TALKING TO CHRISTAIN SLADE ABOUT KORGI

[MattBrady]

by Zack Smith

This April, Top Shelf Productions and former Disney animator Christian Slade will introduce readers to a wordless world full of little girls, big dogs, and incredible adventures.

Slade’s new graphic novel series Korgi, which will premiere in April with an 80-page album and a six-page Free Comic Book Day story, is the all-ages tale of Ivy, a little girl living in the realm of Korgi Hollow with her dog, Sprout. “Dog” might not be the best word for Sprout, who’s actually a Korgi – a race of magical creatures that live alongside the human-like creatures of this world.

The Winter Garden, Florida-based artist doesn’t want to spoil the story’s surprises, but the preview pages and animated trailer at Top Shelf’s web site suggests that Ivy and Sprout’s adventures will include trolls, spiders, and even an alien spacecraft.

“Sprout is a Korgi with a K, so it’s a little different than the Corgis-with-a-C that is in the real world,” Slade said. “Korgis, also known as ‘Korgi-Folk’ live alongside Mollies, who are the human creatures in this world.

“Sprout is definitely a very curious Korgi, and he loves playing and running around fields with Ivy. This character is based on a real Welsh Corgi, my wife’s dog, Leo. He loves exploring and getting into trouble, which he definitely does in the first story, along with Ivy, the more rational one.

“It takes place in the Korgi Hollow, which is a woodland dwelling, a series of residences that are within the logs and ground and tree trucks, with this smallish group of people making use of the land surrounding them, and created a society from themselves in this small, concealed village. It’s a farming community, and everyone has their role, and Sprout and Ivy have their own roles in here.”

Korgi Hollow’s look was partially inspired by the Florida environment where Slade’s dogs play. Often, he’ll bring along a sketchbook when he takes the dogs out to the local dog park. “There was a tree at our dog park with a forked trunk,” Slade said. “For some reason, someone kept putting dog biscuits in the tree. Leo was always smart enough to smell out the cookies and try to jump into the center of the open trunk of the tree containing the hidden treats. It is one of the cutest things I’ve ever seen. I sketched out his mannerisms trying to leap up with his short legs in my sketchbook. This made it into the Free Comic Book Day story as Sprout tries to retrieve his lost cookie from the tree!”

But it won’t just be fun and games for Sprout and Ivy. “Over the course of the first book, you’re going to realize that our two characters are going to reveal some of the powers that they have, as they encounter some entanglements within their land,” Slade said. “One of these is going to be a monster by the name of Gallump…and that’s all I can reveal!”

Slade also dropped some hints about upcoming stories. “Even though it’s in a fantasy setting, there will be some sci-fi elements as well,” Slade said. “Those elements are going to come into play in the second book and beyond. There’s going to be a little bit more of an explanation of those things, but they’re not 100 percent defined. Each story is self-enclosed, but there’s going to be a larger story going on as well.”

Though each Korgi graphic novel will be self-contained, they’ll be part of a longer story that could go on for years. “All the seeds are being planted in the first one for overall story,” Slade said. “The second one, which is already penciled, should be out by this summer, and we should have the third one out next year. As of right now, the first act will be 9-10 books, and we’d like to fill that out to be as many as 25 to 30.”

The series had gestated in Slade’s mind ever since he first encountered Corgi dogs in real life. “My wife – we started dating in college in the mid-90s – had a Welsh Corgi dog, and I had always wanted a dog growing up,” Slade said. “I saw she had this dog and I just immediately fell in love. I was like, ‘this is the pet to have.’ They’re really smart, and funny, and real quirky with lots of character. And they were just so unique and fun to draw!

“I spent years drawing them in my sketchbook, and immediately thought that these creatures were so charming. And I researched the breed, and history, I found out that in Wales, there’s a fairy legend that’s associated with them, so they’re usually associated with fairy creatures and woodland fantasy. They’re usually depicted with fairy creatures and woodland scenes in artwork, and there’s actually a small collectible market for that kind of art out there. So when I found this out, I thought, ‘wow, what a wonderful idea to do an epic story that’s continuous, that’s not just one painting or a poem or a short story.’ I got the idea that I could do a whole story about this corgi – and this was around 1995 or 1996.”

The idea took a detour for nearly a decade while Slade worked to become an illustrator and animator. Eventually, he got a job with Disney, where he worked on several projects, including Brother Bear. Sadly, that film would prove to be the last traditionally-animated film at Disney’s Florida studio, and Slade was let go.

Working at Disney fulfilled a childhood dream for Slade. “It was a great experience, it really was, being part of that sort of tradition in the role of drawing,” Slade said. “I was one of the last people to get in there, so I was there just long enough that, when I was let go, it was kind of liberating, because now I was free to work on Korgi.”

Slade took the opportunity to go back to school, and ultimately, Korgi’s first incarnation took the form of his thesis when he pursued a master’s degree in illustration at Syracuse University. “The original draft was 56 pages, with some additional pages featuring the characters and backstory,” said Slade, who got his degree in 2005. “For a thesis, we had to do a body of work, so I said, ‘well, I’m going to do this graphic novel, which is my dream project that I’ve always wanted to do, and now I’m just going to sit down and do it.’”

Like Owly, which Korgi will appear alongside in the Free Comic Book Day giveaway, Korgi will not only be a series of self-contained small-format graphic novels, but also feature no dialogue in the story, with the exception of some narrative text. Slade said that this part of the story emerged after he’d originally drawn it. “Fortunately, I draw a lot better than I speak!” Slade laughed. “It was a graphic design thing. I had a lot of the dialogue written out for the comic while I was at Syracuse. I pulled all the dialogue out and said, ‘let’s see if this works.’ And it read! So we just kept doing it, and that’s what we’ve done.”

Slade premiered Korgi as a limited run minicomic at the 2006 MegaCon. A longtime admirer of Top Shelf’s books and design, he decided to go over to their booth to show his work – and quickly attracted their attention. “Within about a minute, I was able to show my book to Robert Venditti, and he gave me his business card, and it was two months after that that I was able to send in a submission. I heard back from Chris (Staros) right away, and we started talking Korgi. And things just kept going!”

Though many all-ages black-and-white books tend to go for a more cartoony style of artwork, Korgi features detailed, lushly rendered characters and backgrounds. While Slade believes that “some of the greatest artists in the world” work in comics, he’s also looking outside the box to establish Korgi’s look.

“I’m approaching comics from an illustrative background and an animation background,” Korgi said. “My influences on Korgi include a lot of turn-of-the-century pen-and-ink artists – Joseph Clement Coll, Franklin Booth, Arthur Rackham, Charles Dana Gibson, Heinrich Kley and Harry Rountree. I also like a lot of artists from the golden age of the painters like N.C. Wyeth, and the Brandywine School, Howard Pyle and Frank Schoonover, not just in terms of the line, but the color choices.

“In fact, Korgi is going to have a wrap around-color cover for every book, and that’s going to be done in that lush, illustrative style, while the inside will remain black-and-white in that finely-rendered pen-and-ink style. The style came about because I wanted to do something that I thought was different from what I was seeing on the shelves. So I wanted to do something that had a lot of detail to it. And really, it looks more time-consuming than it actually is! That’s how I naturally draw anyway. I like to draw all over the paper, I like to detail it. It’s my natural style of drawing.”

When he’s not doing Korgi, Slade works as an illustrator in books and advertising, with three books coming out this year, “The Daring Adventures of Penhaligan Brush” by S. Jones Rogan, “Reality Leak” by Joni Sensel and “The Decoy” by Nathaniel Lachenmeyer. But Korgi remains the project that’s closest to his heart. “I work with my wife on the stories, and a lot of the Korgi’s mannerisms based on things I’ve seen in my own life,” Slade said. “Korgi is a dream job, it’s not even a job. I love these animals, and I hope this comes through in the artwork.”

For more information on Christian Slade and Korgi, check out Top Shelf’s preview and trailer at www.topshelfcomix.com, or Slade’s web sites at www.christianslade.com and www.sladestudio.com

[EmeraldGuy32]

that is some gorgeous art.

[Jed Saxon]

... ... wow.

[defjoe]

Christian is a great guy. Met him a year back at the FX Show, he deserves this. I'm happy for you Christian! worked hard and it's paying off.

[TinMan]

The free comicbook day preview really caught my eye, now, after having seen more artwork and heard a bit more about the project, I can say I can't wait for this! The artwork is beautiful and the concept is really neat too! Can't wait.

[tof]

Beautiful art. I pre-ordered volume 1 just after seeing the trailer (linked on the Blog).

[Spacedog2k5]

Wow! I'm a big dog lover, so I hope this does well. I know I'll be getting it. Good stuff!