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WAITING
FOR TOMMY: JAY FAERBER
By
Richard Johnston
RICHARD:
So how do you make those want the new work that you produce?
Apart from putting out the best work to your ability, what
tricks of the trade have you learnt to draw a crowd to your
new stuff? With my own comic coming out, I need all the help
I can get.
JAY: That's the million dollar question, man. I have
no answer. I'm naive enough to still believe it's all about
putting out the best work that you can, and hoping people
respond to it.
RICHARD:
Fingers crossed. Image seems to be your current home - do
you find they treat your projects, Noble Causes and Strykeforce
any differently? How much does working for Top Cow vary from
working for Image Central?
JAY: They treat the two projects VERY differently,
since I own one, and not the other. Image Central doesn't
really have any involvement with Strykeforce. I deal solely
with Top Cow on that book, and working on it is very much
like working on any DC or Marvel book. I turn in a script,
it gets read by my editor, and I get some notes. I make a
few changes, re-submit the script, and it's off to the artist.
I don't see the book again until it's done. With Noble Causes,
I'm very involved, in every step of the process, since I'm
working both as writer and editor. I'm seeing the art as it
comes in, I'm reviewing the colors, I'm proofing the lettering,
I'm keeping everything on schedule, and overseeing the letters
page and the overall pagination of the book, as well as the
layout of front and back covers. Working on the two books
is as different as night and day.
RICHARD:
While one might seem creatively more rewarding, is the hands-off
approach less taxing on your mind? Aside from keeping a healthy
balance between the two, is there one approach you favour
over the other?
JAY: The work-for-hire stuff is actually more taxing,
in a lot of ways, simply because I'm a control freak at heart,
so I have to fight the urge to try and be involved at every
step. It's too easy to become a pain in the ass, if I'm pestering
my editor to see the pencils as they come in, or the cover
sketches, or whatever. As a member of any creative team, my
job is to make everyone else's job as easy as possible, and
on a work-for-hire book, sometimes that means just sitting
back and shutting up.
RICHARD:
Ah. I'm glad I work in advertising then. Stryker has three
arms on one side, one on the other. Is he a terrible tightrope
walker? Does it get in the way of touch typing or playing
the cello? What are the practical difficulties, do you see,
of such multi-limbed individuals?
JAY: First of all, I'm writing this book specifically
to appeal to multi-limbed individuals such as Stryker. I think
this readership demographic has been overlooked for far, far
too long. Plus, my upcoming Stryker 12-issue maxi-series is
designed to explain exactly why he isn't constantly losing
his balance, and ... Okay, I give up. Yes, he's got three
robotic arms on one side of his body, and yes, that can tend
to look quite silly. But it's a big adventure comic. It's
all about crazy characters and visuals, so just go with it,
y'know?
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