I Believe, and You Should, Too!

This is the first part of an interview with Rob Schamberger. Pretty standard format stuff, with my questions in bold, and Rob's answers not in bold. If you don't know about Rob, he's formerly half of the Six Shooter Comix Studio that produced The Believer, and there's more about that just below here. But after the Believer wasn't picked up, he did things to keep busy in comix on the fringe, like Comix Flash Mobs; The Writer's Guide to Writing Comix; he's helped redefine the Comics Creators Network in Kansas City, too, by running workshops designed to help people learn how write and make their own comix; plus, he's working on his own material, too. In this part we talk a little about how Rob 'broke in' to the scene and some of the things he's learned from that experience...

If you've read the first post on this blog, you know how Rob and I initially met. (And if you haven't, go on ahead, we'll wait.) To sum up he was hawking a not-yet published book he'd co-created called The Believer with artist Thom Thurman and Chad the inker who was, shall we say, less than picky who he pissed on.

The book was picked up by Image for their aborted "Image Introduces..." line. I don't think that one title was picked up out of that run, was there? And how did you guys get the nod from Jim Valentino?

Rex Mundi got picked up, though when their first issue came out, it wasn't officially in the line. I think the Image Introduces line became one of those 'Lines of Death' like Marvel's New Universe or Tsunami, or DC's Focus line. One of those that was just doomed before it even got out of the gate.

We actually didn't get the nod from Jim, either. It was a guy working there at the time named Anthony Bozzi that fought to get us in the line. Jim was and still is really big about enforcing zero editorial control, so he was going to just nix us instead of asking us to take out the cussing that was so prevalent in the book. I think I dropped the F Bomb seven times in the first three pages, and this was a pretty decompressed book.

Anthony called us, and told me about Jim's deal, and I understood, and he asked me, "What's your favorite Hitchcock film?"

Like most pretentious writers, I responded "Vertigo."

"How many times did they cuss in that movie?"

"None." Point proven.

So how did you connect with Bozzi? Wasn't Valentino the guy everyone was sending proposals to?

He and Jim were the guys that went through the submission pile together.

What did you do to make your submission stand out from the rest of the slush pile? What caught their eye?

Blunt honesty? Our book was done, and they needed a complete book for the
second slot on the Image Introduces line. We were totally Greg Brady
fitting into the Johnny Bravo suit.

Hoo! Hah!

All right enough funny business. So you guys were in the right place at the right time. What did you take away from that experience that helped you realize you really wanted to do comix? What did you do when you found out The Believer wasn't going to be picked up?

The positive, of course, is that The Believer led Thom Thurman and I to start a good friendship and partnership, and all the cool things we did at Six Shooter Comix dot com. The Writer's Group stuff, FREE COMIX! and all the other things wouldn't have happened without Believer.

When we found out Believer wasn't getting picked up, it was a sort of "Yeah, we saw that coming" moment. Valentino himself told us at a show in person. He did say he wanted to see something else from us, but circumstances saw that nothing else ever came from Thom and I's collaboration.

You know how I felt about that book, in that I thought you guys were really trying something adventurous for the time. The Believer himself being a creature you weren't sure was human, was maybe capable of shifting his shape or did he have a group of minions, ala The Shadow. Really interesting, challenging material in the main character's motivations, too. Tough stuff. AND it was set in Kansas City. Seems like you were trying, even then, to pull away from the conventions and the tropes of standard-format comix.

Is that something you're still trying to do? Do you think you're operating ahead of the curve or are you off in left field somewhere?

Maybe out in left field, trying to stay ahead of the curve ball. I don't know, I think what's exciting about comix to me, one of the big things, is that it's a form of communication still in its infancy, especially in its modern form. It's like being there 150 years after the written word was created. That's exciting, Jason.

That's why I try to be such a comix historian, so that I can see what all people have tried, and try to figure out what worked, what didn't, and what hasn't been tried at all. I think I can learn equally from Jack Kirby, Chris Ware, Enki Bilal, Katsuhiro Otomo, Alan Moore, Winsor McKay, and Jim Starlin, you know? Finding new and exciting ways to utilize the form is cool to me.

I mean, I love comix, man. I spend probably two hundred bucks a month on the damned things. It's just a great medium to explore and utilize.

Then let's get your opinion on something that I've seen around the 'net, that bastion of good taste and truth...

What's the problem with the American comix market that guys like you and me
can't sell books to publishers with a high concept like "It's Castaway in the Twilight Zone"? Why is it that American publishers won't take the chances that French, Japanese or even British publisher will?

Americans don't read. Americans don't want to be challenged mentally. That's why Britney Spears and boy bands are top-sellers. That's why most of the NY Times Bestsellers have the worst dialogue and transparent plots. That's why Without A Paddle can be a box office hit and Adaptation flops.

And comix are the most demanding, most challenging form out there. No other medium asks for more from the reader, which is more than likely why people who regularly read comix enjoy them more than other mediums.

Or maybe we're just both hacks and don't realize it.

Thing is, though, Rob, we've both been encouraged by some pretty amazing talent already working in comix, guys that are recognized by fans, reviewers and publishers for their works. (One of 'em even compared one of my pitches to Warren Ellis!) It's my belief that the comix industry is full of really nice people, most who don't know how to say "No" when it comes down to it. Do you think that the folks who cheer us on are really interested in seeing us succeed? Are they interested in seeing comix expand with talent wanting to push the boundaries?

Let's not hide anything here. For both of us, our biggest supporters have been Phil Hester and Ande Parks. Phil got me hooked up with everything that became The Believer and has helped me out quite a bit since then, too. Phil and I were even working on a big time pitch together at one point, so I think he at least saw promise in my writing.

No, what's amazing, is that most creators hardly pick up any books. Once you get into it, you start seeing all of the shortcuts and screw-ups that other creators took on their books, and it gets to where that's ALL you see, so whenever they come across someone that excites them again, of course I think they'll push them to do better and to get their work out there.

Well, okay, I wasn't going to name-drop, but since it's out there now...

When you say that the medium of comix is the "most challenging of all", how
do we change the perception that they're not kid's stuff any more? I mean
you've done things like Flash Mobs and there have been a plethora of
articles in high-profile newspapers and magazines about comix over the last
two years, but the Direct Market is still not friendly to a lot of things
out there. The retailers are telling the publishers that anything beyond
the Spandex Set won't sell very well at all. And the numbers from last
year's top 100-selling titles proves that beyond any doubt. So we're
working against three fronts: Retailers, Publishers and The General Public
Perception of Comix. How do we make any gains? Are readers really so lazy?

Yes, they are that lazy. Americans want instant gratification, and they want whatever product they buy to do all the work for them. Everyone wants the Jetsons life.

Far smarter people than I have tried to figure out the retailers, and haven't. I'm not going to pretend that all of these guys are shrewd businessmen, because they're not. The majority really are the stereotypcial Simpsons comic shop owner. Unfortunately, there's about ten bad ones for every good. And those ten bad ones, they're the ones only buying established superhero properties and nothing else. These are the same ones that thought it wouldn't be a good idea to carry Sandman or 100 Bullets or Persepolis, because what good are those books compared to Spiderman and Superman.

Whenever I get into one of these discussions, I always think of this one scene from Vanilla Sky, during Tom Cruise's birthday party, when his drunk lawyer yells out "America will read again!" and everyone applauds, then laughs, then shrugs it off and goes back to drinking and socializing. I always feel like the drunk lawyer, yelling at the top of my lungs to get people to listen, but always doomed to having them going back to being the social sheep they are. Whaddayagonnado?

Then where do you think comix need to go to get the respect that Stephen King gets? I don't think comix will ever be declared to be 'pure lit'rature' by the glitterarti, but with fantastic high-profile films like Road to Perdition and From Hell in recent years (we don't need to debate the adaptations of the films, do we?) and even American Splendor, don't you think that America has a better grasp of the potential of comix?

Really, I guess, to just keep making them, keeping them out there for folks to read. Keep the quality high. Hope that Natural Selection applies to retailers, and that the better shops rise to the top, and then propagate, while the others fade away, so that we can get a better image. The big box chain stores are nice, too, but we shouldn't put all of our hopes there, because all it takes is two or three big stinkers and they'll pull the merchandise from the shelves.

It's all about just creating what you want to create, and maybe people will take enough interest that you'll be able to keep doing it. For instance, my daily web comic, '22, Three Sixty Five', I started this as just an experiment, a comixperiment if you will, for my own amusement. Just recently, I found out I'm getting 10,000 hits a day on it. I'm not even advertising the sum'bitch! I was just making it and putting it out there, and I'm getting a higher readership than The Believer got. Go figure.

That's an absolutely AMAZING figure. What is it, do you think, that attracted so many visitors? Are you able to see how many are unique?

I think the unique idea for the strip (only using Wally Wood's 22 panels, a panel a day, for 365 days to tell a story), plus the minor bit of name recognition I've got from the Six Shooter days and my involvment with the CCN, the word just kinda spread. No idea how many are unique, unfortunately. Blogger doesn't give me that. But the image hosting service I was using gave up to 10,000 hits until they took it down, then one day, image by image, I started getting red x's until that day's went down, too. Wow!

All right, True Believers, there's the first bit down. Look forward to more later in the week, but don't hesitate to ask Rob whatever you like in the comments section down below.

Singles

Here's an idea that came to me after reading the latest Fraction/Casey "Basement Tapes" column over at www.comicbookresources.com.

I've written a graphic novel that'll total two hundred pages. I've written it in such a way that the first thirty-six pages could be broken into 'chapters'. The month the graphic novel is solicited, I release the first eighteen pages as an ashcan with six pages of sketchbook material and only charge two dollars for it. (Or less if we print in black and white on newsprint, maybe.) In the back cover of the ashcan is the information that anyone interested in knowing more about the story will find that the OGN will come out in three months and they can order from their retailer that month in Previews.

The day the OGN arrives, there's a second ashcan with the next eighteen pages in it, and six pages more sketchbook material. The inside back cover this time tells the reader that the book came out the same day and should be available at the same retailer.

Here's the kick:

Advance copies of the OGN go out to reviewers six weeks before it arrives, in the hopes that the reviews will help sales when the book comes in.

The month before the OGN arrives, the retailer is offered a chance to return the unsold copies of the first ashcan for a $1 credit per copy of the OGN. He could even pass on the savings to his customer. Knowing the second ashcan is coming, and the reviews are popping up, it might be likely that the publisher won't see many returns. But they're only good for credit towards the retailer's purchase of the OGN, right? Stay with me.

So here comes the second ashcan with the OGN, a second chance to presell the book. Same chance for savings with reorders.

What's happened is that there's the opportunity for folks to read about a fifth of the story before they shell out their hard-earned $20+ for an OGN. If they keep the ashcans, yeah, they've spent four dollars more, but they've go the extra material already. The retailer has a chance to really gauge the interest in the book and maybe a chance to order more than he might sell if he likes the story, or if he thinks it's got legs. The publisher has a chance to see how orders are going with a minimal outlay and some interesting feedback ahead of time.

The deal is this, though: the entire book HAS to be finished at solicitation time. And there HAS to be a push by the creators, the publisher and retailers to help sell the book with the ashcans by doing a lot of publicity. There ought to be an air of collectibility with the ashcans because of the extra material, that shouldn't be in the OGN. Eventually it could be released, I suppose, in a deluxe hardcover, but that's down the road.

I'm borrowing heavily from the idea that when Springsteen puts out a new album, he's got singles on the radio and MTV (do they still play videos?) . What do you think, can this work?

Any body?

Getting Probed

Just found this old interview I'd done with you for the CCN Blog. Turned out pretty nice, didn't it? Made us both look way smarter and hip than we really are. What do you say about reversing the roles, sending me some questions. Don't pull any punches, either, man. Ask the hard ones. A little brutal honesty will give this blog some street cred.

Rob: You up for being my next victim?

Jason: Absolutely. Should have Crystal Lady ready for next week. Be good to actually promote something for a change.

Rob: Sweet. Figured I'd do this one a little more organically, just shooting you a question to begin with, then make a conversation from it. I'll put it all together for next Friday. Get to avoid a 'Daniel Way Incident' that way.You know, it's funny, a couple weeks back Mark Stinson told me that I've totally made you up, and that when you met him at the show, 'you' were just an actor I'd paid. I swear that guy's losing it in his old age.

Jason: You were paying me? Where's the money? I remember meeting a guy who SAID he was Mark Stinson...

Rob: There's actually no Mark Stinson. That guy you met at the con is really a crack addict I picked up down in the West Bottoms. I'm the REAL Mark Stinson. It's just one of my many web personas. I'm also every poster on Newsarama and Comicon. The real question is, who's the real Rob Schamberger?

Jason: I'll let you know after you pay me.

Rob: Anyway, you've become pretty well-known as THE Kansas City mini-comix guy. You did twelve...

Jason: Actually, it was fourteen.

Rob: ...Fourteen monthly issues of Jackleg, you've done the amazing 'Stone Man', and now its follow-up 'Crystal Lady'. You've even written a book on making mini-comix and have a series of articles about the process on the CCN Website. What is it about mini-comix that keeps you interested and excited to make them?

Jason: Self abuse?Seriously, thanks for saying that about my work. I make comix because I meet other enthusiastic folks who help me justify to myself the creative urge to do them. I used to play bass in a band no one ever heard of and we were playing Collective Soul-styled songs in Lawrence when the music industry was touting the town as the next Seattle and grunge was hitting huge. It's enormously satisfying to play to a crowd that likes your songs, and I guess it's kind of the same thing with comix. Having someone email me or come up to me at a show and tell me they like my work is nearly the same thing as performing on a stage at the Bottleneck under the hot lights. Except I don't go home smelling of Bar Funk.The other reason to do mini comix is to learn the craft of making the damn things from the ground up. From the initial idea through the writing, drawing, lettering, inking and production until you get the book printed and distributed is a soul-draining experience that I will treasure until my dying day. And then to produce ten pages a month while holding down 40 hours a week, being a dad and dating? It really is a kind of self-abuse, isn't it? I NEED to create. As a means to an end, doing mini comix has helped me learn how to write comix, which is where I ultimately hope to make my mark in the industry.

Rob: Most creators, the serious ones at least, have some sort of message they're trying to get out in their works. For instance, Pablo Picasso not only doing the painting 'Guernica' but also doing an actual comic book, 'The Dream and the Lie of Franco', both trying to work out in his mind the horrors of the Spanish Civil War.Feeling good that I'm comparing you to Picasso?

Jason: Um... Yes? Even though it's WAY too early in my career for that kind of pressure. Thanks! ;)

Rob: The question is, what is your message? What is it in your life and brain right now that's compelling you to create?

Jason: Being a confirmed Agnostic, I like the idea that there IS a Creator, but does that mean we should worship that being? Is my faith in a higher power so necessary to that Creator's existence that I HAVE to worship it? Can that being hear me and why would she care? What control does that person really have over me in the Afterlife? I also like the idea that the Creator is a flawed being and may have similar troubles to what I have here. The idea that we're all human in a Jonathan Livingston Seagull journey to higher consciousness. Robert Heinlein's books really helped me as a teenager to understand and formulate these questions. After my divorce, I felt compelled to explore the hole in my life that suddenly was there. I was searching for some sort of explanation of Love, I guess, and even though I've found the Great Love of My Life with my girlfriend, I still am searching for some deeper Meaning to it all. Is it in religious texts? I'm not sure, so I've constantly tried to spiritualize my writing for the last four or five years based on some of the things I've learned. Soul-searching, I guess. That said, I don't preach in my writing. At least, I hope I don't.Or the pithy answer would be that my message is to the readers that they demand bigger publishers hire me. Whichever you like.

Rob: Yeah, Heinlein had a really profound effect on me during my Sophomore year in high school. 'Stranger in a Strange Land' is just an amazing book, if you grok what I'm saying.

Jason: That was actually one of the last books of his I read, so I was more impacted by stuff like JOB: A Comedy of Justice, or The Number of the Beast, initially, along with Friday. My absolute favorite is To Sail Beyond the Sunset, his last book. Bob really tied up everything he'd ever written there, and there's a HUGE chunk of the story set in Kansas City. Time Enough for Love is my second favorite book. Heinlein took chances and challenged readers to think by being provocative with his ideas about sex and marriage and politics. I don't think he gets enough credit for changing sci-fi and really being about twenty years ahead of the curve. It seems like, despite the focus on William Gibson and Neal Stephenson's cyber-punk stuff, sci-fi media has finally embraced some of the things that Bob was trying to say. Farscape was pretty Heinlein-ish, to me.

Rob: Stranger in a Strange Land was actually assigned to me in my English class. Blew me away that our library didn't have Huck Finn, but I could get a book teaching me about tantric sex. Hm, think I need to read that again. It's great coming back to stuff as an adult.

Jason: I try to reread some Heinlein book every year. Last one I read was The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. It's cool that it was assigned to you in high school. All I got was some Agatha Christie stuff...

Rob: So, five years from now, how do you ideally view your comix career? Where would you like to be? What would you like to be doing?

Jason: My Five Year Plan, such as it is, would be to continue in my day job and be writing at least one graphic novel a year, maybe two, and working with folks I'd really like to work with on them. Working with the public and interacting with people are important to me. I don't think I could be a hermit/writer. My grilfriend would probably kill me if I was. I'd like an opportunity to play with the Superman character, being from Kansas, myself. No real interest in other superheroes right now, but I wouldn't say 'no' to anyone, either, if there's some money involved. I have a plan for a sixty-issue series I'd like to do, but I've definitely set that aside for the time it'll take to get published elsewhere. I'd hope that I'm making enough money from comix to support myself in a lifestyle I'd love to become accustomed to.

Rob: Moving along with the frame of mind of reading stuff you had read as a kid, did you create comix as a child, or have aspirations to do so? I've recently re-read some stuff I did between the ages of thirteen and sixteen, and it's weird how similar my author's voice is now, compared to then. Of course, the voice has gotten more 'elaborate' with time, but it's relatively the same. Is this true for you as well?

Jason: In high school, some buddies and I were inspired to do one page comix along the lines of stuff we were seeing in Heavy Metal every month. Jeff Jones, Kent Williams, Chaykin and Simonson. We photocopied our work in the main office of the school under the pretense we were doing work for our art teacher. We called it Strange Days until I saw the issue of that magazine as published by, I think, Eclipse that had a Steve Dillon story in it as well as a Pete Milligan story, too. So, we kind of abandoned that, and two of us went on to focus on music, instead. The other went to a fancy New York art school and did a children's book. I've lost track of both of them since.But, yeah, looking back on those pages, it's interesting that the ideas that were forming back then and the beat of the dialogue are pretty close to what I do now. (But hoepfully I write at more than a tenth grade level!) Obviously I'm more mature and my subject matter has grown beyond just riffing on Twilight Zone scripts, but some of the themes were there, even then. I'd tried to do comix before, in junior high, but that was mostly aping Claremont and Byrne's X-Men run. I didn't get serious about doing anything with comix until I was in my late twenties. In between, I was trying hard to be a rock star.

Rob: I just had a mental image of you doing a Dee Snyder 'I WANNA ROCK!'

Jason: 8D

Rob: So, what was it that made you want to start doing mini-comix? They're such a masochistic thing to do, there must be some reason.

Jason: Zander Cannon told me I should, if I wanted to show that I could write comix. He asked me if I could draw, and I could, a little, so I went home and wrote a story and drew it. I'm still very proud of that story, even though it's got every classic flaw a comic could possibly have.

Rob: Every possible flaw? God, that sounds great. That almost sounds like an interesting way to do a comic: Do Everything Wrong. That'd really teach you a ton about the mistakes we make. And yeah, there's no doubt you're a better creator now, than when you did the first Jackleg.

Jason: I couldn't be anything BUT a better creator. I'm still proud of the story, and I love the idea of it, and certainly I didn't make every mistake intentionally. But when you start out and go for a while, looking back can make you cringe. I learned so much in the first six issues of the series it's not funny.

Rob: You and I met at for the first time at one of the Kansas City Comicons (spring of 2000?), and other than my collaborator Thom Thurman, you were my first introduction to another serious aspiring creator. How do you view the Kansas City comix scene now?

Jason: Burgeoning. Likewise, I felt at the time I met you that I was a lone voice in the area in regard to making mini comix. I was in contact with Ande Parks only marginally when I met you guys, so I didn't have a sense of who was around, but I didn't feel lonely. I KNEW there were others, just not where. Now, these folks gather much more regularly at the KC cons and hawk their wares for everyone to see. I like to think I helped a couple of 'em say to themselves: "I can do better than him".Let's hope the explosion of the last two years keeps up and that we see more talent getting signed to publishers.

Rob: So, where would you like to see the Kansas City scene five years from now?

Jason: Ideally, there'd be 8 or more newly-published creators who continue the tradition established by folks like Ande Parks, Kerry Callen, Anna-Maria Cool and Mike Huddleston who take the time to help younger creators learn how to make comix. There'd be names like Matt Fraction, Richard Corben, and Bruce Jones working with some of them. Even better, there'd be a strong mini comix community within the scene whose creators would help each other, as well. I'd like to see lots of competition, lots of good comix and strong fellowship. It'd be cool for someone like Joe Quesada or Paul Levitz or James Lucas Jones to visit Kansas City and see that we make good comix here and that those creators are viable on a national level.Hopefully, the Comics Creators Network would be strong and pushing for a national identity and have a couple of Eisners or Harveys under its belt from the anthology series, too.

Rob: So, say you've only been working in, like, the Norwegian comix scene or something. How would your view of American comix be, looking in from the outside?

Jason: My only experience in a scene outside of America is from a ways back. I worked with this super-talented kid, Rush Owens, who was just getting a book published in Norway, ironically enough. He was cooking in the restaurant I was running and he showed me the pages he'd submitted. Mind-blowingly cool stuff. I told him to submit to Vertigo, 'cos they were still open to looking at that kind of thing before folks got happy with the lawsuits. And he told me that he would only work with companies outside of America because they respected artists more. He felt that the American companies were too money-motivated and unconcerned about the art of comix. He felt cared-for and nurtured by his editor.Nice guy, and a blast to talk to. Full of ideas. Quit on me without notice, too.

Rob: You're really just in this for the groupies, aren't you?

Jason: I was preparing this rather long explanation about how creators are solitary creatures and that we really crave the approval of our readers to justify our sad existence and choice of career to our families, and then I got to thinking....Groupies are good. Yes.

Rob: And there you have it, folks. Jason's in it for the wimmens. Any parting words, sir?

Jason: Only that to do mini comix places the creator in a special realm, where you sit with other like-minded folks who love the medium so much that they put their own money, time, sweat and energy into creating. These people are the ones that will be your friends, your cohorts and fellow future professionals. Having mini comix to your credit is something to be proud of, and to be as gracious to other creators as some have been to you is the best part of making comix.You won't get laid, you won't make money by making minis. But you'll have a hella lotta fun.

Comix are Cooler Than Calculus

You bringing up the time aspect reminds me of that guide I wrote a few years back to writing comix. (Digression - God, I was a cocky little son of a gun, wasn't I? Here I am at twenty one years of age, thinking I can teach people how to write comix. The fact people DID learn from it was the humbling experience to me, I think.) I had done a chapter in there, the only one I think still stands, actually, called 'The Mathematic Principles of Pacing'. This was another one of those 'A-Ha Moments', one of those Inky Athenas, that made the whole thing feel worthwhile.

It started off with my girlfriend working on Calculus homework, and me wishing I could help her, knowing I would have no freaking idea how, and going back to writing whatever I was working on at the time. And then it hits me like a freight train. Average comic book has twenty four pages. Average comic book is 6 1/2 by 10 inches. Each page has a certain number of panels. Each panel can be a different size, and its size affects the size of the remaining panels on the page.

Averages. Twenty four. 6 1/2 by 10 inches. Number of panels. Size of panels. Shit! Comix are just a mathematical equation that we put a story into. We can utilize the equation to tell the best stories possible, getting the reader as involved as we can. This was really exciting stuff to be figuring out at the time. Here's what I came up with:

*The Less Amount of Panels = The Faster the Pace

*The More the Panels = The Slower the Pace

*The Less Amount of Dialogue per Panel = The Less Amount of Time Elapsed in the Panel

*The More the Dialogue per Panel = The Longer Amount of Time Elapsing per Panel

*The Less Detailed the Panel = The Less Time Needed for the Reader to Look at the Panel

*The More Detailed the Panel = The More Time That the Reader Spends Looking at the Panel

Now, when you start mixing these up, you can see the endless possibilities presented. What was also amazing to me, is all of the generations of comix writers who just utilized this stuff instinctively. It reminded me of a story I'd heard about David Bekham, when he's kicking the ball into the goal, there's this thing he does, where the saying 'Bend It Like Bekham' came from, where he kicks the ball in the right spot, at the right angle, at the right velocity, that gives it this spin and curve that's just amazing. I guess scientists from all over the world have been working on the exact formula that he just instinctively does each time he kicks the ball. Amazing, really.

Never considered yourself a mathematician, now did'ja?

The 'a-HA!' Moment

Oh, yeah, that line that just pops out of you in the middle of a really good session is the best. I have to say that’s really only happened to me once, but it was fairly recent so I guess that means I’m on the right track with it.

I’ve gotten to the point where I can see that line in other writers’ works. The most famous is probably “I am your father,” wouldn’t you agree? I call this the “a-HA!” moment in my best Tom Cat voice. (Jesus, wasn’t Chuck Jones just as brilliant with Tom and Jerry as he was with Warners?) It’s really easy to spot in a bad film, but once you become aware of it, I suppose you can find it in every work of fiction.

I make comix ‘cos I like to play with Time. I like to explore spirituality. I love setting stories of personal discovery against unfamiliar backgrounds. I guess it’s the influence of things like Star Trek (the Shatner/Nimoy years) and the Twilight Zone during my formative years. We didn’t have cable and there were only four channels we could get, so I spent a lot of time reading, too. Stuff like Heinlein’s Future History and Asimov’s Foundation books, Harrison’s Stainless Steel Rat series. In the early 80s my Mom was buying me Heavy Metal when we went to the local Town Crier bookstore. I was what’s now referred to as a ‘tween and the fact that the comix I wanted to read now had naked ladies in them was startling to her, but she shelled out the two bucks anyway. That’s where I read for the first time Enki Bilal’s The Immortal’s Fete, and The City that Didn’t Exist. New translations of his work are coming from DC/Humanoids, and I’ve rediscovered his work. I think I could draw a lot of parallels with that stuff because I can see the obvious influences he had on me. More than I knew until just recently. So that’s sort of reinvigorated me to go back and try some more.

Time is the best excuse to write comix, I think. The idea that time occurs between panels and what length of time occurs within each panel is basic. When you write a novel, you can type “He paused.” In comix, you take as many panels or pages as necessary to show the pause. Imagine Dream standing on a beach for nine panels or three pages. That’s a pause, isn’t it? The idea that having seven pages of nine panels each and then on the eighth page is a full-page splash is powerful, too. Only in comix can the writer control the pacing of a story and how the reader takes it in.

It's For the Groupies, Jason

Why keep making comix? Oh hell, man, I don't know. Because I've been seriously pursuing it since '98? Because it's the goal I've had for my life since I was seven? Because if I quit now, all the effort, sacrifice, and hard work would be down the crapper?

Really, though, it's that zen moment, when I'm staring at the blank screen, or a blank piece of paper, and the idea hits me, and a whole story is formed, or a picture erupts from my brain, like an india ink Athena.

For instance, about a month back, I started working on a story that totally came from one line hitting me: “BUT REALLY, AFTER THINKING ABOUT IT FOR A FEW HOURS, THE END OF THE WORLD IS A VERY PERSONAL THING.” And Bam! there was a great story about the apocalypse and how I could come up with an original story around it (you can read the story, "I'll Love You Tomorrow" here).

That's what does it for me. That euphoric feeling when I'm creating, and most especially, creating comix. Writing a script is so in-depth, because not only am I crafting a story, but also giving art direction, forcing me to think about page layout and how best to utilize it. Pacing, repetition, visual narrative, that's the stuff that, maybe not keeps me going, but keeps me making comix rather than anything else.

You?

I'm STILL older than that...

Rob was this cocky kid sitting behind the table at the show and I was deep enough into my own creation that when I saw these two guys hawking a mini comic of their work (what some people will refer to as an 'ashcan preview', but really, it's a mini comic) and the artist was sketching the cover on each one sold, I said to myself "Damn, these guys are into comix, too!" I think I paid for the sketched-cover book (I still have it, too!) and dropped a copy of my latest mini comic on their table and said out loud something like "Us mini comix guys have to stick together."

I went back to my table where my partner was sketching his stuff (Kevin Perry, where are you?) and read through the book. I immediately picked up on what they were doing and handed the book to Kevin. After he thumbed through it, I took it back and talked to the guys. They seemed a bit overwhelmed from the idea that I understood what they were doing, but pleased at the same time. They gave me their website and I went away smiling, hoping I'd made some new friends.

Turned out I had. When we saw each other at cons in the area afterwards, there was always a long conversation about comix: what we're reading, what influences our current work, what we wish we could accomplish in the field... Y'know, Big Dream stuff, too. Later on, when they started their Free Comix! experiment, I was invited to contribute, and that, I think sealed the deal. Rob and I are coming from different angles, different styles of writing, with a little age difference in between.

I didn't start wanting to write comix until my late twenties, so I'm still on a learning curve, too. Plus I have a day job that's pretty demanding and sometimes sucks my will to live, let alone write. Rob has consistently said, written or done something to help pull me back on track and get excited about writing comix again. Thankfully, he doesn't encourage me to draw. Phil Hester once told me that I'm hurting my comix by drawing them, so I don't do a whole lot of that, but sometimes you gotta.

Anyway, enough of the silly introduction stuff. On with the conversation.

For me, I really enjoy holding a finished comic in my hand. One I've conceived, written, laid out and either drawn or had drawn, lettered, printed, folded and stapled. This is the reason I do comix. Not for any accolades or pats on the back. I used to play bass guitar in a rock band, and I wrote probalby 70% to 80% of the songs the group did. It was a huge kick to get feedback from the audience when we went on stage and played those songs live, and a bigger kick to record them for some sort of posterity. But the best time is when you've taught the band the song and then we play it all together for the first time. THAT'S the best feeling of all.

With comix, having that finished book in hand (or getting your copies from the publisher and opening the box with that aroma of New Comix wafting out) is the best. It's sort of the same feeling as playing that song with the guys for the first time, hearing the possiblities. My question to you, then, is: What makes you get up in the morning and want to do comix? What's the best part of the process for you?

2000AD

I first met Jason back in 2000, at a local Kansas City comicon. I was 20, and he was probably much older than that (I love you man). And god damn, but I was full of myself. We were sitting at opposite ends of the same aisle of tables. I was there to promote my upcoming book The Believer from Image, Jason was there with the twelfth issue of his Jackleg Comics, which he had been self-publishing on a monthly basis.

I remember thinking "Oh, I'll throw this guy a bone, now that I'm a bigshot comix writer." Little did I know that being a big shot comix writer is about the same as being the world's tallest midget. And there began a great friendship, and I got put on a big learning experience that I'm still reeling from.

Jason and I have decided to do this blog as a conversation piece about making comix, breaking into the biz, and getting folks to read your works. Please use the comment function to let us know your thoughts, as well.