Talking with Tim

Yesterday I featured the first part of an interview regarding the Lee Weeks installment of TwoMorrows’ Modern Masters series. The first part was with Tom Field. This second part focuses on Eric Nolen-Weathington, the co-author of the Weeks book, as well as the designer and editor behind the entire Modern Masters’ series.  It’s always a pleasure to interview Nolen-Weathington, so I was game to also discuss another book that Nolen-Weathington co-authored: Nick Cardy: Behind The Art, a work that goes beyond Cardy’s comics work and into his commercial illustration career.

Tim O’Shea: Do you think you could have been able to do the Weeks book without Tom Field’s involvement? Were you afraid that because Weeks and Field were such old and close friends it might make it harder for Field to ask tough questions in the process? Or due to the nature of these books (which intend to honor modern masters) is there ever a need to ask tough questions, per se? (feel free to tweek this question if need be).

Eric Nolen-Weathington: Yes, I do think I could have gotten Lee without Tom’s involvement, as I know several artists who are friends with Lee. And Lee was already on my list of guys I wanted to cover at some point. What Tom’ pitch really did was move Lee off the “sooner or later” list and onto the actual schedule.

Tom had already done a book for TwoMorrows on Gene Colan, Secrets in the Shadows: The Art and Life of Gene Colan, which I feel is one of the best books TwoMorrows has published. That was all I needed to know that he would do a good job with the interview. And having known Lee since childhood, I think Tom knew exactly where that line was of what he could ask and what he shouldn’t. The result is one of the most honest, open interviews of the series thus far.

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This week, I am trying to give a Christmas present to my readers by posting more interviews than the average of one a week. Today’s interview is with Ivan Brunetti, editor of An Anthology of Graphic Fiction, Cartoons, and True Stories: Volume 2. As detailed at Yale University Press: “Comic art is a vital, highly personal art form in which change—rapid and unpredictable—is the norm. In this exciting new anthology, comic artist Ivan Brunetti focuses on very recent works by contemporary artists engaged in this world of change. These outstanding cartoonists, selected by Brunetti for their graphic sophistication and literary style, are both expanding and transforming the vocabulary of their genre.” In addition to being an extremely talented artist in his own right, Brunetti is also very busy. But he was recently kind enough to grant me a brief (yet in-depth) email interview. My thanks to Brunetti for his time, as well as to Yale University Press’ Robert Pranzatelli for his assistance.

Tim O’Shea: What is the greatest advantage to working with an academic press, as opposed to another type of publisher?

Ivan Brunetti: Well, I’ve never edited an anthology for another publisher, so I can’t really compare it to anything. My own comics are published by Fantagraphics Books, but my dealings with them are in the capacity of “just another cartoonist” in their stable, one with middling sales at best. They pretty much let me do whatever I want, as long as it’s within budget. I was very nervous about working for Yale, since, well… it’s Yale! Obviously they have a high reputation, and I didn’t want to sully it. But the people at Yale Press have been extraordinarily great to work with, and they also gave me a lot of leeway and freedom to make the book I wanted, again as long as I stayed within the budget. So I guess I’ve been pretty lucky in both instances, working with publishers who have trusted me. In both cases, I was able to create very personal books. And I should mention that, in the case of the Anthology, I wouldn’t have been able to make the books I wanted without the generosity of all the cartoonists involved, who have been exceedingly supportive and kind. I got the chance to correspond with my cartooning heroes. Who’d have thunk it? A nothing sort of person like me….

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The 2009/Ninth Annual Atlanta Jewish Film Festival is scheduled to run from January 14-25, 2009. In fact, tickets went on sale earlier this month on December 9. And just to give folks a little taste of what’s on the horizon, festival organizers were kind enough to let me watch a few of the films to be featured at this year’s festival. In the next few weeks leading up to the festival, I will be providing my reaction to watching a few of the festival’s featured films.

In this first round, I was able to view director Andrew D. Cooke’s 2007 documentary, Will Eisner: Portrait of a Sequential Artist. While Eisner died in 2005, the documentary had well been under way for a few years prior to his death with his involvement (and extensive interviews). Cooke did the film in cooperation with his brother, Jon B. Cooke (who is also the editor of Comic Book Artist). Eisner is a name you have likely increasingly heard in recent weeks, as he is the creator of The Spirit (a character who stars in the new Frank Miller film opening this week). In comic book circles, Eisner is far more than just the creator of one character, as this documentary (and Eisner’s career) effectively proves.

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Timothy Callahan was just one of the many folks I met at Baltimore Comic-Con back in September. Coming out of that meeting we decided to do an email interview regarding his two books and criticism in general. Callahan is a savvy critic who clearly knows pop culture and the comic book genre better than many (as shown frequently at his blog, GeniusboyFiremelon) and is firm in his convictions. Before launching into the interview, here’s the core info on the man himself: “Callahan is an educator, husband, father of two, writer of Grant Morrison: The Early Years, and editor of the recently-released Teenagers from the Future. He writes for Back Issue magazine and Comic Book Resources, and he’s much busier than he used to be.”

Tim O’Shea: Zack Smith recently did a series of interviews with Morrison in which he thanked you for your help. How did you assist him?

Timothy Callahan: Zack had e-mailed me over the summer about the “Superman 2000″ pitch that I’d blogged about — the one where Morrison, Mark Waid, Mark Millar, and Tom Peyer proposed to revamp the Superman franchise for the new millennium — and he actually did an interview with me for Newsarama shortly after that. So we’d been in contact, and when he was sending his big ‘ole batch of questions to Morrison for the All-Star interview, he asked me to take a look at his proposed questions and to add a few of my own, which I did. I would say I added about three questions total, but Zack was probably influenced by a lot of the stuff I’d been writing about on my blog over the past year, so he very courteously thanked me in each of the installments that ended up running. Zack’s interview is shockingly comprehensive, and I’m glad to have been even a tiny part of it.

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When I first heard about David Tischman and Glenn Fabry’s Greatest Hits, a six-issue Vertigo miniseries that offers a mixture of pop culture and superheroes, I was intrigued by the concept: “Meet the Mates! They’re the greatest super team of all time, straight out of England and into our hearts: Crusader, The Solicitor, Vizier and Zipper. But who are the heroes behind the mania? How did they meet? And what’s next for The Mates?” After reading the first two issues, I was hooked and more than pleased when Vertigo’s Pamela Mullin arranged an email interview with Tischman about the project. I caught up with the writer of the series a few weeks ago. This week marks the release of the miniseries’ third issue in which: “Private lives and public expectations are tearing the Mates apart. Crusader reveals a hip, ’70s-style island HQ in hopes of keeping the heroes together. But it’s a call from space that rallies the team. Back in the present day, Nick and Ethel discover a 35-year-old secret hidden among the lunch boxes and action figures of the world’s biggest collection of Mates memorabilia.” My thanks to Mullin for her assistance and Tischman for his time.

Tim O’Shea: While the Beatles serve as an inspiration, did you fear using the most popular band ever as a springboard for the larger tale?

David Tischman: The Mates aren’t the Beatles. The Mates are the world’s greatest and best-loved super-team of all time. The Mates do occupy the same space in our pop-culture Hall of Fame that the Beatles have, but there was never any concern the two groups would be compared.

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Enrico Casarosa and his new book, Venice Chronicles (”A love story/travelogue/graphic novel”), was just one of the great books I found out about at the Baltimore Comic-Con in September. Casarosa was not at the con, but AdHouse’s Chris Pitzer was telling folks about the book in advance of its release (given that AdHouse is serving as the book’s distributor). I have trusted Pitzer’s instincts on books for years, so while I was still at the con, I emailed Casarosa to line up an email interview.

Before jumping into the interview, here’s the official bio on the storyteller:

“Enrico Casarosa has been in the animation industry for more than ten years, drawing storyboards that fit into large animated feature films. Currently a story artist at Pixar Animation Studios Enrico continues his quest to create more hours in the day by drawing alternate realities. Sooner or later his experiments will break through and we’ll all have to buy new watches. Meantime he just published an art book “3 trees make a forest” with partners in crime Ronnie del Carmen and Tadahiro Uesugi. Other times he pursues his muse by traveling with his watercolors and sketchbooks. Enrico is the founder of ‘SketchCrawl’, a worldwide drawing marathon event that gathers artists from all around the globe.”

Once you finish reading the interview, be sure to go here to buy the book directly from Casarosa.

Tim O’Shea: In addition to this new book, the Venice Chronicles, you work at Pixar. I was struck by something you recently wrote in your blog: “It’s become tradition for us selfpublishing friends here at Pixar to take photos of the opening of the first box of books.” How many selfpublishing friends are at Pixar and can you name some of them (and their projects)?

Enrico Casarosa: Oh yes there’s quite a few of us. I’ve had the luck of sharing tables at more than a couple of conventions (and co-publish a book) with uber talented friend Ronnie del Carmen. Another long time friend here at Pixar is Bill Presing, artist of “Rex Steele Nazismasher”. We met a long time ago back in NewYork and both did stories for the anthology Monkeysuit. And the list of talented pixarian friends/co-workers goes on: Scott Morse (Tiger!Tiger!Tiger!, Magic Pickle), Ted Mathot (Rose and Isabel, Cora), Derek Thompson , Dice Tsutsumi (Out of Picture) and many more. There’s also been a couple of anthologies called Afterworks that gather comics for some of the folks here and they even a new volume in the making.

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Last week I lamented the passing of Studs Terkel. I had no idea that I’d be paying tribute to critic John Leonard upon his passing this past Wednesday.

I lost track of Leonard in recent years, around the time of my divorce and returning to the Catholic Church. I was first introduced to Leonard in the 1990s, when I stopped attending church and started watching CBS’ Sunday Morning. His TV criticism and passion was like no one else I had ever seen. His scant moments on the show were sheer enlightenment. In the late 1990s, I read his book, Smoke and Mirrors: Violence, Television, and Other American Cultures.

I did not read the New York Times Book Review when it was edited by Leonard in the 1970s (well I was in grade school). I would periodically read his book reviews in Harper’s, but I did not realize he continued to do TV reviews for New York magazine up almost to the point of his death. I regret not appreciating Leonard more in general–at the point I found out he had written for the Nation in recent years, the degree of how much great analysis I denied myself became apparent.

Leonard was a liberal who got his start at the National Review (another reason to respect the William F. Buckley era of that magazine) . He was able to vote for Obama–despite being gravely ill and literally a day away from death–on Tuesday.

Writers are lining up to sing his praise, but I leave you with A.O. Scott’s thoughts on Leonard:
“He demonstrated in every sentence what a critic could be — what a critic must be. Not a cop, a saint, a celebrity, a judge, a bureaucrat or a priest. A citizen. A teacher. A friend.”

Frank Santoro is a Pittsburgh-based artist who first became known in 1995 for Storeyville, a “perfect match of form and content” that was re-released in 2007 by Picturebox. More recently he has collaborated with Ben Jones on Cold Heat where the two storytellers are “applying Jones’s surreal, biting prose to Santoro’s elegant yet dynamic renderings”. Many folks will also recognize Santoro for his rather passionate opinions about comics and storytelling in general as shared at the group blog, Comics Comics. Through such efforts as Cage Match at the blog, as Santoro recently noted: “It was—and remains—our hope that people care enough about comics to take a stand, one way or the other. To get involved, to build a dialogue that will help create an emotional as well as intellectual foundation for the comics of the future.” This email interview took place soon after the initial David Heatley Cage Match, but before Heatley responded to critics (and the ensuing comments section from hell).

Tim O’Shea: If you had the chance to tell Heatley in person what you thought of this work, would you be this passionate? In asking this I’m not implying you would not have the guts per se to say these things in person, but rather the written word allows nuances and complexities lost in standard conversation. You were excited about his potential five years ago, but now feel far differently. Do you think Heatley squandered his talent and failed his potential–or that you were mistaken in seeing potential in his efforts in the first place?

Frank Santoro: I might not be so “passionate” but I plan on being honest. I’ve known him for years. He’s a nice guy. I don’t think he’s squandered his talent but I do wonder, openly and in a public forum, what the big deal is about his work. Why does it get so much attention? I think it has more to do with David’s “provocative” themes and his careerist approach to the new “graphic novel” landscape within the publishing industry than it does with how sound his comics are.

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Writer Bill Kelter and artist Wayne Shellabarger have brightened this election season with their new book, Veeps: Profiles in Insignificance (set for release in November). In a departure from Top Shelf’s typical publishing material, this non-fiction effort is described by the publishing house as follows:

“It’s a tired but true cliché that every American Vice President is just a heartbeat away from the most powerful job in the world … a job they’ve often never really interviewed for. Who are these people? We all know about the one who shot his hunting partner in the face, but how about the tavern owner who once married one of his slaves and then sold her at auction when she tried to leave him? Or the one whose President went to his death regretting that he hadn’t had his Vice President hanged? Or the one who was too frequently inebriated to serve out the whole of his term? Over more than 200 years, the American voters have sent a platoon of rogues, cowards, drunks, featherweights, doddering geriatrics, bigots, and atrocious spellers to Washington D.C. to sit one bullet, cerebral hemorrhage, or case of pneumonia away from the highest office in the land. VEEPS tells the sordid, head-scratching, perversely-entertaining stories of these men we’ve chosen to ride shotgun in the biggest rig in democracy, without ever seriously considering the possibility that they might have to take the wheel. [296-Page Illustrated Hardcover (Non-Fiction), 5 5/8″ x 8 1/2]”

I’m amazed at the efforts connected to the fun book. As Top Shelf co-publisher Brett Warnock wrote in a recent email: “. . . because this story is too big for a book, along with the upcoming release of Veeps: Profiles in Insignificance, Top Shelf Productions and Rufus Pictures are proud to announce a companion film to the book. Road To Insignificance tells the story of Veeps creators, Bill Kelter and Wayne Shellabarger, and their search for a new narrative for themselves along the road to the election and inauguration of America’s 47th Vice President…I actually co-directed this film, and the experience was outstanding, and made me even excited more about the book.”

I recently exchanged emails with Kelter and Shellabarger in a pretty fun exchange of emails about the book and the film. Enjoy. (And yes, in case you were wondering, the name Sarah Palin does come up…) Also, please note I asked a question or two based on galleys of the book, which has since been revised. But the authors’ candor was so amazing and unfiltered (about the creative process and outside struggles) that I felt it was extremely insightful (and hopefully beneficial to others on several fronts).

Tim O’Shea: Both of you are established as long-term fans/supporters (how would you characterize yourselves) of vice presidents. How was it that you decided to tackle the appreciation of VPs in a book?

Bill Kelter: Ah yes, the genesis story. The Veeps Project originated from one very drunk morning at my apartment in the Corbett-Lair Hill neighborhood of Portland, Oregon, in late 1999. It was two years after my girlfriend had moved out, and while she was there, she prodded me into nudging the landlord into letting us retile the bathroom floor. We replaced an old brown-and-white floral linoleum with alternating 10” x 10” tiles of white and British Racing Green. It looked fancy and modern, but aside from that, it did little for me.

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Few storytellers have as rich a career as Dean Haspiel has experienced before his 40s. As unique as his career may be, his current creative efforts are even more intense and busy. How busy? The guy has five different links for his myriad projects. Here’s his offical bio at present (I’m sure he’ll add another project sometime soon, though…in addition to the Marvel upcoming work he discusses in this interview): “Dean Haspiel is the creator of the Eisner Award nominated, BILLY DOGMA, and the webcomix collective, ACT-I-VATE, and the editor of Smith Magazine’s NEXT-DOOR NEIGHBOR anthology. He has drawn superheroes for Marvel and DC Comics and Pulitzer Prize winning, Michael Chabon’s THE ESCAPIST. Best known for his collaborations with Harvey Pekar on AMERICAN SPLENDOR and THE QUITTER, this Fall will see the release of THE ALCOHOLIC [Vertigo] {To be exact, THE ALCOHOLIC goes on sale this Wednesday, September 24}, his original graphic novel collaboration with author Jonathan Ames, and MO & JO, a children’s comic book collaboration with underground legend, Jay Lynch, for Francoise Mouly’s TOON BOOKS series from Raw Jr. This summer Dean launched STREET CODE, a new webcomic series for Zuda.

Dean is a founding member of DEEP6 Studios in Gowanus, Brooklyn.”

I have had the good fortune to interview Haspiel in the past. And, over the years, I’ve seen Haspiel’s popularity substantially grow (as well it should) . As I already stressed, he’s a busy man–and always highly in demand on various fronts. So, when I contacted him recently for an email interview, I was grateful for any time he could spare. I could honestly get a one-question interview with Haspiel and be happy. Fortunately, he spared the time to answer three questions. And we covered a lot of ground with those three questions.

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