Indie Pulp

Dan Christensen's 'Paranormal' Lands at Evileye Books

2012-01-16T11:31:00.001-06:00

DAN CHRISTENSEN. IMAGE BY JULIEN CHAUVET

If you don't recognize this photo of illustrator, writer, and comics creator, Dan Christensen, it's because this is perhaps one of the first public images of the man in recent memory. A reclusive, French-speaking American, Mr. Christensen has lived for more than a decade in a picturesque seaport town on the west coast of France whose storied and mysterious past includes Gallic tribes, Roman occupation, and the Knights Templar. It's a fitting backdrop that has fueled the creative fires of a secretive creator, and what may be the most unlikely and coolest supernatural noir graphic novel series American comic book fans have never heard of—until now. That's because Evileye Books and Mr. Christensen have come together to bring his supernatural noir series, "Paranormal," to American audiences.

Meet The Ogre
In an alternate universe, Henry Wade Johnson, the kind of criminal you love to hate, is a paranormal being known as "The Ogre." He has just been released from prison and has one goal: to leave his violent past behind. But when "Rat Face," one of his former partners in crime, brutally murders several police officers and disappears with a shipment of stolen cocaine belonging to the deadliest crime boss in Los Angeles, Henry Wade Johnson finds himself drawn back into the life he had so desperately tried to escape.

These are the events that are set into motion in the "Paranormal" graphic novel trilogy originally published in France (Carabas) between 2004-2009. It is a story that manages to blend the best of crime noir, the supernatural and superpowers with a who-done-it thriller sensibility. But don't call it a superhero book.

"I first came up with the idea for "Paranormal" back in 2001, after finishing my first full-color graphic novel, "Un Goût de Cendres," said Mr. Christensen.

"At the time, I was itching to do a classic superhero story, with costumes, capes and diabolical super-villains, but for some reason, it just wasn’t working for me. Now don’t get me wrong, I still enjoy reading Silver Age "X-Men" comics, Jack Kirby’s "Avengers" stories, and superhero comics in general…it’s just that telling those kinds of stories doesn’t come easy for me.

"I found this out while attempting to write the first draft of "Paranormal." It was too contrived, too stale. The story was pretty much dead in the water until late one night, I was filling up some pages in my sketchbook when it dawned on me: what I really wanted to draw was a crime story with superheroes as the main protagonists…but superheroes portrayed in a more realistic fashion. From the very beginning of superhero comics, the two genres of crime fiction and superheroes have always gone hand in hand (see the early issues of Detective Comics and Batman), but I’ve always found the whole capes-and-tights thing kind of silly. I don’t care how tough Batman is, I just don’t see how he could intimidate anyone wearing leotards and a cape).

I wanted to tell stories in a universe where the characters, although they might possess super powers, didn’t wear extravagant costumes with flashy letters on their chests. To me, the whole super powers thing had to be low-key. The powers had to be suggested instead of shown, and as a result, the characters’ abilities and physical descriptions would tend to be exaggerated—even blown out of proportion—through the conflicting accounts of eyewitnesses and urban legends. I intended to focus more on the super villains than on the superheroes, but my "super villains" wouldn’t be cackling, evil masterminds bent on destroying the world; merely street-level criminals who possess strange, uncommon abilities that make them all the more dangerous and terrifying. The "Paranormal" trilogy was told from the point of view of one of these criminals, and has more in common with crime novels like Edward Bunker's "No Beast So Fierce" than mainstream comic books (although there is a definite supernatural undercurrent running through the stories)."

'Paranormal' in the U.S.A.
The original "Paranormal" trilogy will be remastered in English and released in both digital and print formats. The final release schedule will be announced this summer.

In addition, Mr. Christensen will extend the "Paranormal" universe by writing and illustrating an additional three graphic novels to be released annually.

"Genre-bending high concepts are the way to our wicked little heart," said A.N. Ommus, Editorial Director of Evileye Books. "Dan knows how to spin a riveting tale. He's so talented that the ideas of superpowers and the supernatural are both in your face and blend into the background simultaneously. A writer can only accomplish such a feat when the characters and plot are the drivers of his storytelling gifts. Mr. Christensen has in 'Paranormal' an exciting, unique take on the genres American comics fans love."

Helpful Links

Dan Christensen's Website

SPONSOR

Preview: Brian Churilla Reveals What Really Happened to D.B. Cooper

2011-12-09T10:32:00.001-06:00

I'm a sucker for conspiracy theories. Apparently so is comics creator, Brian Churilla. Wielding his pencilling prowess for books like "We Kill Monsters" and "The Anchor," Churilla is a favorite creator around these parts. You can get a peek at his sketchbook here, along with one of the most unique creator photos you will ever see. Needless to say, once you see it, you can't un-see it. Ever.

Coming in March 2012, Oni Press will begin publishing "The Secret History of D.B. Cooper." We can't top the teaser text, so here it is, along with super secret preview pages.

---

THE SECRET HISTORY OF D.B. COOPER #1

Written and illustrated by Brian Churilla

Monthly starting in March 2012

It's our contention that the FBI's recent inclusion of amateur sleuths in the forty-year search for infamous hijacker D.B. Cooper is part of an elaborate ruse being perpetrated on the public. Furthermore, this is likely part of an attempt by the government to discredit the forthcoming Oni Press series, THE SECRET HISTORY OF D.B. COOPER, which finally reveals the truth regarding the case. In our continuing effort to subvert the government's unending campaign of misinformation, we have decided to release a preview of the first issue.

From creator Brian Churilla, the book chronicles the life of the mythic folk hero, revealing that "The DB Cooper Incident" was not a hijacking and extortion plot as widely reported. In fact, this cover story is quite pedestrian, as what really happened nearly changed the course of human history.

Helpful Links

Oni Press

Brian Churilla

1X1: Patricia Ann McNair

2011-12-08T09:47:00.001-06:00

One Writer, One Question: Every short story imposes its own demands on a writer. How do you tackle the challenge of capturing each story's unique voice?

The Heartbeat of Your Story
By Patricia Ann McNair
On Twitter — @PatriciaAMcNair

Patricia Ann McNair

Have you ever heard Mick Jagger sing? You know how he sounds on “Angie”, how he sounds on “Brown Sugar”? Totally different, huh? Or maybe not so much, really. The underlying “Mickness” is still there: the hollow thing he does with his voice, like he is opening up his mouth cavity wide enough for the big, round words to come out; the exhalations; the nasally sound that comes through every once in a while. And yet, there is something unique to each song—sometimes it’s a softening, or a heightening, a slowness, or a frantic quality. Whatever is needed to make it play, to make it work. Whatever each song calls for.

Yeah, but what does this have to do with writing, you ask. Well, here goes. What is at the heart of each story I write, at each voice of a character, or a narrator, or piece itself, is my own voice. The way I tell a story. And that has its particular qualities, just like old Mick’s does. I ramble. I segue, I digress. I use a lot of—um, dashes—and other punctuations (like parentheses); I am fond of the semi-colon. There is a hint of Chicago in my voice—sometimes more so (like in “The Things That’ll Keep You Alive”); sometimes the voice has my Midwestern meander (as in “Running.”)

"The Temple of Air" Available Now
from Elephant Rock Books

"The Temple of Air" is a collection of stories that has many links: place, overlapping characters, motifs, chronology, world view. And it is these overlappings, these links—along with my own storyteller’s voice—that I hope creates a unified quality to the telling. Like a huge painting made with similar small brush strokes. And at the same time, as your question suggests, it is essential that each story be unique, that it have its own sound.

And that comes from listening, I think. From listening to the words as they form in your head, as they start to get down on the page. I do a whole lot of work before the story gets grown much. I journal all the time—allowing me access to my internal listener, the one who knows my voice best. I talk to myself. (Don’t you have to talk to yourself if you want to be a writer? Hello? Hello?) I am a jogger, and I hit the lakefront trail here in Chicago without headphones or earbuds; I listen to the rhythm of my breathing, the slow pound of my footsteps, and I tell stories in my head. And once I get stuff on the page, I read it aloud. A lot. Either by myself at my desk, or—when I’m lucky to have this—in front of an audience. You can’t help but hear things that way.

There are the usual things that feed into a story’s particular voice. Characters’ age, education, and background; regional settings; content. In fact, I think that content might be one of the most important factors of finding a particular story voice, and it might also be one of the things new writers miss. You write a story about a girl trying to be tough as her world is crumbling (her brother is missing-in-action, her mother is drinking too much, she discovers that the girl she babysits for is being abused by her mother) and the voice you use to tell the story (“When is a Door Not a Door” from my collection) is going to be a bit clipped, snide, cuss-ridden. In a story where a tragic accident happens and a bunch of kids are high when they witness it and think maybe they are imagining it (as in my story “Something Like Faith”,) the telling is going to be layered, the sentences run-on, the images dream-like. You choose your metaphors carefully, not just because they are cool, but because they speak directly to what you are discovering about the story. You manipulate the punctuation to mimic the movement of the story. You listen to the heartbeat of the piece and get that on the page. Is the pulse quickened, the feeling breathless? Is it choppy, lurching from moment to moment? You can do that through language, through syntax. And we learn such things by listening.

Short answer then—and a bit flip, but absolutely honest: How do I capture each story’s unique voice? When I am successful (and believe, I am not always) I get the voice because I listen for it. And when I hear it—comingled with my own voice—I write it down.

About the Author

Patricia Ann McNair is the author of the well-received story collection "The Temple of Air". McNair has lived 98 percent of her life in the Midwest. She’s managed a gas station, sold pots and pans door to door, tended bar and breaded mushrooms, worked on the trading floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and taught aerobics. Today she is an Associate Professor in the Fiction Writing Department of Columbia College Chicago, where she received the Excellence in Teaching Award as well as a nomination for the Carnegie Foundation’s US Professor of the Year.

Book Synopsis

From babysitter to bus ticket salesman, construction worker to cult leader, the residents of New Hope chase their dreams and suffer their disappointments against the subtle backdrop of a Midwestern landscape. In the manner of the Pulitzer Prize winning Olive Kitteridge, and the iconic Winesburg, Ohio, Patricia Ann McNair’s debut story collection, "The Temple of Air" links the lives and stories of a place and its people through tragedy and consequence, blind faith and redemption. Unapologetically in your face, these tales dig into your subconscious and leave you haunted.

Helpful Links

The Temple of Air on Amazon

Patricia Ann McNair's Website

Elephant Rock Books

Raw Head & Bloody Bones: A Crooked Hills Tale

2011-10-31T07:00:00.000-05:00

I'm not feeling particularly cheery this spooky season. It's hard to be happy when you're busy kicking yourself in the pants.

Halloween is finally here. The neighborhood kids around these parts will make their annual mad grab for all things sugary, chewy and chocolaty this afternoon. Our family cauldron is filled with all kinds of candies sure to rot milky white teeth down to bloody gums. But what is missing from our pot are some hair-raising, spooky comics for kids, like the story we have for you today. I've whipped myself with more zeal than an Opus Dei penitent for not having thought of it sooner. And over the weekend a dear friend and I resolved to be ready next year. Give out spooky comics on Halloween. Why haven't comics retailers and publishers done it already? They do it for Free Comic Book Day. Why not Halloween?

So I'd like to submit our entry for a free read this hallowed eve. It's a short story written by Cullen Bunn, with art by Drew Moss. "Raw Head & Bloody Bones" comes from the universe of "Crooked Hills", the new prose and comics series by Mr. Bunn being published by our sister imprint, Earwig Press. Readers of the first novel will recognize the main characters in the story presented here. Charlie Ward is the reluctant protagonist of the series, and his cousin, Marty, is in many ways, Charlie's guide through the legends of the haunted town known for witches that feast on children, spectral beasts, headless chickens, and girls with slingshots.

The fictional town of Crooked Hills is nestled in the Missouri Ozarks region, which in real life has a long history of its residents dabbling in urban legends and folklore. Mr. Bunn enjoys the sandlot he's playing in; all we do is go along, enjoying the thrilling ride.

"Crooked Hills Tales" is meant to be the umbrella tag for legends and stories that explore the rich stories of the Ozarks region, mashed up with Mr. Bunn's gifted imagination. Some of these tales will be told in comic book form, others in short prose fiction. "Raw Head & Bloody Bones" is the first of a number of comic book stories coming from Mr. Bunn and various artists. Eventually these stories will be collected into book form. But that's a while in coming. So we are happy to present this first story here, and on Halloween, no less.

For a more in-depth profile of Mr Bunn and Crooked Hills, we suggest you give "The Conjurer" a read.

For more information of Crooked Hills, the series, visit Earwigpress.com.

For all things Cullen Bunn, peruse his site. You can also tweet with him at Twitter.com/cullenbunn.

To learn more about artist, Drew Moss, go here. You can also tweet with him at Twitter.com/drew_moss.

To purchase an edition of Crooked Hills, Book One, go here.

Enjoy "Raw Head & Bloody Bones" and Happy Halloween!

—Ommus

COVER TO CROOKED HILLS, BOOK ONE
ART BY BRIAN HURTT

Mike Oliveri's 'Big Bad Wolves'

2011-10-28T10:24:00.004-05:00

As we gear up for the big 2011 Halloween weekend, we'd like to let out our twisted sense of teasing by offering up a short comic work by Bram Stoker Award Winning Author, Mike Oliveri and artist extraordinaire, Mike Henderson.

"Big Bad Wolves" presents the key events that lead into the werewolf noir thriller, "Winter Kill", by Mike Oliveri. Those following his work know the prose fiction book as the first in a series that follows the Tyler family and their struggle to live with their supernatural legacy (or is it curse?) in a modern world. This is not your grandfather's werewolf story, to say the least. It's been famously described as Elmore Leonard meets Quentin Taratino, which we tend to think is spot on.

Book two in the series, "Lie with the Dead" (is that not one of the coolest noir titles you've ever heard?), will be published in 2012 by Evileye Books.

"Big Bad Wolves" was illustrated by Mike Henderson, who knows a thing or two about drawing monsters. He is part of the team that brought us "Smuggling Spirits".

Have a fun Halloween. Don't eat too much candy. And don't go wandering into the haunted woods alone. Or do. You never know what you'll find in the dark.

If you'd like to check out "Winter Kill", go here.

Check out Mike Oliveri's blog here.

Slobber over Mike Henderson's art here.

TRADE PAPERBACK EDITION
OF MIKE OLIVERI'S "WINTER KILL"

Editor's Note:

Evileye Books is an imprint of Pulp+Pixel Entertainment Co., which also publishes Indiepulp.com.

1X1: Roger Smith Ponders the Question, Why Noir Now?

2011-10-21T09:42:00.000-05:00

AUTHOR ROGER SMITH

By Roger Smith
@Rog_Smith

Why does noir crime fiction resurface during times of uncertainty, when societies seem to have lost their moral compasses? Perhaps when reassuring parables with happy endings don’t ring true tougher-minded readers reach for books that are, at heart, dystopian and dark, charting the inevitably downward course of doomed losers who are driven to their fate by their own demons.

In noir the protagonists aren’t outsiders called in to restore order, but rather people directly connected to the crime: victims and perpetrators. So noir isn’t about private detectives (or their frequent surrogates, reporters) where a hero—or anti-hero—may emerge battered and bruised and even more cynical, but restores some kind of moral balance (and restores the reader’s faith in society.) And no way is it police procedural, where the workings of law-enforcement (even if they are flawed) triumph over lawlessness.
In noir, if there are cops (or other representatives of the establishment) they are bent, serving their own outlaw agenda. And unlike mysteries, capers and procedurals (where the story is all about the crime) noir is all about the characters.

Daniel Woodrell, finally getting some of the recognition he deserves for his brand of “redneck noir”, said this in a recent interview: “[the term] ‘crime writer’ suggests that the big whoop in the book is going to be the crime—with all my books the crimes aren’t central. They’re about human beings fucking up.”

What I have always admired about noir fiction it is the unflinching way the best of it deals with tough social issues, so when I started writing crime novels set in South Africa—one of the most violent and corrupt countries in the world—I found noir to be the most accurate prism through which to view this society in turmoil.

Apartheid is over, but a crime epidemic, poverty and the highest incidence of HIV/AIDS on the planet present new challenges. Last year the ex-commissioner of police was sentenced to fifteen years in prison for corruption. One in three South African women will be raped in their lifetime. Teenage girls are sold into slave marriages in the name of tradition and men believe that raping virgins (often children) will cure them of AIDS. Noir country, for sure.

American noir, too, has always questioned its society (from James M. Cain to James Ellroy) and it’s unsurprising that this dark brand of fiction is the engine-room of radical new crime writing emerging from the U.S. younger writers like Frank Bill ("Crimes in Southern Indiana") and Keith Rawson ("The Chaos we Know"), have both recently published anthologies that paint a bleak picture of the heartland of post-9/11 America: stories of unemployment, disintegrating families and rural meth labs. The title of Rawson’s book perfectly captures the mood of the country.

So, what better time than now (as protests against the established order sweep the globe) for a resurgence of this brand of existential, deeply pessimistic crime fiction?

ABOUT ROGER SMITH

Roger Smith was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, and now lives in Cape Town. His thrillers "Mixed Blood," "Wake Up Dead" and "Dust Devils" have been published in six countries. His books have won the Deutscher Krimi Preis (German Crime Fiction Award) and been nominated for Spinetingler Magazine Best Novel awards. "Mixed Blood" and "Wake Up Dead" are in development as feature films in the U.S.

Smith’s fourth novel, "Capture", will be released internationally in 2012. You can follow Mr. Smith on Twitter at Twitter.com/rog_smith

RESOURCES

Roger Smith's Website

Preview: Aspen Comics' 'Haunted City' #1

2011-10-09T17:22:00.002-05:00

HAUNTED CITY #1
Created by Chap Taylor
Written by Chap Taylor & Peter Johnson
Art by Michael Ryan
Colors by Kelsey Shannon & Beth Sotelo
Aspen Comics
Release Date: October 12, 2011

Of late, Halloween has been reduced to being vampire and zombie season. So it's refreshing to see a series that goes beyond bloodsuckers and rotting corpses, if for any other reason, to add a little variety to our horrorlust.

If the opening sequence here gives us any clues at all, it seems we'll be treated to a story that blends noir with the supernatural, as a secret division of the NYPD uncovers mysteries and hunts down monsters and such that live in the shadows of the Big Apple. If you read the issue and it feels vaguely familiar, that's because McG is behind the series. McG, of course, is behind the hit CW series "Supernatural."

Here's a preview of the title's debut issue. It looks promising and will definitely will give it a story arc or two to unfold.

2011-10-05T19:41:00.001-05:00

RIP Steve Jobs

Your place is among them...

This is an unused version of the iconic spot
narrated by Steve Jobs...

Crooked Hills: The Most Haunted Town in America

2011-10-05T09:54:00.000-05:00

RENDER OF THE LIMITED EDITION HARDCOVER
OF CULLEN BUNN'S CROOKED HILLS

"Crooked Hills," the much anticipated first novel from "The Sixth Gun" scribe, Cullen Bunn, is now available in digital and print formats.

The all ages novel, which follows thirteen-year-old Charlie Ward in his unexpected journey to Crooked Hills—the most haunted town in America—is available for the Kindle and Nook ebook platforms, and soon for iBooks. It is also available as a Trade Paperback print edition. Here are the links to follow:

Kindle

Nook

Trade Paperback

Early Praise for 'Crooked Hills'

"One of the most fun, delightful reads (even for adults!), I will say that if you read only one YA book this year, Crooked Hills should be it without a question. It will remind you why you got into horror in the first place, and introduce you to a great story with a fantastic cast of characters that you won’t soon forget."

—From Hellnotes.com

". . . parents and children alike will be able to enjoy it for what it is . . . a chilling, thrilling ride . . ."

—J.G. Flaherty, Horror World

"Bunn recognizes everyone must deal with issues such as death and fear, or even grapple with bullies or feelings of isolation. He handles these matters with care, through the eyes of an empathetic and relatable hero who has a good sense of humour."

— Jessa Sobczuk, Rue Morgue Magazine

"If you want your child to start loving horror as much as you do, this is the book to give them."

— Sheri White, Horror Fiction Review

"Right from the beginning, "Crooked Hills" brought a smile to my face. ... Just a few pages in, and I wished I was curled up in a window seat, storm brewing for added effect, all alone in a creepy old house. ... Highly recommended."

—Brandi Blankenship, MonsterLibrarian.com

"This book is bound to make your kids keep reading. Almost every chapter ends with a spooky cliffhanger that kept me turning pages late into the night." Rating: 5-Stars

—Meghan Graves, Denver Book Examiner

"Crooked Hills combines all the best aspects of classic children’s mystery books with paranormal chills and adventure. Think “The Hardy Boysmeet Supernatural“. The characters are well-drawn and sympathetic and the action is fast-paced and fun.

Charlie’s voice is spot on, mixing a sense of fear and trepidation with youthful excitement and an old-fashioned “gee whiz” factor. Even more impressive is Bunn’s ability to depict genuinely scary antagonists while still keeping the book readable by a young audience. This book really is the total package."

—From Serial Distractions

"Let's get one thing perfectly clear from the get-go: This is not a "kiddie" book. Author Cullen Bunn doesn't talk down to the readers, doesn't dumb thing down for lower grade levels. To the contrary, he tells a tight story with good detail, excellent plot, and does it without pandering. Sure, the characters are easily relatable to the nine-to-fourteen market, but that's because that's who they are. Far from mollycoddling, Bunn puts the readers in the dark and leaves them there without so much as a match for light, then he pounds on the door to give them a thrill. And it works well enough that even the parents of the children who read this book (and the ones that come after it) will enjoy them."

— From Dread Central

Other Editions

Book one of the "Crooked Hills" ongoing series will also be made available as a limited edition hardcover, which will only be made available to readers expressing their interest by sending a reservation request to CrookedHillsHC@earwigpress.com. No pre-payment is required at time of request. Full details will be sent exclusively to reservation members when the edition is ready for press.

Crooked Hills (Book One)

By Cullen Bunn

Earwig Press

EBook and Trade Paperback

Print Length: 258 pages

Helpful Links

Earwigpress.com

CullenBunn.com

Follow Cullen Bunn on Twitter at Twitter.com/cullenbunn

Follow EarwigPress on Twitter at Twitter.com/earwigpress

Editor's Note: Indie Pulp and Earwig Press are imprints of Pulp+Pixel Entertainment Co.

Preview: Broken Pieces

2011-08-03T09:53:00.009-05:00

If you like post-apocalyptic tales, you might like this new series from Aspen Comics, out in stores today. Check out some preview art.

BROKEN PIECES #0

Written by Mark Roslan
Illustrated by Micah Kaneshiro
Aspen Comics
Release Date: August 3, 2011

Retail Solicitation
What is lost in life is found in . . . death!

Aspen Comics is proud to offer you its newest original series, "Broken Pieces"!

In a future torn apart by the deadly catastrophe of biological contamination, pollution and corporate greed, one man will discover an even more tragic fate. Dr. Richard Adams, along with his loving wife, Dr. Gabriella Adams, stood at the forefront of research in advanced medicine and bio-rejuvenation.

However, one fateful—and fatal—moment will change everything about their purpose, their relationship, and each other. When the tragedy of events literally tears apart everything about his being, Richard is left with no choice but to pick up the fragmented pieces of his reality in order to save his wife, as well as potentially the fate of mankind.

Featuring an all new 12-page prelude story that sets the stage for the brand new "Broken Pieces" #1 issue heading your way next month, this special zero issue comes complete with an additional sketchbook section, never before seen art, and a stunning cover by hot new series artist Micah Kaneshiro. Not to be missed, make sure you get in on the ground floor of this exciting new series!

ALTERNATE COVER BY BEN CALDWELL

There's Lint in Your Navel 01: Introverted Musings on Comics Today

2011-07-28T12:30:00.001-05:00

A PAGE FROM "THE RETURN OF THE DAPPER MEN"

Late last week, a bit of a "lively" discourse broke out in the Tweeterverse over creativity and innovation in comics today. Coming, as it did, during the media and fan frenzy that is the San Diego Comic-Con, it was to no one's surprise that disgruntled comics fans that have been pushed out of their beloved West coast convention by transmedia and Hollywood types trying to score the next Cowboys & Aliens took to social networks like Twitter to gripe about nearly everything—from the invasion of Twilight fans to DC's Not-a-Reboot Reboot to registration nightmares. They even found time to reflect on actual comics.

When the fat is taken off, the meat of the argument that most gained traction was that the Big Two comics publishers have been regurgitating the same storylines and characters ad nauseam for years, leading to both a comparison to a comic book version of the 1993 film, Groundhog Day, and to a criticism of the lack of innovation in the comics industry.

What is curious about the argument is that, for the most part, it's a valid criticism, but not because our current cadre of comics writers and artists are second-rate hacks; quite the contrary. Most innovation that turns into a business eventually seeks to perpetuate its own success, which leads to formula. For comic books, that success began when the "super" hero (before the term was trademarked) was born, and most comics that deal in powerful beings have riffed on the formula since 1938, when a certain alien in a cape and tights hoisted a car over his head to thwart evil-doers. For seventy-three years, it's been really nothing more than navel-gazing to see what new lint could be found.

Following the formula, comic book movies have followed suit. The summer of 2011 is a watershed moment in comics history. With the release of Thor, X-Men: First Class, Green Lantern, Captain America: The First Avenger, and Cowboys and Aliens, this is the year comics have made the leap from an ever-dwindling, clubish set of aging fanboys and girls to the mainstream in pop culture as legitimate entertainment. For the most part, all these movies have been origin stories. And coming next year, The Amazing Spider-Man and The Avengers promise more of the same. To be sure, the entry of the mainstream set into the comics club requires suitable narrative jumping-on points. But back in the tree house, loyal comics fans have been wondering how many more stories about crusaders in tights are there left to tell. Batman can beat up on the Joker only so many times before it gets old. And boring.

That kind of hand-wringing is what led the online conversation into the world of indie comics and innovation. Since the Big Two insist on making it a capes world, comics by independent creators and small publishers tend to be treated as the ugly stepchildren: tolerated, but pushed to the side, hoping they don't take too much market share. In many ways, they are the Bizarro to Superman, living in their own alternate world inside the comics universe. But it's in the indies that most innovation is being witnessed by readers today.

A good place to start with the evidence is the winners list for the 2011 Eisner Awards. "The Return of the Dapper Men," by Jim McCann and Janet Lee, published by Archaia Studios, has won critical acclaim from comics and general media critics alike. Its creators won the Eisner for best Graphic Album. If you were to dig deeper into the list, you would see that Joe Hill won for "Lock & Key" (IDW Publishing), John Layman and Rob Guillory for "Chew" (Image Comics), Gabriel Bá and Fábio Moon for "Daytripper" (Vertigo), Mike Mignola for "Hellboy" (Dark Horse), and on goes the list. You might even say it was a watershed moment for indie comics at the Eisners.

A PANEL SEQUENCE FROM "ASTERIOS POLYP"

A common thread among the Eisner winners mentioned is their decidedly non-capes take on comics, not to mention their often unconventional and radical use of space and design. Janet Lee's work on the Dapper Men illustrates this fabulously, as does another highly acclaimed book from 2010, "Asterios Polyp" by David Mazzucchelli—ironically interesting since Mr. Mazzucchelli teamed with Frank Miller in 1987 to bring us the seminal work, "Batman: Year One," which managed to bend the capes formula to a near breaking point.

We can also point to the work of comics rebel, Ted McKeever, and his recent creation, "Meta 4" (Image Comics), which manages to break comic book layout conventions and question the very foundations of sign, symbol and language. Another recent noodle-bender is David Hine's and Shaky Kane's "The Bulletproof Coffin" (Image Comics), which takes the formula and thoroughly mangles it like a rabid Pit Bull on acid.

Let's not forget product innovation. Experimentation often starts with indies and makes its way to the Big Two. Here, the tip of the hat has to go to comics anthology, "Kramer's Ergot No. 7", which was so large it was as tall as a typical person's torso. Despite being bigger than a baby, the book managed to tap into the pent-up demand for a format that showcased the unique visuals of sequential art that are so often cramped into a pamphlet smaller than a standard sheet of typing paper. Two years later (if memory serves), DC Comics riffed on that idea and launched the curious and crowd-pleasing "Wednesday Comics," a giant-sized hardcover that played with the glory days of the Sunday comics serial format of the thirties and forties. The copycats have followed, if only because the trail of money is thick for premium-priced hardcovers.

And just last week, flying under the radar of most comics shops and readers, came "Loose Ends," a four-issue limited series from 12-Gauge Comics. Created by Jason Latour, Chris Brunner and Rico Renzi, "Loose Ends" is, as they like to bill it, a "a southern crime romance," with—as of the debut issue anyway—no capes in site. Besides being an engaging story with outstanding art and a highly stylized color pallet, what makes this series disruptive is the publication's size. It is notably larger than the standard American comic book, curiously wide because it seems to acknowledge the advent of the digital age. If you've ever read a digitized comic on an iPad, you know that every comics page suffers from dreaded black bars on the left and right sides of the page, making the art and text smaller than they should be. This, of course, is due to the incompatibility of the printed page to the dimensions of tablets like Apple's iPad. The creators of "Loose Ends" have acknowledged the rise of digital comics and, rather than run the other way, have embraced it, looking to the future with the reader experience firmly in mind. The trim size of a comic book may seem a trivial matter, but at a time when the comics industry is undergoing a tectonic shift from the world of bits to the realm of bytes, it should not be forgotten that we have not had the opportunity to reconsider the reader experience and format since scrappy business men, Maxwell Gaines and Harry Wildenberg, published what is often considered the first modern comic book in the U.S., "Famous Funnies: A Carnival of Comics" in 1933. This realization alone makes DC Comic's "Re-launch" interesting, infuriating, laughable and tainted with the business mindset of perpetuating the capes formula. In other circles, this kind of "Relaunch" is called putting lipstick on a pig.

The only hole in this argument about innovation is a rather big fat crater by way of J.H. Williams III, whose work last year on "Batwoman: Elegy" is a virtuoso performance never before seen in comics since, well, since Mr. Williams himself on "Promethea" in collaboration with a writer you might have heard has done his part to blow up the staid comics formula, Mr. Alan Moore. But Mr. Williams thrives in rarefied air, among talented creative beings that make the rest of us look like wannabes. Meanwhile, we let the jealousy simmer all the while we wallow in the glory of Mr. Williams's creative genius, and wishing he'd come over to play on our team.

As with the Eisner winners this year, the list of comics innovators among the indie ranks goes on and on. But that would be the point: that while there are spot examples of the Big Two playing in new sandboxes, indie comics creators and publishers represent the leading edge of storytelling and design in comics today. And they seem to revel in it, almost preferring that the Big Two stay stuck in a perpetual rehash of good versus evil in spandex, monopolistic distribution and outdated formats. In the face of the digital age, that would be the equivalent of the Big Two making their own bed.

A. Nathaniel Ommus

Tweet with us at Twitter.com/Ommus

Review: 'Hogdoggin''

2011-07-14T12:17:00.000-05:00

HOGDOGGIN’
Anthony Neil Smith
E-book
Crimedog BooksAvailable Now

Review by Mike Oliveri

Let’s get something straight from the get-go about Anthony Neil Smith’s novel, “Hogdoggin’”: this is noir at its gritty finest, but you won't find a hardboiled, down-on-his-luck gumshoe trying to find a way to do right in these pages. These characters have their own desires and motivations, and they'll stop at nothing to accomplish their goals. Nor will you find cardboard cutouts serving as cannon fodder for the main characters. These characters are real, like people who could be living right around the corner . . . except, of course, in Smith’s world, you’re likely to find them bleeding out in the gutter when you step out for the morning paper.

There is violence here. Lots of it. There are gunfights and bloodshed, knife fights and torture. There are no happy endings in noir, no characters riding into the sunset, and Smith stays true to the tradition. Some of the characters get what’s coming to them; some of the characters don’t. We see them beaten down, hitting rock bottom, and we learn whether or not they have the strength to survive. They fight and bleed and cry. Sometimes they die—not in elaborate, machine-gun operas like a blockbuster summer action flick, either; their ends are dirty and mean. Smith exercises the same economy of words in action as he does in dialog: every word carries weight. There’s no purple prose to be found in these pages.

So if you like flowery prose and cozy mysteries, you have no business reading “Hogdoggin’.” But don’t mistake Smith’s stylized prose for lack of literary merit. This book has it in spades.

You’ve been warned.

“Hogdoggin’” is the second Billy Lafitte novel, the follow-up to “Yellow Medicine.” If you missed that first book, go get it. It’s cheap enough on Amazon and Barnes & Noble. You have no excuse. Meantime, let’s get you up to speed.

Billy Lafitte is a bad man.

An ex-cop, Lafitte has destroyed everything he holds dear while sticking to his own skewed moral code. Framed for murder and branded a traitor to his country after leading his brother-in-law to his death, we find Lafitte has fallen in with an outlaw motorcycle club and enforces their law as the Sergeant At Arms.

Billy Lafitte lives in a bad world.

Everyone wants a piece of him, from the federal agent who couldn't take Billy down the first time around, to his former friends and partners who can't forgive what he's done. A world dominated by a brutal motorcycle club president known as Steel God who metes out justice at the end of a massive sledgehammer. A world populated by scheming biker sluts and paint-huffing rednecks. A world where the women are every bit as sadistic and vengeful as the men they run with, women whose tongues are sharper than their knives.

With a single phone call, this world comes crashing down on Billy's head. The phone call summons him home to his ex-wife, Ginny, and their two children: the family who hates him and what he's done, yet is still the only thing in this bad world Lafitte still cares for. It doesn't matter that someone could be baiting him, or that leaving could cost him everything he knows in his new situation. There is no hesitation, just action, and when the call flushes him out, Lafitte finds himself on the run again, with his old enemies hot on his tail.

And it wouldn’t be a Billy Lafitte tale if he didn’t make new enemies along the way. After a series of questionable moves and decisions he'll come to regret, he sinks lower than ever before, and soon is forced to reach out to a man he betrayed, the one man in the world he fears.

Yet, in this latest volume, the story doesn’t cast a myopic eye on Lafitte. Smith broadens his lens to let in a wider landscape and cast of characters. We get to see how far down the Lafitte case has dragged Agent Franklin Rome, and what Rome's obsession with Lafitte has done to his career and to his marriage. We get to see how twisted Rome’s relationship with his wife, Desiree, has become, and just how far she's willing to go to keep her husband.

We get to see the collateral damage these men leave behind. Ginny Lafitte is caught up between both of them. Rome’s partner, Agent McKeown, is forced to play along with Rome’s dirty tactics because he has a secret of his own to keep. Women in the book, like Colleen, Kristal and Fawn, jeopardize everything for a shot at Lafitte, each for their own reasons.

In “Hogdoggin’,” Anthony Neil Smith cranks out vivid, pull-no-punches prose. He keeps the reader engaged, not just in the actions unfolding on the page, but also in what's happening inside these characters' heads. Sure, these are bad people, but Smith helps us understand them. Feel for them. Even relate to them.

Smith's plotting is tight and relentless. Right from the first chapter, things are in constant motion. Whether we're following Lafitte, Rome, or another character, we have the sense that what we're seeing is important to what will unfold. The characters don't have time for side trips or navel-gazing because the pressure is on. And though we may be following characters through separate threads, we can see their lives and situations are tightly wound together until everything converges in the climax.

Smith has threatened to write a third Lafitte book, and has flirted with Lafitte’s life as a cop in New Orleans, prior to the events of "Yellow Medicine." I'm not sure whether Smith has Lafitte in his head or it's Lafitte keeping a tight grip on Smith, but either way, I feel that Billy Lafitte’s story must be told, and I suspect Smith will be relentless in telling his tales.

—MO

Editor’s Notes:

(1) Mike Oliveri is a Bram Stoker Award Winning Author. His latest fiction series, “The Pack,” is a supernatural thriller published by Evileye Books. The first volume, “Winter Kill” is available as a trade paperback and as an e-book for the Kindle, Nook and iBooks digital platforms. The follow-up volume, “Lie with the Dead,” will be released later this year. Visit his blog at mikeoliveri.com.

(2) Indiepulp.com is an imprint of Pulp+Pixel Entertainment Company, which also publishes the Evileye Books imprint.

Preview: Lady Mechanika 02

2011-07-14T12:10:00.000-05:00

Issue number two of "Lady Mechanika" finally hit comic book shops this week. It's been a long time coming, but the wait was not in vain. Joe Benitez and Aspen Comics, once again, deliver a solid installment in this sexy steampunk adventure.

An essay on the series is forthcoming here in the next few days. Meanwhile, enjoy a few pages of the latest issue. And if you haven't gone to your LCS this week, what are you waiting for?

Lady Mechanika #2
Joe Benitez
Aspen Comics
Out July 13, 2011

Review: BlueSpear

2011-06-13T21:34:00.000-05:00

BLUESPEAR
Original Graphic Novel
Written by Andi Ewington and Eddie Deighton
Illustrated and Colored by Cosmo White
Published by Com.X
Release Date: July 11, 2011

Review by A.N. Ommus

The Smell the Fear

This year will go down in American comics lore as The Great Reboot. DC Comics has announced a rickety relaunch of its entire lineup of titles. The comics industry is finally embracing digital comics as a legitimate venue for current releases. Superheroes seem to have made a complete leap onto the theater screen, invading the summer of 2011 like a plague of locusts. All aspects of the comic book industry are entangled in some tempest of transformation, save the poor Direct Market retailers, which seem paralyzed and wide-eyed blind in the bright lights of all this upheaval.

Sensing the opportunity to buy a lifeline of legitimacy in the new celluloid and digital frontiers, the gorillas of the comics industry (backed by even bigger gorillas of the content entertainment media) are resorting to going back to the beginning, giving their characters updated origins, with the pretext of making their heroes more relevant to a new generation. In films, every major comics-related release this year is an origin story. In comic books proper, we have been awash in rebirths and calamities leading to new world orders. And this fall, we will be lambs taking part in a near industry-wide mind-wipe.

But all this posturing and clever comics parlor tricks ring neither true nor sincere. You can smell the fear and profit motive in equal parts. Truth be told, it's getting old before it begins.

So when yet another publisher decides to launch an origin story in these times, we can all be forgiven for being less than enthusiastic at the start. Except that in the case of Com.X and their latest release, "BlueSpear," the tiny bi-continental upstart publisher seems to be playing coy with us, teasing, drafting an intriguing blueprint for the future of birthing hero stories.

Are Literary Comics An Oxymoron?

The kernel for the story of "BlueSpear" was planted in last year's acclaimed graphic novel, "Forty-Five." Conceived and written by Andi Ewington, with a stellar supporting cast of artists, "Forty-Five" invaded the very visual world of comics, and injected a good measure of literary mojo. In a fan fiefdom where the artist usually reigns supreme, Ewington presented stories of super humans primarily through the power of words. Employing the lens of journalism, he let us peer into a world with powers through a realism that shows the effects of mortal humans living among what he dubs, the Super-S. Through words, Ewington spawned a new universe that, in many ways, builds on the narrative foundations Alan Moore built, and moves beyond it—or more precisely: dives in more deeply. As popular as "Forty-Five" became among the critics, the real miracle is how American fans so openly embraced his experiment of a literary comic book.

If you were lucky enough to get your mitts on a copy, and settled in to read it, the reason for all the love it received became clear from its "Prologue" onward. For all the bling—by way of spot illustration eye candy from luminary artists Charlie Adlard, Dan Brereton, Gary Erskine, Frazer Irving, Jock, Ben Oliver, Sean Phillips, Liam Sharp, Trevor Hairsine, and others—as well as the talk of super-powers, the story's appeal is grounded in Ewington's ability to render characters with dynamic and complex humanism. The book is not about earth-shattering events or infinite conflicts; it's about the ordinary moments in life and the burdens that super-humans and their loved ones sometimes carry. Ewington's storytelling ability is the bridge to that Super-S world, and it is the foundation on which "BlueSpear" is built.

Brotherhood

The story is the first volume in a planned trilogy, and begins with a scene set by a single, unassuming page of sequential art. A young man sits on a park bench, presumably reading the day's newspaper. In front of the pages, however, he holds a picture of two boys wearing life jackets, hoisting king crabs above their heads in a frozen moment we are meant to understand was a happier time in this man's life. Behind the picture he holds is a newspaper story with a photo of the legendary BlueSpear. As he sits on the bench, a man walks by. We take him for a beggar, and the flip of coins by the young man on the bench as he departs seems to affirm our bias. The two men briefly cross paths and move on in separate directions. But gills that run along the beggar's neck leave us a hint that this common man holds more secrets than his outward appearance lets on.

The young man's name is Akira. The place is Japan. The accompanying interview with him, tells the story of the BlueSpear, protector of the nation (who also happens to be Akira's brother), and their estranged relationship. Although there is no way to prove it, if this premise had been handled in the typical way mainstream American comics present storylines these days—that is to say, writing it as a glorified storyboard for film rights to a tent pole summer blockbuster film—the topic of distant brothers would have made it to the final page only if it had been treated as an over-the-top Cain and Able story of biblical proportions—of Good Versus Evil in a Timeless Tale of Super-Powered Sibling Rivalry! 'Nuff Said!

To his credit—and no doubt due, in small part, to his residency as a Londoner far away from the creative shores of New York—Ewington resists the great American temptation. In that one page, we get no melodrama, no over the top action sequences; yet, the seed of conflict and emotions of loss and rancor are so strong, we give in helplessly to the narrative, and come away with a hopeful sense that these two characters live beyond the page and will one day reconcile their haunting past. That one day comes in this volume.

Death and Metamorphosis

Putting aside the merits of his talent, Ewington is not a literary snob. After being showered with accolades, it would have been easy for him to develop a second volume of "Forty-Five" (perhaps call it "Forty-Six"), and succumb to sequelitis. Thankfully, with "BlueSpear," Ewington and his fellow creative team members, Eddie Deighton and Cosmo White—embrace the artistic tradition of comics and pull off a neat trick: they translate the literary foundation of the original BlueSpear tale in "Forty-Five" into a visual lyricism between story and art, between theme and its expression, that is nearly pitch perfect for the medium.

In the opening sequence, we are, literally and figuratively, thrown into the deep waters of the narrative head first. From our vantage point below him, we see a boy, Yuji, drowning and bleeding. Then, through an unexplained event, he transforms into a creature of the deep, no longer dying. In counterpoint to the flashback images and text, we see parallel moments in current time, of the same boy, now grown into adulthood, and bearing the fabled weapon that holds the power of BlueSpear, bringing death to others. The narrative beat ends with a contemplative evening scene, as the hero sits atop a city roof overlooking a lit office, wherein Akira, his brother, works late into the night. The distance between them is palpable in many ways.

In this opening sequence, we are confronted with three kinds of death: metamorphosis; physical; and spiritual. As a meme burned into the narrative of nearly every popular superhero tale, mortality plays a critical part. There is no Batman if Bruce Wayne's parents survive the fateful night; There is no Superman if Krypton does not explode; There is no Spider-Man if Peter Parker stops the thief and Uncle Ben survives. The hero must fall and rise transformed.

BlueSpear is born out of death, and as we come to understand later in the story, his metamorphosis from brother to hero (from human to meta-human) brings about a spiritual and emotional death in them both whose chasm seems insurmountable. In this tale, Ewington & Co. telegraph the showdown to come between brothers. But the creative team understands the pop culture sandbox in which they play, and rather than ram the more intellectual and literary merits of the story down our throats, they play up to the audience, manipulating the imagery and plotting in ways that are familiar and sure to be crowd pleasers.

Pulp Anime

There are three scenes from the film, "Pulp Fiction" that seem to stick with most of us who have seen it. The first is the ludicrous discussion about Big Macs in France between two cold-hearted hitmen: Vincent Vega (John Travolta); and Jules Winnfield (Samuel L. Jackson). The second is Samuel L. Jackson's riveting and maniacal recital of Ezekiel 25:17, moments before executing a sniveling idiot. The last is Marsellus Wallace's (Ving Rhames) revenge dialogue after being tortured: "I'm 'a get medieval on your ass." (What audience member DIDN'T involuntarily clench their butt cheeks when Wallace uttered those horrifying word?)

In that now cult 1994 classic, co-writer and director, Quentin Tarantino, drew from an expansive and diverse group of influences—from anime to pulp novels to "Citizen Kane"—to experiment with plot narrative, language and filmmaking. The end result was a financial and critical success that redefined crime noir for a postmodern generation.

"BlueSpear" aims to strike the same sort of pop culture note. At the heart of the plot are a familiar device and antagonist. The evil temptress, Lotus, is a seductive, heartless—and highly skilled—agent of XoDOS that leads a team in search of BlueSpear and his powerful, mystical weapon. Why XoDOS wants the spear is not quite revealed. But it doesn't take long for Lotus to seek out Akira as leverage agains BlueSpear, along the way staring down, and striking a deal with, a Yakuza mob boss. The plot moves along in tight beats that keep us engaged. The dialogue renders part of this magic. But it is in Cosmo White's sequential art that the full impact of the narrative unfurls.

At the outermost layer, the first thing you notice about White's art is his color palette. It is bright, employing simple solids with high contrast shadows and minimal, but effective, rendering of gradations and special effects. The overall effect takes "BlueSpear" into anime territory, which is encouraged by the art style itself.

Yet, what is most striking about White's work are his storytelling choices. It's understood that the writers bring a great deal to the visual storytelling through the descriptions and panel directions they provide an artist. But in "BlueSpear" something more is happening. It's not enough for an artist to render objects—inanimate or otherwise—on a two-dimensional plane according to instructions in a script. Even accomplished comic book artists can render a scene realistically, even convincingly, without ever bringing life or nuance to the story. Here, Cosmo White seems himself possessed with powers beyond those of mortal artists. When the boy, Yuji, is drowning, we feel him floating. We feel the weightlessness and pressure of the water around us as we witness his transformation. When we witness Lotus seducing her prey just before she kills them, we are seduced as well. We surrender to the story through the art. Though his talent is exceptional, White's power is not magical; it's technical, for he makes some intrepid camera angle choices that are designed to take us ever deeper into the reality of that world.

When the story, sequentials and colors are considered as a unified work of art, what we experience in "BlueSpear" is a complex study in humanity, loss and rebirth. It is also an exciting experiment in how to lay down the foundations of a superhero universe at a time in the comic book industry when publishers are scratching there heads wondering how to make their aging characters relevant. With "BlueSpear," Ewington, Deighton and White succeed in showing us the richness of story and character that can be achieved when neither fear nor profit are part of the story.

—Ommus

Interview: Ted McKeever

2011-06-07T23:31:00.001-05:00

"Comics have always been a wide-open field with boundaries that were our given right to bulldoze, and to create whatever the mind could conceive and the hands reveal."

The Unity of Opposites: An interview with Ted McKeever

by Kate Sherrod

“Meta 4”, Ted McKeever's stunning return to creator-owned comics, hit me with the force of a moon rock flung from the heavens. When I reviewed the first two issues of the series last year, Mr. McKeever had us looking at the story from the outside, making us puzzle over how an amnesiac astronaut found himself wandering around Coney Island; what the meaning might be of the alarming police radio transmissions that peppered the pages; and what was behind his burly female companion's enigmatic all-dingbats dialog.

All this came at us in striking black and white, hand-lettered, with images communicating in both positive and negative space that somehow managed to shape-shift—to look different, read different and feel different with every viewing. I'm beginning to think that more than any other comic I have ever read, “Meta 4” never seems to convey the same story twice. A Heraclitan comic if ever there was one!

As the story wrapped up (and as McKeever shares most candidly below) “Meta 4” had a lot more going on than just its apparent surface narrative. Jumping on in mid-series would have been an exercise in madness. Only in hindsight, in considering the whole—the unity of the work—do we understand that McKeever has here achieved a near paradox: creating a deeply autobiographical work that also tells the reader's own story.

Over the last several months, Mr. McKeever has been gracious enough to answer a lot of impertinent questions in fascinating detail, all the while finishing the last two issues of “Meta 4”. From the flying bits and pixels of our conversation, the man revealed in the book and this interview emerges as paradoxical, enigmatic and deeply human as his lost astronaut.

“The complexities of this series are obviously not only time consuming to illustrate, but also mentally intense to stay focused on a course and destination I set early on,” McKeever says. The result of all that effort amounts to what may well be the source code to his head—and to ours.

INDIEPULP: A lot of works seem to start with a seed image or idea (I think of Werner Herzog's famous genesis for his film, “The Wild Blue Yonder”: ALIENS SUCK!), from which the rest of the project grows. Was there a starter image for “Meta 4”?

MCKEEVER: Basically everything I have ever done, whether it be of my seed of creation, or an existing character, stems from a subject I have deep feelings about. Some are personal, while others are more observational. Never have I created something on a whim—or worse—a trend. Whatever the idea that ends up being the final story has always gestated in me until it feels right.

There is no set timeframe I can say that I work in. For instance, “Eddy Current” came from three separate elements I had going on in my head. The fascination I had (and still have) with the fine line between sane and insanity (who says one is more prevalent than the other?) was one. The second: at that time in the world was this ridiculous assault on the music industry by these "mothers" forcing censorship based on what THEY felt was acceptable. And third: during my stint as an editorial artist for the Miami Herald, I came across the term “eddy current,” which is a proper title that defines the literal current that flows against positive-energy and, in turn, creates heat.

With all those ingredients floating around in my head, there came a day it all just gelled.

“Meta 4” was no different, in process that is. I have had this growing frustration with the comics industry and how, over the past nine years or so, it has literally cut chunks of creative fat off the meat off most every pound of possibility. Now, let's say, in grilling a steak, fat is necessary to make a good tasting Porterhouse; it adds variety and diversity in texture and taste. Doesn't have to mean you like it, but you can't deny that it does something that wouldn't be possible if it were cut off. Comics have become, mostly, standard run-of-the-mill, fast food meals that are interchangeable vehicles to numb the reader from their god-given right to be challenged. They have no taste, no flavor—at least that's how I feel after growing up reading brilliant creations by the likes of Richard Corben, Moebius and Robert Crumb. They were what gave the more "meat-based" artists like John and Sal Buscema, Neal Adams and, of course, Kirby the flavor of diversity.

“Meta 4” was no different. It began with the seed of desire to do something outside the norm, to literally throw out the formulas and structures of what "comics" presently represent and just go all out and turn linear storytelling on its ear. Like with “Eddy Current”, I had a few other story threads running through my head—astronauts, Coney Island, regrets and redemption, memory loss—and another twenty-five things that were like orphans and outcasts with no place to apply themselves. So I waited and worked on everything but my own until I did something I hadn't done for a very long time: I consciously decided to go back to how I used to be when I first started “Transit” and “Eddy Current”. I allowed myself the freedom to just stop policing myself creatively, and just do what I had in my head and gut without rules or expectations.

IP: Is “Meta 4” set in the same universe as “Transit”, “Metropol” and “Eddy Current”?

MCKEEVER: A while back, one idea was to throw in some of those characters into the background of “Meta 4”—a nod and wink to them as parts of my past. But that was my past and this is now, and I don't want to go backwards and try to recreate them with my present state of mind. Doing the last chapter in the “Transit” saga was difficult enough for me to come to terms with for a few reasons. Putting them as existing characters in “Meta 4”, or setting in "their" universe would be, at least for me, an injustice to them, and myself, as if they were just footnotes.

I will say this: “Meta 4” is NOT set in the same universe as those books. BUT if The Astronaut or Gasolina were to walk by a newsstand, it wouldn't be odd for them to see a copy of “Metropol” or “Eddy Current”, all bent and weathered on a squeaky metal comic book spinner rack over by the gum.

IP: All of your creator-owned works—but especially “Meta 4”—feel discovered more than planned, like they've been organically grown instead of plotted out linearly from start to finish. Is that an illusion or is that more how you work?

MCKEEVER: I like how you termed "discovered" because that's how I basically work. Nothing I do or have done is a straight out-of-the-box creation. I work in variables of plots within the barriers of the project's central theme. I have a certain theme in mind—whether it be drama, comedy or horror—and then from that, I expand, adding in other ideas.

I let ideas gestate and stew, and in time, if they are meant to be used, they stay in me as fervent as when I originally had them. I also don't discuss or talk about any ideas I have, no matter how complete or incomplete they might be, because in the past I have made that mistake and had certain established "creators" in the industry take them and use them in their projects, leaving me with what appears to the public as essentially a rip-off of their stories. So now I keep my mouth shut, and let whatever ideas I have be told IN the story.

Ironically enough, “Meta 4” is one of the few projects where I had it all in me from the start, mainly because unlike past projects that were fantastical adventures based off of ideas and interests, “Meta 4” is (albeit with elements of the fantastic) more a personal exploration of myself, my beliefs, and experiences that took more out of me emotionally and physically than ANY project I have EVER done in all my twenty-six years in comics.

IP: You've spoken elsewhere of forgetfulness and how personally painful it can be for you to forget little things like family outings or where your keys are. Now in the Astronaut you have not only an amnesiac, but one who has been dropped into a world that should seem familiar but which people have made completely hostile and incomprehensible. What are you exploring here?

MCKEEVER: Well, in a nutshell . . . sobriety.

To have spent so many years pathetically inebriated, and having to now hear, years later, how something happened or a place I was at and then have absolutely no recollection of it is terrifyingly debilitating.

Now it's all about remembering what it feels like to have arrived at the other end of that tunnel or ocean to accept what was, but not let it be what defines me today. The present world around me, I know very well.

It's still the same hostile abrasive place it was back then, but now I feel a lot calmer and focused in it, in spite of the smothering suit of alcoholism.

Dropped into a world that seems familiar, but that is still bizarre and incomprehensible, pretty much explains what it's like getting sober.

IP: So many individual panels of “Meta 4” harbor ambiguity. There are several possible interpretations for them and they seem different every time the viewer sits down with them. Is this an effect for which you strive, or is it something that emerges organically as you draw?

MCKEEVER: Kind of both, actually. They definitely are intentionally ambiguous in that how many times have you been in a situation and the person(s) within the same range see(s) the same thing you do, and yet, if discussed, there's never a consensus on every single aspect of it? So, who am I to say that this is the ONLY way this panel can be viewed or interpreted?

In most comics, it's laid out for us so specifically that there is no room for the reader's impression or even interpretation. It's more like "here's my story, read it, look at it, put it in a bag and sell it on eBay".

What the hell kind of art is THAT?

I want the reader to get involved, even if it's out of confusion or anger or enjoyment; it's INCLUSION. What is possibly the worst response to get from a reader of my work is indifference. Love it, hate it, celebrate is, repel it—all I accept with open arms. But "I don't know how I feel" is like fingernails on a blackboard to me.

That said, there is an openness to when and how I create each panel. It's all laid out very, very specifically. When I sit down to start inking a panel especially, it's a done deal in my head. But what happens is ever so slightly changed as the present panel takes on a life of its own. Sometimes it forces the next panel(s) to become what wasn't originally intended.

Doesn't change the story in the least, I'm speaking more about the tone and angle of the art.

IP: Gasolina, your ultimate mysterious ally/benefactor, speaks only in dingbats, which we as comic readers can interpret somewhat, but can The Astronaut, who just picks up "vibrations of reverberating tones"? What does a caduceus sound like in conversation? Where does this come from?

MCKEEVER: Basically it comes from spending many years of my adult life in various cultures and languages. To listen to someone speaking, say, German or French, and not understand WHAT they are saying, but if you REALLY listen to the tones and inflections of the words they speak you can comprehend what they are basically saying. Maybe not the specific details, but you can tell and decipher the overall gesture of what is being discussed.

How many times have you been talking to someone and they are just responding to what you are saying with pap distracted responses? How many times have you, yourself, been talking to someone and you find you don't even know what the hell you are saying out of your own mouth? It takes more work to have a conversation that just saying words, it takes intent and belief behind each word spoken.

So, I wanted to have Gasolina be a vessel for dialogue that took effort to hear, that took focus to actually understand what she was saying. And so I had her speak in symbols that can be interpreted by the reader, allowing for individual translation. One person might hear her saying one thing, while another will hear something different.

THAT is something I like, audience participation without specific definition.

IP: I'm impressed by the accuracy and realism of those interludes in “Meta 4” that consist of that charged emergency radio chatter. It captures very well the weirdness of having high-stress conversations about unknown situations while sitting in the most banal, bland of actual circumstances. Do you have a scanner, know someone who does this stuff, or did you just imagine it very well all on your own?

MCKEEVER: As for the dispatch codes, it's a bit of all that.

At my gym, most of the crew (guys and a few gals) I work out with are either paramedics, firemen or cops. Over the years, I've come to learn much of the codes from their conversing with me and each other.

I started to become fascinated by the whole "language" of dialogue without using actual words (I could discern a complete situation from just hearing numbers), and it instilled in me a satisfaction of having spent almost fifty years of my life never learning a second language, and here I was speaking and hearing numbers as if it were French.

Also, I don't watch any TV. A movie here and there—nowhere as much as I did as a kid. Unless it's a film, I don't have the tolerance for the tube. What I do listen to is radio—all of it: talk, music, news . . . and so I decided to listen to a scanner, which became my solace of background noise, the rhythm of the weird stress and overt calm in the face of horrific situations.

All that started to merge as I understood and felt how it all was a world of its own. So it came into my work as grounded as anything I have ever used as fuel before.

IP: With “Meta 4” you've pushed comics-as-fine-art further than most people would dare. Shall you keep pushing? In what direction?

MCKEEVER: I will never say never, as to doing anything for Marvel or DC again, because for as opposite of my own creations as those projects were, they allowed me to explore ideas and workings that I wouldn't have had I stayed solely in my own neighborhood.

That said, doing “Meta 4” gave me back the desire and mental freedom to go wherever my mind wants to go. And I loved it.

I now intend to drive even farther, yes, but on a completely different path. After exploring such deep personal depths, the new project I am in the midst of starting is the polar opposite. Something that, while violently undefinable, will also be meditatively spiritual at the same time. As satisfyingly emotional as “Meta 4” was, this new project is going to be a giant playground of wicked fun.

Comics have always been a wide-open field with boundaries that were our given right to bulldoze, and to create whatever the mind could conceive and the hands reveal. Now it's become a breeding ground for Hollywood to pick and sift through to fertilize their inferior versions of celluloid pap. So yes, I will keep pushing. Pushing the format of the printed comic book to be what it always has been, and can be. More than just the elements of its whole. Words and pictures, filled with passion.

—KS

A trade paperback edition of “Meta 4”, collecting all five issues of the miniseries, will be available from Image Comics' Shadowline imprint in July. McKeever's new project will be also come to us via Image.

Image Credit: Ted McKeever

Review: To Fight with Monsters

2011-05-26T15:48:00.030-05:00

The zombie king gets together with the werewolf slayer to write a comic book . . .

If that weren't the truth behind "To Fight with Monsters," the new one-shot from Antarctic Press, it would be a compelling elevator pitch for one hell of a reality TV show. Imagine Brian Keene and Mike Oliveri—both Bram Stoker Award winners for their horror writing—nursing bottles of Knob Creek and smoking smuggled Cubans, while conjuring the ghost of Nietzsche to ponder the horrific underbelly of human nature. If one were to believe it is possible, Fredric Wertham(1) has been rolling over in his grave since Wednesday.

Just as surreal is the story Messrs Keene and Oliveri have written here. An adaptation of a short story on which they collaborated back in 2001, "To Fight with Monsters" throws us into a world where a mysterious and savage species of monster has overtaken a small town, forcing the remaining humans to set up bunker perimeters and keep watch around the clock for breaches.

With that kind of set-up, it's easy to assume that we are treated to the visual gore of monsters tearing limbs from bodies and gun fire splattering creature guts all over the panels. Although we are treated to some of that gratuitous bloodlust, the real story is about what happens to the human psyche when primal instincts conflict with our conception of civilization.

Because it's a comic book, it's also easy to dismiss the story as mere entertainment. The fact that its horror roots are shared by some of the mindless hack-slash films into which the genre has degenerated in recent years gives us a false sense of understanding. The impulse is to read it at its most superficial level: the shoot-em-up-monster-horror story. But that would be missing the point.

"To Fight with Monsters" forces us to look at the classic Other and see ourselves—not as a clever authorial trick to shock us into discovering what we could become. Messrs Keene and Oliveri are far more clever, for they seem to say that the monster does not have to suddenly appear, i.e., an alien invasion, a mutating virus that turns us into zombies, vampires or werewolves. No, the more alarming message is that the beast already lies within.

And it is human.

—Ommus

Antartic Press
Brian Keene
Mike Oliveri

Editor's Notes:

(1) For those interested in comic book history, Fredric Wertham is the man that, in 1954, wrote "Seduction of the Innocent" which postulated that comic books at the time directly led to juvenile delinquency, to put it mildly. The publication of his book incited government inquiries, forcing the comic book industry to create the Comics Code Authority as an industry self-governing body to, in effect, censor the content published by comic book companies. It also led directly to the demise of the great horror lines of EC Comics published by William M. Gaines.

(2) Our sister imprint, Evileye Books, publishes Mike Oliveri's THE PACK supernatural thriller series.

Schedule Change

2010-09-07T18:36:00.000-05:00

For the rest of September, we are reducing our publication schedule significantly. We are doing this for two reasons.

The first is that we are working with a new coding team to tweak the underlying structure of the blog. Reducing the number of posts will help eliminate unnecessary glitches. We are making this change because...

The second reason is that we are moving to experimental mode on the publication schedule itself. To start, we are going weekly, as we slowly transition into a magazine or "Reader" format. The hope is that publishing most of our pieces on one publication date will give readers a more concise and meaningful reading experience. We expect to publish on Sunday evenings, with ticklers going out via Twitter during the following week. So please follow us at either @Ommus or @IndieComics to stay in the loop.

We will still publish more timely items in between publication dates as needed. But we've discovered that our readers don't rely on us for breaking news or weekly day-and-date information about comics. What our readers like most is our thoughtful views on indie books, and their creators. So that's what we're going to focus on during our gradual transition.

Please email us to tell us what you think, and what you'd like to see covered.

—Ommus

Review: Brain Camp

2010-09-07T10:11:00.000-05:00

BRAIN CAMP

Written by Susan Kim and Laurence Klavan

Illustrated by Faith Erin Hicks

First Second

Review by Matthew J. Brady

At the risk of stating the obvious, teenage years can feel like the universe is conspiring against you: Raging hormones; pressure to perform well in school; difficulty relating to other teens; uncertainty about the future; distrust of parents and authority; formation of an adult personality—it’s a lot to handle. If it seems like a good basis for a conspiracy thriller, then writers Susan Kim and Laurence Klavan are ahead of the game with their new original graphic novel for young adults.

Brain Camp sees troubled kids sent off to Camp Fielding, a summer camp designed to turn them into high-performing dream children that excel in academics and all manner of extracurricular activities. But at what cost? As protagonists Jenna and Lucas discover, the other children start out kind of unpleasant, but quickly lose any hints of personality, turning into smart, talented, empty-eyed automatons. It’s creepy stuff, made all the more chilling by tapping into those teenage fears that the world is out to get you, and authority figures—including parents—don’t have your best interests at heart.

The whole thing is a bit over the top, from the initial signs of weirdness (the camp’s food consisting only of grey sludge, the staff not really doing any teaching, just throwing kids into activities and expecting them to excel) to the eventual fantastical reveal of what is really going on. It all works to cultivate an unsettling feeling of paranoia, with events getting weirder and weirder until the craziness of the finale doesn’t even seem out of place.

Faith Erin Hicks’ art certainly helps keep things grounded, giving everyone a recognizable personality, from the bullying campers to the calm, collected head of the camp, and especially the two main characters, who exhibit plenty of emotional turmoil as they have to deal with normal teen troubles like puberty and peer pressure, in addition to the possibility of being turned into mindless zombies. Hicks has an appealing cartoon style that combines just the right amount of background detail with simple-seeming character art and a flair for facial expression. When the inevitable attraction between the two leads becomes apparent, it’s cute and believable, as is the panic and confusion that they feel about what’s going on. And the dead-eyed creepiness of the brainwashed kids is something else, really selling the horror of the situation.

Really, the only misstep here is one element of the coloring, that being Jenna’s pale yellow skin tone, meant to convey that she is Asian. It’s weird and distracting, especially when everything else is colored so well, with the pale blue t-shirts of the campers standing out nicely against the greens of the forest. But if that’s the only complaint here, it means that this is a pretty nice volume, one that tells a compelling story that manages to tap into our memories of teen angst, and probably even strikes a nerve with actual teens today.

—MJB

Follow Matthew at Twitter.com/WarrenPeace

1:1 with Dan Dougherty

2010-09-02T10:13:00.000-05:00

Dan Dougherty has everybody fooled. That unassuming-humble-friendly jig thing he's got going brings down your defenses faster than a shot of rotgut. He'd be the perfect serial killer, if only he weren't so busy being a comicbook artist and musician.

THAT KILLER IRISH CHARM

Interview by A.N. Ommus

So here's the thing about the zombie western series, Rotten: Despite going on seven issues published by Moonstone Books, and getting featured reviews and profiles on national media like USA Today and Fangoria, it's perhaps the best sleeper horror comicbook today.

Part of what makes it unique in the land of the walking dead is its equal blend of psychological drama and social commentary, where the turning of a beloved child into a zombie pins the parental characters against an entire town over the right to let the child die; where the progress of science is pitted against religious conservatives; where the dubious victory of a president echoes our own time—and, yes, where cheap shots like a Sarah Palin look-alike zombie gives certain readers their fill of wish fulfillment. The zombie gore is front and center, mind you, but the book is successful as much for its treatment of undead feeding frenzies as it is for its depiction of human angst and folly.

Thankfully, the emotional and psychological resonance of the series is mostly in the hands of Dan Dougherty. As penciller, inker and colorist on Rotten, Mr. Dougherty controls our involuntary responses to the book before we even read the words. We say thankfully because he has the ability to convey entire sequences of story through the convergence of lines that capture facial expressions, movement and time in a way that sucks us into the story despite its supernatural underpinnings. And if you happen to meet the man at a convention, it's easy to see why we fall for his visual narrative so easily. His sequential storytelling is a reflection of his personality, an easy-going demeanor that invites you into his world, like a great barstool buddy. Or like a spider lures an insect to its web. Or a killer to his den.

In this interview, we talk with Mr. Dougherty about his work on Rotten.

What circumstances led to become involved with Rotten?

I was hired to do an entirely different zombie period piece way back in 2006, before I'd even heard of Rotten. I had drawn about two and a half issues, when the creator suffered the death of a friend and decided to end the project then and there. Although I completely understood, I was pretty disappointed that I had done all this work that would go nowhere. As fate would have it, a writer and friend, Rafael Nieves, had heard of a zombie project set in 1877, that was in search of an artist. So I just happened to have a nice portfolio showcasing the undead and my chops with the clothing and scenery of that particular period. And so it goes...

Zombie stories are so prevalent in all kinds of entertainment media today, it would seem hard to bring something new to the table. As an artist, how do you approach the challenge?

I think Mark and Robert set up a great framework for us NOT to rehash the clichés of the average zombie tale. The story is very much about the main characters and the times they live in, so it's not leaning all of its weight on the zombie genre. When they use the undead, they do it in a way that serves the story without burdening it with the aforementioned clichés. I think a great example of that was the story arc in issues #2 and #3, which featured only one zombie—a beautiful one at that—whose transformation into one of the living dead put her in a Terri Schiavo sort of scenario with her family and the townspeople.

As far as what I bring to it, I got really excited about the concept that there would be different species of the undead, and that each one would have a different visual look to it. We did some cool things, having the frozen zombies’ eyelids sealed shut with ice, having the runner zombies appear more gaunt and sickly, and so on. And as much as we buck some conventions, we do love our gore, and we're not afraid to unleash it when the time is right.

One of the ways the writers, Mark Rahner and Robert Horton, ground the work in reality is by dramatizing the psychological and emotional dimensions of the story, rather than overwhelming the reader with outright gore. How do approach translating all those "quiet" details visually to heighten suspense and engage the reader?

I'm not sure if they wrote this thing knowing how much I love to convey emotion and mood through facial expressions, but I get a lot of opportunity to do just that with Rotten—particularly in this current arc, which has Wade running from a mob of zombies in one of the most ghastly endurance tests ever imagined. He doesn't have a lot to say for three issues, except for the occasional expletive. So I had the challenge of conveying fear, exhaustion and grim resolve without a lot of words.

A lot of it comes down to carefully placed facial close-ups on the right beats in the story, and an overall understanding between us that his posture was going to express his exhaustion as the story unfolds. It was all about stripping down Wade's defenses and building up the dirt and injuries he accumulates as he flees. When we see him at the beginning of the arc, he is fully equipped with clothing and weapons that he thinks will protect him from the zombies. By the end of the arc? Well, let's just say that he could definitely use a long bath and a good doctor.

Rotten has its origins as a television script by Mark Rahner, the creator of the series, and its pacing feels like a live action TV show. But the art seems to do its part as well to create the illusion of reality with its choice of eye-level camera shots and restraint in the exaggeration of action sequences or even the gore. The net effect is that the reader gets the sense that he could be one of the characters in the story (one of the many flies perhaps?) witnessing the events, and being invited to participate in the story. But is that by design? How much is the reader actually taken into consideration?

Thanks for noticing that because I did want to make it as easy as possible for the reader to enter this world and get the feeling of being a part of it. It's what I thought would be appropriate for Rotten, to not stylize things so much that it keeps people at a distance from what's going on in the story. We always have more script than we can fit into a comic, so every panel has to count.

The fact that it originally was intended for television brings about certain sensibilities about pacing and camera angles, which converges nicely with how I like to tell stories.

Part of the realism of the series, no doubt, has to do with the historical details of the terrain, architecture, etc. How much research goes into rendering the world of Rotten?

I have worked on a number of projects now that have been set in a period other than modern times. As a result, I have a decent collection of fashion books, architectural books, and films that help to inform the way my work looks. And I'm always trying to find new things to broaden that and build up our aesthetic even more.

In addition, Mark has an absurd knowledge of movies and other such drivel, from his background as an entertainment columnist and curator of classic horror films. He's given me some movie recommendations, which have helped greatly. The "Frostbite" story arc got it's foundation in an old movie called The Great Silence. The current arc, “Revival Of The Fittest”, was informed by the short-lived TV series Here Comes The Bride. We even used most of the main characters from that as zombies in the town.

Your work in other books like The Apocalypse Plan, is infused with grey ink washes, which gives off a very noir feel. But with Rotten, much of your ink linework seems deliberately grounded in clean, stark light and shadow, letting the colors deliver a great deal of the emotional undertone of the scenes. Has color been a challenge?

Yes, color has been as useful as it is challenging. This was the first project that I've had published in color, although I've colored quite a bit on some of my other works. This was definitely the first one that had such a dark palette, which I've worked hard to develop and expand over the course of these nine issues. Since the style of the linework on Rotten is so lean and stark, I use color to shape the characters and set the mood. I've also been doing what I've been told is a bit unconventional, which is to take the zombies out of the darkness and put them in a broad daylight setting. The way I see it, it's one more thing that Rotten isn't afraid to do.

Have you had to alter your natural style to balance the story's need for realism and the supernatural?

I feel like I'm always experimenting within certain confines that I've created for a project, always tweaking things and seeing what works and what doesn't. This book was a deviation from the style I had spent years cultivating, which was the grey wash technique I used on The Apocalypse Plan and Cyclone Bill and the Tall Tales. But having done Rotten for a while now, I've learned some new tricks from it, which I've implemented on other works, and then brought back to Rotten to refine it even more. I guess the most obvious trick I can cite is the neat effect I get when I put color underneath the greytones of my usual brushwork. It's come into play in the clouds of the “Frostbite” story arc, and the current “Revival” arc, and I think it's really helped to set the mood.

Panel pencils from Bob Howard

What other projects are coming up for you?

Well, I always have my ongoing newspaper comic strip, Beardo (www.beardocomics.com), which is available in two full-color collections. It's an autobiographical work, revolving around a guy who is working at a coffeehouse while trying to get his art career going. It's all about dealing with a menial job in customer service, while trying to fight that good fight for the job you want, all the while sporting an awesome beard. See, it's not all gloom and doom with me, there's a comedian in there somewhere!

Speaking of which, Rafael Nieves and I are working on our ongoing series Bob Howard: Plumber of the Unknown, which is an awesome mix of Lovecraftian horror and comedy. Bob is a big strong everyman, the kind of guy that keeps his mouth shut and does his job. It just so happens that every job he goes to has a giant beastly thing there waiting to kill him!

I also have a weekly webcomic Newton's Law, with co-creator Garrett Anderson, about Sir Isaac Newton losing his mind as he tries to save the world from a nemesis known only as Gravity. This one is as ambitious a story and concept as you're going to get, and best of all, you can read it for free! We update it with two pages every Friday.

And my band Workhorse Kings just released our debut album, CAROUSEL, through Hirsute Records. An awesome brew of rock and blues, with some inspired keyboard work, music and lyrics by yours truly. Phew, is that enough?

To find out more about Dan Dougherty or his work:

Facebook: ROTTEN COMICS, APOCALYPSE PLAN, BOB HOWARD, BEARDO

Twitter Handle: @beardocomics

Beardo: www.beardocomics.com

Rotten: www.rottencomics.com

Workhorse Kings: www.workhorsekings.com.

Bob Howard, www.bobhoward.blogspot.com

Newton's Law: http://www.webcomicsnation.com/garrettanderson/newtonslaw

PREVIEW—ROTTEN #7

1:1 with Andy Schmidt

2010-09-01T11:11:00.000-05:00

5 Days to Die #1

A surprisingly candid interview with Andy Schmidt about writing, collaboration, editing, oh, and his new creator-owned series, 5 Days to Die

WALKING THE WALK

By A.N. Ommus

More than one writer I know agrees that most writers are ungrateful sons of bitches who think their shit don't stink, and they don't need an editor. At the core of the argument, hidden under the veil of posturing, is the conceit that those who can't write, edit.

So when a guy like Andy Schmidt comes along, it isn't long before the grumbling gets louder and turns to self-loathing. What else can you do in the face of a guy who is a respected editor, writer and educator in the comicbook industry, who has helped shape some of the industry's top-selling titles and ushering in a new generation of talent?

As an editor at Marvel, Andy Schmidt worked with top writers and artists on the biggest titles of the current era: X-Men, Avenger, Spider-Man, Iron-Man, Captain American, Fantastic Four. Now Senior Editor at IDW Publishing, Mr. Schmidt oversees such licensed blockbusters as Transformers and G.I. Joe. He also founded and runs Comics Experience, a workshop-based school for comicbook creators. For good measure, he is the writer of Challenger Deep, the book, The Insider's Guide to Creating Comics and Graphic Novels (Impact Books), and now, his new crime noir series, 5 Days to Die. His is the sort of talent that is born out of love of comics, storytelling, and discipline.

In this interview, we talk with Mr. Schmidt about editing, collaboration, and adding the title of creator with 5 Days to Die.

What's the elevator pitch for 5 Days to Die?

Ray Crisara gets badly injured in a car accident that nearly kills his wife and daughter. The injury gives him only five days left to live. Believing that this was no accident, Ray has to decide to chase down his family's would-be killer or spend his remaining days with his daughter.

I think the easy concept (and concept in the title) was one of the things that IDW liked about the pitch. Beyond that, it's a thriller-noir style story about a detective hunting to save his family. Thematically, it's about responsibility. That happens to be one topic I've learned a lot about in the last couple of years, and it's no coincidence that it shows up in my first creator-owned book.

And on yet another level, it's Chee's and my answer to the over-the-top action blockbusters that have been so prevalent both in movies and comics these last few years.

How did the series come about?

The initial title and core of the idea hit me when I was in line to take my son on a ride at Disneyland. I carry around a little notebook, so I just jotted down "Five Days To Die" and let it sit for a while. It was only a concept, though, not a story. I needed a character and a mission. I needed to know what this was important not just to Ray the character but to me and to a reader.

That came a bit later when I was working with Chee on something else I was editing and I asked him if he'd be interested in working on something as writer and artist instead of editor and artist. He said yes, and that forced me to start workshopping the idea. Once Chee was on board, I knew I had a creative partner I could depend on.

That got me to sit at the computer, start doing my research and figure out who Ray really was and build the cast of characters around him.

Andy Schmidt during his days at Marvel

How did Chee get involved?

I worked with Chee back when I wrote a four-issue series for Boom! Studios. My first freelance work outside of a couple of short stories I did for Marvel. Mark Waid was the editor and he hooked us up. We then collaborated on Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan movie adaptation that came out in 2009. I hired him to illustrate a Transformers limited series that I edited that Zander Cannon wrote. Now that I think about it, we had actually started working on 5 Days To Die before the Transformers series. We must have started it right after Star Trek.

You have mentioned elsewhere that the book comes, in part, out of your love for action and noir stories. What writers, artists, filmmakers are influences on the book?

My favorite director working today is David Fincher. And more recently, I'd put Christopher Nolan on that list. My favorite director of all time is Stanley Kubrick. I love Ridley Scott and many others. But I'm really not all that influenced by my film choices that I like so much as the ones I don't like. I love the original Die Hard, but really don't care for any of its sequels. They lost the character after the first one. I like Bullet with Steve McQueen. I like getting to know my action hero before he goes into battle. And I like seeing him get punched and getting hurt. I like the fear that he might get shot.

I watched Live Free or Die Hard and realized early on that the bad guys were firing blanks. They had to have been. If not, they'd have killed every man woman and child except Bruce Willis within the first half hour of that movie. And I just got sick of movies that were all about the action hero who was invincible. I like my heroes to bleed.

As for when I was writing, I was really just trying to be true to the characters. I didn't want to have narration because I feel like as a writer, I shouldn't have to rely on it. And Chee's a good storyteller, so I knew I wouldn't need it to cover up a mistake on his part (although I did use some for one scene in issue four).

Ultimately, I just tried to make something that entertained me and meant something to me. I think it's important that it mean something to the author. Even if that doesn't directly influence the story itself, I think readers sense when something is just thrown out there for no reason.

Having been an editor for so long, and 5 Days being your first published creator-owned project, how does it feel to be on the other side of the editorial process?

I've been writing freelance for a couple of years now, so I'm getting used to a lot of that stuff. I learned so much when I was writing at the beginning. I wrote a short story for John Barber at Marvel and he taught me a ton. I wrote one for my former assistant Aubrey Sitterson at Marvel after that and I was a total jackass to him unintentionally. But he and Nick Lowe called me up and dressed me down—and they were absolutely right to do it. I really appreciate that they did that, or I wouldn't have learned anything and the story wouldn't have been as good.

On 5 Days, I didn't really have an editor until the very end. And that's really tough. Because I really need and enjoy and rely on someone else reading it and calling me out when something doesn't work or isn't coming across. I wound up writing, letting it sit for days at a time and then coming back to read it as an editor. That worked a little, but never as much as one would like. And on the last issue, my editor Bob Schreck said it was good to go and I recognized a feeling in my gut that I was disappointed that he said that. I think I was lucky that I realized that meant it wasn't. I immediately dove back into the last issue script, dissected it and nearly rewrote it from scratch, and it turned out much better—not that the first draft was bad, but it was a lot better after the rewrite, and that was the editor in me, I think.

I imagine you've seen quite a bit in your editing career. But in collaborating with Chee, did anything come as a surprise, in terms of the collaborative aspects of working with an artist to turn your ideas in to visual storytelling?

Chee surprised and impressed me the whole way through this. The color scheme, I think, was his idea and I think it's one of the most important and compelling things in the book. He just nailed it. He was really pushing me to be more creative. I think that's an important lesson. Challenge one another. Don't be jerks, but build on what the other one does. Chee suggested the blue tone and then I took that and added a twist with the occasional red panels.

Five days to die, five weekly issues? Why did you set the book's run on that schedule? Is more than a simple marketing hook? Why not monthly, as most miniseries to help build buzz in between issues?

Well, it comes from the idea that the story takes place in five days. If I could have done it daily, I probably would have. It's a marketing hook more than anything else. It was my idea, and I think it's fun. It's just a little more special this way and Chee was able to pull it off because, again, he's awesome.

And I think the fact that it is weekly has helped build a little buzz. It bought me a full-page ad in Previews instead of a little corner of a page, and it means I can concentrate on one release instead of over five months.

I've seen some retailers complain a little, but we'll see how it does. If they under-order it, I imagine they'll learn something from that and I'll be poorer. Ultimately, Chee and I are in this financially. We took a risk, as we did with some of our storytelling choices, and with all risks, you might lose. But we're happy with the book and we think it will find a wide audience. And the risk may pay off, there might be a little extra hype around it and our orders might go up! Who knows?

Along the same vein, this seems to be a particularly tricky, if not challenging time, for creators to launch creator-owned series. The economy doesn't help, digital platform pressures are beginning to disturb the traditional Direct Market pipeline, and folks like Matt Fraction (Casanova) are being open about the financial realities of putting out one’s own book. Why did you do it now? Do you see what's happening in the market differently since you have the benefit of working as an editor on the operations side of things? Any hidden opportunities for indie creators right now?

Man, I wish I had a happier answer to this. Right now, it's really freaking tough. The reason I'm doing this now is that I found the right partner in Chee to do a book we really wanted to do. We know the market sucks but we believe in what we're doing and I don't know that the market will ever get better. We both were able to build this book in between paying gigs so we don't need it to be a huge hit to pay our rent. We both have other gigs that do that. So, ultimately, we did it now because we had the advantage of being able to do it now.

That's not a cocky answer, but it is an honest one. Chee is remarkably fast so he was able to do his pages while doing other penciling gigs. I have a full time job as a senior editor at IDW and I own my own business in Comics Experience where I make a little extra cash to put away for my son's college and hopefully I'll even get to retire some day. It's not easy. I have two full-time jobs on top of my writing work, but I love writing and I love telling stories and this one was important to me. Maybe that's the best advice I can give. Don't do it if you don't love it.

And I'll hit this too, since I can see the suspicion rise. I am an editor at IDW and IDW is publishing 5 Days To Die. Do the two correspond? They do in that I had a handshake deal with IDW when I got hired that I would show them anything creator-owned I was working on. This was the third project I showed them and the only one they agreed to publish. So, yes, I work there, which gives me a bit of an in, but they're not going easy on me!

—Ommus

Visit Comics Experience

Review: Beasts of Burden: Animal Rites

2010-08-31T10:05:00.000-05:00

BEASTS OF BURDEN: ANIMAL RITES

Hardcover

Written by Evan Dorkin

Illustrated by Jill Thompson

Dark Horse Comics

Review by Scott Cederlund

It’s an idea so simple that I’m sure it has to have been done before; I’ve just never seen it.

A haunted doghouse.

The story begins with a pack of dogs trying to figure out why one of their friend’s doghouse is haunted. It’s not like the dogs are professional ghost hunters; they’re just the neighborhood mutts trying to help a frightened friend. The haunted doghouse is only be beginning of the horrors to be found in Burden Hill.

That’s how Evan Dorkin and Jill Thompson begin Beasts of Burden: Animal Rites, a collection of short stories about the dogs and a neighborhood stray cat in the town of Burden Hill who have to deal with ghouls and monsters that would be more at home in Mike Mignola’s Hellboy than in a talking animal comic.

If you are used to Dorkin as the smart alec, self-effacing, and funny cartoonist of Dork! or Milk & Cheese, Beasts of Burden: Animal Rites establishes him as more than just a sardonic writer with an encyclopedic knowledge of pop culture. He gives each character a distinctive voice. There’s the protective leader of the group, the scaredy-cat (but not the real cat), the trusting friend, the adventurer, and the cat, the outsider who wants to run with dogs. With this cast of characters, Dorkin takes us through the world of Burden Hill, as the animals face otherwordly adversaries, sticking together out of a basic instinct to protect, but also out of a sense of friendship and loyalty—a trick Dorkin manages to pull off despite such a fantastical premise.

Equally impressive is the balance of tone. The stories in this collection lie somewhere between Hellboy and Scooby Doo. Like Mignola did in the early days of Hellboy, Dorkin builds a world where the supernatural is very real. It’s a world with werewolves, frog monsters, witches and covens, ghosts and ancient dogs exist alongside the main characters—simple suburban household pets. Where Mignola’s Hellboy travels around the world to battle beasts like the ones found in these stories, Dorkin’s dogs find them in their own backyards or in the woods just down at the end of the block. The juxtaposition of the imaginary world of monsters and the normal, suburban setting makes Dorkin’s creatures more real and threatening than Mignola’s ever could.

Of course, it’s easy for the threats to seem more real when Jill Thompson is painting them. More and more, I become convinced that Thompson can draw and paint anything. Her animals are full of life and character in this book. The greatest compliment to pay her, I think, is to say that I could see any of my own dogs being characters in this book. Between the five main dogs and one cat, she captures the individual personalities that dogs can have. Without over-exaggerating or becoming too cartoony, her dogs come off as real dogs. She knows how to show us the different breeds, their expressions and even their mannerisms perfectly on the page. Similarly to Grant Morrison’s WE3, which also featured a team of animals, the Beasts of Burden stories come together well because the artist knows how to draw animals and make them look like real animals, not some overly cartoonish simplification of what they think a dog or a cat should look like.

More than just drawing the neighborhood dogs and strays, Thompson also perfectly captures the horrors that they face. She brings to life the ghosts, zombie dogs, witches and rains of frogs that Dorkin writes into the stories, making them as real as the normal dogs and cats. Much like I never thought of Dorkin as a horror writer, I don’t know if I ever really thought of Thompson as a horror artist (she draws the cute witch stories, not the really scary ones). With the vividness of colors she achieves in her painting style, she’s able to push the mood of this book, creating the well-lit warmth of a real small town, as well as a shadowy world of creatures that shouldn’t exist.

Originally, the stories appeared separately, in various publications from Dark Horse. Although each story is compelling on its own, it’s in this first collection that the reader feels the full impact of the magic in these stories. Dorkin and Thompson have created a wholly believable world with animal characters that often seem more human than many human characters in comics today, and with whom we actually empathize.

—SC

Follow Scott at Twitter.com/ScottCederlund

Source: Dark Horse Comics

1:2 with Daniel Bradford and Thomas Hall

2010-08-30T10:41:00.000-05:00

Cover to Hall & Bradford's KING! #1

Looks like Elvis. Fights monsters with blue suede colts. But this wrestling-cum-rock-and-roll-hero tale is not what you think it is.

THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE KING AND COMICS

Interview by A.N. Ommus

Thomas Hall and Daniel Bradford were your typical indie comicbook creators, toiling in their artform for the love of story and the medium when they decided to create Robot 13. Only, a funny thing happened when they partnered with Robot Comics to publish the series as a digital comicbook for mobile devices: the book was downloaded over 100,000 times, and counting, making it the biggest seller on the Android mobile platform, and arguably already one of the most popular digital comics in the short history of the digital era.

To understand how remarkable that number is you need only peruse the monthly charts for comics sales, where six-digit unit sales levels are reserved for the giants of the industry, Marvel and DC—and even then they don't always break such a coveted threshold. It's true enough that a product introduced for free will generally always outsell those for a fee; but the lightning that has struck Hall and Bradford is indicative of the power of the growing phenomenon that is digital comics and mobile platforms.

Building on that success, the creative duo has just launched KING!, a three-issue miniseries that spins away from the dark tone of Robot 13, and treats us to a comic supernatural twist on pop culture and things that go bump in the night. In this interview, we talk about the new series, digital platforms and the value of print comics.

KING! is 180 degrees from the tone you set with your acclaimed book  Robot 13. What led you down the road of pop culture satire?

Bradford:
Simply just the desire to tell a story.

Hall:
If you are like me, you don’t just buy one type of comic or go to one type of movie. Variety is good, and we want to tell a bunch of different types of stories. KING! is more surreal and humorous and gives us both the opportunity to do things we can’t in a book like Robot 13.  

Why Elvis? Is there a story in how this all got started? Do you have an Elvis jumpsuit in your closet?
 Bradford:
No Elvis jumpsuit...would love for Tom to wear one. You got one? Can Tom borrow it? KING! was something that I'd been chasing Tom with for some time, even before R13...much before R13, come to think of it. I was just never really able to explain what I wanted to do with KING! because I really didn't know what I wanted to do with KING!. All I knew was that I wanted to draw a guy dressed like Elvis fighting monsters...I think I even called it "Elvis the Barbarian" once. But even back then it was never intended to actually be Elvis...that's something I never cared to touch upon. Finally I was able to pull Tom on board when I showed him a sketch of KING! and said "Looks like Elvis, fights monsters." Then it clicked. The wrestling background, the South West setting, the blue suede colts all came later.

Hall:
Daniel and I have been working together on various things for years, but when Daniel came to me and said, “I want to do Elvis the Barbarian,” I was mystified. When I finally understood he wanted that iconic, ‘70’s Elvis look in a totally different context, then we just kind of went for it. When we did the first KING! one-shot, it was kind of a “proof of concept” book. We wanted to see what we could do with the idea and we agreed to just make it as crazy and strange as we could. I think people will be pleasantly surprised where KING! goes from here—it’s going to be a crazy ride.

Thomas Hall and Daniel Bradford

 How much can you possibly squeeze out of Elvis-lookalike meets monsters? From a narrative perspective, are you going somewhere with the celebrity likeness motif, or are you just playing it straight as the visual hook of the series?

 Bradford:
Neither, actually. Sure the motif is kind of the selling  point this early on, but the story itself—where Tom is taking the character—will be a bit more structured and sturdy than a simple visual hook. Readers will begin to start recognizing KING! as a stand-alone individual rather than an Elvis impersonator packing heat.

Hall:
When I am writing KING!, I really don’t think “Elvis” so much. I look at him more in the vein of El Santo or a wrestler of that type, with the big ring persona kind of spilling over into everyday life. KING! is a grumpy badass, but he’s not a bad guy. He was a hero in the ring for years, and he still carries some of that with him. At some point, we’ll get into what happened, but KING! is a “now” kind of guy. What’s going on in the moment is what he cares about, and lately that has been a lot of monster killing.

Is KING! a one-shot, a miniseries or ongoing?

Bradford:
Ongoing, for now.

Hall:
The model that works for us seems to be ongoing, but in limited arcs. I think KING! will be like that. This is a three-issue miniseries, but there will be more stories. The structure of KING! is more like watching wrestling, in that every issue really can be taken on it’s own, but there is a storyline from event to event that is bigger. If you just read issue #2 or issue #3 of KING!, you won’t be lost at all. If you read all three, you will get a bigger sense of things, but KING! is a jump on at anytime book.

 You've had notable attention with Robot 13 because of its early success in the digital comics marketplace. How has that experience affected your view of the traditional comicbook and the future of the medium? 

Bradford:
I absolutely love and remain 100% loyal to the physical comic  book. The digital world of comics is exciting, sure, but I still prefer walking into the shop, seeing the covers, the trades, the posters, the sexy hardcovers, overhearing the conversations about the recent turn of events in X-Men or the debates on how a book should be adapted into film. If any of the shops I frequent had a living room and  bar I would never leave. It's very much a fellowship for me. Can't really get that with an iPad or Droid. But the digital marketplace has also exposed us to thousands more readers that would otherwise have never bothered to look at the book in the first place. However, I am looking forward to the first time I get to autograph someone's iPad screen.

Hall:
Things are changing fast, and digital comics went from being a new thing to being a given pretty much overnight. We got into it because people were scanning and bootlegging our books and we found out that hundreds of thousands of people had illegally downloaded Robot 13 and we wanted to give people who didn’t want to be criminals a way to get the books digitally. When Google’s Android market made us the first “featured” Comic app, and when we found that Robot Comics was announcing that our independent comic hit 100,000 downloads, we found our book getting tons of attention. We get emails all the time from people who only found Robot 13 through that app and are now big fans. So to us, digital comics aren’t so much the future as they are the present. Our plans with Blacklist Studios will always include print, but I think it’s safe to say it will include digital comics as a given as well.

Is it changing how you think about getting your work published?

 Bradford:
Right now, and for the foreseeable future, our first priority  will remain in getting the physical books out first.

Hall:
So far, we haven’t done anything different. Our books are colored, lettered and packaged digitally anyway for printing, and the guys who do the digital comics use those same files, so we aren’t thinking about how the book will look across formats or anything like that. We are very open to trying new things, though, as long as the work is quality in the end. We have a pretty high standard that we set for ourselves, and we won’t compromise that. But in terms of how we market our books, I can see things changing already. In some countries, people know Robot 13 as a digital comic first. We got an email the other day telling us how “cool” it would be if we did a print version of Robot 13! But we don’t close our minds to anything as long as we can keep the quality level that we expect from ourselves.

How has that success shaped your plans for KING!?

Bradford:
It hasn't. Well...that's not entirely true...we've had to publish more copies of KING! but that's about it.

Hall:
It has opened doors a bit, sure. People are quicker to return my emails and calls now then they were when we started out.

For your next series, how can you possibly top KING!? Will you switch genres and tackle zombie romance?

 Bradford:
Ha! Zomtween romance. KING! isn't something that is supposed to top R13. Nor would the next project be aimed at topping KING! We simply want to tell stories and if that means making another u-turn into oncoming genre traffic then so be it.

Hall:
Comics are the ultimate “what have you done lately?” area of media. Every month or every couple of months, a new book comes out. You don’t have to have a “bigger” book every time out, but you have to give people consistent product. That’s our goal, to be constantly good. When people see our names on something together, they should know it’s quality. But as for Zomtween Romance... um, no. 

—Ommus

For more on KING! and Robot 13, visit Bradford and Hall at BlackListStudios.com

Review: Demo, Volume 2

2010-08-30T09:13:00.001-05:00

DEMO, Volume 2, #6

DEMO, volume 2

Written by Brian Wood

Illustrated by Becky Cloonan

Vertigo

Review by Matthew J. Brady

Back in 2003, Brian Wood and Becky Cloonan blasted onto the comics scene with their series, Demo, announcing themselves as major talents. Sure, they had both done work before, but these twelve issues became their calling card, demonstrating a good grasp of quickly established characterization on Wood’s part and chameleonic and arresting art styles on Cloonan’s. Now that they’ve both gone on to success elsewhere, they’ve returned to the concept for another pass, six issues of strikingly human stories that touch on the fantastic and magical.

While the first volume shifted focus part way through, moving from “realistic takes on people with superpowers” to “character pieces that feature extra-human ‘powers’”, this go-round starts off firmly established in the latter camp. With each issue acting as a standalone story, the series is free to pursue the seemingly magical as well as the just-beyond-mundane. The first issue is a good example, seeing a young woman who has a repeated vision of somebody falling to their apparent death inside a cathedral. She becomes obsessed with stopping this event, to the extent that her quest potentially becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. It’s a neat little bit of formula, but what it does really well is give Cloonan a showcase for her delicate, detail-packed renditions of the cathedral’s interior, viewed repeatedly from the point of view of the person falling, an incredible image that sells the idea of the need to solve the mystery.

The second and third issues continue this less-fantastical trend, with the second being about a man who eats human flesh (or does he?) and the third following a woman who needs to instruct herself in every aspect of her life via Post-It notes. Neither is necessarily supernatural, but they both make for interesting character pieces, with the former working as a look at self-destructive addiction and the latter a portrait of a sort of obsessive-compulsive personality and the possibly dangerous loss of control that letting someone else in entails. The art continues the trend of trying out new styles with each chapter, the cannibal piece being layered with thick shadows, woozy, hungry layouts, and emaciated figurework, and the Post-It story featuring lots of lived-in detail and an emphasis on anxiety and hopefulness conveyed through facial expressions.

The back half of the series gets more supernatural, and more complex in both plots and character work. Issue four sees a man who can breathe underwater, and we learn about how he discovered the ability through some childhood conflicts that didn’t turn out well, making for a deep (ha ha) metaphor regarding coping with guilt. It’s an excellent piece, a great example of what this series can do so well, and Cloonan’s art sells it perfectly as always, with special care taken on natural details like trees and rocks and some impressive work on flowing water.

The fifth issue is another example of the series’ increasing psychological complexity, following a woman who can travel through time, an ability she uses mostly for money-making purposes, until she decides to go back to her childhood and try to resolve some issues with her abusive father. It ends up being brutally violent—emotionally as well as physically—demonstrating the pain of confronting childhood trauma. It’s a fascinating use of fantasy/sci-fi conceits to examine character, and a great example of the kind of story Wood has been building up to over the course of both volumes of the series. Cloonan, using some harsh brush strokes contrasted with open white space, turns in some incredible, shocking imagery, as well as a contrast of innocent emotion with angry violence.

Finally, the last issue might be the best of the bunch, detailing the relationship of a married couple who suffer physical pain when touching, but need to stay close together to survive, a pretty obvious symbol of a toxic relationship that is, by turns, alienating and cathartic. It’s all the pain and joy of a difficult pairing, taken to supernatural extremes. The devastation of losing a child, the desires that lead to infidelity, the arguments and making up, they’re all real, but with that emotional pain externalized, but no less impactful. It’s as elegant a character piece as anything else in the series, sold through some straightforward art on Cloonan’s part that emphasizes the emotional pain the characters feel so physically.

By this point in the series, the stories have taken on a maturity, a look at adulthood and the pains and pleasures that come with it, rather than yet another bit of youthful rebellion. It’s great to see how far Wood and Cloonan have come, and while this series was a short one, it gave them plenty of opportunity to explore different styles of storytelling and a variety of characters, all quite indelible. Hopefully, this isn’t the last of Demo; at this rate, a third volume would shake us all to the core with wonderfully realized characters and beautiful, ever-shifting artwork. If I had the supernatural ability to do so, I would certainly make it happen.

—MJB

Follow Matthew at Twitter.com/WarrenPeace

Review: Phoenix Without Ashes #1

2010-08-27T10:05:00.002-05:00

PHOENIX WITHOUT ASHES #1
Miniseries
Written by Harlan Ellison
Illustrated by Alan Robinson
IDW Publishing

Reviewed by Kate Sherrod

I don’t know Harlan Ellison personally, but I bet he has a long memory. And holds grudges.

Ever since IDW Publishing broke the news that they would be issuing Phoenix Without Ashes as a comicbook miniseries, many a fan of comics, science fiction and Harlan Ellison must be asking the same question: What, again? And a festering grudge is the only answer I can come up with.

Although it’s new to comics, the story itself has appeared a few times already. Its first outing was as the pilot episode of a failed television series Ellison developed in Canada in the 1970s, the script for which he won an industry award, but which was not used. Its second incarnation was in the 1980s as a novelization in which Ellison attempted to present the story as he originally inteded it to appear on television. For good measure, the original script can still be found in at least one anthology as well. Living up to the myth of the legendary bird in its title, one might say Phoenix Without Ashes just won’t die.

Now with the comics version, cynics might ponder if this isn’t just Unca Harlan fishing in our pockets for filthy lucre. Beware, it’s not to be dismissed in that way without some serious consideration, because some interesting choices have been made that make this series entertaining.

The story, as received from the distant past, is largely intact. Essentially, it’s the coming-of-age tale of Devon, an orphan in a tightly-knit, Amish-esque community who tends to ask all the wrong questions of its Elders, and who has fallen in love with a girl that is promised to another. His dissatisfaction leads him—and us—to explore the weird world of Cypress Corners, and discover that there is much more to this quaint village than meets the eye. For puritans in the mold of the Amish we know and love, these people are strangly high tech. As we proceed through the first installment of the story, only Devon shares our perspective that this is a very odd state of affairs indeed, and his discoveries of what's really going on are ours as well.

What turns this much pawed-over source material into an interesting find of a comicbook is the art of Alan Robinson. His crosshatch-intensive style lends itself well to Ellison’s kind of comics storytelling (witness his vivid evocation of Batboy and the gang for the Weekly World News). Here he’s been put to work on fusing some discordant elements to fun effect: Amish in space! Who don’t know they’re in space! Well, perhaps a few know, but they’d rather the rest just kept on accepting what their Creator told them—that the world is fifty miles across and has a metal sky, and that their god speaks to them via a biometrically-activated computer speaker. One wishes, though, that these incongruities were brought together more vividly. Who doesn’t want to see a cranky cartoon Elder with fluffy beard, black hat and dour expression busyly hsacking the artificial intelligence that rules his universe? But we don’t really get to see those inner machinations or the great wizard. Instead, we are treated to hand-on-the-button close-ups intercut with various arrangements of stock puritanical righteousness. Of the characters we do get to see, there is much to like. The characters look fantastic, passionate, expressive and angry. To his credit, Robinson has wisely chosen to re-imagine them rather than use the cast of the TV show as models. But the artist’s role in this version of Phoenix Without Ashes doesn’t stop with the facades; it extends to the storytelling.

There is very little Ellison dialogue here, which may well irritate his fans who, as I did, grabbed the issue because of his name on the cover. Oh, this is certainly his story, his battered baby that he’s crooned over and nursed along all these years; but very little of Ellison’s voice remains in the text of the script. From the looks of things, Unca Harlan has turned the task of storytelling over to Robinson. There are vast swathes of wordless story sequences, and it’s not all action scenes; facial expressions play a big part. To Ellison and his editor’s credit, this narrative choice allows the story to explore the storytelling potential of a comicbook—not an illustrated novel, not a movie pitch in comics form. And this pleases me.

But alas, the world has changed since the 1970s. The idea of a pastiched old-timey culture inhabiting a spaceship is one that has been done more than once (and, I would argue, completely seized and owned by Gene Wolfe in the middle four volumes of his 12-book "Solar Cycle"). It’s impact as a story concept may be negligible, even as it draws interest because of it creator.

If you love Harlan Ellison—and I’m talking the writer, not the man, for plenty of people out there love the one but dislike the other—this comics series is worth having in your collection. I regard it with affection. Unca Harlan is still trying to get his original vision of the story out to his readers, and that kind of purist dedication to storytelling is refreshing to see when so many other comics these days are trying to strike a Hollywood pose. With Phoenix Without Ashes, the comicbook, Ellison goes the other way. You might even delight in imagining Unca Harlan flipping the bird to the producers of the original award-winning TV script, which they hacked and deformed so badly, Ellison decided to remove his given name from the credits of the production.

The bird has risen from the ashes, indeed.

- KS

Follow Kate at Twitter.com/KateSherrod

1:2 with Scott Dillon and Mitch Gerads

2010-08-26T07:07:00.003-05:00

JOHNNY RECON #2

Written by Scott Dillon

Illustrated by Mitch Gerads

PopGunPulp Studios

Available at IndyPlanet.com

BACK TO THE FUTURE

In August 2009, we discovered this indie comic at Chicago Comic Con. The first issue had just been published, and its creators debuted the retro sci-fi series to a decent amount of buzz. Even G4, the geek channel, covered the series. Now Scott Dillon and Mitch Gerads are back with the second, self-published issue. We talked by email to catch up since our last interview with them.

Looking back on the launch of Johnny Recon #1, what stands out about the experience?

Scott:

Without a doubt, the interaction with the fans at conventions was the high point of launching the first issue, but a close second was having the opportunity to finally work on this shared dream with one of my really good friends. I can remember both of us finally holding that first printed copy in our hands after a couple years of collaboration and just not believing it. All-around, the launch experience of the first issue at Chicago is something I’ll definitely remember for a long, long time.

Mitch:

Definitely Chicago, but for me personally it was having finished my last page of inks. 26 pages plus a cover and some other ancillary art. At that time, it was a HUGE step for me. I can’t count the number of times from age 8 on that I tried to create a full comic book and made it about 4 pages in and stopped. Seriously, I bet 4 pages was the record up to that point. It was a HUGE personal goal that had been in place for the majority of my life.

What lessons did you use going into producing issue #2?

Scott:

I actually learned quite a bit after writing the first issue, most notably in terms of improving my writing process while composing the script for #2. Due to the separate storylines in the first issue, I actually sent Mitch three separate portions of the first script at a time. In retrospect, it’s unbelievable that he was able to instill some consistency throughout #1 since he didn’t know how the issue ended when he started working on it. The script for #2 was sent into Mitch in full, and I think the comic as a whole reads much better.

SCOTT DILLON AND MITCH GERADS

Mitch:

We talk about this a bit in the letters column of JR #2, but Mitch Breitweiser was INVALUABLE. In the hour or so he sat down with us at Chicago, I pretty much learned 90 percent of what I use today as basic concepts in design, storytelling, composition, etc. We also learned a lot on the business side of things and especially how little I enjoy that part. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE marketing and promotion, but when you’re trying to do that as well as all the creative work, it kills the time and drive of the creative work. The other side of that is in self-publishing, you HAVE to market and run the business, and you HAVE to do it aggressively for anyone to see the creative part.

For the second issue, you and Mitch launched a Kickstarter.com campaign, which as a strategy seems to be picking up steam in the comics community. How did that initiative come to the table?

Scott:

I have to give all the credit to Mitch here as he brought my attention to the site. We loved the flexibility it offered us in terms of creating rewards for backers as well as the idea that we could involve the Kickstarter community in the production of the second issue itself, so we decided to give it a shot.

Mitch:

I had been told about this site from a few friends and pretty much laughed it off. It sounded like an Internet scam to me, but we had to try something because self-publishing ain’t cheap! Ha ha, seriously. I learned to approach self-publishing like going to a casino, you’re paying for the experience, and that kept me fulfilled, but we also knew we had something really special, and we had to keep it going full force.

How did the campaign fare? Any stats you can share?

Scott:

We were blown away by the response we had on Kickstarter, receiving an amount that was 50 percent above what we were asking. The fact that 72 different people believed in us enough to pledge their support is just incredible!

Mitch:

Scott and I would text and call each other pretty much anytime someone pledged on the site, usually followed by about 10 exclamation points. The fact we met our goal before we were half of the way through the campaign was pretty much the coolest thing ever. Kickstarter campaigns are stressful!

Has the campaign helped grow orders for the second issue?

Scott:

Absolutely! That’s the fantastic part of Kickstarter since it serves as not only a possible source of financial assistance but also a marketing tool. Mitch and I have found a lot more fans that are passionate about Johnny Recon and what we’re trying to create since we used the site.

Mitch:

Without a doubt, we keep getting questions about if we’re putting subsequent issues up on Kickstarter.

You continue to self publish. How is it going?

Scott:

I’m going to be honest – a lot harder than I thought. When we created the first issue, we found ourselves in the joint roles of production, marketing, and distribution – I somehow didn’t consider that when we sat down to talk about bringing Johnny to life. We’re in the process of trying to figure that out after producing the second issue. It was a little bit easier with #2, especially since we had the very talented Kyle Latino working with us on colors, in addition to the fact that we’d already handled these tasks on the first issue, but it’s still definitely a challenge.

Mitch:

I kind of talked about this before, but yeah, it’s rough. It’s SUPER FUN, but it’s rough. The business stuff gets in the way of way too much of the actual “making comics,” and if it isn’t, you’re doing it wrong. There’s a reason all those different facets of starting a business are separate jobs at a larger company.

What benefits do you see calling all the shots, wearing all the hats versus going to, say, Image or another house?

Scott:

Both of us have a specifically unique vision for these books, and, by self-publishing, we’re allowed to paint that picture for the reader without any creative restraints. With that being said, we’re actually in talks with another publisher at the moment who can still allow us a lot of that flexibility while bringing Johnny Recon to a wider audience. Nothing set in stone yet, but we hope to have negotiations worked out relatively soon.

Mitch:

Let’s just say I’m not going to have to go to the post office every other day anymore, HA!

Where do Johnny's adventures take him from here?

Scott:

Since Mitch and I spent quite a bit of time talking about this universe before creating the first issue, we actually have quite a few different arcs that we’d like to take these characters, all of them exciting! I can tell you that we’re not too interested in creating another epic storyline too soon after these first four issues, so the next arc will focus on more of a simple yet adventurous tale, harkening back to some of the classic Tarzan and Conan stories.

Mitch:

That’s a fantastic question, because Johnny is going places in more ways than one. WINK WINK, NUDGE NUDGE. As far as his story, I’m really excited for the next volume. It’s a story that I plotted out and did a bit of scripting for so it’s a bit more personal for me, and it’s a bit more fun. We really take Johnny to his adventure roots and let the guy have some serious fun. All I have to say is: “Time Raptors.”

What comes after Johnny Recon? Any additional series or books coming our way from you guys?

Scott:

Mitch has been spending quite a bit of time illustrating a Western-themed comic that will be awesome, entitled Dakota Cobra, which has a great script by Jason Latino and will be inked by Mark Stegbauer. I’ve already seen some pages and was absolutely blown away! In terms of collaborating on other future projects, we’re both dedicated to working on Johnny for as long as we can and seeing where it takes us before knocking something new out. We know how frustrating it can be as readers to see a series you invest in go on hiatus after only a couple issues, so we want to crank out a lot more stories before we contemplate a different path.

Mitch:

I’ve recently made illustration my primary job and source of income and so far it seems to be working, ha! Obviously, I’m still working on the rest of Johnny Recon Vol.1, but I am also illustrating the Dakota Cobra, which is a back-up feature in Steve Bryant and Kyle Latino’s new book, the Black Cobra. Jason Latino is writing that, Mark Stegbauer is inking it, and I’m doing everything else. I did all the art for a couple episodes of a project coming out later this year from AdultSwim.com, it’s pretty much the greatest concept for a series I’ve ever heard of. Other than that, you can still see me, and a bevy of ridiculously awesome comic illustrators, every week on ComicTWART.com. ComicTWART is still something that gets me excited to draw every week. It’s about as much fun as you can have with a pencil.

—Ommus