TALKING ABOUT LIFELIKE WITH DARA NARAGHI

[MattBrady]

by Chris Arrant

Far from the stereotypical autobiographical tales that have become cliché in comics, Lifelike is personal stories about people living far and wide. Each story presents a vantage point into a life and an experience far from the surroundings we're accustomed to. From crime noir to war stories to humor and even a bit of romance, this diverse comic also boasts a diverse cast of creators from all corners of the world. Originally published online, Lifelike comes to store shelves on January 16th as a graphic novel published by IDW Publishing.

Creator and writer Dara Naraghi is well known in the independent comics circles, as co-founder of the Columbus, Ohio-based collective PANEL and his own self-published work under the Ferret Press banner. Included with the interview is one story from Lifelike, "The Long Journey", written by Naraghi and illustrated by Brazilian cartoonist Irapuan Luiz. We talked with Naraghi to find out more.

Newsarama: Lifelike began life as a webcomic under the "Stan Lee's Sunday Comics' banner at komikwerks.com. Why'd you decide to jump into webcomics, Dara?

Dara Naraghi: I'd been writing and self-publishing my own small press comics for a few years, and while it was (and still is) a lot of fun, I was getting frustrated with the limitations of comics distribution. The outlets for non-Big Four books keep shrinking day by day. So I wanted to try webcomics as a way of reaching a broader audience. Also, the low entry cost made it very appealing, not to mention the chance for the artists to work in full color.

NRAMA: And what led to the creation of Lifelike?

DN: Well, like most other comics fans my age, I grew up on a steady diet of Marvel and DC superheroes. But the older I got, the more I got into indy and alternative publishers, reading non-superhero stories. I've always enjoyed writing slice of life short stories, and most of my small press work was in that genre. So that's where Lifelike grew out of. As for the format, I decided that it's too much to ask a single artist to commit to drawing and coloring a weekly comic. But at the same time, I knew that keeping to a regular weekly update schedule was important in attracting and building a readership for the work. So the solution I came up with was multiple artists on multiple, stand-alone storylines. This way, I was able to write most of my scripts ahead of time, and allow each artist to complete the work according to their own schedules. It also allowed me to explore different story ideas and characters, and experiment with the style and scope of my scripts to match the style of my collaborators.

NRAMA: From reading the title, people might think it's another "autobiographical story" but reading the comics, it's far from it. How would you describe the book to people?

DN: Well, the "tagline" I came up with to describe the series is "Lifelike is best described as slice of life stories...and beyond." The "beyond" part, though, is the heart of the book. From the onset, I set out to write the types of stories that people normally wouldn't associate with the genre. For example, I didn't want to do any autobiographical stories. Also, no stories about tortured artists fighting the crass commercialism of an uncaring society. After all, there are an awful lot of people living in the world, and they all have stories. Why limit yourself to a few overplayed clichés? So in Lifelike, you'll find noir tales, love stories with a slight twist, war memoirs, and all sorts of other stories about criminals, IT consultants, auto mechanics, doctors, actors, and grocery store clerks. Oh, and goth singers.

NRAMA: You sent us the 6 page story "The Long Journey", which you did with artist Irapuan Luiz. Tell us about it.

DN: Out of all the stories I wrote for the webcomic/book, "The Long Journey" is probably the one that resonates the most with me. While not strictly autobiographical, it does draw a lot from my experiences (as well as the experiences of my family members and friends) growing up in Iran during the Iran/Iraq war. At the same time, it's a work of fiction, which allows me to play with the subjects of war, sacrifice, and memories in (hopefully) interesting ways. This is the tale of Omid, an Iranian soldier who escapes the horrors of the war for a new life in the US. I have to say, the other reason I like this story is due to the artist. Irapuan Luiz does a great job capturing all the story beats, from the intense violence to the peaceful meditation. In addition, he lives in Brazil, which I find sublimely appropriate given the International scope of not just the story, but also of our audience via the web.

NRAMA: For those of us that have read the original webcomics, is there anything new in the graphic novel edition?

DN: The graphic novel collect all the webcomic stories (minus one, the black-and-white "Sun Mother's Home".) There aren't any new stories in the book, but each story has an introductory page with thoughts and notes from both myself and the artist. I usually talk about the inspiration behind the tale, maybe share an anecdote about collaboration process, and things of that nature. The artists often comment on their approach to the particular story, design decisions, and such. Sort of like a "behind the scenes" or "making of" featurette on a DVD. In addition, the book features a cool foreword by cartoonist Derf, whose The City comic strip appears in more than 50 newspapers nationwide.

NRAMA: Jumping from webcomics to graphic novels is a leap - how did it happen for you?

DN: When I first started the Lifelike webcomic, I always knew I wanted to see it in print at some point. Of course, at the time I figured I'd end up self-publishing it. Anyway, the comic got its start on the now-defunct Kevin Smith site, moviepoopshoot.com. The guy who was running the site at the time and approved Lifelike was Chris Ryall. I eventually ended up moving the comic to a more webcomic-centric host (komikwerks.com,) but it was definitely an amicable departure and Chris wished me the best. Well, a couple of years went by and I finally had enough material to start shopping the project around to a few publishers. By this point, Chris had become Publisher and EIC at IDW, and as luck would have it, they were planning a line of indy graphic novels. So it was a combination of Chris and Ted Adams [President of IDW Publishing] liking my comic, and just good timing.

NRAMA: Do you have any signings or special events planned for the release?

DN: I'll be doing a signing at my local shop, The Laughing Ogre, on the day of the book's release, this week. I'm hoping to have a few of the book's local artists along for the ride as well: Andy Bennett (who's done Kolchak and Sherlock Holmes books for Moonstone,) Tim McClurg (Star Wars art for HoloNetNews.com,) and Tom Williams (No Dead Time graphic novel from Oni Press.) In addition, I'm setting up a few bookstore signings, and just because it's fun to get together with friends and have a drink, I'm doing a book release party at a local watering hole.

NRAMA: What do you have planned next?

DN: Luckily, I've got plenty of new work coming out this year, which keeps me busy and off the streets. The third one of my Cory Doctorow short story adaptations for IDW comes out in February. It's Cory Doctorow's Futuristic Tales of the Here and Now #5 (yes, the world's longest title!) which adapts Cory's "I, Robot" short story. Art by Erich Owens, under an Ashley Wood cover. Then in May, Zombies! – Hunters #1 ships, also from IDW, with art provided by Don Figueora. In this limited series, the humans are the hunters and the zombie the prey...but we all know that won't last long. That same month, I've got another IDW book shipping (those guys again!) but I can't say anything about that project until the official announcements are made. And finally, in non-IDW work, March sees the release of PANEL: Work, the eleventh volume of the small press themed anthology I co-produce and publish under my Ferret Press imprint.; PANEL is a collective of Columbus, Ohio based writers and artists, of which I'm a co-founder. Somewhere in the midst of all that, I'm hoping to find some time to work on a couple of my creator-owned projects.

For more information on Lifelike and Dara Naraghi, visit www.idwpublishing.com and Dara's own www.ferretpress.com The 108-page Lifelike is due in comic shops this week, and carries a $19.99 cover price.

[genetic freak]

Booyah! Congrats on the gig Dara! I don't know if you remember me but I'm Addison and once joined a contest at 4 color review.com in a contest to find a picture of you floating around in the internet. I don't know if it was Steve, Adam or Murray who did that contest for their column.

[dave_hearn]

Great job, Dara!! I'm your "fan" from Columbus and I miss reading you on 4 Color Review.

Keep going brother, you're about to hit!

-Dave

[EMeadow]

Don Figueroa doing zombies and humans instead of Autobots and Decepticons?

That should be fun.

[loki5]

Thanks for the well wishes, everyone! Much appreciated.

And wow, not one but two people who remember my column from 4ColorReview? Talk about a pleasant blast from the past! Genetic Freak, how could I not remember a screen name like yours! That contest was funny because Steve never mentioned it to me before running it. Not sure if it was you or one of the other readers who made the funny comment that's stuck with me all these years: "Huh, so Dara's not a chick? Who knew."

Originally Posted by EMeadow

Don Figueroa doing zombies and humans instead of Autobots and Decepticons?

Oh yeah, and wait till you see what he's turning in. The man's channeling Bernie Wrightson via Art Adams, and it's going to be crazy fun. I've posted a couple of early images from our Zombies! book on my blog, if you'd like to check out his work.

[genetic freak]

Originally Posted by loki5

Thanks for the well wishes, everyone! Much appreciated.

And wow, not one but two people who remember my column from 4ColorReview? Talk about a pleasant blast from the past! Genetic Freak, how could I not remember a screen name like yours! That contest was funny because Steve never mentioned it to me before running it. Not sure if it was you or one of the other readers who made the funny comment that's stuck with me all these years: "Huh, so Dara's not a chick? Who knew."


Oh yeah, and wait till you see what he's turning in. The man's channeling Bernie Wrightson via Art Adams, and it's going to be crazy fun. I've posted a couple of early images from our Zombies! book on my blog, if you'd like to check out his work.

Hope you won't mind me hotlinking this from your site but I do know tons of people who are lazy enough not to click your link. Hot damn! People need to see this to get more excited for Zombies! - Hunters




In regards to this:

"Huh, so Dara's not a chick? Who knew."

I'm not sure anymore if I was the one who said that back then, but I did think that when I first saw a pic of yours.

Then again it could just have been Andrew Duncan being witty and saying what some of us are thinking.