This July marks the second anniversary of the founding of Dark Horse Maverick, and Schutz is celebrating the occasion with the release of an all-star anthology following the model of last year's hit commemorative collection, Dark Horse Maverick 2000.
We sent a reporter to meet with the woman known to many of her letter-column readers as "Auntie Dydie" to get an inside scoop on what to expect from Dark Horse Maverick 2001. By the sound of things, there should be a lot of happy Maverick fans come July 4.
Dark Horse: Before we talk about the release of Dark Horse Maverick 2001, let's review what the second year of the imprint brought to comics fans. What were your favorite Maverick titles of last year?
Diana Schutz: One of the things that the second year of the imprint really spotlighted, I think, was the trades program, with which we're having a great deal of success, both in terms of collecting previously published comics into trades as well as releasing brand-new stories in book form. In the last year, for example, we got to see a collection of Sin City: Hell and Back, which is a big, fat book comprising all nine issues of the original series; we got to finally see a Sock Monkey trade collection, which incorporated the first four issues that we published, volumes 1 and 2, which were two issues a piece. In addition we got to see a couple of brand-spankin'-new projects, one of which was The Last Temptation, written, of course, by Neil Gaiman. That's kind of a new old project, really, because it was originally published by Marvel, but when we republished it, we cleaned up all the typos (laughs) and various other mistakes, and we published it in brown ink on an ivory-colored paper. That was a bit of an experiment, but it was an effort to showcase Michael Zulli's beautiful, duo-shade work. I'm not sure yet whether that was a successful experiment or not, but I'm quite happy with the book, and sales were pretty phenomenal.
And finally -- but keep in mind that this is not an exhausted list -- last on this list and probably my favorite is Last Day in Vietnam by Will Eisner. This is an all-new collection of stories focusing on Will's experiences during various wars.
DH: Overall, how is the Maverick line growing? Are you looking to add lots of new material, are you looking at some overall plan to make the imprint synonymous with a certain quality of publications, or are you focusing more on individual projects as they arise?
DS: Probably a little bit of all of the above with the overriding idea that I'm looking for good comics to publish. Obviously if they're going to fit into the Maverick imprint, the books have got to be creator-owned and creator-produced, but it goes beyond that. I'm trying to find the sorts of things that would appeal to a slightly older, more sophisticated reader...the kinds of things you might see selling at Chloe Eudaly's Reading Frenzy (a renowned Portland-area independent comics-and-book shop -- ed.), something a little bit more off-beat perhaps, or something for a more discriminating reader.
DH: Especially considering the current, relatively weak direct-sales comics market, it seems like this approach might be very challenging right now.
DS: Certainly, I have to overcome the financial obstacles, as does any publisher in this biz. Fewer and fewer people are reading comics, that's true; however, I really believe that the future of comics resides in the kinds of projects that are going to appeal to a more adult reader. For instance, of the kinds of projects that have gotten a lot of play in the past year, two come immediately to mind, and both were published -- at least originally -- by Fantagraphics. One is my pal Joe Sacco's Safe Area Gorazde, and the other is Chris Ware's Jimmy Corrigan collection. Both of those books have gotten a lot of play in the "mainstream" press; they've been written up in the New York Times for instance. Joe just did a strip for Time magazine, which they commissioned. It's that kind of more adult material that will help us break out of the sort-of superhero-bound, direct-sales specialty market. And I strongly feel that if comics have any future whatsoever, that's what we have to pursue, and in large part, that's what I'm hoping to do with the Maverick imprint.
DH: There were a couple of projects that were hinted at last year when we last interviewed you that we haven't seen yet. The one that comes to mind first s Harlequin Valentine, which is a Neil Gaiman/John Bolton collaboration. Where is that now and what are your plans for its publication?
DS: Well, you haven't seen it (laughs), but in fact, all of the art has been beautifully completed by John Bolton. It's a painted book. I've since changed my plans about the book and managed to convince Neil and John to go along with my crazy idea. Originally, I had planned to do this as a 32-page comic book with no ads, and then the art came in. It was just so luscious and so beautiful, and I thought "God, why do I want to put this out as a 32-page comic book that's going to be ordered in to sell out on the same weekend that it gets to the stores?"
I don't want to do that. I want to make it a perennial publication -- always available and always on the stand. How can I do that in our current marketplace? There's only one answer -- I turned it into a book. It will now be a 40-page hardcover book, featuring a 30-page comic-book story and an eight-page backup text piece written by Neil with some single illustrations by John. That way, we can present it to both the direct-sales specialty market and the bookstore market and, again, keep it perennially available. Because it's so beautiful, it demands that kind of treatment. We are looking to release that in November of this year.
DH: Glad to hear that's on the schedule now. On to this year's Maverick annual -- this is one hell of an impressive line-up. How did you determine the roster this time?
DS: In part, it follows last year's formula of including some of the Maverick "mainstays" -- Stan Sakai, Sergio Aragonés, Mike Mignola, Matt Wagner. I wanted to throw in a few new people as well, people who are not regularly published under the Maverick imprint. Those three people are J.R. Williams, Denis Kitchen, and Dupuy and Barberian -- and we'll count those two as one, since they do that themselves.
DH: We probably have lots of readers who don't know much about these guys, so can you talk about how you know or discovered them?
DS: Sure. I'll start with J.R. This basically came about by my hanging out at Dot's (a cool Portland eatery -- ed.) drinking with J.R. and Joe Sacco and saying to J.R., "When the hell are you going to get back to the drawing board?" J.R. works for Will Vinton studios and has for several years, and he hasn't done comics for quite a long time. I just kind of twisted his arm because I really like his cartooning, and I think the world of comics is a poorer place for J.R. not being involved. So, you know, give him enough beers and he says yes!
Ditto Denis Kitchen. That happened because we were on the CBLDF cruise together in April of 2000, and again, enough drinks in the bar and I said, "Denis, will you please get back to the drawing board?" I'm old enough to remember a time when Denis was not merely a publisher but was also an artist and was one of the early crew of underground cartoonists. And he was a fabulous cartoonist, but simply has been pursuing other interests. Plus, there's the fact that actually being at the drawing board is a lot like pulling teeth for him, or so I'm lead to believe. After enough beers he said that there was this one story that he had in the back of his head, and sure enough, he did it. It's pretty funny. It's called "My Five Minutes With God," and God makes an appearance, of course, as do -- can I say this here? -- the public hairs of the rich and famous (laughs).
Then, Phillipe Dupuy and Charles Berberian work as a unit. I was first turned on to their work several years ago. They're French cartoonists, but they have been published in English by Chris Oliveros at Drawn and Quarterly. When I first read their material in English, I was so enamored with it that when I next went to Montreal to visit my mum and dad, I went to one of the French comic-book stores and bought up as much of their work as I could get my hands on in the original French and began to read more and more. These guys can do no wrong. They're fabulous. Their signature strip, Monsieur Jean -- Mr. John -- again is of the same sort that will appeal to a more discriminating reader. There are no costumes or super-anything. It's about a guy -- an author -- and his day-to-day existence.
I met Phillipe and Charles at SPX last October, and they're both really, really sweet guys, and I asked them would they mind being included in the next Maverick annual. My hope with these two is that we'll expose them to readers who may not have picked up the relatively expensive Drawn and Quarterly anthologies.
Then, finally, I called Will Eisner (laughs). I had the great pleasure of working with him on Last Day in Vietnam and asked him would he please be able to contribute something to this year's anthology? I told him it could be very short, but I had been told by Denis Kitchen, who is Will's agent, that Will had been turning down all other offers because he was knees deep into this graphic novel that he's working on for DC, and he certainly didn't have time to do anything else. But I called him, and I sweet-talked him, and Will told me that he could never turn me down (laughs).
DH: That's a pretty nice thing to hear from Will Eisner (laughs).
DS: Yes, it is. So we also have a two-page story from Will in this anthology. So, to wrap up, Matt (Wagner) is doing a Grendel story featuring Hunter Rose and Argent. In fact, it is the final battle -- the rooftop battle -- between Grendel and Argent. Stan Sakai has done a young Usagi story, a kind of humorous morality fable. Mike Mignola has done a Hellboy pin-up, and Sergio is working on an autobio piece even as we speak, which means he's late (laughs). And I asked Frank, who's very busy working on his little Batman gig, would he please do the cover for this year's annual, and he said yes. When I told him what was going to be in the book, he chose to draw Usagi for the cover. I think it's the first time Frank has drawn "funny animals," so to speak. It's an awesome cover. Subsequently, I contacted Laura DePuy, who is one of this industry's most talented colorists -- in fact, she won the Eisner last year for Best Colorist -- and she colored Frank's Usagi. I'm very, very happy with the whole book.
Fans of great, independent comics storytelling should also be pleased with Dark Horse Maverick 2001, hitting the stands of a comic-book shop near you on July 4. Dark Horse Maverick 2001 is a 48-page, black-and-white anthology of short graphic stories, available for a retail price of $4.99