MattBrady
11-27-2002, 05:29 PM
Comics don’t come with titles more descriptive than David Yurkovich’s December-shipping Altercations: A History of Super-Hero Activity in 20th Century North America. In the 64-page graphic novel, Yurkovich chronicles, decade by decade, altercations between super heroes and their enemies, from the beginning of the 20th century through the 1940s. Newsarama.com spoke with Yurkovich about the project, its origin, and its scope.
With such acclaimed projects as The Broccoli Agenda, Death by Chocolate, and Threshold under his belt, the Xeric-Award winning creator explained that Altercations has been bubbling in his mind for some time, waiting to boil, and again approaches superheroes from his own particular angle.
“The genesis of Altercations dates back to the s.h.o.p. [super-heroes of Philadelphia] which I published in 1999,” Yurkovich said. “On the inside front cover of the book, I wrote a short ‘history’ of super-heroics and mentioned a few ‘big’ events of the 20th century. It was all done quickly, in a stream of conscious manner.
“Shortly thereafter I began to contemplate developing a large project, initially intending to create an exhaustive history of super-heroes in 20th century North America. After spending a few weeks reacquainting myself with 20th century U.S. history, I realized I would need to tighten the reigns and narrow the focus. Ultimately, I chose to create a story from each decade, which I hoped would either: 1. reflect upon an historical event, 2. depict the state of mind of the culture during the time, or 3. mirror the escalation of violence in America.”
Yurkovich originally planned for Altercations to cover all of the 20th century in one volume, but later changed his plan to release the work as two volumes.
“Following Haunted in October of 2000, I reached a point of burn out,” Yurkovich said. “I’d drawn nearly two chapters of Altercations [chapters 6 and 7] and decided to take a week or two away from illustration. The break quickly escalated into several months, during which time I felt an urgency to create, but simultaneously felt unable to create. It’s a very self-destructive dichotomy in which to find oneself. From talking with other artists it happens from time to time.
“Finally, around April 2001, I returned to drawing Altercations. I finished chapter 6 and then began chapter 4. But, when I drew page 2 of chapter 4 my initial reaction was disgust! I was terribly disappointed in the quality of my art. I was going to redo the page. At some point, out of boredom I suppose, I started to color the page with colored pencil and marker and eventually redid the entire page in color. I quickly did two more pages in color. In examining the three pages, I quickly rethought the book and the book’s illustrations, ultimately deciding to do the entire project in color.
“Because rendering the pages in full color requires more time than I would need to render in pen and ink, the schedule continued to slip. Eventually, I realized the only way I would finish this project would be to release it as two separate volumes. Originally, the book was supposed to be done November 2001. Here it is December 2002 and volume 1 is, at last, done.”
A chance meeting with noted essayist Alfred Pinchley spurred the creator to ask him if he would write a brief introduction to the book, and to Yurkovich’s surprise, Pinchley agreed to write opening commentaries for each chapter.
“I’m still not sure how I convinced him to agree to work with me on this project,” Yurkovich said. “Our meeting was entirely accidental but we seemed to have much to talk about with regard to storytelling - not from a graphic storytelling POV, but in general, and essay writing. He provided substantial insight and criticism and really became my toughest critic.”
Yurkovich’s approach to his subject resulted in Altercations reading as a history book from an alternate reality of sorts, with both Yurkovich and Pinchley writing about the episodes and heroes as if they were real people and actual historical events.
“The intent is to provide as little escapism as possible while still presenting characters and events that are much larger than life,” Yurkovich said. “The idea is to remind - or perhaps, convince - readers that these events really happened. We may assume otherwise, that the stories are merely heroic fiction, but the intent behind this project was to approach it from a realistic, almost scholarly, speculative point of view.”
Pinchley took the realism ball and ran with it, often pointedly commenting on how Yurkovich’s version of events was most likely based in fiction, rather than the hard facts of the altercations. At times, Pinchely’s essays almost have a scolding tone to them, chiding Yurkovich for romanticizing or speculating upon events.
It was a tone that surprised even Yurkovich. “I was taken aback at first. But I trust his opinions and I think his comments add a tremendous value to the stories. Mostly, I think he’s just pissed off that his name appears on the cover of the book smaller than mine. Seriously, for someone who is not a comic book fan, he provided a ton of useful background information and reference material.”
The Heroes Themselves
To create representative heroes and villains for the entire 20th century, Yurkovich pulled out some he had already created in his head, or referenced in other works. Mainstream superhero readers will find many of the archetypes present in Altercations - the patriotic hero, the science hero, the bored millionaire, the bored female who’s looking for adventure, the quasi creepy hero with powers no one really understands and dozens more.
And the fact that they all – both heroes and villains seem to know one another, and have personal grudges is something that fits into Yurkovich’s larger scheme.
“My intent with everything I’ve done with regard to comics and heroic prose fiction at <a href="http://www.sleepinggiantcomics.com" target="_blank">www.sleepinggiantcomics.com</a> is that it all fits into a single continuity,” Yurkovich said. “The early pioneer ‘super-hero teams’ such as the 1930s New Dealers, the 1950s Atomic Family, and the 1970s Republic, all paved the way for the current unionized Super-Hero Syndicates that are present throughout the nation today.” [and seen in Yurkovich’s other works, such as Threshold]
Speaking of the change of hero teams over time, Yurkovich explained that the time in which the heroes lived played a large role in their overall character.
“The heroes presented in book 1, which covers the first five decades of the 20th century, are largely ordinary men and women,” Yurkovich said. “These are simple individuals who, in most cases, are noble and pure of spirit, the exception being, perhaps, the New Dealers of the 1930s, but then again, the reliability of the narrator is questionable.”
The narrator’s reliability is seriously brought into question as the stories unfold, and Yurkovich peels back the layers of the heroes.
The Tragic Hero
Given his factual and historical approach to the subject matter, Yurkovich’s heroes come across, first and foremost, as very human, deeply flawed, and very fallible beings, rather than the neo-gods presented in mainstream superhero comics.
“I wanted to present the characters in each character as believable individuals,” Yurkovich explained. “I’ve always done character-driven projects. Death by Chocolate, Threshold, Broccoli Agenda were each extremely character driven. And while I wanted to also maintain a degree of characterization in Altercations, at heart this is a book examining violence and – perhaps - its consequences.”
Case in point, Chapter 1: The First Conflict, a battle between Jonathan Alexander and Aaron Lawson (who would later become the Spatial Man). The two are former friends and lovers who battle on the morning of the great San Francisco earthquake of 1906 – a setting Yurkovich chose on purpose.
“I think it’s highly unlikely they caused the San Francisco earthquake, but the parallel is there,” Yurkovich said. “The parallels are what make this a story of significance. The first ‘altercation’ does not occur on a quiet evening but on the dawn of the Great Quake. Certainly I think that is significant in and of it self.”
Through the remainder of the volume, the heroes reveal their flaws, from The Black Coffin’s drinking problem which leads to his death in the ‘20s; and the spousal abuse suffered by M.R.S. Liberty in the ‘40s; to the menagerie of dark secrets held by the New Dealers in the ‘30s – no one is innocent, and no one is altruistic.
“I think a lot of the characters were/are selfish individuals,” Yurkovich said. “I think there is a moral to some of these tales with regard to that trait. Some of the flaws are obvious, others are implied. These heroes live and die by their actions or inactions; I suppose that is the underlying message of each story in both volumes, mostly.
“These characters are flawed, so while the New Dealers may, on the surface, stand for truth, justice, and liberty, there may be a dark, private side to the team members that is quite contrary to their public actions. We all have skeletons in our closets, even the best of us. If you imagine a person with super-human abilities and a closet full of skeletons; it’s not a pretty image.”
And while the title fits the subject, Yurkovich said he was drawn to explore his heroes via their battles rather than their shining moments thanks, in part, to his sense of pessimism.
“There is a clear theme in most of the stories and the theme is rather bleak, I’m afraid,” Yurkovich said. “In many instances, the idea was to portray pivotal battles, and the battles become more pivotal in the upcoming chapters and ultimately reach a point of critical mass with chapter 9, which depicts an altercation in Seattle, Washington, that was mentioned several times in Threshold as ‘the Battle for Seattle’ but was heretofore never completely told. It will be the most difficult story for me to draw, particularly with regard to America post 9-11. Had the story not been written and storyboarded in 2000, and were it, to me, not such a pivotal event in super-heroics of the late 20th century, I probably would not do it. I will say that the final chapter is much less bleak and more introspective.”
In a way, Yurkovich’s stories of heroes in the first half of the 20th century exhibit and sensibility reminiscent Alan Moore, circa the mid ‘80s, when he and a small handful of creators got readers wondering just what was going on inside the head of a guy who felt compelled to dress in a skintight suit and beat up others nightly.
In Yurkovich’s hands, this approach is applied to heroes which would be classified as Golden Age, and in a sense asks the “what if” questions we all have wondered about. For example – what if a hero’s secret identity was revealed in the Golden Age? The issue is addressed in Chapter 3’s “A Secret Revealed.” Or likewise, what if a villain got tired – and pissed beyond reason at constantly being mocked, beaten and captured by the heroes? Chapter 4, “At the Mercy of the Monopolist” looks at a possible outcome.
The stories in Altercations answer the questions, in a rather realistic way, that your adult mind began to ask after a childhood of superheroes.
The Process
While his progress on the first volume of Altercations was slow, laying down the overall story came quickly to Yurkovich. “The stories were all written and storyboarded rather quickly over a period of two months during the summer of 2000, the exception being chapter 5, the layouts of which were finally completed last month,” Yurkovich said. “Chapter 1 presented the most challenges, with regard to scenery and backstory.
“From the creative side the approach differs more or less with regard to the backgrounds of each story - the fashions, automobiles, household appliances, infrastructure, etc. As an illustrator I find it more interesting and challenging to draw a telephone circa 1920s than today, I would rather draw a 1930s Ford than a 2002 Nissan. Creatively, it is quite freeing.”
Each of the five chapters in Altercations has it’s own unique color scheme, something that was an accident, according to Yurkovich. “The intent was to make each of the five chapters in volume 1 easily identifiable through a dominant color: purple, yellow, red, blue, and green. The stories in volume 2 will be colored inversely to those in chapter 1; thus, the volume 2 color scheme will be green, blue, red, yellow, and purple, respectively, creating, in effect, a full-circle.”
Speaking of volume 2, Yurkovich said that the second Altercations will feature essentially all-new characters, although he isn’t ruling out cameos of the older heroes. A brief rundown of the second set of stories as described by the creator:
“The Atomic Family (1950s). A “red” menace threatens the trio and mom, dad, and junior must save the day.
The Fab Fore (1960s). A bit of homage to Lee and Kirby. A ‘Just Imagine…’ story of sorts that won’t suck. That’s really all I can say about it. Seriously.
The Republic (1970s). John Belushi era super-heroes whose guidance is undermined by a cocaine-addicted leader.
NYSS (1980s). The aforementioned “Battle for Seattle” featuring an early roster of the New York Super-Hero Syndicate and an extremely high death toll.
Threshold (1990s). My first super-hero team returns with the fate of the new millennium on their shoulders. No problem.”
And while volume 1 of Altercations would probably leave even the most optimistic superhero fan with their faith a little shaken, Yurkovich promised that some heroes may finally learn from the mistakes of the past.
“Not all heroes will end up maimed or killed. I guarantee it.”
After altercations, Yurkovich plans to continue exploring superheroes, their actions, and the subsequent consequences.
For more information on Altercations, click http://www.sleepinggiantcomics.com/preview.php]</a> here ( <a href="http://www.sleepinggiantcomics.com/preview.php" target="_blank">).
With such acclaimed projects as The Broccoli Agenda, Death by Chocolate, and Threshold under his belt, the Xeric-Award winning creator explained that Altercations has been bubbling in his mind for some time, waiting to boil, and again approaches superheroes from his own particular angle.
“The genesis of Altercations dates back to the s.h.o.p. [super-heroes of Philadelphia] which I published in 1999,” Yurkovich said. “On the inside front cover of the book, I wrote a short ‘history’ of super-heroics and mentioned a few ‘big’ events of the 20th century. It was all done quickly, in a stream of conscious manner.
“Shortly thereafter I began to contemplate developing a large project, initially intending to create an exhaustive history of super-heroes in 20th century North America. After spending a few weeks reacquainting myself with 20th century U.S. history, I realized I would need to tighten the reigns and narrow the focus. Ultimately, I chose to create a story from each decade, which I hoped would either: 1. reflect upon an historical event, 2. depict the state of mind of the culture during the time, or 3. mirror the escalation of violence in America.”
Yurkovich originally planned for Altercations to cover all of the 20th century in one volume, but later changed his plan to release the work as two volumes.
“Following Haunted in October of 2000, I reached a point of burn out,” Yurkovich said. “I’d drawn nearly two chapters of Altercations [chapters 6 and 7] and decided to take a week or two away from illustration. The break quickly escalated into several months, during which time I felt an urgency to create, but simultaneously felt unable to create. It’s a very self-destructive dichotomy in which to find oneself. From talking with other artists it happens from time to time.
“Finally, around April 2001, I returned to drawing Altercations. I finished chapter 6 and then began chapter 4. But, when I drew page 2 of chapter 4 my initial reaction was disgust! I was terribly disappointed in the quality of my art. I was going to redo the page. At some point, out of boredom I suppose, I started to color the page with colored pencil and marker and eventually redid the entire page in color. I quickly did two more pages in color. In examining the three pages, I quickly rethought the book and the book’s illustrations, ultimately deciding to do the entire project in color.
“Because rendering the pages in full color requires more time than I would need to render in pen and ink, the schedule continued to slip. Eventually, I realized the only way I would finish this project would be to release it as two separate volumes. Originally, the book was supposed to be done November 2001. Here it is December 2002 and volume 1 is, at last, done.”
A chance meeting with noted essayist Alfred Pinchley spurred the creator to ask him if he would write a brief introduction to the book, and to Yurkovich’s surprise, Pinchley agreed to write opening commentaries for each chapter.
“I’m still not sure how I convinced him to agree to work with me on this project,” Yurkovich said. “Our meeting was entirely accidental but we seemed to have much to talk about with regard to storytelling - not from a graphic storytelling POV, but in general, and essay writing. He provided substantial insight and criticism and really became my toughest critic.”
Yurkovich’s approach to his subject resulted in Altercations reading as a history book from an alternate reality of sorts, with both Yurkovich and Pinchley writing about the episodes and heroes as if they were real people and actual historical events.
“The intent is to provide as little escapism as possible while still presenting characters and events that are much larger than life,” Yurkovich said. “The idea is to remind - or perhaps, convince - readers that these events really happened. We may assume otherwise, that the stories are merely heroic fiction, but the intent behind this project was to approach it from a realistic, almost scholarly, speculative point of view.”
Pinchley took the realism ball and ran with it, often pointedly commenting on how Yurkovich’s version of events was most likely based in fiction, rather than the hard facts of the altercations. At times, Pinchely’s essays almost have a scolding tone to them, chiding Yurkovich for romanticizing or speculating upon events.
It was a tone that surprised even Yurkovich. “I was taken aback at first. But I trust his opinions and I think his comments add a tremendous value to the stories. Mostly, I think he’s just pissed off that his name appears on the cover of the book smaller than mine. Seriously, for someone who is not a comic book fan, he provided a ton of useful background information and reference material.”
The Heroes Themselves
To create representative heroes and villains for the entire 20th century, Yurkovich pulled out some he had already created in his head, or referenced in other works. Mainstream superhero readers will find many of the archetypes present in Altercations - the patriotic hero, the science hero, the bored millionaire, the bored female who’s looking for adventure, the quasi creepy hero with powers no one really understands and dozens more.
And the fact that they all – both heroes and villains seem to know one another, and have personal grudges is something that fits into Yurkovich’s larger scheme.
“My intent with everything I’ve done with regard to comics and heroic prose fiction at <a href="http://www.sleepinggiantcomics.com" target="_blank">www.sleepinggiantcomics.com</a> is that it all fits into a single continuity,” Yurkovich said. “The early pioneer ‘super-hero teams’ such as the 1930s New Dealers, the 1950s Atomic Family, and the 1970s Republic, all paved the way for the current unionized Super-Hero Syndicates that are present throughout the nation today.” [and seen in Yurkovich’s other works, such as Threshold]
Speaking of the change of hero teams over time, Yurkovich explained that the time in which the heroes lived played a large role in their overall character.
“The heroes presented in book 1, which covers the first five decades of the 20th century, are largely ordinary men and women,” Yurkovich said. “These are simple individuals who, in most cases, are noble and pure of spirit, the exception being, perhaps, the New Dealers of the 1930s, but then again, the reliability of the narrator is questionable.”
The narrator’s reliability is seriously brought into question as the stories unfold, and Yurkovich peels back the layers of the heroes.
The Tragic Hero
Given his factual and historical approach to the subject matter, Yurkovich’s heroes come across, first and foremost, as very human, deeply flawed, and very fallible beings, rather than the neo-gods presented in mainstream superhero comics.
“I wanted to present the characters in each character as believable individuals,” Yurkovich explained. “I’ve always done character-driven projects. Death by Chocolate, Threshold, Broccoli Agenda were each extremely character driven. And while I wanted to also maintain a degree of characterization in Altercations, at heart this is a book examining violence and – perhaps - its consequences.”
Case in point, Chapter 1: The First Conflict, a battle between Jonathan Alexander and Aaron Lawson (who would later become the Spatial Man). The two are former friends and lovers who battle on the morning of the great San Francisco earthquake of 1906 – a setting Yurkovich chose on purpose.
“I think it’s highly unlikely they caused the San Francisco earthquake, but the parallel is there,” Yurkovich said. “The parallels are what make this a story of significance. The first ‘altercation’ does not occur on a quiet evening but on the dawn of the Great Quake. Certainly I think that is significant in and of it self.”
Through the remainder of the volume, the heroes reveal their flaws, from The Black Coffin’s drinking problem which leads to his death in the ‘20s; and the spousal abuse suffered by M.R.S. Liberty in the ‘40s; to the menagerie of dark secrets held by the New Dealers in the ‘30s – no one is innocent, and no one is altruistic.
“I think a lot of the characters were/are selfish individuals,” Yurkovich said. “I think there is a moral to some of these tales with regard to that trait. Some of the flaws are obvious, others are implied. These heroes live and die by their actions or inactions; I suppose that is the underlying message of each story in both volumes, mostly.
“These characters are flawed, so while the New Dealers may, on the surface, stand for truth, justice, and liberty, there may be a dark, private side to the team members that is quite contrary to their public actions. We all have skeletons in our closets, even the best of us. If you imagine a person with super-human abilities and a closet full of skeletons; it’s not a pretty image.”
And while the title fits the subject, Yurkovich said he was drawn to explore his heroes via their battles rather than their shining moments thanks, in part, to his sense of pessimism.
“There is a clear theme in most of the stories and the theme is rather bleak, I’m afraid,” Yurkovich said. “In many instances, the idea was to portray pivotal battles, and the battles become more pivotal in the upcoming chapters and ultimately reach a point of critical mass with chapter 9, which depicts an altercation in Seattle, Washington, that was mentioned several times in Threshold as ‘the Battle for Seattle’ but was heretofore never completely told. It will be the most difficult story for me to draw, particularly with regard to America post 9-11. Had the story not been written and storyboarded in 2000, and were it, to me, not such a pivotal event in super-heroics of the late 20th century, I probably would not do it. I will say that the final chapter is much less bleak and more introspective.”
In a way, Yurkovich’s stories of heroes in the first half of the 20th century exhibit and sensibility reminiscent Alan Moore, circa the mid ‘80s, when he and a small handful of creators got readers wondering just what was going on inside the head of a guy who felt compelled to dress in a skintight suit and beat up others nightly.
In Yurkovich’s hands, this approach is applied to heroes which would be classified as Golden Age, and in a sense asks the “what if” questions we all have wondered about. For example – what if a hero’s secret identity was revealed in the Golden Age? The issue is addressed in Chapter 3’s “A Secret Revealed.” Or likewise, what if a villain got tired – and pissed beyond reason at constantly being mocked, beaten and captured by the heroes? Chapter 4, “At the Mercy of the Monopolist” looks at a possible outcome.
The stories in Altercations answer the questions, in a rather realistic way, that your adult mind began to ask after a childhood of superheroes.
The Process
While his progress on the first volume of Altercations was slow, laying down the overall story came quickly to Yurkovich. “The stories were all written and storyboarded rather quickly over a period of two months during the summer of 2000, the exception being chapter 5, the layouts of which were finally completed last month,” Yurkovich said. “Chapter 1 presented the most challenges, with regard to scenery and backstory.
“From the creative side the approach differs more or less with regard to the backgrounds of each story - the fashions, automobiles, household appliances, infrastructure, etc. As an illustrator I find it more interesting and challenging to draw a telephone circa 1920s than today, I would rather draw a 1930s Ford than a 2002 Nissan. Creatively, it is quite freeing.”
Each of the five chapters in Altercations has it’s own unique color scheme, something that was an accident, according to Yurkovich. “The intent was to make each of the five chapters in volume 1 easily identifiable through a dominant color: purple, yellow, red, blue, and green. The stories in volume 2 will be colored inversely to those in chapter 1; thus, the volume 2 color scheme will be green, blue, red, yellow, and purple, respectively, creating, in effect, a full-circle.”
Speaking of volume 2, Yurkovich said that the second Altercations will feature essentially all-new characters, although he isn’t ruling out cameos of the older heroes. A brief rundown of the second set of stories as described by the creator:
“The Atomic Family (1950s). A “red” menace threatens the trio and mom, dad, and junior must save the day.
The Fab Fore (1960s). A bit of homage to Lee and Kirby. A ‘Just Imagine…’ story of sorts that won’t suck. That’s really all I can say about it. Seriously.
The Republic (1970s). John Belushi era super-heroes whose guidance is undermined by a cocaine-addicted leader.
NYSS (1980s). The aforementioned “Battle for Seattle” featuring an early roster of the New York Super-Hero Syndicate and an extremely high death toll.
Threshold (1990s). My first super-hero team returns with the fate of the new millennium on their shoulders. No problem.”
And while volume 1 of Altercations would probably leave even the most optimistic superhero fan with their faith a little shaken, Yurkovich promised that some heroes may finally learn from the mistakes of the past.
“Not all heroes will end up maimed or killed. I guarantee it.”
After altercations, Yurkovich plans to continue exploring superheroes, their actions, and the subsequent consequences.
For more information on Altercations, click http://www.sleepinggiantcomics.com/preview.php]</a> here ( <a href="http://www.sleepinggiantcomics.com/preview.php" target="_blank">).