Friday, November 28, 2014

That Time of the Year Again: The Two Christmases

It seems like the "War On Christmas" is starting earlier every year.  Kirk Cameron came out with a new movie this past month in which he tries to Rescue Christmas from them Godless Pagans.  And that means I need to trot out an essay I originally wrote several years ago for another blog of Alex's and which I like to re-post at this time of the year when our Culture Warriors begin putting the Vent in Advent.  It's all about how it's silly to wage a War On Christmas if you don't know which one you're shooting at.


* * * * *


For a while back when I lived in Darkest Iowa, I shared a duplex apartment with my wacky brother Steeve and my friend Scott. One year, Scott asked me to draw some Christmas cards for him to send to his Internet friends. This was around 1990, back in the caveman days. We didn't actually have Internet access ourselves, but Scott had borrowed a friend's university account and spent a lot of his free time on a computer bulletin board based out of the University of Iowa. For a while, both Scott and I were forum moderators at that site, (despite the fact that neither of us were students at U of I and in fact I was an alumnus of Iowa State).

I drew three different designs for him. One was a parody of Clement Moore's "A Visit from St. Nicholas" featuring the bulletin board's Sysop. One was a fairly bland one with a picture of a computer made out of snow. The third one bore the message "Have a Happy and Blessed Christmas Season."

"You can't say that," Scott said.

"Why not?"

"Because a lot of the people on my list are wiccans and atheists and agnostics. They'd be offended!"

Personally, I didn't see why they should. The message wasn't making any kind of religious statement; it just extended good wishes. My own attitude was, to paraphrase Bette Midler, if they can't take a blessing, screw `em. But since I was doing the cards for Scott in the first place, I acceded to his wishes and changed the message to a non-controversial "Greason's Seetings."

I think about Scott and his cards when I hear about the "War on Christmas". I suppose my experience should put me on the side of the Righteous Warriors out to protect Baby Jesus from the Evil Secularists. Somehow, though, I can't get that worked up about it. If a cashier wishes me a "Happy Holidays", she's expressing a hope that nice things happen; the same as if she had said "Merry Christmas," "Groovy Kwanzaa", "Swingin' Solstice" or "May the Great Bird of the Galaxy roost on your planet." I don't have to celebrate any of those things to recognize and appreciate nice intentions. In the same way, I don't have to consider it an affront to God if somebody says "gesundheit" when I sneeze instead of "God bless you." Take it in the spirit in which it's given.

At one time I used to get all bent out of shape about the Secularization of Christmas. I particularly detested the deification of Santa Claus. When I was in junior high and full of adolescent anger and self-righteousness, I wrote an abrasive, curmudgeonly piece on the subject which upon saner reflection I threw away. A thirteen-year-old curmudgeon is not a pretty thing. My views towards Ol' Saint Nick have mellowed since then as I have come to accept what I call The Two Christmases.

There are two holidays celebrated on December 25th. One, of course, is the Feast of the Nativity, when Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus. Then there's the other holiday, the Feast of Jingle Bells and Jolly Fat Men in Red Suits and Reindeer with Luminous Noses. Both holidays happen to have the same name, but they're different.

I celebrate both; and I don't see why the two need to be mutually exclusive.

Where the Christmas Warriors get it wrong is where they assume that the holiday has to be either one or the other. To a certain extent, I can sympathize with their point. I worship Christ, the holiday's namesake; and it does bother me when the earthly Babel sounds of the secular festivities drown out the song which the blessed angels sing. The Puritans felt this way and so they banned Christmas all together when they ruled England under Cromwell. Which is a funny way to honor a man who loved parties and who used feasts in his parables to represent the Kingdom of Heaven.

Christmas, as it is celebrated today, has a rich and varied tradition; sacred and secular, spiritual and commercial, tacky and sublime. There's a lot of Christmas stuff that I deeply love, despite having no connection to the Nativity story and only a tenuous connection, if that, to my religious convictions: family get-togethers, the giving of gifts, Vince Guaraldi`s piano music for "A Charlie Brown Christmas", just about any adaptation of A Christmas Carol, Thurl Ravenscroft singing "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch".

When I was little, our family had a devotional booklet that we used every Christmas called The Talking Christmas Tree. Instead of setting up the Christmas tree and decorating it all at once, we'd put it together bit by bit. The first night we'd just put up the tree. The second night we'd add the lights. Then little by little we'd add more to the tree and we'd have a devotion talking about how each addition could symbolize something about God.

Now I know that most of those decorations, and the tree itself, can be traced back to pagan sources, which is why the Puritans had such a problem with the holiday. But part of the joy of Christmas comes not from purging the religious holiday of all secular dross, but rather of finding things in the holiday bramble that enrich and illuminate the spiritual aspects.

(According to one story, Martin Luther put up the first Christmas tree. Walking home one winter, he was so struck by the beauty of stars shining though the evergreens that he brought a tree home and put lighted candles in its branches so his family could see. And right after that, Philip Melanchthon invented fire insurance. This story is almost certainly untrue; other scholars trace the decorating of trees back to pre-Christian times; still, it's a good story).

It works both ways. Just as Christians can enrich their celebrations with aspects of the secular holiday, so too can Christian elements filter out into to world at large. Usually these elements are diluted: sentimental crèche scenes, platitudes of "Peace on Earth", Madonna and Child postage stamps; but God's Word does not return empty; not even when it's been wrapped in tinsel.

If we limit Christmas to only Christ - which I do believe is the most important part - then we also exclude those who aren't Christian from the holiday; we become in effect dogs in the manger. If we actually wind up driving people away from that manger, then we ain't doing Baby Jesus any favors.



"Happy Holidays" is a blessing, and ultimately all blessings come from God. The proper response isn't "That's Merry Christmas, you PC secularist!" but rather "Thank you; and a Merry Christmas to you too!"

Thursday, September 25, 2014

The Erik Larsen Interview



Erik Larsen has been involved in the comic book business since 1982, when he self-published his first comic, Graphic Fantasy, which contained the first incarnation of his most notable character, Savage Dragon. The character was simply called The Dragon on the cover.

He later became a paid professional when his illustration of two of his other of characters, Vanguard and Mighty Man, was published as the back cover of Megaton #2 in October 1985. A Vanguard story and cover (fighting Savage Dragon, no less) for Megaton #3 gave him the traction to make a sustained effort doing what he loved, making comic books.

After working for a couple of smaller publishers, he broke in to “The Big Two” when he was hired to draw DC’s title Doom Patrol. After building a reputation at DC, Erik was given the chance to work for Marvel comics. He then worked for both companies until he was asked to take over the Amazing Spider-Man when Todd McFarlane moved over to launch a new Spider-Man title in 1990.

In 1992, Erik was one of the founding creators who formed Image Comics seeking more control over their creative work. It was at Image that resurrected Savage Dragon, along with Vanguard and Mighty Man. Although he has worked for both Marvel and DC since the launch of Image Comics, he has continuously published Savage Dragon for over twenty years.

If you want to Google his name make sure you spell it properly, Erik Larsen, otherwise you might get a historic Disney animator (Eric Larson) or a contemporary journalist and author (Erik Larson).

Paul Ewert: As one of the founders of Image you’ve blazed your own path and as such have acted as publisher, president, chief financial officer, as well as creative talent. Your work, Savage Dragon, is approaching issue #200. Dave Sim’s Cerebus reached issue #300. Do you see yourself reaching that milestone?

© Luigi Novi / Wikimedia Commons
Erik Larsen: I certainly hope to, yes. It’s a goal—a benchmark—and once reached I’d like to just keep on going.

PE: What does it feel like to have published two hundred issues of a book that you control creatively?  To what extent is an issue number arbitrary, could you keep going far beyond 300?  How about 400?

EL: Or beyond. It would be nice to set the kind of record that people would look at and say, “Okay…maybe I’ll try for the #2 spot.” 500 issues plus would be pretty awesome but that’s going to depend on readers hanging in there. I can’t do this without them.

PE: You helped Image attempt to bring back Supreme.  Why did you take on that title? 

EL: It seemed like a good idea at the time. I had a take on it that I thought was pretty fun and when Eric Stephenson and Rob Liefeld were talking about the books I threw out my 2¢ and said, “well, this is what I’d do…” and they both looked at each other dumfounded and proceeded to try and talk me into doing the book.

PE: What made it such an attractive project?

EL: It had possibilities and I had a story to tell. There was also an unpublished Alan Moore script and I’d never illustrated one of his stories so that was kind of an attraction.

PE: Were you surprised that no one has stepped up to take on Supreme after you left?  

EL: Not really, no. None of the titles performed spectacularly and a few didn’t really take off at all. Supreme really wasn’t attracting sustainable numbers.

PE: What elements of your work do you keep consistent? How as a creative talent do you make sure you do that?

EL: Certainly I make an effort to keep the characters looking relatively the same from issue to issue. There’s a certain dynamic that seems to be present. There are certain things which just seem to stick.

PE: Does that mean the “humanness” of your characters just naturally occurs when you write them? That the visual angles in panels are just unconsciously locked in to the right dramatic effect? Panels connect together properly so they set the pace of the story as you want it to flow? If so, how can I get me some of that?

EL: It’s funny but it does almost work that way. A couple of lines of dialogue in and it becomes clear what a given character would or wouldn’t do or say. They “find their voice” and anything which contradicts that just seems wrong and doesn’t ring true. With the art as well…that character wouldn’t stand like that or move like that. It would be like putting the Thing in a Spider-Man pose. It just looks weird and feels wrong.

You can observe the same thing in the real world. There are people that carry themselves as though they think they’re hot stuff and others who clearly have less confidence.

As a storyteller you develop a feel for those kinds of things and that’s a big part of why some characters feel real while others seem so shallow in another writer’s or artist’s hands. I can remember sending in notes when we were doing the Savage Dragon cartoon because so much of the dialogue was utilitarian. It got the characters from one place to another but too little of it showed personality. You didn’t learn who the characters were through their dialogue and in the real world you can’t help but learn that.

Overhear a conversation and in half a minute you’ll be making judgment calls…that guy’s a bit of an asshole. She doesn’t listen to anything he says. That kid really wants attention. That sort of thing. It all adds up. It all means something and if you’re doing your job well the reader will see the pattern and recognize the characters. “That’s just like something Kill-Cat would do” and even fill in the blanks (“I know just what he’s thinking”) based on past experience.

PE: How important are Good and Evil to the telling of your stories? It is often we hear about the root of all evil, but what is the root of all good?    How can a creative talent work to show that, or celebrate THAT?

EL: I haven’t dealt a lot with absolute evil. Largely I go with the idea that “everyone is the hero of their own story” and build off of that. The key is motivation. Why do you do what you do? What do you want from that? Fame? Glory? Love? Money? Comfort? Revenge? Satisfaction? Accolades? Sometimes it’s as simple as a lack of imagination and a need with a given character. I’m hungry now. My family is hungry now. Our rent is due now. How can I solve this problem now? And people justify their actions in any number of ways. Stories flow from that.

PE: Working in creative professions can be very difficult without emotionally supportive people around you. Have you had any family or friends whose opinions of what you do changed over your career? Was it emotionally dramatic or anti-climactic to find that out?

EL: Nothing has been all that dramatic. I was a kid that drew all of the time. I started drawing comics for my own enjoyment when I was very young. So these guys were pretty much used to the idea right out of the gate. In my immediate family we all have our own interests and this is just dad’s job. My wife and kids don’t read comics. My youngest read Scott Pilgrim and a couple other things but not a lot. He’s the most interested in it. He’ll ask what I’m doing and even offer suggestions. Plus, I have friends in and out of comics that I can bounce ideas off of. That’s pretty great.

PE: So you’ve never had an uncle who badgered your parents to get you to get “solid work” in construction or banking and then had to admit that you have done well for yourself as a “kiddie book” artist?

EL: Nope. Never. My dad refers to them as funnybooks at times but he calls them that to be a goof. It’s not said in a way to demean them. My folks were pretty supportive.

PE: Along with Jack Kirby, who are the artists who have had a strong influence on your style and work habits?

EL: There’s a lot of Walt Simonson, Frank Miller, Klaus Janson and Terry Austin in the mix. Herb Trimpe was an early influence--the first guy, really. I grew up on his run on the Incredible Hulk. John Byrne came somewhat later. I channel a lot of guys picking up effects here and there. When I was on Spider-Man I was looking at Steve Ditko an awful lot. Jack Kirby is the big one.

PE: What was the most outrageous fun that you had while working on a project? Why was that?  The people you worked with, the subject matter, the publisher giving you freedom?

EL: There’s no one breakout moment that I can point to. Certainly the unlimited freedom I have now is incredibly liberating. I dipped my toe back into the Marvel/DC pool a while back and the contrast is amazing--and I was given a lot of freedom then--it’s just not the same thing.

PE: Describe the contrast you felt when you “dipped your toe back in the Marvel/DC pool?” Was there something you used to accept as “part of the job” back in the day that rubbed you the wrong way this time? Has work-for-hire changed that much or has doing creator-owned work opened your eyes wider to creative freedoms available to you?

EL: There was a plot which we had set in motion and the editor realized, somewhat late in the game, that was too similar to something which was going on in another book with the same character and we had to scramble to make changes and come up with an alternative that made some sense. I don’t think we were able to quite pull that off and the end result was kind of a nonsensical mess. I couldn’t help but think…this wouldn’t have happened in my own book. It may even just be in my own head but the sense I got seemed to be that I needed to check in regard to a lot of things.

At this point I don’t think I could go back. I’m so lost. I really lost the thread on all of these characters and don’t know where any of them stand. I’d have to just make up new stuff for the most part and if I’m doing that…what’s the point? Why bother? Why not just do it on my own in my own book where I don’t have to answer to anybody? 

PE: What change, since you started in this business, has made the biggest impact on you and your work?

EL: Computer color and the advent of the internet has made the biggest impact. The reality that I can scan in pages and email tiffs to be colored by a guy in Greece is amazing. That I can make my own corrections in a computer program on my own computer in my home is fantastic.

PE: As a successful artist you work in an industry that chews up and spits out creative talents.   The failed attempts at careers far outnumber the success stories.  What is the best advice for beginning artists?

EL: Be humble. Be helpful. Make your deadlines. Learn your craft. The guys who vanish do so for a reason. Either they’re not very good or not very dependable or not easy to work with. It’s really hard to break into comics--it’s incredibly easy to break out. Each job you do is the job application to get your next job. If you do bad work or blow a deadline or start being a headache--it’s very easy to walk away from you. You are easily replaced.

Friday, August 22, 2014

A New Power Girl?

Last month, Marvel Comics stirred up a lot of comment by announcing that there was going to be a new THOR, who would be female; and almost immediately following that up with the announcement that the new CAPTAIN AMERICA would be black.
Well, DC Comics is not one to pass up a possible marketing gimmick, and this week an interview with writer Paul Levitz on the comics website Newsarama reveals that the new version of DC hero Power Girl is going to be... flat-chested.
I'm kidding, of course.  She has a perfectly normal bust-size so far as I can tell.  Smaller than the original Power Girl's Most Prominent Super-Powers, but then it would be hard to get much larger without becoming ridiculous.  Oh, and the new PG is black, which I suspect might be a reaction to the criticism DC had gotten over the past year over its "whitewashing" of black characters.
Who is Power Girl and why should you care?  I probably don't have a good answer for the latter question.  The former one will take a bit of explaining.
For starters, you can blame Roy Thomas.  Roy was a writer at Marvel and later at DC during the '70s and '80s who loved the Golden Age comics he grew up with, and loved bringing elements from them into the comics he wrote and later edited.
Years earlier, DC had established that it's Golden Age Characters, such as the original incarnations of the Flash and the Green Lantern, existed in an alternate universe which they cleverly named "Earth-2".  (Although you'd think that since the Golden Age came first, that they'd get to be "Earth-1"; but nobody asked them, I guess).  For a while there was a kind of tradition that every year the Justice League would cross over into the other dimension to have a team-up with their older counterparts in the Justice Society of America.
Since the Earth-2 heroes were a generation older than the heroes of Earth-1, Roy began playing around with creating a next generation.  His comic INFINITY, INC. was a team consisting of descendants and newer versions of the older heroes.  Huntress, the daughter of Bruce and Selina Wayne (yes, Bats and Catwoman got married in this universe) was one of these.  
Another was the Earth-2 analogue to Supergirl, who was named Power Girl.   She had shorter hair and a different costume, but the same basic powers.  She also was an outspoken feminist; (or at least what a male writer in the '70s thought of as feminist).
According to legend, Wally Wood, who was drawing the comic at the time, and who was very good at drawing sexy girls, started making Power Girl's bust a little bigger, and the decolletage of her white costume a little bit deeper, each issue, to see if his editors would notice.  The adolescent fanboys buying the comic certainly noticed, and Power Girl's bustline became her most noticeable feature.
At some point, I'm not sure when, her costume became modified so that instead of having a low scooped neckline, it sported a "boob window."  Possibly because the scoop front had already gotten silly and this was the only way to show more cleavage.
In the mid-'80s, DC decided that  it's multiverse of Infinite Earths was getting too confusing, and so they created a huge mega-series to clean it all up.  This was the infamous CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS; (it's title a reference to the old JLA/JSA team-ups which had titles like "Crisis on Earth-2" or "Crisis on Earth-X").  The end result was that all of the redundant Earths were folded into the one and there were no more alternates.  Theoretically, this was supposed to make the DC Universe less complicated; in actuality, DC spent the better part of the next decade or two trying to chase down loose ends created by their house-cleaning.
One of these loose ends was Power Girl.  She was the younger cousin of the Earth-2 Superman, (as Supergirl was the kryptonian cousin of the Earth-1 version).  Only there was no more Earth-2 Superman.  What's more, as part of the re-vamp it had been decreed that Superman would be the only survivor of Krypton, and that there would be no Supergirl at all.  (Supergirl was killed off during CRISIS and probably the iconic image from the series is the cover depicting Superman crying in anguish as he cradles her lifeless body in his arms).
So where did Power Girl come from?
Writer Paul Kupperberg came up with a convoluted backstory in which Power Girl only thoughtshe was Superman's cousin, and that actually she was the granddaughter of an Atlantean wizard named Arion (a sword & sorcery character Kupperberg created in the '80s inspired by Michael Moorcock's Elric) who had been placed in suspended animation for several thousand years.  But pretty much everybody ignored this origin story.
In the late '80, she joined JUSTICE LEAGUE EUROPE, a spin-off title from JUSTICE LEAGUE INTERNATIONAL.  Her strident feminism got ramped up in the name of comedy, and she became cursed with a succession of bad costume changes, each one of which kept the boob window.
In the late '90s, she was treated with a bit more respect and began appearing in BIRDS OF PREY, a very good team book with a female cast.  She also re-joined the Justice Society, which had gone through a couple deaths and revivals of its own.
That was about when I dropped out of comics, so I'm a little fuzzy on what happens next.  But some years back, DC decided to give the Multiverse another spin.  Instead of having potentially an infinite number of Earths, though, they said there would be exactly 52.  Because 52 is DC's special number now.  Because... reasons.
So now there is once more an Earth-2 adjacent to the mainstream DC Universe, and DC publishes a couple books set in it.  One of them is WORLD'S FINEST, featuring the adventures of Power Girl and Huntress.  Remember Huntress?
Apparently in a recent storyline, Power Girl and Huntress become stranded on Earth Prime, the main DCU.  (Although back in my day "Earth Prime" was the name of our universe, not the DC Universe and... dang kids.  Sorry.)  There they meet a brilliant 17-year-old girl named Tanya Spears who helps them figure out a way to get back home.  Somehow in the process, Tanya gains super-powers of her own, (writer Paul Levitz is not yet revealing where her powers have come from), and before Power Girl returns to Earth-2, she "bequeaths" her hero name to Tanya.
Levitz says that DC has "Special plans" for Tanya.  Levitz is a good writer and I'll be interested to see what comes of this.  You can read the whole Paul Levitz interview and take a look at Tanya at the Newsarama site
I just hope they can resist giving her a boob window.

Monday, August 11, 2014

ASHLEY WOOD the long lost interview

ASHLEY WOOD Speaks



This is an interview that comes from 10 years or so back.  I was fortunate to meet Ashley, and he did what was a relatively rare interview, answering my questions and fulfilling my dreams, I guess.  Interviews of Ashley and Grant Morrison were the two high points of online journalism life.  Despite various boneheads who hate me, the fact that these two creative artists took time to answer my question and do so in high fashion was very rewarding.  The interview itself was lost when PopThought was hacked by evil doers.  Someone online saved this for their own purpose and while searching online I found that archive.

Ashley Wood is a brilliant artist of many styles and talents. He has illustrated the various characters in the IMAGE Spawn mythos as well as the two detectives from that mythos, Sam and Twitch with Brian Michael Bendis. His two excellent series POPBOT and AUTOMATIC KAFKA struck many as amazing post modern works. His work on covers and interiors of IDW’s Steve Niles books Savage Membrane and Guns Drugs and Monsters set a mood that words alone cannot describe. Also at IDW he has had three collections of his work come out and he has illustrated the covers and interior flash back scenes for CSI. At this time he is kicking serious ass with his tale LORE, which explores a mythic world that I think would be true to describe as only from the pen and mind of Ashley Wood. He is among the best talents in the field of comics but his work strikes people in many ways, as he is not content to leave it in the hands of reader to look at the page content, they must think about and consider his page content.

ADULT LANGUAGE Warning, Ashley speaks expressively


Are you married, have kids? I know you have a cat from our discussions at SDCC, what is the cat’s name?

AW: Yup I’m married and have 2 young lads, everyone knows my wife's name is Paula. My cat’s name is Eddy, he is the inspiration behind kitty, from Popbot.

AN: You are from Perth, on the western coast of Australia and I wonder how that geographic placement has effected your perspectives and influences. How might you say that it has affected you in ways different from US or European artists?

AW: I am not really sure, Australia gets product and cultural fallout from the entire globe, which is great, I am pretty sure there's not many places where there is such a melting pot of cultures and ideas. So I am guessing I have a pretty rounded set of influences, Asian comics and cartoons were always accessible in my home town way before they became cool, European comics such as Tintin and Asterix are staples of school libraries, and of course news agents and specialty shops brought in American comics, I got it all, loved it all. English comics such as 2000AD, Commando, Starblazer etc., were gnawing on my brain from early on too, ...I think I’ve got a very broad showing of material, that no doubt influences me today,

AN: How does your particular region affect work, is it more expensive working out of Australia?

AW: Nah.  Pretty much the same, different time zone makes it a wee bit difficult to talk some times, but email fixes that… I'll be back stateside soon enough.

AN: What artists (not necessarily comics artists) awed you as a young fellow?

AW: As mentioned those who worked on Tintin, Asterix, 2000AD had very profound effects on me, I sure didn't comprehend the class and skill of Tintin and Asterix while reading them as a kid, but they still were great reads, today I now understand what stellar works they are while reading them to my own kids… 2000AD is the comic that me want to be a comic artist, it blew me away, Mike McMahon, Bolland, Ezquezzera fried my mind, and gave me the comics hard on, I still cherish those comics... awwwwwwww.

AN: Where did you learn your craft? University or tech school or self taught?

AW: Drawing everyday since I can remember, I studied Graphic design when I finished high school, but this was just before the computer design boom, so I was saddled with out of date production skills, and teachers who, looking back today were broken people, and shit artists themselves who were bestowing there bilge on unsuspecting kids such as myself ... bastards ... so I left … and just did it myself, worked for night clubs doing ad's, creating artwork for bands, had exhibitions and after a couple of years scored work with the 2000AD guys, I was very happy that day!!!

AN: Artists want to work and get paid obviously but why did you choose to enter the field of comics as an avenue of employment? I look at your work as being more of the fine art category than I do that of commercial or certainly cartooning art. What made you want to draw or paint in a medium that is not yet regarded in America at least as a high-minded medium?

AW: Shit I enjoy it, plus I never considered myself a comic book artist, I'm an artist who does comics, because I love them, and believe their place and effect on culture is much more important and far reaching than anyone understands yet. In fact I believe comics are pretty well part of the mainstream entertainment world, you only have to look around from movies to toys to video games to fucking everything, wait that wasn't the question... Fuck high-minded mediums anyway, what is that, comics, movies, books, original art, music all sit on the same shelf, great stuff floats to the top, shit drowns, move on… Sometimes I think people in some comic scenes will only be happy and believe the craft is being accepted is when 'Mainstream Joeblow' can name all the members of the X-Men since issue 94, and repeat at least 5 Spider-man quips... Fuck them, they’re like the snaggled tooth inbred, who at family gatherings should be left in the car.


AN: Any time an artist with a new style comes into the field folks seem to want to label him. I have heard that you are a Sienkiewicz clone yet I think that both of your styles are unique and fascinating, if also a bit similar. Is/was Mr. Sienkiewicz an influence upon your work and if yes how important are influences to note, I mean at some point unless you are swiping which I do not think you do, your work is your own. Is it merely convenient to label or is there something worthwhile in noting such things?

AW: I think its kinda irrelevant , I love Sienkiewicz, he was a trailblazer in pushing comic art, he opened many eyes to a new way of seeing, and don't believe we can thank him enough, go Bill… He certainly inspired my work early on, he did most things better than anyone else. Sure wasn't a clone because my worked didn't look as good, must have fucked up on the DNA transfer, or maybe I’m not Jewish… :)

I think influences are great, nothing really can grow in a vacuum, and you would be hard pressed to find many artists or musicians who have..Bill had a Neal adams touch early on, then a Bob Peak feel, then a Sienkiewicz... So what? It all looked great. Ashley Wood is no different, I figure start with something already great, odds are in your favour. But you are always gonna get dickheads who want to sling shit out of jealousy, or whatever, if calling me a Sienkiewicz clone is the best they can do, I am very honored.

AN: Your work on Spawn and Sam and Twitch were noteworthy for the use of painted covers and mind bending interiors but they were not nearly so unusual as your later work. Was that a result of working with writers like Bendis and Niles and their particular styles of storytelling or was it that the books were for a more mainstream audience than say AUTOMATIC KAFKA or POPBOT? Do you alter your style for the perceived audience?

AW: Didn't have the balls do be myself I guess, up until Popbot, I always tried to strike a balance, some of what Ash wants, some of what publisher want, or what I think they want. So in my headed I wanted to bust loose and retrospect should have. The main reason I moved on from Toddy, was a yearning to do more ASH WOOD stuff, where I could be free so to speak. Popbot and Automatic Kafka were the first steps in that direction. Of course the irony is, once I started saying fuck'em, I’ll do it my way, the reader response support was great... FUCK'EM, best advice I can give..

AN: I have heard from sources that your experience at WILDSTORM on AUTOMATIC KAFKA was brutal, and that however brilliant a book it was, the experience left you quite sour towards WILDSTORM. How was it working with Joe Casey? I doubt that he was the problem because he later worked on WILDCATS 3.0 so I am assuming problems went higher up. What were you and Joe trying to accomplish on the book, do you feel even with a truncated run it was accomplished, and with the problems did cancellation come as a result of sales or editorial intrusion?

AW: Well I was soured that it didn't get fuck all promotion and it got cut at issue 9 when 12 were promised… It was a hard book to do, from the outset, it got bagged by certain useless critics, which seemed to create a landslide against it, which was hard to fight against. It was hard to figure out where the support was. It wasn't selling great so no one cared much about it, either way, which left me and Joe to just have fun. Joe put his heart and soul into this book, as did I, I believe it will stand out as one of my best works. We had so much to tell with kafka, and it was a creative blow at the time. I still laugh at what we got away with, and what people have missed, Joe put a lot of cryptic shit in there that nobody has still cottoned on too.

My problems with Wildstorm/ DC is that when you lose favour with them, even signed contracts and promised books are thrown in the bin… That doesn't leave a good taste in my mouth.

AN: Why don’t many readers understand POPBOT? I realize that that is a broad paintbrush I just used for that statement but many people do not seem to understand the work despite its beauty and interesting concepts. Are readers too used to being spoon-fed in comics and popular culture in general?

AW: But so many do, its a funny thing, I dunno, I don't make it easy, yet if you read them, really read them and look at the purdy pictures, the story is there. I do believe mainstream American comic readers in particular need to be spoon-fed, because that's what they’re used too, and that's great, sometimes its nice to be led, but my style is different as I take a more European outlook on comic creation, involve the reader, make them a part of the creative process, their imagination is as much a part of Popbot as mine. A conversation between two people is a lot more satisfying than one. Popbot will last 13 x48 pages books, and it will all make sense, its just Mickey Mouse with nekkid girls..gotta love that.

AN: LORE was Mythica but the name/title was changed... why?

AW: Well Microsoft pretty much owned the name due to a game they were gonna release, then didn't...but I like LORE better..nice feel etc..

AN: Do you sell artwork from your site Ashley Wood, do you do commissions or sketches?

AW: Sometimes, never have much left too sell, have regulars who buy it all!! Sometimes I take commissions but not often…

AN: What do your fans not know about you or your work that would make them appreciate either more?

AW: I care deeply about everything I do, it is art to me, not a product...

AN: Your favorite beer?

AW: Mmm prolly Corona, coz back in Oz in considered a classy beer, but stateside it seems to be thought of as a crap beer ... I dunno, who cares, I like Fanta.

AN: What mainstream character would you like to work on most?

AW: None, mmm maybe Magnus Robot Fighter, but it would have to jazzed up, then all the old school moaners would bitch how it sucks, blah blah blah..so I'll stick to my own...DANTE REX ROBOT PUNCHER


AN: What would your greatest hope be for the comics industry?

AW: That it becomes a mainstream part of publishing, where trades, comics are reviewed alongside other publications not special sections or whatever… we don’t marginalize our own craft with stupid out of date fandom ideals, and fix the distrib system, for fuck's sake...

AN: Any books on the horizon you can pimp?

AW: Buy Metal Gear Solid its gonna be cool, buy LORE its fucking great, buy Popbot coz its ma babee, there's some other stuff that cant mentioned, you know the drill ... I'm going to da daily web strip… tons of shit, Ness!!!

Friday, August 1, 2014

From Graphic Classics: Feline and Canine Classics




I am so very fortunate to have the cats who have filled my life.  Katya and Sophia are my beloveds.  My cats Mischa, Simone, Anton, and Natasha are waiting for me in the afterlife, and I will live there with all of them... when it is time, of course.

I was therefore excited to receive GRAPHIC CLASSICS newest release Canine Classics/Feline Classics, illustrated tales from lovers of animals.

Tom Pomplun adapted many of the tales, and they are brilliantly illustrated, in color, by some fabulous talents.  The original stories were written by some of the greatest writers of all time, and that isn't the least bit hyperbole.  H.P. Lovecraft, Robert E. Howard, Edgar Allan Poe, Ray Bradbury, Ambrose Bierce, O. Henry, Algernon Blackwood, and more, show the depths of, and the utter awesomeness of companion animals in our lives.

I was shocked to see that the works were in color, since most of the books prior, that I remember were not.   I read every story, and while I adored every cat story, I even liked the dog stories.  To explain why this is important, I don't like dogs.  I've seen terrible things happen by dogs, I've been bit, and more.  So, the power of the fiction was able to overcome my prejudices.

I not only recommend this flip book, one side cats, one side dogs, I am going to put this on my shelf as one book I will keep and read again.

I don't give grades generally, anymore, but I am giving this book an A+.  I loved it that much.




Thursday, July 31, 2014

RPG Resources: The Arcana Wiki

My friend Jürgen Hubert, Author of Doomed Slayers, has been running a project for a while now which he describes as "The Wikipedia, for gamers by gamers!"  His goal was to produce an encyclopedic resource for role-playing games that would distill useful factoids from the real world that can be used as plot ideas for Game Masters.

It's an ambitious project, and after six years is still far from the encyclopedic resource Jürgen hopes for, but there is a lot of fun, weird and eclectic stuff on it.

(And, fair disclosure, yes, I am one of the contributors to it).

Here he gives a good explanation and introduction to the Arcana Wiki:  My Gaming Projects Part III:  The Arcana Wiki ; and here is the site itself:  The Arcana Wiki

It's a fun site; although you have to be careful about clicking on the Red Links (which don't go anywhere yet and will just frustrate you).  I recommend reading Jürgen's introduction first.

Oh, and check out Doomed Slayers.  It's an interesting look at the traditional clichés of Dungeon Delving that manages to put them in a reasonable social context.  And I hear the artwork is keen.

Sunday, July 27, 2014

ECLIPSE remembered

(This is a piece written in 2004 that was well received at the time by readers and friends.  Unfortunately the site it came  from was hacked.  We lost innumerable articles.  But a site online kept this in its archive, and I am reprinting it to avoid losing it a second time. )

When I announced the results of the signed comics contest and the favorite comic publisher informal poll I said I liked ECLIPSE comics. To my relative horror I received many emails from people saying who dat? And someone who PUBLISHES comics wrote to say did I mean to say Enigma from Vertigo. No I did not mean Enigma. I mean a publisher who created comics and cards and all sorts of wonderful stuff.

The Company and their books

Eclipse Enterprises, was a company that published comics, graphic albums, and trading cards from 1977 to 1994. Eclipse went out of business in 1994 but their legacy lives on in most successful
marketing ideas in comics. The publishers Dean Mullaney and cat yronwode were self described hippies but the product they put out appealed to everyone. They did horror, such as M and TAPPING THE VEIN under Steve Niles’s Arcane imprint. They did action, such as SCOUT or AIRBOY or WINTER WORLD usually featuring writing by Chuck Dixon or Tim Truman or drawn by Tim. They did super heroes, MIRACLEMAN by Alan Moore and other great talents. They did humor as in Larry Marder’s BEANWORLD. They did Manga, KAMUI and APPLESEED. They were among the first to release a Graphic Novel, SABRE. Later they helped popularize collected editions of serialized comics, along with ultra special hardcover editions with sketches. They paid royalties and allowed creative talents to keep their properties.


So why did they go bankrupt? I cannot speak for their fiscal policies but first the craze and hype for multiple covers and other gimmicks at IMAGE, MARVEL and DC who all were competing for a shrinking market made ECLIPSE less viable. At the same time the double bust of comics and cards in the 90s probably had something to do with the demise.


I asked former Eclipse talents this question:

"What was it about the comic book Publisher Eclipse that made its output so excellent for its time, somewhat dated for the 90s and now strangely resurgent in relevance? What publisher today is most like Eclipse in its outlook and output?"



Chuck Dixon answered:

"Dean Mullaney is what made Eclipse Comics what it was. The ultimate
guerilla marketer. Absolutely ruthless and one of those guys you were glad to have on your side. The guy has forgotten more about selling, printing and publishing comic books than most people in the business today.

His hit and run philosophy of publishing was to put out the greatest
variety of material and help it find its audience. Mainstream super
heroes, funny animals, political commentary, avant garde, crime,
horror and the uncatagorizable. Every trend was exploited and new
trends created along the way. Eclipse's output was the most eclectic, and at times outrageous, of its era. It matched Dean's restless nature and his willingness to take crazy chances. Eclipse didn't have the muscle of the big boys but stayed in the ring with a series of lightning fast jabs and dizzying footwork. Eclipse was the first in with manga. The first to exploit the comics/trading card connection.  The first graphic novel. Never played safe. Never went the easy route. Never rested.

There is no comic book company like Eclipse today. But there's also no company that doesn't owe a debt to the wacky, bohemian, abrasive little company created by Jan and Dean with two grand borrowed from their mom."


A couple of the talented people of Eclipse.

Timothy Truman, armed with gold short sword and pistol wrote the magnificent work SCOUT and is rumored to be working on a variety of secret projects. Chuck Dixon who wrote many books at ECLIPSE such as AIRBOY and WINTER WORLD is armed with two pistols and firing into the camera, is a mainstay at CrossGen, returns to DC with Richard Dragon and has a couple projects about to be announced being held in his hip pocket until the time is right.

(These references are amazingly dated by now, but I wanted to keep them in just for the date of the article being in context).


Thursday, June 19, 2014

Elric of Melniboné part 3: The Black Sword

In his dedication at the beginning of Elric of Melniboné, Michael Moorcock acknowledges thanks to Poul Anderson for his Three Hearts and Three Lions. As we saw in our look at that book, Anderson used the theme of Law vs. Chaos, which Moorcock echoed in his Eternal Champion stories; but it seems to me that there is another thematic link. Anderson also liked to use the theme of a hero compelled to act against his deepest desires because of honor and duty; and Elric has found himself in just such a position.

Betrayed by his cousin, Prince Yyrkoom, Elric has escaped certain death through the aid of the powerful water elementals who once served his father. But Elric’s triumph is short-lived as Yyrkoom escapes, taking his sister, Elric’s lover Cymoril, with him.

In desperation, Elric turns to his family’s ancient lorebooks and summons Aricoh, the Lord of Chaos, one of the Higher Gods his ancestors once served – a feat of sorcery which even Yyrkoom has been unable to perform. (Then again, Yyrkoom doesn’t really come off as bright enough to remember how many consonants are in his own name),

In exchange for Elric’s vow of fealty, Aricoh tells Elric where Yyrkoom may be found and how to reach him. Elric doesn’t like submitting himself to the will of Chaos; Arioch represents his people’s dark past which he has been trying to reform. But what choice does he have?


His choices are going to get even worse.

Yyrkoom has holed up in a grubby little city straddling a river between two backwater little kingdoms. It’s out of the way, and no one pays much attention to it. This latter fact is helped by the Mirror of Memory, a magical artifact Yyrkoom has acquired. It’s a huge mirror which steals the memories of any being, man or beast, who gazes into it. He has had the mirror mounted on tall pillars so that anyone sailing into the city’s harbor has to look at it. In this way Yyrkoom has kept his location a secret and has also been accumulating a navy comprised of seized merchant ships and their amnesiac crews, retrained to serve him; which he intends to sail against the Dragon Isle of Melniboné. And since Elric’s fleets are scattered all over the world searching for him, the city of Imrryr, Melniboné’s capitol, will be defenseless. Insert maniacal laugh.

And why shouldn’t he laugh? Just this morning he has succeeded in raising a demon who showed him how to reach the dimensional plane where lies his greatest prize: Sormbringer and Mournblade, the twin Black Swords of Chaos once wielded by the Lords of Melniboné in millennia past. With those two swords, no one will be able to stop him! Mwah hah ha!

Yes, he’s a bit unhinged by this point. Hanging around demons will do that to a guy. His sister tells him he’s mad, but what does a girl know. She also tells him that Elric will come to rescue her.

Cymoril strikes me as something of a disappointing character. She’s Elric’s love, but we see precious little of her; and most of her time on-stage is spent passively moping and waiting to be rescued. Now granted, this is the Pulp Fantasy genre, but Dejah Thoris had a lot more gumption than this girl.

But she is right about Elric; he is outside the city gates at this moment with an army. Arioch has warned him about the Magic Mirror, and so instead of approaching the city by sea, he sailed his ship across the land. (It’s a magic ship, okay?) Now Elric has summoned Flame Elementals to set fire to the city.

Yyrkoom orders the Mirror to be turned to face the attackers. This will affect his own forces as well, but he doesn’t care; they’re expendable anyway. Elric is prepared for this possibility as well. He has had the helms of his soldiers outfitted with opaque shields to protect them from the Mirror’s effects, and he has brought along a special group of auxiliaries, veteran soldiers who had been disabled in battle. These were mentioned earlier, but Moorcock was coy about the nature of their disability. The astute reader has probably guessed it, though; these men are blind. As soon as Elric sees the Mirror beginning to rotate in their direction, he orders his men to pull down their visors and fall back to let the sightless troops do the fighting.

Yyrkoom has one last trick up his sleeve. He sends a minion up to the Magic Mirror to destroy it. As the Mirror breaks, it releases all the stored up memories, overwhelming everyone in the immediate vicinity. Only Elric’s tremendous strength of will enables him to keep his own sanity. Most of the men of both armies die from the psychic shock, and most of the remainder are driven mad.

Elric’s friend, Dyvin Tvar is among the handful of survivors, and together they proceed to Yyrkoon’s dwelling. They find Cymoril, but she is in a bad state. Yyrkoom has placed an enchantment of eternal sleep upon her. Through strength of will she has stayed awake long enough to warn Elric that her brother has fled through the Shade Gate to the otherworldly plane in which the Swords of Chaos have been secreted. Then she klunks out.

This puts Elirc in a worse position than ever. Only Yyrkoon can release Cymoril from the spell. But how can he follow the traitorous creep? Arioch again insinuates himself into the picture to give Elric more advice. The Lord of Chaos has kept the Shade Gate open so that Elric can also access the other plane; and he tells Elric that he must find the two rune swords of his ancestors before his cousin does. If Yyrkoom acquires the swords, he will truly be invincible and Melniboné will fall before him.

Once again, Elric has no choice. He tells Dyvin Tvar to take Cymoril back home. He will follow Yyrkoon, and return when and if he can.

The world beyond the Shade Gate is a darksome, lifeless place, demolished long ago by a titanic battle between the Lords of Order and the Lords of Chaos. Elric wonders if this place is underground in an enormous cavern -- for he can see no sky, only darkness – or if he has actually gone far into the future after the stars have gone cold. It doesn’t really matter which.

The plane is not uninhabited, though. Elric meets a bowman clad in red calling himself Rackhir. He is one of the Warrior Priests of the distant land of Phum and until fairly recently he served the Lords of Chaos. But when he turned against them, they exiled him to this dreary place. The two men hit it off, (Elric being careful not to mention his current patron), and Elric promises to bring Rackhir back to their own world with him if he gets the chance.

It’s kind of late in the story for Moorcock to be introducing a new sidekick, but that’s essentially what Rackhir becomes; he accompanies Elric in many of the later Elric stories. And I have to say, he makes a better sidekick than Dyvin Tvar. Sorry, Tvar, you’re just too somber and Elric is a gloom twinkie to begin with.

There is a city nearby, inhabited by people who, for some reason or other, have like Rackhir been exiled to this plane, along with various demons who come and go. The two are attacked by several such demons, sent by Yyrkoom. Elric and his new friend defeat them with the aid of an old man named Nuin Who Knew All.
Nuin is another one of those almost throwaway bits of invention that makes Moorcock’s world so rich. Once he had been a foolish sage who wished to know everything. He made a pact with Orland of the Staff, evidently a god of some sort, and gained his wish. And ever since, he’s been trying to forget. He remembers very little of what he once knew, and every time he uses a bit of information it seems to fade from his mind; so he has hopes that someday he will know nothing and be free to leave this plane. But he still knows enough to recognize Elric’s name and to give him directions to find the Two Swords.

Elric and Rackhir make a perilous journey through and underneath a sinister swamp, eventually ending up at the entrance to the Pulsing Cavern, a weird chamber that seems to be composed of living flesh and which can only be entered through a sphincter-like opening; (thank you very much for that imagery, Michael Moorcock). Yyrkoon has preceded Elric here, but the two swords are suspended over his head and he hasn’t yet figured out how to get them down.

It’s because the swords were waiting for Elric to show up. Well, maybe not Elric specifically; just an opponent. The swords are sentient; and they’ve been waiting millennia for a chance to fight. As soon as Elric enters the fleshly chamber, one of the swords appears in his hand, and the other in Yyrkoon’s.
The swords were singing. Their voices were faint but could be heard quite plainly. Elric lifted the huge blade easily and turned it this way and that, admiring its alien beauty. 
‘Stormbringer,’ he said. 
Then he felt afraid. 
It was suddenly as if he had been born again and that this runesword was born with him. It was as if they had never been separate. 
‘Stormbringer.’ 
And the sword moaned sweetly and settled even more smoothly into his grasp. 
‘Stormbringer!’ yelled Elric and he leapt at his cousin.
The battle which follows is fierce, because Elric deeply desires to kill his cousin, and Yyrkoon fights back with no less fervor. But as the fight goes on, Elric realizes that the sword wants to kill his opponent even more. The Black Swords of Chaos feed off the souls of those they slay, and both Strombringer and Mournblade are long overdue for a snack.

Elric realizes that he is not wielding the sword as much as he is following the sword as it guides his arm. This kind of freaks him out, and he tries to wrest control of the situation. He still wants to kill Yyrkoon, but not for the sport of some demonic ironmongery.

But the sword has something to offer him as well. It feeds energy into Elric’s arm, magical strength. All his life Elric has been dependent on drugs to mitigate his feeble health and keep him alive. With Strombringer, he need never be weak again. The only price would be that Elric would have to let it feed.

This is not a price Elric likes; but he needs Stormbringer right now or else it’s brother Mournblade will feed on his own soul and pass the energy on to his enemy. He must accept the runeblade’s bargain.

‘You shall not be my master,’ Elric insists, and the sword seems to acquiesce. Elric disarms his cousin, but refuses to slay him.
Elric said: ‘We are victims, cousin, of a conspiracy – a game played by gods, demons and sentient swords. They wish one of us dead. I suspect they wish you dead more than they wish me dead. And that is the reason why I shall not slay you here.’
Now that the adrenaline has worn off, and the sword lies quiet in his scabbard, Elric can feel some sympathy, even pity for the pathetic wretch his cousin has become. But now both he and Yyrkoon, joined now by Rackhir, who has promised to share Elric’s fate for good or ill, are trapped in the Pulsing Cave.

Elric once more calls upon Aricoch. The Chaos Lord congratulates him on winning the sword, but asks why he spared his cousin’s life.

‘Let us say he must remain alive in order to wake Cymoril,’ Elric replies. Arioch smiles, and Elric realizes that the Chaos Lord was expecting him to forget that little point. Elric goes on to request that his patron take him, Yyrkoon and Rackhir back to Melniboné. Aricoch at first refuses; Rackhir is a traitor as far as the Lords of Chaos are concerned, and has been exiled to this realm as punishment. Elric insists: ‘He comes back with me… Or I do not take the sword with me.’

This is a calculated gamble. Elric guesses that Aricoh wants the runeblade returned to the mortal plane and that this can only be accomplished by a mortal champion; that is why Elric has been manipulated into this situation.

‘You are clever, Elric of Melniboné… And you are a fitting servant of Chaos.” Aricoch decides that punishing the Priest of Phum is not all that important after all. He takes Elric and his companions back to Melniboné.

And what then? Elric has defeated the usurper, regained his throne and rescued his love. Yyrkoon fulfills his agreement and releases his sister from her enchantment. Elric has tamed the Black Sword of Chaos. He should live happily ever after, right?

Yet Elric is still restless. He is not ready to sit back on the Ruby Throne. He still wants to reform his country, and to that end he wants to spend a year travelling to see the other nations and how they govern themselves. After a year, he promises Cymoril, he will return and settle down. Is that his only reason? Perhaps not, but if not he won’t admit it to himself. He asks if she will accompany him and Rackhir on this new adventure, but she refuses. Melniboné is her home.

But who will rule Melniboné in Elric’s absence? He suggests that Cymoril rule as empress until he returns to marry her, but she refuses. Dyvin Tvar has no desire for that kind of power. The most suitable candidate for regent, ironically, is Yyrkoom. Elric believes that his cousin has learned humility, and can be trusted with the position.

It will end badly; this the chronicle assures us. The actions Elric has taken, even those with the best intentions, will lead irrevocably to doom, for himself and for Melniboné. He still owes a debt to the Lord of Chaos; and the sword he has gained isn’t nearly as tame as he thinks it is.


For the time being, however, he is ready to set out on a new adventure.

Monday, June 16, 2014

Jamie Delano Interview: Small Press, Creative writing, and Poker

I met Jamie Delano online in 2002.  He was gracious and kind to a newbie interviewer, and gave me two great interviews since.  Also, I've often felt that he was a mentor, giving me help with creative ideas, and direction, when almost no one else cared or gave one single damn.  So I definitely am biased here.  I think Jamie is a great writer, and a better person.   He writes dark stories, and the common thought about writers of darkness, is that they themselves are dark.  But I can honestly say, Jamie is a source of light.  He isn't superhero or god, just, a very good person in my estimation.  This is an e-mail interview done over the span of a month, May 2014.

What recent/current cultural and world events have most influenced your creative work?

In the sixty years of (more or less) sentience that I have (more or less) enjoyed, the primary influence on my creativity has been in observing the heroic resistance of human individuals to the madness collectively wrought by their fellows.  Wars, political ideologies, religious and cultural icons have all provoked reaction from time to time – sometimes inspiring, more often appalling – but it is some sick intrinsic need to comprehend the curse of life, to make sense of the senseless and celebrate the futility of our existence that keeps me writing.

As an established writer, what led to you going the route of self or small publishing?


Most likely it is early-onset dementia at the helm there.  Never a natural fit for me, I found myself increasingly awkward in the world of comics writing.  I had a generally good time and made some good friends there, and count myself fortunate to have been able to make a moderate living as a writer in that (or any) medium for a number of years.  But nothing lasts forever; my audience was increasingly ‘niche’ and the time available to write the novels I’d always planned to seemed suddenly to be shrinking fast.  So I arsed around for a few more lazy years playing poker and growing peyote, just to increase the pressure, and then someone put a gun to my head and forced me to sit down in my loathed study and write BOOK THIRTEEN.  I was a bit shy about it when it was finished, and it didn’t feel like a ‘Jamie Delano’ story, and I liked the idea of designing the cover myself, editing myself batshit, and spending considerable sums of my ill-gotten Hellblazer royalties to make it available to a discerning few via my own imprint under a pen name.  In fact I liked it so much that – despite the fact that sales have barely covered printing costs, let alone reimbursed me for the time spent writing it – I decided to do it again with LEEPUS: DIZZY.  I enjoy writing prose and wish I had done more sooner; spending a year on a manuscript, and then editing the text, making the cover and producing a work which is all your own (and whose faults you can consequently blame on no one but yourself) is very satisfying to me.  It’s gratifying too when a few people buy it and say that they like it, but – just as well – the main pleasure for me is in the achievement, having a well-made artifact to hold.

Where do you see publishing in general, now that you've taken this step?

It’s all a bit confusing and I don’t pay all that much attention.  The self-publishing industry seems to have burgeoned exponentially; no one now need feel precluded by anything but time and inclination from writing and publishing their book.  And that is a great and liberating advancement.  But the writers are rarely the ones being rewarded on any financial level.  The money is made in the servicing of this technological opportunity; by the online ‘retail platforms’; the ‘Ten Things You Absolutely Must Do to Sell Your Self-published Novel’ merchants, etc., etc..  It feels a bit exploitative – putative ‘literary lions’ exploited as ‘content providers’ scrabbling for self-promotion.  All those 99 cent eBooks, giveaways, arbitrary price-reductions and sock-puppet scandals -- I’m personally less and less inclined to go there.  I made eBook editions of BOOK THIRTEEN available via Amazon, etc., while handling print editions direct, but if people want the new one – digital or print – they’ll need to buy it from me personally, or a bricks-and-mortar independent store that cares about the product.  And it’s likely BOOK THIRTEEN will be brought back in house in the next month or so.  Commercially suicidal?  Maybe – but I’m happier trying to write and produce books that offer satisfaction to the few readers that may find their way to them than desperately blogging from dawn till dusk to ‘sell myself’ and creep my title up the Amazon charts by a hundred-thousand places.  I guess I’m a writer who publishes his own books, rather than a salesman who makes his own product.  Call me precious, I don’t care.  That said, I do enjoy engaging directly with readers and others via social media, in the same way that I enjoy packaging a book when they buy it and taking it to the mail myself.

As a creative writer myself I'd like to ask, what makes you write.  Do you write for the reward of money, or do you think, if you were to be a very wealthy man otherwise you'd write nonetheless? I have to write.  I get antsy and bad dreams if I don't, but I know not everyone is the same.

The Word is a virulent infection communicated by those closest to us and, although well-meaning, already hopelessly corrupted.  The act of writing is torment and the outcome invariably disappointing – all those monster babies, but we still keep going at it hoping the next one will be perfect. To anyone who wants to make money out of writing I’d suggest practicing blackmail letters as likely the most profitable option.  I write to scratch a personal psychic itch; I was lucky for a number of years to be able to earn my living by that scratching via the medium of comics – but I started writing poems and stories around the age of twelve, and it wasn’t until I was twenty-seven that a friend suggested comics might provide a financially rewarding outlet for my compulsion.  Whatever I write, I do it primarily to please myself.  I’m easily bored, and writing allows me to pass the time exploring my imagination and trying to wrangle some kind of sense from the madness I find there.  When others also find my work pleasing and are willing to pay to read it, I’m grateful.  When they don’t, I’m disappointed, but I rarely regret my approach, or wish I’d gone a different route with a story.  A thing goes how it goes; once I’m embarked on my one-word-after-the-next journey the game is out of my control.

  
Is there a model for self publishing or small publishing that you are able to follow, or, have we reach a place in the landscape of publishing that due to the collapse of normal markets and big publishing, everything we do is new?

If there is a model for successful self-publishing I’m not aware of it.  My only plan is to write as well as I’m able, and make books with as much care and attention as I can muster in order to offer value and provide a pleasing artifact and a satisfactory return to a reader on the investment of their intelligence, time and money.  I do my best to tell people they are available, but not to the point of butting in on every public conversation shouting ‘Look at me, look at me – I wrote a book, so I’m amazing and clever and you’re a fool if you don’t see that and want to buy it.’  (Although all that is undoubtedly true)

Do you foresee a better reward for writers in the future due to self publishing, or did the financial world and collapse of most print strip mine the reward aspect of writing for most people?

A few may get wealthy, if that is their aim, but the vast majority will not.  It was ever thus.  The only good reason to write stuff is to get better at doing it.  Writing is largely a legacy activity.  Do it to leave something worthwhile behind.  That said, as Leepus (the lead in my latest novel) opines from time to time: “Even idiots sometimes get lucky.”  – so never abandon hope of a random payday.

How do you balance the need for financial profit with releasing your creative energy for others to enjoy?  If you were so wealthy you could do anything including lounge about the patio or play poker, would you bother to write?

There’d be no point to being wealthy if it did not offer the liberty to write – other, of course, than funding the buy-ins to higher-stakes poker tourneys than I’m at present able to risk.

Currently I’m in the fortunate position of enjoying an inexpensive lifestyle, with the years ahead that will need financing diminishing with reassuring speed.  I have no expensive lovers, or outlandish drug-habits to maintain; my house is paid for and my children are generally self-sufficient; I receive the odd royalty payment in recognition of past labours; and the recent increase in the age at which UK females may claim their state pension means that my partner, Sue, will earn a regular wage for the next six years at least.  So I can indulge my word addiction for a while undistracted by the threat of bailiffs.  I plan to exploit the situation while it lasts.

What market beasts are the hardest for a self publisher or small publisher to face?  What are the best weapons for them to strike down said beasts?

The need to find readers constantly conflicts with the need to write stuff with which to feed them.  My only weapon is a desire to write as well as I can and a naive faith that the effort will be serendipiditously rewarded. So I’m doubtless doomed to die unknown and a pauper.  Oh well – c’est la guerre, as the fighting French say.

If your small press does well, will you publish others?  If so, how will you choose from the myriad of choices, and friends with scripts that are deserving?

It was my initial intention that Lepus Books would be no more than a platform to give an identity to my own prose fiction, however I have started to adjust that model, publishing Kiss My ASBO by Alistair Fruish in the autumn of last year.  I vaguely see a future role as publisher of last resort for work that I find intriguing by people who I like.  Sometime in 2014 we will also offer a memoir of a woman growing up lesbian in 1970s/80s middle England – so we’re not restricting ourselves to fiction, although that will probably provide the bulk of future content.  Lepus Books has a minimal bankroll, and does not seek to make profit from publishing the work of writers other than myself.  We act solely as a resource by which to ease getting a book into print and a platform through which potential readers can interact direct with an author, whose sole responsibility it is to manage and honour orders. Lack of time, energy and finance dictates that, at this time, unsolicited manuscripts cannot be considered and new works will, for the foreseeable future, be adopted only by invitation and at my dictatorial whim. I vaguely fantasise about expanding this model into a network of similar author/publisher independents who might coalesce into a cooperative network of writers and potential readers divorced from the churning madness of Amazon, etc.  But I’m not a natural entrepreneur, so anyone with the skill and inclination should feel free to take over the lead.

Do you have sequential story telling left to do?  What kind of comic stories are left to tell?

Yes, I’m pretty sure I still have sequential scripts in me. Despite its stagnant backwaters the medium remains vital and there are millions of stories to tell – everybody breathing lives at least one.  It’s summoning the energy to keep dipping into that seething pot of tragedy, pathos and humour that’s the problem.  And a novel is an easier (and more self-absorbing) prospect when one is flying solo, without any artistic talent, or either the funds or sheer brass neck to lure an artist into collaboration on no more than a promise.  I’ve no idea what type of story I might produce, though; but it seems likely it won’t feature superheroes or suit the mainstream.



Do you believe that the world populace reads less, or do you think the transition from print has made it hard to measure how much anyone reads?

The global population is increasing exponentially, so, even if a smaller percentage of humans are regular readers, it stands to reason there’ll still be plenty.  Question is what will they be reading, and where. It seems likely more is done onscreen now, via the Internet or devices, than by way of the printed page.  And I sometimes wonder if  –  as with the net mitigating an individual’s need to actually know stuff, rather than merely knowing how to access required information –  the easy availability of vast tracts of media generally means that more people collect it than actually read it.  Assembling resources can get to be a compulsion, become an end in its own right.  You can have the Library of Alexandria on an eReader in your pocket but, unless those volumes are actually accessed and their texts considered, a few well-thumbed books on a kid’s bedroom shelf is a lot more significant.  What the literary world needs is much more general boredom.  When I was a child I read the clock round because, as a suburban kid in dreary 1950s/60s England, with only one crappy TV channel, who wasn’t big on sport, vandalising public amenities, or raking the dead leaves from the garden at the insistence of a Philistine father, I was left with only bike-riding, fishing or books to pass the endless fucking black and white hours.  The bike was handy to get to the river (out of earshot of the irritating father), and fishing was okay in allowing space for the imagination to wander – a catch was fortunately a rare distraction – but books were where the cool and intriguing shit really happened.  If I’d had an Xbox or YouTube handy, though, things might have been somewhat different.

When in the midst of writing a story is it mostly written just needing to be typed, or, do you write the story as much during the typing out as before starting?


I usually have nothing much more than a vague idea of character and scenario when I force myself to boot up the PC and confront that blank-screen terror.  My ‘thinking’ is largely done on the keyboard, as I make stuff up as I plod along, one word after another, trying to follow an elusive scent into an indistinct future. The story is hidden in the journey; I usually don’t see it until I get to the end.  For the first third at least of a comic script or a book, I invariably go back to the beginning each day, editing text and adjusting rhythm, shifting punctuation minutely and looking for missed clues to the trail ahead.  Eventually I’m content enough to revisit only the preceeding day’s chapter until I reach a conclusion.  And then the real writing work begins.

Re-write, re-write, re-write until you’re sick of the sound of your own fucking voice, then rewrite again and once more.  Only when there is no time or sanity left in which to procrastinate further should one publish and be damned.  It’s a misunderstanding shared by many non-writers, to assume that writing is no more than blurting a plot out onto a page, an act of endurance only.  Guy’s, what you have there is a first draft, sometimes hardly more than a synopsis, a rough-hewn chunk of rock; you need chip away at it for half-a-fuckin’-lifetime more before you appreciate its perfect form and hear its music.  Writing is hell and a mug’s game.  You run the risk of going stone crazy convincing yourself it’s important; you may just vanish up your own arse.  It’s a dangerous sport you’re flirting with, worse than taking drugs, or parkour; so don’t join if you can’t take a joke.


You'd likely wish to punch me in the ovaries if I didn't ask a question or two about the books that your small press has sprung up to share.  Tell us about Leepus, where it can be bought, and what part of your dark dark soul did it spring from.  Fear?  Anger?  GWBush?

My first novel, BOOK THIRTEEN by A. William James aka Jamie Delano, was published in 2012. While in no way autobiographical, it arises from the travails of an aging and superstitious pulp fiction writer struggling to overcome a long-term block and the distractions of a large and ramshackle family to complete the final work in a series of fictions featuring a character called Leepus.

LEEPUS: DIZZY (2014) – which I occasionally think of as a graphic novel for which the reader must provide their own pictures – is set in the near-future alternate reality of Inglund. The ‘Leepus’ featured therein is likely not the fictional character created by The Old Writer of BOOK THIRTEEN, but the suspicion that the two are connected by some contorted skein of madness in the depths of imaginary space should not be disregarded. Who knows where this shit comes from, or why I feel moved to write it down; but the words of my old mum are often present in my head saying: “Better out than in, son.’  DIZZY is fast-paced, dark, funny, a bit trippy, occasionally violent, and has some libertarian fun with language.  I’m pleased enough by how it turned out to seriously consider calling it the first of an ongoing series.

I won’t bore readers here with lengthy exposition; suffice it to say that those interested can download sample chapters of both BOOK THIRTEEN and LEEPUS: DIZZY via the Lepus Books website, www.lepusbooks.co.uk , by which means they can also purchase print and digital editions direct from the author/publisher, thus making him very grateful and incrementally enhancing his lifestyle.

The third title currently offered by Lepus Books is Kiss MY ASBO by Alistair Fruish, a debut novel recommended by many who know shit from Shinola, and which I personally endorse through being its publisher of last resort.

 
As I've asked many people, in interview, what do you find horrifying, and how do you translate your own fears into books that scare other people?  Is there a catharsis of fear release?

Fear is the constant companion of any halfway intelligent organism abroad and vulnerable to tooth and claw aboard our planetary spaceship as it spins dizzy through the icy vastness of godless infinity.  Tangling that human terror in fiction has always seemed to me some small, if futile, mitigation of the dire threat to health and wellbeing of those I love posed by careless Fate.  Naming the monster offers a slightly improved chance of magically defending against its assault.

Tell the readers of this how to find you, where to find your press, and what you hope happens with your company in the next five years?

My vague intention is that Lepus Books will continue to publish works by myself and others whose work appeals to my idiosyncratic taste  but which may not fill a conventional publisher with confidence of profit.  But please note – our resources are currently tiny and I am thus unable to consider unsolicited manuscripts.

Thank you sir, I adore your work and you.

Thank you, Alex, and your readers, for your interest.

Jamie Delano – 2014

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