Posted in: Comics, Recent Updates | Tagged: Comics

Talking To Shawn Demumbrum About SpazDog

Published Wed, 13 Jun 2012 16:00:12 -0500

Last updated Thu, 14 Jun 2012 08:02:44 -0500

Sometimes there are creators out there that just don't care what the rules are and the % of failure in the comic book business as a Self Publisher. However, Shawn Demumbrum of SpazDog comics actually did just that. His work on Unite and Take Over. Stories inspired by the Songs of the Smiths, was a huge international success. He did what most creators wouldn't do on their first big comic release. He created a huge team of writers and artist and he also meet all his deadlines. He is a very strong backer of Kick-starter and also a devoted leader in the community for all the creators new and seasoned. Over the last three years, I have watched him grow in this business. I have never hesitated to pick up the phone and give him a call on a ideal or question. As his second book has come out on the Smiths, I have asked him to talk to the Bleeding Cool fans about Self Publishing and his new project coming out Break the Walls: Stories Inspired by the Songs of the Pixies.

Have you always lived in Arizona?

My family moved to Arizona from Indiana in 1979 to escape the winters in 1979. Indiana had suffered a terrible blizzard in 1978 which was the straw that broke the camel's back for my father. We had visited my aunt in Tucson and my parents fell in love with the desert. I've lived in Phoenix, with the exception of a 6 month job in Cincinnati, ever since.

Do you remember your first comic? Favorite writer growing up?

I grew up in the 70s, so comic books came in different forms. You could read them as Little Big Books, stories collect in paperbacks, traditional comic books and super-sized Treasury Editions, so I don't remember what my first book was. I do have three comics from my childhood in my collection. I have an Incredible Hulk, a Star Wars and a Green Arrow/Green Lantern comic.

My favorite writer growing up was Stephen King. I read everything that he wrote. In comic books, following a writer across titles has been a relatively recent thing for me. I read anything that Mark Millar writes.

Did you doodle a lot growing up?

I received the Empire Strike Back Sketchbook for a gift. I must have memorized every image in that book. After reading that book, I wanted to be a storyboard artist. I drew a little as a kid, but eventually my desire to write overcame my need to draw.

When did you know writing was what you wanted to do?

In fourth grade, I wrote a short story Mr. Chips in the 25th Century about my dog and represented my school in Young Author's Day. I wrote a few short stories in grade school including a story that pitted Motley Crue against Prince and a Star Wars story that I obtained permission from Lucasfilm to use their characters. My senior year of high school I started carrying a notebook and pen around with me to write ideas down. Some of that work got published in an Honors College publication at ASU. The real reason I started writing comics was because my kids wanted to create comics for Free Comic Book Day in 2009. I wrote two scripts for them over two days, Spazzy the Superdog and Annoying Cactus Boy. By the time I finished, they weren't interested anymore, but the desire to write comics was there. I wrote comic called Matt Fraction, Man of Action, which detailed the fictionalized exploits of real life writer Matt Fraction. After showing local artists my scripts, they were interested in collaborating with me on comics. Ernie Najera was the first artist to work with me. He came to me with the idea of a Vietnam War super solider who comes home to people calling him baby killer and spitting on him instead of the praise and adulation that a WWII super soldier might get. We started the Old Man Clem story decades after his return from the war and a period of social isolation. My second collaboration was with Matt Goodall on Sonic Youth about parents who discover their child has the power of sonic scream. I worked with Jacques La Grange to bring his Shadow Wolf story to life. It is a sprawling epic tale of a Native American from the Old West who wakes up Rip Van Winkle/Buck Rogers style to a dystopian future where people are herded up, hair shaved and barcode tattooed. I even worked on a color comic/web comic/animation pitch with Derrick "Dadicus" West called The Purge about the world's greatest supervillain who walks into a supervillain bar and orders an appletini. All of these experiences prepared me for the music anthology books I've been publishing lately.

In the time that your were a Comic book store owner was it all that you thought it would be?

Owning a comic book store was a roller coaster of emotions. I loved the people. I loved racking comics every Wednesday. I loved hosting events with local creators and introducing people to each other in the comic community who had never met. The best day of my retailer life was the day before we closed the doors, December 30, 2009. It was a skip week also dubbed Independents Week. Marvel and DC weren't putting out their regular titles that week, so we ordered a lot of independent comics that week (including Brandon Dayton's Green Monk). I invited 30 local comic book creators and the shop was packed. I got to spend the day with some of my closest creator friends. It was more of a wake than a funeral.

The things I don't miss are the three break-ins we had, people dumping their trash in my store dumpster, and the decline in my health from working a full time job in addition to running the store that resulted in my decision to buy out my lease and close the store.

Did the experience as a store owner help you get into self publishing a tad easier or was this just part of the overall plan?

Before opening the store, I had considered publishing. I read Larry Young's True Facts. Ultimately, I decided to open a retail store instead. During the three years I owned the store, I met a lot of up and coming local artists. I also learned a lot about comic readers tastes and potential comic book readers wants. I still need to figure out how to write an interesting sports or skate board story and I'll own that market. For Free Comic Book Day, we published two SpazDog Comics comics, which included sketches of our mascot, SpazDog, interpreted by different artists. Ben Templesmith's is still one of my favorites.

How much of it was trial by error? Did you have a mentor guide you through the process?

I talked to a lot of people about the process and read a lot of books. There was a lot of trial and error. I couldn't have published Unite and Take Over without Christy Moeller's help though. The reason that book looks so professional is in large part due to her work on it.

What was your first book with your name on it?

SpazDog Presents #1, which featured the first appearance of Old Man Clem, was the first book with my name on the cover.

Unite and Take Over was a huge success last year. How did you cope with all the different personalities (over 30+ creators) in the making of this book?

I was lulled into a naïve confidence having worked with the SpazDog Press guys. Overall everyone was great to work with, but there were some interesting challenges that came up during the production including dropping a few stories and replacing artists. I had to be flexible, leave buffer space in the schedule and know when to go a different direction quickly.

What did you take away the most from this experience both as a Editor and the Creator?

Being a Creator is a lot easier than an Editor. As a creator, you write a story according to your vision, working with an artist to obtain your vision, and let the public decide if they like it.

As an editor, you have to balance your need to publish a story with deadlines, make sure that the story fits inside the theme of the book, keep tabs of the progress, and maintain quality control. Editing requires a lot more finesse than a creator does. I was working with a lot of friends on the first anthology book, but ultimately I had to make decisions to make the best book possible for all of the people working on it. When I started the first volume, I didn't have any guidelines. By the time I started the second volume, I had a list of story criteria.

Is Kickstarter for everybody?

Yes, the reason why is because Kickstarter is very democratic. People vote with their dollars. If your comic book project is mediocre, uninspired or overpriced, it won't be funded. If the project is unique or you have an established fan base, you probably will be funded. You have to treat Kickstarter as a job. Kickstarter has a built in base of backers, but you need to drive people toward your project. You get out of Kickstarter what you put into it. Expecting to post a project and have it funded without work is unrealistic.

Does Kickstarter in anyway dilute the way comics are now produced, by making it so that almost anybody can do a project?

I think Kickstarter could be a gateway to comics. Someone might help fund a comic based on the idea and decide they want to read more comics based upon it. It also allows people who have a very niche idea to find backers from all over the world who wouldn't find their work in their local stores. I see Kickstarter as a way to get people interested in comics rather than competing for readers in the reader base. Obviously with more well known creators starting to use Kickstarter to prove the viability of some of their less mainstream projects, there will be some regular comic book readers backing projects, but there is a really opportunity to bring in infrequent or new comic book readers.

Tell us about your new project? Can you talk a little about your Pixies project coming up?

My latest project is a continuation of the "stories inspired by" music anthologies that I've been publishing. It's called Break the Walls: Stories Inspired by the Songs of the Pixies. As with the two volumes of Smiths inspired songs, each creative team creates a song inspired by their favorite Pixies songs. Most stories are not direct translations or comic book music videos, but moreso use the song as a theme, mood, or jumping off point.

There's just so much talent out there is it harder now picking your team?

Actually, in a lot of ways, my job has gotten easier. When I first approached people, I was known for creating ash cans, so I think that was what a lot of people thought the end product would look like. The project got a lot of press thanks to Bleeding Cool and the Guardian. I started getting people approaching me to be on the book. Once the first volume was published, I could show them what we had in mind and that made it much easier to recruit people for future books even if they didn't like the Smiths personally.

The % of successful self published comics is very small. What can you tell the new crop of creators coming up into the self publishing world?

Some people will disagree with me, but being published in comics is all a matter of size and scope. With six pieces of paper, a pencil and pen, I could create a 24 page comic, photocopy it and distribute it to the first 10 people I saw. Following that strategy, I could be a published comic book creator for less than $20. Now print up more copies, take them to local comic book shops to carry and I am a step up in the comic book creator food chain. Digitally letter it, format it to comic size and print it through a POD gets me another step up. Hire someone to write/ink/letter/color it and print it through a traditional printer gets me even higher. Get a number of retailers across the nation or a distributor to pick up the book and I'm at the top of the comic creator food chain. I started out publishing hand-stapled ash cans of our comics, so you don't have to have full scale color comic books to start your career. Just start telling your stories and build a fan base, even if you have to give them away at first.

Where can we find you the next couple of months? Where On the web?

I'll be attending San Diego Comic-con as a professional, but won't have a table. On the web, you can follow my weekly Kickstarter column here on Bleeding Cool. You can follow me on Twitter under SpazDog or like the SpazDog Press fan page. You can also visit our webpage, spazdogpress.com.

Three creators you would love to work with in the future?

Three creators. That's hardly fair. Here's my top 10:

Worldwide:

Simone Bianchi – His covers for the Batman books were incredible, but his interiors for Wolverine were even better. Even among the top realist comic artists, he reigns supreme.

Nationally:

Kevin Maguire – I started seriously collecting comics post-Crisis on Infinite Earths. Kevin's art on Justice League was perfect for the Giffen and DeMatteis' scripts that required very specific facial expressions to pull off. In the hands of another artist, the delivery wouldn't have been as effect.

Norm Breyfogle – I grew up with Neal Adam's Batman as "The Batman" on t-shirts and posters as a kid. Jim Aparo's Batman was "The Batman" when I started collecting comics. Norm Breyfogle really changed how Batman was drawn. His Batman was less realistically drawn, but I wouldn't call it cartoony. For the first time that I could remember, the Batman costume and cape were almost a separate character in the art.

Jason Shawn Alexander – I'm not a big horror fan, but Jason's work on Damn Nation got me to read it. He seems pretty busy with all of his gallery work, but I would love to see him in comics again.

Indy:

Rhode Montijo – Pablo's Inferno is one of my favorite comics. The combination of Mexican mythology and unique art style and storytelling is why I recommend this book all the time. Every year I go to San Diego and come home with one of Rhode's books or prints.

Rob Osborne – I met Rob not long after he won the 1^st annual Isotope Award for Excellence in Mini-Comics for his comic 1000 Steps to World Domination. His focus lately has been on creating original prints, but I really wish we would see new sequential art from him.

Brandon Dayton – Stories without words are incredibly difficult to tell. You either succeed or fail miserably. There is no middle ground. Brandon's Green Monk is one of those successes. I'd like to work with him with or without words.

Locally:

Ryan Cody – Almost 4 years ago, I witnessed Ryan complete a 24 hour Comic Book Day comic in less than 24 hours. It's a rare feat. Ryan's 24 hour comic was also an exceptional story that could have easily sold next to any other comic that week. He drew a Pixies story for Joshua Hale Fialkov and wrote a Pixies story for Scott Godlewski, but I would love to work with him personally on a project.

Scott Godlewski – Scott has been able to work on a few comics for Boom! Studios, but I still consider him a local guy at heart because he is so humble about his artwork. I believe in him so much I started a "Mike Marts hire Scott Godlewski for a Batman comic book" and "Scotty is God!" Facebook fan pages. Someday I'll work with him.

Jason Pedersen – I've worked with Jason on the covers of the last two Unite and Take Over book, but I really want to work with him on a story. Hopefully, I can get on his schedule before someone swoops in and signs this up and coming comic book artist.

Enjoyed this? Please share on social media!