DARK HORSE: So, to start off, why don't you tell us a little bit about Cud Comics? Is it just a continuation of the old Cud, or is it different?
TERRY LABAN: There'll be a lot of things readers of the old Cud will recognize, but most of it will be totally new. To begin with, instead of the long Bob Cudd story, there'll be a series of self-contained stories featuring Eno and Plum and their pals. It'll be kind of like Archie meets The Freak Brothers. At least that's how I'm describing it -- really, it's this sort of classic cartoon world where there's a continuing cast of characters who always behave the same way. Outrageous things happen, but in the end, we're always back where we started.
DH: How about the short pieces you used to do, like "Mickey Pimple," "Mucktuck Wolfsbreath," and "Hard Boiled Shaman"? Are you going to do things like that?
TL: Oh yeah! Each issue of Cud Comics will have a bunch of different stories in it. That's what makes it "cud" -- it's a mishmash of stuff.
DH: A lot of people are wondering about why you left Fantagraphics. Do you want to talk about that?
TL: Sure. Nothing bad happened -- Dark Horse just came to me with what seemed like a better deal, and I decided to give them a shot. I felt like I'd gotten as far as I could with Fantagraphics, and I was ready for a change. So we'll see how it goes -- I still have a good relationship with the folks there [at Fantagraphics], and they still carry all the stuff they've published of mine to date. Actually, they've been very supportive, which will probably surprise a lot of people.
DH: Is Cud Comics the only thing you're working on right now?
TL: Oh no. I've been doing a lot of writing this past year and a half. I wrote a six-issue Grendel Tales story arc, which will be coming out in December, just a month after the first issue of Cud. The art's by an English guy named Peter Doherty. It looks beautiful! I've also written the premiere story arc for The Dreaming, one of the series that's going to replace Sandman at Vertigo. The art for that is by Peter Snejbjerg, and it should be out next spring. Finally, I just signed a contract for a creator-owned miniseries with Vertigo, an action-adventure conspiracy opera called The Unseen Hand. There's other stuff happening too, but nothing firm enough to tell the world about.
DH: Wow! You've been busy! How can you do something like Cud, and then turn around and write a mainstream book like The Dreaming?
TL: They're not as far off as you'd think, at least not to me. Anyhow, the people who've asked me to do them did so because they liked what I was doing in Cud, so the last thing they want to do is try and make me write like someone else. If I thought they were going to do that, I wouldn't have taken the jobs! In the end, I've been really pleased with the way the stories have turned out.
DH: Anything else?
TL: I just wanna tell everyone again to check out Cud Comics. It'll make you laugh, freak you out, and blow your mind -- and then you'll want to read it again!