Posts Tagged Top Shelf
Alex Robinson on Too Cool to Be Forgotten
Posted by admin in comics, pop culture, sequential art on November 12, 2008
Alex Robinson is one of those creators that I should have interviewed years ago. I’ve enjoyed his work since Box Office Poison (2001). When I scored a copy of his latest book for Top Shelf, Too Cool to Be Forgotten, I contacted Robinson for an email interview. Anytime I find a fellow XTC fan, I’m even more pleased to be doing the interview. So imagine how much fun I had with this interview. Here’s some background on the book, straight from the publisher, Top Shelf:
“Andy Wicks is a forty-something father of two who’s tried everything to quit smoking — from going cold turkey, to the latest patches and nicotine chewing gums — so he figures he’ll give this hypnosis thing a try. What’s the worst that could happen? Unfortunately, Andy gets dealt a fate worse than death — high school! Transported back to 1985, Andy returns to his formative years as a gangly, awkward teenager. Is he doomed to relive the mistakes of his past, or has he been given a second chance to get things right? One thing’s for sure … this time he’s going to ask out that girl from math class… Presented as a gorgeously formatted hardcover graphic novel. — 128-page, hardcover graphic novel, 5 1/2″ x 7 1/2″
Tim O’Shea: Much has been made (in a positive sense) for the ambitious way you conveyed the hypnosis transition (words in the shape of Andy’s head) on page 12. How did you first come up with that element and how much revision or aborted attempts did it take before you were happy with it? It’s an amazing piece of art and writing at the same time, honestly, and no easy task (though you made it look smooth and easy).
Alex Robinson: Why, thanks. I don’t remember how I came up with the idea or if I swiped it from someone else, but I just wanted some unique visual to convey the experience, something dreamlike. It was actually pretty simple to do once I figured out what I was going to do. It’s funny because many times people assume a page or sequence was especially challenging when it was actually easy and vice versa. I think the pages that usually take the most work are ones people don’t really notice or pay attention to.
Bill Kelter and Wayne Shellabarger on Veeps
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.