The Graphic Novel Club of West Branch Middle School

...had me as a virtual guest via Skype today. 20 minutes for a club meeting reminded me of how rigorously subdivided the schoolday is. If I had bells and a schedule at home, I think the Hawkeye Football project would be done already.

Jim Calkins invited me and led the questioning. The atmosphere was fast-paced, even scrappy at times. These kids want to learn. Here is something of a re-enactment, except the questions aren't exact and probably in the wrong order; plus I've had time to think about the answers now, so I probably sound a bit cooler here.

Q: What were you doing in Middle School? Comics?

Me: Yep, really bad ones. I had a whole line of modified stick figure guys battling each other. There was the guy with triangles for hands, the blobby guy, the guy whose head looked like the Seattle Seahawks logo, the guy with a tracing line all around him who could fly... but I was doing comics. I destroyed most all of them in a fit of pique when I was 13 or so, but a few escaped destruction and are around here somewhere.

Q: How do you get to do comics? What made you do comics?

Me: If anything makes me do comics, it must be genetic. I can point to no cause. You get to do comics simply by starting and not stopping.

Q: What comics did you read when you were our age?

Me: I was pretty corporate then. Justice League of America, The Avengers, Uncle Scrooge. For a guy in my age group I came to comics a little late, about 10 years old. But when that happened, I went crazy for them. In my teens I went to my first comics store (and those were pretty rare then) and couldn't believe what I saw. Things expanded from there.

Q: (can't exactly remember this one) How popular are graphic novels?

Me: Right now, they're insanely popular. It wasn't all that long ago that the American Bookseller's Association recognized graphic novels at all. Nowadays we have companies that claim to be comics companies, put out no comics at all, and use the place like a screenplay farm.

Q: Do you have any pets?

Me: Nope, and that's genetic for sure. I think that's why Captain Cat looms so large in Zoo Force, because he could do me in by showing up.

Q: Not even fish?

Me: Nope, I keep things low-maintenance.

Q: How do you make your comics?

Me: (Insert my standard speech about how awesome print-on-demand is)

Q: Print-on-demand?

Me: (Insert my standard speech about how POD works). It's an amazing technology.

Q: Can you make a lot of money in comics?

Me: If they make a movie, you bet. If they want to make a movie and don't, kinda. If your name is Frank Miller, sure. Like a lot of creative fields, most of the money goes to just a few people. In book publishing, if you're a mid-list author (30K in sales or so) you don't make a lot of money. Most people who do this won't even break even.

Q: Did anyone encourage you early on in comics?

Me: Well, it can be a bit of a stigmatizer, but I found that when people want to draw my scripts, that's the best encouragement you can possibly have. I am flattered and amazed every time it happens.

Q: Your office looks kind of plain. We thought there might be all kinds of crazy stuff on the walls.

Me: I keep a nerdy office, mostly. If I'd thought about it enough, I would have at least done a green screen...here is the Duomo as seen from the Belvedere.... Next time I'll have something.

Q: Where do you live?

Me: Coralville.

Q: How do you do your lettering? Is your handwriting good?

Me: Oh my no. My handwriting is terrible. We have fonts for that.

Q: Do you change much when you letter?

Me: Sometimes, yes. I rarely change major things, but I will sharpen a line if the artist has brought out something unexpected in the art. I tell the story first, then the artist does it; but I get the last word as the letterer. In NUMBERS, Sgt Dylan was originally conceived as a beardy chubby Ellery-Queen-type guy. Jeremy thought his dialogue suggested a tall beardless fellow (who resembled a figure in the Johnson County Democratic Party) and went with that. And I agreed.

...

The thing that struck me was that the one omnipresent question in such contacts ,"Where do you get your ideas from?", did not occur. Good for them. They've got their ideas already. They were an enthusiastic bunch and it was (from what I could see) a perfect balance of boys and girls. That right there is reason to rejoice. I haven't had a chance to see their work, but maybe soon Jim can show me some (hint hint).

These things are always fun. I can be my full-on goofball enthused self for a good cause and I get reminded that there are always a few people on the planet who haven't heard all my stories yet. The class got a chance to peruse their very own copy of ZOO FORCE: We Heart Libraries as well, so they got to be more amazed when I said those are made one at a time out of a machine.

In answer to the question about validation, I should have added that getting to do stuff like this is pretty good validation too. I always say making comics is making comics--there's no license, no permission slip, nobody you have to wait on but yourself. And this kind of audience wants and needs to hear that. I've seen too many people who will get around to it someday who never do. Either you're making comics right now or you aren't.

So graphic novel clubs and such--I am available via Skype video feed. Drop me an email and we'll see what we can do.