OnePageWonder.com, Interview with Jeremy Smith part two

Interview with Jeremy Smith, the illustrator for the comic Zoo Force

5. You do all of the illustrations for Zoo Force, can you describe the process of how you bring these stories to life?

My good friend and co-creator, John Ira Thomas, writes up a script that looks a lot like a screenplay, with the character's dialogue and very minimal stage direction. We sit down (or now since I live way the hell out here in Portland, we call each other up on our cells) and have a nice long, informal gab session. When we first started working together, I tried to just follow John Ira's scipt verbatim, scared to change anything. When I realized John was not my boss, and could not fire me, we started really swapping ideas. He would ask me, "Is there anything particular you really want to draw in this next one?", and I would suggest things, and he started writing with my art style in mind, and vice-versa. John Ira is the best....he lets the artist really take his story and run with it. I go through his script and bracket out what I think will fit on a comic page, then use slashes to denote "panel breaks". Then I lay it all out rough-style in these cool notebooks, then I get out my big pads of bristol and start pencilling it....months later, I ink it.....months later I scan it and computer-ize it.....weeks later we do the lettering (speech balloons, again, over the phone now...)...weeks later it is a book. Poof!

6. One thing that seems to be a trademark of ZF is the format. Each book contains several stories that somehow form a common thread. Can you explain the reasoning behind this? How do you convey this through the illustrations?

Life meanders, turns and twists, and, fantastic and weird as they are, the point of Zoo Force is that they are living real life and loving it. So there is a general "theme" to each book, around which orbit and intertwine these other supporting stories. We love to mix up the media and style of each section. Some parts are fumetti (photo-comics), other parts are the quasi-primitive mini-comics drawn by Captain Cat, there are cartoony coloring-book pages, sleekly rendered main stories, we like tv screens for storytelling, too. The Captain Cat minicomix section is always the hardest for me to draw because I have been training myself all my life to draw real purty, be a good draftsman, and here is this comic drawn by a cat. I have to "dumb it way down" sort of...I draw some of it with my left hand, or I hold the pencil in my fist, point-down, and drag it around the page like the needle on a seismograph or something. Anything to hide "my hand" in the drawing of it. Even so, if you watch the Captain Cat sections, he is improving. Only natural, with as many issues as he has under his belt. Or collar, whatever.

7. Who is your favorite ZF character?

That is like asking me to choose a favourite among my children, shame on you. Pythagoras probably. Snowball is a lot of fun to draw, though. And, of course, there's Cap'n Cat. I guess, my favourite is whichever one I am drawing at the moment. Lame answer, I know. Sorry.

8. What if you were in a ring with a greased Tom Brokaw, do you think you could catch him in, say, five minutes?

No, but maybe in seven.

greatest generation

9. Candle Light Press is one of the few independent publishers in comics, why is this?

Because we hunted down and killed many of the others with a poison blowdart gun. No, seriously, there are actually a ton of independents out there, but they don't last long or give up or whatever. The monopolistic control of the Big Two, and the almost total monopoly of Diamnd Distribution skews the success of those who try to strike out on their own. A lot of small guys like us have been duped into thinking that the way the Big Guys do things is THE way you have to do it...almost as if they are waiting for someone to give them permission to make their own comics. Get an idea, make the thing you want to make, scrape together a little money, and perservere. Mostly, just keep making stuff, because nothing kills and effort like STOPPING. We at Candle Light Press make something off-beat, sincere, and totally us. And we keep doing it. And now people are starting to notice.

10. Are there any major advantages/disadvantages to being part of a small press?

The disadvantages are being cash-poor and under most people's radar. The advantage, and it's a huge one, is that you get to make exactly what you want, without editorial pressure from a publisher. And we set the timeline to produce these things. We also have alot of fun coming up with our own promotional tools, like those crazy TV Guide-style catalogs we made last summer. We are friends, making things for our friends and those we hope to be our friends.

zoo force comics

Zoo Force Covers

11. What other CLP publications are you involved in? Can you describe them?

Besides ZOO FORCE (of which there are two books out now, "Dear Eniko" and "Bean & Nothingness", with a third one, "BBQ", out by April '07), John Ira and I do another "series" together, called THE TALES OF SHADES & ANGELS. It is a cop-drama-thriller thing with a dash of the superhero scene from Zoo Force. It is also set in Freedom City, Texas, but takes place downtown, in the concrete canyon part of the city. It centers around two vigilantes, Night Angel (a priest by day, with a terrifying sword of light that cuts through anything) and The Fearsome Shade (a psychopath who talks to his clothing and breaks the bones of wrongdoers with his bare hands). They used to go out together at night with a list of bad people and kill them one by one. Night Angel has decided he does not want to kill any more. The Fearsome Shade still wants to, though, and the whole conflict of the series is about Night Angel's struggle to avoid The Fearsome Shade's attempts to pull him back in, while preserving their friendship.

The supporting cast are a great team of 3rd shift homicide detectives who scramble about picking up the pieces. There are three SHADES & ANGELS books out as of this moment: the first is NUMBERS, about a jerk bookie and his betting pool on the Fearsome Shade's kill rate...and the first two volumes of the story we're currently finishing, called THE FAIRER SEX. This one is about a crazed mass-murderer calling herself The Madonna running around gunning down the men of Freedom City in an attempt to win the love of the Night Angel (and The Fearsome Shade's earnest attempts to help her, so the Angel will start killing again, just like back in the day...). Again, the brave cops on the watch are trying to solve the case and catch her before the bodies pile up too high. I am going to return to work on the third and final volume of this now that ZOO FORCE: BBQ is done; hopefully be done by year's end (cross yer fingers).

12. What if Tom Brokaw wanted to grease you down?

Anything for the self-appointed documenter of the Greatest Generation. Oink, oink!!!

candle light press

The Greatest Generation

13. Do you think comics are still relevant in this day and age of the internet and on demand entertainment? Why?

Totally. Comics is a medium AND an art form. Not many creative avenues can claim double pedigree like that. Images, in sequence, have been around since man first spat on a cave wall and smeared it around to draw a picture of what animal he speared that day. They are the basis, the foundation, of everything that came after them. Y'know how all these amazing and weird dog breeds (Chihuahuas, pugs, Great Danes, Dalmatians, dachshunds) all came from the same wolf at the beginning? Well, comics are that wolf, sitting in the same kennel with TV, movies, the internet, all these modern breeds that we fancy so today. Plus, deny it though they might, I think most people still like to slow down, open a book, and read. The rest of the world is WAY ahead of the USA in their acknowledgement and appreciation (and consumption) of comics as a serious, legitimate art form. Comics is like the Kyoto Protocol of serious art/entertainment, that the US just refuses to sign on to.

14. Where can people get their mitts on a ZF comic?

We are available through Ingram (the big book distributor) and so can be found ANYWHERE BOOKS ARE SOLD. Go into a store, mention the ISBN or title, and they can order it for you. Amazon, Booksense, Booksamillion...we're there. We are also distributed to comics stores through Cold Cut Distribution, just ask your store if they order from them. You can also fill your virtual shoppin' cart at the new Candle Light Press online store. Also, if you are lucky enough to stop at our table at one of the many conventions we hit each year(MoCCA in NY in June, and then San Diego in July this year), we've got ALL our books (plus a lot of cool freebies and supplemental stuff) laid out there, too.

15. Why would they want to? Give us your best sales pitch.

Our motto at CLP is "Words and pictures...differently". It's a broad and free "mission statement" that really illustrates the variety of our books and the diverse talents employed in their creation. We know everyone is different, hell, WE'RE different. That's why we tell some of the most unusual, quirky stories imaginable, making it fun for readers to turn an unknown corner and stumble into a place they didn't know existed. A place that didn't exist till Candle Light Press built it. La Tornada trailer park is one of those places, and Zoo Force is proud to call it home. They're havin' a cookout over at their place....you should come!

16. Is there anything else you'd like to say for our readers in onepagewonder land?

Help, I'm pinned under Tom Brokaw....help.....

Jeremy Smith Resides in Portland, Oregon.

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