INSIDE THE ADVENTURES IV: PAUL TOBIN

[MattBrady]

by Benjamin Ong Pang Kean

Paul Tobin may not be in the same league as Fred Van Lente, Marc Sumerak, Peter David, Joe Lansdale, Ty Templeton, Zeb Wells, Paul Benjamin, Jeff Parker… yet, but his star has risen with his work on Banana Sunday, a comedy for readers of any age.

It’s no wonder why Marvel has signed on the up-and-coming writer for a four-issue Marvel Adventures Fantastic Four arc.

Continuing our series of interviews with the Marvel Adventures team, we have Paul Tobin with us and he’s eager to prove why he’s not just an Average Joe in the comic book writing business.

Newsarama: What got you into the comic book business?

Paul Tobin: Love of the medium, and blind chance. When I went off to college I met Phil Hester, and he was doing comics, and it was my first real thought of, "Hey, people actually make these things." I mean, I knew who my favorite creators were, but I still didn't understand the actuality of those creators sitting down and doing the work, or that it was something anybody could do. A lot of my early works are with Phil: "Fringe," which was with a company called Caliber, and then "Attitude Lad" over at Slave Labor. After a time, though, the industry changed, and I didn't feel like I had (or wanted) a place... so I spent some time learning to write novels, at that time mostly for myself. Then my gal Colleen Coover began seriously doing comics (the near legendary "Small Favors" over at Fantagraphics/Eros) and by teaching her how to create comics I began to find that love again. Through her I met Jeff Parker, and Jeff suggested I try some Marvel writing, and I did. Frankly, I'm having a lot of fun.

NRAMA: Who are some of the legends and creators that inspire you and your work?

PT: A lot of European creators, chiefly Hugo Pratt. His work with Corto Maltese is still my number one mood-evocative choice. And Jordi Bernet's work on Torpedo. It's pretty amazing that a guy can take over after Alex Toth, and have it be a step up. Herge is a huge influence, and Carl Barks as well. Dupuy and Berberian with their Monsieur Jean material. Byrne's work on X-Men and Fantastic Four. The Ditko through Romita years on Spidey. When I was growing up, I absolutely detested Jack Kirby's work, and now I find so much vitality, life, and energy in his material that I condemn my early foolish years. I also used to like white bread and Velveeta cheese, so apparently I dropped out of a few too many trees.

These days I'll read pretty much anything written by Brian Bendis, Ed Brubaker, Darwyn Cooke, Jeff Parker, Mike Mignola, Dan Clowes, or Seth, among many others. I think Faryl Dalrymple is really maturing into a monster. I mean a good monster. And Cliff Chiang too. J. Bone and the whole Shane Glines crowd. If I were (John Buscema) to really (Cameron
Stewart) get into (Milton Caniff) talking about (Frank King) everybody who (Wally Wood) I truly (Joss Whedon) respect and (EC staff) admire, then (Koike/Kojima) this list (Beto) would never (Will Eisner) end.

And that's all without mentioning the non-comics creators (novelists, painters, etc.) that have influenced my creative drive. Yeesh!

NRAMA: In what way do each of them contribute to you dream of making it as a creator yourself?

PT: Somewhat by seeing how they create, how they overcome this-and-that story-telling obstacle. Really, though, everybody creates the way they create: that's just the way of any art. Nate Cosby, my editor, does an amazing job of leading me into the nuts and bolts of how to get across my own particular voice: what the above creators truly did was give me a real love of the medium, making me want to have a voice in the first place.

NRAMA: Touching on something a little more recent, has the announcement about Marvel’s Digital Comics Unlimited, especially the extra attention on and experimentation with Marvel Adventures and other all ages comics gotten your attention?

PT: It's too early for me to tell. Any new technology takes some time to find its niche in an established industry; some things work and some don't. Some things, afterwards, make us wonder what took everyone so long to get on the ball, and other times we look back and wonder why we ever thought it would work in the first place. Digital comics, and Marvel's Digital Comics, are still in the experimental stage, but I do find it exciting that the Marvel Adventures material is at the forefront, pushing for new readers, and new ways to reach current readers.

NRAMA: As a kid, what were some of your favorite comics?

PT: My cousin Denny gave me a whole box full of Marvel comics from the mid sixties that he'd received as a "thanks" for helping a neighbor clean out a garage. Issues of Spider-Man, Fantastic Four, Avengers, Tales to Astonish and Tales of Suspense... great old material. I can remember reading an issue of Tales to Astonish where the Hulk fights Sub-Mariner, and the Hulk tosses Namor basically across the ocean, and Namor's having to exert all his effort and those tiny ankle wings of his in order to hit water, not land, because if he hits land he'll die. He ends up coming down in the water maybe thirty feet from the beach, and the suspense of it really grabbed me. I was all like, "Oh crap! Namor! Is he gonna make it?!" I was kinda hoping he wouldn't, because I've always been a "Hulk" guy.

Other memories are going into town with my mom on Fridays, and while she went to the laundromat I'd get comics, some soda, and snacks, and I'd sit around stuffing myself and reading. Top of the world.

One other memory that's hard to forget... getting my first "golden age" comic, which was Sub-Mariner Comics # 12, and driving home with it sitting on the passenger seat, with that Schomburg cover staring up at me. Awesome. Later, I sold it for "girlfriend" reasons. I miss that comic.

NRAMA: What was so great about those comics back in the day?

PT: Mostly it was the fact that anything could happen. Anything. And I was one of those kids who really believed Spider-Man could die. Every time Doctor Doom had the FF in his clutches, I was worried it was the final issue. "This is it! He's really gonna kill them this time!" After I was old enough to push that aside, it was characterization that held me. Watching the Thing deal with who he was, or Peter Parker's troubles with women, or the X-Men being hated just for who they were, that captured me. And, still, just that sheer joy of the "anything can happen" atmosphere. Turning the page after a panel of the Human Torch giving Spider-Man some mildly witty insult, I might find that Spider-Man has the ultimate put-down at hand, or I might find that their personal feud has to be put on hold because a damaged Kree spaceship slams into downtown NYC. You just never know, and you turn the page to find out.

NRAMA: In your opinion, how has it all changed from then till now?

PT: In recent years I haven't exactly seen mainstream adventure comics move away from the doom and gloom, and that would be bad, except that I perceive them as doing something far more important... we've expanded away. And by that I mean that if you're a reader who wants the doom and gloom, then it's there for you, but if you want some straightforward adventures, that's also waiting for you in the comic shop, and if you want some adventurous fun, then, yeah, pick up an issue. One thing that I think American comics is learning (or re-learning) is that if you want an expanded audience, then you have to have a varied product line. There's no one "magic" comic out there that will appeal to all the readers. Ergo, if you want all the readers, then make some different comics.

Beyond that, some really good writers have established themselves in recent years, guys who can bop around with doom and gloom and still have the essential elements of fun. Two that come to immediate mind are Brian Bendis and Ed Brubaker. To me, they infuse adventure comics with humanity, and we humans have to laugh every now and then, no matter what the situation. Their characters seem all the more real for it, and that gives their work more depth. Oh, Alan Moore, of course, can pull it off as well. And Darwyn Cooke, bless 'em.

NRAMA: So, Pulitzer Prize winning novelist and comic book writer Michael Chabon was right in saying that "children have not abandoned comic books - comic books have abandoned children" then?

PT: I can actually remember listening to Michael giving that speech [in 2004], and I felt he was a little right, and also a little wrong. He was a little right because comics at the time (and for a period of some years before, and also somewhat up to the present) had moved away from a sense of fun. It was still an "anything can happen" atmosphere, but whatever did happen was for sure going to be grim and bleak. And writers were trying to prove that their particular anti-hero (and they were all anti-heroes) was the most "anti" of all. Simply, comics had lost their sense of wonder and fun. It became, during those bleak years, very hard for me to care about comics, because they were populated by characters I simply did not like. Why would I read any literature populated exclusively by characters I neither liked nor cared for?

At the same time... Michael was also wrong. Comics had not abandoned children (and a lot of other readers), only mainstream comics had done that. Or, more to the point, mainstream adventure comics. Kids weren't leaving comics, they were turning to other comics, to some of the indies, like Bone, or to the wealth of Japanese comics where characters were having fun. Even if those characters were in dire straights, there was still an essential joy to their personalities. And that's important for a reader. You can't have your downs without your ups.

One of the things I really like about the Marvel Adventures line is that we've brought a lot of that joy back to comics. Giving the fun back to the characters, and letting that translate into fun for the readers. By no means do I look at the Marvel Adventures line as a humor line, but I do see it as the area where when Spidey puts on his tights he does occasionally think, "Man... I freakin' love being Spider-Man!"

NRAMA: How did you land the upcoming four-issue Marvel Adventures Fantastic Four gig?

PT: Just plain luck. And, oh, also an enormous amount of work. Nate (my editor) had been giving me an odd project here and there, and I was sending in enough proposals to bury a horse. A big horse. Then one morning I was headed for a nice little place called Voodoo Doughnut, and Nate gave me a call and offered me a four issue arc on Fantastic Four. Lamely, and accidentally bad-pun-ly, I actually said, "Yeah, sure! That'll be fantastic! Nate groaned, and I forgot to get my doughnut, which was too bad, but of course I get to take the helm of some really great characters. Plus, and this is really sweet, I'm working with my pal David Hahn for the arc, and David brings a lot to the characters. David works out of Periscope Studios, which is also where my wife (Colleen Coover) works, so it's really easy for David and I to craft a comic together, face to face, and create works we're proud of.

NRAMA: Being the newest writer on the block to tackle the MA imprint, how has the whole experience been thus far?

PT: It is a beautiful place. We're not as confined by continuity, which means we're even more likely to really take a story out there, and keep the reader guessing. Plus, according to my calculations, 76.39% of all the fun in mainstream adventure comics comes out of the Marvel Adventures line. That's over two thirds of all the fun. Pretty amazing when you see it presented that way, in completely unquestionable scientifically accurate numbers.

NRAMA: What're some of your personal favorites when it comes to the MA line?

PT: Well, it's no surprise you mentioned two of Jeff Parker's issues. Even before I met Jeff Parker, and got to know Jeff Parker, and became close enough with Jeff Parker that he, Jeff Parker, gives me a kickback every time I mention his name in print, Jeff Parker's comics were some of my favorites. The two you mention are memorable, and I also love "The Things Below" from MA Fantastic Four # 6, and Jeff's All-MODOC issue of the Avengers, and of course, "Ego the Loving Planet," from MA Avengers # 12.

NRAMA: How do you compare the MA line to the Stan Lee/Jack Kirby/Steve Ditko comics from the 1960s?

PT: I think the comparison is valid. We're not going to pour on quite the amount of angst that was seen in those comics, but otherwise I feel like we're mining some of the same veins: the bombastic approach, devilishly fun characters, the pure joy of life, and the "what's around the next corner" mentality...we're all over that stuff.

NRAMA: Who or what, do you see as the MA competition in reaching their particular age group?

PT: Well, they're all competitors in a way, but really, they're also all just entertainment supplements. Myself, I think too much is made of "We need to get X percentage of his or her spending dollar," because I think any formula is impossible. When I want to be entertained, it's all about mood... do I want to read a book, go for a walk, smile at some pretty woman, play a game, read a comic? There are so many choices, and if I'm in the mood to go for a walk, then no comic is going to change my mind. What we can do, as creators, is make the comics that we ourselves are most happy with. If we entertain ourselves, I feel that translates as entertainment for the reader. And the backside of that is, if we look too much at "competitors" then we can slide into that formula, and a good reader knows and hates formulaic writing. I know I do.

NRAMA: What have you got planned for your MA FF issues?

PT: Here's my rundown of four issues on Marvel Adventures Fantastic Four #33-#36, I believe. The foursome has a theme of "Sweet Charity," meaning they center around charity and/or public service events.

“It's Storytellin' Time”: Ben entertains a group of schoolkids with a rather fanciful tale of a battle against the Rhino, but it all gets interrupted when Ben and the rest of the Fantastic Four have to stop a real-life Abomination... giving the kids a chance to see Ben at his best, and maybe (c'mon, already!!) adjust Ben up a few notches on their "power-ranking" worksheets.

”The (Mr.) Fantastic Fix-it Shoppe”: Ahh, Reed. Ever absent-minded. Helping raise money for a block renovation, good ol' Reed runs an "I'll fix anything!" table, and in between putting booster rockets on mopeds and laser cannons in wristwatches he sort of, you know, accidentally fixes the Mad Thinker's android. Oops. Now it's the Mad Thinker and his Awesome Android versus the Fantastic Four and some toasters. Yeah, I said toasters.

”A Model Day”: 75% of the Fantastic Four agree that it's great to judge an international beauty pageant, but what's Sue to do during the festivities? Well, how about unearthing how the pageant is actually sponsored by A.I.M. in order to smuggle high tech battle robots into the country? Or how about teaming up with a certain long lost model from Marvel's past, and then picking a fight with those battle robots? Yeah, Sue keeps busy in this one.

”Alternative Film School”. The FF help out a college film professor by volunteering their time for his top students. Want the FF to star in your disco film? No problem. Want the FF to headline your Jane Austen influenced romantic comedy? Sure. That can be done. Want to use your anti-matter powered film projector to transform some fans into the evil "Anti-FF" and also change a group of cos-players into evil (though quite amateur) versions of some of Marveldom's mightiest heroes and villains, all in a bid to destroy the FF and take over the world? Uhh, now we got a problem.

NRAMA: What challenges are you experiencing when coming up with your MA stories compared to creating and writing a project like Banana Sunday?

PT: The real challenge of working on the Marvel Adventures line is the "one issue," approach, where everything must be set up and resolved in one issue. Now, that's something I agree with for the line, but it means we have reduced room for plot and character development, and I consider myself to be a character development guy. Writing Banana Sunday, I was free to have Kirby and Nickels just talk for long periods, to put the plot as a whole on hold and just be human beings, with interests and dreams that had no real connection to anything other than establishing who they were as people. With the MA line, every single panel is a precious resource: we really have to "spend" them on pertinent topics. I like playing with relationships, and I like subtleties, and these are hard to deal under the one issue guideline, though of course the "one issue" format means huge bonuses in other areas. I'm hoping to expand soon into some other Marvel titles where I can deal with subtler issues, but at the same time, I'll always want to keep my feet wet in the Marvel Adventures line. Actually, I want to keep far more than just my feet wet... let's say I want to keep my stomach wet.

NRAMA: Which other character would you like to see getting the Marvel Adventures treatment next, and why? How would you write him/her/them?

PT: Pretty much all of the characters I really want to see are already around in the MA line. My "pet" characters aren't well enough known to warrant their own titles. I have a yen for golden age characters, in particular the Destroyer, but also the original golden age versions of the Vision and the Black Widow, with her touch of death. That said, my fave character has always been the Hulk, and while I'd like a turn or two on most of the MA line, it's the Hulk I'm really itching for. My version of the Hulk is the "just wants to be left alone" version, with a touch of the original grumpy "get out of my yard!!" feel that Jack Kirby gave him in the initial six issue run. Super strong, super irritable, but basically a good guy. It works for me.

NRAMA: Finally, what other projects have you got planned for 2008?

PT: Colleen Coover and I are finishing up Freckled Face, Bony Knees, and Other Things Known About Annah, a graphic novel wherein a string of narrators (friends, lovers, pigeons, magicians, doctors, dogs and thieves) discuss whether Annah is horribly delusional, or if she actually has a sister that her mad scientist father crafted from a portion of Annah's brain, her Penfield Homunculus. Colleen's doing the final tones on that project, and then we'll choose a publisher.

And I'm working on novels, in particular a Banana Sunday series that I'm really excited about. It's a whole different sort of satisfaction than working on comics. The characters vary greatly from the comic series at Oni, because the format really lets me cut loose on characterization and grander elements.

For comics, I'm concentrating on the Marvel Adventures line, and you can expect to see some fun stuff. Jeff Parker and I are collaborating on the Free Comic Book Day comic, and it's a hoot to work with Jeff, as always. Outside the MA line, Jeff and I also worked together on an upcoming What If? issue (starring Spider-Man and Wolverine) that I think readers will really enjoy, partially because we, you know, totally rock, but also because Clayton Henry is really nailing the art. Just got in the latest page this morning, and whenever Clayton sends in a page, all of us involved go into a string of "ooo's" and "aaah's."

Previously:

Inside the Adventures I: Mark Paniccia

Inside the Adventures II: Marc Sumerak

Inside the Adventures III: Fred Van Lente

[LucasSiegel]

My wife used to work with Paul and Colleen at a comic shop in Iowa City- great folks, both of them, and I wish Paul all the best!

[CitC]

I think one of the most exciting things about this line of comics is how many great storytellers are connected to it.

BTW, This is a great series of articles.

[Spiderguy34]

That cover is really awesome!

[pop monkey]

My kid loves the Marvel Adventures books, and so do I!
I'm very happy that they've managed to secure some downright fantastic talent for these titles -- a vast improvement over the previous "Marvel Age" young reader titles! I've been very impressed with the artwork and the stories are concise, fun and accessible -- just like they should be!

[80Pork]

I agree...these articles have been great to read and these comics are truly fun!! I'm so glad that Marvel is putting out these comics...my son loves them and he is super excited when he gets home from school and sees that one of them has come in the mail. It's like a present every time, cause it can be either MA: Spider-Man or MA: Avengers through his subscription. And he's always saying "Man, I wonder who Spider-Man is fighting in this one!" or "Man, I wonder what Avengers will show up now!!".

He gets copies of MA: Iron Man and MA: Fantastic Four occassionally (he had a subscription to MA:FF, but got MA: Avengers instead of renewing) and normally gets MA: Hulk through my weekly shipment from Midtown.

Great series, all of them! Let's hope Marvel keeps them going for a long time! We need an MA: X-Men!!!

[ChastMastr]

Originally Posted by 80Pork

Great series, all of them! Let's hope Marvel keeps them going for a long time! We need an MA: X-Men!!!

Yes, please!! (I'd be happy for them to grandfather X-Men: First Class into the MA line, maybe as set in the past?, but want to see MA 1970s/80s X-Men also...)

David

[iwarrior]

Originally Posted by Spiderguy34

That cover is really awesome!

Tom Grummet rules.