Kibbles 'n' Bits, 5/19/09

Cronin: Compiling the book probably took a bit longer than actually writing it, since it had to be a 50/50 split of new legends and old legends, but it also had to be a pretty even mix for each group of characters (to wit, it couldn’t be two Hulk legends, twelve Fantastic Four legends and three Captain America legends). I worked on the compilation in a hilariously low-tech fashion – just a piece of paper that I would cross out legends until I had just the right balance.

J.T. Yost: With the exception of “Old Man Winter”, all of these stories were created within a framework of “rules”. For instance, “All Is Forgiven…” was for an anthology called BIZMAR. Each story had to include six familiar icons of comics: Bunny, Insect, Zombie, Monkey, Alien and Robot. I had an idea of what most of the stories submitted would be like, so I wanted to do something diametrically opposed. I worked the icons in subtly so that it could work as a stand-alone comic, and since I knew most of the subject matter would be humorous I attempted something more serious.

“It’s kind of like a meditative puzzle for me. You see, when you do artwork, you can work on it all week and make it something fantastic, or work on it for an hour and it might not be quite so nice. Any other job, like anything involving say, mathematics, appears very relaxing to me: add up numbers and you have a right or wrong answer. It’s the same way with working out an adaptation; I need to fit the novel into a certain amount of pages, and take out what I can while making sure the story remains intact.

Crumb gave me his consent to reprint his work, but asked if I drew cartoons. When I said yes, Crumb urged me to draw my own comics instead of just using his. He was very evangelical about getting more people to do undergrounds. My early work was psychedelic comics that I continue to love to do. When I showed Mr. Crumb my work later, in France, he said he liked it a lot but I needed to put more sex into it! I’ve been trying to follow his advice ever since. In working with him on a few of my books, I’ve tried to stop being an slobbering fan boy, but, at the same time, I continue to admire him tremendously.

Here is the audio results of the panel I was a part of at TCAF. I was joined by my fellow nerds, Robert Dayton, Frank Santoro, Dash Shaw and Dustin Harbin for a discussion on mainstream comics and the influence that they have had on alternative comics. It’s not the most focused panel, but we had fun and got some good discussions going with the audience.

I’m a bit surprised — I’d been told that it was going to be retailing for about $75, which with an Amazon discount would put it solidly into the area you suggest. but I also know there are a bunch of extra expenses that have turned up on this book, including having to reletter the whole of Death The High Cost of Living, which weren’t originally planned or budgeted for.

I’m not sure when The Graveyard Book was meant to have been delivered, under the original contract. I do know that I had a $50,000 delivery bonus, if I handed it in by the end of December 2007, which I definitely didn’t collect even a penny of, what with finishing it in March 2008. I’m pretty sure that I could have bashed something out in 2007 and got it in on time and collected the money; I am also certain that that book wouldn’t have won the Newbery, and probably wouldn’t have been very good. And I suspect that people who read the book would have complained that I was just churning it out for the money, and they would most definitely have been right.