100 Days, 100 Comics #14: ‘B.P.R.D.: 1947’ #2

I wrote back in July about how much I enjoyed the first issue of the latest B.P.R.D. mini. I initially thought this second issue was going to be a bit weaker, but then the glorious baroque witch hurricane blew in straight out of the horror reduxed Mary Poppins trailer, and the thing got sailing with … Read more100 Days, 100 Comics #14: ‘B.P.R.D.: 1947’ #2

100 Days, 100 Comics #13: ‘Blackest Night: Batman’ #2

“Merry Christmas! And here I thought guns were on the ‘things we don’t use’ list.” –Robin That line from the early splash page in this issue really sums up my amusement with it. “Blackest Night” at it’s most basic level is a green light for ultra-violent fights that don’t actually kill people because the enemies … Read more100 Days, 100 Comics #13: ‘Blackest Night: Batman’ #2

100 Days, 100 Comics #12: ‘Citizen Rex’ #1

Hernandez Bros. stories are always enticing when I find a new one getting underway at the shop, and this new sci-fi mini Citizen Rex by Mario and Gilbert includes a lot of the organs and parts that come standard — mesmerizing line work, pungently inspired genre tones and moments that you can feel yourself enjoying … Read more100 Days, 100 Comics #12: ‘Citizen Rex’ #1

100 Days, 100 Comics #11: ‘Red Tornado’ #1

Telling around 2/3 of a comic in action and narrative boxes can be screwed up pretty easily, and the second I cracked this one open, an initial wince of trepidation walked me into the story. Thankfully, writer Kevin VanHook uses some of the best word economy I’ve seen, and this was actually a very balanced … Read more100 Days, 100 Comics #11: ‘Red Tornado’ #1

Warmoth on Webcomics: John Allison

[Editor’s Note: This is the seventh in a staggered out series of some of my favorite webcomics creator interviews that previously ran on WizardUniverse.com and were a part of the site’s archives that are no longer hosted there. John Allison’s Scary Go Round just posted its final installment and in going back through the archives I decided to drag this out for the blog. This interview was originally posted on December 22, 2006.]

Scary Go Round
(from Scary Go Round by John Allison)

John Allison’s webcomic Scary Go Round stitches a world of frightfully bizarre and at times even Lovecraftian happenings together with a brilliantly quirky cast indicative of his understatedly British sense of humor. A former web designer, Allison has made the lifestyle switch to working on his comic full time and designing snazzy T-shirts, which he sells on the side. I reached around the globe to gently pick Allison’s brain about the webcomics scene from where he stands, how he brought up Scary Go Round and when he’s coming back to the U.S.

Before you had started your first webcomic, Bobbins, what was your comics background like, what had you done, and why did you decide to give the Internet a go for publishing it?

I had no comics background at all! I had drawn comics like every comic-reading youth does—sporadically, and badly! When I was 17 or 18 I had an idea about drawing comics for common people, because I was embarrassed to go into comic shops with my friends. This was the era of “bad girl” comics and racks of covers with giant, anatomically bizarre cleavage. Comic books, [before] the manga explosion and mainstreaming of titles like Ghost World and the crossover of people like James Kochalka, seemed to be aimed at a tiny demographic that didn’t include me anymore. So I decided to make a comic strip (which I figured was “legit”) and submit it to syndicates. I colored my black-and-white samples in and put them on the Internet just to show I knew how to color things in, and that’s how I started publishing comics on the web in 1998.

What was your experience like looking for print syndication?

I submitted to King Features and Universal Features, once. The first 25 strip cartoons I had ever drawn! The hubris of this now staggers me but I was young and indestructible. I received nice, encouraging letters back from both—King Features were particularly generous with their comments considering what I had sent them. By the time they replied, I had got a job as a magazine designer but decided to carry on making five comics a week, reasoning that if I hadn’t “made it” in five years, I would give up. I actually drew my first proper month’s wages from my comic four years and 11 months later.

Read moreWarmoth on Webcomics: John Allison

100 Days, 100 Comics #10: ‘Sweet Tooth’ #1

It was a few shades of Faulkner with some Cormac McCarthian isolation and this eerily subdued Tromaville meets Narnia vibe, but I think main reason Jeff Lemire’s Sweet Tooth just fit its hooks into me from issue one really came down to its raging amount of mystery and possibility that it uses to hollow out … Read more100 Days, 100 Comics #10: ‘Sweet Tooth’ #1

100 Days, 100 Comics #7: ‘Justin M. Damiano’

This Dan Clowes 4-pager comes from the short story anthology The Book of Other People, which I picked for road reading on the way out to the Finger Lakes Wine Festival earlier this year. It’s a bitter icepick of a character explanation, but as far as stories titled with names go, it fits right in … Read more100 Days, 100 Comics #7: ‘Justin M. Damiano’