Going Around: A. C. Hall And The Stumblebum Studios Interview

Before I say anything else, let me just say that Barb and I have just come from the local comics store where we pre-signed a few copies of Half Dead a day early... so, more to the point, we saw it, held it, looked inside it, it's printed and in a store somewhere waiting to be allowed to be sold.

So please go to your local store and get one, or if they're sold out, ask them to get you one. Thanks very much.

--Park and Barb

Okay, so in the latest in my series of interviewing people going around the mainstream comics industry, I have an interview here that I just did with A. C. Hall, writer at Stumblebum Studios (http://www.stumblebumstudios.com [click on the pic to enter]). I saw Stumblebum (although not A. C.) at Staple. Enjoy the interview.

Park Cooper: Oi

A.C.Hall: howdy howdy

PC: You doin' anything right now really?

Hall: I'm good to go whenever you are man. Just getting ahead on next week's work.

PC: And what might that be?

Hall: Lots of stuff. After a three week special where I had different writers re-imagine the Matrix movies, my Stumblebum column "Ring Psychology" is back to normal, so I'm setting that up. Also putting together stuff for the newspaper and my column for Paperbackreader.com Just your typical Saturday afternoon. >laughs<

PC: Tell me about Stumblebum. A boxing motif, is that it?

Hall: Yeah. Paul Milligan and I have been friends forever. Once we finally decided to combine our talents and put something together we were looking for a name and just happened across it. We liked the image and definition of Stumblebum, it seems to really capture that indie mentality of just taking hits and putting in the late nights.

PC: Is Stumblebum in Diamond?

Hall: No, not yet. It's really a fine line that we walk between just an online entity and a publisher. To date Stumblebum Studios has only published the work of our contributors and compilations we all work on together. We've knowingly stayed away from becoming a traditional publisher. The idea is to instead have a place to showcase all of our talents.

PC: Is Stumblebum looking for writers-artists-inkers-colorists-letterers-editors-or-projects?

Hall: Well I mean, that's part of the rub I guess. We get that question a lot and it's hard to answer. We're not a publisher but we publish our own stuff to promote and get awareness out there about our Stumblebum family. So the short answer is no, we're not really looking for that stuff. We're more interested in getting really talented people that we believe in as part of our site, which in turn would ultimately lead to them being published in Stumblebum books, or having the option of Stumblebum helping publish their personal stuff.

PC: So Stumblebum's comics are available for purchase online, but so far the print-published work has only been group-published anthologies, is that correct?

Hall: Yeah they're all available online for competitive prices and also in some comic book stores around the Dallas/Fort Worth (Texas) area. It's mostly group-published anthologies and the occasional personal collection of one of our contributors, which we'll publish along with them just to help them have a bigger stage to showcase it on.

PC: How long has Stumblebum been going?

Hall: Geez, I'm gonna look like a moron. Okay, hold on, let me call Paul and ask. He'll get a kick out of this (if he answers). Okay no answer, I guess I'm on my own. Between two and three years we've had our site going with weekly updates.

PC: What keeps it all going where other groups fall apart?

Hall: Really the people. I mean, Paul Milligan is sort of the creative engine of the group. He's a great guy to keep you motivated and excited and the amount of times I ask him for critiques and advice in any given week is pretty sad. Dana Place is the other owner/leader of the site and he's sort of like the cool dad of the group. He really keeps us on task and is good about setting up events and keeping things organized. And then there's just everyone else on the site. The core group we've got there now is incredible. These people love what they're doing and they're committed to it, which is important to me. To see people take it seriously, but also have a blast. I think it doesn't fall apart because it's really just a cool hangout. It's like "the max" from "Saved by the Bell". It's not really a job, just a cool place where we all hang out and do our thing and get to do it in the company of some incredible talents.

PC: How do you/y'all see Stumblebum changing over the next, say... 5 years?

Hall: That's a great question. Because really it's tough to say. We'd like to believe it'll be around forever, but the fact is when it does it's job it almost enables us to leave it behind. Like, through Stumblebum I've landed some great freelance gigs over the past few months, but taking them on meant cutting back some of the fiction I was doing on Stumblebum. I think Paul and I would love to have it lift up and jumpstart the careers of all of our friends, and then continue it so it can do the same for younger, new creators. People coming up now like we were, give them a place to get noticed and get an identity and get to landing bigger, paying work. And we'll hang around like those high school graduates who still go to high school parties so they can remember the glory days, >laughs<.

PC: Do you read other comics yourself these days? Webcomics? Manga? Books? Music? Movies? (I know you don't read music or movies, I just felt like branching out anyway, and for that matter) Anime?

Hall: Oh yeah, I'm almost always reading something. When I was younger as a writer I shied away from it. I was afraid that reading other people's work would make it harder for me to be original. These days I realize that it can enrich your own writing to just soak up as much as you can. Even bad comics and novels are great to read, because they can teach me so much about what not to do in my own comics and novels. Let's see, I'm not a huge webcomic guy. Rob and Elliot is really funny, I'm a fan of anything Katie Cook does, she's rather brilliant (and a proud part of Stumblebum). Another Stumblebum guy who everyone should check out is Dave DeGrand. His long running webcomib Brain Goop is great. As far as comic books, oh yeah, I'm a junkie. I'm a huge "bat family" fan. Robin, Nightwing, Teen Titans, Outsiders. Invincible, Noble Causes, Spiderman. I'm an addict, there's so many more. Manga, you know, I've just never taken the time. I know there are some amazing ones out there and I really need to get around to picking some up. Books are a true love of mine. Writing novels is maybe my favorite thing to do on Earth, so reading is big with me too. William Browning Spencer, Terry Goodkind, Jon Marco, Tad Williams. Harry Potter rocks. Movies. I'm a movie critic now for the newspaper, so that's made a difference in just the amount of films I see. My problem is I'm easily entertained, I just love movies. Some favorites are Unbreakable, The Prestige, Hackers, The Salton Sea. Music saves my live every day. I don't think I could write without it. I used to play guitar in a few different bands, so I've always been big into music. Plus, it can influence your moods and emotions so well. I have playlists set up for different emotions in iTunes for when I'm writing. Anger, sadness, love, action, stuff like that. Music is just incredibly powerful and I'm always sad when I meet someone who doesn't love it. Some of my favorite bands are Brazil, Dream Theater, Joe Satriani, Dredg, The J. Walkers (they'll be big soon!), Dave Matthews, Louis Armstrong, BB King, Buddy Guy, Kamelot. I could go on forever. Anime, I'm really out of the loop on these days. I was a huge Cowboy Bebop fan and Trigun was incredible. Dragonball was great, Blue Seed, Neon Genesis. But the past five years I've lived a rather animeless life. It's sad, I know.

PC: "Clean out the fridge"
"Genocide... Genocide... Oceans of Blood... None shall survive..."
(If you haven't seen every episode of Bebop or Trigun, I will be baffling the heck out of you right now...)

Hall: Nah, I follow for the most part, >laughs<.

PC: Where are you exactly on the planet? Dallas? Irving? Plano? Waxahachie? Rockwall?

Hall: I'm Fort Worth. Most of the Stumblebum Crew is right in this area, Dallas/Fort Worth.

PC: Mm. Don't you wish we had more than A-Kon? We don't even have the Dallas Fantasy Fair anymore, do we?

Hall: Yeah. A-Kon is always a blast. But as to the DFF, no, I don't think so, I think you’re right about it being gone. Conventions are tricky because some are beyond awesome and others are a nightmare. Austin’s a great city; I was sad to not be free for Staple this year.

PC: Who maintains y'all's site?

Hall: That is actually done by the lovely and talented Debbie Milligan, Paul's mom. Paul does all the graphic design but she's the one that does all the web stuff, every single week.

PC: What, if anything, irritates you about comics these days?

Hall: Oh sure, there's always something. My first instinct was to say "big mega events", but the thing is, I don't even truly hate those. I hate when they're not handled properly and ultimately aren't any good or meaningful. My biggest irritation is late creators, late books. I take writing and creating very seriously and me and a lot of my friends practically kill ourselves trying to get into comics. So to see some of these guys who are making books, but because of whatever reasons are habitually putting books out two, three, four, five (or in Jim Lee's case, years) late, that rubs me the wrong way. Because me and people know would kill to get in there and do a good job and do it on time to get the books out for fans. I think it's disrespectful to comic readers when a book gets delayed all the time, or for ludicrous amounts of time. Sure there are sometimes good reasons for it, but ultimately it seems to come down to people who either can't handle monthly (or even bi-monthly) schedules or just don't care too, instead feeling like they are big enough to turn in their work whenever they like.

PC: Now, do you draw, yourself?

Hall: Oh God no. I do draw from time to time, but only for fun and only to give other people something to point and laugh at. I'm just a writer.

PC: So how do you find artists to work with?

Hall: That's probably the biggest hurdle and to date, the biggest hindrance to me as far as getting things out there and published. I have hundreds of ideas, my hard drive is full of them, but my luck with fiding artists to commit to these projects is beyond awful. I've had so many guys drop off projects or just stop responding to emails after doing five pages of an issue or something. That's one reason I treasure my friendship with Paul Milligan so much. Not only do we write together but he's an artist, so I have at least one guy I can count on and believe in. That's really what I look for these days, someone to partner with. I don't want to give some guy a few bucks per page and hire him to do a job. I want to get someone who believes in my stories and will partner with me on them. I usually use www.digitalwebbing.com to make contacts, although ultimately I've only had one success story that way. I've met a few people through cons and Stumblebum gatherings and stuff. It's like finding a soul mate though, you gotta go on a lot of dates to find someone who's the right fit. Or at least I do. Some people get lucky and find them on the first try. But I've got a lot of projects that I'd like to get going, so I need more than one committed and talented artist.

PC: where do you buy your comics?

Hall: I don't have a pull box anywhere right now. Titan comics in Dallas is a great store, usually I'll pick up books at Lone Star Comics near my house. I read a lot of other people's comics too. My friends who collect different books and stuff like that. (Oh, and Paul Milligan just called me back and said the site went up April of 2005, so there you go. I was almost right. >laughs<)

PC: What is your day job?

Hall: I'm a freelance writer. Most of my energy during the week is spent on the newspaper that I write for. I've also recently been brought on with a new comic book magazine that'll be showing up soon, I'm excited about that.

PC: Can you say which paper and who's putting out the comic magazine?

Hall: Yeah sure. The paper is called "The Grizzly Detail" (www.grizzlydetail.com) and is you know, it's a small town paper. But it's done in a big town way, in my opinion. Great editorials and good coverage and I do movie reviews, a pop culture column, music coverage, and just unending amounts of other stuff as far as local sports and politics. The magazine is new and hopefully they're cool with me talking about it. It's called "ND Comics Magazine" (www.ndcomicsmag.com) and is basically, I don't want to say an "anti-Wizard" but it's definitely going to fill a void in the market that Wizard doesn't. It'll focus mainly on independent comics and is being put together by some great people. I'm so excited about some of the features and interviews I'm going to have in there.

PC: How did you come to become a writer? Fill me in on the educational path. Journalism in school much?

Hall: Oh man. I've been writing stories since the first grade and never wanted to be anything but a writer. I've actually got a funny story about my early attempts at writing. We were supposed to write a story in class, I think this was first or second grade. Well, mine was about this descendent of Tarzan who ended up fighting these gun running apes and ultimately the main character killed them and for some reason, used their brains to make a stew and ate it. This disturbed my teachers, who called my mom and grandma. I ended up having to re-write it and the new ending I was "strongly advised" to use was the main character made dinner for the apes and they all ate together. So who knows, I was a bizarre child. Never wanted to be an astronaut or a cop, just a writer. So yeah, my path through school mirrored that. I loved essays and reports and anything I could write. I've not finished college yet. I keep going with the intention of getting a journalism degree, but I've been doing journalism in one form or another since 1999, so it's hard for me to focus on getting a journalism degree when I'm already doing journalism work. One of these days I'd like to get back and finish it up though.

PC: Any final thoughts?

Hall: Yeah, just thanks so much for the opportunity to talk with you today. I had a blast and hope you and your readers will come by Stumblebum and check out my column "Ring Psychology" and all our other great stuff. Drop by and visit my livejournal (http://freejenkins.livejournal.com), I'd love to hear from you. Keep supporting comics, if you have a dream chase it, be nice to everyone you meet, and... don't drink and drive? How's that for an ending? >laughs<