How to Be Happy

I recently caught up with seasoned industry veteran Shannon Wheeler for an email interview. This interview took place before Wheeler's recent announcement that he was contemplating a project at ACT-I-VATE--I mention this only as an explanation as to why I ask no questions in that regard. As noted in this recent post, his work has frequently been picked up by The New Yorker as of late, while he continues his work on How to Be Happy. And, of course, we get in some discussion about his overall Too Much Coffee Man work. My thanks to Wheeler for his time.

Tim O'Shea: You are a creator with a long, proven track record, who covers a great many concepts in your work (judging by this tag cloud). This page offers me a wealth of topics to ask you about, but I'll focus on one. In a down economy like this current one, does it make it easier (or even too easy) to tackle consumerism in the strip?

Shannon Wheeler: It makes it easier to criticize capitalism/materialism/consumerism when the economy is South in that you have specific things (like unemployment and poverty) to point at. Some of the humor becomes more poignant because the reality is more harsh. But that's very external. To me it feels like the humor has stayed the same.

A lot of the cartoons are about my personal struggles. Consumerism is something I wrestle with. I love buying DVDs, collectibles, art. At the same time I think owning things, wanting things, is ridiculous.

O'Shea: I thought you were being partially sarcastic when you wrote this in your LiveJournal,  "it seems like when I start early on the comics and put more work into them, they turn out better." Given that you were partially serious (I assume), when you start early, where and how are you able to put more work into the strip--do you revise the art more, or do you add details?

Wheeler: Totally serious. It was one of those observations that is ridiculous but true. Obviously more work makes a cartoon better. I can think of better timing, a better punchline. But part of me still feels like the greatness of a cartoon has to do with the inspiration and not the work. I need that flash (which only takes a second) to make it great. And if it only takes a second then I shouldn't have to put in all that work. I should just wait for that inspiration.

Oddly - extra time allows me to take out more material. When I first write a cartoon I put in too much crap; extra words, extra panels. When I have the luxury of time I reread it and reread it, reducing it down to its essentials.

O'Shea: Back in February (correct if I'm wrong on the timeframe) you found out the New Yorker accepted one of your submissions. How long had you been submitting to the New Yorker and how satisfying was it when they selected that first cartoon?

Wheeler: I met Matt Diffee, another New Yorker cartoonist, about a year ago. He helped me work on my comics. Mostly, he told me that they weren't funny enough (he was right). I worked and read and worked on them. Sometimes Matt would tell me that this or that cartoon had potential. Eventually I had a set that was OK and I started submitting them to Robert Mankoff, the cartoon editor. Months more of sending in cartoons and not hearing anything would leave me wanting to cry. It was a leap of faith to continue submitting. 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.

O'Shea: How has getting your work in the New Yorker changed/helped your career--have you seen an increased interest in your Too Much Coffee Man work?

Wheeler: On a personal level it has given me more confidence. It helps getting in the top cartoon publication in the country. I now believe that I've done some good work, not a lot, but some. I'm seriously insecure about what I do.

O'Shea: In a recent post, you quite succinctly revealed the stress of being a freelancer. "I'd think, if I were that person would I be happier or less happy than I am now? It helped coming home to find out that the New Yorker bought another cartoon. Still, I wonder if the stress and financial insecurity is worth it." How hard is it to stay happy with the stressload of a freelance life?

Wheeler: I'm trying to balance things better - mostly by getting work done early. I hate the money worry. Of course it's worth it. In a way it doesn't matter what you do. It's important to feel like what you've done is significant. I'd love it if I could be happy doing data entry but if that were the case I'd cry myself to sleep. What I do doesn't make me happy but I'd be less happy doing something else.

O'Shea: You've done two operas with Too Much Coffee Man, any chance you would venture to make it a trilogy?

Wheeler: I've been thinking about it. Actually - I'd like to edit down the two operas into a single tight piece.

O'Shea: You mentioned here that you used to work on the "Idiot Guide" books. (You said: "I miss illustrating for the Idiot Guide books. I did almost 200 books for those guys.") Honestly, 200 is a staggeringly impressive number to me. That being said, out of the 200 or so, do you remember a particular book topic or two that were among your favorite to illustrate.

Wheeler: Household Disasters and the Kamu Sutra were pretty good. There were usually one are two good cartoons in each of the 200 books I've done. Standing in the bookstore I thought about the quantity of books with my work. It's cool and lame, simultaneously.

O'Shea: You recently did a book tour in support of a vampire book that you illustrated, what's the book and how did that come about?

Wheeler: My editor from the Onion is a co-author on the Vampire book. It's all about connections. And being able to work really fast. And working really cheap. Commercial art is like a good date - you have to be cheap and fast (and half the time you get screwed).

O'Shea: You're currently shopping a bible book around to publishers, what's the scope of the project?

Wheeler: Mark Russell is rewriting the books of the bible in 3 paragraphs each. I'm doing a gag cartoon to head each one. 66 books total in the Testaments. It'll be about 144 pages. Imagine Christ on the cross saying "Are you there God? It's me, Jesus." There's nothing like a little crucifixion humor to sell a book. Yes. I have no idea how we're going to sell this thing but it's really fun to work on. Mark's writing is amazing. He was raised with the bible and his reduction/translation if very genuine. He's keeping the meaning and intent of each book even through the massive cuts. He's also making it funny. It really is a good way to read the book.

O'Shea: I notice in your LiveJournal entries that you periodically post music that you're currently enjoying. Do you often listen to music while you work, or is that too much of a distraction?

Wheeler: Musics and audio books. They're great if I'm doing something mindless like a blog entry or fixing the art on a comic or coloring. I can't listen to music or a book when I'm really concentrating though.

O'Shea: If you're willing to discuss it, I'd love to hear the full ordeal when Fox's MADtv (which ended last year) "tried to license TMCM for months and months".

Wheeler: I love talking about it. It's an interesting Hollywood grist-mill story. And from what I understand, fairly typical. Basically they tried to buy it, I wouldn't sell it (at least not for what they offered) so they made their own (Coffee Guy). Intellectual property is virtually an oxymoron. The best reaction is to move onward and upward.

O'Shea: Your LiveJournal is a great glimpse into your creative process for the past eight years, how often do you work up rough cartoons (like this one) that never get past this embryonic stage. How frustrating is it when you realize the raw concept will never become "a real cartoon" (as you phrased it then...)

Wheeler: It's a little frustrating but not that bad. I have a ton of ideas that never make it off the launching pad. What's worse is pitches that should never have left the drawing table that are now published in my books.

O'Shea: I appreciate your candor in discussing your work, for example, in this cartoon, you conceded that "I debated whether to use 'so' in the cartoon for about half an hour." When you get into comedic quandries like this one, do you ask family members or friends to beta test the pieces?

Wheeler: Sometimes I'll run stuff by my mom. She's honest with me. Most of my friends tell me that a cartoon is good. My mom will actually tell me that it sucks.

November 14: Dig Comics Screening

This Saturday, November 14, at 3 PM, Jim Hanley's Universe (at 4 West 33rd St.in New York) will present "an EXCLUSIVE screening of the award-winning documentary (and comics evangelism project) Dig Comics with filmmaker Miguel Cima". In advance of this screening, I caught up with Cima to discuss the project, as well as to find out where things stand on the planned expanded version of the documentary. At the San Diego Comic-Con this past summer, Dig Comics received the Best Documentary Award at the Comic-Con International Independent Film Festival (CCI-IFF). According to Jim Hanley's Universe, after the exclusive screening, it will also "have an A-List panel discussion with Mr. Cima; Marvel Executive Editor Tom Brevoort; Writer/Editor of the PW Beat Blog, Heidi MacDonald; noted DC writer/editor and founder of Paradox Press, Andy Helfer; author and editor of the Graphic NYC Blog Chris Irving; and author of Superman on the Couch and Disguised as Clark Kent, Danny Fingeroth!" Cima's passion and strong opinions are apparent in this email interview--and I appreciate his time. Please be sure to visit YouTube for the Dig Comics trailer.

Tim O'Shea: How long have you been pursuing this project, and in terms of your documentary approach, I was curious if there were certain documentary makers that influenced how your approached the project?

Miguel Cima: I’ve been working on this for about three years now. I guess my main angle is sort of a Michael Moore model, as in let’s see what’s wrong here and what can be done. Plus I too am a husky loudmouth, so there you are.

O'Shea: How did Edward James Olmos get involved in the documentary?

Cima: His son Michael runs his film production office and is a comic book enthusiast. Michael is also an accomplished film director (he made Splinter for Dark Horse Studios). My girlfriend works at Image Entertainment, which distributed his film, and there was the connection. Michael got EJO (Edward James Olmos) interested on a lot of levels, especially the educational and literacy potential that comic books bring – a huge cause for him. But EJO also really loved the movie and has not only been extraordinarily supportive, but also very complimentary of my work. I’ve been a fan of his for years, so when I met him, I told him that and he responded by saying, “Hey - I’m a big fan of yours!” That floored me.

O'Shea: A recent review of the documentary at AICN wrote the following "I put the word “documentary” in quotes because while the movie is informative and well crafted it definitely has an agenda. That agenda is to get the viewer to begin reading and hopefully grow to love the art form that is comic books." Would you agree that your project has an agenda?

Cima: Totally. I’m being a propagandist, there can be no doubt. But then, I think most films are, in their own way. My motivation here is to change and affect attitudes towards the great art form of comic books – which have been much maligned, in my view. There are great artists – plenty of them far outside the superhero genre – who I consider to be as great as Beethoven, Picasso, Chaplin or any other great artist in any medium. Not only do they deserve reward and recognition, but the public deserves to be exposed to the beauty which they offer. I want people to discover this great and vibrant thing they are missing out on. So in that sense, I look at it as doing a public service, and hopefully a small contribution towards the overall benefit of the human condition through art.

O'Shea: Were you walking up to people cold when you did the man on the street interviews, or did you do some off camera prep work. Why I ask is if you did those cold, I wonder how often folks walked away without listening to what you had to say.

Cima: HA! Those poor suckers… Well, maybe there was lag time from a previous interview, but it was all pretty spontaneous. The producer would stop them, ask them to be in the film, then I’d start giving them my spiel with cameras rolling, and seeing what their attitudes towards comics was. Honestly, these people were just great, and for the most part, seemed pleasantly surprised by what I was offering – a glimpse into a whole new world of art.

O'Shea: The current incarnation of Dig Comics is being shown at upcoming festivals, can you mention upcoming opportunities to see it?

Cima: YES! We are screening at Jim Hanley’s Universe in New York City on Saturday, November 14th, 3PM. I’m moderating a post-screening panel on the future of comics with Tom Brevoort, Andy Helfer, Danny Fingeroth, Heidi McDonald and Christopher Irving. Details here.  That’s probably it for the year, but much more is coming in 2010. Folks can check out updates for future events on Facebook - become a fan! Plus see where we’ve been and other fun stuff at www.digcomics.com.

O'Shea: What plans are in the pipeline for Dig Comics in 2010 and beyond?

Cima: Funding for the feature is #1 – making the feature is #2. Until that happens, it’s screenings, film fests, and all the events we can whip up to get folks interested. Any interested parties should definitely contact us. It’s not a whole lot of money we need, and with all the huge comics movies coming up these next few years, it shouldn’t be tough to make money on it.

O'Shea: The Dig Comics site provides a list of  recommended comics--who compiled that list?

Cima: Me. Totally subjective. But my goal there is for either newcomers to comics, or readers who stick to just one genre (i.e., “fanboys) to have a place where they can check out concise reviews of various works across all genres and art styles, and see if I can’t help them find a comic book which will appeal to them. Most reviewers tend to stick either to superheroes or fancypants “alternative” books – I want a one-stop place where people can browse all across the board and find the scene that they can dig. And I only include stuff that I have read and love. My associate producer Corey Blake is also doing a regular blog along the same lines – check him out at www.coreyblake.com (of all places). He’s looking more at interesting new releases than comics he loves, but still a great place to seek some guidance.

O'Shea: A recent Twitter said the following "Comic Con founder [Shel Dorf] dead at 76, born near same time as comics industry. Makes me wonder if comics has another 76 yrs left itself..." Why did you say that? (about comics?)

Cima: Because I’ve heard too many big publisher execs say in interviews that their concern is not comics, but how they can monetize the legacy characters. That’s totally fucked up! Imagine Capitol Records was like, well, these Beatles T-shirts and video games are doing great, we no longer need to distribute music. How insane would that be? Robbed of Beatles music, that’s my analogy. How is it that such mentalities are holding the keys to an art form? It’s outrageous! These guys would be ready to let Spider-Man comics vanish as long as the movies prove to be the most lucrative. And the fact is readership is down and keeps going down. It doesn’t make sense economically, either as there are obviously great opportunities to up readership and sell more books, but really, it’s just a sin for them to think that way, and it’s nuts that these guys would admit as much in public. So, yeah, if the big publishers don’t step up, comics may well go the way of the Zoetrope.

O'Shea: One more Twitter question--around the time of the Disney/Marvel deal, you wrote: "Disney's gonna fucking kill comics dead. Goodbye pencils & pages, hello rated 'G' IMAX in new 3D. Today's news is alarming to say the least." Are you still that concerned about the deal?

Cima: Not as much, I suppose. I wasn’t being too charitable that day, because I’ve spent enough time working in studios and record labels to know how MOST of those people think. To be fair, I should wait and see what they do before judging. I’d love to be surprised.

O'Shea: Any final thoughts?

Cima: I could go on and on, but the main thing is this: if you don’t read comics, give them a try, you are missing out on a very cool experience. And if you DO read comics, it’s up to you to help change the playing field. Expose your friends to comics. Give them as birthday or holiday gifts to Grandma Peaches and your nephew Bobby. And don’t be dumb and give granny Wolverine Slashes Mutant Aliens – she ain’t reading that. Become an expert not only of your preferred genre, but of all comics, and expose accordingly. There’s plenty of stuff for kids, tweeners, young adults, and older folks, girls & boys, all backgrounds. Find the stuff and put it in their hands. Each and every fan has the opportunity to be on the frontlines of the effort to get America to once again DIG COMCIS! Their reward will be even more great work from more great artists, and a world where you go from being a nerd to being a tastemaker.

Sidewise

Last month saw the launch of Sidewise, the Zuda Comics series by writer Dwight L. MacPherson and artist Igor Noronha. Now that the series has been running for a few weeks, I email interviewed MacPherson to learn why he set out "to create a smart, engaging, action-packed historical fiction story that will appeal to readers of all ages… and still be cool". The story is described at its Zuda site as: "Teen genius Adam Graham borrows his parents' time device to visit 1902 London, only to find himself in an alternate dystopian past. As a member of Nikola Tesla's band of young freedom fighters known as SteampunX, Adam must wage a war against a myriad of deadly steam-powered robots, mad scientists and a nefarious state police controlled by Queen Victoria's preserved brain to free the oppressed nation, crown a new monarch and return to his world in time for a final exam." Be sure to visit the Zuda site every Thursday for new installments of the webcomic.

Tim O'Shea: For folks that don't know steampunk, two-fold question, could you provide a brief description and what it is about the genre that appeals to you?

Dwight L. MacPherson: Certainly. Steampunk fiction is a sub-genre of science-fiction and fantasy. Stories generally take place during Victorian times (hence the "steam") and contain fictional technological advancements (such as steam-powered robots, laser rays, battle dirigibles, etc.) or technology that was created at a much later date (such as the computer). Because of the inclusion of futuristic technology, alternate history is also a large part of most steampunk fiction. The works of H.G. Wells and Jules Verne are prime examples of steampunk fiction, as are the novels "The Anubis Gates" by Tim Powers and "The Difference Engine" by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling, and the classic television show "The Wild, Wild West."

Everything about the steampunk sub-genre appeals to me: the romanticized time period, Victorian sensibilities, futuristic gadgetry, magic and alternate histories. I became a fan of Wells and Verne as a child, so I guess you could say that I also find it nostalgic.

O'Shea: The story has alternate versions of historically recognized figures such as Tesla and HG Wells. Is Ms. Hopping inspired partially by any historical figures in particular?

MacPherson: Every member of Tesla's team (there are members we haven't met yet) has a name with a historical or mythical connotation that is--or should be--important to the British people. With a bit of research, I'm certain readers can learn some very cool historical facts about England as well as learning a bit about British mythology.

O'Shea: Adam Graham travels to the past to start this tale, but I'm curious is the 2009 life he came from similar to our earth--or is it an earth history where time travel is fairly common?

MacPherson: On Adam's Earth, space travel exists only in science-fiction novels. Adam and his parents have created the first time machine and young Adam was stupid (or arrogant) enough to use it for his own personal gain.

O'Shea: Do you delve into what Adam's parents are like at all--given that it was their device that started all the wheels in motion.

MacPherson: Without giving anything away, I will simply say that it's a strong possibility. I wouldn't rule anything out in this story.

O'Shea: While the Tesla and Wells of this tale are fictional constructs, did you end up doing some research on the two?

MacPherson: Oh, absolutely! I've always been fascinated with Tesla and I grew up reading Wells' novels. I don't go into any project--especially one that involves historic figures--without first conducting extensive research.

O'Shea: As you note at your blog, "SIDEWISE is the first all-ages project to win the monthly competition." And your use of that term (All ages) is intentional, given that your own teenage son pointed out that being described as "Kid-Friendly = Kiss of Death" in terms of marketing the book. Given its unique status at Zuda as "all ages" are you trying to reach out to websites that try to inform parents like the School Library Journal's Good Comics for Kids blog or do you have other plans to target kids, parents as well as fans ofhistorically inspired fiction?

MacPherson: Absolutely. I've been reaching out to several all-ages sites as well as to educators. Whether they reach back remains to be seen. In the meantime, my goal is to gain a large following and ask readers to share SIDEWISE with friends and family. As with any grass roots marketing strategy, we can only succeed with the help of our supporters.

The great thing about SIDEWISE is that it can be read and enjoyed by readers of all ages: young readers, young adults, adults, parents, educators, grand parents--it's for everyone. And everyone is our target audience. Might as well aim for the stars--right? Why limit oneself?

O'Shea: According to your blog: "Before I begin writing a story, I complete a bullet outline of the complete story: beginning, middle and end. As I continue conducting research and fleshing out the big picture, the bullet outline becomes a much more detailed document accompanied by image references for the artist." Since Sidewise has been picked up by Zuda, have you had to add several bullets to that core outline?

MacPherson: Oh, no. My outline was completed when I submitted this project to Zuda. I turned in the entire Season 1 script three weeks after we won. I went into this contest with the mentaility that we'd already won, so I made sure that everything was ready to roll as soon as we got the green light. I believe in being positive (thanks to my parents) and proactive (thanks to the Army).

O'Shea: Working in the Zuda platform, is there a greater amount of almost instant gratification for you, as the readers can respond immediately (Versus waiting months until the comic is published...) and/or is it equally maddening to see instant criticism as well?

MacPherson: Well, I definitely enjoy and appreciate the immediate feedback, sure. And I also enjoy and appreciate feedback from the discerning folks who read my published work. Idon't find any feedback maddening, to be honest. As long as I know in my heart that I created the very best story I was capable of writing, positive feedback is gravy and negative feedback (as long as it is constructive) is food for thought. Comments like "You suck" go in one ear and out the other.

O'Shea: What's the greatest benefit in terms of collaborating with series artist Igor Noronha?

MacPherson: Igor is a workhorse! The man does it all: pencils, inks, colors, letters. It makes the collaborative process much simpler working with one person as opposed to a creative team. Not that it's necessarily harder to work with a team, but generally, teams are made up of several individuals across the U.S. and around the world. That can get a bit strenuous and difficult at times. People do, after all, have real lives. Or so I've been told. [laughs]

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

MacPherson: If readers would like to find out more about me and my past, current and upcoming projects, I (kinda) maintain a blog here and I am totally hooked on Twitter. I pride myself as being accessible to my readers, so if you can't reach me through my blog or Twitter--which I highly doubt--I also have a Facebook page.

3 Story: The Secret History of the Giant Man

I'm a great admirer of Matt Kindt's work. Honestly, I'm an even bigger admirer of Kindt's ingenious nature. Case in point, for his latest book, 3 Story: The Secret History of the Giant Man (published by Dark Horse and released in late September), he has developed a Giant Man Mini Comic - Spy Capsule and Giant-Man 3-D Postcards. Before we get into our email interview about 3 Story, I have to reiterate what I said in last week's What Are You Reading that (in addition to checking out Kindt's latest work, of course) you should pick up Strange Tales 2 (featuring Kindt's Black Widow tale).  Here's a bit of Dark Horse's background on the tale (before stepping into the interview): "Craig Pressgang's life is well documented in his official CIA biography, Giant Man: Pillar of America, but the heroic picture it paints is only half the story. The continuous growth caused by Craig's strange medical condition brings a variety of problems as he becomes more isolated and unknowable. Told in three eras by three women with unique relationships with Craig, 3 Story follows his sad life from his birth to the present." Be sure to visit the Dark Horse site for a seven-page sample of the book. 

Tim O'Shea: A three-fold question of sorts (pun intended): Which came first, the idea to build your latest book as three stories in one, or the fact that the lead character was three stories tall in height or that you wanted to tell the story from the perspective of three women?

Matt Kindt: I wanted to tell the story from three different generations' perspective -- that was first. Then the idea for the title. I'm usually terrible with titles. It takes me forever to come up with something and then I usually go back to the working title anyway. Super Spy started out as my jokey working title and then it grew on me so I just left it. A friend accused me of naming it 3 Story so it would be filed on the bookshelf next to my other book 2 Sisters -- completely unintentional. But I'm thinking my next book might be called "4 Shadows". (kidding)

O'Shea: In a recent post right before SPX, you wrote: "sold out of 3 Story last weekend at Windy City Con but should have a whole new stack of books for SPX"--did you sell out there as well?

Kindt: No -- came close -- but I had a LOT more books for that show. But I think I sold even more at SPX which was a great show.

O'Shea: I love your penchant for diagrams in the midst of your storytelling, at one point in this book you diagram a bullet as it enters a man's eye and exits out his neck. What motivated you to make that storytelling choice? Later in the story you utilize architectural plans. Did you do those yourself--and if you did, did it require a great deal of research to get it just right?

Kindt: Someone asked me about the bullet diagram thing and if it was a reference to the JFK "magic bullet" which might be kind of true. In my storytelling I really like to just break down a moment sometimes -- and show every second of that key moment. So that was just one kind of way of doing it. Instead of showing him just slump over. Bullets do crazy things and bullets are terrifying to me -- it's such a careless and horrible thing to fire a bullet because they can bounce of and around and pass right through you and you don't even feel it or paralyze you. So by breaking that all down and showing the path of the bullet, to me it helps focus on this really horrible thing instead of just glazing over it.

With the architecture -- I did a little bit of research and then built some blueprints based on a bunch of reference I'd pulled -- I had an idea of the shape and size of the thing. I liked the idea of his home being a sort of extended upside-down ship in the middle of this field. I think the blueprints came from this idea I had of wanting to do a scene between them that was really just talking about their sex life but do it in a way that sort of protected the characters' privacy at the same time.

O'Shea: Can you explain your affinity for the Cold War era, given that it is seemingy the backbone of your story? I place the middle of this story around 1963 (feel free to correct me here) a full 10 years before you were born.

Kindt: Other than World War II, the Cold War was the other great time period for spies -- great gadgets, great cars and clothes. And a lot of history happening then. Civil rights, JFK, Vietnam starting. Lots of material and themes there to tap into.

O'Shea: You were very selective of when you stepped away from full color storytelling into small 8-page b&w snippets every 20 pages or so (it seems). How did you decide what parts warranted that unique treatment?

Kindt: Most of that I had built into the story as the threads that tie the action and sections together. I had a LOT of back story and things I wanted to get in to the main narrative and a lot of things that I ended up just pulling out of the book completely. So those sections serve that purpose but I also like the idea of making the book feel a little like a scrapbook or a secret file that you're picking up and trying to put together the pieces of this story.

O'Shea: In college, Craig's room-mate is Ray Cool, an African-American student. As far as I can tell, Ray is the only African-American in the story. Is this a subtle (or maybe just subtle to me) effort on your part to emphasize that the two are kindred spirits as outcasts of sorts, given the 1960s and the Civil Rights era?

Kindt: I'd accept that interpretation. That character is actually a sort of amalgamation of a few real people -- friends of my parents during the 60s so he can be that be he's also just very kind of real in my mind.

O'Shea: I love the nuances of pop culture you use in the story. For example, one WWII era letter to Craig's mom quotes the Andrew Sisters' Shoo-shoo Baby? How did you come up using that song in particular?

Kindt: I listen to a lot of music -- and jazz from that era is just really great. I had another 10 pages or so in the book that I took out that went into Craig's shoes and a lot of symbolism with these empty shoes and the feelings that his mother got from seeing his shoes and then his wife and daughter. So kind of a silly pun almost by using that song.

O'Shea: Any chance you would consider creating a sequel Secret Files of Giant Man (along the lines of this separate story)?

Kindt: I would love to. Usually with my books there is so much work put into it that I use everything and everything I did ends up in the book. With 3 Story, it was a little different. The ending and the different little moments were really delicately balanced and I had a lot of extra story pages and ideas that I just pulled out of the book so the story beats would be a little more "poetic" and have a unique rhythm to them. So there are whole subplots and other aspects to Craig's life that I would love to put together somehow.

O'Shea: Speaking of that short story, I loved the rare instance of him underappreciating the size of something in the Louvre, but what was the thinking in choosing that particular art piece?

Kindt: That was my reaction to that piece when I first saw it. Only in reverse. That had always been one of my favorite paintings but I'd only seen reproductions in textbooks, etc. and they were always 2 or 3 inches big. So when my wife and I tracked it down at the Louvre it was literally a shock -- that painting is huge in person. Large than life size. Just crazy big. So I thought it would be funny for him when he got there to not be as impressed.

O'Shea: You used 1960s magazine style ads as storytelling elements in a few pages, How did you come to decide to attempt that (it really worked with the one on page 88) experiment?

Kindt: Initially as I was writing it I knew he would have to make money somehow and product endorsements and advertising seemed like a simple easy fit. Then my next thought is that it would be fun to put ads inside the book so when you flip through it, it looks like there are real ads in the book. I did a ton of fake ads (again, didn't use even half of them) and as I was putting them into the story and writing the fake ad copy it seemed like a waste. If the ad copy is just cheesy 60s ad copy then it's kind of a waste to read it let alone write it. So I thought I'd slip some more subtle character dialogue and scenes in there so they ads wouldn't just be filler. They'd be integral.

O'Shea: Of the three women that tells Craig's story, who do you find that you feel you executed the most effectively in the book?

Kindt: I think the mother and the wife are probably the most fleshed out and real to me -- but only because the daughter is still trying to figure it all out. Trying to figure out who her father was and who she is. The narrative trick there I suppose is that her thoughts and dialogue at the end really end up becoming the Giant Man's. Most effectively then? I don't know -- they all kind of serve their purpose I suppose.

O'Shea: What do you care to tell folks about your other upcoming projects--Revolver (Vertigo); The Tooth, a fun 70s style comic with Cullen Bunn (Oni); and the Super Spy sequel, Super Natural?

Kindt: Those are the next three books I'm working on. Revolver will be out Summer 2010 and The Tooth is going to be starting up on-line first for free (in November) and then packaged in book form in 2010 as well. Super Natural -- still writing and re-writing it and whipping it into shape. It sort of sat on the shelf for a year or so as I finished up 3 Story so now I'm getting back into it and trying to make it a worthy follow up to Super Spy. We'll see!

Mike Ploog's Perhapanauts cover

With the Halloween-themed fun we're having this week at Robot 666 (aka Robot 6)--it seemed like the perfect time to talk to Todd Dezago about the recently released Perhapanauts Halloween Spooktacular One-Shot (featuring stories drawn by the likes of Craig Rousseau, Rich Woodall and Fred Hembeck). Normally in an interview with Dezago, I would characterize him as one of the nicest folks in comics. But in the spirit of the Halloween season, I instead choose to characterize him as the most paranormal-fascinated person in comics. In addition to the one shot (with three stories in it)--we discuss other spooky topics like volleyball and iTunes. You are warned!

Tim O'Shea: Is it apt to say that Halloween is about your favorite time of the year, given your affinity for the paranormal?

Todd Dezago: Oh, Halloween definitely holds a special place in my heart, both for memories of Halloweens past and for the spooky, scary, creepy haunted element!

And I love that we were able to put together this fun and, hopefully, frightening anthology featuring very different artists on very different stories!

O'Shea: What's the story behind the blog's PERHAPANAUTS SCARY HALLOWEEN CONTEST?

Dezago: Craig and I have a very loyal following on the Perhapa-Blog--our Perhapa-Family--and it's always a treat to get a chance to see them bringing their talents and creativity to the stage! The Perhapanauts Scary Halloween Contest is a chance for others to play with our team, to write or draw or do a comic page or two with the characters and show everyone else their stuff! And we have some very talented friends!

O'Shea: Do folks have to be regular Perhapanauts readers to enjoy this Halloween issue or can folks new to the characters enjoy it just as much?

Dezago: No, I think you can jump right in and don't need to know anything about the team or the characters or the continuity to enjoy this. Hopefully, if you're not familiar with The Perhapanauts, this issue will pique your curiosity enough to swing by the website and check them out.

O'Shea: Were there certain story shifts you were able to take with the characters in this Halloween setting that you would not normally attempt in the regular book's continuity?

Dezago: Just doing separate stories apart from the continuity was refreshing. I've been so focused on the story arcs so much, building to finally be able to tell these kind of separate, solo, or side-stories--case files--that I now feel that the stories can finally take off from there! It's more liberating! And more fun!

O'Shea: In terms of art, is this the first time you've worked with Fred Hembeck? Also how did the Mike Ploog cover come about?

Dezago: Fred and I have been friends for, like, forever! We'd played volleyball together for years and always wanted to work on some things together! This was our first chance to actually do a story together and, even though we're pals, it was just so exciting to see him bring his own brand of magic and squiggly knees to the 'Haps!

My pal, Roger Ash, hooked me up with Mike Ploog while he was interviewing Mike for his Modern Masters book. When Roger suggested we ask Mike for a cover, Craig and I were floored at the prospect, both of us being such huge fans of Mike's work--Man-Thing, Werewolf by Night, Abadazad, The Stardust Kid...Mike was so very nice to talk with and exceeded our expectations with his wonderful cover!

O'Shea: How many comic pros do you play volleyball with?

Dezago: Back in the late 90s/early 2Ks, I played volleyball with a legendary group of comic book artists and writers every Tuesday night in the town of Woodstock. I had been at a small comics convention in Kingston and had been befriended by Ron Marz, Fred Hembeck, and Terry Austin and invited to join the group. When I got there I was stunned to see heroes like Jim Starlin and Bernie Wrightson were part of the gang too! We'd always play hard for a few hours and then go out and have dinner! It was great fun--fast-paced games and good times! I still play every Monday night with Jim, but the rest have all been scattered around the country now.

O'Shea: Other than this issue, of course, care to rank your favorite Halloween comic stories?

Dezago: Well, I've gotta go to that early 70s Batman story that was based, I've heard, mostly on a trip that a bunch of the young DC writers and artists (Bernie, Len Wein, Glynis Oliver, Denny O'Neil, I think...) took to Vermont for the Rutland Halloween Parade. It's one of Denny and Neal's stories--the one with the guy that dresses like the Grim Reaper--and it's just so dark and moody! I also just love Keith Giffen and Ben Roman's "i luv halloween" book that came out a couple years ago from Tokyo Pop. It's both fun and creepy!

O'Shea: What's the biggest challenge of orchestrating a project like this--with three different stories for one issue?

Dezago: Ha! It should have been a lot easier than it was! I initially had hoped to have this issue out last Halloween and thought it was gonna happen. But it ended up conflicting with our own schedule and continuity, so we pushed it to this year. The coordination was, in many ways, easier as we had three different artists working at once--it just meant having to shepherd each one along at it's own rate. It all went relatively smoothly and, now that we're shifting to a mini-series schedule, Craig and I intend to get the books out faster by bringing in more great artists for more great side-stories!

O'Shea: How long has the Perhapanauts been available through iTunes--and what's response been like for the app?

Dezago: The Haps app (as Craig and I call it here in the Perhapa-Studios... : ) has been available for a few weeks now and we really haven't heard about numbers on downloads and such. We're just thrilled to have it out there and hope people will pick it up and show their friends! It--and Tellos--both look absolutely fantastic on the app and, as the issues play out, hopefully we can get more and more people showing their friends.

O'Shea: Unlike some creators, you seem to encourage folks to do fan fiction with the Perhapanauts-why?

Dezago: Our whole plan for the Perhapanauts from square one was to create a team of characters and a paradigm where we could tell really any kind of story we wanted. And, after 14 issues or so, we've finally maneuvered things to be able to do just that. In our last story arc, the Perhapanauts became the guardians of the Perhaps, our version of the nexus of all time and space and the doorway to every conceivable alternate reality, what if or elseworld. You wanna story where the Perhapanauts are in the old west...? We can do that! You wanna see the team visit medieval times...? That can happen! They have access to EVERYTHING! And so should YOU. We love to see other people's versions of our gang and read other people's stories to see where their imaginations want to take the Perhapanauts! It's fun!

O'Shea: What's ahead for the Perhapanauts series?

Dezago: We have a one-shot coming out in February or March called "Molly's Story" which tells the tale of how our ghost became a ghost, written by Scott Weinstein and me and art by Jason Copland. It looks great! And then, a few months later, we'll be kicking off the first official miniseries and the next story arc, The Perhapanauts: Fourshadowing, which will be both a great jumping on point and the revelation of quite a few of our long-standing mysteries. And that will be quickly followed by a three part anthology series called Tales From the Perhaps, full of fun short tales of this reality and beyond.

You Have Killed Me

Back in late July/early August, Robot 6 was fortunate enough to feature independent comics industry veteran writer Jamie S. Rich guest-blogging with the group--partially in promotion of his and artist Joëlle Jones' You Have Killed Me, the 184-page hardboiled crime graphic novel released by Oni Press in mid-July. Rich, an established writer of prose and comics, recently ran circles (in a good way) around some questions I shot his way recently about his latest book. Enjoy, hopefully as much as I did.

Tim O'Shea: Back in 2006 in an interview with Tom Spurgeon you told him (about You Have Killed Me) "12 Reasons was going so well, I think we had only been working on it a couple of months, but I didn't want to lose her to anyone else, so I asked her if she would work with me again and what she would want to do, I'd write her anything. She said she wanted to do hardboiled crime, and since I had the same passion for it she did, I jumped at it, even though it scared me because it was so different from what I'm known for. She's challenging me in incredible ways I would never challenge myself." Can you discuss what ways this story challenged you?

Jamie S. Rich: Well, most immediately, it required some real plotting. Relationship stories like what I had previously been known for don't require as much careful planning, they have a natural flow, peaks and valleys that are tied to the rhythm of real life. It's often unpredictable, less structured, and there is no definite resolution beyond whether or not these people stay together. In a crime story, you have something that happened, and the discovery of how it happened has to be detailed and lead to the revelation of the truth or the punishment of the criminal. You can't just have a random stranger suddenly emerge and say, "Oh, yeah, this homeless drifter did it." I mean, you could, but a lot of people would call you out for cheating, that's not a good story. For You Have Killed Me, I had to concoct a trail for Antonio Mercer, the private detective, to folloq, and each step had to kick up new dirt and I had to keep all of that dirt ordered, even when false or a red herring. There are expectations of that kind of plot. Just as Chekhov said if there is a gun in the first act, it will go off in the third, if you need a gun to go off in the third, you might have to think about having it show up in the first. There is far less left to chance.

The other is just the notion that one must approach a thing he or she loves with a healthy respect. It's hubris tempered with humility. I look at the tradition of great crime stories, and I have to think I can somehow be a part of that tradition, and yet, it wouldn't suit me to denigrate it. To succeed at that bold bid to join the ranks, we had to rise to meet the quality of the pioneers who led the way. There are plenty of examples of mistagged so-called noir movies, for instance, that don't do that. Last year there was this film called Dark Streets that was a lot of empty style, operating with just a surface notion of a jazz-age tale. Or you see these things come out, I can think of a couple of recent comic book examples but shouldn't name any names, that are jokey about it. As a lifelong smartass, I can tell you for a fact that using ironic winks as the building blocks for your story is about the easiest thing you can do. It takes no skill, and it's easy to get by doing it. It's also very hard to be memorable, and that kind of material fades. We wanted to make a book that sticks around.

O'Shea: Do you have some dialogue lines just pop in your head and you store them to use down the road, or do lines like "You homicide cops, you have it lucky." just pop up naturally in the creation of the story?

Rich: It's a little bit of both. My brain is often working ahead of what is on the page, anticipating what is coming. I know, for instance, there is a line about lollipops that I wrote long before I got to the part in the story where it would fit. It came to me while I was thinking about other things and I had to write it down and file it away. Often, I either have a separate documents of random notes like that, or I might even have pages at the end of the manuscript where notes are laid out in a certain order, and when I reach them, I join those pages into the larger script. In fact, I have a leftover file from You Have Killed Me, the stuff that I never joined up with.

Other times it just comes from being in the scene. I feel a writer has to be willing to let things happen. Sometimes the worst lines are the ones I force, where I plug a hole where I know something snappy will do the trick. In the romance stuff, it actually comes when a character first meets his or her love, and trying to find something to describe that feeling. In Cut My Hair, it was something like how Mason wanted to jump in the air and bounce the moon off his head like a soccer ball. I remember that coming very easy, and some of the lines that came in later books landed with just as much ease, but sometimes it was a tough thing, trying to find something like the moon and the soccer ball, and it ends up like one of those millions of TV shows where the pilot is passed out and a person with no experience has to land the plane. I am the guy in the control tower trying to talk the line into existence, bring the metaphor in for a landing, step by step.

I don't specifically recall writing Mercer's line about homicide cops, but I think that's just one that came with the scene. It's late in the book, so by then I could really "hear" the voices of all the characters, and the writing had become like a conversation between them and me. Most of Spell Checkers is written that way. Like a good conversation in real life, one statement prompts a logical response.

O'Shea: Of the characters you wrote for this story, can you think of one or two characters who had a role that expanded beyond your original expectations when you first started building the tale?

Rich: The bartender was originally a one scene guy, then it became two, he was the natural person to give Kane a heads up that someone was looking for him and so he stuck around for that. Then he re-emerged again when I needed some kind of transition, and it felt right to have him both advocate a certain humanity on behalf of the crook, but also to ask Mercer to retain some of his own. It serves a very good purpose, I think, in that it shows Mercer making a tough choice. It also fit the emerging themes of family and the ties that bind, and Mercer's hard reaction to the same.

The doctor is the only other one, even though like most of the side characters, he only gets one scene. That scene became more meaningful than I had anticipated, both for myself and Joëlle, whose reaction to it was what actually made me realize there was something deeper there. She said she took special care in how she designed his look, because for her that scene was rather tender. She viewed Doc as Mercer's only real friend, he was lonely except for that. He might get along with Tynan, the head police detective, but it's adversarial and Tynan expects something from it. Doc comes to Mercer to help him because he believes Mercer deserves some compassion.

O'Shea: In terms of the structure, you and Jones utilize chapters for the story. You rarely see that in graphic novels. What motivated this choice?

Rich: Honestly, it's just the way I think. Just about everything I've done, be it prose or comics, has had chapters, including Love the Way You Love, which had the issues of the series but also chapters in each issue. I just think that using a chapter-based structures causes the authors to think more in terms of units and natural breaks in the story. It also gives the reader a moment to pause and adds impact to a scene. Like when a chapter ends with Mercer being knocked unconscious, it's much nicer to then have a page of nothing after, and we pick up with him when he returns home, having come out of the blackout. It's another tool we can use.

O'Shea: What is the advantage of writing a period piece--and on the flip side what are the challenges to writing a story in a different era and making sure you don't slip in modern day elements by accident?

Rich: I suppose the advantage is you don't have to worry about being current. You don't have to fear your story becoming outdated really fast. If you think about movies from the 1980s and 1990s that dealt with emergent computer technology and virtual reality and the like, they look hokey now, we can't imagine how anyone ever thought that tech would take such turns. Whereas at the time, they may have seemed cutting edge.

When it came to slang and things, I had to keep myself in check, had to consider what the characters were saying. I also had to consider certain social issues, some of which I decided to not get into, like Kane being black. I let that just be an unspoken part of the story, as this wasn't the right place to examine it without derailing what was happening. Given Mercer's background, though, as a child of immigrants and new money, I could see it being more important later. But even that we only hint at for Mercer in You Have Killed Me. A writer has to pick his battles and know what suits this outing, maybe let the reader fill in more. In some ways, I like the imposed structure of the time period, it makes me think in ways I might not otherwise, keeps me from falling back on my own tricks. One of the more disappointing scenes in Inglourious Basterds was the big preparation for the climax when Tarantino tosses in a David Bowie song, and it completely destroyed the mood he had otherwise created. He had been doing so well, he had gotten out of his box, and then he climbed right back in. Hell, I remember arguing with Chynna Clugston about her soundtrack choices for Blue Monday. She had a specific time frame in mind for the series, but then she'd toss in a Supergrass song that wasn't even recorded when she was in high school, and we had a disagreement over whether or not she could do that. Granted, years later in Love the Way You Love I would steal the same idea of a sort of specific timeframe, since the book allegedly happens at the same time as Cut My Hair, and I ended up breaking that in much the same way she did. But we were also both dealing with the immediate past, whereas Basterds and You Have Killed Me were both much further back.

O'Shea: I agree with you regarding Inglorious Basterds, but the moment that first derailed the storytelling for me was the scene introducing Hugo Stiglitz--complete with 1970s logo. Did that scene bother you as well?

Rich: Hugo Stiglitz was another sequence that bugged me. I liked the sequence itself, but yes, the logo and the voiceover were too self-indulgent. Maybe if we had stories about all the other Basterds in a similar vein, then it could have worked, but it was like an idea he brings up and then drops. The second voiceover sequence was bad, as well, particularly since all the info had kind of been explained in the dialogue immediately prior.

O'Shea: Not every book you work on warrants an art exhibit of its own. How pleased were you when the Art Institute of Portland and Meltdown Comics both hosted an "Art of Joelle Jones" exhibit--and how did that come together?

Rich: Leslie Waara at the Art Institute was fan and she actually got in touch with me for it because they had an open show month and thought maybe it would be interesting to bring a different kind of art into the space. It was very flattering and really neat to see comic art showcased in that context. The Meltdown show came out of that. They saw the news about the gallery display and asked if they could get the show when it was done. Given that they are, of course, one of the best-known and respected stores in the country, and that the shop is in a primary market like Los Angeles, we jumped at the chance. I'm still sad that the arrangement time didn't allow for me to go down there and be there for the opening night, but hopefully we'll get a chance to visit the store some other time.

O'Shea: Speaking of the art, can you select a favorite page? (For me, it's the page in chapter 6 when Mercer is looking at his reflection in the bathroom mirror, as he draws a bath for himself--and his image slowly disappears over three panels, while steam fills the room)

Rich: I like that page. In my head, I originally saw the next page as even better. Mercer wipes away the steam and in the reflection, the bathroom is the one that Julie disappeared from, and not his own. It was all kind of complicated, though, and when Joëlle thumbnailed it, she saw it wasn't going to work and went for the full-page instead. She was right, it was overly ambitious and cluttered. Comics writers sometimes have to remember that just because they can see something in their head, it doesn't mean it can be effectively communicated in a drawing.

For me it's probably page 63, though. That's the page of original art I kept from the book, it was the turning point page for me in the writing, and Joëlle captured it exactly like I imagined--sometimes what I see in my head can be effectively drawn, and sometimes I can even effectively communicate it. It's the page where Mercer is looking at the race track and amidst the blur of the horses, he sees the woman he is looking for, the missing girl, only to have his gaze diverted when he hears the scream of someone discovering another dead body. It's both a great looking page and an example of writer and artist being in sync.

O'Shea: I love the quirky elements you insert in a story-for instance how (and/or why) did you come up with your use of almonds for this story?

Rich: There wasn't a lot of thought given to that, it shows up in the first couple of pages and is part of a sense memory of the woman that Mercer loved and that he is now being hired to find, though here the sister of that woman is wearing her older sibling's perfume, which was meat to play with his head. I chose almonds because I both liked the smell and it's also got deadly connotations, a similar scent being a signifier of cyanide. So, for the readers who pick up on that, it's meant to make them think of the ex-lover as poison. If it didn't have that connotation for a reader, that was fine, too. I couldn't have Mercer make a point out of it, it would have been too obvious and maybe too self-aware for him, as well. I tried to approach the narration where he describes the smell as a stream-of-consciousness narration, just as it appears in the book. It's like a long monologue, really, and each detail flows into the next and there are themes recalled, clues revisited, a parallel to the mystery itself. I largely thought to do that because it would help me avoid the narrative cliche, and I also thought it was something that you could only do in comics. You can't write that kind of narration in prose, it would be too disjointed in this kind of story. Turns out you can do it in the movies, though. Matt Damon's narration in The Informant! is quite similar, even coming around to enter reality when the monologue runs out.

O'Shea: Given our shared appreciation for film, would you say certain movies helped inform (not necessarily influence per se) the tale?

Rich: Most definitely. Again, it's the nature of genre to look back at the foundation of said genre, to discern the tropes, etc. For me, the movies really influenced the rhythm of the writing as well as the visual thinking. I often suggested the light sources and how we might use shadows based on shot compositions from movies like Laura and Out of the Past and movies by Siodmak and Fritz Lang. At the same time, I thought about crime comics like Sin City and The Spirit and It Rhymes with Lust. I thought about Blacksad and Union Station by Parks and Barreto, The Damned by Bunn and Hurtt and Benkei in New York. Milligan's Human Target is a favorite, particularly for the main character, and of course Sandman Mystery Theatre.

Joëlle was actually the one more schooled in detective fiction, in the prose side of things, and we talked a lot about the expectations of the style. She had specific things she felt were important, such as Mercer getting clocked all the time. Every other chapter or so, someone has to knock him out. That makes him punching that mouthy cop really cathartic. I love how she drew that. POW!

O'Shea: Any chance Jones and you may do another tale with Mercer?

Rich: We'd like to. It's a matter of timing. I actually wrote a script in the months You Have Killed Me was being prepped and printed. I've been sitting on it, only Joëlle has it. It gets into some of those issues of class and race I mention above, gets into Mercer's past, and it also establishes who may be the regular cast, including return players. But nothing is set in stone yet. If Joëlle reads it and decides she hates it...well, if we do another book and it's nothing like what I just said, that's likely what happened. Ideally, I would like to do a series of Mercer books, four or five, but it's going to be at least a year before Joëlle even has time to consider it, so we'll really just have to wait and see.

O'Shea: Is it too early to start teasing folks about your upcoming Oni project, Spell Checkers (which has you working with Jones and Nicolas Hitori de)?

Rich: No, the cat's pretty much out of the bag on that. In fact, I'm actually writing the second volume of it right now. A good writer is always one step ahead of his artists, so I can't let Nico finish volume 1 without a script for volume 2 waiting for him. We have mapped out three books with Oni, and the first will come out in April, likely debuting at the time of the Chicago Comic Book and Entertainment Expo, which we all have tentative plans to attend, including Nico flying over from France. We're all really excited about the book. It's a rude high school comedy with magic, about three teenage witches who quite literally rule their school. They are mean girls with actual power, even if no one actually knows that they are using magic. Kimmie, Cynthia, and Jesse are wild children with abilities that exceed their learned social behavior, who have been able to do whatever they wanted since elementary school, and so they know how to manipulate the system and have a good time. In the first book, however, someone challenges their rule by spreading dirty graffiti about them, and it may be part of a magical curse.

Joëlle is drawing flashbacks that will give us the back story to these girls, while Nico draws the here and now. He's really talented, and though Joëlle and I came up with the central characters, he's really a full partner. We didn't want to go ahead with the book without her drawing it unless we found just the right person, and he is it.

His coming on board has given Joëlle the space to draw the Dr. Horrible one-shot from Dark Horse and do two issues of Madame Xanadu, which I believe are #19 and #20, January and February, so there will be lots of work from her leading up to Spell Checkers. I'm also in the planning stages with Mike Allred for a Madman special next year, featuring a new story by him and three short stories with talent we're excited by doing their fresh takes on the character. I have already recruited two awesome people. That should be on its way in the summer or thereabouts.

Awakening

Awakening creators, writer Nick Tapalansky and artist Alex Eckman-Lawn, are two storytellers eager to get the word out about the return of their project (which recently returned to the market from an 18-month hiatus as its publisher [sorted out business challenges [as explained here]). As announced in late September, Tapalansky and Eckman-Lawn are in the midst of a four-stop tour to generate support and interest in their Archaia hardcover horror book, Awakening. The tour opened on October 10 and in the course of this email interview, the details of the remaining dates are revealed (including this Staturday's stop at Upstate Comics). The story "takes place in the once-peaceful city of Park Falls, where a series of gruesome murders and missing persons has put the town on edge, and Cynthia Ford, known as the town 'crazy,' finds retired police detective Derrick Peters and relates to him her belief about what’s going on. Her explanation: Zombies. Unable to ignore Cynthia’s information, though not sharing her beliefs, Derrick and others in the town explore the mystery as weeks turn to months and the death toll rises. Could Cynthia be right or has she finally gone insane?"

Tim O'Shea: During the 18-month publishing hiatus, was there ever any point you wanted to give up on the project or you always believed it would come back?

Nick Tapalansky: I don’t think we ever even considered giving up on it. Besides already having so much blood invested in it, the story is one which I’m really excited to tell since it’s been percolating in my mind for the last five years. It was just a matter of being patient and seeing how everything resolved itself at Archaia.

Alex Eckman-Lawn: No way! There were some scary days in there, but I don’t think we ever once discussed giving up on the book. It was always, “How can we make this happen?” and luckily for us, all we really had to do was wait it out.

O'Shea: What made you decide to stick with Archaia publishing the book?

Tapalansky: Mark Smylie. His passion for publishing exciting and idiosyncratic books is only just outweighed by his passion for painting ridiculously great orgies…er…comics. When we were just showing what little work we had done for the book back in 2006, just trying to get some feedback on the direction we were moving in, Mark keyed right into it. He gets what we’re doing and has been behind the book since day one.

Eckman-Lawn: Mark is a real doll. Beyond that, I just felt at home at Archaia. It’s a really nice community of creators who are all into making awesome books and helping each other out whenever they can.

O'Shea: While the book was on hiatus, did you take that time to revise some aspects of the story or the characters?

Eckman-Lawn: Indeed we did!

Tapalansky: I guess that was the silver lining, really. This is our first book and the extra time allowed us to decompress, review what we were doing, and firm up the conclusion of the series by giving me the time to write Volume Two. In turn we were able to make minor adjustments to the back end of Volume One which not only help support Volume Two but also solidify Volume One.

Eckman-Lawn: Yeah, it’s really great that we’re able to say with certainty that the book is actually BETTER because of the break. Nick made some adjustments that I’m behind 100% and I actually got to rework a couple pages to really make them sing. They’re little things, but they make a big difference to how Volume Two plays out.

O'Shea: In marketing the book, you recently wrote an open letter to retailers that included the following bit: "I know how hard it is to sell comics these days (or even books in general). It’s even harder to opt to stock a new title from an unknown creative team when you’ve got some guaranteed sellers you can put in its place. That’s actually why we shifted formats from floppy issues and hardcovers to just hardcovers – how could we ask you to order a fourth issue from a relatively little known book and put it on a shelf in place of, say a Marvel or DC book after we had an 18-month publication hiatus? It wouldn’t make sense." Have you heard from retailers that ordered more copies of the project after reading your note?

Tapalansky: Yes! A lot of retailers wrote back, thanking me for giving them the PDF and some high-concept sales pitches for the book. After getting a chance to read the entire book and realizing which customers might dig it, they were much more inclined to take a chance on ordering the hardcover because they were able to speak to the product and share it with the folks in their shops who would really dig it.

The problem with the Previews format is that retailers are faced with making buying decisions for books based on a cover image and a 150-word (or less) blurb. Sometimes a creative team with clout is enough to inspire an order alongside that minimal info, but for a book like ours where we’re an unknown creative team and the book had already been solicited once before (prior to Archaia’s restructuring), that decision might not be so easy. It’s important for creators, especially folks like Alex and I who’re just starting out, to reach out to retailers with as much information as possible, like full PDF’s, promotional material, and anything else you can think of, just so they can have a chance to say “You know, I think I need this in my shop. There are at least three customers, maybe more, who I’m sure would pick this up if I show it to them.” They can’t do that just by looking at a cover and a paragraph, not for an unknown quantity.

So, if there are any shops out there reading this who didn’t see the open letter, drop me an email at Nick.Tapalansky@gmail.com with your shop info and I’ll get you, amongst other things, that open letter in its entirety and the full PDF of the book.

O'Shea: In raising the profile of Awakening upon its return, you've definitely taken advantage of technology. How did the trailer come about?

Tapalansky: That was something exciting which was in the works pre-restructuring at Archaia that was also put on hold until the book was primed for release post-shake up. Book trailers in general are becoming more common it seems, and the comic medium is where it really makes sense. We were thrilled when the new folks behind Archaia turned out to be, amongst other things, a marketing firm which had experience in animation. Alex’s pal and mine, Justin Crowell (www.SarasotaTheBand.com) composed the original music which helped bring Park Falls to eerie life, with the script for the trailer being written by yours truly.

Eckman-Lawn: It’s always cool to work with friends you respect, and especially in mediums you haven’t really tried before so this was two birds with one stone for me. Obviously all the work was done already on my end, but it was exciting to watch it all come together. At the risk of sounding a little arrogant, I think the trailer turned out pretty badass!

O'Shea: Could you define "existential horror" for me?

Tapalansky: I think existential horror is a more visceral form of the genre. It doesn’t beat you over the head with what’s happening, with over-the-top violence and gore, but instead gives you just enough to start questioning the world around the characters as it breaks down and, in turn, the world around yourself. It’s a kind of horror that stays with you, and not just in the shadows or when the sun goes down. It stays in your head.

Eckman-Lawn: It’s brain scares instead of cheap gore and shocks. Tapalansky’s trying to get inside all of you.

Tapalansky: Ha! Right into your MIND.

O'Shea: How has the book tour been so far?

Tapalansky: Our first stop was just this past weekend at Baltimore Comic-Con and it was a blast! We’ve been going to that show for the past three years, even last year when we didn’t have anything new because of the restructuring, and every year has just been better and better. We’ve made some great friends at that show and, hands down, is my favorite of the year. It was a no-brainer for us to kick off the tour there and give something special to everybody who always comes out to see us – the exclusive free print and the opportunity to sign up for online access on Halloween to the first chapter of Volume Two.

Eckman-Lawn: Baltimore really is a great show for us every year and this was no exception. To my surprise we had a few people show up with single issues to get signed. I was really happy to give away the prints and finally thank some of the people who have been with us since issue 1!

Tapalansky: The whole point of the tour was to give something back to the folks who’ve supported us so far while also giving some incentive to anybody who might’ve been on the fence. That’s why we’ve made sure that there’s something for everybody:

Do you already own a copy of Awakening Volume One but can't make it to one of our four signing stops? Then hurry up and send a picture of you with the book to AwakeningComic@gmail.com by 11:59pm EST on 10/30/2009!

Are you waiting to try out the book but can't make it to one of our four signing stops? Do you want to see some of what comes next so the wait for Volume Two isn't as excruciating? Pick up the book at your local comic shop (and promote them by taking your photo with the book in front of the shop). Same deal, email a pic of you with the book to AwakeningComic@gmail.com by 11:59pm EST on 10/30/2009.

Everyone who emails a picture in by 11:59pm EST on 10/30/2009 is going to get an email from us at 12am, Halloween morning with an exclusive link and login info to read the entire first chapter of Volume Two!

Now, let's say you're near one of the three remaining signing stops listed below. If you come by and pick up a copy of the book, or bring your copy to be signed, not only will we take down your email so you get a link to the exclusive preview, but you'll also get an exclusive, signed print created by Alex just for this Halloween tour! Mark these dates on your calenders:

Oct. 17, 1-5 p.m. [Nick Tapalansky only with special guest, Jackie Santiago]
Upstate Comics
Freedom Business Center
1097 Route 55
LaGrangeville, NY 12540
(845) 452- 3320

Oct. 24, 12-4 p.m.
Brave New Worlds Comics
45 North Second Street
Philadelphia, PA 19106
(215) 925-6525

Oct. 28, 4-7 p.m.
Jim Hanley’s Universe (with special guest Mark Smylie! Others TBA…)
4 West 33rd St.
New York, NY 10001
(212) 268-7088

O'Shea: Zombies have increasingly become a popular go-to element in films and comics for years. In deciding to tap into zombies for your story, what approach did you take that you felt make it more unique than most storytellers?

Tapalansky: It was all about re-evaluating the standard conventions behind zombie stories. I began to pick and poke and prod pop culture zombie lore and look at it from different angles. What if things happened slower? So slowly even, that the very nature of the problem wouldn’t even come to light for the general populace of a small city until months after it began? How would the city handle it? How would certain types of people approach it? What was causing it? These initial questions ultimately led to a new take on the very concept of a zombie uprising – one which might not offer any kind of pattern or reason for spreading, where somebody walking down the street would simply fall down and minutes later get up again, now changed. What would happen if we explored all of these questions through a mystery/noir lens?

There’s a certain horror in not knowing what’s going on around you and it’s very different from the fight/flight horror that comes from exploring a mass uprising of undead. It’s a very real feeling we experience in life without something so fantastic as zombies involved. In a situation like this, where we explore the city of Park Falls over the course of a full year, our characters have time to think about what this might mean as they grapple with the headier concepts of science vs. religion, reconciling old shortcomings and mistakes, and trying to evolve and grow as you see your city and world decomposing slowly, all the while still fighting to understand the core of the problem and overcome it before it’s too late.

Eckman-Lawn: From day one Nick made it clear to me that he didn’t want this to be like any other zombie story and I think he’s delivering in spades. He’s being pretty fearless about breaking established rules and attacking concepts you aren’t used to seeing in zombie stories.

O'Shea: Alex, how did you develop your art style? Nick, what about Alex's art made you want to work with him?

Eckman-Lawn: Man, I kind of wish I knew that myself. It’s hard to say how it all came together since I’ve been muddling through trying to figure things out as I go, but I wanted a solution that used drawing, photo and a lot of the heavy texture that I love in painting. I have to admit; a big “a-ha” moment for me was finding the more fine-art minded comic guys like Ashley Wood, Dave McKean, Bill Sienkiewicz. All the dudes you could probably guess I would love from looking at my work. Also, a big part of making pictures for me, and this is going to sound a little cheesy, is just conveying emotion through images, so I try pretty hard to capture something with every page. Every panel if I can.

Tapalansky: Alex’s art has a certain life to it, something tangible and emotional. Just looking at his illustration work at the time I was working on Awakening was enough to know that he would not only get it, but be able to bring it to life. He’s able to infuse every page with a creeping, bleeding sense of atmosphere and horror, whether it’s a character alone in an alley with shadows creeping all around or two characters talking out in the daylight.

O'Shea: Any final thoughts?

Tapalansky: Folks who want to follow us online and keep up with what we’re getting up to can find us at the following haunts:

Awakening on Twitter
Trailer for Awakening
Nick Tapalansky’s website
Alex Eckman-Lawn’s website

Alex Eckman-Lawn’s Blog

Eckman-Lawn: Thanks, this was fun. Come meet us, we’re even more charming in person.

Looking for Calvin and Hobbes

Over the past few months, I've been introducing my son to the wonder of Calvin and Hobbes, the nationally syndicated comic strip that ran from 1985 to 1995. So creator Bill Watterson was already on my mind, when I gained access to a preview of Nevin Martell's Looking for Calvin and Hobbes: The Unconventional Story of Bill Watterson and His Revolutionary Comic Strip. The book aims to trace "the life and career of the extraordinary, influential, and intensely private man behind Calvin and Hobbes". In this new email interview, Martell and I get a chance to discuss the ground he covers in the book and the folks he got to interview in his pursuit.

Tim O'Shea: You did some advanced marketing of the book a few months back by releasing the first chapter of the book for free upon request. Did you find that helped generate buzz for the project?

Nevin Martell: The free chapter giveaway turned into an insane bonanza of buzz, which, frankly, I was totally unprepared for. My publishers told me that super successful versions of this kind of promotion in the past had garnered a couple of hundred requests. But then the offer got written up by BoingBoing and NPR, not to mention a slew of comic-related blogs and the Twittersphere, so suddenly I had hundreds of requests pouring in. Since I was initially answering all these requests individually, it turned into three days of hitting reply, attaching a file, writing a quick note, and then repeating. Ultimately over 4,000 people requested the chapter, which just blew my mind. Actually, my mind is still blown.

O'Shea: You got to talk to many of Watterson's peers and associates. Of those interviews, can you single out a few who provided you with the candor that allowed you to better shape the story you wanted to tell with this book?

Martell: The big gets for me were Watterson's former editor Lee Salem, his longtime friend Rich West and his mother Kathryn Watterson. These three really helped me uncover and explore the most important stages of Watterson's life -- childhood, college/his editorial cartooning years and the time he spent doing "Calvin and Hobbes." It was also really illuminating to talk to his high school friends and the editors at United who developed an early version of "Calvin and Hobbes" before ultimately dropping Watterson, because they helped reveal parts of Watterson's life that had previously not been examined in depth.

O'Shea: Have you gotten a reaction (positive or negative) from the folks who participated and have already read the book?

Martell: Everyone I've spoken thus far with who participated in the book has been very happy with it. His family and friends have been very complimentary and two of the cartoonists who read early versions liked it enough to give me quotes for the dust jacket, which I provide below for your edification.

"Nevin Martell's book provides a rare glimpse of the riddle wrapped in the mystery inside an enigma that is Bill Watterson and his brilliant work, which I now know was almost called 'Marvin and Hobbes.'" - Stephan Pastis, creator of Pearls Before Swine

"Watterson can hide, but he can't die. His work lives on and we're lucky to have Nevin Martell reminding us so colorfully in this joyful book." - Berkeley Breathed, creator of Bloom County and Outland

O'Shea: What were some of the hardest aspects of his career to research?

Martell: Honestly -- and I don't say this lightly -- a lot of this book was difficult to research. Watterson left a very limited public record of his work and his life, so I had to do a lot of good old fashioned detective work to discover his life and find the people he met and worked with along the way. That being said, that journey was incredibly rewarding and I don't regret any of the many hours I spent on the phone, on the internet, talking with people or traveling to collections and libraries.

O'Shea: Do you think being unable to speak to Watterson or use Calvin & Hobbes pieces compromises the book' s strengths or did you try to compensate for that in your writing?

Martell: If I had spoken to Watterson or been able to use his work, it would have been a very different book. It would have been a more straightforward biography, which is what I set out to write. In the end, this book turned out to be a much stranger trip than I originally thought it would be, but that’s the wonderful thing about life – you just don’t know what’s going to happen next or how anything is going to turn out. It’s a curious beast, but, hopefully, a lovable one. Anyone who is a fan of the strip should enjoy what became a very personal and in-depth exploration of one of the great pop artists of the 20th century.

O'Shea: Knowing Watterson's body of work as well as you do now, looking at the present day landscape of cartoonists, who do you think comes closest to tapping into the humor and appeal that Watterson wielded?

Martell: No offense to any of the many cartoonists I spoke with and befriended -- and I'm sure they'd all agree with me -- but there is no substitute for Watterson. Which is not to say that there aren't some INCREDIBLY talented cartoonists working in papers and online today. Richard Thompson's "Cul de Sac" has a great artistic sensibility and top-notch writing -- I describe it in the book as "[looking] like Ralph Steadman and Charles Schulz fighting over a pen to draw "The Yellow Kid" crossed with "FoxTrot," with a dollop of Watterson’s wit thrown in for good measure." And Pastis' "Pearls Before Swine" is just such clever snarkiness that it rarely fails to amuse me. If you're looking for standard bearers for the next generation of cartoonists, those two guys should be holding the torches.

O'Shea: In terms of relatively reclusive former cartoonists, did you ever consider making your quest the somewhat reclusive Gary Larson (albeit with a great deal of merchandising)?

Martell: During the course of writing the book, I did try to get in touch with Gary Larson, but I was never able to talk to him. Hey, you've just given me an idea for my next book. Thanks!

O'Shea: Did you go in to the project with an understanding of why Watterson avoided merchandising the characters, or is that something you learned along the way?

Martell: I had a basic understanding of why he didn't do it, but that understanding deepened -- and darkened -- as I went through my research. It was impressive to watch someone form a principle like that -- and stick to it -- under so much pressure and as he was being offered so much money to let go of it. I dare say that none of us know many -- if any -- people who could be offered such riches and turn them down. That takes real gumption and real belief.

O'Shea: What do you hope readers get out of the book--a greater appreciation of Watterson or a greater appreciation of his work?

Martell: Readers will get a deeper understanding of Watterson and his choices. They'll learn about the evolution of his artistry and his life. And they'll have a chance to relive why they fell in love with the strip in the first place. Oh, and they'll also learn that I love cupcakes.

O'Shea: With newspapers struggling and impacting the amount of space devoted to comic strips in the present day, did this book unavoidably also become a documentation of happier times (relatively) for comic strips and their success?

Martell: The exit of Watterson, Larson and -- temporarily -- Breathed from papers in the mid-'90's signaled the end of the last Golden Age of American newspaper cartooning for me. Not that their weren't good cartoonists doing admirable work after that, but the loss of that Holy Trinity lost newspaper cartooning the zeitgeist. That collective experience of reading the paper over breakfast was never the same after that. This happened for a variety of reasons, including, as you mention, the decline of newspapers and the funny pages in general, but losing Watterson, Larson and Breathed was a death blow in my opinion.

O'Shea: In writing this book, did you try to avoid trying to get inside Watterson's head after seeing the critical beating (even in positive reviews) that David Michaelis took in some circles for his psychological analysis of Peanuts creator Charles Schulz?

Martell: No offense to Michaelis, but I did not set out to write my own "Schulz." I wanted to get inside Watterson's head and analyze his life, but I didn't want to go to the lengths that Michaelis did, because I wanted readers to be able to draw their own conclusions and come up with their own opinions about Watterson's life and choices. And as my book turned into a metaphorical and literal journey to discover Watterson, I realized that it wasn't just a biography. It was my gonzo field trip to try and uncover the life of cartooning's Salinger, which made it an entirely different proposition.

O'Shea: Anything else you'd like to discuss?

Martell: I'm hoping that the paperback edition that is going to come out next fall may have some extra material that came to light after the hardcover was already at the printers, but there will be updates on that when the time comes.

O'Shea: Care to tease about what some of the "extra material that came to light"?

Martell: I've made some discoveries about Watterson's recent artistic projects that I'd like to discuss, but that's all I can say for now. How's that for a tease?

Dustin Harbin

A few months back when I interviewed Dustin Harbin regarding this year's HeroesCon, I made a mental note to follow-up with Harbin in another interview, where we could just discuss his creative projects/process. This interview was conducted via email several weeks back. Late last week, Harbin let me know that while he's remaining as Creative Director at Heroes Aren't Hard To Find and Heroes Convention, he will be reducing his hours at the store and has "gone full-time with cartooning". My thanks to Harbin for another interview, I'm happy to say this one was even more fun than the last.

Tim O'Shea: How much are you paying Tom Spurgeon to pimp your work? Seriously, Spurgeon praises many talented storytellers, but he seems to be your number one fan. Did you buy him a lot of meals when he came to HeroesCon in 2008 or what?

Dustin Harbin: I remember having to argue with Tom just to be able to bring him a water: I tried hard to buy him a drink at the hotel bar, but he was leery of my seductive ways. I think Tom is like a lot of us--he's a passionate advocate for people he thinks deserve wider recognition. I'm not basing this just on the very VERY kind attention he's showed my comics so far, but he's the reason I discovered Richard Thompson's work, who you'll agree Tom is an even more vociferous a supporter of. I don't know what attracted Tom's good feelings, but I'm incredibly grateful for them.

O'Shea: When you tackle a story like "What is with the women?"--do you ever fear alienating half of your potential audience? I'm not saying you were bashing women in the story, but anytime you put crazy anywhere near the word woman, you're risking a world of hurt (same risk that would occur if a woman did a similar story...BTW).

Harbin: Do you really think a woman would get the same flak? I'm not disagreeing, it just seems odd in my head. Probably because, ha ha, most of the lady cartoonists I know are too smart to waste their time doing comics about how men are crazy. I do not labor under the burden of being too smart, fortunately for all those who love crazy women comics.

I worried a little bit about alienating, but not too much--they're autobio strips, and to remove all the honesty from them would leave them pretty boring I think. Still, I know some of my least favorite autobio comics ever are pretty much all the muckraking negative ones, so I was more leery of just seeming petty than of alienating women in general. I did hear from a couple of ex-girlfriends, and at best their reaction was, roughly, "hpmh!" At worst, it was much louder.

O'Shea: Why do you think you're "terrible at drawing women"--or if it's easier to describe, what challenges you about drawing women?

Harbin: I don't have any real education in art, so most of the stuff I grew up drawing was just an endless progression of misshapen heads, odd stuff, and the occasional building. The last couple of years, having gotten serious about drawing comics, is really the first time I've ever had to draw outside my comfort zone. It's exhilarating and enormously frustrating.

Women, in almost every detail, are visually much more nuanced than men. You can bend a dude's head and body and hands all over the place, but if you are drawing a woman, especially one you want to at least PASS for attractive, then you have to work harder to make those curves and lines work together. By "curves" I mean less the obvious connotation, and more the curves of the brushstrokes you might use to delineate the line of a woman's jaw, or where her knee meets her calf, et cetera. Those are hard things to do right; not so hard for men.

O'Shea: Your website reveals how you're creatively plugged in on flickr, twitter and myspace. As a creator who clearly embraces technology, do you intend on trying to get your work into the platform for handheld devices?

Harbin: Maybe. On the surface it's not that interesting to me, I guess--there is really nothing I hate worse than reading comics on a screen. It drives me crazy--it's less than I'm more into print (though I am) and more that my mind just doesn't really absorb information on a screen the same way it does on paper. Though I know a lot of web cartoonists, there are only four webcomics in my RSS folder, not counting PBF, which of course is on more-or-less permanent hiatus.

And almost without exception, those are all shortform comics--I find webcomics more interesting as short strips, in the same way old adventure strips were self-contained each day, but contributed to larger plots. I'm struggling with this myself--I want to do longer stories, but the navigation of a web interface just seems so clumsy to me. And for a cellphone--whoa nellie! But every time I say something's dumb, I end up eating crow a few months later and announcing to all my friends that it's the best thing ever. "Have you guys ever heard of WEBcomics?"

O'Shea: Back in July, you gave a talk at a library about comics and cartooning. In the warm-up to doing the presentation, you wrote: "This is the second time I’ve donned a fake mortarboard (I never got a real one, having never graduated anything before) to fake teach–I enjoyed the first time, although it was both more and less difficult than I’d thought it would be." Does it bother you that you've never graduated anything (it has not seemed to impede your creative pursuits from my perspective) or did you merely write that to set up the "fake teach" line. What was more difficult about that first time you taught. And how did things go on this second round?

Harbin: Well, the first time was technically a longer class, an 8-week continuing-ed class at our local community college, and the recent one was just a talk at a library to some kids, showing them some basics, etc. So the first time was harder--I love talking to kids, and I'm CRAZY good at it.

But no, lacking a high school diploma hasn't gotten in the way of anything so far for me. I'm not dissing the idea of graduating--if for no other reason than that it's so incredibly easy. But I have also been lucky, and have worked at the same place since I was 21, where my boss has rewarded me over time for becoming better at my job. So I have been spared a lot of the challenges another dropout dummy like me might have faced elsewhere. Not to mention I've had time to foster my own interest in cartooning, in arguably the best possible place, insofar as being able to meet all the people I admire, making tons of contacts, all that stuff.

O'Shea: Am I correct in thinking you're experimenting with a new art style of late--what prompted the switch and how is it working out for you?

Harbin: I am always trying to find a style, but have pretty much locked down a particular one for my autobio strips, pretty much exactly like the one I just finished, the one about all those wang-dang-doodle crazy ladies. Mainly I'm trying to work as small as I can, because I have some sort of low-impact OCD that makes me want to fill everything up with lines and details and cross-hatching and all that stuff that ruins a lot of otherwise good comics. It's a struggle! Plus I've recently been reading all the Jaime Love & Rockets stories for the first time, so that's really crushing my spirit as far as spotting blacks and composition goes.

O'Shea: Judging by this piece, you love coming up with absurd sound effects, don't you?

Harbin: Yes! One of the sound effects in that strip was originally "SPELUNK!" but I had to change it because it didn't make real sense. I'm reading Kevin Cannon's awesome FAR ARDEN right now, and he does a hilarious thing where pretty much everything has a sound effect, but it'll be like "PREPARES TO PUNCH" or "KICKS RIGHT THROUGH!" Sound effects are one of the weird meta-jokes you can only pull off in comics, and I love those meta-jokes.

O'Shea: Am I correct in thinking that you listen to music while you work? Does music help keep the creative juices flowing when you're putting long hours in the chair?

Harbin: I do listen to music, but only when I'm planning the comics and maybe pencilling. All the brainless stuff like inking and coloring I like to listen to audiobooks or podcasts or what-have-you. Although I've found that listening to jazz, especially really deep stuff like Coltrane, while inking is pretty deep--you really get into it, you can really fall into that music more because only a small part of your brain is thinking about dragging a brush across the paper, and the rest is wishing John Coltrane was still alive.

O'Shea: Given your work as a comics retailer, as a creator what big lessons have you learned of what NOT to do when trying to sell your work?

Harbin: Haha, I almost never sell my work! Or do you mean just selling books to people? I haven't learned anything, actually. In the store I almost never mention that I even draw, let alone that I have two or three comics right there for sale. And at conventions I act like a carnival barker, greeting anyone who gets within three feet of my table, then watching dejectedly as they notice Joe Lambert next to me. It'll be even worse tabling with Scott Campbell. It's hard to have such talented bros, Tim. It's hard.

O'Shea: How did the poetry reading, on the occasion of your 35th birthday, go?

Harbin: It went great! Thanks for asking. Writing poetry is not something I really do except for once in a great while, but it's fun to burn off that urge by reading a bunch of it in front of a big audience. Everyone had a good time, I didn't even get a hangover, although I DID wake up the next day as a 35-year old. You win some, you lose some.

O'Shea: The last time we talked you said: "I have a lot of ideas about comics." Care to share any remaining ideas? What do you want to talk about?

Harbin: Sure I have a lot of ideas about comics, but a lot of them are negative, and I hate to get into that stuff sometimes because of my dayjob (as Creative Director at Heroes Aren't Hard To Find and Heroes Convention). Plus negative stuff--well, it's easy to talk smack, less easy to talk nice.

But it seems to me that the gulf between good comics and bad comics is growing wider; or at least that the no man's land of mediocre comics between those poles is becoming more vast. All these grim/gritty superhero stories lately, which still feature a bunch of guys wearing tights and strippers with their boobs hanging out--it's just impossible to take that stuff seriously, isn't it? Sometimes I want to--I read that Marvels Project comic a few weeks ago, and it was just a cool WWII-era intrigue story, no strippers yet. I don't mind superheroes per se, but the more adult and realistic we try to make them, the dumber they seem--it's a lot easier to enjoy All Star Superman because Morrison and Quitely didn't try to set the story in anything like the real world. It's in that wacky 50's era Superman mythos, and everything works and he's able to explore issues that start with capital letters.

But these current stories that seem to want to cram as much murder and death and rape onto a page as possible, crowding it in their with the weird power fantasies and boobs and all that--it's kind of a gross pastiche I think. None of those elements are served by being mashed into a big stew together like that.

I like genre storytelling, I think it's cool. And it's incorrect to think that comics writers shouldn't ASPIRE to doing something really adult and amazing with superheroes, a la Watchmen or All Star Superman. But I think it's a high bar, and regular mainstream comics--especially the big "event" books that are aimed at the widest possible audience--may not be the best laboratory to try out those ideas.

But what I LOVE about comics lately is the growing--even mushrooming--community of DIY and indie creators, a lot of whom are connected via Twitter or Facebook or their various sites and blogs. Being connected to that is incredibly energizing--it's easy to get down on your stuff when you've been looking at it for ten hours and wrestling with it and it's weeks from being done. But getting a kind word from someone whose work you admire is like opening your wallet and finding a gold brick in there. These young indie creators are going to be the Bendis's and Morrisons of tomorrow too--it's in THEIR laboratories, in their cramped little studio apartments in their various cities, where the next big innovations in comics are taking place, and being involved even tangentially with that is enormously exciting. Excelsior!

The Unknown: The Devil Made Flesh

Any regular readers of What Are You Reading? likely know how much I enjoy Mark Waid's writing. So when Waid made himself available for a brief email interview regarding BOOM!'s The Unknown: The Devil Made Flesh, the first issue of which goes on sale tomorrow, I jumped at the chance. As I found out in this interview, Waid and I share a love of research. My thanks to Waid for the interview, and please be sure to check out CBR's five-page preview of issue 1 here. As detailed at the preview: "Back by popular demand, Mark Waid brings another installment of the world’s greatest detective! With only six months to live, Catherine Allingham’s condition is terminal. But nothing will stop her from trying to solve even more mysteries. It’s international suspense and hair-raising macabre as time runs out for our detective."

Tim O'Shea: It was years ago and in a different corporate universe, but as a fan of your run on Ruse, I have to ask--is Catherine Allingham a creative descendant of Emma Bishop to some extent?

Mark Waid: Ha! Man, someday, I've really got to go into hypnotherapy and see if someone can help me remember which prototypical Sarcastic Genius became the template for my scientists and investigators. Actually, Emma's more tender than Catherine. Catherine has no time for tenderness.

O'Shea: What was the appeal to mixing a spiritual quest with scientific exploration?

Waid: The appeal was in making an attempt to use science to answer (or at least approach) the great metaphysical mysteries. Detective fiction is full of excellent gumshoes who can tell you whodunnit. I wanted to get more into the impossible questions; a detective's only as interesting as the challenges she faces.

O'Shea: Early in the first Unknown miniseries, Catherine is shown reading Pierre Bayard's Sherlock Holmes Was Wrong: Reopening the Case of the Hound of the Baskervilles. Was that a throwaway bit on the creative team's part, or does this project find some inspiration in Bayard's book?

Waid: It had no specific bearing on the story; it was just perfect reading for Catherine. The fact that she enjoys a book like that tells you volumes about her and her level of arrogance.

O'Shea: On some level, do you consider Unknown to be a modern noir? What makes me ask is the great chase scene on the train in issue 2.

Waid: On some level, yes, but I think of it more as modern pulp. The original "Hollywood paragraph" was "Doc Savage as written by David Lynch." Less noir in the sequel, The Devil Made Flesh, in part because the settings are less exotic--though the mystery is more macabre.

O'Shea: In The Devil Made Flesh, are we going to learn more about James Doyle's tragic past, or are you saving that for another miniseries down the road?

Waid: We learn MUCH more about James Doyle's tragic past. Sadly, he does not. As will be evident.

O'Shea: In terms of developing Allingham's back story, how large a collection of untold solved cases have you developed--potentially to tap for "present day" story reference or maybe even a back-up feature at some point?

Waid: A ton. A bookfull. You could spend an entire workday just surfing the sites I've bookmarked, to say nothing of the actual books and magazine articles I've accumulated--but that's because I collect "impossible crimes" material anyway, have for years, and I've been busy making notes where I've inserted Catherine into these mysteries and come up with her solutions. I've got LOTS to draw upon.

O'Shea: Given your duties as an EIC for BOOM!, plus your freelance commitments at Marvel, I doubt the term "relaxing" is one that matches your work pace. That being said, given the miniseries nature of BOOM! properties, is it a bit less stressful not dealing with the worries of cancellation as much as if you were attempting a series of monthly ongoing BOOM! properties?

Waid: Good question. I suppose it's some comfort to know that nothing'll be yanked out from under me, though I've been pretty lucky in my career and haven't had a series cancelled out from under me since the Impact Comics days. Still, the pressure to deliver and deliver big is always there, regardless of who I'm working for or how long the commitment. So I'm not sure I understand this concept of "less stressful" of which you speak.

O'Shea: With the start of the new Unknown project, will you be looking to expand the supporting cast? What new international locales will you be taking the tales?

Waid: There are two important new additions to the cast--a woman named Adriana who shows up in issue one, and a strangely articulate assistant who debuts in issue two. I can't say anything more about either without revealing too much, but both are fascinating to write for.

O'Shea: In writing for artist Minck Oosterveer, what strengths of his skillset do you try to tap to best suit Unknown?

Waid: His storytelling is exemplary; he communicates setting and mood with little details in the art that keep me from having to over-write and use words where pictures would be better. Plus, the man can draw anything. That allows my imagination to run totally free without ever worrying that I'm overreaching. What a godsend, that guy.

O'Shea: What about the mystery genre do you enjoy most when writing in it?

Waid: The elaborate plotting. The jigsaw-puzzle nature of it. The challenge of dispensing information in a play-fair way that doesn't make the mysteries too transparent. The research. All of it. Seriously, all of it.