INTERVIEW CORNER #25: Mark Weinstein

2 Comments Written by Θωμάς Παπαδημητρόπουλος on December 14th, 2010 – 08:17

Ένα από τα πράγματα που μου έχουν κάνει εντύπωση στη ζωή μου είναι μια φράση που άκουσα στην κάκιστη (αν εξαιρέσεις τις εκρήξεις και τους AC/DC) ταινία LAST ACTION HERO, με πρωταγωνιστή τον Arnold Schwarzenegger. Δε θυμάμαι τι ακριβώς ειπώθηκε, αλλά το γενικό νόημα αφορούσε στην απορία, όταν ο Arnie συνειδητοποίησε πως όλα όσα του συμβαίνουν είναι αποκύημα της φαντασίας ενός συγγραφέα, του γιατί κάποιος να υποβάλλει τον ήρωά του σε τόσα δεινά. Γιατί να τον κάνει να υποφέρει για τη διασκέδαση των άλλων;

Η συγκεκριμένη απορία μου είχε μείνει από τότε που, πιτσιρικάς, είδα τη συγκεκριμένη ταινία. Και μου έχει ξαναδημιουργηθεί κατά καιρούς, με την πιο πρόσφατη μετενσάρκωσή της να αφορά το comic strip THE MISERABLE WORLD OF PROMETHEUS, του καλεσμένου αυτής της εβδομάδας, Mark Weinstein.

Τον Προμηθέα και τον μύθο του (έκλεψε τη φωτιά από τον Δία, τη χάρισε στους ανθρώπους και τιμωρείται αιωνίως, δεμένος σε ένα βράχο με το συκώτι του να καταβροχθίζεται από έναν αϊτό) τον γνωρίζετε όλοι. Οι άνθρωποι είναι αυτοί που συνέλαβαν το μύθο και αυτοί που καταδίκασαν τον Προμηθέα σε αυτό το βασανιστήριο, διαδίδοντας μέχρι σήμερα την ιστορία του. Βέβαια, εδώ και πολλά χρόνια, ο Προμηθέας, όντας πρωταγωνιστής σε μια παλιά ιστορία, δεν μνημονευόταν τόσο συχνά από τους ανθρώπους και είχε ησυχάσει έως ένα σημείο.

Μέχρι που τον περιέλαβε ο Weinstein στο strip του. Βασανιστήρια, έλλειψη οικογενειακής γαλήνης, χλευασμός και αδιαφορία, αυτή τη φορά ποτισμένα με πικρόχολο χιούμορ αποτελούν ξανά καθημερινότητα για τον συγκεκριμένο ήρωα, που αν κάποτε ζωντάνευε θα έκαιγε τους αρχαίους Έλληνες (και τον Weinstein) με τη φωτιά που υποτίθεται ότι μας έδωσε.

Και μιλάμε για ένα strip που ανανεώνεται (διαδικτυακά τουλάχιστον) τρεις φορές την εβδομάδα. Ο Weinstein, όμως, δε μοιάζει να έχει τύψεις για όσα επιβάλλει στον ήρωά του, αφού, όπως λέει, ο Προμηθέας του διαθέτει πολλά κοινά στοιχεία με τον ίδιο. Για αυτό, άλλωστε, βρίσκει τόσο εύκολα την έμπνευση για το νέο του strip.

Ο Mark Weinstein ζει και εργάζεται στην Ελλάδα εδώ και αρκετά χρόνια και το THE MISERABLE WORLD OF PROMETHEUS είναι η πιο γνωστή δουλειά του. Εκτός από το blog, το οποίο ανανεώνεται τρεις φορές την εβδομάδα, το strip του δημοσιεύεται και στην εβδομαδιαία εφημερίδα ATHENS PLUS, ενώ έχουν κυκλοφορήσει και δύο βιβλία με συγκεντρωμένα τα πρώτα strips του, στα αγγλικά και στα ελληνικά. Επιπλέον, εργάζεται ως freelancer και έχει γράψει και κάποια παιδικά βιβλία, ωστόσο, το πικρόχολο χιούμορ και η καυστικότητα που συναντά κανείς στα strips του PROMETHEUS είναι χαρακτηριστικά που αξίζουν μεγάλης προσοχής.

Ο καλεσμένος αυτής της εβδομάδας, λοιπόν, μας μιλάει για το THE MISERABLE WORLD OF PROMETHEUS , το οποίο πρόσφατα έφτασε στο 500ό strip, για τα σχέδιά του για το μέλλον, αλλά και για το ενδεχόμενο να αφήσει ελεύθερο τον Προμηθέα στο τελευταίο strip του.

How did you come up with the idea of making comic strips based on the story of Prometheus?
At first I had this idea about a comic called PARAMYTHOLOGIA, but it wasn’t just Prometheus – there were more heroes from the Greek mythology. I had this idea about the comic in 2001 and I did this and gave it to several newspapers, but no one was interested. So I wrote a bunch of them and the most ideas I had were about Prometheus. For all the others I could only think one or two ideas. He was the one I had the most ideas for and some years later, when I looked back at it, I thought I’ll try write PROMETHEUS and see how many strips I can come up with. I think I had around 80 ideas at the time and I thought maybe it’s something I can do.

Το comic που γέννησε το strip PROMETHEUS, ΠΑΡΑΜΥΘΟΛΟΓΙΑ.

ATHENS PLUS was the newspaper that first published PROMETHEUS. How did this happen?
Actually it was in LIFO or a few weeks at first, but then they dropped me and never told me why. I called the guy, he never even answered me. And I was doing it for free, they should tell me why they didn’t want it anymore! I opened the paper one day expecting to see it and it wasn’t there anymore. And then, almost a year later, ATHENS PLUS begun publishing it. I know the editor and I showed it to him. So it has been published there ever since.

You have to come up with three strips every week. From where do you draw the inspiration for such a regularly updated strip?
Only the blog is updated three times a week. ATHENS PLUS comes out once a week. The strip was on the internet before ATHENS PLUS. At first, I figured no one would publish it and nowadays you can put whatever you want on the internet and three strips a week was the least I could do for people that keep interest.
As far as the inspiration is concerned, most of the gags just pop into my head. Sometimes, something will upset me and someone will do something that will insult me and maybe I can make that into a comic.

So you draw inspiration from everyday life.
I suppose so.

You have recently reaches PROMETHEUS’ 500th strip. What can we expect for the next 500 strips?
Well, nothing has happened in the first 500 so… I think there’s nothing to expect for the next ones. I guess the only thing that will ever happen will be in the last trip, if he ever gets free.

Do you plan on ever setting him free?
Well, I have this one idea maybe – if I ever set him free. But it will be the last strip.

Do you plan to expand the cast? Will there be any other characters?
I get people in there. Once or twice I put a doctor or a lawyer but no major characters. Early on, I had Zeus in the comic but then I decided it would be better not to show Zeus but have people talk about him – so I don’t think there will be any new major characters. I have also tried incorporating other mythological characters in the PROMETHEUS strip, like Hercules but I think that most people don’t even know who Prometheus is and I figured the less explaining is needed with each character the better. Some people know the mythology and leave comments on that – there are also some pagan sites that have linked to my blog!
Anyway, all the characters represent a bitter and sarcastic aspect of myself so if I were to put a new character on the strip it would have to come out of me.

So every character represents a little aspect of you.
Yes, it would have to. For me, to come up with something.

Do you have any favorite strips?
Oh gosh, specific ones? Hopefully, the last one you do is always a favorite. So you can look at it later and it’s still good.

Does it happen to you, looking at an older strip and not liking it anymore?
Some of them, but generally I think it holds up – for me at least. Sometimes I see how I could have done an idea better but I don’t mind. I do a lot of ideas that don’t get published, so I try to weed out the bad ones. I don’t do any idea I come up with. There’s a group of people who I mail roughs through the internet and they comment on them. So I can see if people aren’t getting it or they just think it’s not funny. That helps a lot. I did this for a while and then stopped and did this strip that no one understood and I thought I should better start doing this again.

So now PROMETHEUS can be found in three formats: online, in the newspaper ATHENS PLUS and the two collected editions. Which format do you prefer the most?
Well, the ones I make money from! I don’t make any money from the blog but there is feedback, people commenting – it’s not bad. Probably my favorites are the blog and ATHENS PLUS since they are current – they have new strips. The book is already three years old.

Are there any plans for new books?
Not exactly. I will have to talk with my partner. When it first came out we split the costs and I will have to see if he is interested again. If all the books sell out in Amazon, there might be another one.

Has the book had any effect on the blog’s visits? Did it make the strip more popular or known?
I can’t really tell for the visitors’ numbers but the Greek version of the book has sold really good in Greece, so there must have been some people who bought the book, liked it and followed my blog. But my blog is in English, so…

But my guess is that comic fans in Greece can talk and read English.
Well, they haven’t been letting me know that!

Do you make any other comics or PROMETHEUS is the only one?
Right now PROMETHEUS is the only one. When I was in America I had some other ideas and sent them to the big syndicates. I sent at least three different ideas. The last one was OK, it was a relationship strip that was pretty funny. One of the syndicates wanted to see more samples but that’s as far as it went.

Did it incorporate the same bitter humor as PROMETHEUS?
Yeah, the humor was bitter but it had jokes mostly about relationships.

Are there any other mythological or historical figures you would like to have starring in a strip, like you did with Prometheus?
I have given Hercules a thought, because there are so much written about him. But with Prometheus I can identify on some level, that’s why I have all these ideas. He can be stubborn and righteous and I can feel that way even when I’m drawing.

So he’s the ideal protagonist for you.
Yeah, the idea that he’s punished for doing something good is really interesting.

Do you have any other plans for the future?
Hopefully, sell some books on Amazon. I’d like to make some decent amount of money out of it since it’s taking up so much time – if you add up all the hours for three years it’s a lot of time. But I guess I can relate more to him now, and make more jokes about him not working. His wife is pissed of at him because he doesn’t make any money. And being freelance, I don’t make that much money, so these feelings of guilt express themselves.

Η διαδικασία δημιουργίας ενός strip.