TERRY MOORE AT THE BONE & BEYOND EXHIBITION

[MattBrady]

by Vaneta Rogers

There is power in words. There is power in images. But according to comics creator Terry Moore, the combination of those two elements in a comic book holds a unique power all its own.

On Thursday evening, Moore, best known as the creator of the self-published comic books Strangers in Paradise and Echo (but also a Marvel exclusive writer who is taking over the ongoing series Runaways in September), was the latest creator to visit the Jeff Smith: Bone and Beyond exhibit at Wexner Center for the Arts in Columbus, Ohio. Moore spoke to an audience of his fans at the complex, including Jeff Smith himself, then did a signing after the presentation.

"The power of the comic is unique. You can't find it in film or in novels or in fine art. The fact that you can marry words and images on a page, and the moment is there for you. If you draw the face and the emotions good enough and you put the words next to it, it works. The reader looks at it, and it hits the same emotional buttons as if they'd seen it on film or read it in a book by a favorite author," he said. "The difference is that it's stuck on a page, and it's not going anywhere. That moment's stuck on a page, and that moment stays there all day or as long as you want it to. If it's a moment that makes you happy, it can make you happy all week, all day, all year -- as long as you want to look at that page. If it's offensive, it's offensive all day. If I draw something ugly that offends you, every time you look at it, it's going to offend you. This is the power of the comic book."

Moore said it's the "closest thing I can think of to capturing the magic of an emotional moment and putting it in a bottle."

Because comic books have such a unique power, Moore said he believes it's important for self-publishers to have something unique to say. "The trick is that if you have this incredibly powerful medium that is way under the radar in the mainstream media, what you have is an incredible opportunity as a cartoonist to say something to the world and leave something behind," he said. "Suddenly, it's not about pens and pencils and what kind of paper you should use and how do you self-publish, and how do you get your book out, and will a store carry you," Moore said. "The whole point now, once you start doing it, is what are you saying to the world? What is your legacy?"

Moore said this power of the medium is also something that is driving more and more readers to comics and graphic novels. It's something that audiences cannot find in television and books, particularly with the way those media are concentrating so heavily on things like reality TV and blockbuster novels. "The more people become jaded and numb to what they see on television, and they stop reading books because the book industry is just a train wreck, the more they will find the graphic novel," he said. "It's the marriage of all mediums. The graphic novel has tremendous potential to be the books that people are pouring through and looking at and teaching from in the years to come."

Much of the theme of the evening concentrated on Moore's career (which Newsarama readers can find detailed in our Behind the Page interview with Moore). But the talk quite often explored the larger themes of art and comic books as a medium.

One idea Moore introduced (that Smith in particular asked more about later) was that art is something you do as opposed to something that you think about and make happen externally. He said when he started being satisfied with his work on Strangers in Paradise was when he let the story happen naturally.

"I didn't think about techniques or layouts or all of that really wonderful stuff you find in books that bring you up to speed. At some point, that stuff is like somebody teaching you how to drive a stick shift car," he said. "In the fear of the deadline or the pressure of the moment or in a moment of emotional inspiration, you just tackle the white page and see what comes out. And that's called getting out of the way. You're trying to get all of your education out and away, then let it do what it's supposed to do, which is actually... art is a verb. It's not a noun or a subject: It's something you do, like skiing down a hill or throwing a football or something like that. You can pre-think it all you want and analyze it later, but when you're making it, only a part of your consciousness should be along."

As Newsarama readers found out last year during San Diego Comic-Con, Smith invited Moore to be a part of the Bone and Beyond exhibition because the two have a common history. Not only did they both self-publish their comics, but they both discovered the independent comic book movement only after already trying their hand at doing comic strips for newspapers.

But what Moore revealed during this talk was that he had an opportunity to work with DC Comics after only publishing one issue of Strangers in Paradise, but was partly influenced by Smith himself when he made the decision not to pursue that path but instead continue self-publishing. He was invited at the time to do a signing with Jeff Smith in Houston after Bone had been out for "about a year or two," while Moore had only one issue of SiP out. "I didn't sign a single thing, but I did learn, sitting next to Jeff, how important it was to be grateful for your career. That the only reason you have a career is because of the people standing there holding your book. That we were lucky to do that," he said.

"The inspiration I caught from Jeff that day is what inspired me to go into self-publishing," he said, adding that he had been afraid of being self-employed and being able to support his family, but Smith's willingness to talk to him about the business helped alleviate those fears. "I've met all the other self-publishers and none of them have been as open as Jeff has been about sharing the nuances of things that aren't in books."

Moore also highlighted some of the differences between Smith and himself, complimenting Smith along the way for being a "natural" at cartooning while he thinks he isn't himself. Moore said Smith's black and white art from Bone looks good in color, for example, because the work is so good -- even from the first issue -- but Moore wouldn't feel comfortable about letting Strangers in Paradise be colored similarly because he thinks his early work isn't good enough, and color highlights the mistakes.

It's been a year since Moore finished his almost 14-year fun as writer/artist on the award-winning series Strangers in Paradise last May. Now Moore has a new self-published series titled Echo. With two issues out so far, the series concentrates on the character Julie Martin, who is encounters a sci-fi metallic substance that rains from the sky and changes her life.

A former video and television editor, Moore said he sees Echo as being like a TV series. "I'm not trying to reach comic book readers anymore. I'm trying to reach the general public. And they all have a favorite TV show," he said. "So I conceived the first issue as, 'What would be the first episode? What would grab you like the first episode of Lost?' And what would be the follow-up episode?" he said. "And now you think you know what it's going to be like. It's going to be a combination of these six or seven things you've seen before, so it's my job to surprise you. So in a way, we're kind of playing a game with each other. I always assume that my readers have seen everything that I've ever seen. And they're really clever, and they can probably solve a movie behind their back. So if I'm going to write a story that's going to keep you coming back, I have to surprise you."

That led to the question from an audience member about the speculation there may be a Strangers in Paradise movie or TV series on the horizon. Moore just smiled, knowingly, and said, "Robin (his wife) told me not to say a word. So I can't say anything about it right now."

When asked if there was more story to tell in a television series, Moore said he thinks there is. "When I was doing the comics, I thought of this as just the edited highlights," he said. "I left huge holes in the story."

When asked about the possibility of doing more Strangers in Paradise stories in comic books, Moore said he is open to that possibility, but the subject led to him talking about "getting ticked off about censorship," because if he explored anything further, it would be the story of the Parker Girls, the organization of ruthless women who worked for crime boss Darcy Parker.

"What Darcy was doing is sooo illegal," Moore explained. "Especially in this day and age with the CBLDF (Comic Book Legal Defense Fund) and comic books getting in trouble with the authorities. I can't draw a single work day for Darcy and the Parker girls."

Moore said he started self-censoring when he was doing Strangers in Paradise so he could getter on more shelves, because many comic book stores won't carry comics that are labeled as "adults only."

"I started doing replacement words and all that," he said, adding that he thought it made him a better writer in the long run. "I had to come up with new words and new combinations of words and new sentences that communicated these strong emotions."

However, Moore emphasized how angry he is about the whole idea of censoring a comic, and the fact that comic books in America have to play by different rules than other forms of art.

"It's ironic because the highest price ever paid for a painting by a living artist was just paid yesterday," Moore said. "Thirty-three million dollars for a painting by Freud. It's a portrait of a nude woman. It's a picture I can't put on the cover of a comic book. If I put that on a comic, we would have a serious legal problem. But they can put it on CNN.com and sell it for a fortune and everybody just thinks it's art.

"Or I can go in the novel business and write about anything I want," he said. "I can write in detail about what Darcy does or what the Parker girls did. Because Thomas Harris wrote the Hannibal Lecter books in great detail. I can't draw a Hannibal Lecter book because there we are right back to the CBDLF case. There's something that has to happen here. We have the finest talents working in comics, but their hands are shackled behind their back.

"So you guys that are getting a higher education and will end up in influential positions in society in about 10 years and will end up running the country," Moore said, "would you please do something about it?"

Jeff Smith: Bone and Beyond is free to all audiences, although there is a fee for some of the programs, including tomorrow’s talk with Paul Pope. For more details on the exhibit, upcoming programs with Jeff Smith, and the Wexner Center for the Arts, including hours and directions, visit the Wexner Center for the Arts website.

[FChamberlain]

Man I miss SIP and Bone.

[Brian Ewing]

I planned on going to this, but driving over to Columbus isn't practical anymore with these gas prices.

Oh well, at least I got to experience it vicariously through this write-up.