Q&A with Neil Kleid of Brownsville, The Big Kahn
Neil Kleid first came to my attention as the writer/artist of the Xeric-winning “Ninety Candles,” an innovative graphic novel in which each panel represented a year. Here’s what I wrote about the book in early 2005, naming Ninety Candles one of the best graphic novels of the year:
Neil Kleid’s experimental “Ninety Candles” follows the life of cartoonist Kevin Hall, with one panel representing each year of Hall’s life. The book was done improvisationally, with no pre-existing script — each day represented in the book was created in a day.
Kleid has since created the Jewish gangster story “Brownsville,” coming to the iPhone via Panelfly, and one of the best graphic novels of 2009, “The Big Kahn.” The following is a Q&A with Kleid about those projects.
Matt Price: Tell me about the process of taking Brownsville to the iPhone. Was reformatting involved? Did you have involvement in the process?
Neil Kleid: Not really — basically, NBM Publishing handed off the files to the boys and girls at Panelfly and they went to town, making the classic mob drama available for your handheld electronical telephonic listening devices. Jake and I? We just watched with awe.
The process is definitely exciting. Each and every day another smart phone comes to market—be it iPhone, Pre, Droid or Blackberry—and the comic book industry is matching them stride for stride. The only thing, as a cartoonist or graphic novelist you really need to do is change your point of view, understand that this is the limitless new horizon and get on board.
MP: What do you think makes a comic or graphic novel a good candidate for the iPhone?
NK: There are definitely certain comics/GNS more suited to a smart phone viewer than others. For instance, as a creator who has seen his work shrunk from standard 6×9 pages to digest I’ve noticed the benefits of having pages with fewer panels, lighter dialogue, stronger art. Taking a nine-panel Giffen grid down to an iPhone may not work as well as a four-panel manga (that is, unless you display the story panel by panel…!). Brighter art, easy to read panels, clear transitions —these are all elements needed for optimum smart phone reading.
That being said, I’m the dude that packs 6 panels on a page so maybe my book isn’t the optimum candidate, either. Looks pretty in yer hand-phone, though.
MP: Tell me about the series, for those who might be unfamiliar.
NK: BROWNSVILLE is the story of Murder Incorporated, the Jewish hit operation working out of East New York, under the thumb of Jewish gangster Louis Lepke Buchalter in the ‘20s and ‘30s. It’s a true story, following the intertwined lives of Allie “Tick Tock” Tannenbaum and Abe “Kid Twist” Reles as they immerse themselves in the gang-infested streets of Brooklyn and Lower Manhattan, work their way to the top and then rat everyone out. If you’re a sucker for a good mob movie, and you’d like to expand your Mafia horizons beyond Michael Corleone, “Goodfellas”, Lucky Luciano and the SOPRANOS, this is the book for you.
MP: Can you tell me about your artist on Brownsville?
NK: Jake Allen is a prince among men—that is, if those men are all poor, underappreciated inkslingers devoted to the sequential arts and a slave to detail. The man’s work is so refined that he draws every building’s brick, every herringbone in your suit, every shadow, nook, cranny and dramatic detail in a story that asks a great deal from a first time graphic illustrator. And Jake? He delivers.
MP: Of course, this year, your critically acclaimed The Big Kahn graphic novel hit the shelves. Could you describe that for me?
NK: THE BIG KAHN is my second book for NBM Publishing, moving my Judeocentric writing arena to 
present day New Jersey, and in particular to the funeral of Rabi David Kahn, noted scholar, loving husband and father, pulpit Rabbi to a congregation for forty years. The only problem? Rabbi Kahn was never Jewish, rather an Irish con man who fell into a new life after falling in love, according to the “Rabbi’s” long-estranged, newly arrived brother Roy. The book explores the aftermath of the revelation, focusing in on the late Rabbi’s wife and children who are forced to examine their lives in the wake of the bombshell. It asks questions of faith, religion, legacy and lies, shining its light on a family secret so well-hidden even the family didn’t know about it until it was too late.
Inspired by the HBO series SIX FEET UNDER and sources like the novel “Matchstick Men” and THE STING, made relatable by the Bernie Madoff scandal and elements of AMC’s MAD MEN, this book is a must-have for anyone interested in the societal implications of a world where everyone lies. Everyone. Even we.
MP: And tell me about the artist on The Big Kahn.
NK: The artist on KAHN is my pal Nicolas Cinquegrani, a talented Chilean illustration who came to my 
attention via the interweb and the pretty pictures he posts there that friends showed to me one night. I was blown away by Nico’s delicate yet grounded imagery, the subtle, stark appeal to his characters and the possibilities of that art applied to my stark tale of human failings. I don’t regret emailing him one bit. Not one bit.
MP: The Big Kahn touches on the themes of identity and reinvention. What appeals to you about these themes?
NK: Who doesn’t know what it’s like to fight for a second chance? You say things, do things that mark you in a certain way and have to struggle to toss of the invisible brand. Classic journey of self-discovery and renewal for a character to go through, yes? They say better writers drop their character in unfamiliar territories, forcing them to find their way back, fight their way through to retribution. What better road for a Rabbi to walk than one paved with doubts, failings and accusations based on the sins of his father, sins that if never undertaken might have meant an entirely different life for his sons and daughter?
As it happens, during the time I was writing BIG KAHN I was going through a bit of an identity crisis myself. I’d moved to New York from Detroit, having left the isolated womb of my family home and the Jewish 
community surrounding it. Here I was, outside the ghetto and in the World, where anything could happen and I could be whoever I wanted. Unfortunately, several circumstances and scenarios brought me through trials of my own —professional, creative, financial, romantic — and the only comfort and grounding I could find was back in the ghetto, the protective womb of the Jewish community I was fighting to escape. I wanted to find out who I was — as a Jew, as an artist, as a writer, as a son, friend, brother, boyfriend, son of G-d — and this introspection and the questions that arose found their way into THE BIG KAHN,
MP: What other projects do you have in the works?
NK: Currently I’m in a gestating year, working on projects that won’t see the light of day for a while. Writing this, writing that and hoping it sticks somewhere… but the nice bit of news for 2010 is that I’m devoting myself back to my roots, the pencil, pen and ink I abandoned to script and plot.
This year, I’ll dive back into cartooning as I knock out a 4-page story for an unannounced Big Time anthology and then I’ll hunker down to work on my second drawn graphic novel (the first being 2003’s Xeric-award winning NINETY CANDLES) for a Big Time publisher. In and around those two projects, POP will finally see the light of day —it’s a five issue miniseries about tabloid Hollywood, celebutantes, publicists and the most evil woman in the world. I co-wrote it with Dan Taylor, it’s illustrated by Chris Moreno and it’s coming out from IDW Publishing in some form this year. I’m also toying with prose again, writing my second novel as I prepare to unleash my first, COFFIN, to the masses via print on demand delivery. So here’s hoping THAT doesn’t blow up in my face.
And, as always, working working working. Goonies never say die.
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