MattBrady
08-02-2006, 09:48 PM
<a href="http://www.newsarama.com/general/StevenWalters/Suburban_Folklore_cover.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.newsarama.com/general/StevenWalters/Suburban_Folklore_cover_t.jpg" border="0" align="right"></a><i>by Daniel Robert Epstein</i>
Unlike so many semi-autobiographical comic books out there today, Steven Walters’ <b>Suburban Folklore</b> chronicles a year in the life of an ethnically diverse cast. This is a group of 20-somethings during a very important year while they are turning from young people into adults. <b>Suburban Folklore</b> originally came out serialized but the book is now in trade paperback form.
<b>Newsarama</b>: What are you up to today?
<b>Steven Walters</b>: I’m at work.
<B>NRAMA</B>: What’s your work?
<B>SW</B>: I’m a graphic designer for a little small company.
<B>NRAMA</B>: What do you do for them?
<B>SW</B>: Murals, brochures, magnets, buttons, the usual crap.
<B>NRAMA</B>: How autobiographical is <b>Suburban Folklore</b>?
<a href="http://www.newsarama.com/general/StevenWalters/Suburban_Folklore_pic1.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.newsarama.com/general/StevenWalters/t_Suburban_Folklore_pic1.jpg" border="0" align="left"></a><B>SW</B>: It is not as autobiographical as it may seem. I would definitely say about ten percent of the book is actually autobiographical. There’s a lot of personal moments that you may think that are, but they’re really not. I just took certain instances and turned them into really personal moments.
<B>NRAMA</B>: What made you decide to not write a straight autobiography?
<B>SW</B>: I’m inspired by a lot of people like [<i>Six Feet Under</i> creator] Alan Ball. I really like the aspect of convincing people that this might’ve been real or making the dialogue seem plausible. I try to humanize that person as much as I possibly can so that when they say things, that one can relate.
<B>NRAMA</B>: How did you start the story?
<B>SW</B>: I came up with the idea for the story and then I developed the characters around it. At first it was difficult because all the characters are friends but you want to give a good blend of very different personalities. It’s not like you can have the one friend be a drug dealer and the other friend be a Christian. You need to have certain friends who see the same thing but are into different genres or certain types of music or something like that.
<B>NRAMA</B>: You mentioned Alan Ball. There are a lot of television and film creators that you thank in the back of the book. Are you more influenced by television than comic books?
<img src="http://www.newsarama.com/general/StevenWalters/Suburban_Folklore_pic2.jpg" border="0" align="right"><B>SW</B>: Definitely. I think television has a way of showing real human emotion and you can only do so much in a comic book. When you just watch certain programs like <i>Six Feet Under</i>, you really start to feel like these characters exist even though they’re acting. I really want to convince people that even though you’re reading a comic book, these people are saying things that you or a friend might say. Definitely certain movies and certain TV and film creators influence me because they can convince me that their characters are real.
<B>NRAMA</B>: Did you try to compose <b>Suburban Folklore</b> in a cinematic way?
<B>SW</B>: Yeah, I try to do a lot of fade away shots. I try to do a lot of certain close ups like filmmakers do. It’s a totally different feel as opposed to a TV show but I put down similarities that hopefully can grab you. It’s hard doing it in a comic book.
<B>NRAMA</B>: Besides Alan Ball, what creators are you most influenced by in terms of television and film?
<B>SW</B>: Definitely Richard Linklater. I’m very inspired by Andrew Niccol who directed Gattaca. I definitely am a big George Lucas fan even though he gets a lot of sh<i></i>it, just the fact that he has an idea and his idea is unique to film is just amazing. Also Shawn Ryan who created <i>The Shield</i>.
<B>NRAMA</B>: Most comic books are created by white people especially books like yours. It’s usually a cast of white characters and maybe a gay guy or one black dude. But you really seem like you put a real effort to put in blacks and Latinos. Obviously that’s important to you as an African-American.
<B>SW</B>: I really didn’t want to make anything looking fake. In New York I see more Puerto Ricans than I see white people. I see more black people than I see Asians. I wanted these characters to be really diverse and not safe. They don’t say things that you’re always going to agree with. I want you to relate to these characters more than anything.
In my book I tried to get that feeling of New York where everybody is different in race but they’re still friends. I really am inspired by these people because they manage to humanize those characters.
<a href="http://www.newsarama.com/general/StevenWalters/Suburban_Folklore_pic3.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.newsarama.com/general/StevenWalters/t_Suburban_Folklore_pic3.jpg" border="0" align="left"></a><B>NRAMA</B>: Did <b>Suburban Folklore</b> originally come out as comics?
<B>SW</B>: Yeah. It came out for three issues and then I figured it was going to take eight years before I finished the damn story. So I decided to just sit down and finish it.
<B>NRAMA</B>: How old are the characters?
<B>SW</B>: They’re basically out of their teens and in their early to mid 20’s.
<B>NRAMA</B>: As you grew up and matured while doing the story, how much did that change the story?
<B>SW</B>: A whole lot. At first I wanted to tell basic stories about five friends growing up in the suburbs. As I grew up I became a little bit more political and a little bit more wary to the idea to love and the idea of really fighting for things that you believe in as opposed to conforming. Certain characters really grew out of that. There were characters that I did not want to grow. I really wanted them to stay and be immature. Throughout the book all the friends, at some point, take on a responsibility.
<B>NRAMA</B>: How long ago did you start the book?
<a href="http://www.newsarama.com/general/StevenWalters/Suburban_Folklore_pic4.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.newsarama.com/general/StevenWalters/t_Suburban_Folklore_pic4.jpg" border="0" align="right"></a><B>SW</B>: It came out in 2001 so I was about 20 years old when I started the book. It’s taken five years to really finish it, but growing up with the comic really made the story better. It starts off just like, “Here’s an everyday in the life of certain friends.” It grows into a book about love and understanding and the times in someone’s life in which it really matters. That’s why I chose to have these people at 20 because it’s a real growing up stage. You come out of high school with very basic knowledge and afterwards you just grow into your own ideas and your own judgment.
<B>NRAMA</B>: What was the impetus for you to finally just sit down and say, “I’m not going to put this out serialized anymore”?
<B>SW</B>: It’s really because of the market but I don’t consider my book a graphic novel. I really consider myself a novelist.
<B>NRAMA</B>: Tell me about the difference between people that are in the suburbs as opposed to living in the cities.
<B>SW</B>: A lot of pretending. The city has an authenticity to it and a lot of people in the suburbs bring those ideas from the city into the suburbs. It’s just fake. We have two-way streets. We don’t really have that much to gripe about here, at least in my community. It’s a lot of just being alone and having your tight-knit friends and just being with them. The city definitely has a way about it that just makes it seem a lot more real. With people in the suburbs it seems like there’s really not that much to argue about. It’s very a laid back setting. I think it produces people who just want to be people from the city. They want to have that constant excitement. But it’s really boring.
<B>NRAMA</B>: I know. I grew up in Long Island.
How has the trade paperback been selling?
<B>SW</B>: The issues sold all right. But a lot of those years producing the comic book was trying to find a market. That market wasn’t superhero fiction. That market wasn’t going to these events in which you were going to find Spider-Man and Superman comic books. My demographic is college students for the most part. The book has been going pretty steadily. Right now it’s exclusive to just my website and then in the fall it’s going to be released to comic book stores. I wanted to have that because I didn’t even think I was going to have money to print the book. I ran into some cash and it just happened. So I wanted to have a few people get word about the book and then prepare for a good fall release.
<B>NRAMA</B>: How do you like self-publishing?
<a href="http://www.newsarama.com/general/StevenWalters/Suburban_Folklore_pic5.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.newsarama.com/general/StevenWalters/t_Suburban_Folklore_pic5.jpg" border="0" align="left"></a><B>SW</B>: It’s the worst. I’d much rather be backed by a company. I do everything on this book except for print it. I’m not good at all things and the hard part about self-publishing is that you need to be knowledgeable in everything. It’s even harder for a person who’s not doing superhero fiction. Putting a book out where everybody’s not going to be happy at the end is a hard thing to push. The fact that I want to tell a story about life is really hard to get through to certain people. They want to see people punching robots and that’s just not my flavor.
<B>NRAMA</B>: Could you tell me about the influence of Stuart Immonen and Seth Fisher on the book?
<B>SW</B>: They were my mentors. They still are.
<B>NRAMA</B>: How did you meet them?
<B>SW</B>: I met them through conventions basically. They were just the nicest people I’ve ever met. They really sat down and taught me about the industry. They didn’t need to at all. I’m a very neurotic person. They really calmed me down and said, “Look. This is how certain things are.” I appreciate that with all of my heart. It’s rare that you find people in the industry willing to help out the future generation.
<B>NRAMA</B>: I read you were in classes taught by Carmine Infantino, was that at the School of Visual Arts?
<B>SW</B>: Yeah, Carmine was crazy. I love that guy. He was a person who taught me a lot of stuff. Like when you do a book like this, you want to show people that you actually produced a piece of work that they could be proud of, even for a student or an apprentice like myself. When this book was all said and done, it was really just a big thank you to these people who guided me through my so-called career.
<B>NRAMA</B>: Did they ever want to offer you superhero work?
<B>SW</B>: For the most part they never offered me superhero work because you don’t get in the business through the kind of independent books that I do. I really just took their advice about what the market was, how to develop myself as an artist. I was never looking for any type of superhero work at all. Of course as I grow older and as I grow into a more creative writer, hopefully I can do superhero work at one point, but I don’t think that it’s something that’s going to define me.
<B>NRAMA</B>: Have you always drawn comics?
<B>SW</B>: Yeah, as a little kid I drew books. I had a half-hour in class and I’d do a book in a half an hour and it’d look like crap. I drew all those superheroes.
<i><b>Suburban Folklore</b> is priced at $8.50 and can be found at Midtown Comics (http://www.midtowncomics.com/eshop/pop_product.asp?sKey=suburban+folklore&crypt=HPcog?(NPcog?(WugtKF?82423:93:(Wut Pcog?(WutV{rg?(WutNgxgn?&ADV=2&SearchCat=&CT_PARID=62&PRID=44513&CGID=113&mysearch=yes&Page=&Ref=Search&InCart=0','ProductDetail',550,498,300,10 0) and other retailers.</i>
Unlike so many semi-autobiographical comic books out there today, Steven Walters’ <b>Suburban Folklore</b> chronicles a year in the life of an ethnically diverse cast. This is a group of 20-somethings during a very important year while they are turning from young people into adults. <b>Suburban Folklore</b> originally came out serialized but the book is now in trade paperback form.
<b>Newsarama</b>: What are you up to today?
<b>Steven Walters</b>: I’m at work.
<B>NRAMA</B>: What’s your work?
<B>SW</B>: I’m a graphic designer for a little small company.
<B>NRAMA</B>: What do you do for them?
<B>SW</B>: Murals, brochures, magnets, buttons, the usual crap.
<B>NRAMA</B>: How autobiographical is <b>Suburban Folklore</b>?
<a href="http://www.newsarama.com/general/StevenWalters/Suburban_Folklore_pic1.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.newsarama.com/general/StevenWalters/t_Suburban_Folklore_pic1.jpg" border="0" align="left"></a><B>SW</B>: It is not as autobiographical as it may seem. I would definitely say about ten percent of the book is actually autobiographical. There’s a lot of personal moments that you may think that are, but they’re really not. I just took certain instances and turned them into really personal moments.
<B>NRAMA</B>: What made you decide to not write a straight autobiography?
<B>SW</B>: I’m inspired by a lot of people like [<i>Six Feet Under</i> creator] Alan Ball. I really like the aspect of convincing people that this might’ve been real or making the dialogue seem plausible. I try to humanize that person as much as I possibly can so that when they say things, that one can relate.
<B>NRAMA</B>: How did you start the story?
<B>SW</B>: I came up with the idea for the story and then I developed the characters around it. At first it was difficult because all the characters are friends but you want to give a good blend of very different personalities. It’s not like you can have the one friend be a drug dealer and the other friend be a Christian. You need to have certain friends who see the same thing but are into different genres or certain types of music or something like that.
<B>NRAMA</B>: You mentioned Alan Ball. There are a lot of television and film creators that you thank in the back of the book. Are you more influenced by television than comic books?
<img src="http://www.newsarama.com/general/StevenWalters/Suburban_Folklore_pic2.jpg" border="0" align="right"><B>SW</B>: Definitely. I think television has a way of showing real human emotion and you can only do so much in a comic book. When you just watch certain programs like <i>Six Feet Under</i>, you really start to feel like these characters exist even though they’re acting. I really want to convince people that even though you’re reading a comic book, these people are saying things that you or a friend might say. Definitely certain movies and certain TV and film creators influence me because they can convince me that their characters are real.
<B>NRAMA</B>: Did you try to compose <b>Suburban Folklore</b> in a cinematic way?
<B>SW</B>: Yeah, I try to do a lot of fade away shots. I try to do a lot of certain close ups like filmmakers do. It’s a totally different feel as opposed to a TV show but I put down similarities that hopefully can grab you. It’s hard doing it in a comic book.
<B>NRAMA</B>: Besides Alan Ball, what creators are you most influenced by in terms of television and film?
<B>SW</B>: Definitely Richard Linklater. I’m very inspired by Andrew Niccol who directed Gattaca. I definitely am a big George Lucas fan even though he gets a lot of sh<i></i>it, just the fact that he has an idea and his idea is unique to film is just amazing. Also Shawn Ryan who created <i>The Shield</i>.
<B>NRAMA</B>: Most comic books are created by white people especially books like yours. It’s usually a cast of white characters and maybe a gay guy or one black dude. But you really seem like you put a real effort to put in blacks and Latinos. Obviously that’s important to you as an African-American.
<B>SW</B>: I really didn’t want to make anything looking fake. In New York I see more Puerto Ricans than I see white people. I see more black people than I see Asians. I wanted these characters to be really diverse and not safe. They don’t say things that you’re always going to agree with. I want you to relate to these characters more than anything.
In my book I tried to get that feeling of New York where everybody is different in race but they’re still friends. I really am inspired by these people because they manage to humanize those characters.
<a href="http://www.newsarama.com/general/StevenWalters/Suburban_Folklore_pic3.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.newsarama.com/general/StevenWalters/t_Suburban_Folklore_pic3.jpg" border="0" align="left"></a><B>NRAMA</B>: Did <b>Suburban Folklore</b> originally come out as comics?
<B>SW</B>: Yeah. It came out for three issues and then I figured it was going to take eight years before I finished the damn story. So I decided to just sit down and finish it.
<B>NRAMA</B>: How old are the characters?
<B>SW</B>: They’re basically out of their teens and in their early to mid 20’s.
<B>NRAMA</B>: As you grew up and matured while doing the story, how much did that change the story?
<B>SW</B>: A whole lot. At first I wanted to tell basic stories about five friends growing up in the suburbs. As I grew up I became a little bit more political and a little bit more wary to the idea to love and the idea of really fighting for things that you believe in as opposed to conforming. Certain characters really grew out of that. There were characters that I did not want to grow. I really wanted them to stay and be immature. Throughout the book all the friends, at some point, take on a responsibility.
<B>NRAMA</B>: How long ago did you start the book?
<a href="http://www.newsarama.com/general/StevenWalters/Suburban_Folklore_pic4.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.newsarama.com/general/StevenWalters/t_Suburban_Folklore_pic4.jpg" border="0" align="right"></a><B>SW</B>: It came out in 2001 so I was about 20 years old when I started the book. It’s taken five years to really finish it, but growing up with the comic really made the story better. It starts off just like, “Here’s an everyday in the life of certain friends.” It grows into a book about love and understanding and the times in someone’s life in which it really matters. That’s why I chose to have these people at 20 because it’s a real growing up stage. You come out of high school with very basic knowledge and afterwards you just grow into your own ideas and your own judgment.
<B>NRAMA</B>: What was the impetus for you to finally just sit down and say, “I’m not going to put this out serialized anymore”?
<B>SW</B>: It’s really because of the market but I don’t consider my book a graphic novel. I really consider myself a novelist.
<B>NRAMA</B>: Tell me about the difference between people that are in the suburbs as opposed to living in the cities.
<B>SW</B>: A lot of pretending. The city has an authenticity to it and a lot of people in the suburbs bring those ideas from the city into the suburbs. It’s just fake. We have two-way streets. We don’t really have that much to gripe about here, at least in my community. It’s a lot of just being alone and having your tight-knit friends and just being with them. The city definitely has a way about it that just makes it seem a lot more real. With people in the suburbs it seems like there’s really not that much to argue about. It’s very a laid back setting. I think it produces people who just want to be people from the city. They want to have that constant excitement. But it’s really boring.
<B>NRAMA</B>: I know. I grew up in Long Island.
How has the trade paperback been selling?
<B>SW</B>: The issues sold all right. But a lot of those years producing the comic book was trying to find a market. That market wasn’t superhero fiction. That market wasn’t going to these events in which you were going to find Spider-Man and Superman comic books. My demographic is college students for the most part. The book has been going pretty steadily. Right now it’s exclusive to just my website and then in the fall it’s going to be released to comic book stores. I wanted to have that because I didn’t even think I was going to have money to print the book. I ran into some cash and it just happened. So I wanted to have a few people get word about the book and then prepare for a good fall release.
<B>NRAMA</B>: How do you like self-publishing?
<a href="http://www.newsarama.com/general/StevenWalters/Suburban_Folklore_pic5.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.newsarama.com/general/StevenWalters/t_Suburban_Folklore_pic5.jpg" border="0" align="left"></a><B>SW</B>: It’s the worst. I’d much rather be backed by a company. I do everything on this book except for print it. I’m not good at all things and the hard part about self-publishing is that you need to be knowledgeable in everything. It’s even harder for a person who’s not doing superhero fiction. Putting a book out where everybody’s not going to be happy at the end is a hard thing to push. The fact that I want to tell a story about life is really hard to get through to certain people. They want to see people punching robots and that’s just not my flavor.
<B>NRAMA</B>: Could you tell me about the influence of Stuart Immonen and Seth Fisher on the book?
<B>SW</B>: They were my mentors. They still are.
<B>NRAMA</B>: How did you meet them?
<B>SW</B>: I met them through conventions basically. They were just the nicest people I’ve ever met. They really sat down and taught me about the industry. They didn’t need to at all. I’m a very neurotic person. They really calmed me down and said, “Look. This is how certain things are.” I appreciate that with all of my heart. It’s rare that you find people in the industry willing to help out the future generation.
<B>NRAMA</B>: I read you were in classes taught by Carmine Infantino, was that at the School of Visual Arts?
<B>SW</B>: Yeah, Carmine was crazy. I love that guy. He was a person who taught me a lot of stuff. Like when you do a book like this, you want to show people that you actually produced a piece of work that they could be proud of, even for a student or an apprentice like myself. When this book was all said and done, it was really just a big thank you to these people who guided me through my so-called career.
<B>NRAMA</B>: Did they ever want to offer you superhero work?
<B>SW</B>: For the most part they never offered me superhero work because you don’t get in the business through the kind of independent books that I do. I really just took their advice about what the market was, how to develop myself as an artist. I was never looking for any type of superhero work at all. Of course as I grow older and as I grow into a more creative writer, hopefully I can do superhero work at one point, but I don’t think that it’s something that’s going to define me.
<B>NRAMA</B>: Have you always drawn comics?
<B>SW</B>: Yeah, as a little kid I drew books. I had a half-hour in class and I’d do a book in a half an hour and it’d look like crap. I drew all those superheroes.
<i><b>Suburban Folklore</b> is priced at $8.50 and can be found at Midtown Comics (http://www.midtowncomics.com/eshop/pop_product.asp?sKey=suburban+folklore&crypt=HPcog?(NPcog?(WugtKF?82423:93:(Wut Pcog?(WutV{rg?(WutNgxgn?&ADV=2&SearchCat=&CT_PARID=62&PRID=44513&CGID=113&mysearch=yes&Page=&Ref=Search&InCart=0','ProductDetail',550,498,300,10 0) and other retailers.</i>