DOING THE DEMO: LOOKING BACK, II

[MattBrady]

by Chris Arrant

When first released, DEMO was a twelve issue miniseries designed to be enjoyed as twelve one-shot issues. Each issue to be a "satisfying chunk" on its own, and intended to be comics. For original publisher AiT-PlanetLar who until then had been strictly a graphic novel publisher, this decision to do a miniseries not as installments of a story but as twelve separate stories was something special. At the time, much emphasis was placed on the single issues, going so far as to discount the idea of a collected edition, for the "waiting for the trade crowd", instead pushing hard to the single issues. Although not saying "they will never be a TPB", the focus was squarely on the single issues.

After some time had passed from the release of the last issue, the publisher did do a collected edition - but smaller, and without the essays and backmatter originally included in the series. The success of DEMO took Wood and Cloonan both to new levels and homes in DC's Vertigo imprint, and it wasn't a big surprise when Vertigo announced it had acquired the rights to do a new enhanced edition of DEMO. As the release date for this nears and the news of a second volume in the works, Newsarama is taking a hard look at the issues that makes up DEMO, Vol. 1 (or "Classic DEMO" as Wood puts it)

Previously we talked about issues #1 – #3, and we now continue this in-depth conversation with writer Brian Wood and focus on issues #4 – #6. What shows up on the pages of the comic and in the interview is Wood and collaborator artist Becky Cloonan starting to settle into the DEMO mindset and begin playing with the conventions of the series, with satisfying results.

Newsarama: This fourth story, "Stand Strong", was for me personally the real clarion call as to what the series would turn out to be, both in story and Becky's artwork. What makes this issue stand out for you as its writer?

Brian Wood: The artwork on this story was fantastic, and it was the first one where Becky showed off that chunky black style of hers that's so cool. We saw a bit of it in Channel Zero: Jennie One, but here it really came together. I thought this worked well since it was such a subtle take on "super-strength", so much so that it could just as easily be argued that there was nothing "super" about it... we kept the physical feats limited to a level that might be within the realm of what a really strong guy could do. That, combined with the guy's crumbling relationship with his girlfriend, his choice to cut ties with his friends.. and for what? These steps he takes to grow up, where do they get him? That great ambiguous ending I love so much.

It's interesting this was the one for you. Why is that? I'm curious.

NRAMA: For me, I felt more attached to this for personal reasons: the whole resistance to the influence of parents, before learning things on your own and how the real world works and making it work for you. Plus, like you said, Becky's chunky black style was worth the price of admission alone. Enough about me though, let's get back to the story.

The lead in this, James, is stuck between two paths – the path that his family wants him to take in the family trade, and the illicit one his friends want him to take due to his superhuman abilities. How did this story come about?

BW: Like most of these DEMO stories, its about being at this point in your life where you either go left or right, so to speak, and you know that this decision will define the rest of your life. That sort of pressure. James has been running with these friends since high school, or even earlier, and his girlfriend Amy is part of it too.

But now he's something like 25 years old and that kind of teenage shenanigans is wearing thin.. he starts thing about what to do next, what else is out there in life. As restrictive as his crew might be, the idea of being a lifer at the same factory his father and grandfather still work at doesn't hold much appeal either.

I've never been in this exact situation, but I've been in something similar. I feel that you get one shot in life, usually when you're young, to be totally selfish, to think only about yourself and choose a path for yourself before too many obligations get in the way.

Sometimes friends have to be jettisoned, lovers left behind, jobs ditched, etc. all for the greater good of your happiness. It sounds rough, it sounds cold, and is something of a cliché, that "I gotta do what makes ME happy!" sort of thing, but there is truth in it.

NRAMA: Like you mentioned, this issue revolves around the life in a factory town, and James' feeling obligated to take up his father's trade. You mentioned being in a similar situation, so let's compare that up close -- can you tell us about your father, and if his occupation had any bearing on you deciding to become an artist, designer and writer?

BW: Not at all. My father was a factory worker, in a way, at an IBM plant, but I think he was low-level management, the sort of guy in a short-sleeve dress shirt James is talking to at the very start of "Stand Strong". But he died when I was pretty young and ended up not having an influence on my life in any way that I can gauge. He was a real outdoorsman, though, a hunter and a fisher, and those are the memories I have - chopping wood for the winter, ice-fishing, clearing brush, bleeding deer in our garage (seriously).

NRAMA: All of the issues so far each have a heavy parental weight attached to the lead characters. Talking generally here, but this seems like a key element not just in DEMO, but in comics in general. Why do you think that is for you here with DEMO?

BW: I think a certain amount of that is to be expected in DEMO, since the characters are young in these first stories, and parents can still very much be a part of life at that age. As I've said before, my family history is, to put it mildly, unconventional, and all these archetypes I wrote in DEMO, none of them match up to my own. So maybe I am just exploring different situations, living vicariously? I can't really say for sure - I didn't sit down with a plan for the parents.

NRAMA: Speaking of planned, this story lacks what you could call a "fairytale ending", with James finding some new path unknown to him previously – instead he just sucks it up and deals with what life has given him. That's a heavy choice you represent here. What led you to that ending?

BW: I think that is what life is, what typically happens more than anything else, and I like the notion of throwing it in people's faces, forcing them to think about what might not be comfortable. Fairy-tale endings have never been my thing, either as a writer or a consumer.

NRAMA: Moving on, we now turn to issue 5: Girl You Want. In the beginning we see Kate raging at the fact that no one truly knows her, instead seeing – visually – the person they want her to be. I asked this about an earlier issue, and I'll ask it again here – which came first, the shape-shifting power or the issues with identity?

BW: Issues with identity. Well, more accurately, I was interested in how people project onto other people, how they draw assumptions and even place expectations on to others before they really know anything about this person. The second page of the story, where Kate confronts the librarian stereotype came directly from an old friend who worked at an artsy bookstore and was always getting hit on by men who had this idea of a brainy bookish type who could quite possibly be an animal in bed... and they formed this expectation even before they came up to talk to her. I built this story off of that, and it felt logical to show this literally, these projections physically manifesting themselves on Kate.

NRAMA: Putting the superpower aspect of this issue aside, at it's core this issue is about identity and the ability to change that based on surroundings. Some could say this about people who change dramatically to suit their friends, but it's something that most everyone does – for example, their demeanor with their parents versus with their friends. What were you trying to say with this issue?

BW: Well, I really see it as the inevitability of this sort of profiling happening, that we all do it and it happens to all of us. Kate suffers through it in a very profound way, to the point where her own identity is so precarious that she keeps a journal and looks at herself in a little mirror to reaffirm that, yes, she is still there, she is still her.

NRAMA: It would have been easy for you to stick with a one-note characterization here of Kate as a victim of other people's prejudices. But instead, the second-half of the book turns Kate from a victim and into someone with faults of her own. Was this planned from the beginning, or something that came later to counter-balance the appearance of Kate as a victim in her own life?

BW: It was planned, it was always the point. At the time I was writing this I really feared I was being very clumsy with this issue, that I was hitting my one note too many times in a row. Of course Kate had to fall into the same habit as everyone else around her. So she meets this girl that, through some fluke, doesn't seem to be approaching Kate with ANY expectations or assumptions. She takes Kate totally as she is, and for the first time in Kate's life, she sees the chance at connecting with another human being on a level playing field. But its not level, since almost immediately Kate beings to lay her own baggage on to this other girl and building up hope and expectations, only to be proven wrong.

"Girl You Want" is, hands down, the biggest crowd pleaser of the series, based on emails, on sales (first issue of DEMO to sell out), and comments from readers at conventions. I think the fact is it incredibly relatable saves it from probably being predictable at times. Who out there hasn't been unfairly put upon, compared, or judged to another's standard? I feel like that right there is coming into adulthood in a nutshell.

NRAMA: Well, there you have it – sales don't lie. In the next issue, #6's What You Wish For, it marked a turning point of sorts. This was the half-way point for this series, and also marked a turn away from the superhuman and into the supernatural. In the essay for this issue, you mention that the original 'kernel' of an idea for this story came from Becky. Can you tell us how that came to you, and how you developed it?

BW: I became aware that, since I had been crafting DEMO in my head for so long before I even asked Becky to draw it that I was running the risk of steamrolling right through the series, dominating it all with my "vision", so to speak. So I asked her for ideas, and I think she came back with "zombie pets". Which ended up being quite a challenge, and I think in the end gives the series a little something I could never have thought up on my own.

I don't remember too much beyond that. I probably outlined a narrative and sent it to Becky to look over, and wrote it from there. She changed a lot in the process of drawing it, adding to one sequence (the excellent skull page) and driving a lot of the narration. I went back over my writing after the art was done and tweaked it a lot. I loved it when Becky would add pages... she did it again in #8, "Mixtape", which I'm sure we will get to shortly, and what she added proved utterly crucial and the story would have been like 70% without it.

NRAMA: A true collaboration then, on all levels. That definitely adds something to reading the story now.

In this story, a young boy named Ken turns the anger and cruelty around him and brings a whole neighborhood crumbling down. But instead of going to a Carrie-like conclusion, you show an older Ken learning from his issues and carrying his secret with him today. How did you work out the conclusion of this story?

NRAMA:It's another classically ambiguous ending, one that "broke the internet" a tiny bit its own way, or at least a small section of the blogosphere who was reviewing DEMO as it was coming out. I think it was just another example of not wanting to write a traditional sort of ending to a story like this, and also buy this point I was seeing the value in keeping DEMO vague enough in key areas to allow for different interpretations. I stumbled across that by accident, but I think its proven to be a key to the success of the series. People read into it in different ways. I love that. Again, "Mixtape" is a great example of that.

NRAMA: One thing that did strike me after reading the issue for our conversation today is that in a way, Ken got off scot-free after terrorizing his neighborhood. What would you say to that?

BW: I think it works for this kind of story, which is MUCH heavier on the supernatural and even kind of a horror story. Its that sort of ominous ending where every seems to be back to normal.. here's our guy all grown up with the nice car and the brand new bride, but his has his horrible secret, and still has his reincarnated evil god in the backseat! Of course, its not the dog that's evil, but Ken himself.

Oh no! Off they drive into the sunset. See what I mean? I mean, I'm corning it up right now, but that's the style of that kind of story and so the ending works. It's not as grounded in reality as most of the rest of DEMO.

NRAMA: Let's talk big picture. In reading over your work, I'm keenly aware of your ability to creatively put your protagonists in a place to get sympathy from the readers, even if they aren't heroes or completely nice people. Talking both in general and about this issue in particular, is this something that weighs on your mind when building up a story or just a natural thing for you?

BW: DEMO taught me (and I wish I had learned it sooner) to create a bond between your characters and the reader. I try and couple that with my tendency to avoid creating idealized characters and it makes for an interesting mix. I see this most acutely in LOCAL, where I have this character, Megan, who seriously screws up on a number of occasions and ends up being someone people love to hate. Or hate to love. Or want to beat up. All that means the reader is bonding with the character on some level.. if they weren't they wouldn't care about her either way. In "What You Wish For" I think everyone has persecutors in our past, and we've all indulged in our own revenge fantasies at times.

We've made it to the half-way point, come back later this month as we continue our conversation with Brian Wood on the issues 7 through 12 of DEMO.

[earth2tom]

I did not know that Becky played such a part in issue #6. Sorry to say it Mr. Wood, but that has always been my favorite and most relatable issue, dark past and all. That used to be the issue I would hand out to new customers who were looking for something a little different. I must of given out at least 10 or so issues of those and nearly everyone loved the book. So, my question is, will Becky be doing any more idea generating?