INTERVIEW CORNER #67: Alex de Campi

Comment Written by Θωμάς Παπαδημητρόπουλος on November 8th, 2011 – 17:59

Είναι πραγματικά άδικο να μη μπορεί μια ιστορία εξαιρετική και καλογραμμένη να βρει “σπίτι”. Είναι ένα έργο που το έχουμε δει αρκετές φορές και όχι μόνο στα comics. Και, πολλές φορές, το τέλος δεν είναι αίσιο, με αποτέλεσμα η εξαιρετική αυτή ιστορία να μην ξεφεύγει από την κατάρα του σεναρίου καταχωνιασμένου σε ένα συρτάρι. Κάποιες άλλες, όμως, οι δημιουργοί βρίσκουν άλλους δρόμους για να περπατήσουν μαζί με το έργο τους – ειδικά τώρα που το internet προσφέρει ένα σωρό από δαύτους – και όλα πάνε καλά.

Κάτι παρόμοιο ευχόμαστε και στην καλεσμένη αυτή της εβδομάδας, την Alex de Campi. H writer του SMOKE (το οποίο βρέθηκε στη θέση #12, στη λίστα μας με τα καλύτερα comics των 00s), του πολιτικού θρίλερ που κυκλοφόρησε το 2005 από την IDW, ετοιμάζει τώρα τη συνέχεια του, η οποία, όμως, έχει μείνει χωρίς εκδοτική στέγη – και, επομένως, χρήματα. Και η de Campi αποφάσισε να ξεκινήσει μια εκστρατεία στο Kickstarter, προσπαθώντας να συγκεντρώσει το ποσό που είναι απαραίτητο για τα έξοδα της έκδοσης.

Το ASHES, όπως ονομάζεται το sequel του SMOKE, επικεντρώνει σε νέους, αλλά και τους γνωστούς ήρωες και ακολουθεί την ίδια επιτυχημένη συνταγή: έντονα πολιτικοποιημένο, συνδυάζει τη δράση με το σκοτεινό χιούμορ. Στο σχέδιο, αυτή τη φορά συναντάμε τον Jimmy Broxton (KNIGHT AND SQUIRE, THE UNWRITTEN) και, αν όλα πάνε καλά με την καμπάνια στο Kickstarter, το ASHES θα είναι έτοιμο κάπου στο 2013, κι αν μέχρι τότε δε βρεθεί κάποια εκδοτική, θα είναι διαθέσιμο μόνο σε όσους συνεισέφεραν οικονομικά.

Αυτή, όμως, δεν είναι η πρώτη φορά που η Alex de Campi παρεκκλίνει (ή αναγκάζεται να παρεκκλίνει) από τις παραδοσιακές εκδοτικές μεθόδους. Εκτός από το SMOKE, είναι γνωστή και για το VALENTINE, ένα webcomic το οποίο είναι σχεδιασμένο αποκλειστικά για ανάγνωση σε e-readers και κινητά τηλέφωνα (είναι ανολοκλήρωτο μέχρι στιγμής και πλέον διατίθεται δωρεάν). Το VALENTINE διαφέρει αρκετά από άλλα έργα της de Campi, μέσα στα οποία συγκαταλέγονται ένα ακόμη πολιτικό θρίλερ, το MESSIAH COMPLEX, το οποίο κυκλοφόρησε από τη Humanoides, αποκλειστικά στα γαλλικά, αλλά και δύο all ages comics, τα KAT & MOUSE και AGENT BOO.

Όλα τα παραπάνω έργα της έχουν βρει θετική ανταπόκριση από κοινό και δημοσιογράφους, όμως, φαίνεται πως το παιχνίδι των εκδοτικών δεν ευνοεί την καλεσμένη αυτής της εβδομάδας, την Alex de Campi. Και στη συνέντευξη που ακολουθεί, μας εξηγεί τους λόγους, αλλά και τι σκοπεύει η ίδια να κάνει (με τη βοήθεια των αναγνωστών) για να συνεχίσει να γράφει και να εκδίδει ενδιαφέρουσες και διασκεδαστικές ιστορίες:

Can you tell us some things about ASHES?
It’s the follow-up to my Eisner-nominated book SMOKE, which I understand was one of your 15 best comics of the 2000s! (By the way, thank you!). SMOKE was always meant to be a longer series, but its publisher at the time was changing focus to licensed properties (like STAR TREK and BUFFY) and so didn’t want to continue it. It had a small but very vocal group of supporters, most of who seemed to be other comics pros.
It took me a really long time to figure out how I wanted to continue the series… and I was also doing things like directing music videos and having a baby. Finally, I realized how I wanted to write ASHES: as five years’ on in the main characters’ lives. Rupert, the soldier, has more or less disappeared; Katie, the journalist, cannot get a job. Then a mistake at a US military base means a 15 year old boy gets in touch with them and reunites them… only because he wants them dead. It shares many of the characteristics of SMOKE — big, inventive action sequences, a dark comedy, and an underlying sense that these are real people, imperfect, occasional liars… but ASHES is, I believe, better than SMOKE. I am a much better writer now, and the book has an almost literary foundation… and some very dazzling, unusual sequences that are not found in “normal” comics. I do think, if we are able to make the book, it is one that people in the future will look back on as a classic, and those who have one of the original 1,000 hardbacks, will treasure them. I hope enough people agree with me, that we can make the book happen.

Why should someone support it through Kickstarter?
It’s simple: if you don’t pledge to buy ASHES, it won’t get made. It’s a huge, sprawling, exciting book, 250 pages long, with a large painted sequence and some very difficult pages (I am never easy for artists). The script is completely done, but my artist needs to eat and pay rent while he spends almost a year drawing it. So we need to raise money to let him do that. If you wait for other people to fund the book, or assume you will get it after it is published… well, that’s the sort of apathy that will directly harm the book’s chances. Basically, don’t complain about how bad comics are at the moment. Instead, support good books… not with words, but with your wallet. If you sit back with your hands in your pockets and wait, books like mine will not exist.
All we are asking people to do is buy the book in advance. From February, you will start getting its eight chapters, serialized monthly via Comixology. In November/December next year, you then get a gorgeous, numbered, limited-edition hardback copy of the book. And of course, free shipping to Greece . If you don’t buy through the Kickstarter, you have no chance of getting the book, as it will not be publicly for sale outside the 40 days the Kickstarter has left…
Of course if you would prefer a version of the book in Greek, speak to your favorite Greek comics publisher and ask them to get in touch with us. We are offering publishing licenses for translated versions of the book.

SMOKE was a highly praised mini series. How come it’s so difficult finding a publisher for its sequel?
SMOKE was also an expensive miniseries to produce. The economy is very different now than in 2005 and no publisher wants to put up the amount of money it would cost to support us to eat and survive while we make the book. The great books of the past — books like V FOR VENDETTA, WATCHMEN, PREACHER, TRANSMETROPOLITAN, SANDMAN — the artist and writer were paid while they worked, so they could survive. No more. The expectation now is that you suffer and make the entire book beforehand, then the publisher publishes it, takes 50% of your rights (in exchange for no money) and maybe only gives you some money 6 months later from the sales. This is the brave new world of comics.
So if you want to make something amazing, you need to go directly to the people who will read the book and hope they will be interested enough to pledge money and allow you to make the book. The way Kickstarter works is that unless we meet our goal ($27,000 — $15,000 for a year’s labor for Jimmy, $9,000 for printing 1,000 copies of the book and mailing it; and $3,000 for Kickstarter and credit card fees), we receive ZERO money. So there is a very real chance we will not get any money and not be able to make the book.

What were the things that inspired you for SMOKE?
Gosh, I wrote it so long ago it is hard to say. I love the policiers (police films) of the French director Jean-Paul Melville… the absurdism and black comedy of a lot of Korean and Japanese films (Park Chan-Wook’s SYMPATHY FOR MR VENGEANCE, Sabu’s MONDAY and POSTMAN BLUES)… the conspiracies of Thomas Pynchon (in GRAVITY’S RAINBOW and TE CRYING OF LOT 49)… And I love taking everyday British locations, and blowing them up.
In ASHES, we get to blow up American locations too. And African. The jungle warfare scene that begins near the end of the downloadable preview (see our project page on Kickstarter) turns into a real doozy of a fight.

You have also written teen and all ages stories: KAT & MOUSE and AGENT BOO. What are the elements you enjoy the most in this kind of stories?
I am a girl. I like writing comics for girls. It’s really fun trying to write things that my 6 year old and 12 year old self would have enjoyed. AGENT BOO was a crazy space adventure, like Douglas Adams for very young kids. KAT & MOUSE was the sort of thrilling young teen drama that the Japanese do really well, but is almost never done in comics form in the US. As usual they had a small but very devoted group of fans, then the publisher (Tokyopop) went bankrupt.

How did the French graphic novel MESSIAH COMPLEX come about? Will it be published in English?
Soon after SMOKE, I had two series accepted at the French publisher Humanoides. I was delighted, as many of their books I had found very inspirational — Enki Bilal’s work especially. MESSIAH COMPLEX was me doing a genre I loved: big giant French space opera, but with the hero a young teenage girl. We got two albums out, they had a small but very devoted group of fans, and then the publisher went bankrupt. Sigh.

MESSIAH COMPLEX also deals with political (however futuristic) issues. What are the differences between it and your other (past and upcoming) political driven stories?
I like real reasons for things happening, not bullshit story reasons. I’ve always been entranced by political dramas, such as the plays of the German, Schiller, and I find the idea of powerful people locked into situations very exciting. So there is always a political element to my stories, whether it is a person trying to hold on to power, or the great unfeeling beast of a collective government acting in what seem like illogical and harmful ways. Someone once said that every space story is either a Western, or a story about technology. I write Westerns. So the futuristic issues are just the same issues we face every day ourselves, magnified by scale and technologies.

VALENTINE is specifically written and designed for e-readers and mobiles. What has driven you to such a decision?
Ever been stuck on a bus or a train with nothing to read? I thought, how nice it would be to have an exciting comic that you could have at times like this, when you want distraction for 15, 20 minutes. And I had VALENTINE already written, it’s a story I’ve been working on for a long time that never found the right home. Because it is very suspenseful, with lots of twists and cliffhangers, it works really well as a story told for mobile phone screens in short chapters. I found it a fun challenge to rewrite the VALENTINE story for viewing on phone screens, to provide the best and most exciting experience for readers… so it is different from a printed comic, but is not cheap-looking bullshit like a “Motion Comic”.
I wanted to take the comic so much further, adding features and functionality… but I am a writer, not a coder. And I am in fact a very broke writer.

Will we see any new episodes in the future? How about the printed version?
There are 14 more episodes of VALENTINE. It stopped because I lost my job, and no longer had money to pay my artist. The printed version, I am short of $2,500 which I need to pay for the painted cover, and the 40-page bonus story. Hopefully if we are successful with ASHES, I will do another small Kickstarter in the spring to pay for the printed edition of VALENTINE to come out (from Image Comics) and maybe for a couple more episodes. The first 10 episodes are still available for free on Comixology so go check it out!

Your most recent comics, VALENTINE and ASHES are not taking the traditional publishing route, either by decision or necessity. What is your opinion on how things work in traditional publishing?
Self-publishing is, sadly, by necessity. I would much prefer just to write. I hate marketing. I hate asking for money. I want someone else to take care of all of that. But although readers want to read my books (VALENTINE has had over 100,000 downloads)… publishers do not seem to want to help me survive while I write them. Traditional publishing is going through a lot of changes; like the music industry, there is doubt over whether there will be such a thing as traditional publishing in the future. I hope whatever model that evolves makes it easier on artists and writers than it is now.

What are your plans for the future, as far as comics are concerned?
To continue to write big books, slowly. I have already started on my next, MARGARET THE DAMNED. 75 pages in. It will be about 300 pages.