Showing posts with label NBM. Show all posts
Showing posts with label NBM. Show all posts

Wednesday, October 03, 2018

The Silent Invasion's Michael Cherkas and Larry Hancock spill all at SPX

Cerkas and Hancock
by Mike Rhode

Canadian cartoonists Michael Cherkas and Larry Hancock were at the Small Press Expo at the NBM table promoting their new book The Silent Invasion 1: Red Shadows (160pp. B&W trade pb: $16.99; ISBN 978168112174151699.  DIAMOND CODE: JUL18 2036). The first book is a reissue of the story that began in the 1980s, but the plan is to continue with new stories and bring the series up to the present day.

NBM’s press release describes the book as:

The paranoid cult-classic science fiction mystery of the early days of indie comics returns! The series will begin with two books reprinting the original volumes, followed by the never before collected third album and concluding with an all-new fourth book of this epic series of conspiracy and paranoia. Set against the background of a nightmarish 1950s crawling with communist spies, corrupt FBI agents, McCarthyites, Stalinists, cold warriors, flying saucers, mysterious government organizations, The Silent Invasion weaves a byzantine tale of mystery and deceit as a bewildered investigative reporter Matt Sinkage pursues the truth behind an apparent alien invasion of earth that points to involvement at the highest levels of American government officials.

Before SPX started, I met with Cherkas and Hancock in their hotel room to hear about the convoluted history of the series, and what is planned for it now, as it returns years after it last was published.

Mike Rhode: My first question is… why bring The Silent Invasion back after thirty years?

[Cherkas and Hancock laugh]

Michael Cherkas: That’s a mysterious question. It comes down to this – Larry and I had worked on a fifth book that we did floppy comics for and they were published in 2001. Then in 2009, we self-published a hundred copies which we took to TCAF and they did really well there. So we figured there is an audience for this book, but we just have to find it and it’s not in the mainstream comic book field. It’s not superheroes and action adventure. Two years ago we were at TCAF and Terry Nantier of NBM was there…

Larry Hancock: Terry came up because of the 40th anniversary of NBM. He did a panel and asked us to participate since we were local to Toronto. At that point in time, we got to talking to him about doing another book. To clarify one thing, Michael referred to the last one that we’ve done being the fifth book of Silent Invasion. The book that is out now, book 1, was originally published as two books (books 1 and 2). Then the next book 2 will collect the original 3 and 4. In our new nomenclature, book 5 will actually be book 3.

MC: And when Terry publishes it, it will finally get its wider audience.

LH: We hope.

MC: And then at the same time, we are working on a new book that brings the story up to … we were originally going to bring it up to this era, but in retrospect it’s a really quick rush of events from 1965 to 2018.

LH: To say that a little differently, the original 12 issues we did as a comic book, which Terry originally reprinted as 4 books, are now going to be done as 2 books – 1 right now and 1 six months from now. And the unpublished 5 issues are going to be book 3, six months after that. And then subsequent to that we’re doing a book of brand new material.

MC: Book 3 takes place in the 1960s. The new book we’re doing starts in 1970 on the day that Apollo 13 runs into trouble. We introduce things like that not just to make people think that there might be a connection; [laughs] there is not necessarily a connection. Part of the intent is to try to bring it up into the era where we now have people in power who are more satirical than satire. Right now we have a Premier in Ontario and a President in the United States who are both in that satirical part of politics. That’s where we’re trying to bring this up to. Terry said that this is the perfect era to publish Silent Invasion again because of imagined conspiracies and the talk of the ‘deep state’ and all. He thinks there might be some synergy. [laughs].

MR: By doing new material, the first time since 2001…

LH: Just to clarify, while I’m known primarily known as the writer, and Michael is primarily known as the artist, but in actual fact we plot everything together. We live very close to each other and we constantly get together and plot everything. In general terms, Michael is the one who puts things on paper and I’m the one who provides the scripting. And Michael does the final editing on everything since if he doesn’t like it, it doesn’t get on the paper. [laughs]

MC: Or if the words don’t fit! [laughs]

MR: Larry, do you storyboard then?

LH: No, I keep saying I can’t draw a straight line, but then again I don’t need to draw a straight line…

MC: The way it works is that we do the plotting…

LH: …we visualize a good deal…

MC: …and years ago it was more detailed. In the current story we’re working on, we say this is the scene, and we don’t even describe it beyond the first panel in the sequence and where we want to end it up. Sometimes I go, “You know, I can’t draw any of this until I have some words.” I just want to get some to figure out the reactions [the characters should have]. Then there are other scenes where I’ll just say, “This is kind of what I want to happen, and I sort of know what the wording will be,” and I will lay out the pages really roughly drawn.

The current story we’re working on is supposed to be 125 pages, five chapters at 25 pages each. The first chapter, when I broke it down based on the story that Larry and I talked about was going to be 32 pages, so I said, “We need to edit this down.” We do that often, and after I do the roughs which then Larry scripts to, and even after I do the blue pencils which are supposed to be the final pencils, then Larry edits the script again, but often what happens when I think I’ve done my final pencils, when I’m start  lettering it, I think, “Oh, I don’t like something” and I just redraw the whole panel. That’s happened numerous times, or we’ll have something that’s two panels and I say, “Nope, that’s going to be one panel this time,” or something that says two panels I’ll turn into three.

LH: Michael gets very picky. [When] a story is published, if it gets printed a second time, it’s very rare that there isn’t something that’s changed. If you take a look at Michael’s original artwork, you’ll find panels pasted over top of panels, and heads over top of heads. When we originally did The Silent Invasion vol. 1, the first comic book in the collection has been substantially redrawn from its original first appearance as a comic book.

MC: Actually chapters 1 and 3 in the new collection are substantially redrawn from the original comic book.

LH: They’re the same as what Terry published thirty years ago in the graphic album, but between the comic book and the graphic album they changed a lot. We want our best foot forward whenever we’re going to be putting something out for the public.

MC: But then Larry tells me, “How many times are you going to redraw that? Are you going to sell any more copies? Does it really matter?” And he’s right. Because at the end of the day, most people don’t notice those imperfections… those perceived imperfections that I might see.

LH: I’m an accountant so I’m very practical.

MR: He’s creating stuff for future academics to study the three different editions, Renegade, first NBM and new NBM, and write papers on.

MC: Yeah, yeah, exactly.

LH: And I’m the one who’s had to convince him that we’re going to store all these past versions in boxes in my storage locker. Michael just wants to toss it all out, and I’m the one who keeps saying, “We need it for the archives. We’re going to get donation receipts that will be so valuable that we can go out and buy and extra cup of coffee off of it.”

MR: So you have saved the original art, and you’re able to rescan (or reshoot back then) it as necessary?

LH: Interesting enough, what’s happened to the original artwork when we go back to look at it… you’ll see in the book Michael uses zipatone, and in particular on some of those, the artwork bled too badly. The ink bled too badly so most of this is just reshot from the previous printed copies. But when we tested to see what was the best way to go about it, it turned out to be good.

MC: We knew that would work because we’ve had some European editions published and they just shot from the English-language NBM editions and re-lettered it.

MR: In this introduction, Max Allen Collins listed European artists such as Yves Chaland and Joost Swarte as influences on Michael’s art. Is this accurate?

MC: When we started this, I picked a style specifically so I could complete the art fairly quickly. The first three issues were teaching myself how to use a No. 5 Winsor-Newton brush too. To teach myself that I looked at the European guys who drew with brushes like Serge Clerc and Yves Chaland. There’s a whole school of that called clear line (aka “ligne claire”) but we were joking last night that I don’t do clear line. I do thick line. [laughs] I was just trying to figure out how to reduce the imagery so it’s almost iconographic and keep it fairly simple. There were a few other French guys I was looking at who were really loose. Yves Chaland and Clerc are precise; I was looking for something that had a quicker look to it. When we were doing this, I was also freelancing as a designer and illustrator. The first twelve issues were 50% of my time so I had to figure out how to do it in less time.

LH: When we were originally doing The Silent Invasion, we were doing it on a bimonthly schedule with Renegade Press, although we did take a break between issues 6 and 7, an extra month, but we had a deadline and we were working on a disciplined basis.

MC: Basically I was trying to work so we could do a full issue in six weeks. I hear in this day and age people do a whole comic in a month. I don’t know if that’s true or not because it seems like it’s a lot of work. I found doing this was very time consuming.

MR: I think it probably depends on your method. If you’re inking digitally, it’s probably faster than by hand.

MC: That’s another thing. I don’t do anything digitally. I still do it straight up the old-fashioned way. But we’ll see – I haven’t inked anything in years. I don’t know if it’s going to look like the old stuff. The last time we did was early 2000s. I’ve drawn stuff but what I’ve found is that my brushwork is thicker now so there’s going to be less detail in the art. But I’m not sure yet. I wish I had new samples to compare it to.

LH: In addition to doing The Silent Invasion at that time, we had a series we called Suburban Nightmares. The first volume that Terry produced was four issues from Renegade was all set in the 1950s and was childhood fears. The next stories that we did elsewhere that appeared in the second volume we updated to other time periods. We’ve done other stories as well. Michael did The New Frontier in Heavy Metal. That’s why the DC book by Darwyn Cooke was called DC’s The New Frontier.

MC: But nobody gets them confused anyway.

LH: I know. But since then, we’ve been working on other stuff on the side. We did one issue of a minicomic that we self-published that was distributed only in the Toronto area which is about a superhero who has lost his powers. It was called Union City Comics featuring The Purple Ray. The first issue was all about him attending a comic book convention and signing, but most people were giving attention to the people who started the Purple Ray TV show which was a big success. It’s sort of the idea of comic creators losing the rights to the characters and being overshadowed by the creation itself. At the end of the first issue, the publisher announces a big budget movie which he’s going to have nothing to do with, but they still use him for promotional material. We still have pages to do before we get up to 120 pages.

MC: I have penciled the entire second issue…

LH: But my point on that was going to be… what’s happened to the first issue?

MC: I’m redrawing it entirely.

[Both men laugh]

MR: So you will not be selling the minicomic here at SPX?

MC: No, we should have brought them.

NBM's Terry Nantier, Larry Hancock and Michael Cerkas at SPX

LH: I figured this is the big event to rerelease The Silent Invasion so we wanted to make sure the emphasis was on that. What The Silent Invasion was, when it was originally released by Renegade Press in 1986, was a big success at the time. We sold 14-15,000 copies of a black and white; by the time the last issue came out, it was down to 3,000 or 4,000. We were nominated in 1987 for a Kirby Award, the precursor to the Eisners. Amazing Heroes chose us as one of the ten best comics of 1986. When I say one of the ten best, I’m not talking about the ten best independents. We were one of the ten best comic books of the entire year.

MC: This is something that nobody knows. Larry, you might not even know this. There was actually one year I was nominated for a Rueben [from the National Cartoonists Society]. They have a category for comic books and I was nominated for the comic book. I don’t know how that happened but it was probably in 1990… it was just weird.

LH: At the time we were nominated for the Kirby Award, that was presented at San Diego and we sat in the audience briefly to hear ourselves lose to another Canadian comic book – Cerebus. At that time, Cerebus was riding high.

MR: You guys were doing this during the black and white explosion…

LH: That’s it. We say we didn’t benefit from the explosion because we came along a bit after it started, but we got hurt by decline of them.

MC: A lot of factors came into this. We could have continued to publish like a lot of people did and just trundled along, and had we done that, we might have found some kind of success again. But we thought, “I’ve got two kids, blah, blah, blah. There’s no way I’m going to do this right now.” That kind of stuff is better if you’re living in your parent’s basement…

LH: At the time too, when we were doing this with Deni, she did the twelve issues of Silent Invasion, and then we did four issues of Suburban Nightmares, and she was starting to fall off. The whole black and white market was starting to fall off. We were in negotiations with Comico to do a different series with them but they ran into hard times, and then we went to talk to Dark Horse and they eventually published Michael’s New Frontier as a black and white comic after it was initially printed in Heavy Metal, but then they also decided to concentrate differently. They paid us and a whole bunch of other creators a kill fee, on the basis that they’d been negotiating in good faith to publish stuff and then chose to stop.

Eventually we hooked up with Calibur and Calibur Comics reprinted the whole first six issues of The Silent Invasion with the intention of doing a new series, and they actually published the first issue of what we were calling Silent Invasion Abductions. After publishing the first issue of that, Caliber decided they were going exclusively with creator-owned…

MC: I think when Dark Horse killed our thing, it was something to do with them doing less creator-owned and licensing stuff. You know what, that was fine. We were just at the tail end of everything.

LH: That’s true. Some of the Suburban Nightmare stuff we did with Dark Horse was in Cheval Noir.

MC: The other thing at the time, Chris Kemp and I were asked to do a Vertigo proposal for Shelly Bond, and that went on. Chris and I did quite a bit of work on that one until she said no.

LH: We met with Stuart Moore who was launching DC’s Helix line. I went to some Oakland conventions that Michael wasn’t at and was trying to talk to Vertigo and others. Generally when I was meeting with them, they liked our writing but wanted to say, “Well, can we get somebody else to draw while you guys write?” and I said, “No.”

MR: You were caught up in the black and white implosion – did you guys consider working in color?

LH: At one point in time, when we were talking about reprinting this, we were considering adding one single color like Ms. Tree was published by Renegade.

MC: Yeah, I wouldn’t mind doing things like limited color, but not full color. Maybe picking a really limited pallete. Even in the new reprint, I suggested to Terry, “Let’s not print the black as black, let’s print it as another dark color, like dark brown.” That makes it look a little different, and like you’re thinking a bit more.

 LH: Michael’s chosen a color pallete specifically for the covers to stand out. We’ve got a sickly green, a sickly orange…

MC: The reason Terry wanted to reprint this now is that graphic novels are everywhere. I go into a bookstore now and the graphic section is huge. If I go into Indigo, the big bookstore chain in Canada, the graphic novel sections is quite large, and you often see a lot of graphic novels there that aren’t carried in comic stores. Ones that are literary. So you’ll see lots of things that aren’t in your traditional store. Although if you go into The Beguiling, you’ll see lots of them. In Toronto, there’s only The Beguiling that’s on that model; Silver Snail and all the other stores carry a lot of American superheroes. They do carry some other stuff, but not a lot of it, and you have to search for it. I think that Terry figures there’s a bigger market for graphic novels and a bigger market for a wider variety of artwork. If he publishes it now, it will find its market.

MR: So it’s really been 18 years since it’s been in print, and you guys will be new to at least a generation or two, even as comics are being taken more seriously as literature. Are you guys having problems writing the book with the satirical nature of politicians now? It’s hard to take our politicians seriously.

LH: It’s interesting because in the story line we’re doing now, about 120-125 pages, we’re setting the storyline to come up to the present and we’re conscious of where we want to go. We haven’t reached the difficult parts of the reflection of the current day. The story is set in the past, but we want to reflect the current day, and make it resonate with the people who know the current times and don’t know the past times.

In the first story, we introduced a Senator Harrison Callahan, who you will see in the second book. He was our Kennedy substitute at the time. Michael’s often talked about going back and making him a Kennedy instead of a Callahan.

MC: At this point, we’re still not sure how far up to the present we’ll go.

LH: When we were talking about this, Michael originally wanted to set this book going all the way from the 1970s into the 2010s.

MC: I want to do each story ten years apart, but now I’m not sure.

LH: It’s a little more difficult when we’re trying to do chapters with somewhat continuing narration and characters and stretching it over 40 years.

MR: Are you still following the same main character the whole time?

MC: We’re following the family instead because Matt Sinkage disappears at the end.

LH: Books 1 & 2 are about Matt Sinkage and one of his main characters particularly in book 2 is a guy who worked for the FBI called Phil Housley. Housley becomes our main protagonist in book 3 because of the alien abductions.

MC: And that one is the search for Matt Sinkage.

LH: And then in book 4, which we’re working on now, we start off with Matt’s brother Walter and his wife Katie, who were characters in the earlier books. As we progress, the main character turns out to be Walter’s son Sparky.

MC: Because abductions run in families. Did you know that? Alien abductions run in families, so if a grandfather was abducted, his children and grandchildren will be abducted.

LH: No, no, if the grandfather swears he was abducted, then the children and grandchildren will swear they’ve been abducted to.

[Larry laughs]

MC: This is another difficulty. Larry only believes in empirical evidence, and I believe that something is going but there is no empirical evidence.

LH: Again, this is the whole point of The Silent Invasion. What is really going on? Is it happening, or isn’t it happening? The fact that we both have different viewpoints on this thing is what turns this into a twisted story? Are the aliens real or aren’t they? Is there a conspiracy, or isn’t there? Is Matt Sinkage sane, or is he just a lunatic? We’ve got two creators who are jousting with each other. We talk about fist fighting during the writing. We’ve never come to blows, but we do have arguments. We also bounce ideas off each other and one says, “This is strange. We won’t do this,” and then the other one says, “Wait a minute. We can make that work.”

MR: I was a little bit confused at times reading the first book because Sinkage sees a flying saucer go overhead but everybody else at the party sees a jet. Later at the start of chapter 6, there’s three flying saucers in the sky and nobody paying any attention to them, including Sinkage.

LH: To some extent, it’s us just keeping the saucers and aliens present in the readers’ minds without characters paying attention. To some extent it’s for atmosphere, to some extent it’s for mystery, and to some extent it’s for creating that questioning in the reader’s mind.

MR: If they’re up as high as an airplane or higher, you wouldn’t be noticing. It would be a little dot.

MC: My brother claims he saw a flying saucer when he was in grade 5. He says he was at a friend’s house and looked up and saw a disc, but when he looked again it was gone. So what was that?

LH: We’ve talked a lot about storytelling. When you’re telling a story, you have to keep in mind: what do the characters in the story know, what does the reader know, and what do the creators know? All of those are different amounts and we have to juggle that. But you not only juggle it; you also get to play with it in regards to what you’re going to tease or not tease… whether you all it red herrings, or foreshadowing, or simply withholding information.

MR: Are you hoping to bring The Purple Ray or other books back into print?

LH:  The Purple Ray has never had wide distribution so we will talk to Terry about that eventually. It’s just an ongoing project.

MC: I would like to do it.

LH: Suburban Nightmares and The New Frontier – certainly we’d like to talk about getting that back in print as well. We’ve been working on The Purple Ray and Michael has also been working on a story that I’m going to help with about the Ukrainian Famine.

MR: Fiction, non-fiction, or a mixture?

MC: Fiction, but based on reality. Historical fiction.

MR: Do you have any family members who were in it? The Ukrainian Famine was caused by Stalin, right?

MC: I don’t have any family members, but I know people who did have family members in it. I’ve got fourteen pages of it finished. The first chapter is done. That’s an ongoing project too, one I’d like to finish in two years.

MR: Honestly, I think today that would be a better seller than reprinting your other comics.

MC: I think so too. I know that in Canada, there’s a big built-in market because there’s 1.25 million Canadians of Ukrainian descent and libraries and schools love that stuff.

MR: Any final comments to wrap up this interview?

MC: Buy this book!

LH: I don’t do rap very well; I’m just not a rapper. Michael and I have been successful at other ways of earning income other than just doing comics. The comics are things we do for ourselves and not necessarily for the money.

MC: Except that I really enjoy doing it better than design… [laughs]

LH: Doing Silent Invasion again definitely gives me the itch to get back in and do a bunch more.

MC: Buy this comic and make a couple of old comic book creators happy!







NBM Blog on Silent Invasion (mostly written by Cherkas)
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Tuesday, October 10, 2017

Kata Kane's NBM double debut

by Mike Rhode

At  the Small Press Expo, Kata Kane had her own table as usual, but she was also signing books at NBM's table. They have published the first book in a new series Ana and the Cosmic Race by Amy Chu with art by Kata. We caught up to ask how her career was changing.. 

After our first interview, you published Altar Girl vol. 2. Did that wrap up the series, or do you have plans to continue it?

Altar Girl is ongoing, and you can read up to Book 4 online at my website altar-girl.com. I've also started releasing the series on webcomic sites like WEBTOON and Tapastic. I'm hoping to do a print version of Altar Girl Book 3 soon, but for now it's still going strong online! 

You've done the art for two new series coming out this fall from NBM's Papercutz imprint. How did that come about?


Papercutz reached out to me when they started the launch for their new Charmz romance book line. They saw that my art style and stories were all-ages/tween/YA and asked me to pitch. My first pitch was for GFFs: Ghost Friends Forever with Monica Gallagher [also of Baltimore]. Then they asked if I'd be interested in doing the art for Ana and the Cosmic Race, a story already in production with Amy Chu. I'm so glad I've gotten to work on both series! 

What kind of script do you get? Do you work directly with the writer at all?

I do work closely with the writers when it comes to collaborating and world-building, especially with the characters. As for the script, it varies from writer to writer the level of detail, but I do try to give suggestions if I see a spot where we could do something fun with the art, or if there's a chance to insert some great reactions from the characters. I'm lucky that I've gotten to work with wonderful writers who have given me a lot of freedom and great feedback too. I think pacing is one of my strong points, so in cases where I've been given either a lot or just a little to work with script-wise, I always aim to get a good flow going with the dialog and art.


Will there be more books in the two new series?

I'm currently working on Book 2 for both Ana and the Cosmic Race as well as GFFs! There's still much more to discover, so I think readers of Book 1 for both of these series will be eager to see what's in store.

My online/social media info: kata-kane.com | @kata_kane


Tuesday, September 19, 2017

An SPX Chat with French Cartoonist Anais Depommier


by Mike Rhode

Anais Depommier is a young woman illustrator who has just had Sartre, her first graphic novel (really a graphic biography) come out in English from NBM Publsihing. She attended the 2017 Small Press Expo and I got the opportunity to interview her there.

Her NBM biography is charmingly translated rather literally (and a little outdated as you'll see later in the interview): Anaïs Depommier was born in the late 1980s in a small village in the Southeast of France. Growing up a close friend of Mathilde Ramadier, they can't do enough sleepovers from one's house to the other. Inseparable at school, they spend their weekends building huts in the bush, watching the gendarmes go by, playing "Mouse Stampede" on a Macintosh Classic, and reading many comics. When it becomes time to prepare for the entrance exam to art school, they meet later in the evenings at the painter Jean-Michel Pétrissans' workshop in Valence.

Anaïs studied drawing for four years, then co-created the OneShot workshop where regular life drawing classes and other exhibitions are held. She now lives in Paris and works in comics, graphics and animation design. 


For those not familiar with the French philospher Sartre, NBM's blurb for the book reads: For some he was the philosopher of existentialism, for others the constant provocateur, the politically engaged author, the uncertain militant, the repenting bourgeois, the life companion of Simone de Beauvoir… From his first readings in the Luxembourg Garden to his refusal of the Nobel Prize for Literature, Jean-Paul Sartre was all of this at the same time.

Mike Rhode: So SPX is your first American show... is it a little overwhelming?

Anais Depommier: Absolutely.

MR: And Sartre is your first book in English?

AD: Yes, and also my first graphic novel. And also for the writer Mathilde Ramadier, actually. It was our first book.

MR: Did you propose the book together to the publisher?

AD: We've known each other for a long time, so we created the project together and then asked some editors [if they would be interested in it].

MR: Biographical comics are fairy popular in France?

AD: Yes, that is true.

MR: You didn't serialize this in a newspaper first; this is an original graphic novel.

AD: Absolutely, we started everything through a contract with our French editor. Dargaud is our publisher; it's one of the main and oldest ones in France.

MR: Did you have the book already put together, or was it just a proposal when you approached them?

AD: It was just a proposal. Works like this in France are usually [done this way now].

MR: So they gave you an advance?

AD: Absolutely.

MR: Moving on from the business side to the subject, so why did you pick Sartre?

AD: At the beginning, it was the writer's idea. She got her masters degree in philosophy, writing about Sartre, and she's passionate about comics (like I am). She thought it would be a good idea to depict him in comics, so she asked the artist that she knew - me - and I totally agreed with her. We started like this.

MR: Did she give you a script that you then broke down?

AD: Absolutely. In the beginning, she explained to me in conversation what she wanted to say about him, and then she wrote all the script. I made my own layout. She didn't really criticize the scenes - I decided the layout myself.

MR: Right, so she didn't give you thumbnails or sketches?

AD: That's true.

MR: This is a fairly substantial book... how long did it take you?

AD: Oh, a little time. Two and a half years, more or less. 135 drawn pages, and [an appendix] at the end to explain who is who in the book, for 160 pages in total.

MR: Did you have a hard time illustrating any action in a philosopher's life? I saw in the early pages that he was a rough-and-tumble school boy.

AD: Absolutely. It was kind of fun actually to draw that part. [laughs] It was interesting to show this man not just as an intellectual philosopher, a serious guy, because he had a lot of humor. I liked the pages where there was more action, and all his travels, all the trips he made. It was interesting to read the documentation and get the atmosphere.

MR: Did you work from photo references?

AD: A lot. And also from videos. We still have some interview videos of him. He died in 1980. In his last fifteen years, he was not that active outside his house. He was really sick.

MR: Who is the audience for this in France? Is this an all-ages book in France?
AD: Yes, and that's interesting. In festivals, we meet a lot of professors who don't really read comics, but they are curious about it, so that's great for us. Also, the opposite - comics lovers who know Sartre by name but don't know his books and they buy our book because they are curious.

MR: Were you influenced by any of the other biographies that came out? Anne Simon was here last year [at the Alliance Francais] to talk about her books that had been published in English.

AD: Yes, Einstein and Freud... I met her because we have the same French publisher. I think her first book, Freud, was published during the time we were doing the first pages of our book. So she's not really an influence because she has a totally different point of view. I really like her work - it's totally another thing, another approach.

MR: So what's next?

AD: Right now, I'm just starting to work on another story. It's still really, really beginning. It's fiction, and kind of dark.

MR: Your own characters?

AD: Yes. I will work with another writer, an Italian one, and we'll see how it goes.

MR: Is this your first time in America?

AD: Yes it is, and it's really exciting.

MR: Where are you going next?

AD: Before I was in Baltimore at MICA and I met some students, and it was really interesting. Tomorrow I will be at the Brooklyn Book Festival, and then next week I will be in Miami in an art school and then a book store.* The counrty is really different already even between Bethesda and Baltimore so I cannot imagine New York and Miami.


MR: I'm sorry you don't have the time to see Washington while you're here since it was influenced by Paris. Any thoughts about the Small Press Expo? Have you been able to walk around?

AD: Just a little bit this morning, and I will go again now. It seems to have really cool work; so many different comics and illustratioins. It's full of variety and I love it. It's a little underground and I really like that.

SPX floor by Bruce Guthrie
MR: SPX isn't a normal American superhero convention. In France, do you usually attend Angouleme or other festivals?

AD: I've been there twice, but always just to visit. It's a huge festival, and editors send their author with a new book, but Sartre was published in March, and the festival is in January, so it didn't match. Still, it's a crazy festival and a really interesting place to go.

MR: Have you done other French shows then?

AD: Yes, in France - a lot. In Paris, a lot, in Lyon, a lot and so many in little cities.

MR: Do you see a difference about a show in France and one in America?

AD: Here in America everything is bigger. Also the buildings too. It's impressive. I can find the same family atmosphere, a relaxed and fun atmosphere is a common point, for sure.

MR: I should ask you about your background before we end...

AD: What I did before my book? I was in university, in École Émile Cohl, a traditional school with an academic program, and I studied comics and illustration there. After that, I created a studio with friends, and did exhibitions and drawing classes, still in Lyon. Then I went to Paris and I started this book. I've made a lot of little works for newspapers, and been a graphic designer for lawyers,. This book took me so much time. I'm also doing work in Lyon Capitale, a French newspaper that has several pages a month about the history of the city. It's not really serious. There's always a historical background, but the story can be fictional. I'm still working for newspapers as a graphic designer, and I'm starting a new book, but I've also moved to Rome. I don't live in France anymore.

MR: Why Rome?

AD: It's a personal choice, not a business choice. It's a gorgeous city and I really love the Italian south.
The drawing she did in my book


*If you're in Florida tomorrow:
 Anais Depommier Book Signing
Books & Books / September 20 at 8PM
265 Aragon Ave Coral Gables, FL
http://booksandbooks.com/event/anais-depommier/



Monday, September 18, 2017

An SPX interview with TJ Kirsch

by Mike Rhode

T.J. Kirsch was tabling at SPX for his new book,  Pride Of The Decent Man, which is getting some very nice reviews. I had actually made an appointment to interview French NBM cartoonist Anais Depommier  (which will appear later this week after I transcribe it), but Mr. Kirsch kindly agreed to do an interview by mail.

What type of comic work or cartooning do you do?

I'm a writer and illustrator of comics, webcomics, and graphic novels - or any combination of those three. I've illustrated comics for Oni Press, Archie, Image, NBM and others.

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

For all of my recent books I've drawn and colored digitally using a Wacom tablet.

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

I was born in 1981 in Albany, NY.

What is your training and/or education in cartooning?

I completed a year of art school at Savannah College Of Art And Design, and then finished my training at The Kubert School, graduating in 2005. 

Who are your influences?

My big ones are Dan Clowes, Chester Brown, and Gilbert Hernandez.

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

I wish I would've had more confidence to start writing my own projects earlier. But along the way I've worked with many very talented writers and learned so much from each of them.

What work are you best-known for?

I co-created and illustrated a webcomic-turned-graphic novel called She Died In Terrebonne, written by Kevin Church. It's been highly acclaimed by critics and often cited as one of the best Noir comics ever published.

What work are you most proud of?

The comics I'm most proud of are all the minicomics that were eventually collected in Teej Comix, and the new book, Pride Of The Decent Man. I made them all in a similar process, using loose outlines and giving myself some room to change things on the page as I went along. Some things work better as comics if you stay flexible with the final product rather than sticking with a set script.

How did your new book end up with NBM?

Terry Nantier, the founder and publisher of NBM Graphic Novels, saw something he liked in my initial proposal submission, and made me an offer quite early in the process. I thought it was a good fit for their catalog, and seeing it finished and in book form, I feel that even more. There's a sensibility to all their books of trying to elevate the art form of comics, while also bringing in a general crossover audience. I like graphic novels I can hand to any random book or art lover on the street, and have them get something out of it - and maybe seek out other comics after that. I think many of the NBM graphic novels have that quality.

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

I'd like to do more original graphic novels as well as shorter comics. Right now I'm in the very early stages of a nonfiction graphic novel project.

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

As an artist, my recent solution to getting out of a rut is to redraw very old work of mine. It's great for self confidence, in that you see your improvement since the earlier version of the piece. 

As far as writer's block - I haven't been in this situation much yet, having worked with writers more than not - but I try to take breaks and let ideas come to me when I'm relaxed and daydreaming.

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

Hopefully it will be more innovative comics being made, and respect for the work by the general public, but who knows? 

How was your SPX experience?

SPX was great, as always. It's a very inspiring atmosphere. I've been coming since 2008 and it's been my favorite show ever since - no contest. I've met several of my cartooning heroes, and made some great friends I see every time I come back. 

When you've been at SPX previously, have you been selling self-published books?

 My first time exhibiting I was with Oni Press, debuting a comic called Uncle Slam Fights Back. Most other times I shared space with Jonathan Baylis, who writes an autobiographical comic series called So Buttons. It's in the same vein as Harvey Pekar's work - only a bit more upbeat. I've been contributing art to that series since the first issue ten years ago. But yes, sometimes I'll be showcasing self published minis, or other work I'd done for Oni Press and others. 

Is the experience different when at a table of a mid-level publisher?

It's always easier, and far less stressful, when you can just show up and start signing books, rather than worrying about shipping your own or coordinating everything that goes along with exhibiting.

If you've been coming since 2008, any thoughts about how it's grown and changed?

I can say it's grown every year I've gone. More lines out the door for star cartoonists, more congestion in the aisle, but also the exhibitors all make amazing work and that never changes.

What's your favorite thing about DC?

My favorite things about DC are the closeness to SPX ( of course ), the fast, efficient and clean Metro system, and the fact that I have family there.

Least favorite?

It gets wayyyyy too hot in the summer! Maybe I just need to visit closer to the colder months.

What monument or museum do you like?

I like them all, but the Lincoln Memorial is one I always need to see. The Holocaust Museum is something everyone needs to see.


How about a favorite local restaurant?

There's a small place in Bethesda called the Lilit Cafe that has the most amazing gluten free crabcakes. I didn't have enough time this year to go since I was only around for a day, but that always a necessary stop. There's also Ella's Wood-Fired Pizza across from the National Portrait Gallery that has great gluten free pizza. I've got Celiac disease so these stand out for me.

Do you have a website or blog?

You can find out more about me and my work at www.tjkirsch.com - and you'll find links to all my various social media, info about my books and more.

Thursday, September 11, 2014

PR: NBM HEADS TO SPX 2014

NBM HEADS TO SPX 2014
Patrick Atangan's Invincible Days Makes It's Debut
http://www.spxpo.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/SPX_Poster_Gif1.gif

On September 13-14th, you can find some of the most prestigious names in comics at the 2014 Small Press Expo (aka SPX).

Unlike many conventions that are geared toward pop culture or corporately owned comics, SPX was created in 1994 to promote artists and publishers who produce independent comics. SPX hosts an annual festival that provides a forum for artists, writers and publishers of comic art in its various forms to present to the public comic art not normally accessible through normal commercial channels.

This weekend, you can find NBM at Table F1-F2, where we'll have our latest book on hand, Invincible Days.

http://www.nbmpub.com/fairytales/atangan/invincible_cover300.jpg
By the author of the Yellow Jar and Silk Tapestry, this collection of short stories forms a singular narrative that reveals the tiny moments when you realize you are at the precious end-days of youth.  Atangan creates an intricate mosaic from his own childhood memories as well as those gathered from friends and family. Bittersweet, joyful and reflective, these are the type of marking moments that best define us as adults. 

Unfortunately, creator Patrick Atangan cannot be there, but we'll have some of his original art that's we'll be raffling off.  Purchase any of his books to enter to win.
In addition, we'll have some previews of our upcoming books including Jude Nude by Etienne DavodeauDungeon: Twilight, Volume 4, as well as our special accordion book, Pascal RabatéStreet View, it needs to be seen to be believed!


We'll also have a fashionably EARLY preview of a book that will have everyone talking come SPRING 2015, Annie Goetzinger’s Girl in Dior
We’ll also be offering all of our latest titles and prints are available for free with any $30 purchase, with a signed version free with a $50 purchase.

Throughout SPX, NBM can be found at tables F1-F2.