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.
Gangster graphic novel makes move to iPhone
Award-winning graphic novelist Neil Kleid is taking his Jewish gangster graphic novel, “Brownsville,” to the iPhone.
“The process is definitely exciting,” Kleid said in a recent interview. “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.”
“Brownsville,” from publisher NBM, is the story of Murder, Incorporated, the Jewish hit operation of the 1920s and ’30s.
Contest gives Moore writer a chance at dream
WORD BALLOONS
A Moore man seeks a $700 prize and his shot at small-press fame as part of the sixth annual “Small Press Idol” contest from Dimestore Productions.
Brad Huffman-Parent is the writer of “Steel Rising,” which made it to the second round of the competition. Voting in the second round continues through April 30. Forty-two projects entered Round 1; of those, 27 have moved on to Round 2.
While Huffman-Parent can’t say much about the story as part of the contest, he did share that it’s a twist on classic fantasy.
“One day I just started thinking about how the standard fantasy characters would act and interact in the modern world,” Huffman-Parent said. “But I didn’t want to just stick them in the modern world for them to have an old-style adventure. This is a world very, very close to ours, but with elves, dwarves and orcs; a reality (where) things have evolved just a bit differently. I thought hard about how these characters would integrate realistically into the modern world.”
Huffman-Parent moved to Moore in 2001 when he was stationed at Tinker Air Force Base. He left active duty in 2007, taking a pay cut to spend more time with his family. “I’ve decided to really dedicate myself this year to getting somewhere with my writing and hopefully turn it into a full-time career.”
Huffman-Parent is working with three artists to bring “Steel Rising” to life. They met via the Internet; and while they’ve never met in person, Huffman-Parent says they meld well as creators. Brad Thingvold is the penciller, who designed the characters of “Steel Rising.” Inker Joe Armour is also a makeup effects artist, writer/director/producer and a 3-D modeler/animator. And Armour has some comics history in his family, Huffman-Parent said: Armour is the nephew of George “Inky” Roussous, who was an inker for Jack Kirby. Armour is designing the logo for the series. The color will be provided by Michael Summers.
In the second round, Huffman-Parent and his artists will create bios and various poses of the characters in the series, as well as an official logo. From this round, 20 projects will advance to Round 3. Round 3 will require three completed pages of sequential art; the fourth round requires a full 12-page story.
To vote for “Steel Rising,” go online to www.dimestoreproductions.com and sign up. Voting takes place in the Forum, under the heading “Idol judging.”
By Matthew Price
From Friday’s The Oklahoman
Q&A with Brad Huffman-Parent of Steel Rising
Brad Huffman-Parent, who is the writer of “Steel Rising,” a contestant in the Small Press Idol competition at dimestoreproductions.com, answered some questions for The Oklahoman about his project.
Matt Price: Tell me about the competition.
Brad Huffman-Parent: Small Press Idol is a huge opportunity for independent creators to get noticed. This is its 6th year and the biggest one ever. 42 projects entered into Round 1 and 27 of those have moved on to Round 2.
The requirements for Round 1 were a basic premise/pitch write-up and a rough cover image.
Round 2 is all about the characters– bios, front, 3/4, and side view of each character, plus 3 action poses for each. And also the official logo that will appear on the cover. From here 20 projects will advance to Round 3.
Round 3 is where the real challenge starts. All projects that advance will have to submit 3 completed pages of sequential art, penciled, inked, and lettered (and grayscale if you want). These can be any 3 pages from your planned #0 issue or origin story, but they have to be in order.
And from there a number to be determined will advance to Round 4 which is the full 12 page 0 issue story, with completed cover and logo. The #0’s will be available for sale, and the grand prize winner will be the book that sells the most copies.
This year, the Grand Prize will be a 4-issue commitment from the Dimestore Imprint to sponsor the launching of a series based on the winning concept, with an option to continue with it if successful. The Winner will also get half of the entry fee monies taken in as a bonus payout, as well as money paid into the prize pool by sponsors, which is $700.
MP: What inspired your entry?
BH-P: I have a love/hate relationship with fantasy. I love to read it, but hate that so much of it is unoriginal and makes me feel like I’m just reading the same story with slightly different characters. I’m always looking for the new twist to my old favorites and one day I just started thinking about how the standard fantasy characters would act and interact in the modern world. But I didn’t want to just stick them in the modern world for them to have an old style adventure. This is a world very, very close to ours, but with elves, dwarves, and orcs a reality things have evolved just a bit differently. I thought hard about how these characters would integrate realistically into the modern world.
I can’t really say much about the story due to the contest restrictions, but there are a lot of political and social issues that I plan to explore. But I won’t beat people over the head with those as the main goal is to tell a fun action-packed story.
MP: Tell me about the artists you’re working with.
BH-P: What can I say about the art team? I may be the guy with the ideas, but none of this would exist without them. I found them by posting on internet forums, we’re spread across the country and have never met, but we all mold together perfectly.
First we have Brad Thingvold on pencils. He’s the first one I met and really should be credited as co-creator. I had some basic idea of what I wanted the characters to look like, but he’s the one that designed them and brought them to life as they exist now.
Surpisingly he’s only had his work published once before in a 9 page short for an anthology. Besides that he’s been honing his craft and putting together samples. I was lucky to grab him before someone else did because he has some serious skills. I’m really impressed with what he’s put together so far.
Next is our tracer, I mean inker, Joe Armour. He’s the “royalty” of the team, being the nephew of legendary inker George “Inky” Roussos. It’s some cool little history, but he doesn’t need to do any name dropping as he’s amazingly talented all on his own.
In addition to inking Joe is a special makeup effects artist, 3D modeler/ animator, and film writer/director/producer. He’s designing the logo for the book alongside his inking duties.
Finally we have Michael Summers doing colors. I don’t have much to say about him as he doesn’t say a whole lot, but he gets stuff done and gets it done well. He loves Photo Shop and he knows how to use it.
SPX report from I Love Rob Liefeld
The blog I Love Rob Liefeld reports on the Small Press Expo this past weekend in Bethesda, Md. I went to this every year for a while, and I love digging up small-press gems. I don’t know when my next trip out will be, so I’ll have to just quietly be jealous that other people have the Becky Cloonan minicomic “5″ (pictured) and I do not.
– Matt Price
Web series, interactive game, or both?
Proving that it always pays to comment on my blog, I checked out Deleted: The Game over the weekend. It’s a web series that’s also part interactive game — users can decipher clues left in the episode and online. Here’s the info from the site:
DELETED: THE GAME is a web TV show that promises to blur the lines between fantasy and reality by drawing viewers into an interactive game. The show revolves around Tyler who is struggling to piece together her life after a traumatic incident left her with a memory failure condition. During the show’s first season, she finds herself embroiled in a conspiracy. Finding herself overwhelmed, Tyler seeks help from her online friends. The producers have hidden a trail of clues in each episode, all over the internet and selected real locations, setting up a massive search for clues. For their participation, viewers earn points towards prizes including an all-expenses paid trip to meet the cast at the end of the season.
Four episodes have been released so far. While I don’t have time to keep up with the gameplay aspects of it, it seems pretty innovative, and I could see something like this happening more in the future. The show’s pretty good, as well.
– Matt Price
Independent creators and Comic-Con
SAN DIEGO — Alex Robinson, Josh Howard, Dave Dwonch, Ryan Dunlavey, Fred Van Lente and Bobby Crosby talked to NewsOK.com at Comic-Con International.
Comics podcast: Dresden Files, X-Men: Divided We Stand, Captain America
George Lang and I discuss “Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files” No. 1, “X-Men: Divided We Stand” No. 1 and “Captain America” No. 37 on this week’s comics podcast.
This week is the one-year anniversary of the comics podcast at NewsOK.com kicking off, and George was part of the first one, so it was nice to have him back to wrap up the first year. I’d like to thank George and my other most frequent podcast collaborators, Greg Elwell and Kyle Roberts, as well as the other guests and guest hosts we’ve had on the comics podcast over the last year.
– Matt Price
Oni Press announces big “Barry Ween,” “Tek Jansen” #2
Oni Press has announced its solicitations for June, 2008.
In addition to new issues of “Love the Way You Love,” “Wasteland” and “Resurrection,” Judd Winick’s “Barry Ween” gets collected. All 12 issues are put together in a $19.95 softcover. Barry Ween is a super-genius, foul-mouthed kid who conducts experiments, travels through time, and battles strange creatures in this hilarious mature-readers comic.
Also, the long-awaited “Tek Jansen” No. 2 is scheduled for a June 25 release, with a re-release of issue No. 1 planned for June 18. Based on the adventures of a fictional character created by Stephen Colbert, “Tek Jansen” is clever space-fantasy parody. Oni says, about issue No. 2: “Galaxy-hero-super-awesome-spectacular-ultra-spy Tek jansen takes it back to school in his second cosmic comic book adventure!
When a misunderstanding ends with a demotion for Tek, the spaceman is busted down and forced to return to the academy that shaped him into the man he is today! Don’t miss out on the comic book that’ll have you exclaiming, ‘Apollo Creed!’”
– Matt Price
Jackman, Virgin team for “Nowhere Man”
Virgin Comics reports that Hugh Jackman, “Wolverine” from the X-Men films and the upcoming “Wolverine,” will team up with “Wolverine” comic-book writer Marc Guggenheim to create the comic-book series “Nowhere Man.”
The story is reported to be a science fiction odyssey in a future in which mankind has traded privacy for safety.
“I’ve had so much fun in the graphic novel world with the X-MEN franchise that I wanted to get even more involved,” said Jackman in a release. “I am so excited to work with Virgin and Marc and create a compelling character and story that hopefully will also make it to the big screen.”
Virgin will team with Seed Productions, Jackman’s production company with producer John Palermo, to create the comic series and then take it into film and other areas, according to the release.
– Matt Price
