Jeff Parker: Adapting to a Hostile Environment

By Mike Jozic

Jeff Parker is getting himself noticed. The creator, writer and artist of the self-published graphic novel, The Interman, has made a splash right out of the gate. Having just signed a deal with a production company to produce his story as a movie, newshounds are coming out in droves not seen since the H-E-R-O money-back guarantee, and he’s even gotten himself a blurb in a recent issue of Entertainment Weekly. Not to mention that interviews with the man are popping up all over the internet like weeds.

Case in point.

After seeing the press-release, I decided to track Jeff down and get the skinny on this Interman book and why everyone was making such a fuss over it and him. Could it be because he’s a very talented individual who has accomplished what few in American comics have attempted before - a self-contained 128 page graphic novel, in colour – or is it because he’s a gracious interview subject and all-around nice guy to talk to (not many interviewees have turned one of my questions into an impromptu art giveaway contest)? You be the judge.


MIKE JOZIC: Was The Interman a concept that you were shopping around Hollywood, or did you just get the call one day that Gale Anne Hurd's production company was interested in your stuff?

JEFF PARKER: Way back before even getting close to finishing, I assumed optioning wouldn't be a consideration until the book was out. But Ford Gilmore was putting together Illuminati Entertainment and felt it was a strong enough project to be the first thing to go out to studios with. I didn't even realize you could pitch properties before a book was completed, but once I had black and white galleys, that was enough for him to go out and sell. I did get some calls of interest from film people who'd seen the website, but by that point we were already in talks with Valhalla and Paramount.

JOZIC: Was anyone else interested in optioning the story, or was Valhalla the only one to approach you?

PARKER: Really, most of the studios were mulling it over - it all happened kind of fast and all over Hollywood. Nerve-wracking stuff!

JOZIC: With some obvious exceptions, Indy comics aren't generally the first properties on the pile to get optioned for a major motion picture. Do you think that the floodgates have really opened up with the commercial and critical successes of comic book movies like Spider-Man and X-Men? Are mainstream and Indy projects being viewed with the same sort of "blockbuster" potential?

PARKER: I think what opened it up really was Road to Perdition. After that, Hollywood knew what "graphic novel" meant. And I might venture to say that Indy stuff has a better chance of being considered. You can only do so many superhero movies, there's only a handful that the general public knows. What's "Indy" in our industry is often Mainstream to the movie-going public.

JOZIC: Do you think that interest is coming from the ability to market a movie without having to make any visible ties to the comic book industry, or at least the public's perception of it?

PARKER: All they care about is what will work as a movie, I think. I was told that the kind of storytelling I did - clear layouts, panels on grids - helped them "see" how it could be done more easily. I'll wager that when it actually comes out (knock on wood) not much will be said about it being a comic book.

JOZIC: What stage is the project at? Has the deal literally just been inked, or is there script work being done on it?

PARKER: It's now going to prospective writers, and one should be announced before too long.

JOZIC: I have to say I’m curious why you have no interest in adapting the story yourself?

PARKER: I already wrote it! I want to move on to the next one. If I take a stab at a screenplay, it'll likely not be about any comics I ever do. You have to write to the strengths of the medium.

JOZIC: If you had carte blanche to cast the film, as well as select the director and composer, who would your dream cast and crew be?

PARKER: I like so many people, that's just too tough. I would like John Cusack as Van, though that's not possible because of his deal. Maybe Hugh Jackman. I hope for some director with a sense of humor. And a score by someone versatile who can still work in that '60's surf guitar sound.

JOZIC: Will you be keeping your expectations realistic about the film since a lot of projects that get optioned never make it to the screen.

PARKER: Oh yeah, it could easily get stopped along the way like so many productions, or it could end up totally different from the book. I wouldn't mind that. Film and comics and prose all function in different ways, you can't expect them to translate smoothly. Even if it ends up completely different from my book, as long as it's a good movie I'll be happy.

JOZIC: I'm just a little curious as to why you chose to name your publishing company Octopus Comics?

PARKER: Besides that it's a cool animal? The first name I was going to use was "Beast", and that's what printed on the Roughcut retailer previews, with a bear logo. I still hadn't figured out a good design so I just drew a bear with a fish in his mouth to amuse myself. Then a retailer - Lincoln, from ACME comics in North Carolina, wrote me and pointed out that the B name would place me around a section in Previews where I'd probably be overlooked, with vaguely porn-ish books.

Retailers are a great source for practical advice, don't be afraid to ask them for it.

So thinking I might find more sympathetic readers in the section between NBM and Oni, I then began brainstorming in that part of the alphabet. And I like Octopi. I plan to incorporate later this year, and the name will officially become Octopus Inc.

JOZIC: The artwork and lettering reminds me very much of a Toth book or Jonny Quest. Were classic adventure strips an influence on the overall style you chose to work with on The Interman?

PARKER: You nailed it. As a kid, Jonny Quest was an enormous influence on me. It pretty much shaped what I was going to like for years. I was lucky enough to get to be friends with Doug Wildey in his last years, what a super guy, and terrific artist. Back in college I started finding more and more of Toth's work, which was just over my head then. I knew it was great, but I couldn't begin to understand what he was doing. As I got better, more and more of it clicked for me, and now I always reread his stuff for inspiration. He's a genius, and I don't use that term loosely.

My favorite comic ever done is probably Terry and the Pirates, when Milton Caniff and Noel Sickles were working together on it. It's easy to see how the whole country was sucked up into those stories when they ran in newspapers in the 30's and 40's. Real characters that you cared about.

JOZIC: Toth is very big on the construction of a page or the narrative flow of a story, and you mention the storyboard work directly affecting how you approach putting together a page. What is your general approach to storytelling? What criteria must be satisfied, in your eyes, before you've successfully communicated your idea to the reader?

PARKER: First, I don't want it to feel like everything else you've seen a million times in comics. We don't need any more characters standing by brick walls or in warehouses with stacks of crates. If there's going to be a talky scene, I try to have the characters in an interesting locale. I like to have weather in a scene instead of everything taking place in daytime with a clear sky. And if possible, I like the people to be doing something that fits with their character.

I don't always begin with an establishing shot, sometimes I save it to reveal where the characters are further in. I try not to waste any space on big poses, I just never have enough room for that. While I try to advance the story as much as I can, it's also important to pause at times and let the characters be real people, doing real things. That makes the action count that much more.

JOZIC: I might be crazy, but when reading the outline of The Interman, it kind of reminded me somewhat of The Bourne Identity. Is there any Robert Ludlum in the mix?

PARKER: You're right, you're crazy.

Actually, I'm embarrassed to say I've never read Ludlum. Maybe I finally will now. One of my big influences with the covert stuff was the movie 3 Days of the Condor, which strangely enough, I liked better than the book, 6 Days of the Condor by James Grady.

JOZIC: Nobody tackles a 128 page graphic novel with a spy theme if they aren't already a big fan of the genre. Who are your favourite authors, and how many of them are worked into the foundation of this project?

PARKER: I was reading a lot of Trevanian (Eiger Sanction, Shibumi) and Michael Crichton back around the time of coming up with Interman. And for non-fiction I was reading the Natural World/evolution theory essays of the late Stephen Jay Gould. Science and spy fiction go together surprisingly well!

JOZIC: Were there any influences outside of comics or literature that had an impact on the final product?

PARKER: In general, I watch a lot of nature shows, and read plenty of science-based stuff. I'm ultimately just trying to tell the kind of stories that would interest me.

JOZIC: Are there any writers out there you'd be interested in working with, or artists you'd like to write for?

PARKER: If I could just illustrate even two pages of something by Alan Moore, I'd be the happiest kid on Earth. I have some stories I'd like to write for Steve Lieber before he starts writing all his own stuff. There are so many good artists now.

Wish lists are tough!

JOZIC: Your background is in various forms of mass-market media. You've done storyboards for commercials and animation as well as comic books for a number of different publishers. Do you find yourself enjoying one more than the other, or does each medium have its merits?

PARKER: My preference is comics, because I like to write, and I like the kind of storytelling you can only do with comic books. Storyboarding is also enjoyable though, and it sets up some disciplines that translate to comics well. You can't fake your way through much with storyboards, because big crews have to be able to set up scenes based on what you've established. There's no getting by with "I'll do some pretty little feathering and hatching here", you have to create working environments. And be clear. All of that makes comics' work stronger.

JOZIC: By going to a trade on your first printing, you've sort of left yourself out of that collection market where you bring all the parts of a series together and package them with some special features. Would you consider putting together a director's cut of The Interman, or is there even enough material around to do so?

PARKER: Oh, I've got extra stuff. At some point later on, if the books sell enough I could eventually do a hardcover. That's a long ways off, though. I want to keep the book affordable for quite a while.

JOZIC: I got a big kick out of your Li'l Legends mini-site. As someone who has kids, I thought it looked like a really great idea. With the movie deal and the industry attention you're starting to garner, does Li'l Legends appear any closer to seeing the light of day?

PARKER: I hope so, though it's really two different circles. Li'l Legends came about from me ranting with Chip Carter about the lack of children's comics, which threatens the existence of the comics industry. We rarely make new readers.

JOZIC: Is the plan to produce Tintin, or Asterix, sized albums, or is this a proposed monthly series?

PARKER: I want to do it as an ongoing comic, maybe 2/3rds color, on cheap paper, to keep the cost down. Pretty much like the Harvey Comics of my youth. My hope is to establish the look of the stories, and bring in some other talents so that we can do lots of stories.

JOZIC: What age group are you gunning for with Li'l Legends?

PARKER: It's for little kids. Hard to say ages, because kids are all over the board developmentally. I was reading Casper and Hot Stuff when I was four, and I was still checking in on it when I was eight or nine. The Dennis the Menace comics were also pretty important to me at that age. Now we don't give kids much to read, and wonder why they're illiterates.

JOZIC: Having some background in animation, as you do, would there be any desire to take something like Li'l Legends and making it into a Saturday morning cartoon?

PARKER: Yes, because that would help sell comics. And it needs to be a comic book, or several comics. Actually it could make a fun cartoon with the right people involved.

JOZIC: You've done work for both Marvel and DC, as well as had your work published through smaller companies like Dark Horse and Caliber, yet ultimately you chose to self-publish The Interman. Why?

PARKER: Bigger companies were interested at different times, but the market was in such a downturn no one wanted to follow through and take a chance on it. Every time I had someone considering it, progress would stop on the book, and it was hard building momentum. To get the thing done, I had to just get in the frame of mind that I was going to complete it, the way I wanted it, and not worry about finding a publisher. Once you're on that course, the idea of publishing suddenly doesn't seem so daunting. And I'd always wanted to publish my own work at some point anyway - might as well start now!

JOZIC: Was the original structure of The Interman as a mini series, or had you always looked at it in terms of a graphic novel?

PARKER: Yes, I was going to do it as four books, that's why it breaks into sections the way it does. But it was hard to ignore how much readers were clamouring for trade paperbacks and complete works. Once I began imagining how it would look as a whole package, that became so appealing I had to do it.

And I only had one cover idea.

JOZIC: Many have argued that self-publishing a complete work like this, as opposed to a series of flimsy pamphlets, is probably the best way to get someone’s work out there to be seen. Have you found this to be your experience?

PARKER: I don't think it's for every book, but I think that's the case for me. A lot of people who haven't heard of it will pick it up, look through and see how much story is in there, and then buy it! Comic readers are so used to meandering storylines that never fully resolve, and disappearing creative teams, that they really get interested when they find there's a complete story out there waiting for them.

JOZIC: Do you think publishing in colour was essential for getting readers to pick up this book?

PARKER: It sure didn't hurt. I just didn't think I could convey all the global stuff and nature fully without color.

JOZIC: I'm assuming Liander Tothe, a.k.a. The Fox, is a less than subtle tip of the hat to Alex Toth, but I'm curious if the character of Outcault was named for R.F. Outcault, the creator of the Yellow Kid and father of the American comic strip?

PARKER: Right on both counts! I've always thought Outcault had a real "heavy" name. I still don't know exactly how to pronounce it - for years I've said it three different ways. He also created Buster Brown and Tige.

Since you know your comics history, you'll also find a place where Van is saying a line used often by Wimpy in the Segar Popeye strips. And it's not about paying anyone Tuesday for a hamburger today. In fact, let's make it a quick contest: the first person to post and identify the phrase gets one of my rough pages from the book (not a finished page, mind you).

JOZIC: How long, from beginning to end, did it take to complete The Interman, and did you find your style changing or maturing in the time it took you to complete the book?

PARKER: It's hard to say, because I stopped and started on it several times over the past few years. Real life and work interrupted all the time. I ended up having to go back and redraw early parts of the book because my drawing got better over that time, and I had to make it match up.

JOZIC: I haven't really seen many reviews of the book online. Have you been promoting the book with promo copies at all, or has it all been word of mouth and your own legwork?

PARKER: There's a zillion reviews on the Interman home page, and of course the Entertainment Weekly blurb now!

JOZIC: What is the significance to the title beyond being the name of the project that produced Van Meach?

PARKER: Thematically, he travels the planet constantly, a real citizen of the world. As the plot is concerned, he's a genetic assemblage of thousands of people from around the world, via cells taken secretively during polio vaccinations. Didn't you ever wonder why some people have what looks like a chunk taken out of their shoulder? It was just a shot, right?

JOZIC: You've been promoting The Interman at conventions for a while now. How have you found the Con goers overall response to the book?

PARKER: I'm getting the best email now. I love hearing readers react to different characters and scenes. I think some people were buying it because they just wanted to be supportive, and then were pleasantly surprised when they read it. I thought it might be well received, but I wasn't expecting this!

JOZIC: What are some of the things that readers are saying about the book?

PARKER: A lot of what they like I can't say for spoiler reasons, but they all seem to like that most of the characters have dimension to them, even the ones you'd consider bad guys. I just try to put myself in everyone's shoes. We have to read too many ciphers running around with guns.

JOZIC: How have the orders been on The Interman? Has all the work paid off, or is there going to be a dozen or so more interviews in your future?

PARKER: Orders started off modest, but pretty good for an unknown publisher/creator. Now they're picking up all kinds of steam, in just a few weeks. Which is good, because I printed plenty.

JOZIC: Are there any other genres that you would like to take a jab at, or is the adventure/spy/thriller where you're going to concentrate your efforts for a while?

PARKER: Oh yeah, I really like them all; mystery, historical, crime, sci-fi, even the capes. Switching gears is good for you creatively. And comics need to make use of as many genres as possible. Diversity is what will save the medium, not movie deals.

JOZIC: What other ideas are you working on at the moment? Are they comic based, or in another media?

PARKER: Mainly the next Interman story. I've written a lot of it, and am laying it out.

JOZIC: Is there a title for the sequel?

PARKER: Yes.

JOZIC: Any teasers you can throw out?

PARKER: No. Well...you'll see Dr. Keele again briefly. I've already said too much.

Have a question of your own you'd like to ask Jeff? Head over to the Feature Fiends Forum and post a query or two in the Questions for the Jeff Parker Feature/Forum Project thread.

If you’d like to enter Jeff’s Name That Wimpy Phrase contest to win a page of rough layouts from his Interman graphic novel, head over to the Feature Fiends Forum and post your answer in the NWTP thread. The winner will be announced at the conclusion of Jeff’s Feature/Forum Project.

	Mike Jozic has spent the last several years interviewing comic book creators and other entertainment related personalities for various publications. He has been published both online and in print, with his work appearing in The Comics Journal, FearsMag.com and Silver Bullet Comicbooks. He maintains his own website at www.meanwhile.net and currently serves as the Features Editor for SBC.

Discuss this interview on the Feature Fiends Forum!