DAN 'TAKE A FLIGHT ON MY BONES' JOLLEY
That's right, an interview with Mister Dan 'these leather thongs are itchy' Jolley by Jonathan Ellis.

Dan Jolley, Writer of various books such as DR. STRANGE: FLIGHT OF BONES, and JSA: THE LIBERTY FILES was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and grew up in a tiny little town in northwest Georgia called Ringgold. He lived in Athens, Georgia for seven years, moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico for a year and a half, and is now back in Ringgold. Dan attended the University of Georgia, from which he graduated with a bachelor's degree in English and a taste for dark beers. Dans first published work was "a long-gone and best-forgotten" issue of VAMPIRELLA, for Harris Comics. Dan has shown himself to be an admirable writer and a fan of dark lagers, and he's not even European!

PopImage: How did you brake into the biz Dan?

Dan Jolley: A girl I met in a video arcade, and subsequently asked out on a date, introduced me to a couple of friends of hers: Tony Harris and Craig Hamilton. Tony introduced me to his editor at Harris Comics (no relation), and the rest is spotty and not very interesting history.

What are some of the trials and tribulations of making your way into the industry?

Well, I don't know how firmly I'm "in" the industry yet, but I can honestly say that it's been a bumpy road to get where I am. Early on, I don't even remember how many jobs I thought I had, but then lost, or how many I was promised, and then had jerked out from under me. I no longer get excited about anything till I've got a signed contract in my hands, and I don't get REALLY excited till I get the first check.

Personal beliefs on why the industry is in a slump?

I don't really know why it's in a slump. I don't think anybody does. Markets fluctuate; it's the nature of commerce. I tell you, though, I really miss the days when "selling well" meant a comic moved 500,000 units, instead of 50,000.

How did you get into writing comic books?

While I've known I was going to be a writer since I was about thirteen, I hadn't really given much thought to writing comics, specifically, until the meeting with Tony Harris when I was 19. At the time he and a friend of his were self-publishing some stuff under the name Buccaneer Studios, and after Tony read a short story of mine he told me he'd like to adapt it to comics. Well, sort of an adaptation, he wanted to do it in the same format as "BEAUTIFUL STORIES FOR UGLY CHIDREN," with a page of prose, then a page of art, back and forth. But Buccaneer folded before that could happen (one of the many things that I thought was going to happen and didn't). Not until many months later did Tony ask me if I'd be interested in writing an issue of VAMPIRELLA for him to draw. Of course I jumped on the chance... but then Tony had to back out of drawing it. So it ended up bei= ng me and Karl Altstaetter. Anyway, after that I was able to contact Dan Thorsland at Dark Horse, and he let me write a little two-part ALIENS story for the Dark Horse Comics anthology book. And I've gone from there.

How did you get into screenwriting?

The screenwriting thing started after my friend Josh Krach and I came up with a story called "The Mudville Horror," a sort of Lovecraftian nerd horror/comedy, and pitched it to both DC and Vertigo. Well, DC said it wasn't mainstream enough, and Vertigo said it was too mainstream. Frustrated, I decided to turn it into a screenplay instead, basically just for the hell of it. About halfway through writing the screenplay, I met a working screenwriter on-line, a fellow named Richard Syvanen. Richard has already sold five scripts, and he took Josh and me under his wing, so to speak. We'd finish up a draft and send it to Richard, and Richard would poke huge holes in it and send it back. And THAT was frustrating, because he was right 99% of the time. : ) But we finally got our first ever screenplay whipped into shape, contacted Richard's manager, and got it sent out to a few studios. And while we did get some very good, very positive comments on it, Hollywood seems to have moved out of "horror phase" at the moment, and it hasn't sold yet.

Format, Format, FORMAT! If someone's looking at a script, they'll turn the first page and if it's not in proper format they'll throw it out. Considering that comics scriptwriting doesn't adhere to any specific format, do you find this aggravating?

Not at all. I bought a copy of "Final Draft," a screenwriting software program. It formats for me automatically. : )

Writing in Partners, preferred or no?

I'm totally comfortable both working with partners and without. I've worked with Tony Harris and Ray Snyder on a ton of projects, and Josh and I have turned out some pretty swell stuff, but I'm also doing several things on my own; I wrote a story in STAR WARS TALES #2, "Incident at Horn Station," I recently turned in my script for my issue in the Jedi Council one-shot series, I did a fill-in issue for THE FLASH last summer (not published yet), and I'm hopeful that I'm about to get a story bought for SUPERMAN ADVENTURES.

Tell us Dan, who are some of your most memorable influences?

Heavy on the Alan Moore and Dean Koontz, with a liberal dash of James O'Barr, Neil Gaiman and Robert McCammon.

And the Worst trick you ever played on someone?

I'm not much into playing tricks, myself. However, when I was in high school, a couple of friends of mine convinced another friend -- who had just awakened from a nap -- that a sort of unusual-looking sunset had been caused by the dropping of atom bombs while he'd been asleep. When they finally told him they were only joking, he said, "Hey, guys, don't try to cheer me up, okay?"

Your most recent series was the JSA: LIBERTY FILE Elseworlds series, do you prefer writing books within continuity or stories that are just 'out there' and that you can have fun with?

I'd have to go with "out there." : ) Dealing with continuity is a fundamental part of comics, but it can also be something of a burden; it's much more liberating if you can start "from scratch," and handle your characters however you decide to, not having to take five or ten or thirty years of story material into consideration. That's all part of the challenge, though, accommodating the history, and I certainly won't shy away from it.

The JSA: LIBERTY FILE series began with a story involving Batman as a covert agent in World War II, facing off against an albino smuggler named Smilin' Jack, and then...?

And then, for copyright reasons, we had to change Smilin' Jack's name. : ) So I suggested "Jack the Grin," and Tony liked that, so we went with it. The story begins with three agents -- The Bat (Batman), The Clock (Hourman), and The Owl (Dr. Mid-Nite), trying to recover an intercepted Nazi communique that Jack the Grin stole. They know it contains information about an Axis weapon that could end the war... but they don't realize it's something much worse than what they had at first suspected. And the story goes from there, and includes an undead Nazi "cleaner" code-named "Scarecrow," as well as a guy who flies and wears a cape. : )

How much research went into the series? Historical references? Characters? Artistic considerations? etc?

I read a lot of magazines and newspapers from the period. Looking at advertising of the time is, I think, a really good way to get a grasp on the popular culture. For Tony's part, he's always really been into 1940's looks and styles, particularly the Art Deco influence; he's got tons of books on those subjects, so this was a dream project for him.

Recently everyone has been getting into the JLA / JSA characters with renewed interest from the fans and new projects from the creators, what was it about these characters that made you want to get involved?

Well, when this project was first conceived, it was going to be called "Batman:" and then something after the colon. We were all set to do a Batman story -- but since it was in WWII, we thought, why not bring in some other characters? And our two favorites of that period were Mid-Nite and Hourman. Throw in a cameo from Black Canary, and suddenly we've got a JSA story... but we were still calling it "Batman:" something. As it turned out, this casting development dovetailed beautifully with DC editorial's decision to have a sort of "JSA push" -- and when we got the final comments back on our proposal, one of the conditions attached was that we change the name to "JSA:" something. Actually, by that time we had settled on the title "The Liberty File," so it became "JSA: The Liberty File."

When you start a script you begin by drawing rectangles representing pages and making notes, when did you start using this process? Do you often sketch out scenes for a reference to artists?

I started doing the drawing-little-rectangles thing (for lack of a better term, I call it a "plot layout") very shortly after I started trying to write comic scripts, so that would've been around 1990. I never took a course or anything in how to write in comic script format -- it was just sort of a trial and error thing over several years. But the plot layout is the best way I've found to organize all my thoughts before beginning the actual script. And I usually don't stick totally faithfully to the story structure as it's first set down that way; panel numbers change, pages get switched around. Writing comic scripts has a more mathematical edge than other script formats -- you're writing to an exact number of pages, you h= ave to take into account the way the pages are arranged, etc. -- so putting it all down in a sort of halfway-graphical format organizes it very well for me.

I NEVER sketch out scenes as reference for artists. All they get from me, the final product, is a (usually pretty detailed) written description of what needs to go on. I am not an artist, and experience has taught me that I don't always see the best way to represent a certain scene or certain action; therefore, if the artist realizes that a fight sequence would be much more dynamic if "shot" from a different angle, he or she has the latitude to draw it that way. Now, this is not to say that I leave actual story-writing up to the artist; only once have I ever said anything like "Pages 3 - 6: big fight scene," and that was on The Liberty File, after Tony and I had already discussed what would happen in the scene. What it boils down to is this: I write down what needs to happen in the story, and describe the effects the story's events need to achieve. I don't try to tell the artist how to draw.

Upcoming you have the LAZARUS 5, ADVENTURES IN OZ & OBERGEIST comics, an extension of the BRIGANDS online comic to be drawn by Matt Childers and inked by Blake Wilkie, as well as the possible development of your scripts for The Mudville Horror and Nowhere Road. Can you tell us about these titles and how far along they are in the stages of development?

Okay, LAZARUS 5 is all but completely in the can. Tony, Ray and I created it together and jointly own it, but it's being penciled and inked by Dusty Abell and Jim Royal, respectively. That debuts in May. ADVENTURES IN OZ, from Arrow Comics, will be (to my knowledge) the first faithful adaptation of the original books by L. Frank Baum in total comics format. We're currently in the process of selecting an artist for that. Tony is just about done pencilling the first issue of OBERGEIST, which is a project that he and I created and own jointly; it's being inked by Ray Snyder. I don't know when it'll debut. The BRIGANDS project is sort of nebulous at this point; I wrote a little ten-page script for Blake's website, but then he didn't have time to draw the thing, so it just sort of languished in script limbo for a couple of years. Now, all of a sudden Blake's got Matt Childers drawing the thing, and Austin Janowsky at Twister Comics is interested in publishing it; the project is sort of taking on a life of its own. It's a lot of fun to write, but I'm a little apprehensive about it, 'cause it's the first humor title I'll be writing all on my own. We'll see what happens. = : )

Josh Krach and I are currently working on a flat-out comedy called "Nowhere Road," which is sort of like "Clerks-meets-Raising Arizona." That's taking us a little longer than we'd thought, but it's getting there. Nowhere Road is the story of a semi-slacker early-morning paper delivery guy in a small, quirk- ridden college town, and the supreme weirdness that befalls him during his last week on the job.

Mudville is the story of what happens when a nigh-omnipotent, hugely malevolent other-dimensional deity is accidentally set free on Earth by two nerds on their way to a comic book convention.

You'll be adapting L. Frank Baum Wizard of Oz books for Arrow Comics, how much a fan of the stories are you? What should we expect to see from the series?

I'm a HUGE fan of the original Oz books (which are, as far as I'm concerned, the ONLY Oz books). What you'll get is a bi-monthly 32-page comic that sticks totally faithfully to the original stories -- but will also have a few scenes and bits of characterization added. I won't be altering anything from the books, but in between scenes, in between chapters and such, I will be putting in a little bit of new material. What I'm hoping, though, is that the new material will simply complement the original, and blend seamlessly enough so that those not intimately familiar with the books won't realize what's new and what's not. I'm pretty excited about getting the chance to work on these stories. : )

If you had a chance at another Dr. Strange series, what would it be about?

Well, I wrote up a proposal for one and sent it in, but due to various circumstances nothing ever came of it. Not to give too much away, since I hope one day to write the whole story, it would involve a severe snowstorm, druidic magic, and Clea. ; )

The interview games; 1)Of choice; what is your drink of choice?
The margarita. Unless you're talking non-alcoholic, in which case it's Mountain Dew.

Restaurant of choice?
Carraba's.

Movies?
Sling Blade, Dead Poets' Society, The Usual Suspects.

Books?
Koontz's books from the mid- to late-eighties -- Watchers, Lightning, Strangers. Also Robert McCammon's later works, and the "Prey" series by John Sandford. And pretty much anything by Larry Niven.

Music?
Various. Depends on what mood I'm in, what I'm trying to accomplish at the time. I basically only listen to music in the car, so in the car right now I've got Heather Nova's "Oyster," "Metasexual" by Joydrop, "Hellbilly Deluxe" by Rob Zombie, "Voodoo U" by Lords of Acid, and "Dirt Track Date" by Southern Culture on the Skids. Oh, and "Operation: Mindcrime" by Queensryche.

Artists?
Well, there's Tony and Ray, of course, and the guys in Jolly Roger Studios. And John Nadeau and Jordi Ensign, of X-Wing Rogue Squadron fame. And Sean Phillips! Plus I would LOVE the chance to work with Steve Dillon and Bryan Hitch.

2)The name game, here's how it works, I say the name of a certain creator and you say whatever comes to mind, for instance I might say 'Alan Moore' and you'd might say 'Great writer who looks like a hells angel'. Here goes;
Garth Ennis: I hear he's younger than I am. I also hear that's not supposed to bother me.

Grant Morrison: Very talented. Not much hair. Had chicks all over him every time I saw him at the cons.

Warren Ellis: Two words: THE AUTHORITY. I love that book. I'd like to marry it.

Alan Moore: I tried sacrificing some goats to him, but it didn't make me write any better. What gives?

Joe Quesada: Mr. New York. Gave me my shot at DR. STRANGE. Interesting hair...

Kevin Smith: A big influence... see my comments on "Nowhere Road" above. : ) (I bet he'd like The Mudville Horror, come to think of it)

Nanci Dakesian: Okay, I should've called Joe Quesada "Mr. LUCKY New York."

Tony Harris: The man to whom I owe my first-born. And some beer.

Paul Chadwick: CONCRETE is amazing stuff. My PARENTS like CONCRETE. And man, they're picky.

Mike Mignola: I saw him speak at San Diego. He's funny! And that HELLBOY. Wow.

Sean Phillips: Rendered my STAR WARS story beautifully. I'd love to work with him again.

Ray Snyder: Comics' most laid-back guy. Plus he's "The Shade" in STARMAN. How cool is that?

What's your dream project? If you could work with any companies, characters, writers, artists, no restrictions, no rules, complete creative freedom, crossover as many characters from as many different companies as and if you wanted without any complaints, put together whatever creative teams you wanted, and no one would stop you, what would you do?

Good Lord, man, with parameters like that, I'd take over some small, wealthy nation! ...Actually I'd like to turn my as-yet-unpublished first novel, "Redeemer's Law," into a comic book series. Maybe with shifting art teams composed of all those artists I mentioned earlier. With covers by Glenn Fabry. Yeah... wow...

some quick Q's;
Favourite characters? Heroes?
Nightcrawler.

Villains?
Taskmaster.

Hippy magicians who talk weird and move their fingers in strange ways to create flashy lights?
Doug Henning?

Most influential Author?
Dean Koontz.

Favourite old school artist?
Gene Colan.

Best Kirby creation?
Darkseid.

Most under appreciated creator currently in the biz?
John Nadeau.

Proudest body of work?
Published so far, JSA: THE LIBERTY FILE. When it comes out, I think that'll change to OBERGEIST.

Advice to those trying to make it in the Biz today?
What, like I need competition?

What has been your favourite book to work on?
OBERGEIST.

Current titles everyone SHOULD be reading?
THE AUTHORITY, TOP TEN.

Favourite character(s), title(s) to hopefully some day work on?
I STILL want to do a series featuring the old Marvel team, "The Rangers." I could make them just freakin' GALACTICALLY cool. ; )

Comics journalism, in any form, how important is it?

I think it's VERY important. Even if readers don't agree with all the opinions expressed, it should spark them to give things a try that they might not have otherwise. Plus, with the state of the industry, ANY exposure is good exposure.

You've just been given a chance to rework the industry, starting with the major publishers and distribution companies, what do you do, what DO you do?

I give myself very lucrative contracts with all of them.

And now...
Plug time! this is where you plug as many things as you want, comics, websites, movies, your very own brand of wine coolers, novels, anything old, new, current and upcoming, a board game you created where all the pieces are actually various cheeses, where to buy your books, scripts, and whatever else. Anything that could somehow lead towards a incredibly obscene amount of cash in your pocket, and then we, the reader, go out and spend of course. But not spend like normal people, no we'd be Supa-spending, swiping interact cards faster then a speeding bullet, clearing accounts in a single transaction, and so on, you get the idea!

Okay. I do have a website -- Dan Jolley - Writer -Type Guy -- and I do have a totally finished novel that I'm currently seeking an agent for. Josh Krach and I are working with a new artist named Jon Sukarangsan on a creator-owned project called "DANGERNAUTS!" DANGERNAUTS! (that's always with the !) is a humor book, but it's not ALL humor. Imagine a cross between THE TICK and Grant Morrison's run on DOOM PATROL. We'll shortly be seeking a publisher, and... um... I think that's about it...

So, okay, you're going to untie me now, right? Right? ...Hello?

Dan.

PopImage and I would like to thank Dan for participating in this interview and want to remind you to: 1) pick up all his upcoming works, 2) to check out his website, and 3) send him money and alcohol. Lots of it.

All characters, titles, images mentioned or shown are copyright and trademark their respective creators.

Jon Ellis is Interviews Editor of PopImage.

Back

Attitude | ProFile | Industrial
Interviews | Reviews | Pi Comics
Talkback | Archives | Gallery