All-Ages in a Onesie. Corey Babra Talks 'Yam'
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It’s a lovely life on the island of La Leche de la Luna. On an average day, you might find yourself dealing with a cupcake that thinks it’s a pet, a flower that wants to start a rock band, turtles with delicious treats for shells, or even meet the girl of your dreams…and hang out with her in her dreams.
It’s the life of an adventurous little boy with a jetpack and orange onesie known as Yam. For years, his adventures have appeared in Nickelodeon magazine, and now they’ve come to comics in Top Shelf Productions’ new collection Yam: Bite-Size Chunks, which features an all-new 38-page story. Yam’s creator, Corey Babra, talked to Newsarama about his surreal creation, and how it came to be. Newsarama: Corey, could you describe Yam to a new reader?If it's well told, I think wordless stories can work for anyone. And I still consider it reading, even though there are no words
NRAMA: There's also the matter of length – what are the challenges in doing Yam as one-and-two-page strips, and, conversely, what was it like doing the longer story for the collection? CB: Short, wordless stories are way more challenging from a writing standpoint. You may have a great idea or a gag you want to convey, but if there's only a page or two worth of panels to get it across, that's tough; it forces you to cook it down to the bare bones. Only the necessary actions can make the final cut, you know?And each pose you choose for the character has to communicate the maximum amount of expression. Too bad a one or two pager will take less than a minute to read. You can’t think about that sort of thing up front, though.
“Toy with My Dreams,” the longer story in the book, was a pleasure to make. It gave me some breathing room that I ordinarily don't get. The humor is gleaned more from the situations and drawings, less from gags. It’s a nice thing- not having to stuff an idea into a predetermined amount of little boxes. I mean, it’s a great discipline, to be able to economize your drawings, but it sure is good to have the luxury of space and time. NRAMA: What were the inspirations for the countless living creatures in Yam's world? It reminds me of the old Terrytoons where everything seemed to be alive. CB: The animation of the Fleischer Brothers is a big influence on me. Things were always coming to life in the old Betty Boop and Popeye shorts. Part of it is also inspired by Japanese pop culture, though- when I was a kid, I imagined that if you walked down the streets of Tokyo, you’d find that everything had a face and wanted to befriend you. NRAMA: What materials do you use to illustrate Yam? Given that some of the stories are done in different styles from others, do you use the strip as a way to experiment artistically? CB: Yeah, if you flip through “Bite-size Chunks” you’ll see that the mediums used to draw the strip range from Sharpie markers and brushes to crow-quill dip pens. There was a period where I was just doing stuff using whatever materials were handy, then I sort of honed in on the things I liked best.I’d been a brush and ink guy for a long time- which gave me a real slick look, but I found that the tool that feels most natural for Yam is the dip pen. They give you this scratchy, intense quality you can't get with anything else, and to me it just says, "comic strip.”
I think it feels like a connective tissue to the strips that have inspired Yam the most-the great newspaper cartoonists like Winsor McCay, George Herriman and E.C. Segar. The Sanrio influence kicks in after that.There is still some experimenting that occurs. I was looking at some Peanuts strips recently, and I thought the obvious evolution that the characters undergo is so awesome. I wanted a totally different looking version of Yam, but not as an evolution or replacement.
This would be a big-headed Yam that could exist in a book with the standard-designs of the characters, but in different stories. So yeah, I designed this alternate version of the character. He's in the book. I call him "Candied Yam.” He's 30% cuter than regular Yam, and inked with a brush for maximum smoothness. We'll see more of that in the future. NRAMA: Mmm…candied yam. Have you had any talks about doing Yam in animation? CB: There's no talk of anything at the moment, but animation is one of my big loves, so yeah - Yam will definitely be brought to life that way at some point. NRAMA: Completely silly question: Does Yam's pet TV have a name? CB: He does- it’s TV. NRAMA: Touché. What are some of your favorite all-ages comics, and what are some other comics in general that you enjoy? CB: For all-ages stuff, I think: Spiral Bound by Aaron Renier is a terrific ride, Jeff Smith’s Bone, Jay Stephens’ Space Ape #8 & Jet Cat stuff is awesome. Comics in general: I'm a huge fan of Scott Pilgrim by Bryan Lee O’Malley, Dan Clowes is hands-down the World’s Champion cartoonist. And I’ll always have a place in my heart for Charles Schultz, Charles Adams, Jack Davis, Crumb, Osamu Tezuka. And way, way more. NRAMA: Do you have any older-skewing works in the vein of your webcomic "The Big Kiss-Off" coming up in the future? CB: I do have some things in the works, but my focus is really on Yam and developing the world of La Leche de la Luna. If I didn't focus on this, I'd be all over the map. Too many ideas, you know?Yam: Bite-Size Chunks is in stores now. For more Yam comics, visit www.coreybabra.com