CARLA SPEED McNEIL ON FINDER'S FUTURE

[MattBrady]

by Chris Arrant

On the floor of last weekend's Small Press Expo, cartoonist Carla Speed McNeil announced that her long-running series Finder would be ending its serial comic book publication with issue #38, in favor of printing new installments online followed by print collections in the future. Self-published under Lightspeed Press, Finder had found continued support online from die-hard fans and fellow creators. While the cartoonist has branched out to do work for Queen & Country with writer Greg Rucka and Warren Ellis' Frank Ironwine, Finder remained her central aim.

During various discussions spiraling out of Diamond's new benchmark policy, Finder was spotlighted as a series that as singles had marginal success, but thrived in the trade paperback market. The cartoonist and self-publisher had stated in several interviews that she viewed her singles as loss-leaders, driving people to those collections. Although the switch from serial to web has been done before with Girl Genius and Exhibit A, Carla Speed McNeil's Finder is poised to see how a devoted serial fanbase can follow the series to a new venue.

Newsarama caught up with McNeil shortly following the SPX convention to learn more about the reasoning behind this decision, and what she is aiming for.

Newsarama: You've said before that the single issues of Finder weren't designed to be profitable, but simply loss leaders for the eventual collection down the line. What made you to finally decide to stop publishing in the single issue format, in favor of serializing it on your website for later print collections?

Carla Speed McNeil:It isn't that they were not designed to be profitable. They made money. It wasn't much, but they took care of themselves and a little left over. The point of the change is this: I had from very early on come to view them as advertising, as you say, a loss leader. Sales on the issues were stagnant. If they were meant to reach new people, they were no longer doing their job. My apologies to the loyal horde whose box-subscriptions have supported the issues so steadfastly, but I hope they'll be happy with the greater frequency that the web affords.

NRAMA: Is the decision to switch from single issues to the web something you've thought about for awhile? Can you tell us how the idea initially came to you, and what prompted you to finally take the big step?

CSM: It's all Phil Foglio's idea. Yes. I blame Phil, and so should you.

Yes, I've toyed with the idea for a long time. Really, the main reason I was sticking to the issue format was because a close friend and informal editor was a floppy-book fan and threatened to beat me with a sandal if I ever stopped them. I've always had a lot of free chapters on my site, and they've helped my visibility immensely. Besides, my friend's out of town.

Quite a few folks have been talking the idea over in the past couple years, Exhibit A's Batton Lash and Jackie Estrada, for starters. But Phil Foglio was the one to make the leap first with Girl Genius, so I plied him with cheap wine at San Diego and spent a lot of time thinking, "That would work."

NRAMA: Finder has long been a series that thrived in it's collection sales, but the single issues sales were flat. As a cartoonist and a self-publisher, can you tell us what you attribute this to?

CSM: Mmm... not without whining indecorously about my perceived shortcomings as a writer.

NRAMA: Do you think the Direct Market is as receptive to supporting new books from small publishers as it was, say, in the 1980s black & white boom?

CSM: I wasn't publishing during the boomlet, so I couldn't say.

NRAMA: Is the abandonment of single issues something you would have considered even if internet serialization was not an option?

CSM: No.

NRAMA: As both the cartoonist and publisher of your books, do you see the publishing side of your workload increasing or decreasing as you switch to this new publishing method? Can you tell us where it changes?

CSM: Neither decreasing nor increasing. Lateral shift. Whereas I always managed to draw my latest issue in a great rush, now I'll have to keep production a bit steadier. I won't have the hassle of getting everything assembled for a printer more than once a year. I do have all the work of setting up the site and getting it beta-tested, and it's been suggested that my site is a model of restrained good taste and needs to be tarted up a bit. I am actually quite lame with computers, so this consists of turning the whole mess over to friends of mine, who must be plied with food to work. It's like sitting in an operating theater's waiting room.

Once the site is up, I'm assuming that I won't have to worry about making major changes anymore, but that's probably just laziness.

NRAMA: This past weekend was a double-header for Finder, as you were also the recipient of the Ignatz award for Outstanding Series at SPX for the second year in a row. How does winning awards such as these affect your work?

CSM: It doesn't affect my work. It certainly raises my visibility.

NRAMA: SPX has been one of the recurring elements in your career as a cartoonist, beginning back when it was your first convention as an aspiring professional when you brought what was to be the first comic book to the very first SPX years ago. What do you think of SPX 2005, and how it's changed over time?

CSM: SPX has always been my New Year's celebration; Time to take stock of what I did that year, what I plan to do. I debut my new collection each year in July, because it begins the convention scene, but SPX usually concludes it. I am grateful to have a show like this so close by; the impetus to have a pile of boards drawn, a couple of finished mini-comics, an offset-printed first issue, and so on-- all driven by the desire to have made progress by the time SPX came around that year. That's why I announced the transition there, rather than wait until that part of the site was ready to unveil.

The brick was just Extra Love.

As for how it's changed, it hasn't. Details come and go, or fail to come or go, but the con is still the same place for me that it ever was.

NRAMA: What are the future plans for the Finder spin-off Mystery Date?

CSM: It has been reincorporated into Finder. It was always intended to be part of Finder. I pulled the two professors out of a storyline I had no intention of using for a very long time, and invented the female protagonist Vary to replace Jaeger. I did all this to have something to run in short installments in Michael Cohen's anthology Mythography. Michael was my first friend in the business, and I met him at that first SPX.

I redid the original stories, incorporating them into a longer storyline which ran two issues under its own title. Doing this taught me a painful lesson: stick to one title. people who had Finder on their pull lists didn't get Mystery Date. People who liked Mystery Date thought it had died on the vine after no third issue arrived. It took years to get both groups together. So from here on in, anything I do for myself will appear in Finder.

NRAMA: For those who haven't read Finder before, can you tell us who Jaeger is and why he leads such an interesting life?

CSM: He's an aboriginal detective. He is on the one hand the titular Finder, which is a member of a tribal mystery cult or medicine society. They are trackers, scouts, and weather eyes. They're supposed to keep their leaders apprised of any and everything that's going on. On the other hand, Jaeger is a half-breed, and as such didn't have many options in tribal society.

By default he became a sin-eater, or ritual scapegoat. He has no 'home' tribe to report to. He's a cross between Columbo, Mad Max and the Wandering Jew.

NRAMA: Long-time readers of Finder have commented on the fact that although the single issues were destined for a collection in mind, you avoid the regimented system of plotting the book out issue to issue. Your story seems more focused on the characters and their development, than a situation or story-arc and how characters fit into the bigger picture. How do you view the direction of Finder, and your goals in the progress of the book?

CSM: My book isn't necessarily plot-driven, and I have a terrible time trying to write stand-alone issues, but I do plot out issue to issue. I have consciously stepped away from having Jaeger as protagonist three times now-- in Talisman, Dream Sequence, and Mystery Date. The bigger picture is still taking shape even for me, and the foundations are still being laid. I hope that I've made a scenario in which I can tell any kind of story I like, for as long as I like. I'll find out how well I've done so in time. Finder is my home, unless and until I discover that I've made it too cramped to live in.

NRAMA: Where do you see Finder going in the future, and how long do you expect to continue with it?

CSM: Whenever I've got half a dozen stories rattling around the back of my head, as I have now, I don't worry much about where it's going. I haven't even done anything with mad Lynne, the middle 'sister' from SIN-EATER, who's easily the most popular character after Jaeger. Haven't followed up with the big feathery dinosaurs from Mystery Date, there's a lot more to tell with them. I don't think I got half my point across with King of the Cats, may have to revisit some of that; don't know when the other parts of the puzzle will slot together so I can do Brain Chiggers or whatever it'll be called by then. And I need to get out into the wastelands more, definitely. Outlying provinces, abandoned highways. Yeah. And that's all after I get Five Crazy Women out of my head.

How long? Hell, I don't know. Long time.

Stay tuned to Newsarama.com, as in October we will revisit Finder and get caught up as new installments of the series debuts online. For more information on Carla and Finder, visit Light Speed Press.

[Johnny Smith]

Finder is a nice series - I'm looking forward to seeing how the online installments look.

Originally posted by MattBrady
On the floor of last weekend's Small Press Expo, cartoonist Carla Speed McNeil announced that her long-running series Finder would be ending its serial comic book publication with issue #38, in favor of printing new installments online followed by print collections in the future.

I wonder if this will become more common practice for indy series once the new Diamond benchmark policy takes effect?

[c_andrew_s]

wow... YIKES! I am glad that there were be an online version and I look forward to the collected versions.

[Nat Gertler]

For those who have not checked out Finder: do so. Head over to the website and read up what you can. Carla is crafting a beautifully rich work and brings mad talent to it.

[Michael C Lorah]

Finder is definitely a strong book. The characters and the entire universe are complex and engaging in a way that very few comics even attempt to be.
The Rescuers is currently in my reading stack, and I'm anxious to get caught up so that I can read it!!

[Ray Dillon]

Looks really good. Too bad about the results of Diamond's new benchmark. Best of luck with the book!!

[King Oneiros]

I wasn't aware of Carla's work until a Warren's Bad Signal mentioned it, then I went to the site and I was so impressed with the beautiful imagery that I ordered from my store King of the cats, Talisman and Rescuers TPBs.
Looking forward to all the mad and lovely ideas.

[Cray_ws]

I found this series late in its run with Finder #26 (Dream sequence) and quickly snatched up the trades.

Finder is definitely unique and worthy reading materiel. Carla Speed McNeil is a highly underated creator who has a way with subtleties.

[Neuromancer]

Ok, now between reading this and reading about the demise of Small Gods from Image, I am really really angry. Two fantastic quality titles...not that Carla's gone, but still, another presence off the shelves. My niece ordered me some Finder books from Lightspeed Press last year, and Carla not only signed the books but did a free sketch AND gave me a layout sheet for her Q&C arc, which incidentally is still my favorite storyline of all of them. I was always touched and impressed by that, it meant a lot to me. All I can do is wish Carla and Finder the best...this certainly had nothing to do with her, just the vagaries of a small-minded and unappreciative market, sigh...

[C. Sellner]

I haven't read every issue of Finder, but the ones I did read I loved, unique concept, class in storytelling and art.

Good luck with the next chapter of the venture!

[nenad]

I have read the first trade of Finder, while the art is really gorgeous, I was somewhat disappointed with the story. It goes into too many direction all at once, that I was lost by page 5. I also find that notes should have been done as a pull out section instead of being stuck in the back of the book (because you end up going back and forth while reading all the time). The notes actually explain a lot of the story which in my opinion shouldn't be the case, the story should stand on it's own. There is just too much of the story - I am sure that it all makes sense by the 5th trade, but I just haven't got that much patience, I guess.

Again, not saying it's a bad series, just that it might not be for everyone. I bought the first volume on strong recommendations from boards, reviewers etc..., but in the end didn't like it that much.

I will give it another shot with second trade soon. I wish Carla Speed McNeil the best - she is a great artist and deserves to make a decent living of her art.

[JDotNicholas]

Go give Speed your love, money, and respect. Not particularly in that order.

[David Bird]

I just picked up the first trade. I've only started it, but haven't had any trouble with the writing. I'm finding it all very interesting. I did have a terrible time tring to get it, though. I couldn't get it in a shop here or in Seattle. Eventually I ordered it online. I hope the online comic is up quickly.

[Jack Assen]

Wow, so few posts... I'm sorry to take so long to get to it.

FINDER is absolutely one of the best books I read, if not THE best, and I read a lot. Really, it's great stuff, and if I could realistically offer a guarantee to you all I would. It is the ONLY book that I have ever read where I bought both issues and trades, always. The quality is so high, and I have to assume the profit margin so low, that I felt it an obligation. It's true that there may be (if possible) "too much" of the backstory, but after a few issues you get used to the idea that not everything is spelled out for you up front. It's a WORLD (and a big one) not just a background... and for all the bigness and strangeness that I might see, I never have the sense that I'm seeing it all or that it's being exhausted. It's a world unfolding. It is a little bit fantasy, a little bit sci fi, a little bit drama, a little bit romance, a little bit mystery, and quite a bit of humor. It is executed with precision and flair. It's quite brilliant.

I will very much miss the irregular presence of single issues... but Speed (seems so familiar, but what the hell) does such a great job with the trades and the accompanying annotations that I hope I won't miss it too much. Contrary to what Nenad said, earlier, I don't think the notes are necessary to explain the STORY... just a lot of the background of the world and of Speed's head... it fleshes out the world without burdening the pace of the story. I find it very entertaining and often helpful but not necessary to the reading... Nenad, please do give the story at least the second volume, I think/hope it will all come together for you. And of course, like all good comics, it gets better as it goes along.

Hopefully we'll get a few more "extras" thrown in now, or maybe more frequent stories. I'm erratic enough in my reading habits/behavior that I don't know that I can count on follwing a webcomic... but I think I'll try.

[croovman]

finder = awesome.
right on, carla, right on.