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Rants, Minicomics and More with Neil Kleid, Part Two

Posted: Thursday, June 12
By: Tim O'Shea

In my haste to give SBC readers the interview with Neil Kleid I inadvertently neglected to give a basic bio. So before venturing into part two (part one is here if you missed it), here’s a little bit of Kleid’s bio: “…neil kleid is perfecting the art of ‘rant’ comics with Late Night Block, a semi-monthly short story series appearing at www.opi8.com and Rant Comics, a series of minicomics borne from a daily sketchbook. He co-founded the Third Eye Publishing anthology and helped coordinate/contribute to Alternative Comics' 9-11: Emergency Relief; Modern Tales: Longplay; Working For The Man, a benefit e-book at unboundcomics.com; and upcoming anthologies such as House of Twelve and True Porn.” Side note, if you thought the first part was intense, read on and please direct any questions to Mr. Kleid (grin).

Tim O’Shea: Have webcomics started becoming as popular as minicomics from your perspective?

Neil Kleid: More so. Minicomics used to be the "easy way" to make comics. I had the pleasure of interviewing Mike Carlin once and he told me that the reason he loved comics was anyone could do it. YOU could do it, Tim, and that's saying a lot. All you need is paper, pen and a dream. Expand that to "and web hosting capabilities" and you get my drift.

Just last week I was tooling around the net, checking out people's links and comics sites. I was impressed with some of the larger webcomic subscription sites like the Modern Tales families, Opi8 and NextComics. But for every American Elf and for each PVP, you'll find a Chester's Daily Shit Journal or Look! We're In A Comic!

EVERYONE is doing web comics these days. GRANDMOTHERS are doing web comics. I recall when Dark Horse announced the Strip Search competition and suddenly thousands of hopefuls crashed the internet while posted ads to digitalwebbing.com looking for artists to bang out a 4 page strip. Why? Why? Why not nurture a 22 page comic that's YOURS that you can hold in your hand and pet? Why the sudden rush to the infinite canvas of the internet and the decrease of GOOD, quality, tangible minis I can fold up into my pocket?

I find that for the most part, "established" creators have used the web to present out of print work or as a testing ground for work yet to come in print. Look at K Thor Jensen's Red Eye, Black Eye at Serializer.net. Thor is working on a ginormous graphic novel about his wacky hijinks throughout the US of A, and as he finishes pages, he plasters them up on Serializer. It's a way for people to get excited about the print edition. It's a method of seeing who/what his audience is. James Kochalka already KNOWS who his audience is, and he has his diary comic running daily at American Elf. So it's a crap shoot, really. I think we're in love with the as of yet still novelty technology. We're pushing what we can and cannot do with the web. Different ways to present a comic that we couldn't do in print. For those who can't afford to print a graphic novel, why not toss it on a server? Can't swing full color just yet? No worries! RGB to FTP heaven.

Is it about the instant gratification? The immediacy of getting the work before an audience's sweating eyes? I dunno. All I know is minicomics are still here and there's more than enough room on the web, so why not join to beat the bandwidth?

I still cherish the following comment (I'm attributing it to Erik Larsen, 'cos I saw it in an interview he did. but it could be someone else):

"Sure, webcomics are great. But you can't take your computer into the bathroom with you."

TO: Speaking of webcomics, can you talk about your work that appeared at Modern Tales: Longplay?

NK: Well, I mentioned Empathy already (in part one). Empathy. Man, I never know how to talk about this one. This comic was exceedingly personal to create. I wrote it about a week after my aunt passed on and it felt almost wrong to do it. The script is almost entirely taken from a conversation I had with my Mom the week of Shiva (seven-day mourning period) and I added framing dialogue to propel it. I illustrated these precious brush/ink illustrations of my mother and laid out the comic digitally as a mixed media piece (photographs, line drawings) in Photoshop. I tied it all up with a pretty new bow and made a minicomic that many folks think is quite touching.

I'm fascinated with color these days. I've been looking at work like Brian Ralph's CAVE IN and CLIMBING OUT (both from Highwater Books, as well as comics by Matt Madden, Jordan Crane and Ron Rege. Madden did a color story in A Fine Mess #1 that took my breath away and I was dying to try something like it but with my rather meager resources, there was no way I was going to be able to print up a color comic anytime soon.

RGB to the FTP, right?

Joe Zabel, editor of Longplay, had gotten my email from Joey Manley whom I had spoken with regarding Modern Tales' initial conception. I had run an ongoing strip by Joey and at the time, he was packed but Joe seemed to feel that a few of my shorter pieces might fit in the "anthology style" that Longplay was trying for. Joe's probably the most even keeled creator I've ever had the liberty of corresponding with, and both he and Joey have some amazing ideas as far as the medium of web comics go. I pitched a short story - A Train Ethics, from Rant Comics #2 - Joe's way and told him how I wanted to color it and he asked to take a look. I think he was pleasantly surprised. Ethics is probably one of my favorite comics because it let me get a few things off my chest and it's also allowed me to use a joke I've been dying to employ in comics for awhile now: The "I'd Do Her" Game.

Anyone who knows me knows that I'd live on the subway if I could. The subway system in New York is a world unto itself with its own specific set of rules and urban pygmy battles. Got something to say? Stand in the middle of the car and get it off your chest, baby. It's cool - no one's paying attention to you anyway. There's like fifty separate conversations going on in one car and none of them have anything to do with you. Ethics was my way of trying to get a handle on the way I feel about many of these things and more - and it has a happy ending. What more could you want?

Will I do more Longplay stories? Joe's asked me to. I may have a few things in the hopper. but first I'd like to figure out an innovative way to present them.

TO: Every creator, on some level, wants to break "in" to the industry. For some folks, breaking in means getting their self-published work picked up by an Oni or Alternative Press. For others, it's getting to draw or write Superman or another mainstream icon. For you, what do you hope to achieve when you "break in"?

NK: Total Financial Independence.

HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA.oh, man.

Yeah, getting into comics for the money is like going to Pamplona for the
exercise.

What do I want from comics? I want to tell stories.

That's it.

Do I need an ongoing story arc in Detective Comics? Nah. Is there an all-encompassing desire to create an army of creator owned characters and become an ass kicking media juggernaut with panda bear minions that wreak havoc on small cities like Alex Ross' house? Sure, it'd be nice. But if I don't get it, I don't get it. Comics are a challenge to me. Do I have a Captain America story in me? How about a silent 8 pager? I wonder if I can write a 200 page graphic novel? And in most of these cases, with a little hard luck, elbow grease and several letter bombs to Andrew Dabb's home address, the answer is yes.

Don't get me wrong - there are publishers I'm dying to work with. These publishers know who they are (James Lucas, why won't you return my calls? WHY? WHY?!. I thought I meant something) and for the most part, they've been pretty open to me pitching things their way. There are also those who can't look at work for legal reasons or simply don't take submissions, but for the most part have been really encouraging. That's cool, too. I'm making the rounds, I'm talking to people - a pitch here, a sleazy motel encounter there - and while I do that, I write. I write. I write.

I was having cybersex with Dabb the other day and we started talking about licensed properties: "sell out" or "A story's a story"? Am I of the mind that servicing trademarks is beneath me? Probably not. I could bang out a pretty good G.I. JOE story if Devil's Due asked. Lord and Axel Alonso know I've got superhero pitches out the ying ling. For now it's about telling stories. I've got stories of my own, and I'm more than happy to do your stories too. Slice of Life, Horror, Action, Comedy, Superhero. I bet if we offered Art Spiegelman a large bankroll and asked him which superhero story he'd like to tell, he'd tell us to go piss off. Then, after thinking about it, he might say OMAC.

Well, maybe not. The point is I don't really have a road map. I might start in Metropolis. I might end up in Quebecor. It'd be nice if some generous and sexy publisher decided they want to help me tell my stories. But if not, I'll find a way. And in the meantime, I have a great idea for a licensed comic book. And NO, it's not Tootie:Year One.

All is forgiven, J-Lu.

And with that, please click here for the conclusion of SBC's interview with Neil Kleid.