could. I’ve seen it happen in the past, though not quite in the way it happened on All-Winners. And some of that is my doing. We could have gone in at the last minute and tried to hack up the climax of the story, bringing things to a truncated resolution in issue #5. But with three whole issues left to go, I didn’t want to do that. Admittedly, that would have given the readers some kind of resolution, but it would have been a bad and unsatisfying reading experience. So I made the argument that, with so much story still left to tell, we should simply stop. That way, if market conditions improved down the line, and there was enough sustained interest in the project, we might eventually be able to return to it and finish it properly in the future. Hey, the last issue of Ghost Rider that I edited saw print ten years after it was created, so anything’s possible. I’m also a child of the 70s, where books would often be cancelled mid-stream, with no warning and no resolution, so I may be more immunized to this happening than a lot of other people, because I’ve seen it happen before. It stinks, nobody likes it, but again, that’s the marketplace in which we seem to find ourselves. The one thing I know for certain is that putting out issues that lose money is a good way to get to the point where you can’t put out any issues at all.

O’Shea: At the beginning of 2011, you assumed your senior VP role. With almost a year under your belt, I am curious what have you most enjoyed about your increased responsibilities? With your increased executive duties, is there an aspect of your pre-2011 responsibilities that you wish you still had time to do?

Avengers: X-Sanction #1

Brevoort: People, I think, get dazzled by the title, which maybe sounds like a lot more than what it actually entails. I’m still very much doing all of the things I was doing last year, just with a bit more stuff added on top of it. I’m maybe looking at the whole line more, rather than just half of the line. But I’m still directly editing a good number of books—Avengers, New Avengers, Secret Avengers, Fantastic Four, FF, Captain America, Children’s Crusade, X-Sanction, Defenders at least for the first two issues, and a lot more. So there isn’t a whole lot of down time, and there are definitely days when I feel like I could use another me to handle all of the stuff that’s stacked up while I was on the phone talking to a creator or off in a planning meeting of some kind.

O’Shea: While clearly a main focus of 2011 was Fear Itself, what were the other main successes of the past year?

Brevoort: I think we had a bunch of successes this year, and I’m probably going to forget all kinds of things as I run down the list. But certainly the death of the Human Torch and the rebranding of Fantastic Four as FF was a bigger success than we would have imagined. The Death of Ultimate Spider-Man and the introduction of Miles Morales. The “Spider-Island” crossover and just Amazing Spider-Man in general, a series that not only has been garnering all kinds of good fan reaction but has also consistently come out twice a month. Schism, and even more so the relaunching of the core X-titles as Uncanny X-Men and Wolverine & The X-Men. Waid, Rivera and Martin’s Daredevil, probably the best-reviewed title we’ve got right now, Remender and Co’s Uncanny X-Force—I feel like our line is very strong overall right now, even though it’s easy for people to sometimes take that for granted. You take a book like, say, Fraction and Larroca’s Invincible Iron Man, and it comes out like clockwork 12-16 times a year, with the same creative team telling highly-polished stories. After a while, people start to overlook it because it’s so consistent. Also, the steady growth of our digital initiatives. That’s a world that’s going to become steadily more important to us, and to the business in general. We had a couple good movies, too.

Miles Morales

O’Shea: In terms of “the steady growth of our digital initiatives,” what kind of milestones or successes did Marvel see in the steady growth?

Brevoort: I don’t know that there are any specific milestones I can point you to, in that most of our data about the digital world is confidential. But especially in instances where we had mainstream coverage on a particular storyline—Miles Morales, say, or Fantastic Four #600—we saw a pronounced uptick in our digital sales, with each new one besting the sales records of the previous. And all without having a measurable impact on our tangible copy sales. I think that everybody has still only scratched the surface of digital as a delivery platform for the kinds of material that we do, and that it’s only likely to grow further into a cornerstone of our overall publishing business.

O’Shea: You don’t work for DC, but you clearly have an opinion about the other major industry publisher, so I have to ask: Did DC’s 52 perform beyond your expectations, or is their success (still potentially short term, only time will tell) along the lines of what one might expect from a major line relaunch?

Brevoort: I don’t think we have good enough optics yet to predict the long term—we’re only now heading into the period of time wherein retailers can return their unsold copies, so the numbers for those months aren’t finalized yet. But there’s no two ways about it, regardless of how many books they get back, DC did a great job of getting their message out to the world and getting excited readers new, lapsed and existing into the stores to check out what they had going on. I don’t know how, at least judged in those terms, it could have been any more of a success. And I’m very happy about it—not just because we’ve seen an uptick in our sales for those months as well, but because increased competition leads to more excitement and better books. A lot of people have maybe misunderstood my message over these months, and maybe that’s my fault for not getting it across as clearly as I might have. But my biggest complaint and concern for the longest time was that it often felt as though DC had given up the fight, that they were content to just drift along, doing business as usual and not making waves. And a marketplace that Marvel is half of or more isn’t healthy—it puts too much weight on one part of the machine, too much responsibility. So I couldn’t be happier that the new DC team is stepping up to the challenge and hitting the field ready and willing to play the game. And that’ll force us at Marvel to up our game as well. The question now, of course, will be whether and for how long they might be able to maintain that increased readership base.

O’Shea: You recently discussed Marvel’s plans for the 2012 Free Comic Book Day. In reading your Formspring discussion of FCBD, I was left wondering, what is the main goal/point of FCBD to you? And while you think FCBD is being served in 2012 by a reprint, for those who are disappointed, do you understand when they may strongly disagree when you characterize them as potentially “petty”?

Avengers/FCBD 2012

Brevoort: Well, in fairness, I characterized a single question-asker’s question as possibly petty, not the audience as a whole. But as I understand it, Free Comic Book Day is an outreach program that enables local retailers across the country to mount the kind of mainstream promotion and local event that potentially draws new people into the stores. The existing fan base is served by it, sure, but it’s not really aimed at them, but at everybody who doesn’t regularly make the trek out to their local stores. So on that level, I want our FCBD entries to be entry-level friendly—not unsophisticated, but self-explanatory in terms of the story presented. And I want them produced at the highest level of quality possible. But I don’t know that there’s any pressing need for them to be all-new material. Certainly DC’s had no problem with running repurposed material in their FCBD entries the past couple of years. I mean, it’s great to be able to give people an all-new story by our best guys absolutely for free, but we’re talking about an economy in which we had to let a number of people go—it’s an expense that doesn’t recoup itself in any way, and one that isn’t even really necessary in terms of what the goal of the event is. So sure, I’m sorry that our regular readers will have to make do with “only” an Avengers comic written by Brian Bendis and drawn by Bryan Hitch that they may have purchased previously. But, y’know, this even isn’t really about you!

O’Shea: With the news of Brian Bendis of departing the Avengers franchise, after his long and very successful run, it got me wondering. When faced with the prospect of finding a new writer for a successful book like the Avengers, what kind of criteria do you use in your search?

Brevoort: Well, it’s different every time, in that you’re working with a completely different array of variable each time. But to paint the process in broad strokes, you need to assess where the series is at, what’s been strong and working and indispensable about it and what it might be lacking. In other words, and this is pretty obvious, you want to try to maintain the appeal that a book has under its current creative team and then build upon it by accentuating those areas or aspects that haven’t been explored as much. To point to a specific example and provide you some context, when Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch were finishing up their run on Fantastic Four, I needed to line up their successor. In looking at the series as a whole, having come off of JMS and Dwayne McDuffie before them, and Mark Waid and Mike Wieringo before that, I felt like the time was right to try to get a younger voice into the mix—the book had been done by apex talent for a long run, but Fantastic Four is a series that’s got a strong almost gravitic pull towards its past, those initial 100 issues are so seminal. So I wanted to bring in somebody who would have something new to say, and who maybe wouldn’t be as shackled in his thinking to the past. At the same time, I wanted to maintain the overall positive/optimistic flavor that the series has always had when it’s been really clicking, in my opinion. Given those parameters, it didn’t take me long to start speaking with Jonathan Hickman, with whom I was working on Secret Warriors at the time. Jonathan went away, pulled together his ideas, and came back with a strong pitch for the series—and away we went! So it’s very much the same kind of thing on Avengers. Brian is leaving behind a legacy that it’s going to be very difficult for somebody else to equal or surpass, but that’s the challenge of the incumbent. As it happens, I’ve already got the next Avengers writer lined up, though it’ll probably be several months before you all learn who it is—Brian’s still got about a year’s worth of great stories to tell before that switchover happens.

O’Shea: You tapped Hickman to write Fantastic Four partially because he was someone “who maybe wouldn’t be as shackled in his thinking to the past”. Am I right in thinking you also do not mind tapping writers who can partially mine the past and find new story potential, given what a writer like Ed Brubaker has been able to do with James Bucky/Winter Soldier Barnes (as well as some elements of Hickman’s work on Secret Warriors)?

Brevoort: Well, yes, sure. One of the strengths of the Marvel Universe is the conceit that it’s one vast, interconnected place in which all of these stories co-exist, going back to 1961 and beyond. So sometimes you want to take advantage of that fact. But you always need to keep the bigger picture in mind. There have been times in Marvel’s history when whole stories have been written to explain some gaffe in an earlier story—those tend to be “comics about comics” and only of interest to our most hardcore audience. The continuity and the history is meant to be there to service the stories, not the other way around. At times, people at Marvel have lost sight of that. But there’s no problem with mining the past of our characters and our publishing history, so long as the stories that you do with that material are genuine, and have some compelling emotional touch-point for a modern reader who may not have read the earlier stories your tale is based on. In other words, you can do Star Trek II: Wrath Of Khan, but like that film, you need to do so in such a way that an audience member can have a great experience even if they’ve never seen the earlier Star Trek episode that Khan was introduced in.

O’Shea: How do you avoid burnout in your demanding job–how and why are comics still fun for you?

Brevoort: I just love comics. I love the characters, I love the stories, and I love the form. And not just any one style of comics, but all sorts of comics. I still go to the comic store every week like clockwork and drop crazy money on assorted new releases. And while what I do isn’t always easy or always fun—it is a business, after all—I never lose sight of the fact that, in a very real sense, I get to sit around and make up stories about people that fly all day, and then they pay me for it. And that’s pretty great! I also get to collaborate with a broad spectrum of supremely talented people, from our assorted creators through our incredible editorial staff, our promotions guys, online, the film and television folks—just about everybody. So yes, the hours are long and the days can be grueling, and there are those times when things aren’t breaking the way you’d like them to or there’s some difficulty that has to be worked through. It’s a high-pressure situation, keeping this many trains on the tracks every month and getting to their destinations on time. But it’s also a considerable amount of fun. There’s never a better feeling than when the printed copy of an especially good issue comes into the office, and you get to look it over before anybody else.

Fantastic Four #600

O’Shea: The death and return of the Human Torch this year (and the saga that transpired along with it) has clearly resonated with readership. From your standpoint, what is it about series writer Jonathan Hickman’s approach to Marvel’s First Family that enables him to click with readers?

Brevoort: I think that readers are only now starting to get a sense of what Jonathan’s been doing, not just on Fantastic Four but on all of his books, and that is to create long-form stories in which the individual parts all mesh together with mechanical precision to create a much greater whole and a much grander reading experience, one that truly rewards multiple rereadings. In a world of short attention spans, Jonathan is one of the few guys who comes onto a series with years’ worth of concepts, and he’s able to set things up in such a way that events past a certain point continue to build and build and build in a logical way, and then ultimately pay off great. Now that folks can look back at all of Secret Warriors as a whole, it’s easy to see just how much of the overall story Jonathan had in his head when the book began, and how even events in the first teaser short story we did in the Dark Reign: New Nation book fold back into the climax 28 issues and three years later. On Fantastic Four, I just gave him a sense of the kind of thing I was looking for and set him loose, and he came back with a gameplan that we’re only now, almost three years later, getting to the climax of. I think it was beneficial as well that Jonathan had never really been a Fantastic Four reader beforehand, in that he was able to come to the characters and the material fresh, to look over the entire history of the series and figure out for himself what he thought worked best about it without any personal nostalgia coloring his viewpoint. He clearly loves writing the kids, to the point where they would often threaten to take over the series.

O’Shea: This past year also saw Daredevil endure a great deal through Shadowland, as well as Daredevil: Reborn. But when all was said and done, the new Daredevil series by Mark Waid (along with Paola Rivera or Marcos Martin on art) is a major shift in tone that has been embraced by critics and fans equally. How satisfying is it to see Marvel take such a creative shift and pull it off so effectively?

Daredevil #1

Brevoort: It was a gamble to break with the past so severely in terms of the tone and the style of Daredevil, but it’s definitely a gamble that’s paid off big time. And that’s all thanks to the efforts not only of Mark, Paolo and Marcos, but especially those of editor Steve Wacker and his team. For my money, Steve is the solidest line editor in the business today. He’s great to work with, he’s got a strong point of view and a vision for what he does, he thinks about the whole package even beyond just the story and the artwork, and creators love working with him. And maybe it’s just that his sensibilities and mine are similar, but his batting average in terms of the content of his titles has been tremendously good: Avenging Spider-Man, Daredevil, Punisher, Venom, Scarlet Spider—those last three are books that, by all rights, I shouldn’t be enjoying anywhere near as much as I do. And, of course, keeping the juggernaut that is Amazing Spider-Man on the rails and successful both commercially and critically for such a long period of time. Getting back to Daredevil, obviously Marcos Martin is a genius, and Paolo Rivera’s an incredible talent, but it’s especially nice to see somebody like Mark Waid gathering such kudos. Like we were talking about with Invincible Iron Man before, Mark’s been around the industry for so long and has such a track record for producing excellent work that I think it’s easy for people to overlook what he does; “Oh, it’s another good Mark Waid comics again. Yawn.” Whether it’s just ageism or familiarity breeding contempt or whatever, the fact remains that Mark’s been a power hitter of great consistency for two decades now—so it’s very nice to see him getting the sort of attention and praise often reserved for new hot young guys.

O’Shea: We have talked about some of the great writing of Marvel in the past year or so, and while we have briefly touched upon the greatness of Paola Rivera and Marcos Martin’s work, I wonder if you’d like to discuss some of the other artists that really seemed to hit their stride in 2011 (and/or you look forward to knocking it out of the visual park in 2012)?

Brevoort: It’s truly an embarrassment of riches at Marvel in terms of artistic talent, so this is something I could go on about at length, and never run out of material. But focusing more on promising up-and-coming talent, there are three or four creators who seem to really be hitting a stride, beyond the ones we mentioned earlier. Sara Pichelli has been a revelation on Ultimate Spider-Man, her sense of environment and character acting is second to none. Nick Bradshaw harnesses the detail-craziness of an Art Adams around an appealing, bouncy, energetic penciling style. Jerome Opena is a terrific action artist, with a subtlety of line that I’m not sure entirely translates into ink. Ryan Stegman draws great , appealing characters with a lot of bounce, very much in the spirit of Joe Madureira or J Scott Campbell. And there are plenty of others, of course—but that’s a smattering of folks that come to mind this morning.

O’Shea: Looking ahead to 2012, if response is strong enough to the Marvel Season One books, would there be a possibility of pursuing an ongoing series with those creative teams, or is the focus solely on original graphic novels of the characters’ origins?

Brevoort: I wouldn’t rule anything out—every option has been discussed, doing follow-up volumes (“Season Two”) or serialized follow-ups, and every other option in-between. But it’s all a moot question until we can see how people respond to the initial books. At this point, I’ve read the completed Fantastic Four Season One volume front to back, and it is outstanding! I couldn’t be more pleased with it—and I say that having had nothing particular to do with it. All of the credit goes to Roberto Sacasa, David Marquez, Lee Duhig and editor Lauren Sankovitch. These guys understood the mandate of the line and really delivered the goods, in a way that I think will be appreciated by fans old and new. The X-Men Season One book is similarly looking and reading well, based on the 40 or so pages I’ve gone over so far.

Brevoort's Twitter photo

O’Shea: Any closing thoughts you’d like to leave Robot 6 readers with?

Brevoort: I think that my general message for comic book readers of all kinds right this moment would be: relax! It’s so easy to become overly anxious or overly outraged or overly agitated about all sorts of aspects of what we do, the characters we create and the worlds we build. And we love that sort of emotional investment! But keep in mind, these are just stories! It’s all just entertainment! If you’re being entertained, then everything is fine! And if you’re not, try something else! Try something new! Reading comics shouldn’t be a job, and neither should it be a series of existential crises on a month-by-month basis. Also (and I know that this isn’t something that most readers are going to be willing or able to do), stop being so concerned about what’s going to be happening three or six or nine months down the line and try to focus a little bit more on what’s going on right now! Don’t miss the precious moment in the anxiety about what tomorrow will bring! None of what we do is life-threatening, it’s not likely to change the world in any but the most subtle of ways—the drama need not be quite so overblown!

Also, it’d be nice to get into a blog entry headline from time to time for something other than saying something provocative.

Hell Yeah

I’ve been friendly with Joe Keatinge dating back to his days managing PR & marketing for Image Comics. When it was revealed back in October that Extreme Studios was relaunching the line–with Keatinge writing Glory (with Ross Campbell on art), I started generating questions for an interview. In addition to discussing Glory (which relaunches with Glory #23 on February 15, 2012), Keatinge opens up about Hell Yeah (Image), his creator-owned collaboration with artist/co-creator Andre Szymanowicz that premieres on March 7, 2012, as well as another upcoming 2012 project, Brutal, in collaboration with artist Frank Cho. My thanks to Keatinge for this email interview. After reading this piece, be sure to check out CBR’s Joe Keatinge coverage for more insight into the busy writer’s upcoming work.

Tim O’Shea: Did Rob Liefeld approach you to work on the Glory relaunch? Was Ross Campbell already committed to the project when you joined?

Joe Keatinge: While Rob was certainly involved with the process, I was actually approached by Image Comics Publisher and Extreme Editor, Eric Stephenson, almost a year ago now. At the time they had nailed down the idea of the line and I believe a couple of the other books may have had writers, but it was still in the very early stages. After that was the process of giving a quick pitch, which was virtually instantaneous to Eric asking if I wanted to do it, to developing a longer pitch, to Eric and I bringing Brandon Graham on board for Prophet, to discussing Glory with Brandon, to Brandon suggesting Ross Campbell, to seeing Ross’ amazing work and me asking him if he wanted to come on board. He did a few samples which blew away both Eric and Rob. We’ve been working on it ever since.

O’Shea: When writing do you try to play to Campbell’s strengths in his art, and if so, what would you say are some of his strengths?

Keatinge: As a general rule, I prefer to specifically write with the artist in mind. Meaning, I wouldn’t write the same Glory script I do for Ross for anyone else. I think it’s a fault of the writer not to take the artist’s strengths and interests into account. We’re a team, you know? It’s important we’re both having a good time. While I had an outline before Ross came on board, I certainly adjusted it to suit his strengths and interests. As far as what his strengths are – they’re pretty numerous. I’m extremely impressed with how versatile he is an artist. I highly admire how much enthusiasm he puts into a page. His design work alone amazes me. However, I think my favorite aspect are the power he brings to the characters. Look at Glory. She looks like she could legitimately break you in half. A lot of superheroes – both male and female – look like super models. You don’t buy they could devastate a tank. He really makes you believe it with Glory.

I don’t know if this necessarily counts as a general strength, but I do love the ease there is in working with Ross. While we have very different backgrounds in comics on a professional level, we gel together very well. He’s an ideal collaborator in every way. I’m extremely thankful for when that happens and have been lucky enough to have it happen on three concurrent books between him, Andre Szymanowicz on Hell Yeah and Frank Cho on Brutal.

O’Shea: Speaking of Campbell, the opening to the Glory preview has a cinematic vibe to it, in terms of framing. Was that something you detailed in the script, or was that an angle he brought to the mix?

Keatinge: I actually try to stay away from anything ‘cinematic’ in any comics I work on. While I think a lot of the early experimentation such as in Miller’s Daredevil or later on with ‘widescreen’ comics like Ellis & Hitch’s Authority and Millar & Hitch’s Ultimates was incredible, I also believe comics have gone too far down that rabbit hole more often than not. Frank Miller himself has even said he got into comics to make them more cinematic, yet has stayed in to make them less so. I’m with the latter. I think comics are a much stronger medium than film in many ways. I think there’s also much more potential left as well. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a huge movie fan. I go to the theater pretty much at least once a week. That said, comics are way better in general.

What I am trying to do with Glory is create a huge level of scope. I really want to take a fantasy epic and filter it through superheroes. My ideal situation is to stay on this book for a very, very long time. Hopefully Ross will be there with me the whole way. The first three issue spans centuries – well over a thousand years in total. It’s a big, big book with big, big plans. I know everyone says this about everything, but it’s my hope to achieve it here. The idea with Glory is she’s a weapon so destructive people confuse her with a god. That’s quite the impression. Superman doesn’t have that. People just think he’s a dude who can fly.

O’Shea: What was the overall appeal to working on the Extreme relaunch?

Keatinge: I grew up with the Extreme books. I was only in fifth grade when Image Comics launched. Youngblood had an especially massive impact on me. Every single interview with Rob psyched me up beyond belief. Youngblood #6 remains one of my favorite single issues ever. Then when Platt came on Prophet? The best. Bloodwulf’s debut in Darker Image? Blew my mind. As I got older my tastes changed a little, but the Extreme books did as well once Alan Moore was brought into the fold. His work on Supreme and even smaller tenures on Youngblood and Glory excited me even more.

Glory 23

It used to be that Marvel and DC were the big universes people wanted to grow up to work in and while I absolutely have a huge desire to do that, I think you’re going to be seeing more and more people coming into comics who grew up with that sort of passion for the Image Comics characters. I was able to work on Savage Dragon, I would be insanely stoked to get my hands on Spawn or The Darkness someday. Working in the Extreme universe is incredibly exciting for me. There’s a couple of cameos of other Extreme characters in our first issue of Glory and when I realized these stories ‘counted’, that they weren’t fan fic or whatever, I felt like a major life goal had been fulfilled. Now I just need to get married and have kids. I’ll be set.

O’Shea: Are you getting a chance to build Glory from the ground-up, or are you going to be capitalizing on past runs of the character to some extent?

Keatinge: They’re giving us an astounding level of freedom, but I feel it’s a little ridiculous to jump on an established character or series and not acknowledge their past. Otherwise you should just be making creator-owned comics. Furthermore, I think it’s lazy and disrespectful to the fans who loved the previous comics to go in and say, “hey, all that stuff you loved? DIDN’T HAPPEN.”

My approach to continuity in general is to try it like Rashomon. How Ross and I interpret past events may be different than another creative team, but it still happened whether it’s the original Duffy/Deodato run or Moore/Peterson. So, we definitely build on the past, but with an eye toward the future. I want to create a new audience just as much as I don’t want to alienate the old audience. My first issue is written with that kind of person in mind. If you have absolutely never read Glory - or, heck, a comic book at all – in your life you should be able to fully understand everything you need to jump on board.

O’Shea: In terms of collaborating with Frank Cho, do you think you would have been more intimidated to work with him had you not become friends with him prior to contemplating collaboration?

Keatinge: Probably. Going in I just viewed it as making comics with a buddy, but every once in a while I’m reminded he’s FRANK CHO, one of the most respected and admired artists in mainstream comics. That said, I am really grateful to be collaborating with him. While he’s a fantastic artist, having him as a co-writer has been basically a crash course in writing comics. Whenever he has changes to my stuff I initially want to argue, but I’m pretty sure virtually every time I’ve thought, ‘oh, hey, never mind. You are totally right.’ I hope between this, Guns & Dinos and a few other projects he has the general comics industry respects him even more as a writer than they do for his award-winning run on Liberty Meadows. He’s the real deal when it comes to writing.

O’Shea: I love how when you discuss this project at your Tumblr site, you wrote in part ” to have a superhero book I’m writing with a massively popular artist be announced to come out on [Image's] 20th anniversary feels like the culmination of my own 20th anniversary of my first having the dream of writing comics means everything to me.” Which are you enjoying more, writing superhero comics, or getting to launch such a major project at such an auspicious time in Image’s history?

Keatinge: Writing comics at all, really. I’m always more into the craft and the work than I am the hype of it, but it’s hard to resist on the 20th anniversary. That said, again, I try to keep my eye on the prize. Gotta focus on the writing.

O’Shea: In general, what is the biggest benefit to you, as a writer, to get to explore the superhero genre?

Keatinge: You can do ANYTHING. You can make any genre work within it. You can bend or otherwise completely devastate any law of science. There are no budget limitations. Anything goes.

It’s due to this I think there’s a lot of potential in the genre. Furthermore, I think what’s traditionally discussed, promoted and marketed as superhero comics is really just one gigantic sub-genre of something much larger. A lot of people scoff at the notion that superheroes being something adults would want to read. I think they’re nuts. They’re defining a genre by their most popular works, whereas I try to think more of potential than execution. Should X-Men be for all-ages? Yeah, probably, but if Image showed me anything it’s that I can create anything under any genre the way I want to do it. They went with superheroes at first, because that was what they were passionate about. Same goes for Andre and I with Hell Yeah.

O’Shea: Will you concede that when you say lines like “Hell Yeah is the direct result of almost thirty years of comics passion put into one book.”  that you may be putting some pressure on yourself?

Keatinge: Absolutely not.

I’ve been reading comics in many different forms in many different genres my whole life. Every life experience I’ve ever had somehow informs the work I’m doing today. It’s not hype, it’s fact.

Besides, I think pressure’s a good thing. Poor work comes out when you’re comfortable. I am extremely hard on myself with everything I do. A small part of it is psychological condition. Most of it is never wanting to be boring.

O’Shea: You were first introduced to Andre Szymanowicz while working on PopGun. But when did you realize he’d be a good fit for Hell Yeah?

Keatinge: Mark Andrew Smith and I were discussing different projects we wanted to do together. I believe I suggested James Stokoe for what became Sullivan’s Sluggers. He suggested Andre Szymanowicz. So, that’s what got us talking. However, what convinced me was hanging out with him one on one at a San Diego Comic Con a couple of years ago. Like I was saying with Ross and Frank, Andre and I just completely clicked. The show ended with us at the Hyatt bar, shaking hands to make this book happen. Sometimes you just know.

O’Shea: Branding-wise, how did you arrive on the name Hell Yeah?

Keatinge: It sure helps that I say the phrase all the time. The universe of Hell Yeah has been percolating in my head for a while. One of the first thing I thought of was superheroes being treated and named more like bands than typical super-teams. The first team name I thought was ‘The All-New All-Differents’, the second was ‘Hell Yeah For Justice.’ It struck me then that the name was the perfect embodiment of the book, especially since Hell Yeah For Justice is the group the series’ main character, Ben Day, will be hanging out with. So it was more organic, less market strategy. However, I will admit it makes for a pretty rad logo.

A Girl Called Ana Teaches Kittens How To Draw

Last week Chris Arrant covered former Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) Professor Bob Pendarvis’ Kickstarter effort to fund A Girl Called Ana Teaches Kittens How To Draw. In today’s email interview, Pendarvis discusses his aim with the book, as well as Sugar Ninjas, the all-female sequential art anthology series aimed at drawing a spotlight on female creators. My thanks to Pendarvis for his time, and Tom Feister for putting me in contact with Pendarvis. His Kickstarter site gives more background on Pendarvis, including  that he “created and taught the first comic book illustration classes at the Savannah College of Art & Design, going on to co-found their comics-based BFA and MFA degree programs (along with writer Mark Kneece and artist Bo Hampton).” If you are interested in helping Pendarvis with his Kickstarter effort, please act now–as there are less than 20 days left to meet the $15,000 goal.

Tim O’Shea: How soon after leaving SCAD did you realize you wanted to develop Sugar Ninjas?

Bob Pendarvis:  Sugar Ninjas was originally a project I came up with to showcase the amazing variety of female artists in my classes. In the summer of 2009, as my official association with SCAD was coming to an end (on mutually acceptable terms), I decided to expand the concept of the Sugar Ninjas to include not only SCAD students, but also female artists and storytellers from around the world. All material in the book is copyrighted exclusively to the creators and the books are printed at lulu.com, each one priced at printing costs only—I don’t make a penny from any copy sold (although I encourage the ninjas to add sketches and charge a few dollars more). Volumes 1 and 2 are available right now, and a revised edition of Volume 1 will be back in early 2012.

O’Shea: Care to discuss some of the talent working on Sugar Ninjas?

Pendarvis:  Some of the ninjas are comics professionals, like inker Rebecca Buchman (Green Lantern) and penciler/inker Heidi Arnhold (Legends of the Dark Crystal). Popular web comic creators include Jennie Breeden (The Devil’s Panties), Laurel Shelley-Reuss (Olive Peril), Becky Dreistadt (Tiny Kitten Teeth), and Elena Barbarich (Sister Claire). Former Tokyopop manga artist/writers Christy Lijewski (Re:Play), Erica Leigh Currey (Sea Princess Azuri), and Mara Aum (Silky Pink) are all Sugar Ninjas. Gally Articola, my assistant and co-editor, is a colorist/refurbisher working on the Official Marvel Handbooks. Kat Shea is a costume designer/illustrator/voice actress for the Archer TV show. As you can imagine, it’s a pretty diverse group, especially as most of the girls are still relative newcomers just starting out.

O’Shea: Why did you decide to break up each volume of Sugar Ninjas into two separate Sweet and Spicy books?

Pendarvis:  Over the past two years, the Sugar Ninjas three volumes have featured contributions from close to 200 hundred girls who were all given total freedom to write and draw whatever sort of material they deemed fit, regardless of whether it was mainstream-oriented, experimentally alternative, manga-influenced, unapologetically feminine, or anything in-between. Right from the start, some of the girls have preferred sticking to relatively family-friendly material, while others love producing edgier pieces, possibly with partial nudity, naughty language, controversial subject matter, and a wee bit of ultra-violence. I realized the best way to accommodate everyone would be to have both a Sweet book and a Spicy book. Of course, a number of ninjas have sent in material for both books every time.

O’Shea: How important is gender diversity to the success of sequential art?

Pendarvis:  “You draw like a girl!” shouldn’t be considered an insult, but to a depressingly large number of comic book editors and professionals, it most certainly is. It’s tantamount to saying their work has little-to-no commercial appeal. I rejected that attitude all those years I taught at SCAD and I reject it now. The truth is that generations of comic book creators and fans have become accustomed to accepting that there are rules for drawing successful mainstream comics, and an equal number of rules regarding publishing and marketing comics. But the reality is that the number of people still buying comics is embarrassingly lower than it should be, making it way past time for publishers to stop sticking to misguided, outdated ideas of marketing almost exclusively to young males.

For the first dozen years or so, SCAD’s Sequential Art program had no female professors, which I always felt bad about. In the early years, we all considered ourselves a great big family. Sort of a “comic book fans vs. the world” situation, as it took a long time for our new major to be accepted by the world at large, including the academic world. And even though I worked hard to make sure I had a female-friendly classroom, I knew full well that some of those pioneering girls felt overlooked and underappreciated, solely because their styles and interests didn’t match the expectations of many of their male peers (a generalization, of course). Too many of these girls succumbed to the temptation to change their work in ways that pleased their critics, but failed to address actual structural issues inherent in their comics storytelling.

O’Shea: How did you decide you wanted to use your Kickstarter project to embark upon a graphic novel “…meant to provide inspiration for the next generation of young sequential artists and storytellers…the first in a series of  books aimed especially at young girls, but hopefully entertaining for readers of all ages, girls or boys.”?

Pendarvis: Before I started teaching at SCAD, I taught k-5 art classes for three years. I saw firsthand that too many young girls AND boys were giving up on learning how to draw before they’d really given themselves a fair chance, partly because kids are told early on that artists are just “born talented.” Some of the best art in those grade school classes was produced by kids who just refused to accept their supposed limitations, letting their imaginations fly free, regardless of the “accuracy” of their drawings.

As much as I love Will Eisner’s Comics and Sequential Art and Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics, both of those books can be a little daunting to young readers. A Girl Called Ana Teaches Kittens How To Draw is designed to be accessible and easily understood by children, while hopefully providing enough entertainment to keep the attention of older readers, too.

Not a how-to textbook, ANA is an actual story about a girl who teaches drawing to kittens, and many of the lessons included are to be found between the lines. The first book ends with the kittens realizing that drawing is only part of what it takes to create their own comics. The next book in the series centers on the principles of two-dimensional design, and how they’re used in tandem with drawing to communicate effectively. The third book has Ana dealing directly with the basics of visual storytelling. All three books work together to show that learning how to create comics isn’t that far removed from learning how to read and write, period. On top of all that, I throw in a superhero or two, spooky ghosts, monsters, robots, and more.

O’Shea: You are a teacher clearly beloved by your former students, were you hesitant at all to ask for their help in donating art for the project? Looking at the list of folks who donated, does it leave you speechless to realize the scale of success your collective group of students has achieved?

Pendarvis:  Well, as grateful as I am for all the love and support I receive from so many of my former students, I’m not so conceited as to think I’m universally “beloved.” In fact, I can easily think of quite a few students who never seemed all that impressed with me, ha ha. But I’m very, very happy that so many of my former students HAVE become successful, working for comics companies like Marvel, DC, Dark Horse, Oni Press, and IDW; gaming companies like Bioware and Konami; and cartoon studios producing animated hits like Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Archer, and Kung Fu Panda. But to be honest, they had plenty of other professors, too, including amazing guys like former Disney Imagineer Paul Hudson and comics writer Mark Kneece, both of whom are still at SCAD and I can’t recommend their classes highly enough). For that matter, there are also a large number of successful SCAD students who never took my classes at all, so the only thanks they might owe me would be for having created the program in the first place.

Since my departure from SCAD, I’ve received hundreds of emails and messages from former students, pledging their support and promising to let people know what my classes meant to them. For awhile, I thought about doing a straightforward textbook which would incorporate interviews and artwork from a wide group of alumni working in comics, animation and video gaming. Ross Campbell, Andrew Robinson, Christy Lijewski, Heidi Arnhold, Dean Trippe, Ron Chan, and Tom Feister were among the first to sign on.  I ultimately decided to do the ANA books first, primarily because I wanted to take advantage of my sudden abundance of free time, but also because I thought it would be a good idea to let people see I have plenty to say all on my own.

O’Shea: Besides the Sugar Ninjas and your ANA kickstarter project, is there anything else you’d like to mention?

Pendarvis:  Over the past two years, while appearing at conventions like Atlanta’s AWA, MOMOCON, and DRAGON CON, I’ve had the chance to meet hundreds of people who ask me where or when I’ll be teaching again. Frankly, I spent so much time all those years at SCAD promoting my students and helping them find jobs that I never really prepared for my own life post-SCAD. I’d be very happy to return to a classroom setting, especially at a school wanting to develop their own sequential art or comics-based courses of study. Other than that, I’d love to develop ANA into an animated series, possibly with my friend and former student Sam Ellis (the original head illustrator for the FX show, Archer). If not that, I still have my dream of forming a rock band and solving mysteries, hopefully involving pirate ghosts.

The Ray 1

Sometimes when you interview a creator, you get the distinct impression that person would rather be promoting a new film or a new novel, anything but a comic book. Other times you are fortunate enough to talk to a creator like artist Jamal Igle who relishes his craft, loves comic books and is almost as much a booster of his fellow creators as the typical comic book fan. This Wednesday (December 14) marks the release of The Ray 1, the first installment of the four-issue DC miniseries by Igle with the writing team of Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray. My thanks to Igle for the email interview. Once you’ve enjoyed this interview, be sure to check out CBR’s late November interview with Palmiotti and Gray, as well as the preview that CBR offered of issue 1.

Tim O’Shea: When the initial 52 DC Books were announced there was a great deal of displeasure voiced about the fact you were not on the list of creators. Two-fold question: How gratifying was it to see your fans support you so vocally on this front. Secondly, without going into details, were you offered a New 52 assignment and passed on it (please feel free to skip the first part and only answer the first part, if you prefer not to delve into it)

Jamal Igle: It was very flattering and humbling at the same time. It was a little difficult for me to respond to all of the inquiries, because I didn’t know, frankly, how to respond.  I was still working on Superman at the time, so I hadn’t been assigned anything. It was a really weird, with all of the assignments being announced, not being able to say anything. The offer for The Ray came just as I was finishing up Superman # 713, prepping #714 and getting ready for San Diego.

O’Shea: Does this mark the first time you have collaborated with the writing team of Palmiotti and Gray? What sold you on joining this miniseries and/or these creators in particular?

Igle: It is, which is really funny because I’ve known Jimmy for something like 14 years. In fact Jimmy and I have worked together as an art time a few times, but never with him as a writer. However, the opportunity of working with Jimmy and Justin was too good to pass up. I’ve read pretty much everything they’ve done from Powergirl, Jonah Hex, Freedom Fighters, The Twilight Experiment, so I knew what they were going to bring to the table. When I got the script, it was so tailor made that I knew I was going to have a blast doing it.

O’Shea: Are there certain aspects of Palmiotti and Gray’s writing that you find serve to compliment your approach to storytelling?

Igle: It’s a very open collaboration. The script is very straightforward, I think that comes from having an experienced artist as part of the writing team. They understand the limitations of the comic book page and what can be done within the page. There’s a clear sense of fun to their stories, particularly with this series. However there’s also such a breakneck pace to the story as well, and so many things thrown in, monsters, aliens, etc. All the things I love to design and rarely get a chance to do.

O’Shea: In a recent CBR interview, Palmiotti praised the dynamic nature of your work on this miniseries. Seeing the first issue preview, I was struck by the kineticism of the Ray’s powers even when he first gains them. How much experimenting with the layout did you do before you realized “hey he should bounce off a car, then off the belly of a plane and then back down to earth” (a great bit BTW)?

Igle: Well, how the actual layout came together just popped into my head as soon as I read the script. The thing about Lucien’s power set, is that in order to fly, he has to ricochet off reflective surfaces. As he’s doing it, he’s making hundreds of calculations in seconds. He can’t stop in mid-air like most fliers can and because he can move at the speed of light, he’s able to cover miles at a time then recalculate where he needs to go. So visually in some panels, it looks fairly random, but it creates such a unique visual effect, one that I’ve rarely seen done in comics.

O’Shea: What do you enjoy more on a project like this: designing the costume and the characters’ powers or building the look of the supporting cast?

Igle: Actually the costume was the last thing I designed. It was more important that we ground Lucien’s world and make it as “real” as possible. Every location is a real location, I went out of my way to get as much reference for San Diego as I could. Everything from the families houses, to the looks of Lucien’s parents, Darius, his girlfriend Chanti. I really went out of my way to design these characters as I saw them in my head as well as maintain the vision Jimmy and Justin had of each character. So all of the action scenes were drawn last, and then once those were done, we designed The Ray costume and went into the high octane stuff.

O’Shea: Can you talk about the benefits of your art being inked by Rich Perrota and colored by Guy Major?

Igle: Well, I’ve worked with Guy before so I had no issues with the coloring. What’s interesting is Rich Perotta. Rich and I worked together on Iron Fist and Wolverine: The Return of Kun Lun for Marvel 11 years ago. We were friends for a long time and lost touch with each other. Then a few years ago I ran into Rich at Heroescon. He had dropped out of comics for a few years and was just getting back into the business and had been doing really well. He was good then but his work has really gotten sharp. He’s an incredibly talented inker.

O’Shea: If response was strong enough to the miniseries, would you be game for an ongoing Ray series?

Igle: Of course I would. It’s a great premise and the characters are so rich. I could see myself having a nice run on The Ray, if it came to fruition.

O’Shea: I admire how much of a fan of comics you are, even after all these years in the industry, a quality that cannot be said about all industry veterans. With that in mind, I was curious which of the new DC 52 you are really enjoying these days (but maybe you think might be getting overlooked in the deluge of new titles)?

Igle: Well there are the obvious one’s Like Action Comics, Batman, Batwoman, Green Lantern and All Star Western (Moritat is kicking ass on that book). I’m also really digging OMAC and I didn’t think I would. I really like Hawk and Dove, Green Lantern Corps, Batwing is good, a very strong character piece. [Peter] Tomasi and [Patrick] Gleason on Batman and Robin was a no brainer for me. The Huntress miniseries is really good, between [Paul] Levitz, Marcus To and John Dell, you have a really good looking, well-written book . The surprises for me were Frankenstein and Swamp Thing. I was never a Swamp Thing fan but Scott Snyder and Yanick Paquette are so good on it, and Jeff Lemire is so talented.

O’Shea: Is there anything about The Ray you would like to discuss that I neglected to ask you about? On the flipside, after answering all my queries, are there any questions you’d like to ask Robot 6 readers or a message you’d like to give to them?

Igle: It’s difficult for me to talk about the series without wanting to spoil things, so I hope people pick up the first issue and give it a try. It really has been a labor of love for me, putting the art for this book together. If you dig it, please contact me via Facebook, Twitter and Google+ (I’m easy to find) and let me know.

Trip City

As long as I have been covering the comics industry,  it seems like I have always found reasons to support the work of Dean Haspiel and/or his many talented associates. So when Trip City, a Brooklyn-filtered literary arts salon, launched at the start of last month it struck me as a good time to reach out to the founders for an email chat. While Trip City has four key members (Haspiel, Seth Kushner, Chris Miskiewicz and Jeffrey Burandt) the bulk of the discussion involved Kushner and Miskiewicz, with a brief check-in by Haspiel (discussing the start of a new Billy Dogma story, The Last Romantic Antihero [TLRA]). Haspiel also gave me a head’s up on a December 8 TLRA live reading at BookCourt at 7 PM (163 Court St  Brooklyn, New York 11201/718-875-3677).

Tim O’Shea: When did TRIP CITY first get conceived–and how did the two of you come to be involved? How early in the planning was it determined that a podcast would be important to the venture?

Chris Miskiewicz: Dean was leaving Deep6 and starting a new studio. Seth Kushner and I were the first people he asked along. Although my film schedule is always in flux and I wasn’t sure how often I’d actually be there, the idea of sitting around others and not being by myself writing appealed to me. So we formed HANG DAI Studios.

If you put three creative people in a room together stuff happens. What happened was TRIP CITY. We spoke about the concept for about five months. Who would be a part of it, what we’d do, how we’d do it. We didn’t want to revamp ACT-I-VATE but we did want comics, along with prose, fiction, a web-series, and a podcast. What we did was create a multimedia site that catered to our individual interests blending them together into a whole.

Seth Kushner: I’d been posting my content in various places.  On GRAPHIC NYC (NYCGraphicNovelists.com) I was posting my photographic portraits of comics creators, along with Chris Irving’s interview-based essays.  I also wrote personal and pop-culture essays there.  I was posting my photos and behind-the-scenes material from my shoots on my personal blog, SethKushner.blogspot.com.  And, my series, CulturePOP Photocomix was appearing on ActivateComix.com.  I wondered if I was spreading myself too thin over too many venues.  TRIP CITY was created and designed to be the venue for a group of us who all felt we needed ONE place to post our unique content and sell our wares.

O’Shea: You really were ambitious with the bookings for the first two podcasts (Michael Moore and Henry Rollins). How hard was it to arrange for these two, and will the goal always be to go for “big name” mainstream interview subjects?

Kushner: One of my favorite quotes is by Woody Allen—“80% of success is showing up.”  I couldn’t agree more, but I would add that in addition to showing up, also be polite and persistent, know some of the right people, and hopefully have at least a little bit of cred.

BookCourt December 8 Event

We’re very fortunate to have our studio, HANG DAI located above BookCourt, Brooklyn’s premiere independent bookstore.  They get big names to do appearances at the store, so we’ve teamed up with them to “share” some of their visiting guests.

With the BookCourt’s help, we basically took shots in the dark at Moore’s and Rollins’s publicists before the site had even launched.  I wrote polite query emails, in which I described the site, dropped some names of publications where my work has appeared (NY Times Magazine, Time, L’Uomo Vogue, my book, The Brooklynites) and mentioned that Emmy winner Dean Haspiel and Eisner winner Nick Abadzis were involved in the site.  To our delight, both agreed to the interview and photoshoot.  Now, we have a nice looking site and Michael Moore and Henry Rollins to use as leverage for future guests.

One of the interesting aspects of the podcast is how we take a sort of “artist-to-artist” approach to the interviews.  While Chris “hosts” and produces the podcast, we try to match-up each guest with an appropriate interviewer.  For example, our buddy Dan Goldman, who’s done such politically charged graphic novels as Shooting War and 08 was matched up with Michael Moore.  Fellow TC contributor Amy Finkel, a filmmaker and punk music aficionado, was the right interviewer for Henry Rollins. We’ve got Dean and artist Jen Ferguson interviewing cartoonist Ben Katchor on the current episode. Upcoming, artist Krista Dragomer talks to artist/actress/filmmaker/author Miranda July for the next one, and writer/musician Jeffrey Burandt interviewing author Jonathan Lethem on the one after.

So, the bar is set high, but we plan to continue to roll out “name” guests, and more importantly, guests whose work we admire and who inspire us.

O’Shea: Do you hope to have some recurring segments on the podcast as the project evolves?

Miskiewicz: We’re looking at it as showcasing our featured guest with a TC-Podcast show running before it that talks about what’s going on with our contributors which includes some comedy skits like “Ronnie’s Story” “How to in 2” and a variety of real and made up news stories coming down the line. We also close with a featured song.

O’Shea: How do the two of you divvy up the production responsibilities for the podcast?

Miskiewicz: Seth & Dean have been getting our guests. A conversation goes out about who in our group will conduct the interview. We have a group meeting about the overall schedule. And then I build the podcast, picking the order, which skits, and which jokes.

O’Shea: Are there certain podcasts that the two of you listen to on a regular basis and that achieve the kind of vibe/content you hope to offer for TRIP CITY (to give interested listeners context)?

Kushner: I listen regularly to Marc Maron’s WTF podcast and also to John Siuntres’ Word Balloon.  What they have in common, is they feature smart, honest, in-depth discussions about process with folks I find fascinating–Marc with comedians, and John with comic book creators.  Dean and I are both fans of that type of format and Chris really enjoys silly, ironic humor, so he creates segments to go in-between the smart stuff.

O’Shea:Seth, how gratifying is it to have a forum where you “have a venue to post the type of material I most wanted to work on, no matter how esoteric or personal“. How hard was it to write about your late father?

Kushner: The piece, Patrick Stewart And My Father was the first of a series of “personal/pop-culture” essays I’ve written.  I followed it with How Mark Hamill Changed My Life and I Hated Star Trek.  The concept is to show how popular culture, the things we all love, informs our life and how some of the periods of our lives can be tied into these things.

It wasn’t that difficult to write about my late father.  It’s been a lot of years, and I see the piece as a tribute to him, and to some extent, to Partick Stewart.

O’Shea: Chris, in addition to your role in the podcast, what kind of content to you intend to develop for TRIP CITY?

Miskiewicz: In December I’ll be posting a 24-page children’s story entitled Astor Place as well as the second part of Adrift with Kate McElroy.

I’ll be publishing the first chapter of my novel Allergy Season in parts to run as a weekly until it’s completion, as well as several short stories.

However the bulk of my presence within Trip City comes into play when we launch our webseries station, Trip City Television in late February/March.

I’m currently in production on two original web-shows for the station. But we’ll also have short films and skits from outside contributors. It’s going to be a lot of fun.

O’Shea: What else is on the TRIP CITY horizon?

Kushner: There’s lots brewing at TRIP CITY.  I’ve been continuing my series CulturePOP Photocomix on TRIP CITY.  Author and creator of HBO’s Bored To Death Jonathan Ames was the first one, followed by comedian and WTF podcaster Marc Maron.  Upcoming I have Moby and James Haspiel, Dean’s dad and friend and biographer of Marilyn Monroe.

I will also be writing my own semi-autobio comix series called, SCHMUCK.  The first chapter, illustrated by Kevin Colden, appeared on ActivateComix.com two years ago.  Moving forward, I’ll have different artists illustrating 8-10 page chapters.  I plan to launch it in February and then post monthly.

The Last Romantic Antihero

The big thing coming on the site proper is Dean’s new Billy Dogma story, The Last Romantic Antihero.  I’ve seen it and it’s a doozy and it will appear only on TRIP CITY.  Look for it on 12/6.

Dean Haspiel: The Last Romantic Antihero is my gauntlet to woo virgin readers to the BILLY DOGMA mythology while welcoming fans to TRIP CITY, where I get to hit the re-set button both creatively and narratively. I’m excited to grow a multimedia home that challenges me to experiment new story ideas among a diverse set of accomplished and highly individualistic creators.

Betrayal of the Planet of the Apes

Several months back when I had the opportunity to interview Gabriel Hardman, there was one aspect of our discussion that I hoped I’d get to explore more, as the chance presented itself. That aspect was the Hardman’s potential collaboration on future projects with his wife, writer Corinna Sara Bechko. So, lo and behold, once the first issue of Bechko and Hardman’s Betrayal of the Planet of the Apes (BOOM! Studios) hit the stands, I convinced the creative team of Bechko and Hardman to do an email interview. In addition to the five-page preview of issue 2 that BOOM! Studios provided to CBR, it also was kind enough to give Robot 6 previews of pages 6 and 7 from the upcoming issue (which is coming out this Wednesday, December 7). To learn more about the creators’ approach on this project, please be sure to also read CBR’s August interview with them.

Tim O’Shea: Recently Corinna, you wrote: “Spending the last several months immersed in Apes has been a bit of a dream come true for both Gabriel and me.” What is it about full Ape immersion (so to speak) that’s so enjoyable for both of you?

Corinna Sara Bechko: I’ve always been drawn to post-apocalyptic fiction, and this is no exception. We’re both big fans and feel so lucky to contribute a little corner to the Apes universe. Plus, the folks at BOOM! and FOX have been an absolute joy to work with.

Gabriel Hardman: And it’s just fun to spend time inventing an original story that still fits neatly into an established world that we have a lot of affection for. I’ve always been frustrated with licensed books that can’t capture the feel of the original material. Immersing yourself in that world is necessary to make it authentic both in the writing and the art. Obviously when writing we’re trying hard not to directly contradict the established Apes continuity. When drawing the book, I think about it like I’m directing and production designing a lost Apes sequel. I’m not going to draw a prop that is out of place on that set.

O’Shea: How do you divvy up writing responsibilities on a project like this?

Bechko: We usually hash out a general outline, then break it down into individual scenes, pages, and panels together as I take detailed notes. After that I put those notes into script form, and that becomes the first draft.

Preview of page 6

Hardman: Then we revise that draft together. It’s actually a fairly conventional process. We write full scripts and I rarely deviate from the way we initially break down the panels. That’s because I’m picturing how to tell the story visually from the earliest stages of the writing process. I don’t do thumbnail sketches or anything. It’s just as straightforward for me to think through the panel breakdowns and just put those into the script.

O’Shea: What do you admire about each other’s storytelling abilities?

Bechko: No doubt about it, Gabriel is a master storyteller. The hardest thing about constructing a narrative is knowing when to give the audience information and when to hold back and let them have the satisfaction of figuring things out. Gabriel instinctually knows when to cut and what tiny bits of information, maybe just a look or a gesture, will do the work of whole pages of exposition. He’s also really good at keeping even the wildest story elements grounded and believable and won’t rest until every single character seems like an actual fully realized person.

Hardman: Corinna is great at bringing nuance to any given idea we’re working on. She can always bring a fresh point of view to an scene or character so that we don’t fall into the trap of repeating familiar stories. She’s also brilliant at researching. Both in searching out a springboard for a story from history, science or the news and making what we’ve already come up with more credible. She’s deeply knowledgeable about scientific subjects. She’s a voracious reader of physics and biology. You can imagine how important that is when writing comics.

O’Shea: Corinna do you think the five years you spent working at the L.A. Zoo (with chimpanzees and orangutans) has an impact on your writing of this project at all?

Bechko: Definitely. When I was at the zoo I worked in the Research Division. Our most important job was designing and implementing behavioral studies. Most of these had to do with exhibit design, looking at how the apes actually used the space as opposed to how humans thought the apes should use the space. This led to some to some innovative enrichments of their habitats and also gave me an intuitive knowledge of how apes approach a problem. And since most primate problems are social in nature, it really taught me a lot about how they think. There’s a truism you’ll hear from ape keepers: give a chimpanzee a puzzle and he’ll work at it, trying different things, until he unlocks it. Give an orangutan the same puzzle and he’ll sit and look at it. Then he’ll get up, try one thing, and solve it. Different approaches that seem to define their approach to life. Both gorillas and humans fall somewhere in between.

Another aspect of my job was looking at how zoo visitors interfaced with the chimpanzees and orangutans. Were they curious? Disgusted? I think a lot of what I learned about how humans tend to look at apes made it into Betrayal through the funhouse mirror of how the apes treat the human Tern and the rest of his species.

O’Shea: How was it decided that Jordie Bellaire was the ideal colorist for this project?

Preview of page 7

Hardman: I saw Jordie’s work online and sought her out at the last Heroes Con even before we were locked to do Betrayal. It was a huge priority for me that if I was going to draw this, it look as good as my Marvel work or better. Luckily, she was available and has done an amazing job of the book. I’ve been very lucky to get the colorists I’ve worked with.

Bechko: Jordie’s colors are just wonderful. Looking at her work, there was no doubt she’d be perfect for the book.

O’Shea: After the miniseries wraps, would you both be open to working in the Apes universe some more?

Bechko: Absolutely!

Hardman: We’d love to. We’d also love to write other freelance projects together.

O’Shea: Another question prompted by your blog, Corinna–can you discuss your affinity for time travel?

Bechko: There is literally no subject I’d rather discuss. Well, besides apes! The nature of time fascinates me. Why does time exist? Is it an emergent property of the universe? Does all time, past, future, and present, actually exist in some predetermined way based on conditions present during the big bang? These are all real questions that are pertinent to real physicists, but they are also some of the greatest gateway questions you could ask to kick off a fictional story. Just look at the first Apes film: it uses a very practical application of relativity to kick off the story of how the space ship ended up so far in Taylor’s future. Thinking about how time works fires my imagination and causes me to go on book buying sprees. I’ll happily watch or read just about anything dealing with time travel, fact or fiction. Time is one puzzle that I don’t think anyone will solve soon, and that makes it even more fun to think about.

O’Shea: One final Corinna question: When I interviewed Gabriel a few months back, I asked him if he listens to music while he works. So now I pose the question to you?

Bechko: I generally don’t listen to anything while I work because it interferes with the rhythms I’m trying to wrestle out of my head. I do listen to music that evokes the mood of whatever I’m working on before and after I sit down to write though, and I find that listening to really loud live music periodically is great for clearing out the cranial cobwebs.

Scarlet Spider

Say the name “Scarlet Spider” to a longtime Marvel reader and you’re bound to get a range of reactions. But come the new year, Marvel is hoping all the reactions will be positive and numerous when the new Scarlet Spider series launches on January11. As recently confirmed in Marvel’s Point One one-shot, the new Scarlet Spider is none other than Kaine, the Peter Parker clone recently cured during the Spider Island event. Unlike many of Marvel’s series set in New York, Scarlet Spider will enjoy the unique cityscape of Houston, Texas — one of many factors that has me looking forward to reading it. Before the series gets started though, series artist Ryan Stegman stepped away from his drawing table to take part in this Q&A. In addition to this interview, CBR also is offering a preview of the first issue. After reading this (and enjoying the preview), be sure to check out the recent installment of Comic Book Resources’ “Axel-in-Charge,” where Alonso interviewed Stegman.

Tim O’Shea: How did Marvel approach you about joining the Scarlet Spider creative team? Was getting to work with [series writer] Chris Yost a deciding factor in joining the project?

Ryan Stegman: I had been working on an issue of Amazing Spider-Man and I made it clear as I could to editorial that this is the type of stuff I wanted to be doing. I practically begged. And Steve Wacker said that he would love to have me back and but that ASM was booked up artist-wise for the foreseeable future. I couldn’t argue this, because the artists that they have are fantastic. So one day, out of the blue he called me up and told me about this idea and I was sold. No offense to Chris, but that wasn’t a selling point because I think I was hired before him! Chris turned out to be the icing on the cake.

O’Shea: Can you take folks through designing the new costume?

Stegman: I spent a lot of time thinking about it and thinking about it. I really knew that I wanted something very classic, with very few bells and whistles. I wanted it to read instantly and from a distance. I tried some stuff and sent it over to Skottie Young and he told me he hated it. Haha. But he had the same ideas as me for what we were looking for and so he helped me to refine it and really get rid of all the unnecessary crap that I wanted to put on it.

I also thought it was important to get rid of the hoodie because that’s Ben Reilly’s costume. I’ve taken a lot of heat for it, and I understand everyone’s attachment to it. But I want Kaine to be a different character…More edgy and frightening looking.

O’Shea: Are you inking yourself on the book (if not, who is)? You recently tweeted about experimenting with inking with a Cintiq. Are you hoping to eventually work on Cintiq for your pages, or how?

Stegman: No, I am not inking myself. I’ve been working with an inker since I worked on She-Hulks named Mikey Babinski. He’s a friend of mine and we’ve really developed a great working relationship. I have inked myself before, but I don’t have the patience for it! I can only really work in a much scratchier style or I find it to be no fun. So I’m glad to have someone that does that heavy lifting for me.

I do part of my work on the Cintiq. Layouts and I add my perspective digitally, then print that out onto the Marvel board in light blue and draw over it. I don’t foresee a future where I would draw completely digitally. For one thing, I like selling original art! And for another, I just can’t quite get the control that I need to have on it. It’s close, but not quite there yet.

O’Shea: Not every artist goes through Marvel’s Artist’s Training Program (as you recently discussed with Axel). What kind of lessons did you learn from Klaus Janson, for example?

Stegman: I learned so much in those few days! I learned a lot about storytelling and the business in general. But the biggest thing that Klaus imparted on me was to never take storytelling for granted. You need to make active decisions when laying out your pages. I guess before working with Klaus and Howard [Chaykin] I didn’t realize how much one could really get into that aspect and since then I’ve been obsessed. There’s plenty more that I learned, but that’s the most concrete thing.

O’Shea: Scarlet Spider is set in Houston. Creatively, what kind of visual opportunities does playing in a different cityscape provide?

Stegman: I have to study Houston and find out the feel of it. When I draw New York, I have a certain aesthetic that I go for. It’s generally kind of dirty and cramped. But Houston is much more wide open. So I just try to use the right reference and understand the city and hope it gives off the right feel. I am much more in tune with making Houston accurate. New York you can kind of put a bunch of pieces together and it just feels like New York. But with Houston, I’m paying attention to everything, right down to how they paint their crosswalks.

O’Shea: Not suprisingly, you read the Clone Saga in preparation for this new assignment, did it inspire you somewhat with some ideas to work into the present day project?

Stegman: Oh, yes. Chris and I are always firing emails back and forth to each other with ideas that we have. Just the other day I became obsessed with Ben Reilly’s impact webbing and told Chris that I’d love for that to be something that Kaine has. And it might end up being so!

Reading that stuff helps me to really understand Kaine as a character too. I think that now more than ever I realize how much baggage he has. So it really helps put me in the mindset of, “This is not Peter Parker … at all.”

O’Shea: Rather than give everything away, I was wondering if you care to discuss the Scarlet Spider supporting cast in general terms?

Stegman: We will be creating a lot of the supporting cast and villains from scratch. Which could not be more exciting for me. Today I was working on a character and I thought, “Wouldn’t it be cool if he could make fire snakes?” and then I drew it. Because this is his first appearance! Nobody can say no, because nobody knows who the hell he is yet. And stuff like that is SOOOOO liberating artistically.

O’Shea: Looking at some of the pencils that CBR previewed for the project, one asset (among the many) is the unique way you layout the web lines (such as here) and how the Scarlet Spider uses them. I don’t think I’ve seen another artist be so unique with the lines. When and how did you realize that was an aspect you wanted to play with and exploit dynamically?

Stegman: The first time I saw Todd McFarlane draw webbing I knew that I wanted to draw webbing. Haha. It’s so cool. But beyond that, movement and energy are two things that I am very conscious of in my work. And the webbing just provides me with the opportunity to add movement and energy to the art. When done right, it really breathes. Plus, by putting webbing in the foreground you can create a lot of depth and cool compositions. I intend to keep pushing this stuff. I love it.

O’Shea: It’s clear in reading your discussion with Axel that this title has allowed you to challenge yourself creatively, can you talk about the thrill and challenge of that?

Stegman: As I mentioned earlier, the most challenging and rewarding part is that we get to create so much of it. But beyond that, I feel that this book really plays to my strengths and so I am getting to use all of the tools in my toolbox. And at the same time, I’m trying to add new tools. Drawing a spider-character is an interesting challenge in his own right because there are SO MANY poses you can put him in, given his flexibility. So figuring out new and exciting things to do is always fun.

O’Shea: Do you find Twitter to be an easy means to interact with readers?

Stegman: I love Twitter for that. I think back to my 15 year old self and wonder if my head would have exploded if Twitter existed. Because at that age, all I ever wanted to do was hear directly from my favorite creators. But I had to wait until Wizard Magazine came out. Then the internet came along and I would spend all day in the Wizard chat room on AOL and creators would pop in occasionally and it was the greatest.

Now I’m on the other side of that, and getting to talk to readers is the best. I’m a very extroverted person so it’s very unnatural for me to stay at home and work by myself. But Twitter allows me to talk to people and get it out of my system. I’ve even made friends with quite a few readers on there. Now, when I go to conventions, I get approached all the time, “I’m so-and-so from Twitter” and immediately the ice is broken. You know stuff about each other. So conversations get rolling as though we have known each other for a long time.

O’Shea: Were you able to get an Xbox on Black Friday?

Stegman: Haha. YES! I got one online. It should be arriving today, in fact. I honestly have no idea when I’m going to play it though. I have a 9 month old son and a job where I work 7 days a week. But hopefully I can make some time to play the Kinect dance games or something with my wife.

O’Shea: One looking in the rearview question, do you have a favorite scene from your work on Fear Itself: Hulk Vs. Dracula?

Stegman: In issue 2, the spread at the beginning of the issue was a big moment for me. I felt like I really captured the action that I had been going for in my work all along. Like I always wanted massive action scenes, but when I’d finish them they’d never live up to my expectations. But that one totally did. And it was the Hulk smashing monsters. Nothing better than that.

O’Shea: Any questions you’d like to toss out to Robot 6 readers?

Stegman: My question to Robot 6 readers is: Will you buy Scarlet Spider? PLEASE?!!!

Octobriana: Samizdat Edition

When writer Steve Orlando contacted Robot 6 about his 88-page graphic novel, Octobriana: Samizdat Edition (Poseur Ink), I was intrigued for a number for a reasons. First off, Orlando tapped artist Chaz Truog (Grant Morrison’s collaborator on his definitive Animal Man run) for the project. Also, of interest to me, was the Russian history aspect; SAMIZDAT, the underground Soviet movement for spreading censored art and literature and best of all, a character born partially from a pop culture hoax. Once interested, of course, I arranged an email interview and we discussed all of these topics and more.

Tim O’Shea: At the outset, for uninformed readers like myself, can you discuss SAMIZDAT- the underground Soviet movement for spreading censored art and literature?

Steve Orlando: Samizdat (which means “self-making” or “self-made” in Russian) was an underground publishing movement during the harshest times of Soviet repression. It’s best summed up by Vladimir Bukovsky, a doctor and writer that exposed psychological torture against Soviet prisoners- “(…) I myself create it, edit it, censor it, publish it, distribute it, and …get imprisoned for it. (…)” With Samizdat, banned documents were printed in secret and passed hand to hand between readers, under the radar. Because the documents were censored by the government, Samizdat was a dangerous movement, its printers were social and political zealots. But it was also extremely important- works such as Mikhail Bulgakov’s “The Master and Margarita” were among the circulated texts…making the movement responsible for the continued growth and expression of Russian literature. These were dedicated people- sometimes even recreating the texts word for word by hand or by typewriter.

Samizdat symbolizes a time when literature was dangerous and being a publisher was deadly. Its the passion of publishing, renegade creation and circulation, similar to the Zine movement, but with higher life costs. For these people, spreading the work was more important than their safety…and I think that’s a great thing to pay tribute to.

O’Shea: When did you first get interested in Octobriana–and prompted you wanted to write a story using her?

Orlando: Octobriana has fascinated me ever since I returned from my time living in Russia. After being among its culture and people, I discovered Octobriana’s backstory as a 1970s pop culture hoax. Her entire backstory as a protest creation of the made-up group the PPP (people’s progressive pornography), was a moneymaking scheme by Petr Sadecky. He claimed she was the ultimate communist character, created without copyright, so that anyone could use her. Ultimately he was a thief, stealing other people’s art and using it to concoct a story. But what was truly interesting, and what I ended up writing a thesis on, is that Sadecky could not stop or control his creation. Octobriana was out of the box, and functioning exactly as he said she did, despite his hoax. She had become modern pop culture folklore, popping up in art and print in different all over the planet, including a possible David Bowie film project int he 1970s, and a tattoo on Billy Idol’s arm.

Folklorist Vladimir Propp identified that Russian folklore has a standard set of tropes and parts, a morphology similar to a living organism. Writers and storytellers keep the basics, and then alter the dressings and semantics to fit their story and the ideas they want to speak about. No matter what her small minded creator planned, Octobriana ended up becoming just the folklore, with creators saving the basics and using her as a medium for their stories.

After researching her for a year, I had to tell my own story.

O’Shea: How challenging was it to find a publisher who would print the story on newsprint?

Orlando: Finding a publisher in general was challenging, due to the story’s content, especially with its frank depictions of LGBTQ sex. I’d worked with Poseur Ink before, and as a publisher of zines, underground comics, and also underground vinyl music printings, I thought that they would be a perfect thematic match to the story. Because of their minicomic background, selling them on using newsprint was not hard, especially once I told them more about Samizdat. However, finding a newsprint printer was actually surprisingly challenging. Many printers no longer even offer newsprint for book printing, and many others actually tried to convince me to convert to a thicker paper stock. Finally though, I was able to convince a printer in Brooklyn that newsprint was actually important to me as a statement for the book to make, and not a financial compromise. I wanted this to feel like an old-school book that someone could have pressed in their basement.

O’Shea: How important was it to you that the story be in black and white (as opposed to color)?

Orlando: Similar to the newsprint issue, having the book be in black and white was extremely important. There is of course a narrative to the book, but I wanted the entire book, even the media it is presented on, to be a statement about Samizdat and underground publishing. Even distributing the book through smaller sales reps, publishers, and directly, was done to mimic the hand to hand transactions of the Soviet era.

O’Shea: At what stage in developing Octobriana did you realize you wanted Chaz Truog to collaborate with you on it?

Orlando: When Chaz came on the book, the story was already set, but the characters had not been given form. I have loved his work since Animal Man, and know from his interest in Da Vinci that he has a genuine love of art and art history. I wanted the right artist, someone whose work was expressive. Octobriana had to be voluptuous, but also soft and curvy, to stay in line with her early depictions. When I first saw Chaz tackle Octobriana, I couldn’t imagine another artist taking on the story. The small details that he brought to the pages and settings truly grounded the story in the world I’d created. As soon as I saw the cover to the first chapter, with the iconic action pose inverted by gender, I knew that Chaz just got it.

O’Shea: The story is a mixture of intense sexuality and equally intense violence. How hard was it to script such scenes without going overboard on either count?

Orlando: While the PPP were not real, I think that the message of sexual freedom they were supposed to embody is still important today. And so when I decided to write about Octobriana, sexuality was always important to me as a part of the story. As such I decided to connect it to the narrative, and continue to invert expectations. In some scenes, Octobriana’s nudity is hopefully a mediating agent to desensitize the reader to less mainstream sexual images. In addition the sexuality pushes boundaries in a market where ratings systems say it is more damaging for a teenager to see a nude male or female than it is for him or her to see someone decapitated or have their head blown in.

Sex and Death has always laid along a thin line of separation- just look at the fascination with vampire literature, where the two begin to blend together. Because Octobriana is a story about passion, I felt that the sex and death needed to be bold. Yes, Liuba’s story is heartbreaking, but I wanted her to be more than a heartless villain- it gives her pathos, point of view. And she was in fact a real person during the Soviet period. I think the hardest part was imagining what her life was like, locked up, forced to perform these experiments on film. Her rage and restriction is the reason her sexual world so quickly and easily became a world of death. Her plague on Russia makes that literal.

But in general I work to make sure that if there is sexuality or violence, it is pushing the narrative forward, and that there is emotion behind it. The goriest killing, that of Liuba’s lover, is also that carrying the most emotional weight. The most sexually explicit scene, in the beginning of the story, is also the most passionate and pure, before it is spoiled by Liuba.

O’Shea: Which did you have research more for this story: Soviet political history or Soviet folklore?

Orlando: Though I was well versed in both, I did more research on Soviet politics. Sexual legislation was so tight during Octobriana’s time that a breast could not be depicted in the media unless it was to suckle a child. I had known about Liuba thanks to some reading I had done on her for an older story idea, but I did not know the extent to which the government had censored its literature and art. The more I read about Octobriana, Samizdat, and Mikhail Bulgakov, the more I looked for additional information.

O’Shea: Anything you’d like to discuss that I neglected to ask you about?

Orlando: I think Octobriana is important as a tribute to a publishing movement, but beyond it’s intents, it’s a story about one woman looking for who she is, and another wanting everyone to know who she is. Even simpler, its about two women avenging their lovers…two women championing their passion. It’s about action, magic, and sexuality…and I think the reader responses I’ve received have stood by that. Not everyone has said it’s their Octobriana, nor should it be, but it’s been an Octobriana they’ve wanted to meet again. I wanted to create an exciting action work, but didn’t expect to get emails from readers saying that they’ve been waiting for a book to tackle bisexuality like I have, or that’s spoken to their experience like it has.

To create a book that combines old-school comics action, and lets readers know they’re not alone…it’s been a great experience.

Grandpa Won't Wake Up

It’s been just over two years since the last time cartoonist Shannon Wheeler and I have done an interview. Since then, he’s gotten even more popular with his successful New Yorker cartoon submissions; turned his New Yorker rejections into the Eisner Award winning collection (from BOOM! Studios), I Thought You Would Be Funnier; collaborated with Simon Max Hill on a Little Golden Book parody, Grandpa Won’t Wake Up (BOOM! Studios); as well as teaming with Steve Duin (The Oregonian columnist) on Oil and Water (from Fantagraphics, set for release this month). This new interview focuses on the experience of winning a second Eisner (to go with his 1995 Best New Series win for Too Much Coffee Man), his various current collaborations, comedic boundaries and the impact of stress in his creative process. Be sure to peruse Fantagraphics 19-page preview of Oil and Water after enjoying the interview.

Tim O’Shea: Not many folks can say they’ve won an Eisner, but this year’s was actually your second Eisner win. How gratifying was it to get such validation again? Also, how amused were you that you won an award for a collection of work rejected by the New Yorker?

Shannon Wheeler: It was more moving than validating. I didn’t think I would win this time around. I swore I wouldn’t be one of those people who cry on stage at a stupid award ceremony. But once I got up and took the award in my hand I honestly choked up. It meant more to me than I thought.

O’Shea: You were just at APE, where Grandpa Won’t Wake Up premiered. Were you pleased with how it was received at APE?

Wheeler: It’s such a catchy title (thanks to the author, Simon) that it’s hard not to pick it up. The thing sold like hot cakes. I was very pleased.

O’Shea: What attracted you to working with Simon Max Hill?

Wheeler: I told him that there was no way I had time to work on someone else’s project. I was overloaded with work. Then I read his text… I kept laughing… I had to do it. I’ve always been a fan of Edward Gorey and Shel Silverstein this seemed like an unholy union of those two.

O’Shea: Did you always plan on going with a Golden Book packaging homage with this project, or was this an idea that came to you in the midst of its development?

Wheeler: I think it was in the middle of working on it. There’s nothing more iconic than the Golden Books. I love them. Simon and I had a long time to develop ideas. We’d meet every few months and work on the roughs.

O’Shea: So, do you take pleasure in the fact that the Simon & Schuster site recommends this book to 11 Graders and up? For that matter, is there a target audience for this book per se?

Wheeler: I did the book because it appealed to me. I never thought about the audience. I had no idea Simon & Schuster recommends the book. That’s totally cool.

O’Shea: Comedically, did you hesitate at all in terms of going for dressing Grandpa in Nazi garb (particularly swastika thong)?

Wheeler: When Simon and I talked about it we laughed so hard that there wasn’t a moment of hesitation. The whole idea was to find the limits – walk on them, urinate, dance, start a fire, kill and roast an endangered animal and eat it while sitting on a baby seal.

O’Shea: Do you consider any boundaries in cadaver comedy?

Wheeler: We considered all the boundaries… but we were laughing too hard to notice them as they whipped past us.

O’Shea: Tell me the evolution on the name “C’Thris’Klpotheup” particularly the use of apostrophes in the name (I am partial to apostrophes in names, as you might expect)?

Wheeler: Simon spent hours finding a demon that would fit with the syllable and rhyming structure.

O’Shea: Can you single out a scenario in Grandpa that you found comedically more absurd than the others, or were you able to achieve a consistent level of comedic absurdity on all pages?

Wheeler: One of my favorite bits is with the candle. Putting a candle in a dead grandfather’s ass was offensive but we wanted to make it funnier. First we thought a roman candle would be funnier replete with fireworks on the next page… but given that he’s wearing Nazi underwear, a Chanukah candle was the funniest.

O’Shea: Back when you and I did an email interview in 2009, you said of getting published by The New Yorker: “When they finally bought one, it was relief as much as joy, that my work paid off. Then I got nervous that they’d never buy a second cartoon. Then they bought a second cartoon. A number have run but I’m still nervous every week.” They have bought several more since then–still nervous?

Wheeler: Yep. I’m still totally nervous. I’m waiting to be found out for the sham that I am. They just bought another cartoon of mine last week. I still find it unbelievable that I’m in one of the most respected magazines in the country. Maybe when I go senile I’ll stop appreciating how lucky I am.

Oil and Water

O’Shea: November sees Fantagraphics release Oil and Water, your collaboration with The Oregonian‘s Steve Duin. What can you tell me about that project–and what was it like to work with Duin?

Wheeler: The BP oil spill is a classic story of a multi-national corporation screwing the little guy. I’ll never get tired of working with that theme. I felt this particular story – and the impact it had on the people, environment, economy was an important one.

There were times that I was frustrated working with Steve. We’re both have ridiculous personalities with strong ideas. We butted heads on a few things. The bottom line is that I have enormous respect for his writing. It was an enormous learning experience for me. Steve has a deep and genuine love for comics. He understands story telling. I loved it. I learned a lot from him.

O’Shea: What kind of things did you learn (storytelling wise) from Duin?

Wheeler: Steve understands a scene really well. When all the characters visited the bird cleaning facility there was a large storytelling arc with multiple subplots. I would have been afraid to juggle so many elements. I would have focused on the single note of the horror of the facility. Steve isn’t afraid to trust the reader to understand. I’m a lot less trusting of the reader. Steve showed me how to have more faith in the narrative.

O’Shea: What else is on the horizon for you creatively?

Wheeler: I’m doing another collaborative project… this time it’s the Bible. Top Shelf is publishing it early next year. I’m doing gag cartoons and Mark Russell is rewriting each book down to about 3 paragraphs. It will be funny but it’s not a parody. It’s an accurate retelling of the stories. Hopefully my jokes will be funny and help sell it.

O’Shea: The Bible project with Mark Russell, this is another writer named Mark Russell, not the American political satirist/comedian who plays the piano, right? Not wishing to marginalize either Russell, just trying to make a distinction for readers (and myself)?

Wheeler: Yep. It’s the Mark Russell who does a zine called Penny Dreadful. He’s not well known yet but he’ll make a splash before too long.

I also have a few new Too Much Coffee Man stories to do for Dark Horse Presents. I want them to be good so it’s stressing me out. Long term – I’d love to do another graphic novel.

O’Shea: If you ever stop stressing and being nervous about your work, are you afraid it would not be as good? Would you agree that stress is a creative fuel for you on some level?

Wheeler: On some level… maybe. It sure gets in the way most of the time. I don’t think it’s good for my health either. I would rather be the type of artist who can sit down every day and draw from 9-5. I piddle and stress then draw for 12 hours straight.

Greg Pak's first Bill Mantlo comic

Greg Pak‘s Afterword tribute to Bill Mantlo in the final issue of his Hulk run (The Incredible Hulks 635) genuinely gave me pause (and as I said as much in that week’s WAYR). Then last week when Kevin Melrose made us aware of LifeHealthPro/Bill Coffin‘s devastating profile of Bill Mantlo’s life since 1992, which clearly struck a chord with many Robot 6 readers. Once I saw Pak’s comment in the thread, I realized I wanted to talk to Pak about Mantlo. While I have long respected Pak as a writer, his decision to set up a donations page for Bill Mantlo’s care is the reason why I admire him. My thanks to Pak for the interview and for scanning the cover to the actual copy of his first Bill Mantlo comic (Micronauts 3), which we get to discuss also.

Tim O’Shea: At what point in your run on the Hulk did you realize that you wanted to write the Afterword, partially about Bill Mantlo?

Greg Pak: I’d cited Bill Mantlo as a big influence many times over the years in press and publicity for my various Hulk storylines. So it was a natural for me to focus on him in the afterward to Incredible Hulks #635. And it was a huge pleasure to be able to formally dedicate the run to Mantlo on that final page.

O’Shea: Was an issue of the Micronauts the first Bill Mantlo-written comic you ever read?

Pak: Yep. Micronauts #3. I read and reread that thing approximately six trillion times. Man, you’ve got me pulling it out again now… check out that tattered cover!

It’s just a fantastic issue — with the Micronauts’ crazy dogfight in the streets and skate parks of Daytona contrasted with Steve Coffin’s suburban angst, that creepy old lady requesting Prince Argon’s body back in Homeworld Body Banks, exiled prince Acroyear hacking that traitor’s spaceship IN HALF, nonstop quippage and banter and romantic tension, and the eerie image of the battlecruiser and dead baddies in the shoebox on the final page. LOVE.

O’Shea: You wrote an entire column for Newsarama detailing your respect for Mantlo’s writing and its influence on your Hulk run. But can you elaborate further on what it is about Mantlo’s storytelling that has always appealed to you?

Pak: I love Mantlo’s dedication to emotional story and his total embrace of completely loopy, big ideas. See the “Micronauts” #3 description above. So much crazy fun, and yet Mantlo always has his thumb on his characters’ emotional pulse. We’re thrilled ’cause it’s so insane — and because he’s made us care about the characters.

O’Shea: Did your Marvel editors ever push back when you wanted to work Mantlo homages into your own Hulk run? Speaking of all the homages, which one were you most pleased to have worked into your Hulk run?

Pak: Marvel editor Mark Paniccia, my big partner in crime on my Hulk run, is also a big Micronauts fan. So I think he got a kick out of all the little homages I tossed in. I gave my insectivorid Miek a recurring “kik” in his dialogue — a tip of the hat to the Micronauts’ Bug and his “tik.” I had several characters in “Planet Hulk” check out with big screams of “GLEEEARGH!” — one of Mantlo’s favorite exclamations. But I’m probably most happy with the way we worked flashbacks to Mantlo’s Incredible Hulk #312 into the Skaar/Hulk confrontation in Incredible Hulk #611. It made the whole issue resonate on about three more levels. Thanks again, Mr. Mantlo.

O’Shea: In acknowledging Mantlo’s influence did you initially hope to be able to bring his current plight back into current day discussion, or was that just a happy coincidence?

Pak: Every time I talk about Mantlo I try to mention his condition and give people an indication of how they can help out with his daily care. When someone gives you so much joy, it’s important to give back if you can. Amazing folks like David Yurkovich and Jason Leivian set the stage for this with their hard work on their Mantlo benefits; I’m just happy to have the chance to follow their lead.

O’Shea: For folks who have never read Mantlo’s Hulk issues, where would you recommend that people start?

Pak: If you want to plunge into the action, I’d recommend Incredible Hulk #297-300, which tell the story of a mindless Hulk going on an insane rampage that leads to a massive showdown with a huge number of Marvel heroes in New York City. And then the Crossroads saga, which spans from Incredible Hulk #301-313, during which Doctor Strange exiles the Hulk from Earth in hopes of finding him a dimension in which he can be happy. That run includes the amazing Incredible Hulk #312, which had such a huge influence on my own exploration of Banner’s relationship with his father and mother.

O’Shea: Were you surprised when Mike Mantlo reached out to you with a note, after you wrote of Mantlo’s influence?

Pak: I actually tracked down Mike through Jason and asked if he’d like to send me a note to include with that Newsarama column. Mike has done so much for so many years for his brother that I thought it would make a big difference if folks could hear from him directly how their notes and support have helped.

O’Shea: Are you proud that you have been able to indirectly use your run on the Hulk to partially bring Bill Mantlo’s life into present day focus, and encourage fans to donate to his care?

Pak: You bet. It’s so easy to feel helpless when you read about something as tragic as what happened to Bill Mantlo. But there are always things we can do to help, and I’m very happy to have the chance to help point people in the right direction.

And thank you, Tim, for doing the same by writing this article! Much appreciated.

Brain Boy Archives

On general principle, I love any project with an alliterative name like Brain Boy. And even though JK Parkin just interviewed Dark Horse Assistant Editor Jim Gibbons, when I found out he had the scoop on the Brain Boy Archives that Dark Horse is set to release this Wednesday, November 16, I pestered Gibbons for a brief email interview. The 1962/1963 six-issue series serves as the only comic written by prose novelist Herb Castle. And while Castle developed the origin with legendary artist Gil Kane, after that first appearance, the actual series was drawn by then-newcomer Frank Springer. Inspired by the Cold War landscape of the early 1960s , the short-lived series proved a great springboard for discussion with Gibbons.

Tim O’Shea: How did the idea first come about to develop a Brain Boy archive?

Jim Gibbons: This was all Dark Horse Comics’ head honcho Mike Richardson’s idea. That guy knows his old comics like nobody’s business and we—as a company—wouldn’t have as extensive or as impressive an archival collection series without the passion Big Mike brings to the table for a lot of these projects. As a relatively young guy, I’d never heard for Brain Boy—and may not have had I not been assigned to work on this project with editor extraordinaire Philip Simon—but man, I enjoyed every wacky turn of this short-lived comic series.

O’Shea: Were you able to shoot the pages from original art, or what did you have to work with? Was there a great deal of restoration work that needed to be done?

Gibbons: All pages were scanned in house from the original comics and restored to their former glory by our incredible digital art team! They work tirelessly on archival projects like this all the time and never get enough credit for their hard work. Next time you pick up a yellowed and tattered issue from the ’60s, try and imagine the amount of work that goes into making that looks like brand new and you’ll start to get an idea of the hard work our digital art team puts in.

O’Shea: Would you agree that Brain Boy is best considered within the context of its time? As is noted on the inside book flap, the book was released in 1962–at the same time of the first James Bond movie and one of the coldest moments in the Cold War–the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Gibbons: I’m one of those guys who always checks the publication date of every graphic novel he reads before flipping to page one. Part of fully understanding and enjoying a comic story for me is directly related to knowing when it was published and what was going on in the world/the world of comics at the time. If I’m reading X-Men, I like to know what story lines came before and after what I’m reading, what political issues may have influenced the story, etc. Plus, writing styles change so much over time and I find reading old comics much more enjoyable when I know what era to place them in.

With Brain Boy, knowing that these stories were coming out when the country was terrified of communism and nuclear war really enhances the reading experience. I think a 12-year-old kid could pick this book up and enjoy it, but I think if that same kid understood the political climate of the country when this book was written, they’d gain a greater appreciation for it. (Though, that might come later… When do kid’s study the Cold War in Social Studies class nowadays?) I think I stumbled onto the fact that this book was written shortly after the Cuban Missile Crisis when I was doing some research to help pull together an early draft of some back cover text for the collection. When I put those two pieces together, I smacked my forehead and thought, “Of course! How did I not realize that earlier?! This whole book makes so much more sense now!” Not only that, but the book is a pop culture time capsule of 1962-’63. It’s a fun comic regardless, but it’s a fascinating comic when you consider the history.

O’Shea: Were you aware of Herb Castle’s writing before embarking on this project?

Gibbons: Not at all, but I was bummed to find out he never wrote another comic book after Brain Boy. I don’t know if he just preferred prose writing or what, but I wish there was another comic out there like this from that era. Castle didn’t pull any punches with this book. I think it’s pretty bold comics writing for the era… but I’m 27, so what do I know?!

O’Shea: If response to these archives was strong enough, do you think Dark Horse would entertain the notion of a new Brain Boy miniseries? Batton Lash certainly makes a case for one in his intro.

Gibbons: Ha! I’d LOVE that! I actually put together—mentally—a whole modernized take on Brain Boy while working on the archive that I’d love to read. I think the character and premise have a lot of elements that could make for an excellent politically-savvy modern comic. I mean, what’s not to love about a telepathic James Bond character?

O’Shea: Were you surprised that Brain Boy is not already more recognized, given that it was Frank Springer’s first work in comics?

Gibbons: As I was going through the old Brain Boy comics, I just hoped that—when all was said and done—modern audiences would take a chance on an old comic with a quirky name and discover all the juicy espionage and goofy monster-of-the-week stories within it and be inclined to go on a Gil Kane or Frank Springer kick shortly thereafter. This sounds cheesy coming from a guy who’s obviously biased when it comes to Brain Boy, but I had no idea what to expect from this series and—in the process of reading it and working on the archive—this comic really charmed me. I’ve got a real soft spot for any and all things Brain Boy now… and if that leads me to go read a bunch of old Dazzler comics in the near future, I won’t complain!

O’Shea: Can you single out a favorite story or scene from the archives?

Gibbons: I know withholding spoilers from comic from the ’60s is a little silly, but there is a scene between Matt Price/Brain Boy and his arch nemesis Ricorta that is referenced a few times throughout the series… Oh man, the first time that scene played out, it blew my mind. If you read the book, you’ll know exactly what moment I’m talking about. It’s just this crazy, shocking, fantastic scene that goes down in this absolutely harsh, calculating, and totally rational way that you just never see happen in comics. Considering how off-the-wall “gritty” heroes like Batman were in the same era, seeing Brain Boy’s cold-blooded moments is kind of stunning.

Cody the Cavalier

When I attend comic book conventions these days, I tend to avoid the Marvel and DC panels, in favor of creator-focused and/or independent comics panels. And it’s not just because it’s always easier to find a decent seat. But attending the Family Friendly Comics panel at HeroesCon this past summer was mostly a chance to catch up with the work of Chris Schweizer, Andy Runton and Chris Giarrusso. I was not looking to be introduced to new work, but the panel made me aware of Jamie Cosley, the creator of the webcomic, Cody The Cavalier. And once I became aware of Cosley, I decided to interview him.

Tim O’Shea: You just celebrated your one-year anniversary on Cody the Cavalier. How satisfying was it to reach that milestone?

Jamie Cosley: It’s very encouraging to find a character that you truly love. I believe I’m just beginning to scratch the surface with this little guy and hope to produce many more strips for many years to come!

O’Shea: What lead you to develop Cody in the first place?

Cosley: A little over a year ago I was contacted by an editor named Jason Long to try out for the Word Girl comic series published by Boom studios. I was stoked beyond belief and put together tons of sample sketches and a one page sample (pencils and inks) working from the script he provided. I worked really hard to capture the look of the show and to stay as close to that model as possible. I was told I made it all the way to the top of Boom and Scholastic but they wound up choosing a much more stylized version of Word Girl. So close. I was really bummed for about 5 days – “really bummed” but then I received some an encouraging word from a friend of mine and sat down to create Cody! I doodled this little kitty with a sword and all was right with the world once again Cody is a tribute to my favorite comic strips and creators of all time! Ziggy, Hagar the Horrible, Groo, King Aroo etc. – the tagline from the very beginning was “Ziggy meets Zorro”…..although now I’m more likely to tell people it’s “Ziggy” meets Puss in Boots especially with the new movie coming out even though the two characters are very different.

O’Shea: It’s hard to start building an audience in the comics market, was this strip a commentary on your struggles?

Cosley: Perhaps

Cosley's Business Samples

It’s really about working at a pace that you’re comfortable with and developing the characters and their audience slowly. During the day I develop comic strips for businesses. I have clients that are security companies and some that manufacturer office furniture and they love to share their news/ideas/grievances through comics. It’s awesome – I’ve included a couple of samples.

So one newsletter/magazine may have an audience of 4,000 but it’s just for that particular industry. So when you try and create your own webcomic for a much larger audience and realize that maybe 30 people are visiting each day it’s easy to get discouraged. But I read somewhere that it takes like 3 years to really get an audience so I’m not throwing in the towel because according to that statistic I haven’t even really started yet.

O’Shea: During the recent hurricane Irene, you had no power, but you had time to concoct some new creative ideas. Any plans to work some of the ideas into Cody?

Cosley: Absolutely! My son Tyler is 10 and my daughter Ava is 3 and we were without power for 6 days, so during the light of the day she would put together puzzles with mommy and he and I would create comics. We would feverishly fill our notebooks with story ideas and characters and some of those ideas have already started to show up in the strip.

O’Shea: Were you pleased with how your name the frog character turned out?

Cosley: Yes, that was actually a lot of fun and I’m very pleased with “Muddy Spoons” (shout out to Little John and OC!!) – you will definitely see more of him in the future.

O’Shea: Of all the Cody cast, have there been any characters that have grown on you (more than the others) over time?

Cosley: For some reasons I cannot explain, this guy haunts me. He first appeared as a painting and has only been in 2 strips so far but I really like him so we’ll see what happens…..

O’Shea: While Cody started as one-panel gag comics, you’ve expanded into longer multi-panel strips. What prompted this shift?

Cosley: I am working on a longer story because I wanted to see how difficult it would be for me to switch gears It’s actually tougher than I thought because my brain is still always trying to turn everything into a one panel joke. I’m learning how to take my time and pace the story.

O’Shea: How much of a boost was it to your creative drive to have taken part in a HeroesCon panel this year with Andy Runton and Chris Giarrusso?

Cosley: I walked away from that entire weekend with a renewed sense of purpose and passion. HeroesCon in Charlotte is the BEST show and I can’t wait until next year. I was honored to be on a panel with them and it was very encouraging to see how supportive they both were. I’m not an equal but they treated me as such and that was inspiring. Andy and Chris are both Superstars and everyone should buy Owly and G-Man!

O’Shea: Creatively what’s on the horizon for you?

Cosley: More Cody for sure! I am pitching a longer story to an editor so my fingers are crossed! I will keep you posted. I’m also the regular artist of an ongoing series called Priscilla for Salinas Slugger Studios and Crown of Life Jr. comics. You can read the first issue here. We are working on a fifth issue as I write this. I also write/illustrate a Lil’ Priscilla strip that appears in a magazine in Houston, Texas.

The Last Mortician

Halloween seemed like the perfect time to run my email interview with writer Tim Hall regarding The Last Mortician, his first-time collaboration with his longtime friend, Dean Haspiel. The story, which explores death and love plus a great deal in between, launched earlier this month at Tor.com. Hall and Haspiel are storytellers that clearly relish challenging each other through their work. I appreciate Hall’s eagerness to discuss his craft, as well as Haspiel’s willingness to share some of the pencils for two panels. I really hope the creators’ Frankenstein reboot (mentioned in our interview) breaks out of the lab soon to terrorize the masses.

Tim O’Shea: As a novelist and screenwriter who also works periodically in comics (and who is seemingly always busy with multiple creative efforts), what attracted you to working with Dean on The Last Mortician?

Tim Hall: Dean and I have known each other for almost 15 years, and have supported each other’s work unconditionally and seen each other through some serious personal ups and downs. I have always had the greatest respect for Dean’s work and he is without question the best reader and biggest supporter of my writing. So why hadn’t we worked together before? First, we’re idiots, but also because we were each in our own worlds. Dean approached me seriously about working together nearly two years ago now, and we’ve since worked on a lot of stories and pitches; this is just the first that’s been published.

I know what you’re thinking, and yes–it really is just like “When Harry Met Sally.”

O’Shea: Were you intimidated at all when Dean explained (as noted in this Comic Archive mini-doc) he wanted the story to be political, religious and social commentary. Did you ever fear that Dean was too ambitious with his storytelling goal?

Hall: No, quite the opposite. There’s a strong moral perspective in everything I write, and I’m very interested in what’s happening in the world, politically and economically and in terms of media ecology. Dean knew that some big themes were inherent in the concept for The Last Mortician but he wasn’t explicit about it–he just has good instincts. He knew he needed a strong opinion and worldview for this and he came to the right guy.

O’Shea: How is the process of world-building different when building for comics as opposed to prose?

Hall: Prose answer: “In comics you have a few dozen or maybe a couple hundred words to build a world; in prose you can go on indefinitely. Comics really test a writer’s ability to self-edit, which is incredibly difficult but also the kind of challenge I thrive on.”

Pencils from The Last Mortician (Page 9)

Comics answer: “Economy.”

O’Shea: How soon in developing the story did you realize there could be a message of romance/love in the midst of death?

Hall: Romance is the other major thread of all my writing; my first novel, Half Empty, was intended as a “romance novel for men”–which means lots of sex, of course. I view most things through the lens of how love or the lack of it shapes us as individuals and as a society.

O’Shea: Suicide in the face of immortality is an interesting concept to explore. But my question takes the topic on a left turn: Has suicide ever touched your life on some level?

Hall: Thankfully, no. I’ve lost plenty of people in my life to alcohol, drugs, and bitterness, which is why I don’t indulge in any of those any more. But no suicides, thank God.

O’Shea: What was the most challenging aspect in the development of this story?

Hall: I’m not sure. Except for the hair pulling, sobbing, head banging, sleeplessness, panic attacks, flop sweats, upsetting my wife and scaring my kid, it was easy.

O’Shea: Out of the 16 pages, do you have a favorite scene or bit of dialogue?

Hall: My favorite is probably page 12, that beautiful split panel effect with the insets. By that point I think the heaviness and inevitability of the characters’ choices are so overwhelming. It also has almost no words, which is very gratifying to me as a writer–the ultimate act of showing and not telling. Dean did a brilliant job on the entire story but that page still gives me a lump in my throat.

O’Shea: In terms of marketing a project, do you think there’s an advantage to being able to say one of the creators is an Emmy-award winner?

Hall: I don’t think of it in terms of advantage, it’s simply a fact. Dean worked his ass off for that award and it’s a part of his c.v. now; why not mention it? If people are impressed, then good–they should be.

Pencils from The Last Mortician (Page 11)

O’Shea: While this is your first [published] collaboration, are you interested in collaborating together again?

Hall: Dean is a dream collaborator for me. He knows and understands comics so incredibly well and is also very literary himself. He also respects the deep experience and craft that I bring to the table and lets me do my thing.

Dean and I have some other projects that we are shopping, including a reboot of the Frankenstein legend, so I certainly hope there will be more collaborations in the future.

O’Shea: What else is on the creative horizon?

Hall: I moved back to NYC this summer with my family, to capitalize on a number of creative projects. I just finished a really funny mystery novel and am finally getting serious about a sci-fi story cycle that I’ve been sketching out for years. It took me a long time to be good enough to tackle genre projects in my own voice and from my own perspective, and I think these have great commercial potential. I hope my agent agrees.

O’Shea: Anything we need to discuss that I neglected to ask you about?

Hall: Well, I really wish you had asked me my recipe for the perfect tuna casserole.

Snarked 2

Close readers of this weekly interview column will realize that I have interviewed Roger Langridge a couple of times. And I never tire of chatting with Langridge about his storytelling approach. Next Wednesday, November 2, marks the release of the second issue for his Kaboom! creator-owned Snarked series. The series has been building its audience, first through the $1 #0 issue,and then Snarked 1 sold out of its first printing–warranting a second printing. In addition to discussing Snarked, we also got a chance to discuss his recently released The Show Must Go On (BOOM! Studios) as well as his writing the Marvel five-issue limited series, John Carter: A Princess of Mars. If you want evidence why I love interviewing Langridge, the man revealed a slight connection between his work and musician Robyn Hitchcock’s The Soft Boys. After reading the interview, please chime in with which current Langridge projects you’re enjoying the most.

Tim O’Shea: What was the most enjoyable aspect, in the run-up to Snarked’s premiere, of building up the potential reading audience through the Snarked website (Snark Island)?

Roger Langridge: Partly just to see if I could do it, and to try to be creative about what could be done with it. I’m planning to continue putting content up on the site each time a new issue comes out, so it’ll be a constant, evolving thing – but mainly, I wanted to do a letters page, and having somewhere to direct people so they could e-mail us was essential. It helps if there’s some other stuff to look at when they visit, of course!

O’Shea: CBR reviewer Greg McElhatton praised issue 1, in part, noting of The Walrus and the Carpenter “Langridge is careful to keep either of them from being evil; they’re just devious and keeping themselves out of ruin”. How hard is to develop a con man like the Walrus, and still make him endearing to the reader?

Langridge: Well, it’s partly that there’s a tradition of loveable rogues in popular entertainment – Laurel and Hardy, W.C. Fields and Chaplin all played bums or scoundrels, sometimes both at the same time, and my all-time favourite comic characters were all deeply flawed individuals (Scrooge McDuck, Wimpy, Barney Google etc.) – so there’s a lineage. Also, it gives me somewhere to take the characters – something I’m hoping to achieve as the series goes on is to show the Walrus discovering his (few) redeeming qualities through sheer force of circumstance, as he finds himself with no choice but to rise to the occasion. Starting him off as a scoundrel makes that journey a lot more interesting.

O’Shea: When I interviewed you back in June, you were praising the “original and interesting colour choices” by interior colorist Rachelle Rosenberg. What were some of your favorite choices that Rosenberg made and why?

Langridge: Well, the “why” you’d have to ask her, but I like the fact that the palette isn’t always obvious – it’s often quite unrealistic, but striking, and it gives the whole book a bit of extra zing. I don’t know enough colour theory to tell you why it works, but I just know it does!

O’Shea: How early in the development of Snarked did you realize that Princess Scarlett would be a major character in the series?

Langridge: Pretty early on. In observing other popular kids’ franchises, there’s nearly always child characters bang in the centre of it, so it made sense from a commercial point of view; and with spinning off the work of Lewis Carroll, the way a child sees the world is so central to the whole atmosphere he creates that it’s something you can’t really get away from without losing something essential, I feel (Tim Burton obviously disagrees!). Basically, I felt that if I was going to attempt an epic kind of quest story, I needed a character to go on a life-changing journey as part of that – and I don’t think the Walrus and the Carpenter are wired to change in major ways. I expect them to be largely the characters they started out as when we reach the end – maybe with moments of insight gained along the way, but essentially unchanged. Whereas Scarlett’s whole life will be turned upside-down by the end. Ooh, spoilers!

O’Shea: You’re the kind of storyteller that other storytellers respect, do you get satisfaction when creators like Kurt Busiek praise you?

Langridge: Yes, of course, though I have to admit I don’t quite know what I’m doing that people seem to respond to; I feel like I’m still learning as I go to a large degree. But yes, of course it’s gratifying to hear people say nice things about your work, especially when, as in the case of Mr. Busiek, it’s someone who’s written many things I’ve enjoyed myself over the years.

O’Shea: Last month saw the release of The Show Must Go On, I must ask–did the song and dance of Frankenstein Meets Shirley Temple come to you in a dream?

Langridge: I’m not much of a one for remembering dreams, I’m afraid – but the way I was writing back them definitely had a large dollop of stream-of-consciousness built into it. Nice of you to notice!

O’Shea: Sorry if this question has been asked of you numerous times, but in The Show Must Go On, one of the characters is Leppo. Was that character named partially inspired by the Marx Brothers?

Langridge: Actually, I swiped the name from the Soft Boys song (from their 1979 album A Can of Bees) called “Leppo and the Jooves” – Robyn Hitchcock never physically describes Leppo in the song, but that was the mental picture I saw whenever I heard it. (Which isn’t to say that a lot of other things in that story weren’t partially inspired by the Marx Brothers!)

O’Shea: How hard is it to shift gears from writing Snarked to writing John Carter: A Princess of Mars? Would you agree this is a departure from the type of stories you’ve recently been known for writing?

Langridge: Yes, although there are similarities between Carter and Thor: The Mighty Avenger – where one was about a mysterious being trapped on Earth, the other is about an Earth man trapped on a world of mysterious beings, so they’re almost mirror images of one another. And there’s a love story at the centre of both books. So, a departure, yes, but not a totally un-navigable one. I do enjoy the variety of writing different kinds of things – as I said, I feel like I’m learning all the time as a writer, and it’s good to stretch different writing muscles to see if I can do it, and what I can get out of it.

O’Shea: I am not asking to brag about yourself, but how proud and surprised were you when you realized that you have now won back-to-back Harvey Awards?

Langridge: In a way I’m kind of glad I didn’t get this kind of recognition early on in my career, because I’m sure I would have been completely insufferable! As it is, twenty years in, I’d reached the point where I’d pretty much given up on ever winning any awards, so when they happened I think I had a better sense of perspective – grateful, yes, and very surprised, but hopefully not too big-headed about it. I realise it’s a bit of a lottery and I’ve probably had my lot now! I’m extremely thankful to everybody who voted for me. When I told my Dad, he said he was proud of me (this coming from someone who never thought I’d even be able to make a living as a cartoonist!) – which means a lot.