In his dreams Alan Donald is a multi-award winning
writer of comic books, animation, theme park shows and rides, children’s books,
novels, television, internet animation and more.
In real life Alan writes this column,
which has been described as
more than a lifestyle than a
weekly column. He used to write
SBC's All The Rage.
Big changes are coming. I won’t say any more for the moment but just get ready for it, ok?
Cryptic message out of the way I suppose I’d ought to introduce myself. I’m Alan Donald, this is The Final Draft an eclectic mixture of articles for your delight and, well you know…
The Panel
Nine very different people from different parts of the comicbook industry, with different experiences and ideas on the industry come together to answer your questions.
The Panel is a Hulk free zone unlike the rest of the comicbook and even non-comicbook net. Wait! What’s that? Is it a mutant Poodle?
Nope.
So we’re definitely Hulk free then?
Ok, let’s get on with it then…
This week's question is:
"What does the panel think of the portrayal of homosexuality in comicbooks? Do you think it should even be in comicbooks at all?"
First up is the New Boy, Jock. A rising star from 2000AD Jock has just been snapped up by DC for an exclusive contract that just marks the start of big things for him: "Of course it should be in comics- why shouldn't it if it's a fact of life? The only time I'd object is if it was a lame plot device used by a lazy writer, but if it's appropriate then definitely. Any doubts on the subject- read 'ENIGMA' by pete milligan and duncan fegredo."
Shawna Ervin-Gore is The Editor. Shawna recently re-joined Dark Horse Comics (we’ve been saying that for ages, she must be quite an old hand there by now) where she edits a whole slew of cool comics: " This is one of those things that I always think just shouldn't be a big deal at all, but is usually made into a big deal by people who are homophobic. I like to think of it this way: every time there's a big crowd scene in a comic book, five or six gay people are among them, just like there are in the real world. In my opinion, it's unfortunate that most of the references to gay characters in comics are instances of token placement of a gay character, or the heavily didactic "let's do a storyline on AIDS and make the main character gay." I can definitely appreciate the good intentions with that sort of thing, but I eagerly await the day when these things aren't at the forefront of the writer's mind. That said, I'm really happy that there are a lot more casual references to gay characters in comics today ... Oni's HOPELESS SAVAGES is a really good example of a great series that just happens to feature gay characters. And I'm happy that Dark Horse has been able to publish works like Neil Gaiman and P. Craig Russell's MURDER MYSTERIES, which centers on the love of two male (though obviously neutral, in terms of actual genitalia) angels.
However, just this past week we received a really pissed-off letter from an admittedly very conservative parent whose kid checked out a copy of MURDER MYSTERIES from the local library. The guy was just livid that we would "dare" to publish something that showed two men in a romantic embrace that would then be made publicly available for anyone to read. And, of course, this guy also makes the very standard assumption that all comics are for kids only, so obviously, we must be trying to pervert his child. You can't possibly begin to reason with someone with such a clear agenda, and I hope nothing like this would ever stop someone from publishing something as good as MURDER MYSTERIES, or HOPELESS SAVAGES."
Evil Rick Shea is The Retailer from Famous Faces & Funnies, Melbourne, FL. Rick’s out there pushing the books and talking to the fans: "I have no problem with comics portraying homosexuality or any other topic. As long as a story is well done, I'm all for it. I have seen a few creators try to shoehorn that topic into some books unsuccessfully where it seems more like a gimmick than an actual part of the plot. But as long as it's handled well, I'm all for anything that makes comics seem more realisitic and a closer representation of the world around us."
Craig Lemon doesn’t mind too much being labelled The Hack but he is so much more. Craig has been the Editor of SBC’s review section for an absolute age and he has made it the most respected on the web. Craig is also #2 at SBC second only to the owner, Mr Brice: "In superhero comics the portrayal is usually dire, there only for sensationalism (cf. Rawhide Kid) or to service a plot point (cf. Green Lantern, Uncanny X-Men)…breaking out of the mould and you find quality books such as Desert Peach, A Distant Soil and Hopeless Savages featuring homosexual characters in lead roles – a real breakthrough you might think, although you might also be disconcerted that all three of these are written by women (Donna Barr, Colleen Doran and Jen Van Meter). For the serious student of the portrayal of homosexuality in comics, I would advise you seek out issue 26 of Comics Forum - the Summer 2003 issue – order via your comics shop or their website http://www.comicsforum.co.uk/ - this article is by far and away the best thing in that issue, but it’s extensively researched and an illuminating piece." Anyone who feels there is too much of it in comics needs to read it to get their facts straight! One last thing to consider is that many people seem to confuse homosexuality and bisexuality – loving one’s own sex compared to loving both sexes – quite an important distinction should be made in discussing homosexuality on its own.
The Fan this week is Calvin Jackson who also supplied the question this week: "I think there is far too much of it in comics and I’m sick of it. I’m not anti-gay or anything I just think that people have gone too far and are too politically correct."
I’m The Columnist, Alan Donald. I used to do All the Rage but I’m over that now, I feel better: "The portrayal of homosexuality in comicbooks is pretty shitty but it is getting better all the time. Books such as Strangers In Paradise (although Katchoo is bisexual rather than gay, it should be stressed) and Pedro And I are great (and there are others too) but there is still too much tokenism and homophobia (whether overt and deliberate or not) in comicbooks."
Why aren't you reading...
This is a regular feature where I look at some of the titles I've been reading lately that I think need a bit more publicity than they're getting. I also want to look at titles that you recommend to me. Have you read (or are you a creator on) a comicbook you feel is being overlooked? If so let me know all about it. If possible I'll have a chat with the creators/publishers and find out more about the story behind the title and what's coming up in the future.
Dark
“You've drunk too much coffee. You've smoked too many spliffs. You've been trying to finish your thesis for as long as you can remember. You look outside your window to where recovering clubbers stagger into the pools of yellow streetlight. How long is it since you saw the sun?
You think you might be going mad. Especially when your friend Helen offers to take you on a bus to Sunrise.
You'll feel all this when you read DARK, a four part miniseries by sisters Anna and Karen Rubins. Dream in Night, go for a stroll in Sunrise, chill out in Afternoon, and maybe try to find you way back home to hand in your thesis.”
Well that nicely sums it all up. My first impression of Dark was a mixed one. The first issue struck a chord with me as it presented a world I was very familiar with. Then it got…twisted. Issue 2 was very, very different and initially I didn’t enjoy it but on the second read I was very impressed. As it’s shaping up Dark looks like a series worthy of Vertigo or 2000AD. I won’t say too much more as I wouldn’t want to ruin it for you so let’s get straight into the interview, Anna Rubins is the writer and Karen Rubins is the artist:
1) Tell us a bit about Dark...
Anna: “DARK is the story of Michael, a dope-smoking coffee-drinking student who becomes disturbed that he never seems to see the sun. His friend Helen has some ideas to cheer him up that involve taking a bus to Sunrise. So is he going crazy, or is she? DARK follows their journey through an odd but strangely familiar world. Will Michael ever make it make to reality and hand in his thesis? Will he ever listen to anything other than early Pink Floyd? Only DARK can give you the answers to these questions and on the way treat you to more gorgeous manga-inspired artwork than it is possible for the sane mind to imagine.”
Karen: “DARK is a four part comic miniseries, written, drawn and published by Anna and myself over the last few years. So far its reached 2 printed issues and a third one is definitely on the way!
Dark started as a great challenge and experiment. Could I really draw a whole entire comic? The answer was, thankfully, yes, but probably only because there were no tricky action shots or crowd scenes to draw...
I was fortunate enough to have very understanding tutors at Middlesex University who let me draw Parts One and Two as part of my degree course.”
2) Where did the idea for the series come from? What influenced you?
Anna: “The idea came to me whilst sitting in the back of car driving from Exeter to Bristol. We started off in the light, drove past a magnificent sunset and arrived in Bristol in the dark. As we drove past the sunset, I thought how amazing it would be if it were a geographical feature that was permanently there.
I began thinking about time and place, and how different people’s moods are at different times of day. Many people seem to have an optimum time of day. Some are night workers. I’m at my best at about 4 AM but completely useless from 2 - 4 PM. Which puts me at odds with society! I was interested in the rhythms people took on when they were not constrained by society, for example freelance workers, students and doleys.
Which me brings me on to question four. I met a guy in a student house, who was completely nocturnal. I would get up for a piss at 4 AM and find him –yes- studying in the living room. He wasn’t the only completely nocturnal person I met but he had the best reason for it. He was the basis for Michael in the comic. Incidentally, you are not the first person who has recognised Michael from somewhere. I think this is great because one of things I want to do with my writing is portray the sort of wonderful characters that lots of us know but who never seem to appear in most stories. I’m always on the lookout for new archetypes.”
Karen: “That was Anna's idea, but I do know it was based originally on a short story she wrote, which we agreed would make a good comic.”
3) Issue #1 ends with quite a revelation and issue #2 fleshes out exactly what it means. Did you deliberately set out to 'keep us in the dark' about the true nature of the series, as it were?
Anna: “Well yes.
I suppose the first issue was a kind of initiation. I wanted to see if people were intrigued by the little oddnesses at the edge of things, if they could get into the mood. Then they’re ready to learn the more fantastical stuff. The reader has to take a journey with the characters out of confusion and into the light. It’s not a very meaningful story unless you feel able to project yourself into it, and I guess that’s what I was testing in the first issue.
I’ve had very varying reactions to this tactic. Some people love the dark ambiguity in the first one and dislike the exposition in the second. These tend to be people who aren’t into science fiction and the like and prefer the intensely personal kind of story. A lot of people didn’t really understand what was going on in the first one but most of them seemed to like it anyway. It’s very hard actually to anticipate how people will see what you write. The revelation you talk about in your question passed some people by entirely.
Karen and I are experimenting a lot on DARK which is why we’re so interested in people’s reactions to the story. Each of the four parts of the story is based around a different time of day and will have a different mood, and the artwork will change to suit it. I’m hoping that the change of mood from issue one to issue two will become more meaningful in the context of the whole story.”
Karen: “Yes! Number one was building intrigue and suspense, number two gave you a few answers, number three moves the story along further, and we get to see more of Michael's friend Helen, and her lifestyle in the "DARK" world.”
4) One of the repercussions of the revelation is that our main protagonist who initially seemed a little strange to us suddenly becomes our anchor. Is Michael based on anyone?
Anna: “See above for the origins of Michael. I really wanted to create that ambiguity- who is sane? Who is normal? It depends on what you’re used to. I think it’s good to get people thinking about perspective, and their assumptions about who is right and who is wrong. Having studied Psychology for four years, I am well aware that reality is only a construct of our minds.”
Karen: “It seems odd that everyone seems to know someone like Michael. A curious phenomenon, perhaps?”
5) What were the artistic influences on the series?
Anna: “I shall leave Kaz to have her input on the subject of the artwork.
I was influenced by Clive Barker, not so much by his horror stuff, but especially Weaveworld and Imagica. He roots his stories in the real world, but then gives it a twist and explores it. He is great at starting off with a strange little clue and letting the reader gradually discover the world of mystery behind it.
Another writer who does this extremely well is Ursula Le Guin. She wrote the Earthsea books, but I prefer her short stories, collected in books such as The Compass Rose. She also wrote The Lathe of Heaven about a man whose dreams change reality and The Dispossessed, a story about an anarchist planet. She has this amazing confidence in the realities she creates. She has very genuine, recognisable characters in fantastic situations. Her stories extrapolate psychological reality into physical reality, which is what I’m trying to do with DARK.
Phew, just taking a pretentiousness break. I could rant on about this sort of stuff all day. A test for your editing skills?!
I must also mention the Queen of Inspiration Wendy Pini, creator of the Elfquest series, a work of genuine genius that convinced Karen and I we wanted to make comics. She takes 32 issues to reveal the mysterious origin of her elves, and we loved every page of the journey. She works and works at the characters until they are so real that when they fight, you bleed. She also has an amazing sense of place in her comics. She isn’t afraid to experiment with form and her work is unashamedly aesthetic. Why shouldn’t comics be beautiful?”
Karen: “I'm influenced by Wendy Pini, Hernandez brothers, manga, Sergio Aragones, David Lapham, Scott McCloud and many others on a subconcsious level. Outside of comics, I'm influenced by films, books, animation, other peoples artwork, pretty much everything filters through at some point - even, god forbid, reality! The art for Dark is experimental in a lot of ways, I'm still exploring what makes good comics storytelling, creating atmospheres and expression, and the structure of the story allows a lot of opportunity for creating different senses of time and place.”
6) Is the series as personal a work as it first appears to be?
Anna: “How personal are my thoughts? They’re both mine and part of the collective consciousness. Storytelling is about making the personal universal. I’m not especially into comics as a genre, and I’m really not interested in making comics about other comics. My stories come from the people I meet and the way I look at the world.
I’m lucky enough to have a wonderful collaborator in Karen. As children we would play imaginative games together. When one of us read a book or a comic, the other would too, and we would discuss the story and how we felt about it. Drawing came naturally to Karen, and I always loved the sound of my own voice, so we formed this sort of combined imagination. It’s about as close as I could get to printing out the weird images in my head. Except Kaz adds so much more to it, not just in terms of artwork, but editing the story and shaping the idea.
So it’s in the end part of a joint vision, albeit it about as close as two people could get to a single voice.”
Karen: “I'm not sure what this is getting at. Sure its personal, because it was made by two individuals to our own brief, but then, its not so personal that other people can't get INTO it. I suppose the story is personal in that it is very much a close-up of certain people's lives, it drags you in on an intimate level.”
7) Why should people read Dark?
Anna: “Because it’s good, because it’s original, and because every copy that gets sold goes towards printing the next issue.
Did I mention it also smells nice?”
Karen: “Primarily because they want to, although we don't mind if they are forced to read it under duress. As for the sales pitch, Dark is a unique story that only exists in one place and one time, I don't think there's another comic quite like it, partly because of its definite limited length, and its combination of what is almost autobiography with quite philosophical science fiction concepts. The artwork is also a major part of the storytelling, as there are very long passages with no dialogue. Also, its pretty, and Dark hopefully makes people think ...”
8) How can people get hold of a copy?
Anna: “I’m very glad you asked that. DARK is on sale at Forbidden Planet in Bristol, London and Leeds and a number of other comic shops. Our website has a list of stockists. You can also mail us on a_rubins@yahoo.com and purchase by mail order.”
Karen: “Open fingers, move hand towards comic, close fingers...
They can buy it at various comic shops such as Forbidden Planet, and mail order it from me if you email me at k_rubins@yahoo.com, or they can get it from Smallzone or any conventions we go to, to flog it.”
9) What does the future hold for the series?
Anna: “Two more episodes, one of which is being drawn now and will be out later in the year. We have to make our money back on one issue to print the next, which is frustrating, but it looks like people are sticking with us. The next issue is set in Afternoon. How much cheerier and nicer than Night! Nothing bad could possibly happen in a nice, safe, sunny place like Afternoon, could it?
When we have all four parts we’re hoping to collect it into a book. Then we can reach all those normal people in bookshops and libraries who don’t by periodicals but will read a graphic novel if its Art. We really want to translate DARK into other languages but the business side of selling a periodical abroad is too complex. Once we have the whole story, we’re going to try and get it sold in France, Germany and hopefully Japan. We think it’s quite a universal story, and maybe would do well in these countries were comics are seen as more of an adult art form.”
Karen: “First of all, it involves me finishing Dark no. 3! Yes, I have been working on it for a long time, but hopefully that means its been "maturing" like a good cheese... After that, we will hopefully have enough money from sales to get it printed - and then, on to part 4, which is so mysterious and enigmatic, even I don't know what's going to happen. I don't even know if Anna does!
As for the future:
Running out of money? Getting syndicated in a national newspaper? being picked up by Marvel? Who the hell knows?”
10) What does the future hold for the two of you?
Anna: “We’ve met a few really interesting like-minded comics people through doing DARK, and I’m hoping to work on some collaborations and expand our minds. Kaz has already (sob) worked with another writer. But we’re not going to do an S Club 7. We’ll always be doing stuff together. After DARK we were talking about doing something a bit more commercial, because we’re both skint. We’d really like to do a children’s book.
I’m currently writing a novel called The Sky Crying, which is about a group of teenagers who learn to fly. It’s sort of anarchist magic with sex and drugs. I’ll be finishing that next year.”
Karen: “Completing DARK, hopefully doing some more comics about my "Gangster Fairies", since the first one I made in 2001 seemed to go down well, doing some more one-pagers like last year's "Starcrossed Love" and possibly some stuff with other small-press creators. Also, Anna and I are going to write a children's book or two sometime, and we will both definitely continue collaborating on other projects with each other, because we make a good team!
Also, success and glory. I hope.”
Interested? Well get in touch with them then!
Online comics
This one's up to you. Send me your favourite webcomic and I'll give you some publicity, we love free comics here at SBC.
This is Sheep ‘n’ Bones an excellent, funny, original and damned cool little comicbook strip that I’ll definitely be adding to my favourites. This strip’s all about a sheep and a skeleton, I’ll say no more. Check it out for yourself.
This is another excellent strip that have enjoyed immensely. This is about the adventures of a pet cat and dog, great stuff.
Thank you very much for reading. It was a pleasure having you here and I hope you’ll come again soon.
TTFN - Alan Donald signing off with an absolutely stinking bloody cold. I feel like shit, thought I’d share that with you.
The Final Draft is Alan Donald’s but you can nick the odd bit here and there if you don’t take the piss and let me know before you do so. Pretty please.
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