ALEX GRECIAN AND RILEY ROSSMO ON PROOF

[MattBrady]

by Steve Ekstrom

Cryptids, by definition, are creatures that are presumed extinct; of hypothetical origin; or based on anecdotal reference with no scientific proof of having actually existed. On October 24th, Alex Grecian and Riley Rossmo, the creative team behind The Seven Sons from AiT Planet Lar, begin boldly exploring the world of Cryptozoology in their new series from Image Comics—Proof—starring the most sought after Cryptid of them all, Bigfoot, as an agent of the mysterious organization known as The Lodge.

Newsarama hiked far and wide into the wilds to find Alex Grecian and Riley Rossmo to ask them about their collaborative efforts together thus far (including the one time they ever disagreed about something) and about the possibilities of monsters, like Elvis, roaming freely.

Newsarama: To start with the obvious, what inspired you to develop a comic about the monsters of world myth?

Alex Grecian: I was having dinner with friends and we were talking, I think, about some recent governmental shenanigans and specifically the C.I.A.; just the whole idea that our government keeps secrets from us. And someone said “Bigfoot probably works for the C.I.A.” I wish I could say it was me who said that, but it wasn’t. I kind of latched on to the notion, though and stopped holding up my end of the conversation while visions of Bigfoot on a C.I.A. training exercise danced in my head.

That scene made it into the first issue and everything grew from it: Ginger, The Lodge, the habitat for cryptids…

Riley and I didn’t want to do a “monster of the month” book, though, so I looked for some kind of a unique hook for Proof. Although El Chupacabra’s been used in comics before, and so has Bigfoot, the idea of setting our stories in the real world, with “real world” monsters (cryptids), was what ultimately got us excited about doing this. You’re not gonna see the same sorts of things you’re used to seeing in horror books. And the things you have seen before are gonna be very different.

You’ll never think of fairies the same way again.

NRAMA: Let’s talk about John “Proof” Prufrock—is there a loosely veiled literary reference poking out there? T.S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” has been interpreted as an exposition on the public self versus the private self. Is this intentional or is this reference accidental?

AG: Wow, you caught that, huh? Yes, it’s intentional. Proof’s been around a long time (the lifespan of a sasquatch is considerably longer than our own) and is a pretty well-read guy. He was named “Gulliver” when he was first discovered and he used that name during his circus days, but later chose to rename himself after his favorite poem. Hence, Prufrock—there are a lot of hints and clues to his former lives sprinkled throughout the early issues. I just didn’t expect anybody to pick up on that one this early.

NRAMA: Proof seems like a pretty nice guy with a sarcastic yet playful sense of humor—I don’t think readers have seen an envisioning of Big Foot quite like this. What kind of tone do you intend to carry with this book?

AG: Proof’s kind of a mixed bag. Our hero’s Bigfoot, so obviously this is fantasy, but as much as we can, we try to keep it “realistic”. Horrible things happen to the people in this book, but despite that they have senses of humor and that’s reflected in the dialogue.

Anytime you’ve got a group of people thrown together in a work environment (and The Lodge employs a lot of people), some of them are going to develop crushes on each other, some are going to complain about their jobs or feel lost or joke around too much. I try to let the characters breathe a little bit and see how they’ll react to what’s going on around them. They feel more real to me if they don’t just march along, going through the motions of whatever plot we’ve got for them to deal with this month. It’s very much a character driven book.

NRAMA: Riley, how much refinement and evolution has John Prufrock gone through from visual conception to finalized product?

Riley Rossmo: John was easy, after Alex and I first met (last year at the San Diego Comic-Con, which was actually kind of the second time we met, but that’s a different story…), we talked about this idea Alex had. I went back to my hotel room and the next day I brought pretty fully-realized sketches of John Prufrock to show him. It’s the other characters who have changed a lot. Ginger is super hard to draw. I finally think I have a handle on her now. She’s getting less exaggerated. Elvis, on the other hand, is getting way more exaggerated: taller hair, skinnier body.

NRAMA: Elvis...I’m going to leave that alone for now. Riley, do you ink your own pencils? Do you prefer pens to brushes? What’s your favorite medium?

RR: I ink my own stuff ‘cause it’s mostly just scribbles before I ink. My style isn’t exactly old school, but I’m definitely influenced by some of the masters of the medium. I love how John Buscema could do things with such an economy of lines. That’s what I try to do for myself. Plus, I don’t really like ultra-tight pencils. It takes the fun out of inking. I work with a Pilot soft blue mechanical pencil, then an HB pencil to do all the really hard stuff before I ink it. I don’t feel as confident doing sequential work as I do with the editorial stuff I work on, so until issue six of Proof, I did it all with tech pens. They don’t have the range a brush does so now I’m using a brush as much as I can. As for paper, I use anything I have around: Bristol, illustration board, Fabriano colored paper, vellum, whatever.

NRAMA: Your style on Seven Sons is markedly different from your work on Proof. When you were approaching this new project, what were some of your concerns regarding your own work?

RR: I wanted it to be more accessible to the general public. Seven Sons was more literary and I lacked (maybe still lack) the skills to do what my brain envisioned.

NRAMA: Alex indicated that you are working on the seventh issue of Proof at the moment—how has your process and style changed in those seven issues?

RR: Brush—lots of brush.

NRAMA: Alex, where does the story pick-up? What can a reader expect to see taking a chance on your initial offering?

AG: Our first arc, “Goatsucker,” basically serves as an introduction. We see Ginger get recruited by The Lodge and get her reaction to the strangeness around her; but she doesn’t have a lot of time to get comfortable because El Chupacabra’s wandering around Minnesota killing people. Ginger’s first day, she meets her new partner, Proof, and then has to hop on a helicopter and go fight a monster.

The Lodge was founded decades ago, though, so there’s a lot of back story we eventually want to get around to telling—there is a lot of strangeness that’s led up to this point. We drop plenty of hints and clues along the way and we try to pack this book as densely as possible, so there’s a lot to pay attention to—but in a fun way.

NRAMA: How will Proof’s new partner, Ginger Brown, affect the dynamic of the book? Is she his human counterpart or is there more to her character?

AG: Well, Proof’s a giant. He’s huge—a monster; but, he’s basically a pacifist. He’s been around the block one too many times to feel good about killing something just because it looks weird or vicious. All he has to do is look in a mirror to see that appearances can be deceiving. So, he’d much rather talk some sense into the Jersey Devil than fight him. Of course, there will be times when he gets dragged into a fight against his will, but that’s kind of more fun than a snarling angry Bigfoot.

Ginger, on the other hand, has always had a lot to prove. She’s petite and attractive and works in a field that’s dominated by aggressive men. She’s always had to hold her own in the F.B.I. and she doesn’t back down from a fight. They balance each other well but there’s some conflict there too.

Ginger serves as sort of the point-of-view character for the reader. She, and later Elvis (an important character we’ll be introducing in issue two), react to this stuff the way you or I probably would. Proof’s just too jaded at this point. Nothing really surprises him.

NRAMA: Alex, you’re blending a number of genres with this series—action/ adventure, suspense, horror, modern myth—what has been the biggest challenge for you in writing this project so far?

AG: I’m having a blast. It’s really surprising how well this whole book has come together. The main things I sweat, though, are the transitions. With so many characters and locations and ideas flying around, I don’t want to lose anybody. I want it to be a smooth read. There’s always stuff I’m not happy with when I re-read my own work, but there’s usually a moment in each script that I’ll feel really happy about. It’s that good moment that usually ends up being a fun transition from one scene or character to the next.

NRAMA: Riley, how closely do you and Alex work together when you’re putting pen to paper over his script? Does his scripting allow you a lot of creative freedom?

RR: Oh, yeah. We have a deal that I do the visuals and he does the words. If I don’t think something works or if I have a better idea for the illustrations, Alex doesn’t step on my toes much, and vice versa. If one of us has something to say, we discuss it over the phone. There’s only one page we’ve ever really had issues with and I think it went through five or six incarnations.



NRAMA: What do you think is the most important aspect of your job as the artist of a piece of sequential art?

RR: To make sure the pictures tell the story as clearly and dynamically as possible. No excess big splash pages. In the first six issues there’re only five or so splashes.

NRAMA: Let’s change gears and talk about your collaboration with Riley, Alex—you guys worked together on Seven Sons from AiT/ Planet Lar. With a degree of critical success under your belts as a team, does that make a collaborative effort any easier? Is there ever any creative conflict when you work with someone this closely…beyond your “one page” on Proof?

AG: Riley’s a joy to work with. Honestly, this is the best collaborative experience I can imagine. We worked out most of the bugs in our process on Seven Sons and we’re both having a blast with this book.

I work full script, but Riley deviates from my panel descriptions when he has a better idea—and he’s most often right. As long as he doesn’t change my dialogue or storytelling, I don’t mess with his character designs and layout choices.

The only conflict we’ve had was over a page in issue three. I felt like he showed too much in a panel that was supposed to tease an upcoming event. I thought he kind of gave away the coming surprise. So he redrew it, but didn’t show enough and there wasn’t any suspense because you didn’t really know what you were looking at. We went back and forth and got pretty sick of it. I was ready to scrap the whole story when he finally came up with an illustration that worked perfectly. We don’t talk about that panel now. Well, except here, I guess, but this is it. Now, we’re all done talking about it.

NRAMA: Alex, you gave up a life in advertising to be a freelance writer; was your transition difficult? You’ve written a number of different types of projects—what’s been your favorite format so far?

AG: It was definitely a difficult transition from a monetary standpoint. My wife is maybe the most supportive person in the world. It’s a completely different world. I still do some freelance ad consulting; but for the most part, I’d much rather write stories and have control over what I write. There’s none of that in advertising.

The nice thing about coming up through advertising, though, is that you learn not to miss deadlines. If you promise a client you’ll have a campaign mapped out in two weeks, then you know that two weeks from now you’re gonna be standing up in front of a room full of people and you’d better have something impressive to show or you may lose that client. You may lose your job. So, you can’t exactly sit back and wait for your muse to show up. If you have to work some all-nighters to get the job done, that’s what’s expected of you.

Carrying that basic work ethic into comics, we’ve got a book we’ve got to have finished every single month. Riley comes from a similar background, so it’s important to both of us to have Proof in shops when it’s solicited.

I do like to work in different formats just because I think each way of writing informs every other thing I do. Writing a movie treatment teaches me something about mapping out the beats of a story and I can take that back to the comics I write.



NRAMA: Riley, have you always been a fan of comics? Who are some of your influences from inside the industry? Do you have any artistic influences from outside the industry?

RR: I love comics—I collect tons of them. My pull list at Another Dimension is probably 100 titles. The first comic I ever read was a Voltron comic my parents bought me in a hotel lobby, the second was G.I. Joe #3 by Herb Trimpe, I believe. Maybe not, I’d have to check. The first serious stuff I got into was the Frank Miller Wolverine limited series, then the Miller/ Mazzucchelli Daredevil stuff.

Now my big influences are Bill Sienkiewicz, Paul Pope, Bernie Wrightson, Mike Mignola, Troy Nixey, Will Eisner and Dave Lapham. Outside comics I like Egon Sheile (he’s my favorite artist), Henry Toulous-Lautrec, Baron Storey, Glen Barr ( kinda a comics guy), that’s just the surface, plus books and movies by Raymond Chandler, Chester Himes, Chuck Palahniuk, Miyazaki.

NRAMA: Alex, what’s been your biggest challenge as a writer?

AG: I’m working on my third novel right now and that’s so different from comics because I can let two characters talk for pages and pages; then, I come back to Proof and have to cut out 15 pages of dialogue between Proof and Ginger because we only have 22 pages this issue to tell a story. In fact, I have so much trouble with my dialogue running on too long that in the first five-issue arc, I think there’s only one issue that actually ended up being 22 pages. The rest ran long and Riley was cool about drawing extra story pages. So there’s definitely more bang for our readers’ three bucks just because I can’t make my characters shut up!

NRAMA: To close, between the two of you, you’ve accumulated a number of projects (the aforementioned Seven Sons for AiT Planet Lar and Riley’s work on Scarface for IDW, to name a couple) inside the industry, do you see yourselves sticking to the independent/ creator-owned end of the industry or do you want to work for one of the ‘Big 2’? I noticed a certain Caped ‘Crusader’ and ‘Jade Behemoth’ in Riley’s sketchbook on his personal site…

RR: I’m not sure I could work for the ‘Big Two’ for too long because it’d be hard to keep interest in something that’s not mine. I mean, I love Batman, the Hulk, and Wolverine. Alex and I have discussed numerous ideas for different DC or Marvel books we’d like to do; but mostly just as short-runs or minis. We’d love to do Dr. Strange or The Unknown Soldier for a couple years. Proof, though, has all the stuff I like in it: mystery, freaks, monsters, dinosaurs, legends. I love Proof.

AG: I’ve got more story ideas for other creator-owned properties than I’ll ever have time to write, so I’ll be very busy over the next couple of years getting some of those things out into the marketplace. Owning my work is a big part of why I gravitated toward writing comics in the first place, so that’s always bound to be a big part of what I do.

But it can also be a lot of fun to take someone else’s characters in unexpected directions and put my own stamp on them. There are definitely other properties and characters I’d love to have a go at.

Hopefully, though, we get to keep working on Proof forever. We have the first five or six years pretty well mapped out and after that I have an idea for the direction I’d eventually like the series to go. I just keep coming up with Proof stories I want to write and I need to keep Riley busy so nobody else snaps him up.

[nickmaynard]

this book looks promising, considered it pulled!

[BAMJoe]

I have always wanted to write a series like this. Guess someone beat me to it. Looks good, I will definitely be picking this up.

[C_Striker]

Looks interesting...something I'm Definately checking out

[turk9]

They had me at "goatsucker". As some one who has vacationed at Loch Ness with a night vision camera in hand, this is right up my ally! Already preordered this.

[Dilutral]

This series looks awsome!!!
Some drawings look a little sketchy but overall very nice.
Are these pages in issue #1 ?
Cause they take place before the preview I read at comicspace...

[sweetmisery]

Love cryptozoology stuffs. Im in.

[Black Beetle]

This is right up my alley. I love this kind of stuff.

[BKThomson]

I just pre-order this through my mail order service. After this interview it does look promising.

[ShinAkuma666]

I like the concept of Proof, its fantasy in concept but not too far fetch, it makes sense and a genre blending always makes for a fun and interesting read.

Here is a 10 pages preview that was posted from the Image boards:

http://www.comicspace.com/alexgrecia...d=10377&page=1

Its great to see that they have lots of ideas for a long run on the title, best of luck to you guys.

[Green Llama]

Very, very cool! I am there!

[scorpion mk]

Riley Rossmo works at my local Comic Store in Calgary, he's a good guy, "seven sons" i never read it but i've heard good things.

[C_Striker]

Originally Posted by ShinAkuma666

Here is a 10 pages preview that was posted from the Image boards:

http://www.comicspace.com/alexgrecia...d=10377&page=1
.

Thanks for posting that link, I really can't wait to check this out

[remender73]

I've been a fan of Riley Rossmo's stuff for years. He gets batter and better all the time. This is a talent to watch and an amazingly cool looking comic.

[GuitarSmashley]

Pre-ordered and convinced my buddy to do the same.

[ptsteelers]

Tell everyone one you know about this book.
I want to see this puppy last and last and last and ...

[EMeadow]

Originally Posted by BAMJoe

I have always wanted to write a series like this. Guess someone beat me to it. Looks good, I will definitely be picking this up.

Actually someone beat them to it too.

Perhapanauts anyone?

[Sweeps]

Originally Posted by EMeadow

Actually someone beat them to it too.

Perhapanauts anyone?

http://www.newsarama.com/ThrillHouse...id_CrePre.html

Thrill House Comics Cryptid I was extremely looking forward to, but things just aren't working out it seems getting the thing out. The thing was announced last year with a preview comic that was supposed to come out last November. Then the regular series kept getting delayed. Something about some proposed movie deal stalling things.

The concept behind Cryptid was waaaaay far better than what this thing is supposed to be about. Art looked much better too. Maybe it'll come out eventually, maybe not. With Image getting theirs out first, it might seem like overcrowding if Thrillhouse gets their **** together.

[wrinkle27]

Perhapanauts was a great book, really fun to read, and the chupacabra character was my favorite. Cryptozoo Crew from NMB was pretty cool as well. I love monster books. I love Monsters Unleashed, Creepy, Eerie, Saskquatch from Alpha flight. I enjoyed Weird War, and heck, it had sea monsters fighting submarines!

People like UFO's, Sea Monsters, and Zombies, among other oddities and unexplained phenomena. I'm sure there are a lot of other creators out there with great stories about cryptozoological creatures. I read them when ever I can. Alex and I are going to hopefully add to comic book’s past history of cryptozoological stories.

I really love comics and I'm going to tell stories about Proof to the very best of my abilities. I absolutely love working on this book and thanks to everyone who has taken the time to check it out the preview.

I hope you enjoy our book.
Riley Rossmo

[Alex Grecian]

Couldn't have said it better myself. If you like cryptids or monsters or horror or action or dark humor, we hope you'll pick up Proof. We're working very hard to try to pack it with fun stuff (including an ongoing column, which will debut in issue two, written by actual Bigfoot researchers about their experiences in the field). Thanks in advance for giving us a shot.



-Alex

I like cryptids, monsters, horror, action, dark humor, so I have preodered it.

[CATT]

This series looks awesome! I'm on for this one. The art looks fantastic.

[librarykat]

I'm absolutely in on this one. Hooyah!

In addition to the titles mentioned by Rossmo (all of which I own and read), there's also the Sasquatch anthology published by Viper Comics, edited by Josh Howard.

And I loved Seven Sons. Gave me chills at the end.

[idkidd]

I'm very excited for this book.

That is amazing the penciler is working on issue #7 2 months before the first issue has even shipped. I wonder if, with this kind of backlog established, would be possible for the book to "claim" a certain week each month to appear in shops? I REALLY enjoyed how the Luna Bros. had Girls in stores the 2nd (or 3rd) week of the month throughout the entire series; I'd love if Proof could follow that approach to shipping. Any chance guys?

Also, will there be extras in the back of the book instead of house ads? I love any and all kinds of stuff -- sketches, script, behind the scenes info, letters pages, introductory essays to where you guys see the series going, etc. The more stuff the better!

[Alex Grecian]

Ah, you've played right into our hands.

We'd absolutely love to "claim" a week every month. Being there the same time every month is very important to us. We'd love to have regular readers who count on us (plus, that's more motivation to hit our deadlines). I'll talk to the powers that be at Image and see if we can do that. Thank you for the suggestion.

And we'll definitely have extras. We have so many extras planned so far we don't have room for house ads yet. we've recreated several turn-of-the-last-century newspaper pages about Bigfoot sightings and we'll be running those in the back. Issue one has an article about the evolution of the book and a recommended reading list. Issue two has a piece by me about writing comics and a piece by Riley about the life of a comic book artist. We also debut, in issue two, a regular column written by actual Bigfoot researchers and hunters, in which they talk about their experiences in the field. We have lots of plans along the lines you suggest, including selected letters, pin-ups, back-up stories, extra story pages (the first three issues have two extra story pages each at no extra cost) and some surprise goodies.

Seriously, all salesmanship aside, we very much want for Proof to take a while to read and stick to your ribs. We want it to be cover-to-cover Proof and we're packing it full. The last thing we want is for anybody to feel like they wasted two dollars and ninety-nine cents.

Anything else we can do? Let us know.

Thanks.

-Alex