|
|||||||
|
|
|
|||||
|
|
|||||||
(1) I hear you and your friends made some bad superhero comics? Were they original characters by you, or did you make comics about already made heroes such as Superman or Batman?
They were original characters. Through high school, I was doing superhero comics and making photocopies and selling them in a comic store I worked in off and on. I had two comics, and was called “Psychopath,” which was surprisingly similar to Spawn... and remember, I was drawing this stuff in 1984... 1985... years before Spawn. I also had a more regular superhero team comic called ‘Canadian Shield.’ Me and my friend who owned the comic shop worked on storylines, and the whole universe and stuff... much like most young people who want to do superheroes do. I’m sure my high school comic life wasn’t that much different from Rob Liefeld’s.
(2) When Lethargic Lad first came into the picture, you drew him for fun with your bad superhero comics, but no one thought you should. So why did you keep Lethargic Lad around, even with the negative reaction to him?
The other guys who worked on the superhero comics didn’t like Lethargic Lad. I wanted to do a one page back-up with LL in the superhero books. LL also became a sort of mascot for me. I was painting big superhero murals for the store, I remember I did one of the X-Men, Excalibur and Batman, and I hid LL in them. That’s where LL in the Robin costume first appeared. At that time, I didn’t know exactly what to do with LL. I just liked him visually. I had no other supporting cast created.
(3) What exactly made you want to get out of the small press and turn Lethargic Comics, Weakly into a regular sized comic?
Through college, as I worked on the run of the small press LCW with Steve Remen, Brian Lemay and Luc Latullipe, we were selling about 400 copies of each issue. As college ended, we figured that if we could sell 400 photocopied comic with next to know advertising, then we could probably sell a good amount of full sized comics through the direct market. Also, college was ending for Steve, Luc and I, and we were thinking of LCW to be a career. We did end up selling about 4500 copies of LCW#1 right away.
(4) You've been in comics for quite some time. When do you feel was your prime in the comics business?
Toward the end of the run of LETHARGiC COMICS. I thought I was doing some really good comics and we started to get some notice, especially with the whole Diamond thing, which admittedly, I played up for publicity... and it worked. All sorts of big name people were introducing themselves to me and I was being courted by Image and Crusade. So around 1996, I guess, was my 15 minutes of fame. HERO ILLUSTRATED had me on their “100 Most Important People in the Comics Industry” list. which I have to say I was proud of. I was #100! As far as my work goes, I’m happiest with everything I did from the Crusade mini-series, and all though the regular LL series.
(5) Even though Lethargic Lad is now a web-based comic, are you still going to go to comic conventions to sell books?
I will still go to a few conventions... probably not as many as I used to. I still have to promote the website, and I have lots of back issues to sell. I’ll probably be in Detroit, Charlotte, Toronto, Buffalo and SPX in Washington. If I get nominated for an Eisner (HA!), I’ll probably head out to San Diego... but I can’t say I miss the train wreck known as the San Diego Comicon!
(6) What was most instrumental in deciding to stop publishing Lethargic Lad in book form?
Several things. Sudden low sales for one... which seems to be an industry wide drop. I didn’t feel like taking a financial loos on putting out LL#14. Also, I don’t have nearly as much time to work on the book and I need a break. In the last couple years all these teaching jobs have been offered to me and the pay is too good to pass up, but the work has really cut into my drawing time. The last couple issues have been a bit of a struggle to get done... too much work, not enough fun. I’ve worked really hard for eight years and frankly, I’m tired. After finishing LL#13 at the beginning of December, I didn’t touch any comics until the middle of February, when I started on LL#14, which I wrote and penciled about 10-12 pages. I enjoyed that two month break between issues! It was the first break from the Lad since 1997, when I worked on The Tick book. Also, I’m sick of the direct market. I know I could be selling a lot more comics than I do, it’s just Diamond and the direct market are set up to work against me. I get tons of letters from people saying “my store won’t order your book for me.” That sucks, and I’m fed up with it. If it wasn’t for these other things, I probably would have decided to “stick things out” and publish LL#14 and take a loss on it, in hopes of recovering later on. It’s actually worked out for the better, though. Changing the format and doing LL as a web comic has sort of rejuvenated me. The new format is fun, and I like working in colour. Steve Remen feels the same way. Also, I’ll be doing two LL comics a week, instead of just one as I originally announced. There’s also a chance to be involved in and on-line syndication deal, which could make me way more money doing web comics than printed comics ever did. Then there’s the LL animation thing that I’m working on. If that takes off, I’d have to quit the comic anyway, regardless of sales.
(7) What are a few of your favorite comic books?
Acme Novelty Library, Dork, Milk & Cheese, Dork Tower, Hate, Hellboy, Concrete, Empty Love Stories, Action Girl. Anything with a gorilla on the cover.
(8) What is that you like least of the comic industry currently?
Sexism.
(9) Who is your least favorite person in comics today?
Bill Tucci.
(10) Who are your current favorite bands? I myself enjoy Rage Against the Machine, Deftones, and Earth Crisis.
My favorite album at the moment is “State Songs” by John Linnell of They Might Be Giants. Other wise, I like Rob Zombie, R.E.M., They Might Be Giants, KMFDM, Billy Bragg, Foo Fighters and most early 90’s industrial.
(11) Any thing BIG planned in the future of Lethargic Lad? Any new merchandising like t-shirts or dollies?
New dollies, including Lethargic Lad:Year One (in the Robin outfit) and the Lad of Tomorrow... and a surprise dolly to be announced in LL.COM #1.
(12) What are your favorite action figures to collect?
Star Wars is really the only line I actively collect right now. The new Animated Batman figures have been a bit of a disappointment, but I like them. They’ve just been hard to get in Canada. The Universal Monsters stuff I like, but I can only get that in the U.S., so I’ll have to wait till May before I get the newer figures in that line. Right now I’m addicted to Lego. I love the Star Wars stuff, and I can’t wait until July 1st, when the Millennium Falcon comes out! Woo hoo! All Lego stuff I like, too.
(13) On your website, you talk about a possible Lethargic Lad animated series. Can you tell me anything about it?
All I can say is that a one minute promo has been completed with full animation and an original song and that a Canadian network is “very interested.”
(14) What do you hope to accomplish with your new Lethargic Lad.com series?
To do some fun comics. Also, to hopefully help make on-line comics as valid and important and serious competition to “regular” comics.
(15) What is the best Lethargic Lad fan-site around? (Answer this one with Lethargic Online and you will have some big bucks at your doorstep in the morning!)
Uh.... Lethargic Online?
(16) If you were to publish Lethargic Lad again in the comic book form, about how far away do you think we are from seeing another Lethargic Lad issue in comic book form?
I don’t know. I know I could call up Image tomorrow and get LL published there, but I don’t want to. That won’t change the sucky way the industry works. And at the moment being published by Image doesn’t guarantee sales the way it used to. We’ll have to see. If someone came up to me with an amazing offer, I’d consider it. However I want to give the webpage as big of a chance as I can. Don Simpson has been doing Megaton Man on-line for over three years, and I think that’s cool.
(17) Do I scare you?
Yep.
(18) This is my final question of this interview: If there was anything you could change in the world today, what would it be?
To increase the population of Mountain Gorillas. Currently there
are only 650 existing, and they tend not to live long or breed in zoos. Mountain
Gorillas could be completely extinct by as soon as 2005.