A discussion related to Adventures Into Digital Comics.

1) Can you tell us about your background?

I'm an "alternative" cartoonist. I'm best known for writing and drawing a comic book called HATE.

2) You’ve been a comic book artist for years. What do you find in comics that you wouldn’t find in another type of visual exercise?

It's not unlike making a movie, in that you're telling a story with words AND pictures, only you don't have to work with or collaborate with actors or grips or cameramen or anyone else. You have COMPLETE CONTROL over everything, which allows you to keep your vision "pure," so to speak.

3) What was the overall mood in the industry when you began your career? What was its commercial state? How has it evolved?

I was inspired to go into comics by the "underground" comics movement of the 1960s and early 70s, though by the time I got started undergrounds were pretty much "dead" commercially. However, that didn't stop myself and many others like me from using comics as a form of self expression, in spite of everything.

4) Comic book stores were created during the 70’s as a boosting solution for the market. But as years went by, the direct market became the major distribution channel at the expense of the “newsstand” channel. Do you think that the industry is now paying the price for what was considered as the only viable solution back then?

That's a good question, but I don't know how to answer it. Like all comic book artists, I wish that all kinds of comic books were sold everywhere, and many different types of venues have given comics a shot, but sales simply weren't great enough to make any kind of notable impact on them, obviously. To be honest, I always wished that more comic specialty shops carried my work, since I'm sure that most of them have never carried a single copy of HATE!

5) 1986 has been a turning point for the industry with works like Batman: The Dark Knight Returns and Watchmen. It seems that since then, the comic-book audience has grown up with the industry and that there is just no new readers. Has the industry at that time completely forgotten its younger target audience?

I don't think so. Publishers have always made an effort to produce comics targeted specifically at young readers, and they still do. They just didn't buy them. I think the problem is that there's too many other forms of cheap entertainment vying for kids' attention, and comics have a hard time competing with video games.

6) 1993 was the last profitable year for the American industry. The market has been shrinking ever since. What do you think are the causes of the industry’s collapse in the 90’s?

That had everything to do with the collector/speculator craze that really started to snowball in the '80s, and that too many retailers and publishers were more than willing to pander to. 1993 was when that speculative bubble finally burst. Comics still has the same amount of READERS as it did prior to '93 -- the only difference is that back then people were buying multiple copies of anything they thought might be worth more one day.

7) For the past few years, we’ve seen the big companies trying to improve quality: better paper, big names from other industries, etc. Do you think that it had an impact on sales? What could be a key to solve the sales’ problem?

I'm told that sales have improved slightly for "the Big Two" in the last year or so, especially for Marvel. I've noticed that their output DOES look better in general lately, and I HOPE that's why sales have picked up. Prior to that everything was looking like a bad rip off of Image comics or Japanese Manga -- both of which is mindless nonsense in and of itself, in my opinion.

8) In the 90’s, publishers began to create alternate covers, and made a lot of -- sometimes unnecessary -- relaunches. What do you think of those "gimmicks"?

Those were all tied to the whole speculator/collector market that we discussed earlier. People are too inclined to blame publishers for these tacky or silly trends (blaming the producer instead of the consumer for every single regrettable thing that happens has become par for the course these days, sadly), but all they were doing was giving the public what they obviously wanted at the time. The only mistake they made was too many eggs in that particular basket, and wound up suffering more than they should have when the bubble burst.

9) To make more money and be able to reach different places such as bookstores, the publishers have created the trade paperback. As an example, many people have read Sandman when it was available on paperback, but not before. Do you feel that the comic book format had its days, and could be replaced by the paperback?

That seems to be the way things are going, since as you pointed out the trades are more likely to be sold in bookstores; plus they tend to have a bigger profit margin. I hope that the comic book format never disappears though, since I think that they provide a better venue for innovation and artistic development than "graphic novels" do. Plus I vastly prefer the comic book format to the trade paperback.

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