PAUL SIZER'S LITTLE WHITE MOUSE & MOPED ARMY

[MattBrady]

by Benjamin Ong Pang Kean

Paul Sizer has a BFA in Graphic Design. And he got into the comics business the same way as some people do: “by accident.” “Someone liked my stuff, and gave me a little bit of money to publish it. I just kept on doing that over and over and over,” Sizer wistfully remembered.

The 40 year-old who, according to him, has a mental age of 14, is a fan of a diverse range of comics such as “Planetary, Runaways, NYX, all of Alan Moore’s America’s Best Comics line of titles (Promethea, Tom Strong, Top 10 in particular), any of Erica Sakurazawa’s manga for Tokyopop, Lark Pien’s Long Tail Kitty mini comics, Colleen Coover’s Small Favors books, Superman: Red Son by [Mark] Millar and Dave Johnson, The Ultimates, Runners by Sean Wang, Tom Beland’s True Story Swear to God and of course Craig Thompson’s Blankets, which was a big favorite on nearly everyone’s list last year.”

On the manga front, his favorites include: “Eat Man, Video Girl Ai, Battle Angel Alita, What’s Michael and Cowboy Bebop (the anime, not the manga).”

Born and still residing in Kalamazoo, Michigan, Sizer is a fan of Geof Darrow, Dave Johnson, Mark Millar, Alan Moore, Erica Sakurazawa, and Colleen Coover.

Little White Mouse has been published since 1998 as a continuing series, first at Caliber Comics, and currently through Blue Line Pro Comics. The story centers around Loo, a 17-year-old Malaysian girl who is stranded on an automated mining satellite in deep space. She comes from a very large family and a densely populated world, and is now in this environment of near zero human interaction. Sizer’s always referred to the storyline as a sci-fi, female version of Robinson Crusoe. Loo is forced to survive in this harsh, unforgiving environment that doesn’t really even acknowledge her existence, using only the brains and spirit she has within. It’s science fiction flavored, but ultimately about the strength of the human spirit.

Up next is his self-published work, Moped Army. Moped Army may sound like science fiction, it is in science fact a real organization that inspired Sizer within his home city of Kalamazoo, Michigan. The Moped Army is a gang of moped owners and riders who banded together in the late 90’s because of a mutual love of old traditional mopeds from the 70’s and early 80’s. Members were required to repair and rebuild their own mopeds, and since then the few initial members have grown to hundreds. The Moped Army has branches across the United States, each branch with its own identity and name (i.e. The Decepticons, The Blue Shirts, The Tom Cruisers, The Mosquito Fleet).

We got in touch with the creator for a chat on Little White Mouse and Moped Army.

Newsarama: How did you come up with the name: Little White Mouse in the first place?

Paul Sizer: Little White Mouse is the nickname of Loo, the lead character of the series. It is a nickname given to her by her grandfather, who she is very close to. The nickname also refers to what her life has become being stranded on Satellite 713, her home for the last 18 months.

NRAMA: In a nutshell, what's LWM about?

PS: “Satellite 713; an abandoned mining satellite run completely by computers and mechanized vehicles without any living presence… Until now… Her name is Loo and this is Little White Mouse. After barely escaping in a shuttle pod from a fierce meteor storm that destroyed their starliner, Loo and her sister P’heng drifted in space and eventually crash-landed on Satellite 713. Loo survived the crash landing; her sister did not. However, P’heng’s brainwave patterns were still stored in the shuttles memory. With only herself to rely on, Loo looks to save the memories of her sister and survive long enough to be rescued… Days on Satellite 713 are a flurry of manic activity as Loo and crew desperately tries to delay the system-wide shutdown that will deactivate all life support on the station. Will the distress signal summon rescue in time? Can Loo retrofit her old escape pod to act as a lifeboat?

NRAMA: And the creative team is…well, close and personal friend, right?

PS: I'm the creative team. Writing, pencilling, inks, coloring, lettering, design, the whole thing! Nobody to blame but me!

NRAMA: But over the years, you’ve had some friends stop by, right?

PS: Right. I've been very fortunate to have really awesome help on art with pin-ups and a few short stories from such stellar talent as Geof Darrow, Dave Johnson, Chris Sprouse, Mark Crilley, Karl Altstaetter, Mike Avon Oeming, Jose Ladronn, Jeff Moy, Jane Irwin, Pam Bliss and Matt Feazell to name a few!

NRAMA: If you could compared LWM with another sci-fi movie or novel or any other works of fiction, which ones would you compared it to, and why?

PS: Hmmm, I guess I would say that LWM is kind of a cross between Aliens and Castaway, with a little bit of anime craziness thrown in for good measure. LWM is for sure a weird mix of many different elements, but that has helped it stand out as a unique book in the market.

NRAMA: LWM first came out from Caliber, right? What do you think you had accomplished while you were at Caliber, and how has moving the project to Blue Line Pro helped expand your creativity and the world that you had come up with or envisioned for Loo and her world in LWM?

PS: Caliber gave me my first chance at getting LWM to an international audience, and Blue Line stepped in when Caliber stopped publication and continued getting LWM out to an even wider audience by helping me get the older out of print Caliber issues of LWM into trade paperback collections, which made them able to get into libraries and bigger chain bookstores.

NRAMA: Loo’s got some real world ties, right?

PS: It's true! Loo of LWM was partially inspired by a graphic design student I met at Western Michigan University, and she helped me with the cultural references for the characters in the book, including helping me learn about how Asian families are structured and how elders interact with children, etc. This was important, because of the very important part that Loo's family plays in the story. Also, the "real" Loo was a very spirited young woman who had a funny and brash personality that inspired me to us her to formulate a character around her. She was a unique person who survived even being very far away from her family, just like my character does in LWM.

NRAMA: How many issues/volumes are out so far?

PS: There are 4 series of LWM out to date, each one is 4 issues per series. I wanted to make the story of LWM like chapters of a longer book, like Paul Chadwick did with Concrete. I had a sporadic publishing schedule, so I didn't think it was fair to have cliffhangers if there was going to be six months between series, so I decided to make things more compartmental and able to stand alone story-wise. The overall story of LWM is seeing a young girl find the strength from within to survive where all her regular support systems no longer exist, such as her family and friends. These things always told her how to live her life, and now she has to learn how to live only relying on herself. The whole series is an examination of how someone defines themselves on their own terms. In Loo's case, she does this 3.25 light years away from home on an abandoned mining satellite.

NRAMA: Given the look of your work, what's your experience with manga, and how much has the art of manga influenced the way you create and draw?

PS: Manga has always been an influence in my work, although I do not by any stretch refer to myself as having a "manga style". My art style has always been a hybrid mix of many different influences, from my American super-hero roots to the Euro stylings of Moebius and Geof Darrow, along with my graphic design training giving me another perspective. As I have grown as an artist, I've seen the very powerful storytelling tools that comics, and specifically manga, make use of. I've tried to integrate all of these influences into my own style, to see what comes out. Hopefully, it will keep surprising me and my readers.

NRAMA: You’ve fairly recently branched off from Little White Mouse with a new project - Moped Army. Can you set it up for folks who may not have heard of it?

PS: The Moped Army is the epitome of the vision that William Gibson had for the future in his writings about the cyberpunk culture. These guys ride around on old, reclaimed machines, yet communicate with cell phones and PDAs, and tape web cams to their handlebars and run them from PowerBooks crammed into their sidebags to make digital movies. They embody a very pure essence of punk culture, in that they make what makes them different their strengths. What is considered a liability is taken and made into an advantage. Most of the members of the Moped Army are kids who are the left of center/alternative crowd, very intelligent and savvy and very dedicated to this part of their lifestyle. This is not a “purchase into the club” scenario; the Moped Army is all about sweat equity, investing time and heart into what you love doing, and being ready to defend that investment any way they have to.

Because the Moped Army hosts such a diverse spread of members (both male and female) with such a wide area of expertise, they are an incredibly well organized organization, hosting the most comprehensive moped informational website in the world (www.mopedarmy.com), filming their own digital documentaries and producing their own DVD. “They ‘own their geek’, and use their love of technology to make opportunities for themselves. Most of the members work day jobs, programming HTML, working retail or going to college. But at night, I can hear them cruising the streets of the city, like a swarm of angry hornets on their way to the all-night coffee shop.

NRAMA: Who're the main characters?

PS: The main character of Moped Army is Simone, a black teenage girl from a very wealthy family, who comes into contact with the roving gangs of the Moped Army that inhabit the lower portions of her home city of Bolt Harbor. Simone is driven to connect with the member of these gangs, and thereby discovers another world very different and very real as compared to her life of privilege and wealth and empty promise. The members of the Moped Army are a varied group, just like the real Moped Army, a mix of guys and girls, punks and technonerds, and everything in between.

NRAMA: When are you looking at getting it out?

PS: Moped Army is a self-published book that will be coming out under my own Café Digital imprint. At this time, my projected release date is the first quarter of 2005. This will be released as a 144-page graphic novel in manga sized format.

NRAMA: Who're the creators involved in this, the same close knit group from Little White Mouse?

PS: Right - me, me and me. Like LWM, I will be handling all the writing and art chores, with some pin-ups from other artists. If people are interested in seeing more promo pages and artwork for the series, they can check out the “Moped Army” section of my new website at http://www.paulsizer.com

[hoymurphy]

Paul Sizer writes and draws very girl-friendly stories. My daughter loves talking with him each year at Mid-Ohio Con. He has a guaranteed sale of Moped Army at my house!

--your pal, Hoy

[MODOK]

I stumbled upon LWM while wandering through the creator aisles at the Chicago Con a few years ago. I liked what I saw and bought the entire series which then was 4 issues (if memory serves). The point is, LWM was a great find and since then has been a really solid, entertaining series.
My ladyfriend enjoys the series as do most of my female, anime-crazed, 5th grade students. (this is not to say that LWM only appeals to anime/manga fans, but these kids already have an interest in the medium...yadda yadda yadda).

Pick it up in trades, because it's really worth it. Place it on the shelf right next to the much-missed "Leave It to Chance".

And something else to consider - why is it that most of the supposedly "female friendly" books out there are usually the ones with the most interesting writing?