The Forbidden Planet International Blog Log

Comic Art is one of the premier publications about comics published anywhere in the world. It has covered all aspects of comics since it commenced from comics beginnings with articles on Rodolphe Toepffer (credited with creating the first ‘graphic novel’ in 1842), EC Comics and superhero art right through to modern creators like Charles Burns and Art Spiegelman.

Along the way it has seen fit to navigate any tributary that comics art has taken bringing fascinating pieces on foreign artists (as in non-English speaking) such as the incredible Mexican artist Ernesto Cabral and little known creators such as Norman Pettingill or almost forgotten ones like Crockett Johnson. The creation of Todd Hignite, it is just about to re-launch in an even more high-end format backed by the people at Buenaventura Press. Due to hit shops in September but with a few lucky people able to pick up advance issues at the end of July at San Diego Comic Con we felt this was a great time to speak to Todd about himself, the magazine, and the re-launch.

FPI: What brought you originally to wanting to publish a magazine about comics, which was at the time so much more about being good than being commercial? Has the growth of the bookstore trade helped sales of the magazine in the old format? Was it a financially viable title or were you subsidising it out of your own pocket as many who do comics coverage end up doing?

Todd: Well, I’ve always been obsessed with comics and I think they represent my earliest memories. Comics have always been a huge part of my life and remain for me the most potent visual art form. In my late teens I self-published some zines with friends; I later studied art history in college, and after writing about comics and doing more research in graduate school decided to put together the first issue of the magazine. It was always a goal and I’d recently done some freelance writing on comics and art, so the time seemed right–all my interests perfectly coalesced in the mag.

I basically wanted to do a literate, nicely produced art magazine on comics, which isn’t nearly as easy as it sounds. Dan Clowes agreed to do the “In the Studio” feature for the first issue and his encouragement really got the ball rolling. It seemed like most everyone that I contacted or tried to commission work from came through from the beginning, so that was of course the greatest possible boost. And through Clowes I met collector-extraordinaire Glenn Bray, who just opened up an entire new world and is one of the most generous fellows ever to walk the earth–work from his collection has played a role in virtually every issue.

In terms of its financial viability–I’ve never had any illusions about making lots of (or much of any) money. All I ever hoped for is that it could sustain itself. I began it with all my own money–I think about $3000 I had in savings. I made that back after a few issues and it made enough to keep chugging along. I always have made a point to pay all contributors, and not get in a situation where I owed anyone any money–so I am always the last person to see any money from it, which is fine. If you’re committed enough to doing something like this, there’s nothing to stop you, really. I’m confident it’ll do better in this new incarnation money-wise, but I don’t think something like this is ever going to sell huge numbers. The culture at large and the comic market specifically, aren’t really conducive to something so wide-reaching. As long as we can keep going…

FPI: Where is Comic Art available now at retail? Have you found it easier to get it into the comics stores or stores like Borders and other mainstream retailers? How have you found distribution into comics stores via Diamond, do you use other distributors for the book trade and how have they performed?

Todd: To be perfectly honest, the distribution end of things–actually the business end in general–was the weak link for me, which is obviously not good. My interest lies in putting the mag together–as an editor, not a publisher. I’m just not very great at staying on top of the other end of things and at a certain point I began to feel that I was doing a disservice to the excellent contributions if I wasn’t able to really push it and making sure of its place in the world. This is the main reason I wanted to work with a publisher.

But to answer your question specifically, from virtually the outset it went through a distributor that placed in it Borders, etc, but it just seemed that this distributor didn’t do a very good job. Then Desert Moon, my biggest distributor, went out of business, owing hundreds if not thousands of publishers thousands of dollars, which nearly killed me, and did indeed put numerous folks out of business. It’s interesting–the bulk of the Diamond catalog is obviously not in any way related to what I’m trying to do, but without them I don’t think Comic Art would exist. They are the only distributor that actually pays quickly, which always allowed me to keep up with my printing bills. The stereotypical view is that they are this corporate juggernaut hostile to small, idiosyncratic voices, while more indy-friendly bookstore distributors are the champions of the people. Unfortunately, for me, the distributors that never paid and ripped me off all firmly positioned themselves in the second camp… So, Diamond is actually crucial to what I do.

But the new publisher, Alvin Buenaventura, has completely changed things in that respect–it’s going to be everywhere now, as he’s using many distributors, including Gingko Press, that I never had access to–so I’m really thankful to him. He knows what he’s doing and I was always completely winging it on that end. I knew I needed a publisher that cared about every little element as much as I did, so that I could sleep at night–and crucially, someone to promote it and give it more of a presence.

FPI: Do you feel that comics stores have the potential to grow the market from what they have traditionally sold to embrace the ‘new’ more literate comics or, for the most part, do you think their focus will always be on superheroes? Do you think that ultimately this will lead to bookstores dominating the trade or do you think that the two will continue side by side.

Todd: There are so many voices in comics that, for better or worse it seems like you have to seek out many venues to find everything you’re looking for (with a few notable exceptions such as The Beguiling in Toronto, which is the greatest comic store I’ve ever visited). At least I do, living in the Midwest of the US. I worked at a comic shop in my teens and it seemed like, contrary to received wisdom on the history of such things, there was much less firm segregation back then. For example, you could buy an old Ditko monster comic alongside newspaper reprint books, a volume of The Complete Crumb Comics, the new issue of Love and Rockets, and some European comics.

I really miss the mixing with the new and everything all bumping up against each other–so, while the situation in many ways here is undoubtedly better with a little relaxing of superhero dominance, stores in the States seem to have completely overreacted against the stereotype of the dank, musty comic shop to the point that they’re exclusively new stuff, with no shelf life for anything past a few months old (or they’re just the myopic, run-of-the-mill superhero clubs, with playing cards and statues). Things seem to be getting a little too slick and “upscale.”

I wish I had the money to open my dream store, with old comics, comics history books, gag collections, pulps, a little gallery, flat files full of 19^th century caricatures and early 20^th century newspaper strips, and old magazines alongside the new comics and art books…it’d be like the physical manifestation of my magazine. That’s always been a pipe dream–of course I’d go bankrupt in two months. But it’s the world that exists in my head, and that which I’ve tried to bring about with Comic Art.

FPI: Comic Art 8 sees a whole new format for the magazine. It’s going annual, having previously been quarterly – right? Is this down to pressure of work or because you feel it has more flexibility in this format? What other reasons for the change are there? What should new customers expect in this issue which will intrigue and send them searching out material and is there stuff they probably haven’t seen before in the mag?

Todd: The break was purely born of necessity—I’m always staggering a few other projects myself with work on CA, such as the In the Studio book and an exhibition in New York based on the book, and I just couldn’t keep it on that frequent of a schedule. There’s certainly something to be said for a traditional floppy, regularly produced magazine, but actually, the expanded page count represents exactly what I wanted CA to be from the outset, but could never really afford to do myself.

The range of contents in #8 is not dissimilar to past issues, but the format allows for lengthier features and more room for reproductions. I was incredibly humbled when this all came together. The lengthy Richard McGuire interview is a revelation and everyone needs to revisit Drew Friedman’s comic output–there’s a great career-spanning article by Ben Schwartz that I’m really proud of. Everything included this time was hugely eye opening to me and I feel like the writers I personally love contributed great work across the board. In my mind, it’s sort of a perfect issue.

FPI: Comics fans loved the original ‘tipped in’ full page cartoons that the mag gave away from its inception – but issue 8 appears to have a whole new book by Seth as a freebie. Is this the format for the future, that the magazine will have such wonderfully interesting extras included with it? How did the Seth book come about – can you give us a few details about it?

Todd: Yes, that’s my plan–next time there may be two smaller book inserts. Seth actually approached me with the “Forty Cartoon Books of Interest” probably three years ago–it was just a matter of figuring out the best format. He did a beautiful scale mock-up book that was exactly how he wanted it, and it was such a perfect little object that we immediately realized this was the only way to do it—to achieve his vision for it exactly. Alvin and the top-notch new designer, cartoonist Jonathan Bennett, worked really hard on the production to make it flawless. I’ve honestly never been prouder of anything I’ve ever been involved with–it’s a gem. Seth did a brand new 10-page introductory strip for it–the whole thing is just incredible.

The original impetus for those single-page strips came from wanting something special each time in addition to the magazine itself. So the book made perfect sense with the new format–the magazine itself is greatly expanded, so the extra accompaniment is also greatly expanded.

FPI: Todd, I guess with a name like Comic Art for your magazine it’s safe to assume which side of the ‘comics are art’ debate you are on. But unlike some publications that seems to embrace quite a broad church with articles in the upcoming issue on subjects ranging from Starlin’s Warlock to the incredible but difficult art of German cartoonist Anke Feuchtenberger. What do you feel makes comics ART?

Todd: Comics are art in many senses–I personally love comics from varying commercial contexts, formats, uses, and intentions. I certainly love old comics that had no pretensions to being “art”–if they achieve artistic ends, which I definitely believe they do, it’s in a strangely roundabout way. I have no firm dictates about appropriate subject matter for the magazine, and I definitely don’t ever want to fall into a single camp, say of what is acceptable in “art comics” circles. In fact, when someone comes up with an idea that goes well outside my personal preconceptions–and of what readers perhaps come to expect from the magazine–it’s all the better.

Putting together an issue is like a big collage–first I want to make sure each article is a perfectly realized entity (and a main requirement is that it always acknowledges the very specific context and historical function of disparate types of comics), but then I want all of these voices and art to collide in interesting ways. I want each issue to be unexpected–so I don’t want readers to get too firm a handle on what the magazine is–that it’s exclusively “art comics,” or anything else.

FPI: Would it be fair to say that your personal interest is more focused on modern comics artists than those from the past? Most of the articles you have written for the mag seem to feature visits or talks with the cream of the modern creators. You also have a book coming out later this year – ‘In the Studio With Contemporary Cartoonists‘ – do you want to tell us a bit about that? Is it using material previously used in Comic Art? At 320 pages and covering only 9 cartoonists (Ivan Brunetti, Charles Burns, Daniel Clowes, Robert Crumb, Jamie Hernandez, Gary Panter, Art Spiegelman and Chris Ware) it looks all set to be a hugely in depth study of them.

Todd: Well, I’m personally very interested in cartoonists from many periods. Right now I’m trying to track down all the strips I can find by Rea Irvin… But sure, I suppose that, ultimately, my personal favorites, whose work I return to often, are of the generation from the early 1980s to now. I can point to the specific time that the work of Jaime Hernandez and Dan Clowes, as well as a few others, honestly changed my life, altering the way I saw the world. These cartoonists continue to do incredible work, so they are sort of touchstones for just about everything I love about comics.

The “In the Studio” book is basically a way to see the work of those nine individual artists anew, through their process and past influences, and in turn to see the history of comics in a new light through the lens of their work and impressions. In my experience, the best cartoonists are also the smartest historians, critics, and most adept at formal analysis, so my goal with this book is nothing less than a new view of the entire medium. Modest, huh?

The visits were just full of revelations for me. The nine chapters include expanded versions of those studio visits that originally appeared in Comic Art–with Charles Burns, Dan Clowes, Seth, Art Spiegelman, and Chris Ware–and all new visits done just for the book with Ivan Brunetti, Robert Crumb, Jaime Hernandez, and Gary Panter. It turned out incredibly well and was constantly surprising–and it is huge: 320 pages with about 500 color images. I think it’s something that one can get many things from and read in many ways, resonating on numerous levels. It’s like this great puzzle that fits together a million different ways depending on the reader, and can be re-visited endlessly.

FPI: Which other cartoonists, barring those you covered in your book, do you think people should be looking out for. Who is brilliant and largely ignored, who are the up and coming stars? Do you think comic art is now more internationalised than ever or was it always that way and we’re are only just starting to look outside our own little pond?

Todd: From the point of view of an American, there’s definitely tons more great international work available. This has much to do with new reprints, translations, etc, no doubt, but I’m also thrilled to be able to read so many translated contemporary works. And this is the golden age of reprint projects. As far as little-known past cartoonists, the re-discovery is endless–we’ve barely touched the tip of the iceberg. And there are more and more excellent projects of this nature today. Hopefully Comic Art has played a small part in this re-evaluation.

In terms of up-and-comers, I actually don’t read a ton of mini-comics, so am probably not the best person to comment on the very first output of young cartoonists, but I can tell you that, in addition to Alvin B’s commitment to production quality and detail and his impeccable taste, one of the main reasons I was so excited for Comic Art to be published by Buenaventura Press is that he also now publishes Kramer’s Ergot. In my book, this is unquestionably the most important, enjoyable, and enlightening anthology since RAW. Through that, Sammy Harkham, whose own work I really like, has turned me on to a number of younger cartoonists that I am now passionately seeking out. I hate to make a list as I’ll leave out a bunch, but off the top of my head, of those relatively new to me, I really like Gabrielle Bell and Vanessa Davis–and though not a newcomer, Tim Hensley’s strips in the new Mome are just great and my favorite comics to come along in some time.

FPI: There seems to be interesting trends developing around comics. Firstly there is a rising tide of electronic comics publishing. We are seeing Marvel make the first moves to making their product available online – possibly without paper copies in the future. There are European publishers – www.electrocomics.com – experimenting with making comics available as PDFs to download and interesting payment ideas (free to download and then the reader decides to make a payment or not). At the same time there have never been more hardback premium printed books covering comics past and archives from the Complete Peanuts and Walt and Skeezix through the latest DC Archive Editions. Where do you see the medium going in the future?

Todd: I see the future as all directions you can imagine. I don’t think there’s one format for comics just as there will never again be one dominant genre in the medium–it’s the perfect vehicle for so many voices, the future is limitless. And let’s hope these amazing reprint books can continue to be published—there’s a vast history out there awaiting us.

FPI: Todd Hignite, thank you very much for talking to us.