by Chris Arrant

Little did he know that his first comic, the self-published Playground, would spur along his artwork into a full fledged career in the medium of comics. With stops at virtually all of the major American comic book icons, Stuart Immonen has become one of the preeminent artists in comics, showing a remarkable range from the heartfelt yet majestic work on Superman: Secret Identity, to his most recent kinetic work on Nextwave. Throughout the years, the titles and the styles of Stuart Immonen, it's hard to capture a cohesive portrait of the cartoonist himself.

In part one of our two-part interview with the Canadian cartoonist, we seek out the artists as he launches his own slate of webcomics projects with Web Comics Nation and Modern Tales. Not foregoing his long career in the world of capes and cowls, these new releases show Immonen's personal side. Both contemplative and contemporary, these strips work with his previously known superhero work to reveal a more comprehensive portrait of the cartoonist.

Newsarama: You came into comics with your work with your partner, Kathryn Kuder (now Kathryn Immonen), and have continued to release projects now and then with her over time. With the launching of your web comic Never As Bad As You Think, you've got your first public ongoing collaboration. Is it strictly a writer and artist relationship, or is there more give and take with the collaboration?

Stuart Immonen: As a rule, we each stick to our strengths. Obviously in comics, it helps if the writer has visual sensibilities and that the artist has some story craft, which describes us well, I think. However, we keep things pretty free-flowing in the studio, and if I have an idea to re-work pacing or dialogue, I’ll run it by Kathryn first—the benefit of being in close proximity—and she usually trusts my instincts. Naturally, it goes the other way, too, and she’s not shy about asking for changes here and there. It’s semi-permeably osmotic.

NRAMA: Early last year, you released a series of comic strips titled 50 Reasons To Stop Sketching, and it was a tongue-in-cheek documentation of the trials and tribulations a comic artist such as you runs across doing the convention circuit. Can you tell us what precipitated you creating this humor run on some pretty disheartening look situations?

SI: I think it was in the spring of ’04, actually. People still bring it up, which is nice, considering the transient nature of the web. I never expected it to have any impact—people before me have done con strips, and better—but I suppose the material is just too rich.

After 15 or 16 years of conventions, I’d decided that I’d finally had enough of traveling, and shows and bad experiences, and the work involved. For me, it was a desire to induce a kind of catharsis to prove to myself that I’d made the right decision. People perceive conventions as a kind of vacation, with free hotel and lunch, but it’s really a lot of hard labor, and to top it off, it’s a public performance without a net. I personally find it very stressful, especially as compared to the familiar environment of the studio.

But of course, it’s not all bad, and I was unsure of whether or not I was exaggerating the situation. So I thought if I could come up with enough reasons to stop, I could justifiably follow through in real life. I started making a list in a sketchbook, and began to doodle caricatures of horrible people no-one would want to meet, and gave them silly handles, like “The Boy Scout” and “The Straightman”, and the strips followed shortly thereafter.

In the end, it was a very self-flagellating way to go about it. I could have just as easily just done nothing. But it turned out to be lots of fun. Except when the web traffic broke my server.

NRAMA: Some have said that webcomics in some ways can be compared to the b&w comics of the 70s and 80s, with it as a arena of more unconventional and experimental work. Why did you yourself choose the internet to release these first?

SI: For the most part, I agree. In theory, in fact, it's a much better situation. There's very little risk to someone with little capital or experience to try their hand at what is essentially self-publishing by another name. If one's ISP doesn't offer some small amount of free webspace, there are any number of image hosts out there with bandwidth on offer for nothing or for very little. Getting the word out about a project still costs in some respect, but you can still hype a project for nothing on certain message boards, or hook up with a banner exchange program, and even soft-sell with your sig. And yet, it's easy to get lost in the vast sea of work which is competing for your audience.

As to unconventional or experimental... the majority of webcomic content seems to me to be pretty straightforward stuff, which I guess is not surprising. The black and white comics of the 80s were like that, too—some challenging work, sure, but also a lot of derivative or genre material.

As for us, the medium presents a way to stay motivated to do the kinds of things we want to do anyway, but never seem to find the time for, especially when presented with, say a 200-page idea. I mean, after working on a Marvel page all day, it's really hard to do it all over again "after hours" for myself. With the weekly format, I feel the obligation to produce more strongly than if it were a secret project.

NRAMA: Do you have any plans to re-release 50 Reasons To Stop Sketching?

SI: Yes! I’m very excited, and kind of scared, too. As you mention, I got my start in the industry self-publishing with Kathryn, and it’s great to be doing more of it. Again, however, it’s been a lot of work to re-format the strips for publication, and to re-letter them for clarity, and to write and draw an 8-page introduction, and to design the book and a cover… yikes. It’s worth it, though. Even if I’m stuck with them, it’s the best part of this business, to make stuff.

The collection will be available primarily only through my website, or to those rare occasions when I actually travel to a con. I really have given up sketching, but I have to have something to offer…

NRAMA: Do you have any upcoming appearances, whether at conventions or in-store signings?

SI: Only two conventions in any official capacity, both mentioned on my website, and both very soon. Emerald City Con in Seattle, WA and Unicomic in Alicante, Spain. Actually, that's about my limit for a year-- traveling and appearing wears me out something awful. I think the perception is that it's a free vacation, but in fact, it's a lot of hard work, at least it is for me.

NRAMA: Although you only do a couple conventions a year, you've made it a point to travel overseas several times for conventions. I've read some professionals say the convention experience is vastly different overseas, especially in Europe, than the U.S. Can you relate to us your own experiences in comparing the American and overseas variety?

SI: This is a huge question... but in my limited experience, the European conventions are much more like cultural festivals, and have the support of municipal governments and arts organizations to show for it. The host cities tend to really get behind the events in a way I haven't seen in North America. They're not fringe events-- the organizers, I think; try to make them appealing to a universal audience. They also tend to be more about the art and craft of comics. By contrast, most of the North American cons in general are like trade shows.

NRAMA: Late last year you launched two web comics on webcomicsnation.com: the weekly Never As Bad as You Think (with wife Kathryn) and monthly Misery Loves. The strips are vastly different that anything fans have seen you do in printed comics; can you tell us how this more personal work reflects against your "superhero" books, and how they play out together with you?

SI: Superheroes are fine; just great in fact, but they’re not everything. I like a lot of different flavors, a lot of different styles, and I feel like in order to keep my “mainstream” work continually fresh and interesting, I need to have another outlet. The kinds of things I read tend to be all over the map, and I like to draw in different ways, too. Never As Bad As You Think began as an experiment in storytelling, and is a delight to spend time with every week—it’s a kind of coffee break from the grind of a monthly. The style is partly based on resolution-- the strips are only 550 pixels wide—but it’s supposed to be light and funny as well, so I’m gearing the drawings to fit the emotional quality of the scripts.

The protagonist in Misery Loves is really an extension of the “autobio” me I established in the 50 Reasons. I just couldn’t give that character up, and so many funny, frustrating things seem to happen to me, it seemed like a shame to just let them evaporate.

As to whether it’s different from work readers have seen from me, I’m not sure that’s true. Even on Superman, I took the opportunity to test the limits of my range stylistically. In particular, two stories with Lex Luthor were told from the perspective of a child’s picture book. They’re among my favorites from that period. There was also a Legion story written by Paul Levitz, which was expressed as a series of vignettes in completely different styles, not to mention my work for Nickelodeon Magazine and Disney Adventures. I mean, if people don’t know by now that I like to draw in a variety of ways, I don’t know what will convince them.

NRAMA: Let's talk more about Never As Bad As You Think, which finds you re-teaming with your first comic collaborator (and wife to boot), Kathryn. Can you tell us about how this project came about, and what are these "seed" words you're basing it on?

SI: It started with IllustrationFriday.com, a community site where participants submit art based on weekly themes, usually single words. I was doing it with a small group of other industry people, but over the weeks, I found it increasingly difficult to get motivated to do a single illustration. I asked Kathryn if she’d like to write a short script for me to illustrate in comics form, and it was instantly invigorating. The scripts are very short-- only as many lines as fit on a 3x5 post-it note—and it’s a fun challenge to fit four panels in a fixed size.

All the words still come from Illustration Friday, although there’s quite a lag now. I just finished the 32nd strip, so we’re well ahead of what the subscribers are seeing.

NRAMA: Can you explain to us more the concept of "seed words", and how you go from those words to creating a story around them?

SI: As I mentioned, the word or phrase is provided, and as far as we're concerned, it's random each week. Part of the unwritten rule for Never As Bad As You Think is that the word must appear in the strip, if not in dialogue, then somewhere in the background; on a sign, or a book, or what have you. But perhaps more importantly, it serves as a theme to the week's strip, and informs the joke, if there is one, and the characters. I should point out that nothing is planned in advance. We shift from character to character or situation to situation almost in response to the seed-- it's very organic.

What I'd like to see happen at some point is the development of a site like Illustration Friday, or Photo Friday, but for comics. I personally don't have time to manage it, but I would definitely read a series of short comics by different creators unified by a single theme. Joey Manley pointed out to me that Ghastly has been doing something similar with Apophenia Stories, but I'd like to see a lot of people run with it.

NRAMA: Misery Loves is a more sardonic take on life. Can you tell me how this strip came about, and what you have in mind for the series as a whole?

SI: As I said, the protagonist made the leap from 50 Reasons To Stop Sketching, and “his” attitude drives the tone. It’s basically a vehicle for expressing my impotent anger at the world. Gandhi said that anger is like electricity; you have to choose how to use it. So the there are no parameters for situations, and I have notes for dozens of strips-- it’s wide open for anything I can think of, as long as it’s “mundane”. I just have to find time to draw them.

NRAMA: Can you explain that further - the necessity of mundaneness, and why that propels you to express the idea into a comic?

SI: The strips are derived, as with the 50 Reasons, from experiences I've actually had--you won't likely see Misery Loves in space, for instance, so it's mundane in that sense. But it's also-- and this is by no means absolute-- thematically about finding humor, or in some cases pathos, in the ordinary. Just going out in the world, often for only half an hour, is fodder for this strip. Going to the bank, tying a shoe, taking out the garbage... I'm not breaking new ground, by any means-- the domestic situation comic has been a staple for a century-- but I'm amusing myself, and it's something I think others will enjoy as well. I haven't gotten any hate mail about it, anyway.

NRAMA: Looking in terms of "star power", you're without comparison, one of the biggest "names" from traditional comics to venture into web-exclusive comics. Have you thought about that at all?

SI: You think? I guess that’s true… although someone sent me a link to something Travis Charest had been working on. I’m not sure if he’s kept it up.

NRAMA: It's still ongoing, but unfortunately very intermittent. Anyway..

SI:Frankly, “star power” hasn’t added up to much. Either people aren’t aware of it, or are unwilling to part with the pittance we’ve decided to charge. We have enough subscribers to keep it fun, but it’s not a money-making venture. Not by a long shot.

The other thing I think you have to consider is that, as a whole, the webcomics community and the print comics community do not intersect. I imagine that no one who sees our listing at onlinecomics.net has the faintest idea that we’re veterans in print. Not too put too fine a point on the generalization, but it’s not shoujo, and it’s not superheroes, so we are in a kind of audience-appeal limbo. Luckily, we’re doing it for ourselves first.

Joey Manley’s created a very “non-mainstream”-friendly community, though. Of all the webcomics hosting arrangements I investigated, WebComicsNation seemed like the best fit. Never As Bad As You Think is going to make the leap to Modern Tales soon, too, so it’ll be posted on both sites concurrently. This is the real boon to ownership; if Misery Loves fits on WCN in one format, for example, it can fit on Clickwheel in another, and it’s totally my call.

NRAMA: The comic strips on WCN have free samples, but new work is seen by subscription only. Why'd you choose to make it subscriber based?

SI: Well… there’s no one answer. I think it’s a model that can work, but only if creators are willing to take a hit initially. Just doing the work, regardless of the end result, is taking it on the chin in a way that I imagine a lot of pros are unwilling to take. I mean, I have a job drawing—why would I spend my off-hours drawing, too? The answer, of course, is that I enjoy it, and enjoy sharing it.

I also see the price we have decided on as more of a token payment than something actually representing the cost of doing business. If I can avoid advertising on the site, I will, so there’s no revenue to be gained there, so we are dependent on the good will of our subscribers to keep us going. This is not to say I feel like they don’t get anything out of the bargain—it’s not charity. But our service--entertainment—is the reward for those who are willing to part with 50 cents.

NRAMA: As you venture back into the homegrown comics arena that you started out in, is the more intimate personal involvement of it all something you enjoy, or is it more a means to an end?

SI: Well, it’s nice to own the work you produce, and to get to decide exactly how and when it gets seen by its audience. We have a number of ideas we’d like to realize, but I have no illusions that they would be able to sustain us financially—at least, not at this stage. I have only half-joked about early retirement at the end of my contract with Marvel. I’m not sure what I want to do in five years, but it would be nice to split my time more evenly with work I’m, as you say, intimately involved with as well as work that will pay bills. This isn’t to say I don’t approach my mainstream work with the utmost professionalism, but clearly the motivations are not uniform.

NRAMA: Do you see any ability to reconcile your personal work with the "mainstream" work you do? Some possible melding or fusion? If not, can you explain why you don't see that happening?

SI: Sure, I'd like to have a career based around only doing work that I owned, or co-owned, but financially, I don't see it happening for a few years yet. In a nutshell, the webcomics are a way of exploring that as a possibility in, say, a five-year window. We're seriously looking into the numbers that would be required for sustainability, but there are too many rogue factors at the moment... plus, I have a contract to fulfill.

As to a merging of personal and mainstream, that's kind of up to the public-- if ballroom dancing comics took off, that becomes mainstream. While I don't see myself pursuing "super-mundane" comics-- you know, the personal side of Doctor Strange or something-- I'm not opposed to genre-based work, either. Shockrockets perhaps epitomizes that mode, but to be locked into one style or one type of comic would be awfully stifling for me. I've been serially monogamous with independent work, superheroes, science fiction, back to superheroes... it's almost time for the pendulum to swing again

NRAMA: These web comics, as well as your other non-superhero comics, express themselves as humorous but also satirical in nature. It this a conscious decision to go this route, or is it your natural tone for writing?

SI: I hadn’t thought about it much… it’s partly the format of a serialized strip, but I suppose even my superhero writing would not have been considered conventional. I’m not so much a fan of reading satire, so I don’t know where that comes from. Bitterness. Anger at everyone and everything, but mostly at myself.

NRAMA: Is your personal comics work in some ways a stress reliever, or at least a punching bag, to get out frustrations you might have?

SI: Oh, yeah, sure. But it's also a way to shake out the tropes of storytelling and composition that tend to build up. Like endurance athletes, you can either work through the lactic acid buildup and maybe collapse at the finish, or take a series of brief moments to cool down and refresh. I find it very tempting to compose a page the same way, draw a face the same way... and that doesn't seem like a good thing. I think it's important to look at each project with new eyes, and this is one way I achieve it.

NRAMA: You've said in previous interviews that your introduction to comics was via a Peanuts paperback collection from your older brother in the mid-1970s. Fast forward 30 some years and you're an in-demand cartoonist yourself. But looking back at that first taste, can you still relate to the Schulz work as an adult, and how?

SI: The extensive interview from The Comics Journal a few years ago was very telling for me. I go back to it every now and then to keep myself humble. Schulz represents the absolute pinnacle of success in this field, and yet he was so troubled and dissatisfied with how comics have continued to be perceived by the general public. There’s very little “Great Art” in comics—I don’t have any illusions about that—but it’s a valid entertainment form, and worthy of some respect.

Schulz tapped into something so personal, laid it all out and kept it entertaining… it’s a remarkable gift. I can only dream of achieving the kind of impact he had. Like the Beatles, however, I don’t think it’s repeatable.

Come back tomorrow for Part 2 of our Q&A with Stuart Immonen, where we discuss his recent work on Marvel's Nextwave, as well as his past work on Legion of Superheroes and … 2 Live Krew!?