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WAITING
FOR TOMMY: LARRY YOUNG
By
Richard Johnston RICHARD:
Now, you see I like that. I like that a lot. Does this bring
out the patron in you?
LARRY: Well, not exactly, since we still have to make
money on these things to stay a viable, healthy company. Comics
is a commercial art, and not an art-for-art's-sake sort of
thing, after all. But I have to say it's fun to see the faces
on creators who first get sprung on the world by us, and how
happy and proud of themselves they are when they're holding
a printed copy of their sweat and toil in their hands. They
have pride-of-accomplishment, and I have a kind of parental
pride in them.
RICHARD:
2003 saw original graphic novel vs. single issues as Scurvy
Dogs weighed up against Demo. Have you come to any conclusions
by comparing the results of the publishing model for each?
LARRY: I'm not sure what you mean, here. The Scurv
and DEMO (and AiT: SPACE 1959, for that matter) were all monthly
issues. The publishing model for all is what each project
demanded. One is not superior to the other. Format doesn't
indicate sales, nor does it preclude it.
RICHARD:
You'd previously been thought of as the champion of the TPB
and the OGN. So it felt strange for some people to buy single
issues from you - and your language did little to assuage
that, seeming inconceivable to you that people might want
to wait for a trade that had no guarantee of being published,
for a project that was designed for single issues. Can you
understand why there was some resistance? You'd created and
acclimatised an audience for a book format, then castigated
them for not being as keen for a format they'd learnt to reject.
Can you see why that might have grated?
LARRY: Business realities change all the time. We have
to turn down DEMO because it's not an OGN? I mean, it's a
comic book; it's not like I'm asking people to buy cuts of
meat or something from us all of a sudden. I have to say that
if I have some sort of Jedi marketing powers and have mass-hypnotized
our audience into buying our books, well, then, sure, I can
see where someone might feel badly upon awakening to see that
all of a sudden they've purchased a bunch of comics they didn't
want. But of course that's not the case at all. So, someone
thinks I'm the champion of the book format? Leaving alone
whether or not I agree with that characterization, does that
mean we can't do a project or two in a format we're not known
for? How does a company grow, if not by challenging their
own status quo?
And,
honestly, we haven't seen any resistance from retailers and
readers to buying DEMO and SCURVY DOGS, and I'm quite sure
I haven't "castigated" our audience. Maybe a single jackass
or two on a message board here or there, but, hey! I'm just
a guy making comics and minding my own business.
RICHARD:
Got to say, Larry. I've moved my buying preferences to a thicker
format, away from the longbox to the bookshelf. So, even given
the word that there were no plans to collect Demo, a comic
intended for the single format, it didn't end up on my pull
list.. Am I scum? Or just missing out?
LARRY: Comics fans see things in black-and-white; I
think it's because of the good/bad dichotomy of superhero
books. Superman good, Lex Luthor bad. Captain America good,
Red Skull bad. It's a short leap to continue that sort of
binary thinking: creator-owned good, corporate comics bad.
OPTIC NERVE good, AQUAMAN bad; graphic novels good, floppy
pamphlets bad. And of course the reality is much more complex
than that. Somebody doesn't want DEMO because it's not in
a format they prefer? All I can muster up is that they don't
want DEMO, because it's not in a format they prefer. I don't
have any value judgment on that whatsoever. Buy stuff you
read and enjoy. You don't want to buy single issues? Don't.
You don't want to buy comics with lots of blue in them? Don't.
I'm fine with all of that. The only time I get a bit bristly
is when somebody tells me I'm Comics' Great Satan because
I personally didn't deliver them something that they wanted.
Life is full of these little disappointments, right? Mick
and Keith wrote a song about it. You can't always get what
you want, and it's honestly not my fault.
RICHARD:
Well, I want monkeys. Sky Ape vs Rex Mantooth. Talk us through
the battle, and tell us who'd win.
LARRY: Oh, stop. Talking monkeys is talking monkeys.
You can't get me to choose one over the other. I love both
of them equally.
RICHARD:
Larry Young, monkey lover?
LARRY: Who doesn't love our friends the monkeys? And
if one of 'em beats up zombies and the other flies around
in a jetpack, so much the better. There but for the grace
of God go we.
RICHARD:
Hell, I'm sure some of them were drinking down the pub on
Thursday. One of them, through semi-advanced sign language
between vodka banana splits, asked me to ask you "Do you find
your creators sell out before their books do?" Any idea what
he's on about, apart from being a smart-arsed monkey?
LARRY: I'm honoured to have a bunch of talented friends,
and sometimes we get together and put on a show. Comics creators
are like actors; nobody asks Johnny Depp if he's sold out
because he did PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN instead of LONE STAR
II, right? No one serious, anyway. It's all part of his choices
as a storyteller. Did Warren Ellis "sell-out" when he signed
an exclusive with DC? Of course not; just part of his choices
as a storyteller.
RICHARD:
Okay, Diamond solicitations are due out any day now, anything
going to surprise us in there? Something to reward those who've
made it this far?
LARRY: I'd sure like to tell your folks about HENCH,
our June book from animation writer Adam Beechen. If you follow
cartoons, chances are you've seen some of Adam's work; he's
a prolific writer with many episodes of JACKIE CHAN ADVENTURES,
TEEN TITANS! and several episodes of the new THE BATMAN to
his credit. The art is by an exciting new artist that James
Sime turned me on to, Manny Bello. Hench is the story of Mike
Fulton, a guy who reluctantly makes his living "henching"
for supervillians. But, as befitting an AiT/Planet Lar book,
Adam and Manny have turned in a work that goes right up to
the superhero cliches you're expecting and takes a ninety-degree
turn into CrazyTown. I really think this is a book that's
going to be talked about for a long time by fans of superhero
comics as well as serious aficionados of the form.
RICHARD:
What an opportune moment to show some pictures.
Larry Young is publisher of Ait/Planet Lar and writes Astronauts
In Trouble. Rich Johnston writes Lying In The Gutters
Pages:
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