From: [bv 446] at [cleveland.Freenet.Edu] (James S. Ottaviani)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.comics.misc
Subject: Evan Dorkin, The Usenet Interview -7-
Date: 14 Jun 1993 14:00:29 GMT
More and more!
***
In the news department: Well, weird as this sounds, Sarah
is, as I write this, finishing the colors on a piece I'm
doing for Esquire magazine. Crazy, huh? If all goes well,
it's running this month or next month. It's a piece about
the foibles and follies of the "Alternative Rock" phenomena.
Or, "Alternative Rock Sucks". There's a good chance I'm
doing a 10 page Fight-Man:2099 story for an issue of 2099
Unlimited. I'm running the "Kyle and Evan" Reflex strips
next year in Dork #2. Added tour dates include June 18th at
Steve's Comic Relief in NJ, and a week in Texas in August
(Aug 4-Paper Heroes in Killeen, Aug 5-Funnypapers in Austin,
Aug 6-Bedrock City Comics in Houston, then the Houston Comic
Book Festival Aug 7-8. La la la. Much too goddam busy.
Predator: Bad Blood #1 is scripted, and good lord I'm onto
the fifth issue of the wretched Mad Dog disaster mini-
series. Dork #1 should arrive around June 18 or so and
Fight-Man is any day now, no one seems to know when exactly.
I'll look into finding a bibliography of my stuff one of
these days...
Steve Shotwell ([l s s 3 q] at [uva.pcmail.virginia.edu]) -- Has your
work with Marvel been primarily to pay the bills, or do you
really enjoy working for them? Don't get me wrong, I liked
Bill & Ted and am looking forward to Fight Man, but I'd be
so much happier to see Pirate Corp$! come out on some kind
of regular basis. I know you're not trying to sell out or
anything, but as long as you're doing stuff like writing Mad
Dog, why not just brush up on your cross-hatching, forget
all you know about anatomy, and hook up with those
musclebound mutant millionaires over at Image? Sure,
sellouts are bad and all, and the merchandising of the Ninja
Turtles was (and still is) disgusting, but it made Tundra
possible. And last installment you mentioned a few people
you were interested in collaborating with. Have you ever
considered a Milk & Cheese team up with Doug Allen's
Steven? (Yes, I did catch him on the cover of Pirate Corp$!
number one, the first one.)
Evan -- My Marvel work is indeed done primarily for paying
bills, and obtaining medical coverage...which it looks like
I won't be receiving for 1994. Better not get sick. Anyway,
I really look back on Bill and Ted with extreme fondness,
and really actually miss the book. I had a lot of freedom to
do goofy stories with weird characters and nobody bothered
me much at all. I didn't realize how good I had it. If Bill
and Ted was still around I would have taken a hiatus from
it, a breather, maybe just writing it for a while-but I
would have returned to it full time as it was a series I
definitely had a "handle on".
I'd be much happier just focusing on PC$! and my personal
work, but I can't live on the "pay" from that material, it's
serious poverty income. Milk and Cheese show a decent profit
these days, but nothing close to gainful employment, and I
can't do many more of the damn things anyhow.
As I wrote before, Mad Dog is a fluke, a favor to my
editor. It's a crap book, and I'm unhappy about it, but it
pays for my newsletters and mailings and so there's that
aspect of it. It's not a great paycheck, but then again, I'm
really hacking the lousy thing out. As far as working for
Image...even if I did, I wouldn't hack the work out. I
actually TRIED with Mad Dog, on the first issue, to make it
okay. But when I saw the pencilled pages from my full script
I just gave up. Further installments further caused me to
just not give a damn about the book, it's not worth my time
to fight another artist who can't or won't do his job. As
for Image, well I personally doubt I'd do anything for them.
Easy to say, because I doubt any of those smiley boys would
ask me to do anything, and I'm not proposing anything to
them. I find Image's product 100% shit, and their attitude
annoys me personally, but I don't really care about the
"controversy" surrounding them. They want to produce comics,
let 'em produce comics. Only jealous fanboys who won't grow
up like Peter David seem to be "outraged" by Image. So a
bunch of young turk millionaires want to push their weight
around and act like low rent rock stars? So what? They still
have no talent, and their audience is pretty pathetic,
almost entirely geeks, meeks, and freaks, little folks
without social lives or older folks with even worse social
lives.
If I ever did something for the money, something BIG and
totally calculating just for money, you can bet that money
would be poured right back into my own projects. This is how
I operate now, the mainstream money supports Milk and
Cheese, Pirate Corp$!, Dork, Instant Piano, Mad Planet, the
Hectic Planet Newsletter, my 'zine and flyer and "charity"
work, and pays my rent. It bought a computer, a printer, art
supplies...I could see myself doing something "Image-like"
for the money, and when I say that I don't necessarily mean
for Image, but a project designed purely as an attempt at
reaping in big bucks for stupid work. Then I could be in
with Dave Sim, Alan Moore, Chester Brown...all those hard
line alternative types full of absolutes and harsh words
until they need a few bucks. Actually, I've got no problem
with anyone working on stupid Image books for the money, as
long as they produce some good work elsewhere now that
they're solvent. Whatever, it's none of my business, and
none of yours in the end, let people do what they want, I
think it's insane for fans and readers to be depressed that
so and so is working for such and such. The "sell-out" issue
is tired, people have to eat. People who clasp artists to
their bosom and don't want them to ever change or be human
have lots of time on their hands. This is the way life is,
money is important, it buys time, it buys freedom.
I do think that some people come off as hypocrites,
however, given their statements in interviews about how they
feel about superheroes, or corporate comics, and then they
seem to contradict their statements with their actions. Even
if the vaunted "big-name, big-talent" pros who worked at
Image did so for "good" reasons, it's a shame that these
talents lend Image their names, thus providing the company
with more legitimacy than it deserves.
I don't know if I answered your question, but I don't
care because it's late and I'm tired and I tend to ramble
anyway. As for a M&C/Steven team up --
No.
Later, kids...
***
Count on Brother Dorkin to shoot straight from the hip, eh?
The questions have thinned out a bit, by the way, so slide
'em my way and I'll slide 'em Evan's. Send your comments
and further questions to me at
[h--l--p] at [engin.umich.edu]
and I'll see that Evan sees 'em. Thanks.
seeya
jimO
Oh yeah. Have you ftp-ed Operation Crazed Ferret (a Cerebus
Campaign 93 thing) yet? You don't have to tell anybody you
did it (it's _anonymous_ ftp after all) and now you
Windows folks have no reason not to. The animations are
now in AVI format.
--