GORDON McALPIN ON MULTIPLEX

[MattBrady]

by Chris Arrant

Any reader of Newsarama.com and its talkback section will know that comics has its share of fanboy rampage. Sometimes we do it, sometimes we read it, sometimes we laugh with it and sometimes we laugh at it. But does this kind of snarky critiquing extend to other mediums? Sure.

Written and illustrated by Gordon McAlpin, the webcomic Multiplex concerns the staff of a movie theater called Multiplex 10, as they snark on the movies playing and on each other. A group of young twenty-somethings, on the front lines of the movies we love (and love to hate), dealing with overactive kids and sometimes overactive adults.

Think Clerks in a movie theatre.

We talked with Gordon McAlpin via email to find out more.

Newsarama: First thing I have to ask, Gordon: have you ever worked in a movie theatre?

Gordon McAlpin: That's always the first thing people ask -- especially movie theater employees. But no, I haven't. My friend Kurt Bollinger, was an assistant manager at the Willow Knolls 14 Theatres in my hometown, Peoria, Illinois, for a long time. Kurt originally suggested that I do a comic strip set in a movie theater, and he's the namesake for Kurt in the strip. While I lived in Peoria, I'd mooch free movies and just hang out until he was off work. I probably ended up there a few nights a week, so it was almost like I worked there, except I never actually worked while I was there. Kind of like the Multiplex kids that way, sometimes...

Beyond that, though, I've worked my fair share of foodservice jobs, which covers the customer service end of thing, and as you might guess, I watch a lot of movies.

NRAMA: Multiplex debuted back in July 2005. What instigated it?

GMA: I'd been doing Stripped Books for Bookslut.com for a year or so before I decided to take it to its own website. When I was setting up the that, I figured that because I could only finish one Stripped Book every couple of months, I might be better off doing a back-up feature that I could update more regularly, like every week.

Within a year, though, Multiplex was drawing more readers than Stripped Books ever did on a regular basis... and very few of those readers ever read Stripped Books, so I moved Multiplex to its own URL and retired Stripped Books. I want to do more non-fiction comics someday, though -- in addition to Multiplex, of course.

NRAMA: Multiplex really scratches the itch that armchair film critics – i.e. fans – have. What's the response been like for you?

GMA: It's been great, really. Once in a while, I'll stumble across some comment online or I'll get an angry e-mail from somebody who was offended by an opinion expressed in a strip -- for instance, the strip about 300 (#125). When that happens, I launch into more or less the same disclaimer I always do: "Although there is definitely an element of movie commentary or criticism in the strip, Multiplex is fiction, the characters' opinions aren't always reflective of my own," blah blah blah.... Of course, since I write it, a lot of the time the opinions aren't too far from mine, but that's not always the case.

NRAMA: As the series has progressed, Multiplex has expanded from being just movie criticism to focusing on the relationship of the cast. Was this a conscious decision by you to explore this and develop the "world" of Multiplex?

GMA: It was a conscious decision, definitely. At first, I felt it was important to focus on the movie commentary & criticism and the workplace humor, so you would get to know these characters and start to like them, before I launched into any big teen drama storylines. Readers need to identify with and care about the characters before they can be expected to care about them getting their heart broken.

I chickened out of doing one early storyline explaining why Becky's hairstyle and glasses changed (between #42 and #43), because I wasn't convinced that people would have cared yet. I'm planning to insert that story -- and a bunch of other new material -- into the print collection of the first year's worth of strips, which I'm hoping to find a publisher for soon.

NRAMA: The strip is drawn using Adobe Illustrator. Why'd you decide to go this route, over hand-drawn?

GMA: When Kurt initially suggested I do a movie theater comic strip seven or eight years ago. I dismissed it, because I mainly thought of comics in terms of newspaper strips, 22 page comics, and epic-length graphic novels, and I wasn't sure the premise would lend itself to any of those formats.

A few years later, I toyed around with doing the concept as a South Park-like Flash animated cartoon, which is when I came up with the title and the two main characters, Jason and Kurt (named after Kurt, in thanks for the inspiration). But I never managed to learn Flash, though, so I didn't get very far with that.

When I was deciding what to do for the weekly back-up feature at the Stripped Books site, though, I dusted off the Multiplex name and the two leads, and, as Kurt had originally suggested, I did it as a comic strip after all -- but as a webcomic, with a more flexible format than a newspaper strip. I still wanted to animate Multiplex someday, too, and drawing the strip in Illustrator seemed like an easy way to build up a library of characters and backgrounds that I could later use in a Flash cartoon -- while producing some fun comics, at the same time, of course.

Mostly, though, I just felt that the bright, clean, flat-color aesthetic was appropriate to the tone of the strip. Although comics aren't just "movies on paper," as they've been badly described, that is what I want Multiplex to feel like: an un-animated movie. I even use a 4:3 aspect ratio for the standard panel size, like an old movie or a TV for that reason.

NRAMA: Which character is most like you?

GMA: Jason, easily. He's half-Filipino, half white, like me. He's a bit of a movie snob, he's a bit of an egotistical jerk... He's a very exaggerated version of me. I'm a nice guy, really. Come to think of it, since Jason quit working at the Multiplex 10 recently, and now he's just hanging out at the theater, it's exactly like when I would hang out with Kurt at Willow Knolls. He's more like me than ever!

NRAMA: One of the most popular strips has been #23, "The Dementor's Kiss". Did that catch you by surprise? Why do you think people are drawn to it?

GMA: When that strip was new, its popularity was surprising, yes. At the time, I had two hundred readers, if that, and I noticed that specific page was getting a lot of traffic, meaning people were either linking to it or e-mailing it to their friends. That was a first for me.

Since then, I've noticed that the self-contained strips about big movie franchises like Harry Potter, X-Men or Pirates of the Caribbean tend to be pretty popular, because you can find it through something like StumbleUpon or in a blog, and anybody can instantly know what's going on. You don't need to know anything about the Multiplex characters. They're just very accessible, whereas some random strip in the middle of a character-centric storyline may be smarter or funnier, but it might only make sense to people who've read through all two years of the archives.

I think the Harry Potter strip especially appeals to people because it has the beloved pop culture phenomenon connection -- and it also has that warped twist, too, with the staff messing with little kids' minds. Being mean to kids is always funny.

NRAMA: Branching off from this, you take part in a weekly movie-themed podcast called "The Triple Feature". Can you tell us about that?

GMA: The Triple Feature is a live talk show/podcast that I do with Tom Brazelton of Theater Hopper and Joe Dunn of Joe Loves Crappy Movies every Monday night at 9:00 PM Central Time. It's available through the Talkshoe site or iTunes as a podcast, but it is a live show, so we'd love it if more people called in to listen or ask questions.

Tom, Joe, and I had all gotten to be friends because of our comics. Joe was a webcomics veteran already, but he had started JLCM not long before Multiplex started, and he introduced himself via e-mail, and he introduced me to Tom. I had been aware of Theater Hopper, but I never really read it, because I was afraid Tom would think I was ripping him off -- which of course he didn't, because he's like the nicest guy on the planet.

Anyway, last December, Tom had started doing a Theater Hopper talkcast on his own, and in I think its third episode, Joe and I both called in, and we ended up having a blast doing that, so we decided to make it a regular thing. Basically, Joe and I totally horned in on Tom's action. Almost a year later, we're still figuring out how to make it more of a structured talk show and less like us sitting around talking about movies, but it's a lot of fun to do, and people seem to enjoy it.

NRAMA: What do you do for a living?

GMA: I'm a freelance designer, production artist and illustrator right now, but I've been a photo retoucher for an ad agency, a children's book designer, and I've done a lot of print production work. I'll do anything anybody needs me to do with Illustrator, Photoshop or InDesign. It pays the bills. I'd rather be making comics all day, but who wouldn't?

Gordon McAlpin's Multiplex is viewable at www.multiplexcomic.com.

[Knowbrainer]

I've been reading this webcomic ever since he did a guest strip for PVP, and I love it. I've definitely been digging the relationships and stories even more lately.

[CodeGuy]

This is a great comic. I've been folowing it for awhile.

[AbacusComics]

YES! Webcomic coverage!

Multiplex is great. Thanks for giving it some press, Rama!

[DarthKronos]

Awesome! About time Multiplex got some widespread lubbin' McAlpin's take on movies and the folks that present them to you is consistently hilarious. Go back and read them from the beginning; ALWAYS good for a laugh. My personal favorites are the Movie Review Blogger (a character that pops up from time to time who's a personal nemesis for Jason) and any comic where Gordon has the cast in costumes (Halloween or movie-themed premieres, like the Harry Potter comic in the article). And for one of the funniest panel gags *ever* (you'll never look at movie theater nachos the same way again), check out the following two-parter:

http://www.multiplexcomic.com/archive.php?name=36
http://www.multiplexcomic.com/archive.php?name=37

Kudos, Gordon, and I hope Multiplex is around for a long time!

[CitC]

Those strips were pretty good - I'll have to bookmark it.

[ssava]

Congrats!
Multiplex is a fun read.
Nice to see the webcomic lovin'

[Supreme Convoy]

I really love this webcomic

Awesome stuff.

[GLX]

Multiplex=awesome.

[JimmyKitty]

Brilliant! You have a new reader with me! i just red the entire archive and all.
You are doing a wonderful job. The "drama" simply added to an already great cast and the "twists" you pull are brilliant!

Bookmarked!

[Gordon McAlpin]

Thank you for reading, JimmyKitty -- and everyone.

Ah, the Newsarama forums. How I love you.

[Knowbrainer]

Originally Posted by Gordon McAlpin

Thank you for reading, JimmyKitty -- and everyone.

Ah, the Newsarama forums. How I love you.

I think it's safe to say the feeling's mutual.

Keep up the good work.

[SAIDESTROYER]

Originally Posted by ssava

Congrats!
Multiplex is a fun read.
Nice to see the webcomic lovin'

yeah! if this guy starts printing this stuff, I'll buy it. it is just too damn fun!!

[JimmyKitty]

I am so looking forward to the return of Jason at Multiplex.
I know he hasn't left, but he'll get tired of all those crappy jobs and get back where he belongs. Who knows, he might land a job at the video store down the street and win his rightful girlfriend back before it's too late.