VIEWING THE SKYSCRAPERS WITH JOSHUA COTTER

[MattBrady]

by Chris Arrant

Over the course of four issues, the independent series Skyscrapers of the Midwest has revealed a quirky, humorous and starkly truthful world and cartoonist behind it all.. Sublime and bleak, Skyscrapers of the Midwest uses a darkly humorous tone to capture a glimpse at the lives of two young boys – brothers – as they winnow in and out of their imaginary lives trying to cope with the truths of their own. Told in an expressive and organic way by comics newcomer Joshua Cotter, it reveals a vibrant and ornery (yes, I said ornery) imagination that can't be put on hold.

Originating as a mini-comic, Skyscrapers of the Midwest burst into the public thanks to the Isotope Award for Excellence in Mini-Comics in 2004, followed shortly thereafter by the announcement that AdHouse Books was publishing the series. The fourth and final issue was released earlier this year, and we spoke with the creator himself to find out about the book and what's next.

Newsarama: In another interview, you say that Skyscrapers of the Midwest is about "observations of childhood isolation and existence in the American Midwest. With giant robots." Focusing on the former first – what were your most memorable moments of childhood, Josh?

Joshua Cotter: Most of my childhood memories involve playground terror, a constant fear of rejection (a fear that usually ended up justified), desperately wanting girls to just look at me without getting a look like they were forced to drink curdled milk. I've always focused on the negative... I am aware of the positive, but I never can seem to give it any of my time. Just the way I'm wired, I suppose. I don't necessarily consider myself to be a pessimist, just realistic. The happiest moments were always with my family... usually with my brother, playing out in the fields and in the timber near our house, sneaking over to our grandmother's (who lived about half a mile away on a dirt road), playing in the old barns and chicken coops. I really did have a good upbringing, I was just overtly sensitive to your run of the mill child torture that's ubiquitous in American schools. There were kids that grew up in my area that had it pretty terrible (like the abusive robot family in the first Skyscrapers). Those families never got into trouble... their kids would show up covered with bruises and filthy clothes and nothing was ever done about it. It was this 'country' thing where you don't stick your nose into other peoples' business. I haven't really been around the area for a few years, but I can only hope and assume things are better.

NRAMA: Did you grow up in the Midwest?

JC: Well, I thought I did.

NRAMA: [laughs] I sense a story coming here.

JC: I grew up in Northwest Missouri, thirty miles north of St. Joseph (Jesse James, Pony Express, Etc.), fifteen miles from the nearest comics rack, and a mile away from any human being I wasn't related to. We lived on a few acres adjoining a few hundred acres of fields, timber and pasture that belonged to my grandparents, aunts and uncles. My brother and I had a lot of land to play on and explore, if we could get away from the TV (and I'm not really sure why we liked television since we only had three or four channels, including PBS). Back to 'Well, I thought I did'. When I moved to Chicago last year, random people I'd meet would take it upon themselves to inform me that Missouri was in the South. Which is interesting, because the area of Missouri in which I grew up is further north than the southern part of Illinois. I'm sticking with Missouri being in the Midwest. Arkansas, I don't know. Missouri, absolutely not. And I didn't want to have to change the name of my book, either. To hell with your geographic opinions, Chicago.

NRAMA: What did your parents do for a living in Missouri?

JC: My father was a math teacher (he was my math teacher from 7th grade to Senior year. I couldn't get away with anything at school), a bus driver, and when I was younger he farmed soy beans and some other stuff in the summertime. My mother was a secretary for an electric company for a long time. She teaches at an elementary school now... My grandfathers were both farmers (one a dairy farmer, the other corn, wheat, soy beans, etc.).

NRAMA: And.. robots. When did the fascination begin with robots?

JC: Disney's Black Hole. Those robots were incredible! They got me started with my little obsession... and then Transformerscame along and took care of the rest. I had fantasies as a child that I had my own mech robot outfit (kind of like the one in Aliens, only bigger. And painted blue), stomping around the countryside, saving peoples' lives, garnering the respect of all (especially the girls in my class. My class had around 15 kids in it at any given time, by the way). People say that Nova Stealth [a character from Skyscrapers of the Midwest] looks like those robots on Battlestar Galactica, but I'd never even heard of the show until the comparisons started rolling in (three channels, PBS). So, there.

NRAMA: Robots play an increasing role in the life of the two boys. They dream about them, they dream they are robots, I think even the robots have dreams about the boys. Obviously it's something from your childhood – but how'd it translate to the comic?

JC: Like I said, I always wanted that mech outfit. I guess it just kind of branched out from there. The robots in the stories represent different things at different times, but I'd rather not state what those representations may be... I think it's more fun when the reader can come up with their own interpretations of all of my vague character analogies. My favorite thing is when people come up to me at shows and tell me what 'such and such' represents. I just nod and smile. It's a power thing, really. Who knew comics could give one so much power? Not I.

NRAMA:. Did you ever fashion yourself a robot costume, say for Halloween?

JC: No, my Halloween costumes were always terrible. I had a tendency to go overboard with the face paint. I was always a dead 'punk rocker' or something. My brother and I would dress up as robots (with paper bag helmets and capes, of course) and beat each other with those tubes that come in wrapping paper in the off season, though. The tubes also worked as lightsabers.

NRAMA: [laughs] I always used PVC pipes, but they hurt more too.

As each issue unfolded, you used different storytelling techniques to tell it. In issue two, you used the format of "Sunday funny pages" with a different style of comic strip to tell a different part of the family's life. In issue four, you bring back the style of late 80s Marvel Comics to the delight of this reader. From your side of things, what led you to do
this?

JC: Gimmicks. It's the only way I can write. But I should try to sell myself? These things just kind of happen in the writing process. The second book took place on a Sunday, and Sunday funnies were almost all I had as far as comics exposure goes... I thought it might be fun to experiment with the structure as a narrative tool. A good part of the third book takes place at school, and I thought it would be a good way to link the younger and older characters in the community, and to serve as a narrative thread. With the fourth book, I just REALLY wanted to do a fake Nintendo ad.

NRAMA: Point taken. At what point did you decide that issue #4 would be the last issue?

JC:I can't really remember, but I think Chris [Pitzer, AdHouse Books' Publisher] and I came to that decision earlier on. By the time I was done with the third book, I was really glad I only had one left. Not that I was hating what I was doing, I just felt like I was getting to the point where I was holding back on creative and artistic growth to keep the books consistent from one to the next. Fortunately I had the strip for the Kansas City Star to experiment with, or finishing the series would have been incredibly difficult. It was difficult anyway. I read on a forum online somewhere.... some guys were wondering why 'these indie artists' only release one book a year, 'how difficult could it be?'. I don't know how it works with mainstream comics, but there is absolutely no money in what I'm / we're doing (no fault of AdHouse or other independent publishers, of course). Indie guys have to work full time jobs, do freelance work, and then if they can give up a few hours of sleep and a social life, write and draw comics. And I'm not complaining. I just wanted to throw that out there as a feeble attempt at crushing what seems to be a general misconception. In fact, not being able to make a living at comics is great because you get complete creative control, and I'll take that any day over, I don't know, whatever it is people with money do. Eat?

NRAMA: You've been asked on numerous occasions about the meaning of the title "Skyscrapers of the Midwest", but each time you've kind of left it open. Skipping that… where did the title come from?

JC: I was asked that in an interview a while back, and again I didn't give a very good answer... I was going through some old sketchbooks a couple weeks ago, gathering images and notes for the appendix of the collection and I actually came across the origin (two people just got excited)! I had drawn a picture of one of the grain towers that reside in the town near where I grew up, and underneath it I wrote: (Majestic: Skyscrapers of the Midwest) Fuck. In those words.

NRAMA: We've got a scan of that here with the article.

JC: A lot of things in my sketchbooks are just stream of consciousness rambling, but I'm assuming once I wrote that, I got to thinking of what it meant (if anything), and eventually came to the conclusion that it was an analogy for childhood. Grain towers being my skyscrapers growing up. I still get excited when I get to go home and see them. All of those weird pipes and add-ons and ''87 rocks' graffiti and rusty sheet metal. They really are fascinating. Now I walk out the door and there's the John Hancock building. Life's weird.

NRAMA: When you finished this last issue and sent it off, did you ring in the
end of the four issues of work with anything special? Cognac? Champagne? Root beer?

JC: I probably shouldn't say, and I'm certainly not bragging, but I went on a two month bender. Mostly Argentine wine. And Root Beer. Wine from Argentina is the gateway liquid for Root Beer. Decadent, the celebrating cartoonist.

NRAMA: [laughs] Triumphant, towering over his spoils of victory.

When does the graphic novel collection come out?

JC: We're shooting for June of 2008. It's gonna be a full hardcover run... I'm doing about 20 new supplemental pages, plus we're gonna have a big color sketchbook / cover gallery / appendix thing at the end. I'm pretty excited. Chris says it's my 'last hurrah'. Interpret that however you'd like.

NRAMA: Are there any plans to re-release your earlier comics work, such as
Fun or Send Help?

JC: There's been some talk here and there about doing a collection of my strips, but the Skyscrapers collection is my focus right now. We'll see what happens. I don't know if Fun will ever see the light of day again. I was proud of it at the time, but it reeks of 'I don't know what the hell I'm doing'. I've considered putting the whole thing on my website for general viewing, but... I don't know. Eh.

NRAMA: What kind of art do you do when you're not doing comics?

JC:I paint here and there, but mostly when I'm not doing comics I put all of my energy into my sketchbook. I put up a lot of my work at comicstripjoint.blogspot.com. Some freelance things, strips, pencilled pages. Stuff like that.

NRAMA: Your work as been high on reading lists for many people – but what do you read?

JC: I'm really bad when it comes to current comics work. Um... I'm really happy places like Fantagraphics and D&Q are collecting the Peanuts strips, Frank King strips, etc. Nick Abadzis' Laika book is probably the best comic/'graphic novel' I've read recently. I got to meet Nick here in Chicago (at Quimby's) and hang out with him out at SPX and he was a great guy. This isn't comics, but I just finished John Dos Passos' USA trilogy and it's one of the best things I've read in years. I'm reading Crime and Punishment right now. And Nietzsche's Thus Spoke Zarathustra. That guy's a riot. And Popeye.

NRAMA: And lastly… now that Skyscrapers of the Midwest is finished and you just turned 30, what are you doing next?

JC: After I finish the collection, I'm going to take a step back. Probably work on some personal pieces... paintings, drawings... continue to work in the sketchbook. I've got lots of ideas for future projects, but I feel like my head is kind of under the comics water right now. I need to reel my brain back in, figure out where to go next. I might even leave my apartment.

Skyscrapers of the Midwest #1-4 is available in stores now, with a collected edition tentatively scheduled for Summer 2008. For more information on Joshua Cotter's work, visit jwcotter.com or comicstripjoint.blogspot.com.

[SeamusMcClernan]

...reminds me of one of my t-shirts...

...alot.

[j.vinson]

Skyscrapers is a really good book. The art is crisp and detailed and the story is getting better with every issue. It's too bad #4 is the last one.
www.theapplicants.com

[JAINITZ]

Josh is a genius folks. Josh has won the Isotope Award and been nominated for an Eisner. Josh does not make any money making comics. GIVE HIM YOUR MONEY! WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?

Not only is Josh a brilliant comic creator, but he's the kind of guy that will give you directions on Chicago's L when it's obvious you're lost and the toothless-homeless guy smells blood in the water.

I want FUN and SEND HELP. How do I get them?

Jai