TitleTales

Interview: Alex Robinson

Alex Robinson is the author and illustrator of the graphic novels Box Office Poison and Tricked, for which he has won Eisner, Ignatz, and Harvey awards, and the Prix du Premier Album award given in Angouleme, France. His new book, Too Cool to Be Forgotten, was just published by Top Shelf Productions.

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BWI: In Too Cool to be Forgotten, your character tries hypnosis to quit smoking and ends up being transported back to high school. Do you have a lot of nostalgia for that period of your life? Do you think high school might be an important period for all of us to hold dear?

AR: I don’t know if I would call it nostalgia, since I think that usually has some pleasant connotation, but it has definitely stuck in my brain. I don’t know if it’s true for everyone, but I felt like it was almost unhealthy in a way so part of the reason for doing the book was almost like art therapy, to examine why I was so fixated on that period of my life.

Almost everyone I know disliked high school and had a miserable time but then again almost everyone I know is a nerd or misfit of some kind so of course they would hate it. Are there people who really look back at it as the best time in their life?

BWI: Too Cool to be Forgotten is shorter and more focused than your previous books. Do you feel that your style is changing, or was the focus required for the story you wanted to tell?

AR: I think it had more to do with this particular story since for my next book I’m thinking of going back to a longer narrative with a lot of characters. Since the main character, Andy, is in every single scene and is basically told from his point of view it really limited how much I could play around with subplots and supporting characters and that sort of thing, the stuff I used a lot in my other books. It will be interesting to me to see how this one is received compared to the others.

BWI: Who is the favorite character, out of all the characters that you have created?

AR: Hoo boy! That’s a tough one. It really changes all the time and I like different ones for different reasons. I still like Caprice from Tricked and I’d like to use my nameless barbarian lady from my Lower Regions comic again. She was a lot of fun to draw.

BWI: When did you start reading comics? Would you say that they had a profound effect on your career path? Did any one specific comic or character catch you and draw you in to this world?

AR: The first comics I remember reading were the Sunday comics, and then there was stuff like the Archie titles and Mad. This would’ve been in elementary school. I didn’t start seriously reading comics and considering it as a career until I was about thirteen and started reading superhero comics. I wanted to work for Marvel or DC until I started reading “alternative” comics toward the end of high school.

It’s kind of interesting to me that I’ve sort of come full circle. People would ask me what my first book, Box Office Poison, was about and I would say it was like Archie but with cursing and nudity.

BWI: How did it feel to have Will Eisner as a teacher at your art school in New York?

AR: You know, it’s funny because at the time it was really no big deal. Part of it was that I was a snot-nosed college student, and you can’t find anyone trying harder to be cool and rebellious than an art school student in New York City. But I think part of it was also that I don’t remember much of Eisner’s stuff being as widely available as it is now, so we sort of knew him by reputation more than from seeing his actual work. It’s sort of embarrassing now, since everyone asks me about him, but some people paid even less attention than I did. This was around the time Image first took off so everyone just wanted to be Rob Liefeld and Todd McFarlane. Storytelling wasn’t a big priority for that set, and that was Eisner’s main forte.

BWI: Does your process for creating a graphic novel start with character sketches or by constructing the plot? Do you use storyboards? Do you pencil and ink everything yourself?

AR: I usually will come up with some characters and a loose idea of what kind of story I want to tell or key scenes. I’ll have sort of an outline in my head and then work one page at a time: write page one, draw page one, write page two, draw page two and so on. A lot of people have told me it’s an odd way to work, not having everything figured out in advance and I can see their point but I like giving myself room to improvise and play around. If I knew everything that was going to happen I think I would get bored.

As for the technical side, I’ll write the page and lay it out with quick, rough sketches in my sketchbook. Then I’ll move to the drawing board and draw it in pencil. I’ll add the word balloons and captions, any lettering, next. Finally, I will ink it, which is really where the drawing part comes in, since I’ll do very loose pencils.

And yeah, I do it all myself.

BWI: You have recently delved into writing some fantasy comics, is it fun for you to expand into different realms of comic writing? Do you have any favorite fantasy books, films or television shows that inspire you?

AR: It is a lot of fun, especially since the book I did didn’t have any dialogue or words so it was really using a different part of my brain. It was funny because a lot of people seemed puzzled that I would do a book like that, or surprised at least but I really enjoy that sort of thing. The irony is that I’ve read very little of it myself. I loved the movies but I never read Lord of the Rings beyond The Hobbit. I like characterization and don’t really have the patience for long, detailed genealogies and descriptions of mountains and things like that which seem to be the staple of fantasy novels.

BWI: When and how did Box Office Poison originally get picked up by Top Shelf?

AR: Originally, the story ran as a series of comic books from a company called Antarctic Press, but I always imagined it being collected into one big book like Cerebus. Top Shelf had expressed an interest and since they had done some very handsome collections and were looking to crack the bookstore market it seemed like a good match.

BWI: In Box Office Poison, you have an ensemble of quite a few complicated characters. Did working at a retail bookstore for seven years provide you with that fodder? Where else do you “find” your characters?

AR: It’s combination of real life people, or at least real life types of people and just making them up. I think a lot of people’s first novels tend to be very autobiographical, since it’s probably easier than making up characters out of whole cloth. Once you’ve done that, though, you’re forced to move beyond that or you risk repeating yourself.

BWI: You have some short form comics up on your personal website, do you find it easier to work in long form comic fiction (like Box Office Poison and Tricked), or short form?

AR: Definitely long form. Doing short stories doesn’t really allow you much room to explore the characters and see what develops, and you really have to pay closer attention to the structure. There’s less room for error or happy accidents. I like having some wiggle room.

BWI: What will your next project be?

AR: At this point I’m in the middle of the big promotional push for Too Cool to Be Forgotten so I haven’t had much time to think about it. It usually takes some time to recharge my creative batteries after finishing a book. I’ve tried starting a new book immediately after and it always winds up a bust. I have some ideas I’m kicking around but nothing I want to commit to yet.

BWI: Have you ever been interested in working for, or approached by mainstream comic companies? Do you feel that independent comic companies have more heart?

AR: A few years back I was approached by a mainstream company and it didn’t really work out on my end. The problem was that I couldn’t pitch any ideas. Because of the way I work, coming up with characters and vague ideas first and seeing what develops, it was hard to go in with concrete stories. It was sort of a vague “Uh, it’s about a superhero with problems…” I think the editor was enthusiastic but it wasn’t a good match. I’m willing to give it another try, though, if I was approached.

I don’t know if the smaller companies have more heart, but you definitely have to approach it from a different angle. If I’m doing a book for Top Shelf I know I can make it personal and very much the kind of book I want to do.

BWI: A lot of people think graphic novels are just superhero stories for teens. Can you discuss the rise of other graphic novel genres and how they appeal to adults? What direction do you think graphic novels will take next?

AR: Well, I’m somewhat cynical in this regard, in that I’m a little more wary of the graphic novel boom than some of my cartooning friends. On the one hand, books like Fun Home and Persepolis, to name two recent examples, aren’t really aimed at teens and have enjoyed great success. On the other hand, I don’t know if graphic novels are as successful, saleswise, as the hype would have us believe. They’re getting an unprecedented amount of publicity, but I feel like that’s more of a case of enthusiastic editors than actual popular support. The fact that the graphic novels that have sort of broken through are actually graphic memoirs, autobiography, seems to indicate that the public, the adult reading public, might only be receptive to certain “serious” books. Comics are still thought of as a children’s medium, so if an adult is going to be reading one it better be about a subject like the holocaust or growing up in Iran.

I’m also a little wary because part of the appeal, to me, of doing comics was that one person could really be an amateur, writing, drawing, and even publishing a book by him or herself. Even with a company like Top Shelf, they’re small enough where I can call them up and talk anytime. But if graphic novels really do take off and become huge, inevitably big publishing companies will come in and take over, with their bigger overhead and corporate bureaucracy to support.

One development I’m happy to see is the explosion of manga. I’m not a big fan myself but they seem to be a big hit with girls, a market that’s been virtually ignored by American comics for thirty years or so. It will be interesting to see how many of them, if any, make the transition to reading American comics or hopefully creating comics of their own.

BWI: Do you have any words of wisdom for kids hoping to work in the comics industry?

AR: I think this advice probably applies to most art forms but: do it if you really want to do it — really have to do it. The sad truth is that the odds of getting wide recognition, let alone money, are so against you that you really have to do it because you honestly enjoy it and would do it for free. Because you probably will be!

I’ve learned that the most satisfying stage of doing comics, the only one you can really depend on, is the satisfaction of finishing a page or drawing and appreciating when you’ve done a good job. If you can savor those moments, the pleasure that comes from a job well done, comics can be as rewarding as anything else in life.

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