MEGAN LAVEY-HEATON and ISABELLE MELANCON OF NAMESAKE - Interview

It’s a week for welcoming back previous interviewees! Today, I’m catching up with Megan Lavey-Heaton and Isabelle Melancon, creators of the webcomic NAMESAKE. It’s been a while since my last interview with them; we’d meant to do one during their second Kickstarter project, but that sort of fell through. So here they are to talk to us about how that went and what’s upcoming:

ANTHONY: You successfully funded the print version of Namesake Book Two not so long ago. How is the production process coming, and when will the book be available to the general public?

ISA: Production is pretty much over. I re-colored a couple of the pages, polished it up, added an extra story… and then Megan did all the book putting-together part. The toughest part for me is always to design the covers. And I had to design 3 this time. Whew! Since we had the hardcover version coming out with this Kickstarter too. But they turned out great too. The books should be available in August/September if all goes well, but we might open pre-orders before then.

ANTHONY: Are there plans already afoot for collecting book three in print form?

ISA: Book three is almost fully posted online, so as soon as that’s done, plans for the next Kickstarter will probably start.

ANTHONY: What’s your process been like for transferring from web content to the printed page? Did it change at all between books one and two?

ISA: Well, the pages have a pretty standard format, so making the jump from digital to print wasn’t that hard. I perfected my drawing techniques and scanning techniques, and Megan started doing allt he lettering in indesign to make the whole process go more smoothly. Our processes kinda changed about half-way into book one, so book 2 went considerably better.

ANTHONY: Where do we find the characters at the start of book two?

MEG: Emma is still entrenched in Oz at the beginning of book 2. We take a slight detour to check in on Alice and Lewis in the 1800s, then Ben, Elaine, Fred and the Calliope staff in the modern era, along with the introduction of some new cast members who will be very important in the future. For now though, most of this book tells the bulk of Emma’s adventure in Oz.

ISA: And Warrick’s backstory is revealed in book 2. Everyone loves a good tragic backstory.

ANTHONY: How much material will be in the print edition of book two versus the online edition? Any new special extras?

MEG: Book 2 contains Intermission 1 and chapters 6-10. We are about to start chapter 13 in the online edition. We have a book bonus story with Warrick and a Kickstarter-only story with Chiseri and Adora.

ANTHONY: Has your collaborative process changed at all since you started Namesake?

MEG: Not off the top of our head. The machine isn’t broken!

ISA: Nope, if anything, we just have MORE fun. Because the story is gradually becoming more engaging and creative.

ANTHONY: How about your individual creative processes?

MEG: I know for me, I have switched to doing the lettering of the pages in InDesign. Makes it vastly easier when it comes to creating the books!

ISA: I started doing more storyboarding and I have a notebook listing important visual details for all characters… to make sure I don’t forget anything! I plan to make character turnarounds too. It’s more of a process used in animation, but it helps not to draw someone off-model.

ANTHONY: Has the story continued to play out according to your original master plan, or has it taken any interesting side turns?

MEG: It’s definitely taking interesting side turns. For example, Selva has become one of the main cast when originally she wasn’t supposed to have much of a role beyond chapter 1. Nose is another unexpected developed character. We still have the master plan, but we’re letting the different stories develop organically and adjust as needed.

ISA: Characters change a lot, but the main plot stays stable. I think it’s nice that characters are kinda “telling” us who they want to be.

ANTHONY: What other projects are you both working on?

MEG: I’ll let Isa answer that one!

ISA: We have a couple of things we wish to start. I have a few ideas for graphic novels for kids and pre-teens, because it’s an age group I love to write for. Mostly fantasy stuff. Megan has a few ideas that are really exciting too, but she tends to write more for adults, with police mysteries and diabolical curses. I guess we’ll flip a coin and see who gets to choose first. On the short term, we plan to do a couple of short comics to try different things as a team.

ANTHONY: A slight tweak on my usual closing question: If you could only recommend one of the books your characters are based on/connected to, which one would it be?

ISA: Probably a complete book of Andersen’s works. I love his fairy tales. They are my favorites.

CURA TE IPSUM, Kickstarter Campaign - Interview

I’ve interviewed my friend Neal Bailey a number of times here on “Rambling On,” discussing the progress of CURA TE IPSUM, the fantastic “can one man save himself across the Multiverse” webcomic written by Neal and drawn by the incomparable Dexter Wee. About a month ago, Neal started a Kickstarter to publish a print version of Year Two of the webcomic, with lots of awesome perks for backers … and I promptly dropped the ball in regards to having him on here again to promote it. There’s still four days left and the campaign is going strong, so better late than never, right?

ANTHONY: Hi Neal! So, what’s new and exciting in the world of CURA TE IPSUM?

NEAL: Hey, Anthony! Honestly, that probably depends on your perspective. For the readers, we’re going into a section of story that’s going to be decidedly exciting. A big paradigm shift in the next few months, and the beginnings of the origin of the Dark Everett.

For me, what’s exciting is winding toward the middle of Year Five (I write… in the FUTURE) and finishing up this Choose-Your-Own-Adventure style novella I’m doing for the Kickstarter. It’s a lot of fun.

Also… HARDBACKS! We will have hardbacks, it looks like, thanks to this wonderful Kickstarter thing. 

ANTHONY: What made you feel now was the right time to run a Kickstarter for CURA?

NEAL: Honestly, going to cons and watching other independent comics make use of it with no ill effects. I used to write for the internet, and if I learned one thing writing for the internet, it was that if you do a thing and ask for money for it, you get nastygrams from people, for some reason. At least, you used to. That has changed now. As the medium grows, people start to understand if they don’t support a thing, it goes away, which sucks.
I was going to do one big Kickstarter, at the end of Cura, and try and recoup something, anything of the tens of thousands of dollars I’ve thrown into it. I saw Kickstarter as a trigger you could pull once, a fundraising tool to get a thing recognition and a printing.

Then I printed my own trades a few times, and realized I couldn’t continue to do it on my own. I debated options. Going two days a week (which would lead to pay reduction for Dex, which I didn’t want to do). Going to companies (I already have, and a few big ones passed on Cura). That’s when I started asking my other friends doing webcomics and they indicated that the model for Kickstarter has shifted. You’re not a fink for doing one once a year, it’s more of a situation like Kickstarter is a Previews for the indie world. People who like indie comics come, see things that need regular support, order it, and keep it going.

I realized I can do Year Two, and if the people like it, then it wouldn’t be the only hurrah. There is a matrix and community of people who will support a thing that you’re earnestly passionate about. That is quite a reassurance for a struggling writer, and I said to myself, what’s the worst that could happen, you fail? Then you just don’t produce the book, you keep making Cura, you don’t go into more debt, win-win. It’s really quite amazing.

ANTHONY: With only four days to go, you’re very possibly going to double your original goal. What are some of the perks backers can get if they sign on before the campaign ends?

NEAL: We’ve had two stretch goals so far, the first one is better paper, which I REALLY wanted to get for folks, and the hardbacks, which people REALLY wanted to get from me. I got a lot of messages asking for them. If we reach the $7,500 mark (and we’re darn close as of this writing) folks will have a hardback option.
The stretch goals after that are pure perks for folks. I’m going to set a new stretch goal the minute we hit that $7,500, if we’re that fortunate, but to be honest, I have been so overwhelmed by the outpouring of support that I’ve been floored. Anything after where we are now is just a way to make the book better… it’s already happening! Isn’t that fantastic?

The biggest perk that people will have if we do double our goal, outside of any material thing, is the secure knowledge that it’s setting up Cura for at least another solid year, and guaranteeing that trades will continue to be worthwhile and fought for. There isn’t much squeak between the costs and the pledges, but whatever squeak there is will go right back into the book and the comic. I went bankrupt five years ago throwing my own cash into my work, and I’m so incredibly glad that I have a support net here now to help keep this book going. It makes me redouble my efforts and believe even more in what we’re doing, as shallow as that might sound. It’s amazing what a little validation will do. My life is forever changed.

I’m going to try and manage some postcards and paper dolls, bookmarks, whatever I can manage to throw in as a bonus, depending on the final tally. This is really about the people who made this happen, and I want to reward them as much as I can for their good faith.

ANTHONY: You’re creating a “Choose Your Own Dimension” adventure for backers, right? Tell us about that.

NEAL: I used to collect all of the Choose Your Own Adventure books as a kid, and when I was in elementary I was fortunate enough to have a writer of those style of books come to the school and explain the process. Since then it’s fascinated me.

Once I started doing Cura, early on, I realized that it would lend itself extraordinarily well to a Choose Your Own Adventure style narrative, and I started to write one, but I stopped, for several reasons. Firstly, I wanted to make it a comic, which I hadn’t seen before outside of a book that slips my mind, the title, but it was amazing. I am embarrassed that I don’t recall. That had issues, because Dex is busy, and asking him to do a hundred page comic while he’s already doing Cura and other stuff wouldn’t work. The story is narrative enough and a handful.

I set it aside. I kept thinking about it, but I set it aside, and in the meanwhile fleshed out all of the characters I’d already outlined. Then the Kickstarter came, and Greg Rucka suggested, when I solicited his advice on my Kickstarter, that I ought to do a Choose Your Own Adventure. Recalling my earlier idea, it sounded like it might make a great novella, and so here I am, writing it. It’ll feature almost every member of Cura and Nosce that we’ve seen so far, and some other characters we may never see. You’re every Charlie, and some of the choices you can make are pretty hairy.

I did make one change to the basic formula. As morality tales, CYOA novels seem to reward good behavior and punish bad behavior. I like a more chaotic view of nature and nurture. Sometimes if you do the right thing, bad things still happen, and sometimes when you do a bad thing, there are no consequences. But sometimes it’s as you might expect, and I hope to keep people jumping.

Either way the dang thing is 15,000 words and climbing, so it’s not a minor perk, I hope. 

ANTHONY: I see this question a lot regarding Kickstarters: you’ve hit your funding goal, and passed it — why should I back it?

NEAL: That goes a bit to what I mentioned before, in my earlier answer. First off, the more books I can order, the longer Cura is supported, in multiple respects. I can go to cons and get physical books into the hands of people who have never seen it, which helps the readership, which feeds the book. I can offset the cost of paying Dex, because I believe in paying my artist even when I can’t afford it (and God, have I been stretched thin the last five years). Most importantly, however, every purchase is a vote of confidence that says this book is a thing worth fighting for outside of my own mind, which is critical. It will make my work better, which will in turn feed what I turn out, which will in turn reward those who buy even when the initial goal is met.

Also, another important factor is that the initial goal is the bare minimum to get the project done, the books alone, and anything after that is where things start to be about extra for keeping the wheels turning. Plus, y’know, perks! Stretch goals. There’s good for everyone if we can keep going.

I can unconditionally guarantee that not a penny beyond the goal will go to anything beyond Cura. Hell, if we made a hundred thousand dollars, after Cura was colored, made into a short film, got an app, got Dex a Syntique, or whatever the heck else could benefit Cura, I’d still take cash from my own wallet and put it into making the comic more.

I am a strange duck, in that I never wrote for profit (shhh, don’t tell editors). I write for love of the characters in the hopes that profit may come, that I may write for love of the characters, on and on and on. If I have a dry room and a pen, I’m good. The cash is all about the book, and always will be. If I needed money for my own fun or amusement, I’d go back to day labor moving cabinets with stoners.

i09.com described Cura as “an emotional crisis on infinite earths.”

ANTHONY: Dexter’s art continues to amaze and astound. Is he creating any special new art for certain pledge levels?

NEAL: Yes! We have just added a new “commission” level at the two hundred dollar pledge. He will make a custom tailored commission. Speaking as a guy who has several hanging in his own house, I can honestly say they’re quite a centerpiece for a geek like me. Plus you get the hardbacks and all the other goodies.

ANTHONY: How about for the book itself?

NEAL: We have an eight-page backup introducing an all-female group of Charlenes who will figure prominently in Year Four and Five. There’s a Filipina, several steampunk inspired designs, a black female Hank (Henrietta), and a few members that will likely surprise you. Let’s just say Mrs. Arntzen doesn’t always die.

The backup has been a lot of hard work while producing the regular pages, but it’s absolutely worth it, and probably one of the best arguments to get the trade or the PDFs.

ANTHONY: The print collections cover Year One and Two, but the webcomic is well into Year Three now.  Has anyone come to CURA from reading the print editions first?  Do you find a different reaction to the story (or characters, or pacing) between print-first readers and web-first readers?  Or even a difference in reaction for people reading it in print after reading it as each page first appears online?

NEAL: Absolutely, in answer to both questions. People have come to print first through cons, and there is a huge reaction when people read it day-to-day as opposed to in a big stream, both in print and digitally.

The comic is written with a very known sense that days are passing between pages. The comic leaps a bit, and I have wrestled with it quite a bit. Some people are annoyed by it, but some love it. I stand by it, in that it is supposed to bring that feeling of jumping around in space and time that these characters are going through. That said, the story is becoming more and more linear as it moves on, perhaps as I learn, perhaps as the ending becomes more and more clear.

Either way, thankfully, I haven’t received any email from anyone calling it a pile of turds. The readership, to a man and woman, have all been incredibly kind and respectful and awesome.

ANTHONY: What is it about the story of Charlie Everett that resonates so well with fans?

NEAL: I’ve been told it’s the fact that he’s optimistic, and also the tension of whether or not he will become the Dark Everett, but I don’t want to speak for the audience and put words in their mouth. Maybe that’s just the things I’ve heard that I want to be true, and for other people it’s that he’s dreamy, or they love tweed, or hey, shout out to the guidance counselors out there who need representation!

That is my tongue firmly in cheek, for the record.

I can speak for myself. Charlie resonates for me because I wanted to write from the age of twelve, twenty long years ago now, and everywhere I went it was like that Dewey Cox movie, a parade of family encouraging me to have a fallback, get a job, stop being such a lazy waste. A relative said, I quote, that I contribute in no meaningful way to my family, doing what I do.

I disagree. And Charlie didn’t. Charlie thought people like that were right for so long, and he cast it off, and even better, he did it for himself. He found hope, he found courage, and through that power. That’s what I see in him, and that’s what makes me love him.

ANTHONY: What glimpse can you give us into the near future for the CURA cast?

NEAL: I’ll be cryptic, and maybe a little scary. A latin demon. Origins. The smell of the person you love the most. Power beyond reckoning in the hands of a madman. The explanation of that moon. Junior’s origin. The House of Cindy. God, now I’m getting creeped out. Soon!

ANTHONY: And a twist on my usual closing question: What is Charlie Everett’s favorite book, and what would he say to convince someone who hasn’t read it to convince them that they should?

NEAL: Charlie’s favorite book is Richard III, and he would say that one should read it because even though this man, Richard, in attempting to find his way, becomes a terrible villain because of how he is perceived, he also says one of the most important things any human being ever has in history:

“Shall I live in hope?”

Charlie does, and you should too.

You can follow Neal and Dex on Twitter @nealbailey  @dexterwee. You can find the comic CURA TE IPSUM on the web. But most importantly, you can find the final days of the Kickstarter campaign and donate by CLICKING RIGHT HERE.  If you decide to back, please leave a note here letting me know you did so.

THE GARLICKS, Comic Book Creators - Interview

This is the start of a week of posts related to various Kickstarter projects I’ve backed and hope you will too. None of them are my own (currently, I’ve got nothing I think I should be doing a Kickstarter for), but all of these are important to me for one reason or another. Some of them are projects of friends. Some of them are just projects I think are cool. Most of them are both.

Today, I’m spotlighting Lea Hernandez’ soon-to-conclude project to fund her next graphic novel, THE GARLICKS. Lea is a 25-year veteran of the comics field, has worked for DC and Marvel and has produced five graphic novels before now.

I’m going past tapping 4 people who haven’t pledged (as Lea requests below). I’m reaching out to everyone who reads my Facebook, Twitter and this here little blog. If each of you donated $25, you’d get a really cool set of stuff, and you’d help a single mother of two teenagers have a year’s worth of security to pay the bills and finish a fantastic project. So please consider helping out.

In Lea’s Own Words, from her latest project update:

As THE GARLICKS: Pandora Garlicks, Fail Vampire heads into its final days,  I need your help to make the last big push to get it fully funded, and it CAN BE DONE. (I will also eat a bug*. Really.)

Here’s how:

Everyone who’s pledged, PLEASE tap FOUR people who haven’t backed THE GARLICKS and encourage them to pledge at least $25. (That gets them a signed and sketched in book, a PDF, a sticker, and their name in the book.) That will generate $29,600** in funding, which puts us past goal.

Tell your friends who like Twilight, My Little Pony, want their kids to read more, like vampires, like genre fiction, like manga, parents you know who wonder where the good genre comics for kids are, or people who want to feel good about supporting a single parent entrepreneur.

Please post about THE GARLICKS to Facebook, Twitter, email lists, your blog(s), Tumblr, etc.Tell people THE GARLICKS needs their help to reach its funding goal.

If you’ve got a Big Name pal you can nudge to support THE GARLICKS with a Tweet, Facebook or blog entry, please do. If you’ve got an in at a site like The Mary Sue (who already covered TG, THANK YOU, GALS) or BoingBoing.net, please tell them about THE GARLICKS.

I’ll still be doing my P.T. Barnum thing, too.

Know what else? It’d be COOL to get THE GARLICKS Kickstarter across the finish line in four days. You can say, “I WAS THERE!” You will all be badass Fishbats.

LET’S DO IT! I want to start drawing THE GARLICKS, already!

*I’m not kidding. I will eat a bug. I get to choose the bug, and I will not CHEW the bug, but I will eat one.

**The math: Backers so far: 296. If each of you gets four friends to pledge, we have 1,184 more backers. Get each of them to pledge $25., that’s $29,600.

* * * * *

And of course, you can find all the details of Lea’s THE GARLICKS Kickstarter right here: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/divalea/the-garlicks-pandora-orange-fail-vampire

JERRY ORDWAY, Comic Book Creator - Interview

Sometimes I get to interview my friends, sometimes I get to interview folks whose work I’ve stumbled across recently and enjoyed, and sometimes I get to interview my creative heroes. This week, I’m talking with comics creator Jerry Ordway, who definitely falls into the “heroes” category.

Jerry Ordway

Jerry Ordway has been working professionally in comics since 1980. He had a long run as finisher and then full artist on DC’s ALL-STAR SQUADRON, which is where I first encountered him. He co-created the original INFINITY INC, had a eight-year run on the SUPERMAN family of titles, and a fantastic four year run redefining THE POWER OF SHAZAM. He’s also done work for Marvel Comics.

ANTHONY: Hi, Jerry. Thanks for agreeing to let this long-time fanboy pester you for a while.

JERRY: No problem, happy to chat.

ANTHONY: DC Comics recently announced a black-and-white SHOWCASE reprint edition of the early issues of All-Star Squadron. I couldn’t find a contents listing on Amazon. How much of your work on the series will be seen in this first volume?

JERRY: I assume you’ll see the finishes I did on Buckler, as well as those on Adrian Gonzales in issues 1-14, including the first annual. Maybe they’ll include the Justice League portion of the JLA-JSA crossover. Not sure what the page counts is, on those collections.

ANTHONY: You started out inking Rich Buckler, who I’ve had the pleasure of meeting at a couple of New York Comic-Cons, but he eventually left the book and you shifted to pencilling duties. Was there any pressure to mimic Rich’s style in the beginning, or did the editors just let you jump right in?

JERRY: Well, since I was doing finishes on All Star Squadron from the beginning, the editor felt that my “veneer” so to speak, was the selling point, especially since I was working over Adrian Gonzales’s work from around issue #6(?) until I started pencilling. In fact, I had been wanting to pencil from the start, but doing the monthly All Star book was something DC didn’t want to mess with, or derail. By the second year, Roy Thomas had me doing so many art changes, I was frustrated. I decided to take up an offer to draw an 8 page Creeper back-up in Flash, and quit the book. But Len Wein, the editor told me I could pencil All Star, instead. Not wanting Adrian to lose work was my concern, and he was apparently happy to shift over to Arak, instead of drawing a dozen costumed heroes in a period backdrop:) So, no pressure to have to follow any style but my own.

ANTHONY: I have to say that I think part of my enduring love for the Golden Age Flash, Green Lantern and Starman over and above their more modern counterparts has to do with your take on them back in the Squadron days. Why do you think Jay Garrick, Alan Scott, Ted Knight and even the original Captain Marvel still have such a fan-base 70 or more years after they debuted?

JERRY: Well, I think they are all compelling characters in their own right, of course, but I think in the case of the JSA-ers, that Roy, with some help from me, imbued them with personalities that didn’t exist in earlier incarnations. Roy lived and breathed those characters, and that is what made the JSA characters special in our time frame, via All Star Squad, and also Infinity Inc in the mid 1980’s. That material directly inspired the Goyer and Robinson (later Geoff Johns) material, much as the 1940’s to 1970’s stuff inspired Roy and myself.

ANTHONY: You got to redesign some WW2 characters and create some brand-new characters for All-Star Squadron. Looking back, what was your favorite costume design, and who would you like to have (re)designed given the chance?

JERRY: Again, at Roy’s insistence we gave Tarantula new life, outside of being a Sandman clone. That costume is a favorite of mine. Amazing Man was a new creation, though also a fun design, an attempt to design as if it was 1940 instead of 1980. I was never compelled to redesign any of the classic ones, though. I felt I could make them work in the drawing, if they appeared a bit clunky, as Alan Scott’s 1940’s outfit was. That one had every color in the paintbox, but worked fine if you drew it consistent.

ANTHONY: When you wrote and drew The Power of Shazam!, including painting the series covers, you gave the book a look that seemed to sit squarely between the cartoony look of creator CC Beck and the realistic look Don Newton used in the short Adventure Comics run he did. Was this a conscious decision, or just a function of how your own style had developed at that time?

JERRY: Well, I was a fan of Don Newton’s work overall, from his Charlton days on the Phantom, and I also respected C.C. Beck’s vision. To me, the only way Captain Marvel ever looked correct, was when he was on model with the Beck head design. I’ve always tried to make my heroes different in subtle ways, for storytelling clarity, and with Cap, that was the iconic look, much as Joe Shuster and Jack Burnley’s golden age Superman was the correct model for that hero.

ANTHONY: How has your creative process changed over the years? Do you still use basically the same tools, or have you switched completely to digital? And how do you think digital tools have affected the style of newer artists in the field?

JERRY: I work with paper and pencils, ink and pens. I scan work and do digital touch-ups, but the appeal for me isn’t in inking or drawing digitally. It’s a tactile experience, feeling the pen tip on the paper. Digital is an improvement in many ways, allowing for color separations to be done better, and I’ve seen painted work that looks great digitally, but the training is the same, learning to draw, learning to use color, or black and white.

ANTHONY: You’ve worked extensively for DC, you’ve done some work for Marvel. Is there any character out there you haven’t had a chance to work on that you’d still like to take a crack at?

JERRY: I love drawing Captain America, and also always wanted another shot at the Fantastic Four. I grew up a Marvel reader, so those characters connect me to my childhood, you know? But sometimes, you are better off not working on material that you love to much at the start, because it hampers your vision, in a way. I learned to love Superman, as well as Captain Marvel, and I think I did my best work on them because I could be objective about what worked and what didn’t.

ANTHONY: What are you currently working on?

JERRY: I just finished a 6 page Alfred story for the Bat-books, with a Halloween theme, so I suppose that will go into inventory for next year> Also I have 5 pages in the second issue of the new Thunder Agents series, drawing a 1960’s flashback, which was fun. I have a couple of projects lined up, but can’t spill the beans just yet. The first is a new take on a 1960’s era DC book, which is all I can tease.

ANTHONY: You’ve been auctioning original art on e-bay. Is there any piece of your own work that you would never ever part with?

JERRY: I have a hard time parting with most stuff, which is why I’ve been selling prelims and sketches for the most part. Each drawing represents a day or two of my life, you know?

ANTHONY: Thanks again, Jerry!

You can find Jerry all over the web. He’s on Twitter as @JerryOrdway, he’s on Facebook, he blogs on Ordster’s Random Thoughts, and there’s still content up on his website as well.