Increasingly we’re seeing comic go the route of being digital first with a print collection later. We’ve seen MonkeyBrain books do it and now it looks like Comics Experience, already in a partnership with IDW, is getting into the digital game as well. As part of their digital first push, they rolled out a handful of titles, one of which is “Karma Police”, a book about a young monk who must deal with the repercussions of the events of a past life. It’s a book about the cycles of problems we often find ourselves in, but also includes some luchador demons with a seriously nasty piledriver.
Read on as we chat with the whole team of “Karma Police” – writer Chris Lewis, artist Tony Gregori, colorist Jasen Smith, and letterer Nic Shaw – about the book, Comics Experience, personal problem cycles, lettering, and much more. The first two issues on “Karma Police” can be bought on Comixology right now.
To start, what’s “Karma Police” for those that may not know?
Tony Gregori: Chris will probably have a much better answer, but simply, it’s a 4 issue series put out by Comics Experience Digital, about a young Buddhist monk coming to grips with her past life (lives), and dealing with the repercussions of it. To me, if I were to look deeper, it’s about breaking the destructive cycles we all find ourselves in. Especially violent ones. How does one defeat a violent evil without committing violence themselves? Which seems especially pertinent considering the current status of the world.
Chris Lewis: “Karma Police” is about a female buddhist monk named Jack, who has been trained to gentle remove from existence (ie. assassinate) those spirits which are causing extreme suffering in the world. Jack believes she is doing good, but when she learns that her previous incarnation might not have been as benevolent as she was taught, Jack starts to question her actions. Then she fights luchador demons.
OK, Tony is the new spokesperson for “Karma Police”. He described it waaay better, which doesn’t surprise me at all. From day 1 he just got the themes I wanted to explore, and focussed all of his passion and immense artistic talent into bringing them to life.
From what I understand, all the Comics Experience books have at least one creative member who was part of the Comics Experience classes. Which of you too the CE classes and how did you go about pitching the book to them?
CL: Yeah, not only does at least one member have to be part of the Comics Experience Creators Workshop, but that member’s contribution to the project (in my case the scripts) has to be posted on the forums for critique. I’ve been a part of CE since 2010, and “Karma Police” is one of the first scripts I posted. It was a completely different beast back then, but I kept coming back to it and finally got it to a place that I was happy with. The other members of CE have seen it in all its many incarnations. Only by writing that do I realize that the creation of KP has a lot of similarities to the content. Lots of death by cutting. Very Meta.
After releasing “Drones” through the Comics Experience / IDW publishing alliance, I was really looking forward to working with CE again on a new project. So when Andy Schmidt, president of CE, started up the digital line, I was emailing with him the very next day. They have a rolling submission process, so members can submit at any time.
Nic Shaw: an alumni of CE, I took the intro to writing course with Andy Schmidt, and spent a good two years on the boards. I owe a lot to the team at CE and the folks on the boards.
What attracted each of you to the project? What made “Karma Police” something worth working on?
Jasen Smith: First, it’s that I get to work with Tony Gregori again. We really work together on establishing a style for the story. Not every artist does this but Tony really likes to push me in different directions to accommodate the story. – JS
Continued belowTG: Chris had reached out to me through the interwebs, and we connected. He is one of the most genuinely kind and generous dudes I’ve met in comics. He didn’t mention “Karma Police to me, but he sent me a pdf of “Drones”, his series put out through IDW. I loved it thoroughly, his mix of surrealism and humor really spoke to my sensibilities. I also appreciate the political statement of the book. Humor and politics aren’t easy subjects to tackle, especially in comics. But I felt like he handled them deftly. Later on, after we missed each other at ECCC that year, he approached me about KP, and he kinda had me at the title. I’m a HUGE Radiohead fan. Then I read the script and I was all in! The mix of Buddhist imagery/mythology with Looney Tunes-esque humor really captured my imagination, and I was committed at that point.
CL: It’s obvious why I love these guys.
NS: I’ll always have time to work with Chris, he’s generous, open to critique and suggestions, and he’s also the cuddliest guy I know. I’d never NOT work with him.
Tony and Jasen, I think the combo of your art and colors really work well in the book. How did the two of you settle on the style and palette? How much back and forth was there during the art/color stages?
JS: There was a lot of back and forth in the beginning. We were going with a completely different approach. Something that was more texture heavy, but after we got the first issue finished I think we needed to go about it a different way. So I went back and recolored issue 1. Since then, everything really just flowed together better.
TG: Thanks for the compliment! Jasen and I have been working together for a while on a bunch of different projects, all kinds of genres, and we’ve developed a close friendship. That helps us figure things out pretty quickly. Jasen has fantastic instincts, and is a workhorse. On KP, we had heavily textured approach initially, but Chris and I got some advice from Sarah Gaydos (IDW) at ECCC, she mentioned that she’d like to see it colored in a more simply, almost cell-shaded, style. So we brought that advice to Jasen and he basically took off from there. Jasen and I work pretty closely on things. if he has a question I’m always available to him, and vice-versa. As far as the art style goes, I think I have a specific style, for better or worse, that kind of evolves to suit every project I work on. “Karma” Police came real natural and easy, and I think it developed a more cartoony vibe as it went. I hope it meshes well with the fantastical stuff that resides in issues 2-4. -TG
JS: Tony is like my big brother and I just tag along for the ride whether he likes it or not.
Nic, as a letterer, do you have a few fonts that are your mainstays, or do you try to tailor the choice to the book? What approach did you go for with “Karma Police”?
NS: I don’t have any fonts that I’d consider a “mainstay” — my job as a letterer is to tailor my work to the art I’m working on. For KP I used a font that’s based on Dave Gibbons hand lettering; it was created by the Talented Type Titans over at Comicraft.
With KP, I wanted to create balloons that could be tweaked to any shape and still feel as though they were coming from the same hand. Chris is a wordy writer; I often had large amounts of dialogue to fit into small spaces. This leads to a lot of butting and masking of balloons, which lends itself to a ‘classic’ hand-drawn style. Dave’s hand-lettered type is perfect for this.
I love the challenge of working with a team like this. A beautifully detailed artist, and a wordy writer make my job an exciting undertaking. It’s always a task, but I’m much prouder of completed pages.
TG: Nic’s work on the intro/inside cover pages are so beautiful. He has an amazing eye, a tremendous artist, his creativity is immense. Like his beard.
Continued belowCL: I would say that Nic is going places, but he’s already been there and back. See, I can be succinct!
“Karma Police” is part of the new digital push from Comics Experience. What advantages and/or disadvantages do you see a digital-first approach offering the book?
TG: I’m grateful to Andy Schmidt and Comics Experience for including us in their initial digital release, I didn’t attend CE classes but my interactions with them, specifically Nicole Boose, have been wonderful. I’d say an advantage to digital would be the immediacy of it, if someone comes across it online and is interested, in 1 minute they can own it.
That being said, like any other creator, I’d love to see the single issues in print. It does give it a bit of perceived legitimacy in the eyes of some readers. There’s nothing like the smell and feel of a floppy. But we will have a trade printed, with tons of material. It’ll include 88+ pages of story, all our covers, some process stuff, and pin-ups from our friends Leila del Duca, Jonathan Brandon Sawyer, Brian Level, and Jason Copland. It’ll be available to purchase online, and at Emerald City Comic Con. We’ll have it at our table in artist’s alley, with an overstocked inventory of German Gummy Bears.
CL: Comics Experience Digital is fantastic. It’s completely creator owned, with all profits going directly to the creators after Comixology takes their cut. In interview after interview, Andy stresses the importance of supporting new talent, and this is just one of the many ways he is doing that. Plus, with digital you avoid the long wait associated with the traditional publishing schedule. I deliver the files two weeks before the on-sale date, and before you know it the book is available. It’s a refreshing change of pace.
But, yeah, we’re excited for the trade as well. It appears I’ll be running a Kickstarter to make that happen, with the goal of having the book ready by ECCC. Lots of goodies in the tpb. And, yes, gummy bears at our table in Artist Alley.
JS: For me, personally, I haven’t bought a printed comic book in years unless it’s a trade. I like being able to read a full story or a large chunk of it in one sitting. Plus with “Karma” Police you get more when you get the trade.
Wait, you guys are going to have German Gummy Bears?
Chris and Nic, the two of you said you’d both taken CE classes. What do you feel they offer students? It’s always seemed an interesting concept, an online class that helps people learn to make comics.
CL: Yeah, I’ve taken the Intro to Comic Book Writing course as well as the Advanced course. In the Intro course you learn to build an idea up from a sentence to a 5-page short story, with a beginning, middle, and end. Andy covers all the basics, from story structure to panel descriptions, formatting to dialogue, you name it. I’m not sure how he does it now, but when I took the course we went in steps where we had a sentence at the end of day 1, which we then expanded into a one page synopsis, then a page-by-page synopsis, then a panel-by-panel breakdown etc., until we had a completed story. Throughout the process the entire class is critiquing each other’s work, and at the end, Andy, a former editor at Marvel and IDW, gave us detailed notes on where we could improve, and a TON of encouragement to keep going. The Advanced course builds on the knowledge learned in the Intro course, with the end result being a 4-issue mini-series instead of a short story.
Then there’s the Creators Workshop, which is where you’ll find every topic imaginable related to the industry, plus a bunch of pros throwing around mad knowledge that you’re not going to find anywhere else. I mean, Fred Van Lente is walking us through his writing process right now. Dude is a genius!
NS: Like Chris, I took the Intro to Comic Book Writing. Looking back, I wish I had’ve taken the chance to learn how to letter from Dave Sharpe too. I think I’d be much further in my lettering career if I had’ve studied with Dave.
Continued belowI spent most of my time in the Creator’s Workshop; workshopping stories, discussing comics, critiquing work, it’s a fantastic place with a great group of people. You really don’t know what how much of a wonderful resource it is until you jump in. But like I said previously, I owe a whole lot to Andy and Co.
I think Jack’s story is interesting because she’s left to deal with decisions that she played no real part in, things that happened before she was even born. How does a young person like herself react to having the responsibility and burden thrust upon her?
CL: When you’re faced with a mystical dagger, a murderous past, realms beyond space and time, and spirit strip clubs, you’ve really got to step up to the plate. It sounds weird to say it, but I’m proud of the manner in which Jack deals with all of her problems. She definitely grows over the course of the story, and it was really interesting watching her try to come to terms with her past, as she’s moving forward with her new responsibilities.
TG: I don’t want to give away any of the story, but I will say she comes to a fork in the road and has to make a difficult decision.
In a general sense, I believe that having compassion is key. Compassion for others, and for one’s self. Like anyone else, I’ve been through quite a lot in my life, pain, loss, etc. and some of it was self-inflicted. And some of it I inflicted on others. I’m still learning how to forgive myself, and that definitely helps me apply that compassion to others.
JS: She took it better than Frodo did with his burden. For me, I never like to spoil an entire story, so I didn’t know what was going to happen until it happened. While I’m working, I’m not really taking in the story, I take in the mood based on what’s happening on the panel or what’s being said. But at the time I’m working on the page I’m not taking in the whole story, not until I reach the end of the book and look back at all the pages.
Without spoiling anything, I like how she grows into her own and how she is a gender neutral character because of her upbringing.
