Q&A with Becky Cloonan

2004 was a big year for Becky Cloonan, as her and Brian Wood's hit indy series Demo proved the single-issue comic story's death was greatly exaggerated. 2006 promises to be an even bigger year, as Becky has two new series dropping next spring: American Virgin from Vertigo and East Coast Rising from TOKYOPOP. Becky was kind enough to chat with us about her upcoming work on both books, among other things.

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JK: Many people probably know you best as the artist for Demo, but you've done a lot of other comics work besides that. Fill us in on what you were doing before Demo.

Becky: Before Demo, I'd done a handful of mini-comics, as well as participate in a few different anthologies including Meathaus (which I am still involved in) and Cyberosia's Revolving Hammer. The mini’s I mostly considered practice; I'd do them in my spare time from work and school trying out different inks and styles and ways to tell a story. It wasn't until Brian Wood got in touch with me that I started on Jennie One, my first graphic novel. A few months after I finished drawing that, we started on Demo. Since then I've hooked up with the Flight anthology and done work for Oni's Hopeless Savages.

(And of course I did some epic comics in high school with my friend Jen Quick, but they were all so ridiculous that they don't even count.)

JK: Are your mini-comics still available? Are you still making new ones?

Becky: My mini-comics are still available via my Web site; one day I hope to collect them into a fat, embarrassing book. I actually have a few new ones planned including a mini of just flyers and illustrations I've done, but right now my schedule doesn't really allow me much time to spend on mini's.

JK: Tell us a little bit about East Coast Rising, your book coming out from TOKYOPOP. You’re both writer and artist for this book, correct? What's the book about?

Becky: I am writing and drawing this one! I haven't written my own comics in almost three years, so it felt weird to pick up the pen on this. The book is coming very naturally, although I don't write a traditional script for myself; it's more of a storyboard process. Imagine if Jason and the Argonauts had a huge battle with Mad Max and some dinosaurs. East Coast Rising is straight up action adventure. I'm going for all-ages as well. It's just a fun story about this legendary treasure and some kids who decide to go after it.

JK: Was TOKYOPOP the original publisher? I remember reading an interview where you mentioned it would be part of an anthology.

Becky: I started writing it two years ago for a small anthology, but it fell apart the issue before East Coast Rising ran. Which was really a good thing--I look back on my old pages and it's embarrassing! So for the past few years I developed the characters and the world a lot more, and really fleshed out the story. TOKYOPOP is the perfect home for it.

JK: Moving on to American Virgin, your new Vertigo book with Steven T. Seagle. How did you become involved with this project?

Becky: Shelly Bond called me up one day, and it just worked itself out from there. From what I hear both she and Steven had me in mind when they were thinking of artists; it's flattering really. Of course I said yes; I mean, how can you turn a book like this down?

JK: What can we expect from American Virgin? What's the book about?

Becky: Expect lots of sex and terrorism! It's an ongoing monthly about a young man, Adam Chamberlin, who is the figurehead of a gigantic Christian youth movement. I mean, this guy is perfect. He's charming, charismatic, a great speaker and has big political goals. Of course, that all goes amok. Shortly after the start of the comic, Adam ends up in Africa! It's fast-paced, lots of action and very dynamic characters, plus you can trace elements of themes and events from this comic into headlines from our newspapers. Seriously, it's gonna be wicked awesome.

JK: What’s it like working with a writer like Seagle or Brian Wood, compared to working on your own stuff? How much input do you have into these collaborations?

Becky: For the most part, when I work with a writer, it's pretty traditional. I get a script, and I try and figure out the best way to tell the story, taking the information the writer gives me and choosing angles, noting the most important actions on the page. Brian Wood's scripts were always pretty loose, and I had the luxury of adding pages and breaking actions up into more panels. Steven's scripts are much tighter; there is a lot more information there which really makes my job easier (hehe!). Both are pretty open collaborations, that is if I have some ideas for the story, or about a character, I am totally free to toss them out there.

When I write for myself, though, it's a totally different process. It takes a lot more time, but in the end it's still a comic! I go through similar processes when I translate the story from my head onto paper as when I work from a script. The big difference is that I like to space my action out a little more and have a lot less panels on a page. So the end products are very different, but they all come from my head.

JK: Is it different working for a larger company like Vertigo/DC or TOKYOPOP, compared to the work you've done for smaller companies?

Becky: So far it's been very similar and totally painless. Some people told me moving to a bigger company would restrict my artistic vision or whatever. The only difference so far is that I've had to do some edits and revisions because now I have editors. But both of my editors are awesome, and I agree with all the changes, so really it's good to have someone on my ass about the art. Although I'm looking forward to returning to smaller press in a few years, for now the experience and exposure is great!

JK: When will American Virgin and East Coast Rising be in stores? What else have you been working on?

Becky: Hopefully both will drop in March.

I also illustrated a graphic novel adaptation of Bram Stoker's Dracula for Penguin Books/Puffin Classics which should be out sometime this winter. Gary Reed translated the work from book to script; it was a pretty fun time. It's 146 pages. I drew it right after I finished Demo.

JK: It was announced earlier this summer that Demo would be collected. Did you provide any extras in terms of art for the collection?

Becky: As far as I know the trade will drop in late November. We tossed around the idea of doing some black and white covers for each one, but in the end decided to publish just the raw stories--none of the extras or covers or anything; those really belong in the single issues. And if it's up to me, I still prefer the single issues to a trade, but I'm definitely looking forward to holding it. I think collected it's over 300 pages! Heh. Sometimes I can't believe I drew all that!

JK: You studied animation before jumping into the world of comics. Do you have any plans or ambitions to ever move back into animation?

Becky: Noooo! I had done some animation before. My friends and I did the animation in the film "Super Troopers," which was really fun, and some flash animation for Urban Box Office in like 2000. I also had helped pitch an animated film to Miramax, a cartoon series to Sci-Fi channel, and I did some development on a children's cartoon pitch. None of them went through, of course. Comics have been much nicer (not to mention more fun) than animation! Since doing comics, I've done a lot of storyboarding work for commercials, but it's boring and it sucks, but it paid well. Anyway, comics rule, and animation is hard.

JK: I read that you were working on an original graphic novel, "Every Cowboy Sings a Sad, Sad Song." Are you still working on the book?

Becky: I have so many ideas in my head, it's hard to figure out which will be the next to work on. It has to be like, when the time is right, so I'm just waiting for the right time. Also the story needs some work, so I'll probably develop it some more in the next few years. One of these days it'll pop out, but definitely not any time soon! Two books at once is it for me.

JK: What would be your dream book to work on – any company, any writer, any genre?

Becky: I want to make a teenage Silver Surfer comic. It'd totally be the power cosmic! Either that or I'd like to do an X-Men book, with my friend Risa Cho writing. We both have some deep love for the X (I'm reading House of M right now—-oh my God, so awesome!), and both books I've enjoyed since I was a kid.

Related links:

• Becky's Web site
  
• Becky's deviantART site