Some interesting Q&As popped up over the Interwebs in the past few days. First off, Tom Spurgeon chatted with Adrian Tomine about his upcoming book, “Shortcomings:”
SPURGEON: I think your dialog work in Shortcomings fairly crackles. Have you ever made a point of studying film, stage or comics dialog?
TOMINE: Thanks, that means a lot to me. If by studying you mean like formally, at school or something, then no. But as a fan of books and movies, then, yes, quite a bit. I’ve always gravitated towards authors or filmmakers who put a real emphasis on dialog. Those are the kinds of things that I keep going back to, and discovering new things about. You hear it said of certain artists that they have a “natural gift” or an “ear” for dialog, and I wonder if that’s true… like, does this stuff just come easily and naturally to them, or do they just work harder on it? Because in my case, I know that all the dialog is really thought out and revised and even kind of “performed” out loud. I sweat over it.
Then, Sean Collins talks to Paul Pope about his new book, “Pulphope”:
If I had to characterize your stuff in one particular way, as apt as “comics destroyer” is, I would think “comics synthesizer” first and foremost. You incorporate many different influences: illustration and fine art, manga and bandes dessinées, science fiction and romance, superheroes and indie comics, and then also these other disciplines that you’re interested in, like design and film and fashion and music.
POPE: That’s why I wanted to put that bit in—in fact, if there’s more time for the second edition of the book, I do want to expand on the essay about design and persuasion, because what I find is that it’s really communication arts. It’s rhetoric. It’s understanding how to manipulate symbols according to the audience, knowing what their expectations are and how you’re able to communicate effectively with people. I’ve been kind of troubled by this “indie” term. I’ve been talking to Coke about doing a poster for them next month, and I’m like, “Well, I don’t see how I can be indie if I’m doing work for Coke.” But then I’m working on this small-press stuff. It’s all over the map. I think that if anything, “indie” is probably just a term that people use loosely to sort of suggest a drawing style which isn’t your typical kind of Jim Lee American superhero—that kind of thing.
Finally, ICv2 has a two-part interview with First Second’s fearless leader, Mark Siegel:
First Second from its inception was always going to have an international dimension. The thing that’s going to change a little bit in the balance from here on is that people like Gene [Yang], people like Sara Varon, people like Jessica Abel, Paul Pope, the homegrown American talents are going to represent more of our list. I had to jumpstart the whole imprint with what we had on hand. Some, like American Born Chinese, was almost ready, almost finished. Or like Eddie Campbell with The Fate of the Artist, but then the other stuff, like the French stuff or Lat, they exist already, we just have to translate them and put them out, so that is more of the lists than they will be in the future.
