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INTERVIEW: Jamie S. Rich Jamie S. Rich has a lot to talk about. Aside from being a former editor at Dark Horse (entering the company fresh out of university), he's the current Editor In Chief of Oni Press (personally overseeing every Oni book proposal to printing), and has a brand new novel, CUT MY HAIR, making it's way to stands this July from Crazyfish Press. Yeah, there's a lot on his plate, but he still had time to grant us one of perhaps the longest interviews we've run here at PopImage. But, in my opinion, it's also one of our best, cover G.I.Joe, music, love, relationships, submissions, Dark Horse, Oni, Hollywood, Kevin Smith, and of course CUT MY HAIR. Jamie S. Rich has a lot to talk about, but trust us when we say he's worth listening to. Get comfortable, and enjoy. When were you first bitten by the comics bug? I had a lot of comics growing up, but they were all Disney oriented, maybe one CASPER. I also realized recently that I spent a lot of time reading Peanuts books. Reading everyone's memories when Schulz passed jarred that loose. I had really forgotten how much I was into those collections. I always checked them out of the local library, and I liked the old ones the best. The real comics buzz, though, came with G.I. JOE. I was taken in by advertising. If you recall, there was a huge push behind the whole G.I. JOE line, and they actually produced animated commercials for some of the comics. There was a comics shop in my town that some guy was running in an office in the back of his father's real estate company. I went there, and he had #2, which later became worth a lot of money. But I was in 4th or 5th grade so I had written on it, filled out the fan form on the back, folded it. That was my start, though, and it was all downhill... That's interesting, I started on Transformers myself. I totally loved it, new episodes featuring my favorite characters. It never really occurred to me to read anything else until a friend gave me a G.I. JOE comic as part of a birthday party loot bag years later. From there it was a hop skip and a jump to the X-Men... heh. Yeah, it's a sad evolution, isn't it? From crap to crap. Unlike most people I know, I have no nostalgia for that stuff. Scott Morse's favorite comic is G.I. JOE #21, which everyone remembers as the "silent" issue. It carries with it a full bag of memories for him, but to me, I look back at all the stuff I used to like, and its crap. It doesn't age well for me in the same way music or film does. At least the mainstream stuff doesn't. In fact, I actively avoid stuff I remember liking as a child. It's always so devastating to see what bad taste I actually had. Not to be a total jerk, though, I understand the high people get from their childhood memories of their favorite comics. It's just that most of that doesn't work for me, personally. I tend to go off on rants about old comics or Star Wars and other things that people really have an affection for due to nostalgia, and it gets people really mad at me. My underlying message is like what you like, I'm just telling you I don't. [laughs] What was your first job working in comics, and how did you come by it? I actually leaped straight into Dark Horse. I was an editorial assistant working directly with Diana Schutz in 1994 when she became editor in chief. That's quite a tall order, leaping directly into being in editorial. How did you come to be working at Dark Horse? Through an odd traditional way. I was a letterhack in the '80s. I thought it would be cool to see my name in the letters columns of my favorite comics, and I started writing in. As a few letters got printed, I started writing more, and let me tell you, don't ever believe those pretentious gits who tell you they letterhack to influence the course of a comic book and air their opinions, because the truth is they just want to see their names in print. Anyway, the first regular issue of GRENDEL came along. The first Christine Spar issue, and it was that kick in the eye all comics fans get at some point when they find that one comic or character that becomes their thing. I was 14, so really I shouldn't have been reading it, but I did and it blew me away. So, I wrote a letter declaring it my favorite comic, and I began to write a letter every issue. I was particularly stoked when the first one got printed. Of course, Diana recently ran it in the new reprint series, which I was less than stoked about. I can't quite decide what I think about that. So, that next summer, I went to my first San Diego. I introduced myself to Diana and Matt Wagner, and I couldn't believe they both knew who I was. "Jamie S. Rich of Quartz Hill, CA." I was really stuck then, and every year I would go back to San Diego. I became friends with Diana and Bob Schreck, and as I was leaving college, they suggested I come work at Dark Horse. I have never forgiven them, either. [laughs] I think Diana running one of your early fanboy letters in the new series is actually sort of sweet. It means that you've achieved a level of fame and success, and can handle a little poke in the ribs, so to speak. Oh, I handle the pokes...trust me. You can't have the mouth I have on me and not accept it coming back. And I know Diana, she just loves that stuff and it wasn't meant to ridicule me. Besides, if I need to, I can just dig up some of the letters she used to write to DAREDEVIL and Frank Miller and start posting them on the web. [laughs] And I actually hope she reprints one of my letters in the Eppy Thatcher run, a real Holden Caufield angsty piece, with the fabulous sign-off "Hated not only by God, Jamie S. Rich." I got a submission once where the guys referenced that letter, and I thought it was pretty funny. Why did you decide to move to Oni Press? That's an involved question. I was very unhappy at Dark Horse at the time of Oni's forming, and I'm talking about a year before publishing. I was there at the very first Oni meetings egging Schreck and publisher Joe Nozemack on, and it was always very clear that as soon as Oni could afford it, I was going to jump ship. My feeling at Dark Horse at the time was that the company was moving in a direction that I felt was going to limit my ability to work on the kinds of books I wanted to do. It wasn't necessarily a wrong direction, and opinions differ as to whether or not my assessment of it was even right, but I felt the company was getting more focused on licensed comics and less on the creator-owned material that they'd built their name on. A balance is fine, I appreciate that, but I felt the scales were tipping. At the time, I was fortunate enough to be helming some wonderful projects. I edited USAGI YOJIMBO for its first 22 Dark Horse issues, I was editing RED ROCKET 7 by Mike Allred, I was working with Renée French and John Bolton, I was doing all sorts of wacky shit in DARK HORSE PRESENTS. I loved that stuff. But I felt that Dark Horse was becoming less open to the more risky creator-owned material, and I wasn't really looking forward to taking over STARSHIP TROOPERS. Additionally, I had finished my book, "Cut My Hair", in 1994, shortly after arriving in Oregon. By the time I left Dark Horse, I had been there four years, and in that time, "CMH" remained untouched. The first draft was just gathering dust. I had maybe written three short stories in that time, as well, which isn't even a story a year. I felt I had lost my voice. I felt I was losing my soul. So, in early 1998, I decided I was leaving Dark Horse one way or the other. I'd take whatever job I could, but I had to get out to save myself creatively. I set a deadline for myself: finish the "Grasscutter" story line in USAGI and finish RED ROCKET 7, as both of those projects were extremely important to me. I bought a computer for my home, which was a big investment in my future I could not turn back on. This was probably actually December of 1997, and I was looking at May or June of 1998 being the departure date. At APE that very same year, Bob and Joe were riding the wave of initial success. BAD BOY and CLERKS were both selling very well, and they offered me a job. Oni was an ideal choice, as it was exactly what I wanted to do. And within a month of leaving the 'Horse, I had pounded through a second draft on "CMH". It was suddenly real. I was alive again. Bob Schreck, one of the founders of the company left a short time after you joined up to work for DC as an editor. Has that affected your enjoyment of being EIC at all? Well, it's the sole reason I did move up. That was a weird time for the company. It was the start of '99 and none of us was in a very good place personally, but no one was talking about it, because Oni has generally been about this blinding optimism and we didn't want to bring the other guys down. It's amazing how three people working in a tiny space, at that time, Schreck's house, can completely not communicate. I would say that was our biggest problem then. So, for Schreck, personally, the offer couldn't come at a better time, and he couldn't have been handed a bigger opportunity. I don't really want to go into the things that made it a good move, as that is his business, but Joe and I were really behind him. And I think it has worked out the best for all of us. Schreck is a large personage in the comics industry, almost an icon, and rightly so. It's hard to work with that because you get lost in its shadow. It's not something he does, but it's an industry perception. Everyone thought, "Oh, well Schreck is gone, so Oni is dead." They had forgotten that Joe and I had been there all along and were active voices in the company. So, it gave us a good challenge. Here was the chance to really prove ourselves and make our own name. The first thing we did was THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT. It was the first property we acquired without Schreck, and it is still our best-selling comic. And we produced it in about six weeks, and it's damn good. That gave us a nice shot of confidence. And now, it's a year later, and the company is stronger than ever. I think it has a much stronger focus. All the books fit together and create a whole. And Schreck is now one of the big guys in the Batcave and he is going to be editing DARK KNIGHT II. Everybody thought we were making a stupid move, but who's stupid now, eh? [laughs] As editor in chief at Oni, what are your responsibilities? What does being an editor entail? Well, at a regular company, being an editor basically means you are a project manager. You are the one person there every step of the way, making sure everything is rolling smoothly and attempting to make the books come out true to the vision of the creator while also being the book the company signed on to publish. A large portion of an editors life is spent on the phone, discussing things with a creator, providing support, cracking the whip, it can also get very personal. I have become great friends with many the freelancers I've worked with. My personal approach has always been to be there for them first and foremost, and I have always said that if I did my job properly, a reader won't even know I was there. Editing should be about ego as little as possible; I should be a ghost that stays out of the way when things are going right, and only speak up to avert disaster. Beyond being the creator's best friend, therapist, babysitter, etc., I check over everything. I proofread text, look for art mistakes, initiate the design elements (credits pages, letters columns, etc.), check over printer proofs. Anything that goes wrong is my fault. If there is a mistake that passed under my eyes, then it's my fault that it wasn't caught. I need to deliver a product as near to perfect as I can get. At Oni, in addition to this, I do submissions, I do copyright forms, I write most of the marketing copy. I also package up books for comps and reviews. Joe and I do a little bit of all the many things that don't fall within are particular purview under a standard job description. A lot of time, too, is spent on us being a very public face for the company. You'll find me on a lot of message boards chatting people up and pushing the Oni philosophy. I love the books I work on, and I won't rest until as many people as possible are reading them. That's interesting that you mention that sort of outreach. You've mentioned reaching out to comics fans, but do you think it's necessary to reach out to "civilians", non comics readers? Those are exactly the people we want to reach. We love our fans, don't get me wrong. The comics market has been hugely supportive and has kept us alive. We just feel that for this industry to thrive again, it has to grow. And to grow, we have to stop thinking in terms of comics. You always hear fans defending the medium as being "More than Biff! Bang! Pow!" but we need more good product to back that up. That's part of our avoidance of superheroes. We want to offer the non-comics public books that match their non-comics tastes. How are you trying to get the word out about Oni's stuff to the outside world? Well, first off, it's a huge, difficult task, and we are still looking for new ways to do it. One of the best things is outside press. It did wonders for FORTUNE & GLORY to have that "Entertainment Weekly" review. I was getting e-mails from people looking for it. So, all of that helps. And we tried to make sure the ads in the back of FORTUNE & GLORY reflected the wealth of material Oni has to offer, because we wanted the new readers who picked that book up to see that it wasn't the only thing we have that they might like. You know, when Death of Superman happened and the buzz off the first Batman movie was going, when people walked into the comics shops to check that stuff out, all they saw was more superheroes. In all likelihood, their desire to read that stuff was just a passing interest, and it would have been nice for them to see GRENDEL or FROM HELL or SIN CITY or some of the independent books that were breaking convention that might have interested them.
We did a promotional insert in the Mallrats DVD, and we're doing it again in Chasing Amy, promoting Kevin's books and the Graphitti product. Here was a great chance to let people know that there was more from Kevin Smith than his films. Kevin has a huge audience, but we have only tapped a small portion of it. Basically, we will do whatever we can to make our books more visible. If our bookstore distributor, LPC, has a promotional tool that will get bookstores to stock GEISHA and WHITEOUT, believe me, we jump on it. If an opportunity to move one of our books into another form of media arises, we are there. Oni believes the comics industry needs to be less insulated and more expansive. We need more things like seeing Slave Labor comics in mall stores, more packs of kids comics in Toys 'r' Us. It's the only way to get healthy again. What do you look for when considering a new project for publication at Oni? Both generally, in terms of attitude and style, and specifically, what do you look for in a submission package? Boy, you throw loaded ones my way. What do I look for? A good story. That sounds cheeky, but it's that simple. I look for a piece of work that the writer cares about, I look for a reason. Joe and I have a firm policy that we will only publish books that personally turn us on. Oni has done books in the past that we weren't really behind, and even though we pushed them and did the work, people seemed to sense it, and they didn't sell. We have sworn not to do that again, so ultimately we look at a project and ask, "If this was on the stands from another publisher, would we pick it up and buy it?" Other than that, I can't really get very specific when it comes to content. It really is something that I know when I see it. That said, I can tell you I don't like science fiction, fantasy, or superheroes in any traditional sense. While I won't say we would never do those sorts of books, I would strongly caution any potential creator to strongly reconsider before sending those projects to Oni. If I tell someone I don't want to read a space opera, they usually respond with, "But mine is different, and people who generally don't like space opera like it." Well, I am here to tell you today-not me! [laughs] I am tough. I can only put out a limited amount of books a month, there is only so much Joe and I can physically do, and so I have to be damn sure it's the books I really want. As far as packages go, just make it look as professional as possible. Make sure the photocopies of art are clear and show the work in a way that is easy to see. Make sure you send all stages of the art, pencils and inks. If you are somebody who jumps straight to inks, you are wasting everyone's time, including your own, as not all pencillers are good inkers. If you are a writer, proofread your stuff. And I don't mean hitting spellcheck on your computer. I rarely use mine because it is totally fallible, and you should learn to find the mistakes yourselves. Far too many submissions are just sloppy, and I get far too many to spend time on ones that are presented poorly. Besides, if you can't deliver a professional submissions packet, are you really capable of doing professional work? How necessary do you think it is for creators to have a "foot in the door" in today's market? Totally necessary. Even if it's just hooking up with an editor at a con and showing him or her your stuff. Personal contact lends so much more to your sales pitch. Do you and Joe tend to have the same tastes in books? Have their been books he's been excited about publishing that, for whatever reason, you just didn't care for? And Vice versa. For the most part, we have been pretty much in sync. It doesn't always line up just right, but we haven't had an instance where one actively hated a project that the other loved. Usually, it's one of us loves it, the other is on the fence, and the one that is in to it makes a case for the book. I, stupidly enough, was on the fence with FORTUNE & GLORY, for instance. I trusted Joe, though, and boy, did it pay off, both creatively and sales-wise. It's one of our most popular, most beloved books, and I have since read all of Bendis' other comics and am now a huge fan. I know to trust Joe's instincts now. How much of a free reign do you have? If you say, really fell in love with "Mike Diana presents SODOMY LAD" or something, is their an approval process you'd have to go through? Most large companies (like DC and Marvel) have books go through rounds and rounds of approval processes. There is zero approval process. Joe reads it, I read it, done deal. There are literally only the two of us here. There is no hidden staff you don't see in the credits. And even if we do start getting some assistant-type help, which we do have our web designer, James Lucas Jones, coming on part-time this summer, it's likely to be the same. I think it's important that the core of Oni remains Jamie and Joe, and while we entertain all opinions, the final say will be us. I think Oni is so much stronger now because of that focus. Beyond that, I don't ever want to be back in the realm of red tape. Nothing is more frustrating than having a good book like GEISHA in your hands only to have it go through a committee that just can't see beyond the initial numbers. It's maddening. Do you find a shared sensibility in the types of projects that you brought to Dark Horse and the projects you bring to Oni? Oh, definitely. Hell, GEISHA was one of the last things I pitched at Dark Horse, and it was turned down, so I gave it to Bob and Joe because I thought it deserved a home. Duncan Fegredo was supposed to be my artist on BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER, but some unfortunate snafus occurred and I quickly needed to find him work, so I called Bob and Joe. Jen Van Meter, who wrote our BLAIR WITCH comics, was my hire at Dark Horse to write the first BUFFY story for DHP. I had BLUE MONDAY in DHP, as well. And Renée French is now going to be publishing at Oni. So, yeah, my personal sense of comics I like played an active part in what I did and tried to do at the Horse, and now at Oni, I get to cut loose and just do it. Many of Oni's projects tend to have some Hollywood involvement. Kevin Smith's books, Judd (The Real World) Winick's BARRY WEEN, and THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT, to name a few. Are you making a conscious decision to attract Hollywood to your books, are you approached to publish these projects? We aren't really seeking that stuff out, no. Kevin Smith was trying to do his comics for years, and Schreck was actually trying to work with him on DHP before leaving Dark Horse for Oni... Really, it's more that we don't want to limit our scope to comics as far as whom we feel can produce good work in the field. Greg Rucka was hired out of that philosophy. Novelists aren't often the first people you would think of to do funnybooks. Greg has actually turned us on to another crime writer, Gary Phillips, who has written some great books like "The Jook and Perdition USA", and we hope to do some books with him. We want to be open to new possibilities. We do get approached by studios to do comic-book tie-ins with films, and both THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT and GHOST DOG came out of just such a situation. In those cases, as opposed to stuff we had turned down, they seemed to fit in with our sensibilities, and they understood those sensibilities and were coming to us because of them. We don't ever want to do a comic-book adaptation of a film, as those always suck. Instead, we look at the project and decide if its something we think we can add to and that will translate to our medium well. That said, in the case of Judd Winick, I'll cop to it. I am a "Real World" junkie. I was at the Dark Horse booth sitting with Ron Marz. Ron and I saw Judd walking by, and we both screamed out his name. That was the first time I ever met him. His "RW" cast is my favorite, bar none. But, that didn't have one iota of influence when it came to deciding whether or not to publish his work. Sure, the TV gig opened the door for him, but the quality of ROAD TRIP, BARRY WEEN, and PEDRO & ME, (which is one of the most gutwrenching pieces of work I have ever read. It's phenomenal! It will slay you when you read it!) was the reason he got the deal. The TV thing didn't do it, and if anything, it makes you more skeptical of his abilities. What a person is like on the boob tube just don't matter. Amaya from "Real World Hawaii" can wiggle her cute butt in here right now and flirt up a storm, but unless she shows me some quality cartooning, she ain't getting' on our schedule. Speaking of Hollywood. For the fans out there, are there any plans to produce any more work by Kevin Smith? Nothing definite. Kevin definitely has some more stories he wants to tell in comic book form, but his time has been occupied elsewhere. Once he has the time to work on some scripts, we will talk about finding a spot for them, but I wouldn't count on them until you here something official being announced. Both Oni and Kevin have learned from our past mistakes, believe you me. How did you end up an editor, when writing seems to be your real passion? I don't know. I just needed a job. I was cold-calling and doing phone surveys for film studios before moving into this. I got out of college and was broke and didn't know what to do. They don't teach you how to sell your fiction in college. At least not at my school. Like a lot of things in my life, I just happened into it, and I definitely have a thing for editing. I get jazzed by all the creative people, and really, their support and encouragement has meant a lot. Most didn't even know I was a writer, because I felt that would interfere too much with the editing (it's a classic tale: the editor who wants to write). Editing turned out to be good for me because it meant things like having Mike Allred in my corner, and you can't ask for a better coach, a better pep talker, than Mike. I also find Andi Watson's work so stimulating, because he is so good at restraint, so good at telling so much in a simple line. And don't get me started on Chynna Clugston-Major. Her work has been inspiring mine to an amazing degree. It has a freedom and a joy that I envy. And of course, the music stuff, many think I concocted BLUE MONDAY to satisfy my fetishes for Britpop, adolescence, and girly things. Why was your new novel, CUT MY HAIR, published at Scott Morse's Crazyfish publications, and not at Oni Press?  To avoid it being a total vanity project. I mean, technically, in literary terms, this is somewhat of a vanity edition, which sounds bad but is actually a good way for the non-Grishams of the world to get started. It just would have seemed weird to do it through Oni, kind of like when comic book editors get regular gigs on big titles. You know, like if I had hired myself to write THE BLAIR WITCH CHRONICLES. I was actually considering self-publishing under a totally different imprint. Allred was insistent on doing the covers and pushing me to have illustrations, and it was all sort of forming when Scott said he was reforming Crazyfish/MJ-12 and he wanted "CMH" to be a part of it. Again, I have stupid luck, and I stumbled into something good. There seems to be a strong relationship being formed between Oni, Scott Morse's Crazyfish, and Mike Allred's AAA Pop-Comics. Is this a conscious decision, perhaps to increase market presence? Or is it just a shared sensibility of comics production? A little of both. It begins with a friendship and a shared belief in the medium, shared goals in what we want to do both as creative and business forces. It just makes sense to push each other's stuff, because we are all producing work that we are mutual fans of, and we have all worked and are working together. I like the idea that these companies can be pals and we cross-promote. I like the atmosphere. Besides, I dig Mike and Scott so much, I want them to do well and I want to hype their product. Do you envision a time when Oni Press starts encompassing these companies? There's something to be said for having 6 or 7 new books in the catalogue each month, and maintaining that sort of presence. With Allred doing work through Oni, and yourself and Morse doing projects for each other's companies, you don't seem to be very far off from doing just that. No plans right now. I could see it maybe if there was a time where either couldn't handle the responsibilities any longer and needed a hand. I think with both of them, though, they are enjoying the independence and the process of doing it themselves. So, it's not something any of us are chasing after. You've mentioned that CUT MY HAIR was ten years in the making. What was the story behind writing the book? Well, I tried my first novel in high school. It was a miserable failure. I still have it. I abandoned it somewhere after 100 handwritten pages. It was a prohibition era tale of a small-town boy in a big city. I was in way over my head, because I knew nothing about what I was writing about. Around that time, I picked up a copy of the Who's Quadrophenia on vinyl, and it was another moment in life where I was just knocked on my ass. I really got into it, rented the video, just really got into the story. I was already into the whole disenfranchised loner thing, I spent many lonely weekends with my Smiths records, just as Mason does in CMH and Pete Townshend's story of this boy's struggle to fit in the mod subculture of the '60s really struck a chord. I was also learning about existentialism at the time, and film noir and F. Scott Fitzgerald, the litany of things that would form the basis of my thinking. In 1991, during the summer, I was working as an intern in the copy writing department at Warner Bros. records. More dumb luck, I had applied for a regular job. It was a big open call for an ad writer. It was in the biggest papers in Los Angeles, and hundreds of people applied. Six got interviews. Linda Forman, my boss there, called me in because I had done everything wrong when I sent my samples. She liked the youthful energy in my folly, and since I was going back to school in three months, she offered me an internship. In the department at the time was an excellent writer and complete music geek named Thane Tierney. He was writing a mystery novel where the P.I. was a radio disc jockey. He and I talked a lot about that and music and writing, and for him, he was writing a detective book he could relate to. That got me thinking, and I decided I wanted to do a Quadrophenia for me, for my age. I had a basic idea, I had the character of Mason, and pretty soon, I had the first few paragraphs, which are still pretty much intact. That fall, I started the book officially, and by the end of my college career, had about half the book on paper. The rest was a long, laborious process of inching it to life, of filling the gaps between chapter one and the inevitable end that I had planned. I finished it in 1994, and you know what happened next. Deeply steeped in turn-of-the-nineties alternative culture, why have you chosen the year 2000 to release this novel? Nothing significant except that it's just the time it all finally came together. The only real reason I set it in a specific time is because of all the musical references, there was no way to keep it current. I knew that would be a problem from the get-go. So, instead, I grounded it. I actually sifted through old newspapers at my school library and compiled a list of concerts, films, album releases, all sorts of things that might be useful for adding reality to the book. When the boys in CMH go to a show to see a real band, it was a real show. Jesus and Mary Chain really played Ventura in the summer of 1990. I didn't get to go, but I know they were there. [laughs] Who's musical tastes do you most identify with, of your characters? Mason, Tristan, and Jeane, mainly, who all three have real interlocking tastes. You can see they are less into the non-hardcore stuff, which has become less appealing to me over time. I think I use Lenny to give a wider breadth of the things I like, such as Johnny Cash and Bowie. I made Jack a Nick Cave fan simply because I wanted Nick in their and I wanted his favorite band to be something with a bit more range than say, Black Flag. Plus, I could throw my passion for Cave into it, as well, and lend the character that emotion. Given your position at Oni and your affinity for comics, why have you chosen to tell CUT MY HAIR in novel format? I was never super-attracted to writing comics. I can be rather difficult to get along with, and the idea of collaboration was always very daunting to me. I could never understand for instance, how Mike Baron could deal with Steve Rude leaving NEXUS. What if Steve had said no one else but him could do NEXUS? I just thought that would have left Baron in a really awful position. Don't get me wrong, when I was younger, I had the same fantasies as everyone else. Somewhere at my dad's I still have my rejection letter from Jim Shooter from when I was in junior high. During that period, though, I also wanted to draw. After a time, I realized that my work on all that stuff, both the writing and drawing, sucked. The work sucked, really bad. An honest assessment of my abilities convinced me I would never be able to draw, but I thought I could actually write and crafting the stories was what was most important to me. So, I started writing short stories, and I really started to read a lot more. I went to high school in a desolate town with no real comics shops, so I was getting fewer and fewer comic books, pretty much just Comico titles. As my exploration of writing got more involved, the comics became less important, and I started to get into "real" books. In 10th grade, I read Harlan Ellison's The Deathbird Stories, and I just sat there in awe. I read "The Whimper of Whipped Dogs," and I just had no idea that people could write like that. In my files I have three stories: one written just before reading that book, one written during, and one written after. You can just see me opening up. I started to use my real life as fodder. I started using the writing to exorcise my demons (I was a very depressed teenager, go figure!). I just developed a real love for crafting prose, and that's how the stories suggest themselves to me. I have developed a few comics ideas, as those stories suggested themselves as comics. Same with the screenplays I have tinkered with. I really just follow the paths the stories choose for themselves. Now that the work is finished though, and complete, do you think it would be easier to go back and re-work it into comic format? Is it something your interested in? Nah. Not unless someone gives me a big check. [laughs] Truthfully, I doubt you will ever see me return to Mason again. I love him. He's my best pal. But I want to leave him where he is at the end of the book. One thing about the ending is I have a definite idea in my head of where the characters go, but I don't give that to you, and depending on your disposition, generally, depending on how romantic you are, you, as a reader, can decide how things move on. And I want it to stay there. In the context of my work, I see "CMH" as the storybook. It is a fable. It is kind of a fairy-tale world. The romantic elements are very shiny and pretty, like in a storybook. And it has illustrations like one. But no one really wants to see Snow White ten years later. So, no sequel. Not all the characters are going to go away, but you can definitely wave good-bye to Jailbate. How about lending your hand to any other comics projects? I wouldn't rule it out. No one's ever asked, really. I might give it a shot. There's been talk of me and Andi writing a GEISHA screenplay together, but that is just talk. You never know what might come out of this thing, though. Reading CMH, I got the feeling that the lead character Mason was primarily a vehicle to express your own opinions on the settings and times. There's even a picture drawn by Mike Allred that's a strange cross between Mason and yourself. How much of yourself did you invest in Mason? In what ways do you differ? That's a strange question to approach as a writer. I can see why people find me in Mason. I mean, there's a reason The Rocketeer looks like Dave Stevens and Frank Einstein looks like Mike Allred. You are the most accessible model you have. Mason looks like me. Sometimes he talks like me. Mason is definitely a part of me, but so are all the characters in the book. I definitely channel some real emotions through him, particularly emotions I had at 19. We also share a lot of musical tastes. Where we differ is in what really happened. 95% of the events in "CMH" are pure fiction. I like to say it is an emotional autobiography, not a physical one. I was never a punk. I was more of a weird outsider that listened to a lot of different music and read comics. I rarely drank when I was young, I never attacked people with baseball bats, I have never had the sorts of relationships he has had. Some of the events, some of the people, some insignificant, some very significant, are from my life, but I don't think the readers should be privy to that, really. I don't know. It's an odd line. It is definitely a personal work, but if you are going to look for me in it, then you need to also look at Jack and Tristan and most of the other characters. Then you'll start to get a more full picture.  And that Allred drawing is kind of him taking the piss. It will be used as a promotional piece and as a tip-in for a possible hardcover. Artists like drawing me. It's the funny hair. Speaking of beating people with baseball bats, you don't shy away from making people dislike your characters at quite a few points in the story. Do you worry that CMH might be inaccessible because of this? It's hard, because I never, ever thought of them in those terms. Mason does some bad, bad things, but I never held it against him. I wished he would make better choices, but I guess since I knew where his path was taking him, I cut him a lot of slack. I think the burden is on me, as an author, to infuse the writing with enough honesty and to show Mason and Jack and everyone's good side, to give you the balance. Yeah, they are messed up, but they are good kids who are lost and maybe should be given a break. Jen Van Meter did the copy editing on the book, and her view was that it is a very young novel, and so, being very young, the characters are full of contradictions and haven't yet found their place. I think people will be able to identify with that. I mean, we all have our faults and we all have done things that might not have been very bright. I consider myself a pretty disagreeable human being, but folks seem to like me, so why not these made-up guys? [laughs] CMH, at times, seems like a love-letter to a certain era of music. Is music a passion of yours? Oh, yeah. Definitely. I have, at last count, 2023 compact discs. I have stacks of vinyl. Boxes of cassettes. I have magazines piled to the ceiling. Video tapes packed with music videos and live performances. I have been a groupie and followed bands like Pulp and Suede. Chynna hates me because I've kissed Damon Albarn out of Blur twice, Brett from Suede and Justine from Elastica both once, and I've met Adam Ant, Oasis, Gene, Garbage...I just stalked everyone for a while. Music fuels me. It is my main passion, my main inspiration. I probably love it more than anything: comics, film, literature. Only my cat takes precedence over my music. If there was a fire, I'd save Sadie first and my autographed Suede records second. The thing is, though, the timeframe of "CMH" is 1990-1991, a particularly dead time in music. Techno and acid house was kind of fizzling, and grunge was boring me silly. My main groupie phase kicked in around 1993 when Suede emerged, and then a year or two later, the Britpop resurgence, and I had to fight myself from moving [Cut My Hair] forward to get those bands in. But that would have made it an entirely different story. The book I am working on now, "The Everlasting", is set in 1999 and 2000, and its main character is a mod in his mid-twenties who worships Paul Weller (ex- of the Jam and Style Council), so he will allow me to bring in all the bands I couldn't put in "CMH". It's the second part in what I call my "Romance Trilogy," and though Mason won't be in it, a few characters might pop back up. Let's just hope I get it done a little quicker this time. [laughs] That's too bad. The mid nineties were an incredible time for music, with both brit-pop and techno dominating much of the mainstream (thank you Trainspotting). I'm surprised you're going to skip over them altogether... Not altogether. Lance, the main character, will refer back to different things. I will draw on a lot of that. Plus, he is several years younger than Mason, and we will be peaking into his teenage years, as that development will be very important. That will allow me to play a bit more in that time. Plus, all that stuff has influenced me and is culminating in this next piece of work. The truth is, there is so much for me to pull from, I can't really have it all. To me, it seems that the characters of CMH elevate music from entertainment to lifestyle and ultimately, a person's total identity. That is definitely an important part of what I was looking at. I know I have definitely made it a primary element of my life, and I definitely was using all the different aspects of it, from a character's favorite band to the style of dress, to show how the groups were demarcated and how it does allow for a sense of identity, both to the good and the bad. Comics has the same kind of people, people whose whole lives are set around hitting the comics shops every week and knowing what character appeared where and shipping schedules. For Mason, it is both what brings him into a community and what sets him apart. Also, music tends to mark the path of our memories. Mason connects moments in life to the song on the radio, like how he talks about the Depeche Mode album Violator coming out at the same time he and Laine went on a date. That's also going to be a very important part of The Everlasting. Again, Chynna and I talk a lot about that stuff. It's part of why you get musical cues throughout BLUE MONDAY. I think you are seeing the music connection a lot more in comics, actually, with Paul Pope and Jim Mahfood listing the discs they were jamming to while working on the individual issues. I think the Hernandez Bros. started that. Do you think that with the purveyance of generally unchallenging music in today's mainstream that music will stop being such an identifier for youth? No. The mainstream has never been as interesting as we colour it in our memories. How popular was Adam Ant really in the '80s? He was popular in my circle, but how wide did that spread? Certainly not to Billy Ocean fans. I actually like a lot of pop music. I love the new Britney Spears tune, "Ooops...I Did It Again." I am a massive Spice Girls fan. I think our society devalues pop music too much and too many people are afraid of liking it. You can pick up a British music mag and read an interview with a super-artsy band like the Manic Street Preachers and they're singing the praises of the latest chart topper. There is something incredibly wonderful and immediate about a three-minute pop song. It's a certain simplicity of emotion that crosses all barriers, even language. Like, you look at footage of Duran Duran at the height of their career playing Asia or Italy, and people who don't necessarily speak English are singing "Save A Prayer" and the emotion is just ripping their guts out. That appeal is universal. And some depressed teenage girl in Nowhere, Kansas, hears Britney signing "My loneliness is killing me," and to her it's like when I heard Morrissey. "Finally, someone understands!" I think people tend to forget that the Beatles started out as a cover band. All that classic Motown stuff was just as manufactured as the Backstreet Boys. Today's supposed fluff can be tomorrow's classic, and "I Want It That Way" and "Genie In a Bottle" are going to attach themselves to some people's important memories of the summer of 1999. That said, I have a hard time getting behind Korn and Limp Bizkit. While it meets a certain punk ethos in how it channels a collective rage, I find it a bit more banal and it lacks the social movement that punk had in England in 1977. Also, I think there are a lot of dishonest artists out there who a cynically peddling a false image of authenticity. Beck is the worst offender, and Rage Against the Machine. Those guys are the machine. They should change their names to Rage Against Ourselves. Hahaha... Okay, I'm laughing about the Rage bit, but I totally disagree with you on the Beck front. I own early Beck. I think he's definitely matured as an artist into something different, but at the same time he's always been this sort of bizarre Tom Green-esque character.  I just don't believe him. I know I am odd-man-out for the most part when it comes to this guy, but I just think he rapes and pillages music in a very spoiled rich-art-student way, professing a love for the material but very much approaching it with a cynical eye. Looking at it as a marketing commodity. And I'd be fine with that if he was calling a spade a spade. Plus, to me, it is just hodge-podge, and just a mess. And he sounds like he has phlegm bubble at the back of his throat, he looks like a frog, and his lyrics make about as much sense as a monkey writing a manifesto with his own poo. [laughs] Don't get me started. I hate the guy very, very much and can go on for hours dissing him. You have your records, and I am glad you enjoy them, but if that bastard shows up on my radio or TV screen, the station is being changed! I just look at Pop music today and see it as being of a generally lower quality than say, 10 years ago. Sure, it's much slicker and prettier, but it seems a lot more vapid, particularly over the past year. I understand your comments about stuff like the Spice Girls, they at least had an agenda. I can respect that. But do you really think that there's a girl out there in Kansas that really identifies with Britney Spears? Oh, yeah. Hell, I know a girl in Santa Cruz that does. She sent me a tape of the first album. One, it's someone that in your head, you could be. Just like I wanted to be Nick Rhodes when I was a little Duranimal in 1984. It's the emotion. When the boy in the next desk over doesn't acknowledge you exist, "From the Bottom of My Broken Heart" suddenly sounds very comforting and real. Hell, I get suckered in by that stuff. There is nothing as cathartic as a sad pop song when it's all coming down around you. Next time someone crushes your heart, put on No Doubt's "Don't Speak," or if you're feeling giddy in new romance, Sixpence None The Richer's "Kiss Me," and I guarantee you it will make sense. (Of course, the best song ever for being dumped and lonely is Spiritualized's "Broken Heart." That song is built on a mammoth collection of tears.) Besides, as comics fans, we should know how less-challenging books can lead to reading more intense comics experiences. Most of us begin reading superheroes and then move on to more involved work. You know, I went from G.I. JOE to GRENDEL in about 4 years. The hope is that the more accessible material will open the door, and once the person is in the room, he or she will find the wide variety there is to offer. So, hopefully, today's GREEN LANTERN readers will be tomorrow's BARRY WEEN fans. Is rap the new punk? Yeah, because just like punk, it has been completely corrupted and taken over by corporate greed and fakers. I saw the new Sex Pistols documentary, "The Filth and the Fury", today, and in it Johnny Rotten talks about how once the whole thing took off and started being noticed by the media, it lost its authenticity. While the scene had been full of people creating their own images and trying to be unique, he was suddenly playing to crowds of people with nothing but spiky hair and leather jackets. The movement had been homogenized, and for him, it was over. Same thing with rap. It has been cloned, homogenized, and has strayed, for the most part, into cartoon. (Like any movement in any art, there are still outsiders doing genuine stuff, don't get me wrong.) So, yeah, it is the new punk, because it exploded with a new rage and then fizzled once there was money to be made. You know, you are referencing a specific chapter of the book that I know is going to haunt me. The opinions of the character, Lenny, aren't totally my own and are very much skewed to the purposes of the book. I let the character go off on a long treatise on the music basically to protect the book from people who see the music in a different way. I wanted the book to have its own definitions about punk music, so that if something was a bit off from what exists in the real world, I could point to it as being different for the set of characters I was portraying. People always want to argue that chapter with me, though, and some early feedback said to take it out-but I was stubborn. So, screw everyone! Is that punk enough for you? [laughs] Oh it was a great and powerful chapter mind. A bunch of tough guys getting drunk and talking about music, an interesting digression. That said, you definitely took your Doc Martens and stomped a few toes in that chapter, let me tell you. Grunge isn't important? Not to me. It says nothing to me about my life. Granted, Nirvana were great. They hit, and they were really different, and they really toppled the whole structure. But their coattails ended up being covered in crap, and they left stains all over the dancefloor. It just frustrated me to hear all these bands claiming to be so punk rock, but then aping Led Zeppelin and Neil Young and all the '70s FM bands that punk sought to bury. I just found it really wooden and boring, and I haven't really heard a reasonable explanation about what it did for other people except maybe make it safe to have some good ol' fashioned white boy aggression again.  Bringing this all back to comics, do you find much in the mainstream of comics that is inspiring, or that people can identify with? Ooooh, gosh. For me, it's manga. I know a big appeal of comics when I was young, and for many people still, is the fact that it gives them a different world. I think manga like "Sailor Moon" and "Magic Knights Rayearth" is so great because it is empowering for girls in the way Peter Parker was for young boys. Plus, I think the gender lines are not that important. I think they cross them fairly well. And I think, too, they portray teenagers in a way that isn't insulting. Nothing is more heinous than the belief that hacks from the '80s can write teenagers in contemporary stories about teenagers. You know the books and the writers I am talking about without me having to say it. I just think kids can see through the fact that they aren't that in touch with youth culture, that this is really a big company trying to peer into their lives and not really getting it. That's why Gen13 started off so strongly. The people writing it were still relatively young, and they weren't entirely wholesome. Kids don't want to drink their milk and eat their vegetables. In answer to your question, though, I think there are some good mainstream comics that I hope younger readers can get into. Greg Rucka's DETECTIVE COMICS springs to mind. I mean, he's got me reading a Batman book! I think Adam Warren's work really straddles the line. He's the only mainstream, cheesecake guy I can think of that would reference Proust. I like the majority of the Cliffhanger line, and feel it is a shame that it has become such a joke. I like M-REX. I think Judd Winick's GREEN LANTERN is going to be the first comic in a long while about a young superhero that actually has the potential to be an honest potrayal of a young person in today's society. I don't know. All this talk about mainstream vs. non-mainstream can get horribly elitist really fast. I remember being ridiculed by "regular" kids for my weird musical tastes or for reading comics, and how terrible that felt. I don't think indy snobbery is that much better. It's the classic story of becoming the person you hate. In CUT MY HAIR, there are a few scenes and relationships that I found had a strong homosexual subtext; the relationship between Tristan and Mason, and the very protective feelings that Jack has for Mason. Were these intentional, or do you feel they exist at all? I think it's there in the former, but not in the latter. At least, not for me. The Tristan element in particular took on certain elements I had not planned when I got started. Mason definitely looks at him with romantic eyes, and there are scenes with romantic trappings, particularly when they are talking at the fountain. But, that sort of thing comes with that kind of hero worship. It doesn't matter what your preference, if you get into a band that strongly, it takes on a very crush-like vibe. Like when I was a kid and seeing Adam Ant or Duran Duran on the TV, and not really understanding the full depth of why they were so intriguing. And it pleases me that some idjit in a red baseball cap somewhere is secretly getting a mental boner over Fred Durst and not really understanding why he has a poster of him on his wall. [laughs] The secret homosexual desire of a Limp Bizkit fan revealed at PopImage! Jack more represents a bit of a duality that I find myself obsessed with as a Gemini. In fact, a lot of the characters form pairs. Jack and Mason are the big and the small, brawn and brains, older brother and younger brother. I can see, though, how someone can read more into their relationship, and I certainly am not going to stop you! I'm not afraid of it! A lot of people actually wanted to have Tristan and Mason shack up. Maybe if I get popular enough there will be fan sites with fan fiction about all the secret desires of punk rock boys. I can see it now! "We were slamming in the pit and I was pushed into him. His chest was strong and didn't yield. I could smell his sweat. I looked up at him, and he was looking down at me, smiling." [laughs] If circumstances had allowed it, how do you think these relationships would have played out within the novel? I've never really considered it. Tristan is never supposed to be that accessible. We all fantasize about our heroes, but that kind of contact is just not in the cards. I would tend to go for the more "Velvet Goldmine" approach and throw another element in there. You go for David Bowie and end up with Iggy Pop, which is really scary when you think about it. [laughs] You go for Mike Allred and end up with Jamie Rich, you poor sod. Truth is, I want more people to feel sorry for Laine. She's not a bad girl, really. Why can't she have love? [laughs] Well, I think that might be the curse of the supporting character. They never get to lead the fantastic, interesting lives. We never get to see inside their heads, and their stories are ultimately secondary to the lead character's. Laine has all the control in the relationships. She's got Mason and Otto all on her string, whether she knows it or not. She's one of those girls that is just so adorable that you can't help but be caught in her web. Chynna has brought her to life perfectly in her drawings. It's almost like the images were ripped from my brain. Supporting characters are definitely only allowed to be as alive as the narrative makes room for them. "CMH" is told in a strict first person voice, so the entire world is entirely filtered through Mason's point of view. He is also guilty of creating larger-than-life images of the people in his life, and sometimes he is let down by their not living up to that image. That actually allows them to be a bit more human. Laine, in particular, because it lets them step out of the secondary role and become more real. It's the Rosencrantz and Guildenstern dilemma, characters who exist only to serve the purpose of someone else's story. Hopefully, I was able to bring a little of depth to each one so they can exist somewhat in their own right. Only time will tell... You've described CMH as the first installment of your "Romance Trilogy". It's interesting that you're taking a romantic tact to your work and soliciting it through the comic industry, a place that has by and large abandoned romance. I guess part of the problem is that I didn't design it for the comics industry, but you're right, comics for the most part lack any real romance. You get Colossus dating Kitty Pryde, but it seems to be a very surface romance, defined more by, "We're happy today, but problems tomorrow," than any real rush of irrational emotion. In "CMH", I am really trying to capture that unstoppable adolescent energy that allows you to fall in love and say all sorts of crazy things really quickly. I think there is something pure and wonderful in that, something that really sticks. More cynical people reading the book have commented on the speed of Mason's relationships, but when someone lets themselves get caught up in a situation like that, it's like lightning, and it can be the strongest bond. I think that's why Jeane sticks through Mason's foibles. She's formed a real bond. Also, don't forget that a couple of months happen off the page. We only get the early bits, so though she sticks around when things go to hell, I hope the readers can take a leap of faith that she has good reason. Plus, when you care about someone, ditching them when the going gets rough isn't exactly noble. Would you like to see more romance-oriented works within the industry? Do you think Oni should be a part of that? I'd like to see more genuine love in comics. I love old films that are just silly with romance. "Breakfast At Tiffany's" is one of my favorites. I worship at the hemline of Audrey Hepburn. Even old Bogart and Bacall films, where it's two tough people and all these sparks. I was also really influenced by the Marisa Tomei film Untamed Heart. It's a real throwback to a fairy tale ideal, two people coming together like waves hitting the rocks. An unstoppable tumble down the hill of love. Too many comics are just about the huff-and-puff of the macho chest beating of superheroes, or if it's independent comics, it's either trying too hard to be realistic or if there is romance, it is tempered with despair, like in Adrian Tomine's work. I think Jason Lutes has struck a healthy balance of romance and realism with his relationships in BERLIN, and Matt Wagner and Steve Seagle portrayed a wonderful relationship over the course of SANDMAN MYSTERY THEATRE. But for real, great comics romance, I have to go back to my buddy Allred. Of course, there's Frank and Joe in MADMAN and Adam and Luna in THE ATOMICS. For me, though, RED ROCKET 7 is like a real soulmate of CMH. You have the music aspect, but the center of the story is Red's romance and the love he loses. That defines everything, and that's the way I like to see love in fiction and the world in general. Andi Watson's "Breakfast After Noon" is actually a romantic book. It's a book about a relationship in a time of trouble and the people finding their way back to one another in a crisis. It's like a dream come true. It's like one of those books I have been wishing I could do forever. Just like RED ROCKET 7. Just like BLUE MONDAY. Andi is my hero for delivering exactly what I desire. Where do you see Oni's projects heading, in general, into the year 2000? What part do you want to play in that, as both a creator and the editor?  I just see us continuing on the trajectory we are on. We have a real great group of people we are associated with that has sort of created this self-replicating Oni machine. We also have some real firsts for us. ALISON DARE, LITTLE MISS ADVENTURES by J. Torres and Jason Bone is going to be our first all ages book. Phil Hester and Mike Huddleston are creating a book called THE COFFIN that, in a weird way, is a little like an Oni version of a superhero book. They're both unlike anything we have done, and I am excited to be sort of opening up our image a bit. Otherwise, we have more projects going with Paul Dini, Judd Winick, Dan Brereton, Brian Bendis, Greg Rucka, Jen Van Meter, Chynna, Bernie Mireault. Guy Davis' THE MARQUIS is going to be an ongoing series of miniseries. There's going to be a large graphic novel reprinting lots of the more disturbed work of Renée French. "Crash Metro's" Martin Ontiveros is going to be crafting his own world, BIG MONSTER PLANET. We're just excited to continue doing what we are doing, to be publishing comics that we are excited about. As for my role in it, I am just going to keep pursuing new things, looking for new things, finding the projects that I think we should do. As far as my role as a creator, really, there is nothing planned. Right now, my focus is on "The Everlasting" and marketing and pimping "Cut My Hair". Other than that, well, we'll see. No door is ever closed.
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By Christopher Butcher.
Another big area, I think, is e-commerce and general
internet promotion. Beyond being marketed over the internet, THE BLAIR
WITCH PROJECT also did huge business online. Artisan Entertainment had a
Blair store set up, and we sold a ton of comics over it. While we always
push the comics shop locator number first, sites give us another opportunity
to get people who don't normally go into a comics shop or whose local
retailer might not carry Oni books. Similarly, I hit all the Adam Ant sites
and message boards I could find when BLUE MONDAY was coming out,
because I thought that audience would really dig the book. And again, I got
a good e-mail response.
