"The idea was always to go up to the Revolution": Jason Rodriguez speaks about his second Colonial Comics book

by Mike Rhode

The second book in the historical non-fiction short story anthology Colonial Comics was released this week. I met with editor Jason Rodriguez at Lost Dog Café in South Arlington and we chatted a bit about putting both books together. I hadn't gotten a copy yet, so the discussion is a bit abstract regarding the second volume, but hopefully our talk and some pictures from the book will hold your interest, dear reader. You can also check out this 2015 interview on book one from the Washington City Paper.

JR: It’s funny that the second book in the Colonial Comics series is actually thicker than the first one. They changed the paper stock, and the second actually has more pages. The covers are supposed to be continuous. [The first book] has the Massachusetts coastline, the Mayflower coming in, a bunch of Pilgrims parked on the shore, and one Native American overlooking it. The second continues with the same shoreline, but now built up to Boston and more ominously, with the British fleet coming in. When we do a mid-Atlantic version, the drawing is going to continue South (i.e. lower in the cover).

MR: Are there any more books in the New England series?

JR: No more. We’re going to cut it off at the Revolution, partly because a lot of people know about the American Revolution. They learned about it in school.

MR: There’s always more, smaller stories…

JR: Absolutely. There’s plenty we could do, but as far as Colonial Comics, the idea was always to go up to the Revolution. Otherwise, it would be Revolutionary Comics. We wanted to focus on the origins of the country.

MR: Are you planning on working your way to the South now?

JR: The third book is supposed to be mid-Atlantic history. We don’t have any plans to start it immediately. With the first book, we put it out there and started working on the second book. We got feedback on the first that we incorporated into the second, but we want get new feedback before we start thinking about the third book. I wouldn’t expect us to start working on a third book for six months or so.

MR: Fulcrum is enthusiastic about the line?

JR: Yes, although the first book didn’t sell quite as well as either of us wanted it to. When we go to a new printing of the book, we’ll make some changes. The second book is strong and addressed feedback we got from the first book, and should take off quicker. The first one sold fine; it just didn’t sell fantastically.
  

MR: I think part of the problem with the first book to a certain degree might be the amount of religion that’s a part of the early American colonies – it’s hard to get away from, it’s hard to understand, and it’s far removed from our culture.

JR: Yes, that led to a structural problem with the stories themselves, because from 1620-1750, people know the landing at Plymouth and the witch trials, and when we try to fill in the spaces, a lot of it is based on religion and is dark stuff, like wiping out populations. And for a lot of it, we have to use primary sources because it’s not covered in a book that we can turn to. Because of that we ended up getting a lot of text-heavy stories that was aimed at an adult audience, but marketed to middle-graders and young adults. With the new book, I was much better at keeping people doing things that feel  like comics with actual actions and not just captions everywhere. I think we took a lot of issues with the first book to heart and came up with something much more fantastic.

MR: Did you use mostly the same contributors?

JR: No. There are some repeats. I have my people that I love working with. John Bell and David Lewis are back as assistant editors. They both also wrote a story. There’s a lot of our DC-area folks – Jason Axtell colored a story in the first book, but he illustrated a story this time. Matt Dembicki’s back. Scott White did the cover again, and this time he also did a comic story. Chris Piers, even though he’s out in Seattle now. [Being interviewed in a bar, Jason overlooked Arsia Rozegar, Mal Jones, Matt Rawson, Rafer Roberts, and Carla Speed McNeil who also contributed]. I always use Charles Fetherolf, Josh O’Neill and James Comey. I loved working with E.J. Barnes and Sara Winifred Searle  in the first volume so I invited them back. Jason Hanley has always been my letterer but for the most part I brought a lot of new people on board.

MR: How do you find people?

JR: We had a general call for submissions that several people responded to, including some great finds. That’s probably where Jackie Roche came from and she is phenomenal. She does these fantastic watercolors. Just like with the first book, I wanted to focus on under-represented narratives, unknown stories, things like that, but I still wanted to touch on some of the big stories that we know.

 I wanted to include the Boston Tea Party in some way, and Jackie came to me with a pitch about actually tracing the tea trade – starting in China, following it through India, and then into Massachusetts and tracing the tea as it went into the harbor.

A lot of the stories are ones I just found. Ashley Victoria Robinson wrote “Mercy Otis Warren” about the playwright, and one by nature I guess, because there were no plays in Boston. It was against Puritanical rules to produce plays. Warren wrote revolutionary plays, originally anonymously, but later took credit for them. Ashley wrote me saying she wanted to do a story about nurses in the Revolutionary War, which we weren’t covering, but since Ashley also had some playwriting experience, I suggested Warren. 

Some people I paired with a topic, and some people came in with great things. Kevin Cooney came through the submission process with a story about the Stamp Act obelisk which I think is one of the greatest things I learned. Matt Dembicki illustrated it. When the Stamp Act was repealed, Paul Revere designed this obelisk which was supposed to be a permanent fixture under the Liberty Tree. The problem was that it was made out of oiled paper and wood, and it was lit from the inside with candles and they put fireworks on top of it, so it burned down the first night they celebrated it. Paul Revere’s plates still survive and I actually made an origami version of it for promotion purposes so you could print it out and fold it.

MR: Do you have an editor at Fulcrum?

JR: Yes, Fulcrum assigns me a chain of editors. Rebecca McEwen edits for content and what’s allowed and what’s not in these books. It’s not just sex and violence but language. There are two stories where I had to put a disclaimer noting that “negro” and “mulatto” were common terms. We had to cut out “damns.” There was a little pushback at times from the artists, but we managed to sustain most of it. The copy editor was Alison Auch and she was great to work with. She was very responsive and helped put the book together. She worked really hard in the last month, because I was late in delivering everything. But I do all the design work including the cover and literally deliver them an entire book, so they could just publish it as-is, but they don’t. They fine-tooth-comb it, and have third party people read it, and put a lot of effort into it.

MR: A few years ago, you did an Amazon-only Kindle children’s book and you’re about to launch a Kickstarter campaign for that?

JR: “The Little Particle that Could” is a story about particle physics and general relativity for kids. The original version followed a graviton who was perfectly happy just spinning and pulling things down to earth until a photon catches her eye and she decides to chase it, off the Earth and into a black hole. We wanted to do a print edition that was a bit more special so now we have a new colorist, and Jason Hanley is re-lettering it. We’re hoping to do a hardcover with nice glossy stock, and then stretch goal to a board book because I love them. We just need to raise $5000, and then $10,000 for the board book. I think it’s achievable.

Awesome Con day 1 is a success

District Comics panelists - Art Haupt, Rafer Roberts, Mike Cowgill, Andrew Cohen, Jacob Warrenfeltz, Mike Rhode, Carolyn Belefski and Troy-Jeffrey Allen.

The Con sold out of tickets by about 3 pm on Saturday. They had a good mix of people, and it was bustling. Lots of cartoonists tell me they did well. Nick Galifianakis sold out of his book. Dan Nokes made his table money back in an hour. John Gallagher and Steve Conley were always busy. Bill McKay's commission list went into tomorrow. Shannon Gallant seemed to stay busy with commissions too. Troy-Jeffrey Allen and Jay Payne launched Bamn #4. Carolyn Belefski was interviewed by Comic Riffs today too.

The District Comics panel had about 40 people in it, despite being opposite the costume judging contest. I think this has the potential to be similar to Baltimore CC in a few years.

BTW, New Jerseyan Jeff Shultz is selling his Archie pages for $20 each. I bought a nice volleyball page.

Here's some pictures.


Chris "Capes and Babes" Flick.



Dan Nokes has a new compilation book debuting at the show.


Nick Galifianakis on the way to selling out of his book.


Bill McKay.


A good looking Dalek vs Dr. Who. I thought Daleks were upside-down trashcans on wheels?


Starro the Conqueror - I loved this costume.


Big Planet Comics et al.


Steve Conley drawing Bloop in a Tardis.


Jason Axtell.

Meet a Local Cartoonist: Jason Axtell

 I met Jason Axtell at the Big Planet Comics launch party for Magic Bullet #4. Axtell had just finished coloring Matt Dembicki's Mr. Big story for its reissue this summer, and Matt made a point of introducing us. I'm glad he did as Jason's put quite a bit of thought into answering my usual questions. I personally look forward to catching him at a con so I can buy a set of his comics, as seen on the right...

Mike Rhode: What type of comic work or cartooning do you do?

Jason Axtell: I'm generally all over the place. It's whatever I am feeling at the moment. I wouldn't call myself a traditional comic artist by any means, and by traditional I mean the kind of thing you would see in DC/Marvel or anything mainstream. I'm trained as an illustrator and heavily influenced by a number of styles and forms of art and try to incorporate my wide range of influences into my work.

How do you do it? Traditional pen and ink, computer or a combination?

I do enjoy the pen and ink, or more appropriately, brush and ink. I've always leaned towards anything that resembles painting.

When (within a decade is fine) and where were you born?

1978. Jersey, originally.

Why are you in the Washington sphere now?  What neighborhood or area do you live in?

I moved here after spending nine years in the south, primarily Savannah, Georgia. After a failed relationship, a layoff and my general distaste for the southern "hospitality" I decided I had enough and needed to get out of there. When the Art Institute of Washington (in Arlington and Sterling) hired me on as a full-time instructor three years ago, that was all I needed to hightail it out of the south. Though I still like to visit some friends down there, I don't regret leaving it. The DC area is more to my liking. I live in the Vienna/Oakton area.

What is your training and/or education in cartooning?

I earned a BFA in Illustration from VCU and an MFA in Sequential Art from SCAD. Neither really focused on 'cartooning.' VCU trained me in traditional as well as digital media, and mainly as an illustrator. But since I started out trying to be a cartoonist and comic artist, a carry-over from my high school days, much of my early work yielded a mix of both cartoony and painterly aspects. SCAD trained me as a visual story-teller, allowing me the chance to hone my illustration techniques while also applying them to a comic format.

Who are your influences?

Too many. Primarily my Uncle Dick (not a joke) and my good friend Ben Phillips. I've known both since about the age of 6 or 7. For years I didn't know much about my Uncle except that he was a teacher and a painter. He taught at University of Memphis for 30+ years. When I was young he gave my parents a few of his paintings, which my parents proudly framed and hung in our dining room. Every night I would look at them and try to decipher them. He was an abstract artist that experimented with line, color and shape, frequently going through different phases and evolutions in his art. My favorites as a kid dealt with his attempt at capturing the effect of light and color in water. It wasn't until I was older and in the midst of earning my MFA that I began to delve a little deeper into what he was all about. Other people in my family have demonstrated terrific artistic and creative talents but for some reason I'm the one that pursued it to the similar lengths that he did. It wasn't until the last few years of his life that I really tried to figure out where he was coming from as an artist. It took a few visits and recommendations (Kandinsky, Rothko, Matisse and Guston) before I became aware of how he saw the world and what he was trying to do with his art. It was a profound discovery and a tremendous influence that I would not have made had it not been for him.

Ben Phillips lived across the street from me when we were kids. From the start he had this way about him, this means to influence his beliefs and ideas on me that at times could be frustrating but also illuminating. We shared many of the same likes and dislikes, primarily in music and movies. If it hadn't been for him I might never have really picked up a comic in the first place. Don't get me wrong, I was always curious. Superman, the 1978 film, was and still is one of my all time favorites but every time I picked up a Superman comic it would lose me. Ben introduced me to what comics were really all about and through him I was able to appreciate just what it took to make them. In high school we were part of a comic collective in which we would have meetings, share feedback and drink lots of Dr. Perky (Food Lion's answer to Dr. Pepper). It was there that I learned that I had no idea what I was doing and what I wanted to do...not just with art, but with my life. I met all these interesting and very influential people but didn't know what I wanted. I followed my instincts and joined Ben for art school at VCU and SCAD, probably because I didn't know what else I was going to do. I succeeding greatly at both schools and with my education under my belt I finally felt like I had direction. That being said, with art, I'm always discovering that I don't know enough. It's enough to keep me looking and searching for anything new or interesting. For me, art is a never ending progression of discovery and experiment. I wouldn't have found that without Ben or my Uncle.

For a more simple answer to my influences:

Edgar Degas 

Frank Frazetta

Egon Schiele

Maxfield Parrish

Phil Hale

Jules Feiffer

Norman Rockwell

David Lapham

Juan Jose Guarnido

Sam Keith

Alan Moore

and likely many many more.

If you could, what in your career would you do-over or change?

Expand my boundaries a bit outside of the 2D art. It appears that 3D art, software and graphics are the thing which pits me with the Neanderthals of the art world.

What work are you best-known for?

Not sure. I worked on the Family Guy comic but you wouldn't know me from the billion other artists that worked on that book. My first publication, "The Strange Fungus in Mr. Winslow" always catches people's eyes at cons (almost literally - the cover was billed by my late friend Jeremy Mullins, "The best cover EVER!"). "Reasons I Should Not Be On A Talk Show" is another con favorite. My last real publication (before this summer's colorized version of Matt Dembicki's "Mr. Big") is a comic strip called "Strays 'N Gates."

What work are you most proud of?

A portrait of my Uncle Dick I completed after his death. You can see it on my web site in the "Illustration" section.

Also, every comic I've produced has always taken me a step forward. "Strange Fungus..." was my first book, fully painted and written by myself and that took me 2 years to complete. "Strays 'N Gates" was the first time I had to really hunker down and bust out one strip per week. The fact I did that for eleven months without missing one was a huge feat. "Mr. Big" was my first graphic novel, and it had a deadline to top, and I made that deadline beautifully. 

What would you like to do or work on in the future?

Every so often I think about how much fun it would be to create my own interpretation of Ghostbusters and MegaMan. There's so many crappy manga versions of MM out there that I feel it, like much of the comics universe, needs a facelift. And while I have a few of my own stories on the backburner I, for some reason, have a really clear image of TC Boyle's Drop City in my mind. Done in the right style and format, I think that would be a great book!

 What do you do when you're in a rut or have writer's block?

Get out of the house. Get some fresh air. Watch a movie. Get some sleep. Bejeweled. Or just draw something else.

What do you think will be the future of your field?

Hard to tell. It's already changed so much since I went to school that I feel obsolete in so many ways. I'd like to think the digital revolution that we are still experiencing won't kill off the old fashioned book, that people will still paint and draw with pencils and brushes. That there will still be room for doing something that doesn't involve a computer. But then again, I've spent the last week almost completely glued to my computer for various purposes, so my hopes are dwindling.

What's your favorite thing about DC?

The museums and extensive list of restaurants and places to visit. I didn't get that in Savannah. Here, it seems that there's always somewhere we've never heard of that peaks my interest.

Least favorite?

The f*ck*ng traffic. What else?

What monument or museum do you take most out-of-town guests to?

As much as I love the National Gallery of Art and National Portrait Gallery, I always seem to take friends and family to the Natural History Museum instead. I don't mind. It is quite fun there.

Favorite restaurant?

Do you really want another list? It's probably start with Tara Thai or The Melting Pot.

Do you have a website or blog?

jasoneaxtell.com -I update it with a lot of my experimental figure work but occasionally you'll see some comic or illustration work as well.