Adam Gallardo: For those not familiar with the book, what is Pop Gun War about?
Farel Dalrymple: OK, well, it's set in an urban landscape. It's a story about a little boy, Sinclair, who gets these wings that he finds in a trash can and flies around the city and gets in adventures. It's about the weird characters that live there and stuff.
AG: OK, besides the little boy, what other characters are there that you focus on?
FD: Well, there is his friend who is this homeless guy, called Addison, he's an older guy, and they hang out together a lot. And then there is Sinclair's sister, Emily, who is around the same age as him, and she is in a rock band, and I don't really explain why she's like a little kid in a rock band. There is also this guy called the Rich Kid who is sort of like a tormentor demon guy. He doesn't really look like a demon, but he's sort of an invisible mean person that always tries to mess with Addison. Then there's Percy, a fish that floats around and doesn't really say anything, but he seems to play some mysterious part in the whole thing. And there's this character Sunshine Montana, who is a dwarf who grows into a giant. And, let's see, oh, yeah, there is also Rachel who is kind of like this mysterious sort of mother figure that helps people out. And I think that's all of them.
AG: The story is very surreal but in a -- in probably the best sense of that word. It's very dreamlike, but it's also got these very linear aspects to the story....
FD: I've heard some people that describe it as magical realism. I don't know if that is an accurate term or not.
AG: If it's a mix of those two things; how do you map out what will happen in an issue?
FD: Um, well, it's mostly that I just get ideas for scenes. Sometimes I will just think of something that happened to me when I was a little kid, or I will think of a dream I had. Or I'll read something in a book and think, "Oh, it would be cool to do something in that way." Like, there is this character, Koole, who is in the second issue, or second chapter, whatever, and he is this crazy monk who wears chains underneath his robe. And I got that from The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoevsky. There is this character in that book that wears these cruel irons, and I thought, "Well that would make kind of an interesting character for Pop Gun War." So I just kind of built the story around this weird guy that is kind of like a bad guy, I guess. Sometimes I will just draw these characters in my sketchbook, or else come up with a scene. I will kind of build around that. Is that a right answer to your question?
AG: [Laughs] I don't think that there --
FD: [Laughs] I forgot what the question was.
AG: How do you work magic realism and this linear storytelling together so seamlessly?
FD: Yeah, I guess it just sort of happens. Almost by accident or by default. I mean, I just try to construct a story that is entertaining or thought provoking. Like, I don't really like things to be too spelled out. Totally spelled out. But hopefully it will make people think.
AG: Right. In the third issue, you had an introduction. You wrote that Pop Gun War is your response to living in New York City. Could you talk a little bit more about that?
FD: I guess part of the reason I was doing Pop Gun War was because I wanted to do a comic set in an urban landscape, because New York's a big part of my life. Just because the place is really inspirational and wonderful a lot of times, but a lot of times I kind of hate it and don't want to be around all these people and stuff. But, I am kind of impressed by all the buildings, 'cause I grew up in a place that didn't really look anything like this. I just like the landscape of it and it ended up the city Sinclair lives in isn't really New York necessarily, but it feels like New York City, and it has become sort of its own character in the book. Except it doesn't feel like New York in the sense that the streets are always deserted in the story.
AG: Right.
FD: In Pop Gun War, there is like, never anyone on the street. It's like the opposite of New York. It's kind of like New York at like seven in the morning when there is no one out.
AG: You said that you are not originally from New York, where are you from originally?
FD: Well, I spent most of my childhood in the Midwest. I am originally from California, but I spent most of my growing up years in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
AG: OK. It seems like it would be impossible to move to New York and not have it have some kind of effect on you.
FD: Yeah, it was pretty scary. When I first moved here, I didn't know one person. I moved here to go to the School of Visual Arts and I was staying at the McBurney YMCA for the first week, when I lived here. It was pretty scary, it was like the scene in Big with Tom Hanks, when he was in that divey hotel and he turns off the TV and he still hears the gun shots and all the scary noises coming from the window.
AG: I am surprised that Pop Gun War is as sweet as it is, then. It has this real wistful quality to it. It doesn't seem -- to me, at least -- it doesn't seem to convey any of that scariness.
FD: Yeah, maybe it's like the idealized version of New York to me. The 7:00 in the morning, walking down the street and no one is out version of it. Rather than, like, the 5:00 PM, everyone is on the street, getting in your way, yelling at you and blasting their horrible noises in your ear version.
AG: Right. So, you mentioned that you studied fine art -
FD: No, actually it was illustration. I went to the School of Visual Arts, I was in the illustration department.
AG: OK.
FD: They have a cartooning/illustration department and I took more illustration classes. There were a couple of cartoon classes I took.
AG: I was just wondering at what point you decided that comics was what you wanted to be doing.
FD: Well, I kind of always wanted to do them, ever since I was a little kid. It was like a childhood dream, and I think by the time I went to art school I wasn't sure what I wanted to do. Actually I remember before I came to SVA, I was considering going into the fine art department, but I decided to do illustration because I figured I could still do fine art whenever I wanted to. But I think by the time I got done with school, I just hated illustration so much -- I just felt like I wasn't capable of doing it or something, and all I wanted to do was draw comics all the time. I studied with Walt Simonson, he was one of my teachers, and I just really enjoyed the whole process of making comics and it seemed like doing illustrations was always a challenge for me. So by the time I graduated I just said, "You know what? I am going to give this comic thing a shot."
AG: Right.
FD: And maybe someday I will do the illustration thing. If I ever get inspired.
AG: So you said you have known that you wanted to do comics ever since you were a kid -- what kind of comics were you reading then? What do you see as influences?
FD: Oh, when I was younger, I was totally into Marvel stuff. It's all I ever read. You know, guys like John Buscema were like a big influence on me. I still have a copy of the How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way, you know. It's all worn out and falling apart. When I got a little older, I stopped reading comics pretty much altogether. I still read them occasionally, but I'd stopped buying them. And then when I went to SVA I kind of got back into them. I'd pick up issues occasionally. Then, when I started doing my own comics, I became a lot more aware of all those guys out there that I like a lot right now.
AG: Who are you reading right now?
FD: Craig Thompson is good and I like Mike Mignola's stuff, and Paul Pope and -- there is this French guy I like a lot, Nicholas De Crecy. And Sergio Topi is an Italian artist I really like, and a South American artist, he just died recently, his name is Jorge Zafino. I think I mentioned him in issue 5 of Pop Gun War. I like Moebius' stuff a lot. Dave Cooper's stuff. There's a bunch of other guys, I can't really think of them right now.
AG: OK. You mentioned Dostoevsky, earlier. Are there other influences outside comics that you pull into Pop Gun War?
FD: Oh yeah. Like, I am influenced a lot by movies. You know, guys like Terry Gilliam, David Lynch. I like their stuff a lot. And Orson Welles. As far as books go, I'd say The Brothers Karamazov was a big influence, and a lot of Herman Melville. Actually, I got the title Pop Gun War from a Herman Melville book.
AG: Which novel?
FD: It was in his first book, called Tippee. It was more like an adventure kind of thing. A bit more readable than Moby Dick. But there is so much more meat in Moby Dick than in Tippee. But it's this story about this guy -- he and a shipmate jump ship, they end up with these natives on this island. His friend escapes, but he is held prisoner by these natives; they're really nice to him, and they treat him well, but they won't let him leave. And he makes a popgun for one of the guys there, and pretty soon everyone in the village wants one. They are really impressed by this. And so he says, all day long, he could hear the sound of their pop gun war. And I was like, "Oh, Pop Gun War. I like that. I should use that somewhere," and I ended up using it as the title of my series.
AG: Right.
FD: And no one has ever - I figured some one would email me about it, like, "Oh, I know where you got that name!" But no one has yet.
James Joyce was another guy that was a big influence. I read Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man like around the time I was doing the first book I did.
AG: Its interesting that you bring up Joyce because like a lot of his work is allegorical.
FD: Yeah.
AG: And I don't know if Pop Gun War is allegorical, but it feels that way.
FD: Yeah.
AG: Do the characters and the situations in the book have bigger meanings for you, or is it more organic than that?
FD: Yeah, I'd say it is more organic. 'Cause I like that. That's the kind of thing I am always drawn to. Like, it might have a meaning but might it not. A you have to figure it out kind of thing. Kind of the way the movie Mulholland Drive was. David Lynch says a lot of times his stuff doesn't really mean anything. And you kind of have to like, take them at face value. But, I mean, it still may mean something to him, but maybe he doesn't know it. I don't know. Maybe that is the way it is for me. My brother-in-law and my sister have told me that my comics are prophetic. They are pretty religious and they are like, "Oh, yeah, you are pretty prophetic!" And I am like -- I don't know what that means, but thanks, I guess. That sounds pretty cool.
AG: That is an interesting thing for people to say. OK. You published the regular series through Absence of Ink. So, what led you to publish the collection with Dark Horse?
FD: I think it's because Dark Horse is better equipped to handle the -- as a bigger company they have more resources to handle distribution and promotion and things like that. And Diana Schutz has given me some work in the Happy Endings book and in Grendel: Red, White, and Black. I talked with Ed Irving, the publisher of Absence of Ink, and he actually suggested that I look around to get someone else to publish the trade. And I said, "Well, I know Diana so maybe Dark Horse would be interested in publishing it." And luckily for me, they were.
AG: Excellent. How has the experience been so far?
FD: Great, like really good. Diana's like one of the coolest people I've met in the comics business.
AG: Yeah. She lives and breathes comics. She's great.
FD: Yeah, she really knows what she's talking about and she is the one that recommended that I do the six by nine format, and she has been a great help with everything and really fun.
AG: And it must be nice knowing that a collection is coming out. It seems so much more permanent than - you know - having a monthly comic that sits on the shelves for a few months and then disappears.
FD: Yeah, exactly.
AG: So, besides Pop Gun War, you mentioned Grendel Red, White, and Black, and the Happy Endings book. Your work shows up in other anthologies, doesn't it?
FD: Um, yeah. I helped co-found and edited the first few issues of the anthology Meathaus, which I do with a lot of other SVA guys and some other cartoonists from around the country. I still contribute to it and I am kind of taking a more active role in it again. We're trying to get issue 7 finished right now. There was a big gap between the last few issues. Yeah, that's fun, too. It's really cool getting to hang out with all the fellow cartoonists here in New York, and to put this thing together. I think it's the only other anthology pending. As far as other work, I am doing a thing for DC coming up soon.
AG: Oh, what's that?
FD: It's called Caper. Judd Winick is writing it. I don't know how much I am supposed to talk about it. I don't know if they have set a release date and all that yet or anything. I just started drawing it. It should be pretty cool.
AG: So what's that experience like: drawing something someone else has written?
FD: It's kind of hard; harder than, you know, drawing my own stuff. I guess the only other time where I did it was the Grendel story. And Matt was a really cool guy but I just sort of -- I think in a way I just had to shift gears. Maybe it's because I am always second-guessing myself. Like, "What is this person intending when they wrote this?" You know? Like, what did they have in mind? Whereas, when I write my own stuff, I know exactly what I want. Like when I'm writing, I know how I want stuff to look. So it seems like there's almost an extra step involved there. And I am always trying to figure out exactly what they wanted from it. But you know, I mean, still, it was fun. Challenging in a good way. So I enjoyed it. I think that ideally I want to get to the point where I just write and draw my own stuff. It's a little more satisfying, I guess. There is something kind of fun, too, about collaborating with someone else. So, I guess it's just a different kind of thing.
AG: Yeah, cool. And so what is the future of Pop Gun War?
FD: Well, I have issue six written, I just have to find time to actually draw the thing. It's going to be, like, forty pages. It's a little bigger than the other issues. And it's going to feature just Emily, pretty much. She goes underground and finds this little underworld, kind of like a small town on the outskirts of the city somewhere. Kind of like my Alice in Wonderland type story. But, after that, I think I am just going to do more of the same. You know, Sinclair in the City, but who knows where it will go? I do it issue by issue, so its kind of hard for me to know -- I mean I have sort of a vague idea what the next issue after that is going to be like, but - it's really vague.
The Pop Gun War trade paperback, collecting issues #1-5 of Farel Dalrymple's Xeric-award winning series, will be in comics shops June 25.