FROM THE EDITOR'S DESK @ IDW: CHRIS RYALL 3 MONTHS IN

[MattBrady]

by Benjamin Ong Pang Kean

Continuing on our series of interviews with the industry’s who’s who, we sat down with Chris Ryall, the Editor-in-Chief of IDW Publishing on his new life as Mr. IDW, his plans for the company and his thoughts on the comic book business.

Newsarama: So, how long has it been?

Chris Ryall: Just passed three months now. Time for my 90-day evaluation, I guess, to see if they’re gonna keep me.

NRAMA: How has San Diego been like since moving to the IDW headquarters?

CR: San Diego is funny — the weathermen here seem as bored as can be, because yesterday was like today is like tomorrow. Every day’s 70 degrees. Not that that’s really different than LA, where I relocated from, but it just feels different. A bit slower-paced but good. Odd to be in a town that doesn’t have a Zagat’s Guide to its name but I like it. The beach is close, there’s no traffic, lots of comic shops… it’s good.

NRAMA: How do you manage your time as not only the E-i-C of IDW but also being the editor-in-chief of Kevin Smith’s MoviePoopShoot.com and author of the One Hand Clapping column?

CR: I should, point out, in my self-serving way, that I also write a goofy weekly TV Recommendations column and also co-write our “letters page” column every week with Scott Tipton, along with updating the whole site every day, too. It’s been tough juggling the two, but I like what we’ve built there too much to let it go. Honestly, it all comes down to having a patient wife. The fact that she’s okay with me sitting with the laptop most every night is like when Adrian told Rocky to beat Apollo Creed. It gives you that extra bit of momentum. Because let’s be honest, it could have gone the other way. When she met me, I was a marketing guy-slash-corporate speechwriter, and now I’m aiming for the King of the Geeks crown. I work in comics and run a geeky pop culture Web site? Talk about the ol’ bait and switch!

NRAMA: In an earlier interview at CBR, you mentioned that horror specialist Steve Niles' phone call to you led to the current position that you're in now, the new E-i-C of IDW. Beside naming your first child Niles and the fact that you mentioned that "the creativity of that site and working for Kevin Smith in general is what made me well-suited for the position" and the experiences you gained as a copywriter and had worked for Dick Clark on projects including Stan Lee Media. What have you learned from former E-i-C Jeff Mariotte, and how are you planning to incorporate your own style with Marriotte's tips to make IDW a greater force to be reckoned with?

CR: From Jeff, I learned not to stress out about deadlines. Publishing is all about deadlines, and there’s something new that comes up every day, threatening to throw this book or that book into disarray. Jeff is one of the most low-key people in the world, and he never seemed to get flustered by things out of his control. Outwardly, anyway — he might be on his ranch in Arizona burning Niles in effigy, but as far as I could see, he never got thrown off his game. So now I only weep on the inside.

NRAMA: What was your immediate task back when you first started?

CR: “Do you want cream and sugar with that, Mr. Mariotte?” After that, it was basically just getting a handle on our publishing plans — beyond the books already in development, I had to learn what our future direction was, what kinds of material to look for, where Ted [Adams, IDW Publisher] and I saw the company going. And get to know all the creators and make them feel comfortable with me, too.

NRAMA: What’re the most challenging aspects of the job so far?

CR: Diamond solicitations! There are a dozen different deadlines every week, it seems. No, really, the most challenging aspect is just finding the time to keep every book in development moving while also finding time to read and edit scripts, look for new material, occasionally eat…you know, the same problem everyone has, just finding enough time in the day to get everything done.

NRAMA: How do you draw the line when it comes to what and what not to green light?

CR: I don’t think there’s any set formula, really. It’s more an instinctive thing. I look at projects and think, “Is this something I’d expect to see from IDW? Is this something I’d buy if I walked into a shop?” I basically just look for material that has something new to offer. So most vampire pitches don’t make it very far with me right now, I have to say.

NRAMA: While a number of projects were announced at SDCC such as John Law, Bad Planet, The Easy Way, The Last Christmas, 30 Days of Night: Bloodsucker Tales, Desperadoes, The Very Big Monster Show, Cal McDonald: Supernatural Freak Machine, Silent Hill: Among The Damned, what’re some of the projects that you’ve worked on these past few months?

CR: Well, first, I’ll give you some updates on those titles. A lot of those projects were just in the gestation stage when we announced them at the con, but in the months since then, plans have really coalesced. Regarding Bad Planet, written by Niles and Tom (The Punisher) Jane, I found an artist on that book that is going to blow people away. His name’s Chris Bolton, and he’s another talented Aussie that’s been doing some ridiculous stuff. Between that and the amazing amount of energy that Tom Jane has for this project – almost every day, he’s filling my and Niles’ inboxes with long (some would say rambling) essays on the book, the characters, their motivation, character designs, recipes, everything. This is definitely not a matter of us attaching some Hollywood guy’s name to a book and calling him a “co-writer” as a way to promote the book. He’s more fired up than just about any writer I’ve ever seen. The Punisher was going to be a trilogy but he cut back to one movie to work on this comic. True story, really.

Along those same lines, we’ve got Andy Kuhn turning in some amazing pages on The Easy Way, a gritty crime drama written by Christopher Long during his time in rehab.

With 30 Days of Night: Bloodsucker Tales, everyone knows what Steve and Ben can do - they’re doing it separately on that book, with Steve writing one tale and Ben illustrating another, but Kody Chamberlain’s art and Matt Fraction’s writing is really going to go over big, I think. And there’s a good chance there will be some other Matt Fraction/IDW news coming soon, too. I’m really excited about the guys we’re working with. Well, not in that way, but Matt does have a great smile, even over e-mail.

Incidentally, Matt’s wife, Kelly DeConnick, turned in a fantastic short prose story that’s gonna show up in the first issue of BST, too. Lots of good writin’ going on in that Fraction household. I know some people don’t think prose has any place in comics — I’ve seen grumbling about it here, in fact—but we like to give a little extra in our books. If you don’t want to read them, you still get a complete story in every issue, but if you do want a bit more than just house ads, well, we’re there for you with some interesting prose stories. The short-story market is basically in the dumper right now, so if we can help some new writers get some work out in the world, we’re gonna do just that. Hang on, let me step off Stan’s my soapbox before continuing.

With Desperadoes, I’m also really looking forward to people seeing Jeremy Haun’s art. His stuff looks amazing. It was the first Desperadoes miniseries that really helped expose John Cassaday’s art to the world, and I think this new miniseries - Banners of Gold, issue #1 of #5 due in December - is gonna do the same for Jeremy. The man even draws horses well, and almost nobody can draw horses well.

The Very Big Monster Show is Niles’ all-ages Halloween tale, with this cool animation-style artwork by Lily’s Butch Adams. That one’s done and on the way at the end of the year.

As far as other projects that’re in development now, there’s Richard Corben on Bigfoot (co-written by Rob Zombie and Steve Niles), adaptations of books like Matheson’s Hell House and Clive Barker’s The Thief of Always; a sci-fi zombie tale called Containment, written by screenwriter Eric Red (The Hitcher, Near Dark) and drawn by our own Nick Stakal (Hyde). There’s… I don’t know, there’s a lot of great stuff coming. We have Kelley Jones doing another Cal McDonald book (and we have other plans for Cal beyond a mini, too); there’s the return of GrimJack and Jon Sable, and also Badg… er, well, let’s wait on announcing that one and a couple other returning properties. Down the line, we’ve got a project with Igor Kordey and a few others I’m really aching to announce but want to wait a bit longer. I’m into tantric press announcements.

NRAMA: {sigh} How many of these would you call your firstborns, projects that you have a hand in developing since becoming E-i-C?

CR: I’d say I have a firm hand - my pimp hand, you might say, in even the books that started before I got here. Like I say, many of them were announced as little more than concepts, so I’m now working on developing the stories and art with the creators. But a few others,
I’ve been more actively involved in developing or bringing to Ted. It’s a collaborative thing all around. And it’s a fun process, finding books that will help set the direction of the company for the next year and then working to make ‘em happen.

NRAMA: IDW has plans to reprint and produce new stories of John Ostrander and Timothy Truman’s GrimJack and Mike Grell’s Jon Sable, Freelance. What led to this decision and why do you think these two properties are still in demand today?

CR: Because they’re still good! First Comics was one of my favorite publishers back in the day, and their titles that seemed ahead of their time back then have aged well even twenty years later. We’re producing a GrimJack ashcan for retailers and the twelve pages I’ve seen from Ostrander and Truman are pretty phenomenal. I was even more of a Sable fan back when I was a kid, though, so I’m anxious to see Grell’s new stuff. His covers are among the best I’ve seen from him. The thing to remember is that these were young guys when the books came out originally, so it’s not like Duran Duran reuniting and looking old and bloated. Instead, as writers and artists, they’ve just honed their craft over the past two decades, so it really isn’t hyperbole to say that Tim Truman’s work looks better now than it did then.

Another great thing about working on these books is the chance to work with editor Mike Gold. Mike’s still shepherding these books, and the personal touch he gave all of First’s books back in the day was part of what made them all so great. And he’s just an excellent editor, too, which makes it even better.

NRAMA: Are there plans for more of these creator-owned properties from the past?

CR: Absolutely. There’s a lot of great material out there that’s never been collected. Yet. And a lot of talented veteran creators out there with new stories to tell, if only they had an outlet with which to tell them. Who wouldn’t want to see Mike Grell or Mike Baron handle their classic characters again? Wait, did I say Mike Baron? Where’d his name come from? Do I know something I’m not sharing?

NRAMA: Do you?

CB: What’s that next question you’ve got there…?

NRAMA: Alright…IDW have also signed a deal with Pocket Books to do prose novels, the first of which is Steve Niles' first of three 30 Days of Night novels, Rumors of the Undead, in August 2005. What plans do you have in this new area of publishing?

CR: Well, this is primarily a Pocket Books deal. We’ve done a few prose novels, in the form of Niles’ Cal McDonald books or Mariotte’s The Slab, and we’re developing a CVO novel for next year, but these ventures will be sporadic. We’re still all about the comics.

NRAMA: Well, that said, in comics, for better or worse, superheroes and superheroics are still the major component of the industry. Will IDW be jumping into the bandwagon?

CR: I’d say superheroes are the name of a game in this industry, not the only game. We’ve done pretty well in our little corner, producing high-quality horror books and with our licensed properties, too. I think every publisher has seen first-hand how difficult it can be to create a successful new superhero universe, and for every Invincible, which is an amazing book; there are landfills of titles that didn’t work. In ’05, we’ll continue to grow beyond just horror titles, but we won’t do superheroes. Too many others do those books well already. We like our niche, which is producing high-quality titles for more mature readers. I think Jeff Mariotte compared us to an HBO or FX, and that’s apt — we’re not for everyone, but when you’re ready for a gripping, mature title, well, here we are.

NRAMA: Alright then – the other trend - manga. Will IDW be doing manga-influenced projects or digest-sized collected editions?

CR: I think all 40,000 manga titles on the bookstore shelves are pretty well-done, but I don’t think anyone wants us adding to that list. Seriously, there’s some great manga out there - Viz’s Eagle is still one of the better books I’ve read in the past few years — but it’s like superheroes to me: Other publishers do that stuff well already, so I’d rather concentrate on doing what we do and not stretching ourselves too thin in an arena we don’t necessarily belong.

As for the format, yeah, the digest-sized books are definitely appealing to me. That’s one area where I think we shine, our willingness to put books out there in whatever format best suits it.
We’ve done digests, hard-cover books, novels, over-sized collections, some upcoming self-cover hard cover books and maybe a magazine… we just look to make the format fit the material and not be hamstrung by any particular size.

NRAMA: What do you foresee to be the next big thing in the comic book world?

CR: The next big thing? Manga superheroes, of course. And killing off or badly messing with existing characters, that’s going to be huge in 2005. And, of course, werewolves are the new vampires.

It’s always hard to say what’s going to be big — I’d prefer to see overall growth in the industry rather than see anything “big” come and go as the hot ideas invariably do. But that’s no answer, is it? Okay, pirates. Pirates are due for a big comeback. And clowns, too. And talking animal comics.

Wait, I’ve settled on a real answer. Letters pages. I think letters pages are about due for a resurgence. Loyalties are built from letters pages — anyone who read a First Comics title back in the day was as enthused about Mike Gold’s ramblings in the lettercol as they were the books themselves, and Powers and Robert Kirkman’s comics have shown just how good lettercols can be. That’s my big, well, secondarily big, goal for ’05, to bring letters pages to some of IDW’s books.

NRAMA: Any last words for your readers, Mr. IDW?

CR: Thanks to everyone who’s been so supportive of our books. It’s been a great three months so far, and I’m really looking forward to 2005. I think, he said in his best cliché voice, that we’re really going to surprise some people next year.

And with that, cue the online debate about the high prices of our books…

[Tick Tock]

He said Badger! It's close enough that I'm counting it! Yahoo!!!!

[idkidd]

Good Interview.

IDW seems like the ideal company to reprint Innovation's Ann Rice books. They could do soooooo much with that line and the covers to those old books look very much like the IDW books of today.

Ignoring the reprints even, there definitely would be an audience for new stories of Ann Rice's Vampire characters and other properties -- these would fit seamlessly within IDW's line and Ann Rice was enthused enough with her stories in comicbook format to self publish some issues of "Tale of The Body Thief" back in '97 or so complete with excerpts of an aborted pilot script she wrote.

[M Polo]

What book is this from?

[drdash]

cool. badger is coming back and an adaptation of thief of always, that'll be cool. i'm also anxiously awaiting hell house, one of my favorite novels and the return of deperadoes. i am pretty new to IDW, the only thing i've picked up so far is remains, which i thought was awesome.

ciao
drdash

[MattBrady]

Originally posted by M Polo
What book is this from?

Bad Planet

MattB

[Ryall]

Originally posted by M Polo
What book is this from?

I'd answer you if you had even one IDW book listed in your "Books you should be reading" bit.

It's not from any book--it's concept art for an upcoming book (see Matt Brady's response for which one).

[Ryall]

Originally posted by drdash
cool. badger is coming back and an adaptation of thief of always, that'll be cool. i'm also anxiously awaiting hell house, one of my favorite novels and the return of deperadoes. i am pretty new to IDW, the only thing i've picked up so far is remains, which i thought was awesome.

ciao
drdash

Wait, what's all this Badger talk about? I didn't confirm anything there...

...yet...

Hell House is going to be very cool, but I think Depseradoes could really be a, er, "dark horse" (sorry, Mike R.) for us. Jeff's always good, and I can't WAIT for the world to see Jeremy Haun's art on this one.

[M Polo]

Originally posted by Ryall
I'd answer you if you had even one IDW book listed in your "Books you should be reading" bit.

It's not from any book--it's concept art for an upcoming book (see Matt Brady's response for which one).

If there was a Book that I read recently from IDW that I thought was good it might have been on that list. I have Bloodsucker Tales on my pull list but as I'm sure YOU know, lol I have another couple weeks to wait for #1. I'm also waiting for "BIGFOOT" , so take that Mr. Ryall!!!


I was just asking what book the character concepts and art was for whether it was a past book which I figured it wasn't or an upcoming book. I check IDW's website frequently and there hadn't been a WHOLE lot on Bad Planet that I remembered. I have to remember not to ask questions next time.

[Ryall]

Originally posted by M Polo
If there was a Book that I read recently from IDW that I thought was good it might have been on that list. I have Bloodsucker Tales on my pull list but as I'm sure YOU know, lol I have another couple weeks to wait for #1. I'm also waiting for "BIGFOOT" , so take that Mr. Ryall!!!


I was just asking what book the character concepts and art was for whether it was a past book which I figured it wasn't or an upcoming book. I check IDW's website frequently and there hadn't been a WHOLE lot on Bad Planet that I remembered. I have to remember not to ask questions next time.

Bad Planet was talked about in a recent issue of Wizard, but we've only recently landed this amazing artist on the book, so it's just now shaping up into what it will eventually be. As soon as we can show actual pages and tell you a bit more about the story, we will.

[CBeranek]

From what I have read and seen IDW is blazing the trail for independent comic companies. We can all learn a thing or two from Mr. Ryall about how to promote, manage and produce quality comic books month after month.

Congratulations on your success and I am looking forward to everything to come!

--CB

BTW, buy Horrorcide when it comes out. The cover alone is worth the price of admission!

[MHELLER1974]

IDW is one of my favorite publishers.
When it comes time to fill out the previews
book, more often than not, I'm selecting all IDW titles. I even picked up Olympus Heights.
But it's the horror themed books that I love so much, Steve Niles is just an amazing writer.
I like Ashley Wood too, and Lore was a great read.
Consistently, IDW has been putting out some enjoyable books with titles like CVO, Remains, 30 Days of Night, and everything else.
I also just picked up I am Legend, great read, well worth the price tag.
I am also excited that IDW is willing to further stretch it's legs, and give us a return to some old favorites.
I am such an IDW addict, this is just going to further deplete my funds..

[reallybigmonste]

Look at Big time Mr. Get interviewed by Newsarama man.

-chuck bb

[Kody]

Originally posted by M Polo
If there was a Book that I read recently from IDW that I thought was good it might have been on that list. I have Bloodsucker Tales on my pull list but as I'm sure YOU know, lol I have another couple weeks to wait for #1. I'm also waiting for "BIGFOOT" , so take that Mr. Ryall!!!


I was just asking what book the character concepts and art was for whether it was a past book which I figured it wasn't or an upcoming book. I check IDW's website frequently and there hadn't been a WHOLE lot on Bad Planet that I remembered. I have to remember not to ask questions next time.

Word on the street is that the new Bloodsucker Tales book is gonna hit shelves son the 20th. That's less than a week. Check out that new artist on the book along side Templesmith, I've been hearing good things.

[Jeremy Williams]

Originally posted by idkidd
Good Interview.

IDW seems like the ideal company to reprint Innovation's Ann Rice books. They could do soooooo much with that line and the covers to those old books look very much like the IDW books of today.

Ignoring the reprints even, there definitely would be an audience for new stories of Ann Rice's Vampire characters and other properties -- these would fit seamlessly within IDW's line and Ann Rice was enthused enough with her stories in comicbook format to self publish some issues of "Tale of The Body Thief" back in '97 or so complete with excerpts of an aborted pilot script she wrote.

The Innovation books of Anne Rice`s Vampire chronicles were fantastic! Best horror comics ever with Tomb Of Dracula and the one that were banned in the 50s(Eerie, Tales of Horror, etc...). In fact the Anne Rice comics were much more than just regular comic stories, it was freakin high art, beautifully-produced work that blew anything that was produced in any horror entertainment at that time. That`s a great idea, IDW would be ideal to to reprint them, I devored these comics way back but unfortunetly missed several copies since there were not a lot of them available at that time. It would be great to see them collected in trades, along with Anne Rice`s The Mummy and Dark Shadows. What was great about Dark Shadows is that it took liberties from the source material and grew into its own thing.

Also I was wondering who was doing the Bryan Lumley`s Necroscope comics back then. I had never read the novels but thought the comics were scary as Hell. It was painted in the style of the Anne Rice comics but more gory. I wish those would be collected too.

BTW, I have to say IDW is ends-down the best comic-book publisher right now. I don`t know where the money is coming from but it`s refreshing to see a new comic-book company doing so well. And one that does actual horror comics. It would be cool to see something by Steve Bissette there.

[dEnny]

How this man has gotten so far is beyond me. It's a surprising world.

Looking forward to a great 2005 for IDW! Glad to see everything is coming together and I know things will only get better with Ryall as EIC.

[MurrayC]

...is what timeframe will Jon Sable take place in?

That is, will the storylines take place in 1984/85 where Mike Grell left off, or... Will the storylines take place in 2004/05?

Having said that, will Jon Sable's age reflect what he should be NOW (he turned 40 back in '84, therefore, he should be 60 now) or, is Mike Grell going to ignore time/continuity like DC does with Superman and Batman and keep Sable the same age forever regardless what decade the character is in?

(I can hear Mike's hand slapping his forehead now)

[jedbartlett]

Originally posted by MurrayC
...is what timeframe will Jon Sable take place in?

From Mike Grell's web site (April '03):

"ACTUALLY, I DO HAVE PLANS TO BRING SABLE BACK, AND HAVE BEEN WORKING OUT HOW BEST TO GO ABOUT IT. BUT, JUST AS JAMES BOND HAS CONTINUED THROUGH THE YEARS (EVEN CONSIDERING HIS ADVENTURE ABOARD THE ORIENT EXPRESS SO LONG AGO), SABLE IS A CHARACTER WHO FITS NICELY INTO OUR TIMES. I JUST HAVE TO BE A BIT MORE VAGUE AS TO THE CHRONOLOGY."

Link here: http://www.mikegrell.com/q&a1.jsp

Jed

[Ice]

Yeah well, about the prices.

I find 3,99 for a simple comic a bit steep, especially when a mini-series is cold finished and they're a trade for about the same price with extra's.

Ashley, Templesmith and Niles, man are they good, but only with a good discount via Mile High.