Gene Colan: Master of Darkness

Gene Colan died today.

I am a great admirer of his work, and I will keenly miss his forceful presence in the comics medium.

My first encounter with the work of Gene Colan was in the pages of Daredevil. As was the case with many of the artists I came to admire most, I wasn’t immediately impressed. This was partly because, at the tender age of eight, I found the earthbound adventures and balletic athleticism of Daredevil somewhat less compelling than the grand cosmic adventures of The Fantastic Four and the raw mountain-smashing power of The Incredible Hulk.

Click thumbnails for larger images

It was also partially due to the fact that, in my opinion, Gene’s style didn’t perfectly fit the open, four-color grappling of the superhero genre. Though his storytelling and dynamic figure drawing were superb, his moody, illustrative approach would have been much more appropriate for a tough noir detective story, a bleak dystopian vision, or perhaps a certain Master of the Mystic Arts.

A superb example of Gene's tonal rendering style.

In addition to this slight stylistic miscasting, the usual rank and file Marvel inkers didn’t really know how to handle Gene’s pencils. These were not bad inkers by any means, guys like John Tartaglione and Frank Giacoia. Given a more typical Marvel penciler, these guys were perfectly suitable. However, with Gene, their simplified approach seemed to battle against the delicate chiaroscuro of the pencils, pushing it toward the higher contrast Kirby style. (Dan Adkins did a bang up job on issue #42, but sadly that one didn’t cross my field of vision until years later.)

Daredevil #42

Dan Adkins was also able to
get inside the logic of Gene's
unique penciling style.

My full appreciation of Gene’s art didn’t gel until the seventies when the loosening of the Comics Code guidelines allowed Marvel to explore previously verboten terror tropes.

This set the stage for me to fully discover the greatness of Gene Colan.

By age twelve, my tastes had shifted from the cosmic to the macabre. Having recently discovered the classic Universal monsters on late-night TV, I was hungry for more horror. I’d already immersed myself in the DC horror books like House of Mystery, House of Secrets, and The Witching Hour, so when Marvel launched their monster line, I positively pounced on mags like The Monster of Frankenstein, Werewolf by Night, Man Thing, and, of course, The Tomb of Dracula.

Tomb of Dracula #20

Gene’s shadowy, illustrative approach, so drenched in blacks, so moody and mysterious, perfectly suited the night-world of the Great Vampire and his pursuers. In a superb move, the primary inking responsibilities were handed to the astounding Tom Palmer, one of the best inkers ever to draw back the brush. Tom seemed able to get into Gene’s head like no inker before or since. He was able to preserve the verve of Gene’s pencils, and delineate the tonal range with deep blacks, misty feathering and judicious use of Zip-a-tone dot patterns.

So damn creepy!

The synergistic power of the teaming was perfect. Each exciting, creepy little page seemed coated in a palpable layer of cobwebs and coffin dust. I became a life-long fan of The Tomb of Dracula, and Gene Colan.

In my opinion Tom Palmer
was best able to capture the
energy and tonal range of
Gene's pencils

While I never knew Gene personally, his work has affected me in many ways. It has influenced my own drawing style, it has afforded me insight into the subtleties of visual storytelling, and most of all, has entertained me and enriched me.

And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.

Gene Colan: 1926 - 2011

Shuffling The Deck

DOOM!

            

             My search for more sketch card work is progressing nicely. I recently sent a few sample cards to the Rittenhouse Archives people and garnered a very positive response. Rittenhouse has the Marvel characters and my samples must now go to editorial people there for approval. I will let you know how that turns out.

Click for magically larger image.

There is action brewing at a few other companies as well, so I may have more news soon.

In the meantime, have a peek at my Marvel sample cards.

Click it!

Click, or Hulk smash!

Putting My Cards On the Table

Click for larger image.

In a continuing effort to shore up my shrinking income, I have recently embarked on a journey into the wonderful world of sketch card production.

For those who don’t know, collectible “art trading cards” are a strange variation on the old “bubble gum” baseball cards of the past. The stick of bubble gum has long since been excised from the package and the collecting and speculative selling of such sports-themed cards has become big business.

Meanwhile in the alternate nerd universe, Dungeons and Dragons style gaming morphed into fantasy adventure card games like Magic: The Gathering and Call of Cthulhu. These cards featured fantasy art by some pretty talented illustrators, and later art cards without games attached were produced. It wasn’t long before the comics industry jumped on the bandwagon and began creating collectible card sets featuring reproduced renderings of their characters by top industry pros.

In addition to the printed art, many sets of collectible cards include a small number of original art renderings drawn directly onto blank cards.

This is where I come in.

With the help of experienced sketch card artists and generous amigos, Elaine and Tony Perna, I was quickly ushered into a job for Breygent Marketing, and their manager Tom Breyer offered me 25 original sketch cards for a Vampirella card series. These pics have recently been approved, and I’m now able to post a few on-line.

A terrific sketch card by old pro Tony Perna
For more of Tony's work, click this!

While the pay for individual cards is not high, one is also sent a certain number of extra blank cards known as “artist proofs” which are officially sanctioned cards in the series and can be sold by the artist on the open market for the best negotiated price. This, presumably, is where the artist evens up the pay rate, and I am curious to see how that pans out in the end.

Thanks to Breygent Marketing I now have some good samples to show and hope to land some new clients soon.

Flesh for Fantasy

Chester Brown’s “Paying For It” is, ostensibly, a memoir about Chester’s experiences with escorts and his rejection of a typical monogamous lifestyle. However, it may actually be a plea for the decriminalization of prostitution and a minor screed against the concept of Romantic Love.

            Chester is the talent behind several noteworthy comics and graphic novels including the award-winning “Ed the Happy Clown” and “Louis Riel”. Over the years, Chester’s material has varied from black comedy, to personal biography, to history and religion, to outright confessional. On the surface “Paying For It” falls into the latter category, but the book seems to have a specific political agenda, which is missing, or is at least much less obvious, than in his earlier work.

Chester's more recent work is a
long way from the twisted black
comedy of his Yummy Fur days.

            While comics from the autobiographical school aren’t always my cup of tea, I have enjoyed work by Chester and his indie comic cohorts Seth, Joe Matt and others. But ultimately, if I have my way I am usually going to choose straight-up fiction. That said I believe “Paying For It” is an important book and well worth reading, though I do have some reservations about its overall success.

           

            I doubt Chester Brown would categorize himself as a brave man, but he certainly is by my reckoning. Outing one’s self as an unrepentant “whoremonger”, (as Joe Matt refers to him in the book), in a culture as deeply conflicted about sexuality as ours, is a singular act of courage.

           

            Chester begins by chronicling the demise of his last so called “normal” relationship and walks us through the thought processes that lead him to hire a prostitute rather than seek another girlfriend. His motivation boils down to this: Romantic relationships draw out people’s pettiness, possessiveness and jealousy, and the good things about monogamy, like companionship and regular sex, are outweighed by the negative.

That’s the nutshell version, of course, and it’s quite fascinating to read the book and get the full story. We follow Chester’s almost Spock-like logic stream as he concludes that paid sex is the way to go. I found the scene where he hauls out a calculator and sensibly works out his hooker budget for the year particularly hilarious.

            When I was in my late 20’s I occasionally paid for sex, but for very different reasons than Chester. For me it was sheer hormonal overload. I was without a regular sex partner, horny as a three-peckered toad, and knew beyond any doubt that masturbating for the one-hundredth time that week simply wasn’t gong to cut it. And, on one or two occasions I chose the pay-for-play route because I was feeling depressed and craved an ego boost. As I aged and my libido began to wane a little, I became much less interested in paying for sex.

            For Chester it all seems to be about avoiding the drama and satisfying his sexual urges with minimum aggravation. Or, at least that is what he tells us in the book, and it’s hard to believe he’s being anything but truthful about the matter.

Between a rock and a hard place.

            The sex in “Paying For It” is presented in a very frank and graphic manner which will undoubtedly shock some, but which I found refreshing. His encounters with the various prostitutes are sometimes compelling, and vary from erotic, to humorous, to disappointing. It’s also enlightening to learn more about this rarely discussed subculture. As Chester gradually discovers the subtleties of interpreting ads, and the hidden etiquette of contacting, meeting and paying prostitutes, we learn along with him. (During my own foray into paid sex, I ended up in the realm of the rub ’n’ tug, which is occasionally mentioned but never depicted in “Paying For It”.)

During his erotic encounters with these ladies of the evening, Chester reveals himself in a blunt “warts and all fashion”, which often casts him in a negative light. He depicts his thin body in positively cadaverous terms, and has no trouble pointing up the personality shortcomings of himself, his friends or his hired lovers. The work is unflaggingly straightforward, and while Chester is always courteous and financially generous with the women he hires, he is also very judgmental about their appearance and performance.

One might make the case that this is reasonable when purchasing a service. Before hiring, say, a landscaper, I might well go online and see what previous clients had to say about his work and professionalism, as Chester does with some of the prostitutes. And, if that landscaper did a lousy job and overcharged me, I certainly wouldn’t feel bad about never hiring him again. However, in light of the fact that this is sex, not landscaping, it does come off a bit cold-hearted.

Though that may just be my own repressive cultural conditioning talking.

Between his encounters with the hookers, Chester debates the topics of prostitution, Romantic Love and monogamy with his friends and family. For the most part they take up a negative view toward Chester’s whoring ways, or at least a pro monogamy stance. Via these conversations the pros and cons of prostitution are explored, and while some feel quite natural, several descend into speech making. Having only met Chester a few times, I can’t say for certain he doesn’t talk this way, but certain conversations seemed overly didactic. His conversations with the hookers are generally more believable.

After the comic itself Chester includes a section of appendixes which functions essentially as a dissertation on the subject of prostitution and refutations of the arguments against its practice and decriminalization. I wish Chester had confined the speechifying to this supplemental section and minimized it in the narrative proper. No one likes being preached at, including Chester himself, as he makes abundantly clear in the book.

Chester delved into the sexual
motivations of his younger self
in The Playboy.

The Playboy

            When I picked up “Paying For It” at The Beguiling, the first thing I noticed was how small it is. While this is understandable considering the financial limitations of an independent publisher like Drawn & Quarterly, I’m not sure it’s the best size to present the work. Chester sticks to an absolutely rigid eight-panel grid, and the pages include a lot of white space around the art and in the gutters. Each panel is less than 2 inches wide and this smallness is exacerbated by the open framing of the scenes, which are mostly what I would describe as medium to wide shots. The sex acts are generally depicted in high angle shots, which further removed me from the action. In the interest of preserving the anonymity of the women he hires, Chester never depicts their faces, which further limited my ability to relate to them as people.

On the prowl for hookers.

            Chester also does a fair bit of talking about being jealous and arguing with girlfriends but we don’t actually see any of this. He seems deeply dispassionate in the narrative, and though his friends sometimes accuse him of repressing his emotions, there is little evidence in text or subtext that this is so. Perhaps including some of that girlfriend drama at the beginning would have helped us better appreciate his choice to reject traditional pair bonding.

Ultimately, all this distance and emotional detachment left me feeling somewhat disconnected from the story.

It’s entirely possible that visual and emotional distancing from the subject was completely intentional, as a way of avoiding a voyeuristic or prurient atmosphere. I can understand that Chester, espousing a non-exploitive position regarding prostitution, would want to avoid any appearance of titillation. However, by the end it really started to erode my interest in, and connection to, the events.

The choice to hide the faces of the call girls limits my ability to connect with them, and diminishes their individuality. They become, by virtue of this anonymity, somewhat interchangeable. Many would argue this amounts to objectification. If they are faceless and anonymous, doesn’t that prove that they are being perceived merely as receptacles for lust and less than human?

In this case I don’t think so. I believe it was Chester’s genuine desire to maintain the privacy of women in question. But, unfortunately, I can see such an argument being successfully made against the narrative as it stands. Chester works hard to make the prostitutes individuals by way of the dialogue, and in my second reading of the book, those differences certainly became clearer, but not in the visceral way that giving them a face would have individuated them.

Here is where a little creative fictionalization might have served the story better. If Chester had given these women any random faces, (that were not their own), they would have been more clearly perceived as individuals, with expressions, thoughts and individuality. In other words they would have been more complete persons. Not only would this have involved me more, it would have served to better humanize these women, and support Chester’s argument for the decriminalization of prostitution.

Chester's more challenging work
is worthwhile, but I sometimes
long for the weird humor of
his earlier creative period.

But, man, with a subject this packed with emotional, religious and political TNT, it’s difficult to fault any of Chester’s choices. I mean, this is a real snake pit of a subject, and even though I found it a bit emotionally remote, it is still compelling material. And if his readers can’t imagine Chester’s path as a viable alternative for their own life, it’s eminently clear it works well for him.

“Paying For It” is deeply honest and courageous. It’s poignant in places and amusing in others and it explores an interesting and unknown sub-culture with some sensitivity. It also broaches important ideas about how our culture perceives sexuality and Romantic Love that are worth considering and debating. I’d say that makes it a must-read, even though it failed to fully engage me on an emotional level and occasionally got a bit sanctimonious.

At least, that’s how I perceived the book through my own very liberal rose-coloured glasses. I am certain others are going to find the content shocking, distasteful and even blasphemous. And some will no doubt categorize Chester as the Devil himself, come to destroy marriage, Valentine’s Day and long, hand-holding, eye-gazing walks on the beach.

In our ever more polarized culture, that sort of knee-jerk activism seems to have replaced intelligent exploration, thoughtful consideration and civilized debate. 

Ghostly Sketches From The Past

Something haunting happened to me last fall at the Fan Expo event here in Toronto. I’m still thinking about it, and wondering what happened, exactly.

            The Fan Expo is an enormous event, a multi-geek-fandom affair featuring horror, anime, gaming, sci-fi and, of course, their poor country cousin, comics. Thanks to my old buddy James Armstrong, I always have a table in artist’s alley.

The Toronto Fan Expo

Home away from home for
the Geek hordes.

Over the years it isn’t uncommon to have a friend or acquaintance from the dim dark past recognize my name and stop by my table to say howdy. It happened a few years ago with a gent named Joe Arena, who was actually the first man to publish my comics, way back when I was a cocky, seventeen year old wanna-be with a very long way to go. I also had the eldest son of my old shop teacher, Ross Andrews, come up with greetings from the old fellow himself. Mr. Andrews (as I still think of him) was the first person to encourage my drawing when I was just a goofy, long-haired thirteen year old, trying to construct a box from tin sheets in his grade seven shop class.

            Usually meeting an old friend is a rather pleasant experience, catching up with people, (or the sons of people) who played some role in my past life is nice now and then. However, last year a chance meeting with a former buddy of mine went rather a different way.

            I only knew Fletch for a few years.

In my hometown of Tillsonburg there weren’t too many comics freaks. This was the seventies, and the exploding collectors market was still more than a decade into the future. The grand master of comic collecting in our town was a guy named Mason Armstrong. He was older, in his mid twenties, and he possessed an impressive collection. (His Fantastic Four collection started with issue #9!) Mason was a tall, sandy haired, soft-spoken guy, with thick glasses, who worked in his parent’s drug store. He’d stake out the comic spinner in the store and make contact with the town’s other budding comics addicts, like myself. There were only four or five of us. A few desperate, continuity starved, square pegs who made the rounds of all the drug stores and convenience stores in town, vainly seeking to satisfy our personal four color addictions from the titles available from the spotty local distribution.

It was Mason who first introduced me to Fletch. Fletch was about my age, but taller and more athletic, and much more conscious of his appearance and looking ‘cool’. He was pure 70’s, while I was clinging to the fading hippie aesthetic. (A look I still haven’t abandoned!) We were both into comics and rock music and drawing. At that time, Fletch was probably a better artist than I was. He seemed to have a keener grasp of anatomy and proportion, whereas I was a little better at storytelling and continuity. (I wish I still had some of his drawings to post.)

We did what most fifteen year-old boys in Tillsonburg did. We fought valiantly against the crushing boredom! We hung out, listened to The Stones, Alice Cooper, and Aerosmith, swilled down crap like potato chips, Oh Henry bars and Coke, and schemed to meet, and theoretically date, girls.

Teenager food.

            And we drew piles of superhero pictures.

Batman, Superman, Conan, the Incredible Hulk, and the amazing Len Wein Dave Cockrum re-launch of the X-Men were our bibles. We copied poses, and fearlessly attempted our own pin-ups and pages. We debated the relative merits of our favorite characters and companies. He was a DC man, and I was a Marvel fan, he liked Batman, and I liked Conan. I remember that the great Jim Aparo was Fletch’s favorite artist, while I preferred the comics stylings of John Buscema. (In retrospect we had both chosen great role models, though I admit the fact that Aparo penciled, inked and lettered his own work was unique at the time.) 
It was a productive rivalry. We had great fun, pushed each other to do better, and dreamed of drawing comics for a living.

Similar poses from two comics giants.
(Click for larger image)

We were thick as Zamorian thieves for a few brief months.

I never got a clear picture of what was happening, but Fletch began to have a lot of trouble getting along with his parents. We started to meet exclusively at my house as tensions rose between he and his folks. They were one of the wealthier families in town, and perhaps Fletch’s career aspirations, or lack of them, were a sticking point. I honestly don’t know. We got together less and less frequently, and then I heard nothing from Fletch at all. It was Mason who told me, some weeks later, that he was no longer living at home. I don’t know if he left, or his parents threw him out. I later heard a vague rumor that Fletch had some sort of unpleasant brush with the law, but I can’t confirm the truth of this.

I tiptoed gingerly around my parents for a few months after that.

About two years later I saw Fletch for the last time. I was about to head off to college and this was my last summer of freedom. Mason and I were about to make a final trip into nearby London Ontario, to visit some great comic shops and used bookstores there. Mason mentioned that we were also going to pay a visit to Fletch.

Naively, I brought along a stack of my drawings. I still hadn’t fully grasped the fact that Fletch was out on his own, and had more pressing concerns than doodling Batman poses. I foolishly assumed he had been drawing the whole time.

Aparo was the king of
drawing spooky mists.

We met Fletch at his apartment, which he shared with a few other guys, and was a bit of a mess. He seemed really excited to see us and we yakked about nonsense for a while. He mentioned he was working at some sort of manual labor job, construction, or public works, I can’t recall what, exactly. Finally, Fletch pointed to my portfolio and asked to see my drawings.

Due to the exceptional art classes I’d been taking at College Avenue Secondary School in Woodstock, I’d made a lot of progress. I proudly yanked out my artwork. Not just comics pages, but life drawing, portraits and caricatures, as well.

Fletch looked it all over in silence, and then looked back at me and said: “Wow, you’re like, really good now.”

He handed back the stack of drawings and I put them in the portfolio. I asked if he had any new drawings.

“No, man, I been too busy working.”

I was aware enough to realize that the mood in the room had changed, but not quite sensitive enough to understand why. Fletch put up a good front, but after a few minutes he cut things short, claiming he had to get to work.

Then, last year, over thirty years later, he showed up at my table at the Expo.

I was working on one of the many commission sketches I drew that afternoon, when I noticed a rather imposing looking dude stopped a few yards away from my table. He gave me an intense look. The guy was tall, very muscular and beefy, wearing a body hugging T-shirt, and jeans. He looked at me, and then up at the big name tag behind me a few times, and finally approached me.

“Dude, you’re from Tillsonburg!”

I laughed and admitted I was.

“It’s me, Fletch!”

Suddenly, I could see the face of my teenaged friend through the wrinkles and graying hair. I was thrilled to see him. He was very excited at first, and we did the catching up thing.

“Dude, I knew that was you,” he said, “I can’t believe you still got all that hair!”

“I would never give up my hair, man! You got some real muscles there, Bro, you must do a lot of weight training.”

“Nope, just from working,” he answered.

It was nice for a couple minutes.

Then he started looking at my drawings. He seemed to become more pensive.

“This stuff is great, man. You’re working in comics now?”

“A little. I worked in animation for a long time. Now I mostly do storyboards for movies and TV, but I do a bit of writing and drawing for the comics when I can.”

He got this very distressed look on his face.

“I’m getting a bit freaked out here,” he said. “I feel like I’m gonna cry… I gotta go.”

“Come back later,” I called after him, as he moved off into the crowd.

“Yeah, man,” he called back.

But, he didn’t.

I don’t know for sure why Fletch got so emotional.

It could be because I had industriously traveled a road he’d once considered for himself. Or, perhaps he wondered what his life might have been like if his parents were a bit more supportive of his interests. Hell, maybe he just missed drawing.

As the afternoon wore on, and it became clear he wasn’t going to come back, I began to feel very sad about it.

If he had come back, I’d have told him some important things.

First, I never realized any of my most prized goals. I wanted to draw for Marvel and DC and I never did. I wanted to animate for Disney, and I never did. I wanted to write and perform television comedy, and, so far, that hasn’t happened either. I’m glad I attempted all these things, and I try never to regret my life choices, but man, I can tell you, failing hurts like a sumbitch.

Second, I made choices in my life too. A few were good choices, but many were extraordinarily bad. Yes, I stuck to my path, and I worked hard and I had a few successes here and there. I’ve had some flush financial booms, and a few creatively rewarding experiences. But, I’ve also many periods of hardship, including right now.

Fletch, you lived your life. You made your choices, for better or worse, and you’re still here. You survived. For a human being, that’s plenty.

            I really hope you come back to the Expo again this year.

I miss you buddy.

One of my Batman sketches, in honor of
Fletch, Danny, Albert and all the other lost
comics buddies from my past.
(Click for larger image)

Zombie Clowns and Stranger Things

This week the subject of our Web-comic interview is Allan Turner, half of the clown duo Miller and Mullet, with Ed Miller and half of the web-comic creative team with Kameron Gates. He tells us tales of intense clown training, creative collaboration, and zombie clowns. View the strip at: http://www.millerandmullet.com/comic

The Miller and Mullet web comic is based on two traditional clown characters created by you and Ed Miller. How did you guys meet and how were the characters born?

We met in Clown College. Okay maybe not college but there’s this course called Baby Clown. Very intense. 3 hours per night, 3 nights per week for 3 months. Or the alternative is something like all day everyday for two weeks up in the backwoods. It’s an introduction to a style of clown that was developed by the late Richard Pochinko. He drew on several different clown traditions and mixed it up. There are few people who continue to teach the Pochinko method and there’s a big clown community here in Canada. Anyway, that’s where we met.

During the course, Ed and I rarely worked together—we weren’t trying to avoid each other or anything like that, we just didn’t find ourselves in the same part of the room all that often. Baby Clown’s pretty effed up and we were battling our own demons. But after finishing the course, we began writing together. Mostly comedy sketches. At the same time we were starting to independently develop our own characters. Ed had this idea for an immoral lecher full of machismo, a real and not necessarily lovable loser. I should mention here that the real Ed Miller isn’t anything like that. Meanwhile I was on a mission to create the dumbest character I could. It’s something I’d started experimenting with back in my Theatresports days. I really wanted to breathe life into this guy who was barely alive. I don’t remember why I had the idea to create a zombie clown, but I’m guessing that’s it—after all, what’s dumber than a zombie? The original Mullet wasn’t much different than the zombies in Romero’s first Dead trilogy and Day of the Dead’s Bub was a huge influence. Ed and I debuted our new characters independently at a now long defunct clown show. It was after that show we had the idea to put them together. Despite their differences—a hobo and a zombie—they were a perfect Joey and Auguste pairing… er, that’s clown jargon—means basically conniving leader and innocent follower.

The first thing we did was get a busker’s license. We took to the streets every Tuesday night at 8:13 for a couple hours or so. We figured that was the cheapest way to get regular audiences and honest feedback. Man, were we right. If people aren’t interested in what you’re doing, they don’t stop, they don’t even look at you. So we developed the characters over the course of a summer. Mullet learned to talk. Then we wrote and shot a no-budget feature-length movie. That’s the next logical step, right?

Click to enlarge image.

You've made a bit of a grapefruit business out of appearances as the duo, including a few on television, how's that going?

Very well! Though there was a big shake up last year. After 10 years of Miller & Mullet™, Miller made the choice to hang up the bowler and retire from performing. He’s chosen to focus on his writing. It was an amicable split, we’re still pals, and he graciously gave me the character to do what I want with in comic book form. So Ed Miller lives on in 2D!

What that means is Mullet’s gone solo. I’m in the process of re-branding—new logo, new website: www.meMullet.com. Mullet’s been doing a ton of live gigs, including one a couple weeks back at Second City, which was loads of fun. There was an appearance on Ed the Sock’s most recent show, This Movie Sucks, and a cameo in a music video for the Victoria-based band Hank & Lily. Coming up, Mullet will be hosting Lunacy Cabaret on April 2 and on April 16 he’s producing his own variety show with lots of guests. The details are all on www.meMullet.com (1 paragraph, 2 plugs—I’m shameless). There’s also a Naked News appearance in the works and I’m editing a new short for YouTube. So lots of live, some TV, and some other stuff I can’t talk about yet.

I didn't know Miller was no longer in the picture, but I'm glad it was a friendly split. (You never want to see your friends go all Martin and Lewis on each other.) However, it seems to me that Miller was a perfect foil for Mullet. From a creative standpoint, has it been difficult to adapt to solo work?

Miller was a perfect foil for sure. It was always pretty much guaranteed the audience would side with the sweet-natured zombie and rally against the callous hobo. Not having a Miller to play off has meant Mullet has had to become more confident. Granted, that wasn’t too difficult or even much of a change—Mullet’s always been a bit of Prima Donna. Even when we were still a duo, Mullet did a number of solo gigs and often wandered off on his own at comic cons. What is new is the type of material he’s doing now—standup and musical numbers. That never happened before. So far it’s going great.

Who works on the Miller and Mullet strip?

Right now there are two of us. I’m the writer and Kameron Gates is the artist. I’ve known Kam pretty much his whole life. Both our families had cottages up north and we grew up together. Now he’s a full time animator. He’s worked on Star Wars, King Kong, Hellboy, Sky Captain… a lot of movies, commercials, and video games. He’s based in Portland so we do all our comic work via phone calls, email, and the magical internet.

Here’s our usual process:

·     I write a script.

·     Kam sends notes.

·     I revise.

·     Kam draws up a rough layout.

·     I send notes.

·     Kam revises.

·     Kam draws final art.

·     I letter, prep for web, post the final strip, and blitz Facebook and Twitter.

Sometimes there’s more back and forth, sometimes less. Often we talk plot, especially lately now that we’re getting away from gags and into bigger story stuff. Oops, spoiler alert. Anyway that’s how it’s worked so far but we are about to bring someone new into the mix to take over the flatting and shading.

While preparing for this interview, I re-read the whole run of the strips, and I definitely noticed you guys were developing something more narrative based in the most recent entries. There is even a bit of a change in tone to more emotional content, and a more sophisticated style. Was this just a reaction to working on the strip for a long time and getting sick of the gag format, or was there always a plan to broaden it's scope at some point?

That was planned right from the start. I like establishing a pattern then breaking it! And I knew I wanted gag, gag, gag, surprise now you’re scared, now you’re crying. We’ll be going back to gaggy strips over the next couple months, then things are going to get epic. I like comedy and I like horror, but what I really love is good storytelling. So sometimes this strip will be funny, sometimes scary, sometimes sad. The most important part of my job is to make sure it’s going somewhere, taking the right route, and always engaging.

You guys seem very committed to your web comic. How long have you been working on it, and how often do you update (or try to update) the strip?

We’re very committed. Kam and I both think of this as a professional venture. We did some test strips in 2009, then started the regular run in March 2010. It updates every Wednesday.

For those who aren't familiar with the strip, give us the basic rundown on what it's all about.

Miller & Mullet™ are two clowns—one an immoral hobo, one an innocent zombie. They’re desperate to make it big in showbiz but they’re each other’s worst enemy and not very talented to boot. There’s also some weirdness going on and Mullet has an evil temper.

The past year has been about introducing characters and throwing out the threads of a larger story. This next year will be tying all those loose ends up into one helluva monkey’s fist.

Are you guys comics fans too, or was the cartoon more a promotional device for the live gigs?

Comic fans for sure! Kam and I both want to do other projects as well. But I have to say, it’s been great for promotion. Appearing as Miller & Mullet™ at comic cons really helped draw attention to the comic. And having a comic really helped push the live act. That’s how we met Ed the Sock and ended up being regular guests on his show.

You've published a few floppy comics as well, are they different from the web comic, or are you just repackaging the material?

We self-published one 22-pager: Miller & Mullet™ in Space. That was back in 2006. We have another one, a follow up, in the can, but I’m holding off on printing. It’s part of a pitch for a 4 issue mini-series and it’s totally separate from the webcomic. It’s still Miller & Mullet™ and they’re still losers trying to break into show business, but it’s in SPACE. See, totally different.

Miller and Mullet in Space

Have you managed to monetize the site at all, and if so, how successfully?

Short answer is no. But I haven’t really tried so far. Now that there’s a year’s worth of strips up, it’s something to start thinking about. My plan is to first finish the re-branding I talked about before, so it’ll become “Mullet presents the Miller & Mullet™ Webcomic” then I’ll do a PR blitz in earnest and buy some ads.

How long do you plan to continue with the strip?

Kam and I are in the middle of telling a big story—Miller & Mullet’s secret origins. This is something the real Ed Miller and I started developing 10 years ago to help us get into character. Since then, I’ve expanded on it a lot and I’m really excited to finally be able to tell it. For one reason, I think it’s a great story, though I recognize that sounds like me tooting my own horn. It’s also something I get asked about a lot—who is Mullet? What’s wrong with Mullet? Well this’ll answer that. And the webcomic is the perfect medium for it.

This particular story is finite with a beginning, middle, and end. But after it ends, it keeps going. I could keep doing this indefinitely. Cue the Limahl.

Do you think the future of the comics medium lies on the web?

I’m probably not the right guy to answer that. I mean, I still buy CDs. Hell, I still buy records! But webcomics are great. I follow several. Will I stop buying printed books? I doubt it, I sure love my Hellboy hardcovers!

Give us the top three web comics you like, and where we can find them.

Just three? Okay, but Kam’s going to pick three too.

           Allan’s picks:

·     The Abominable Charles Christopher

·     Girls With Slingshots

·     Dinosaur Comics

Kam’s picks:

·     Axe Cop

·     Hark, a vagrant

·     The Adventures of Superhero Girl

We have links to plenty more great comics on our site. Plus, you know, our comic’s there too. Did I mention it updates EVERY Wednesday? Come say hello.

Thanks, Allan, best of luck with the strip and the clown career. 

That's it for interviews for a while. Next week, I reminisce about a long lost creative friend.