Buddy Scalera: The Buddy System

By Jason Brice

Buddy Scalera has a well-deserved reputation as one of the funniest men in comics. That's "funny" as in amusing, not as in peculiar. Well, he might be a bit peculiar too. Witness Brooklyn Bizarro. Anyhow, Buddy spends his time writing comics for Marvel, doing the self-publishing thing, being a celebrity on behalf of Wizard magazine, and generally enjoying himself. I spoke to him a while back and then lost this interview. After some death-threats from Buddy I found it again.
Luckily it still makes me laugh...

Jason Brice: How often do people call out to you, "Hey Buddy!" in the normal course of your day? Is Buddy your given name, or is it short for something like "Buddingsforth"?

Yddub Arelacs: My real name is Yddub the Dancing Chimp, at least that's what it says on my birth certificate. Born to a circus, they found it fun to call me Chimp Boy, but my mother was serious about family tradition and insisted I be called "Yddub." Oddly enough, a dyslexic person accidentally called me Buddy...which, crazy as it seems, is Yddub spelled backwards. And I've been going by Buddy ever since.

JB: You are pals with Jimmy P. and Amanda C., and are in deep with the Brooklyn contingent. How did Brooklyn Bizarro come about?

BS: Jimmy beat me pretty mercilessly at a pickup game of shuffleboard. I went double or nothing with him. The loser had to create a website for the other guy. I don't know if you're aware of this, but Jimmy is a wicked cheater at shuffleboard. After losing, I had to wear a dress for a month and post the Brooklyn Bizarro website. I hate to admit it, but I've actually grown quite fond of the dress, which is a floral print.

JB: Do you guys know the Fun Lovin' Criminals? You seem like you might.

BS: We know everyone. Literally. Open the phonebook, we know them. Scan the internet, we know them. We know everyone. It's nice, but annoying because new people are born everyday, and I have to get to know them too.

JB: They have a real Brooklyn Bizarro attitude, you ought to check them out. As well as being rock stars they're in the waste management business. Woo. What was the process like getting the gig on Deadpool?

BS: Lots of back and forth email. Lot of phone calls. Quite a few drinks. More than I care to admit. Mainly I kept emailing the editor with ideas. Eventually I think I just wore him down and he decided to give me a shot.

JB: Was there much material you had to drop from your original pitch to make it more palatable to Marvel?

BS: You always have to modify the material. I think Jimmy and I tend to be a little filthy-minded when we write our stories. We still slip stuff in here and there, but our editor caught most of the really dirty jokes.

JB: Most?

BS: Most.

JB: Got any dirty jokes for us?

BS: Yeah, and they're all about your mom.

JB: Cool! She loves reading SBC, and especially likes stories with her in them! Is there any unfinished business from your arc you'd like to address in the future?

BS: It's weird, once you live with a character in your head for a while...and you see him come to life on the page...it's hard to let go. I haven't said everything that I wanted to say about Deadpool. That character still haunts me. But I was really glad I got to do Deadpool #56. It allowed me to tie up some of the loose ends from the run Jimmy and I had on the series. It gave me some finality. Like breaking up with a hot chick. You'd still go back to her, but you know you walked away on your own terms.

JB: How did Necrotic come about?

BS: It was a pitch for Marvel, but they passed on it. Then a publisher showed interest, so we had it drawn. But it never came out, so I brought it to another publisher. And we had it colored and inked and lettered. And then he decided he didn't want to do it. So I ended up just self-publishing it. And that's what I really should have done in the first place.

JB: It seems very much oriented towards a movie pitch. Am I wrong in assuming that's what you were going for?

BS: I think one-shot graphic novels and mini series comics tend to have that movie pacing. We only had 64 pages to tell our story, so we compressed some of what we would see on the screen. But, yeah, you are correct, it was structured similarly to a movie. Know any directors?

JB: A few, but you ought to be talking to producers! Any interest from outside the comics medium in the property so far?

BS: Yeah, Hollywood is banging down my door. Hold on, let me get a baseball bat and beat them all back. Can you believe, they would stoop so low as to actually send Angelina Jolie to my house? I mean, I know she wants to play the female lead, but come on. A guy's gotta have a little privacy, you know?

JB: You seemed to use quite a few inkers on Necrotic, was that a bit of a headache?

BS: If I die, I am coming back as an inker. For all the teasing they get, inkers can always find work. I mean, inking is an evolving business, but these guys are worth their weight in gold. I was lucky to find a few inkers who would give their talents to the book. But nobody could free up their schedule to do the entire project. So, it was a real logistical challenge to get the book done with a consistent look. And everyone was pulling their hair out trying to match Pat Quinn's depth of detail. I'm lucky, I was able to get a lot of young talent on their first projects.

JB: What do you think about this movement towards digital inking? Or even inkerless comics?

BS: I think the way pencilers, inkers and colorists work together is about to change radically in the coming years. Software gives everyone new tools to accomplish the job. Inking will likely become a way where publishers try to save a few bucks. I'm not sure what that means for the artform, and I say artform because I mean it. Until you actually see someone inking, you can't understand what they actually bring to the visuals. I can't ink. Tried it and found that I have no talent for it. But I think inkers will come out ok if they can master the new tools that computer software has created. It's the same thing that happened to letterers and colorists. They're still around, they just use different tools.

JB: You've got a one-pager coming up in X-Men Unlimited. One page on Sabretooth... how did that happen?

BS: Lysa Hawkins was editor on that before she left for DC. Lysa and I have known each other for years, and she always said that if I sent her a proposal, she would read it. And she always did. So whenever I went to the Marvel offices, I would try to ask her what type of pitches she wanted. And she told me what she wanted with the Sabretooth thing. She was very specific as an editor, so it was easy to give her what she wanted. She's gonna do real well at DC.

JB: Yeah, she's cute! And a real good editor, too!

BS: Do you say the same things about Joe Quesada and Mike Carlin? They are cute too.

JB: Hey, you were the one that invited me to talk about girls. Or do you mean we can only talk about girls in the purely abstract sense, so as not to offend any real girls out there?

BS: Are you calling Joe and Mike girls? Ooooh, I'm tellin'!

JB: What other Marvel material can we look forward to coming out from the depths of your Brooklynite mind?

BS: Hmm. Depths? That makes me sound smarter than I really am. And oddly enough, I am not even from Brooklyn. I'm from New Jersey.

JB: You watch The Sopranos? Everything I know about New Jersey I learned from that show and Kevin Smith movies.

BS: For me, watching The Sopranos is like watching a home video. KnowhutImean?

JB: Forgeddaboutit!

BS: Heh. But I have a mini series I am working on for an indie company. Hopefully they will announce soon. And I have some Marvel stuff coming too, which, again, hopefully will be announced soon. And next year we're going to do another Necrotic graphic novel. So, pretty busy and all that. But always time for you, Jason.

JB: You're so charming! But you gotta give us the details! Details! Names, dates, places... the good stuff!

BS: I've got a few neat gigs coming up. I wish I could tell more, but I am under some sort of ancient oath not to tell.

But I do have to agree, I am pretty charming.

JB: Is there any character you are real keen to write? Or is that the most boring and banal interview question you have ever read?

BS: Don't listen to people. Everyone loves to talk about themselves. Me? I am fascinated with me. Hello, Me. My aren't I fascinated with me? Why yes I am.

Who do I want to write? At Marvel, I would love to write Spidey. And any of the original universe characters, but not as a team. I want to write the solo adventures of all the original X-Men and the FF. I love the solo adventures. I would love to write Luke Cage and some of the 70s Marvel characters.

JB: Would that be the Alias version of Luke Cage, or the Power Man And Iron Fist "Sweet Christmas" version?

BS: I think he's the same character, just written in a contemporary setting. Cage is a fascinating character with a really broad potential. But I think I'm a little creeped out that you had Luke Cage and "fist" in the same sentence, after reading Alias.

At DC, I love the Flash and Green Lantern. They are just amazingly cool characters. And I think the Elongated Man is real cool, but the costume needs improvement. And Firestorm. And Hawkman. These are characters packed with potential. I don't think I would have to write stories, I think I would just have to sit there and take notes as these stories wrote themselves.

JB: What's your preferred beverage? I'll bet you are a single malt whiskey drinker.

BS: Hard liquor. Out, I usually drink vodka tonics. But I can spend weeks at a time on just Captain Morgan's and Coke. Beer is fun when you are out having fun. But give me a few cigars and a bottle of Captain Morgan's, and I am done for the night.

JB: And what does Mrs. Yddub The Chimp have to say about that?

BS: What chimp? Anyone know what this guy is talking about? Hellooooo?

JB: What's your involvement with Wizard at the moment?

BS: Just some minor consulting for the Chicago Con. I organized all the Wizard School education panels at the convention. I got to sit up there and introduce all the guests.

JB: Do you think the mag gets a bum rap from the online community?

BS: Depends on the community. Some people hate Wizard with a passion, and I just don't understand it. Wizard does a lot to help a lot of publishers and fans. They're not perfect, but any organization that is made up of passionate creative people will attract some criticism. I think that the fans are unduly harsh sometimes, and not just with Wizard. People need to take a step back and not be so quick to bash. What if Wizard left tomorrow? I bet a lot of those people would be sad to see them go. I would be. I think they provide an important service in this industry. And you have to recognize that they bring a lot of cash into the biz. Without them, a lot of publishers would feel the pinch. So, yeah, they get a bum rap from certain people. And if someone thinks they can do a better job, well, stop talking and start doing.

JB: Was your involvement with Gareb and the Wizard crew a good introduction to your eventual step into writing comics? How useful was it practically? Or was it just an advantage to get to know the people and personalities?

BS: Wizard was a huge learning experience. I paid attention to which people in the comics industry who seemed like they were enjoying themselves, versus the ones who seemed miserable. I also picked up a lot of business sense there. They really taught me a lot about the real world and how it differs from the comics world. I learned more there than I did in college, that's for sure. Although in all honesty, in college, I spent a lot of time with chimps. Know what I mean?

JB: How pissed are you about the WTC attack?

BS: So pissed that I can't even trust myself to make a public comment. I advocate an extreme and vengeful response.