DAN GOLDMAN ON 08, SHOOTING WAR, AND MORE

[MattBrady]

by Chris Arrant

Cartoonist Dan Goldman is a familiar face to Newsarama.com readers. We've interviewed him on numerous occasions as his career as developed, on his own individual projects and as part of the webcomics collective ACT-I-VATE. In 2006, Newsarama.com featured Goldman in it's Up & Coming series of talent breaking into comics. 2007 saw the finish of the groundbreaking publication of his graphic novel Shooting War with Anthony Lappe.

And now in 2008, Goldman returns with work on a new political non-fiction comics memoir with The New Republic journalist Michael Crowley. Take that in with the upcoming return of his webcomic Kelly and talk of developments in the ACT-I-VATE group and we've got more than enough to talk about.

Newsarama: Thanks for talking with us, Dan.

The graphic novel of Shooting War has been out for about two months now, and you and Anthony Lappe have been doing signings and appearances both here and overseas. With the book firmly done and behind you, what's it like to be riding this wave of publicity and promotion?

Dan Goldman: It feels amazing, of course... it's like going from the treadmill to the rollercoaster. I'm very pleased and very grateful for the validation of all my sleepless nights; Shooting War was an unbelievable amount of work done compressed into not a lot of time and I'm jazzed that the final product came together the way it did.

NRAMA: What's the response been like to the printed version compared to the webcomic version that ran on smithmag.net?

DG: The Shooting War hardcover seems to be the sort of OGN that reaches across a wide swath of readers and converts most of them. I met a ton of people during the tour who'd never read a comic before and heard about it via mainstream news sources, having no idea that comics like SW even existed; it was amazing to see a sixty-year old newsanchor's eyes go wide talking about my work the way I babbled to my parents from the back seat of our station wagon about Superman-Red and Superman-Blue... it's proof positive of the wonder and magic of comics knows no age boundaries.

Another factor in our happy-noise is that the hardcover is a complete story, whereas the webcomic ended on a cliffhanger... this is a satisfying slab of future comics. I heard from alot of Shooting War fans who thanked me profusely for paying off their long wait by blowing their expectations right out of the water.

The other real difference was where the reviews were coming from; one of the benefits of having a hardcover is that it finds its way into more prestigious book reviewer piles than a TPB. That allowed us to wind up on more mainstream "best of 2007" lists than we would've having just been a paperback... and ultimately means we'll reach more people who wouldn't otherwise hear about it.

NRAMA: You took the book tour on the road, even venturing overseas. How did
England take to Shooting War?

DG: Shooting War is such an American work, from the tone of Anthony's dialogue and humor through the Hollywood-action-gone-wrong style of the storytelling, but the fact that we used our Americanness against America seemed to hit a real favorable note in the UK. People said "wicked" and "brilliant" and "irreverent" alot and bought us lots of pints in cool pubs. I'd been to the UK a handful of times and this was definitely the most fun I'd had there to date, meeting loads of amazing people feeling alot of love all around for my efforts. I also got to make some new friends in London's cartoonist community and visiting London's Cartoon Museum, a big brother to New York's MoCCA with a very interesting permanent collection of UK comic art that was completely new to my American eyes.

NRAMA: The ending of Shooting War leaves the idea of a sequel floating up in the air. What do you say about doing another one?

DG: At this point, it's hard to say; I know there's a lot of talk of it becoming a film, but we've all read Brian Michael Bendis' Fortune & Glory, haven't we? I'm in wait-and-see mode, keeping my fingerbeams and lovelamps directed at my current and forthcoming projects that are already in motion. If it's meant to be, it's meant to be.

NRAMA: After Shooting War wrapped, you went back to work on your webcomic Kelly, which is released on ACT-I-VATE. How's that coming, and when can we look forward to the next installment?

DG: Back in late October, I had to literally pause Kelly at a key moment in the novel, just as Kelly's blend of shamanic therapy was peeling back Max's damaged layers to reveal the child beneath (oop!); as I've said before, the whole novel's been written since ACT-I-VATE started nearly two years ago and the slow burn to the third act is getting closer and hotter.

It really gutted me to walk away for a bit, but the time involved in going on UK/US book tour torpedoed my normal work schedule and my ability to squeeze out that extra weekly webcomic around the huge amounts of research and prep work going into 08 that I started just as Shooting War hit bookshelves in early November.

I can publicly promise that Kelly has been slowly simmering and will return very soon (I'm aiming for the first week of March). There are prior commitments I've got to complete first so that when Kelly does return, I'll be able to produce it regularly, including writing/drawing a sixteen-page "zero chapter" of my forthcoming graphic novel, Red Light Properties, and short comic pieces for both the second volume of Image's Popgun anthology and SMITH Mgazine's new webcomic anthology Next Door Neighbor. Once those are in the can, Kelly is going to rise like the phoenix with a literal vengeance.

NRAMA: You mention the book you're currently working on -- 08 with journalist Michael Crowley. Can you tell us what this book is about?

DG: 08: A Graphic Diary of the Campaign Trail is exactly that, a mostly-nonfiction story of the 2008 primaries done as a flip-book graphic novel. 08 follows two fictional reporters digging for the real inside scoop on the real campaign trail in the real presidential election at a pivotal point in our nation's history. Each half of the flip book telling the tale of the Democrats' or Republicans' quest for their candidates in November's national election, so both stories end in the middle with both candidates facing you-the-reader, at which it's time for you to go vote.

I'm also trying a handful of ideas about graphic design and typography for the book, trying to blend classic political propaganda and magazine design with the narrative language of comics to create some kind of mutant mash-up of the two in the process. For example, I've removed any word balloons and caption boxes, letting any written narration live outside the artwork as part of the spread design and it's creating an interesting new feel, like Hickman's The Nightly News did, but with a very different aesthetic and message. Hickman's stuff is really smart; It's so exciting to see more graphic design chops bustin' into comics lately.

NRAMA: What led you to hooking up with Michael for 08?

DG: My agent and our editor at Crown Books were brainstorming the concept already and looking for the dream team; I think it was Shooting War's pre-publication acclaim that sealed the deal. Initially I wasn't sure about going back to the election-in-comics well as I'd visited it before with Everyman, but it quickly became clear this was a new genre experiment for comics that had never been done before.

That and the opportunity to collaborate with someone of Mike's caliber became something I couldn't turn down. I recently hit the New Hampshire primary with Crowley to see all the candidates close-up from the press boxes and it was an amazing experience that informs the hell out of what I'm working on, grounding it well for readers who've never seen politics from the other side of the stage.

NRAMA: You can't leave it at that. Tell us more, Dan.

DG: Where to begin...? I hit the ground having never been to New England before and being fairly ignorant of the geography of New Hampshire, so climbing into my rented Mazda from the train station to drive in the snow was already an adventure. Crowley and I circled each other for five days (while my main focus was to experience the primary for 08, his purpose was split between our project and his day job covering it for The New Republic), constantly emailing and texting each other tidbits and behind the scenes gossip. We'd overlap at speeches or at this great Italian joint in downtown Manchester with an utter charmer of a bartender. I got a bona-fide education, not just seeing the candidates up close as they bring their A game, but watching their stump speeches grow different barbs and defenses in response to their rivals' speeches while sitting in the press section and chatting with seasoned journos next to me. Every journo who asked what news-team I was with was delighted when I told them about "the comic book"; I imagine alot of first-time comic-readers will be picking this one up as well.

There were a few standout moments: sitting in a high school gym (most rallies took place in them) watching Hillary speaking and Crowley's blogging for The New Republic during the speech. Just before he posts a blog entry, he opens another tab in Firefox and checks a rival blog and their most recent post contained quotes that Sen. Clinton had uttered no more than 90 seconds prior; I was flabbergasted at how fast the news moves now... and that movement of information and its effects on the old-school campaign is a big part of 08's narrative as well. Another great moment was standing outside the Exeter Town Hall listening to McCain give his stump speech to a cheering crowd and feeling so intimately familiar with his misshapen jowls, having rendered them several times in Shooting War. I was tempted to hand him a copy while shaking his hand, but I felt that it might not be karmically cool to kick the hornet's nest of a possible future Chief Executive, especially considering the treatment he gets in our comic.

My brief dip into the campaign trail lifestyle involved endless crisscrossing of New Hampshire's expressways, eating fast food on the run that I'd never otherwise touch and keeping myself awake with evangelical AM radio while trying to navigate unlit and snow-covered expressways in the dark on my way back to my ______ motel across the Massachusetts border. It's a frantic road trip doing this thing, being at the right speech for the right moment, like Hillary's tide-turning tear-up... which I missed to see Obama speak at a different high school gym many miles away. It's frantic and exhausting and definitely a lot of fun... I had several of gonzo moments of my own, imagining myself a modern-day Hunter S. Thompson, whose Fear & Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72 has been a major inspiration for me with this project for its splatter-brained prose and cynical perspective on an already draconian experience.

NRAMA: Sounds like a great experience. Let's change gears and talk webcomics.

You're a founding member of ACT-I-VATE, the webcomics collective that is going on two years. What's coming up for it in the near future?

I can tell you that the long-awaited ACT-I-VATE website (http://act-i-vate.com) is slowly inching out of drydock; it's a glorious, gleaming vessel to house webcomics' future designed by fellow ACT-I-VATOR Nikki Cook, programmer Billy Gray (who coded Warren Ellis' late forum, The Engine) and myself. All the ACT-I-VATE cartoonists are now beta-testing the site and we're planning to go live in early March to much champagne and confetti; our goal is to make it the easiest and smartest place to read comics online while you're supposed to be working. And with Jah Furry in the mix, surely there will be some sort of party to celebrate.

With the website launch, readers will see the returns of many fan-favorites as new chapters of Billy Dogma, Lilly MacKenzie and my very own Kelly all return for the mothership's maiden voyage and all will truly be right with the world at that point.

NRAMA: Before we go, one last question -- a lot has happened on the webcomics front in those two years � where do you think webcomics stand right now?

DG: People across the board seem to be taking notice of webcomics sprouting up everywhere, being mentioned in the mainstream press and jumping off-screen into bookstores like Wimpy Kid and Perry Bible Fellowship and Mom's Cancer. But in my mind, the killer handheld or killer app with digital distribution hasn't arrived yet. It's been fun watching people experimenting with it... but the tide will turn (and the market will turn) when you can shop for your comics wirelessly and have new issues (and back issues, remember them?) delivered digitally to your easy-and-fun-to-read multi-touch handheld screen within seconds. It's already happening in the book trade with the Amazon Kindle; comics needs a device of their own with an intuitive touch interface and a color screen.

I was in my childhood comic shop in Miami a few days ago, intending to support them by buying stacks of back issues of titles I've missed read... but I literally could not assemble piles with any consecutive back issues, making it impossible for me to get caught up without going online to illegally download the missing parts of the story. What's wrong with that picture, and what's the easiest way to fix that...?

Digital distribution (both with single issues and subscriptions) is what's going to save the periodical AND help support the ongoing title as the work is generated for trade. These beautiful printed OGNs/collections that we buy will always remain as archives and collections because they are beautiful physical things to read and share over and over, like those Extended Editions of The Lord of the Rings DVDs... but if single issues are counted on to finance an ongoing series' survival AND justify its TPB collections, and the comic shops can't/don't/won't stock back issues... then something is going to have to change.

Geee, however could we figure a way to monetize on ongoing series with little-to-zero overhead, shelf space or shipping costs while generating money to justify their existence during production?

The mind boggles, doesn't it?

To my mind, the iPhone, the PlayStationPortable, the subnotebook are all wonderful but not-yet-perfect ways to read comics onscreen. Who knows what hardware is coming to help comics make the jump... but make that jump it's gonna, and soon, and the division between comics and webcomics will disappear.

For more on Dan Goldman's work, visit his website at www.dangoldman.net.

[Mike]

Congrats Dan, and good luck with the new book!

[Paul M.]

I can't wait for Dan to get back to KELLY.