Multiversity Comics Presents: John Layman

Besides beets.

It’s an incredible comic that is hilarious and shocking, and it only gets better on a monthly basis. Check out the interview after the jump.

We normally start our interviews with a line from Warren Ellis from Come In Alone, he always asks creators, “Why comics?” So, why comics?

JL: I tried prose in college and it was too slow. I didn’t like really it. The only thing I ever wanted to do my whole life was comics. By my whole life I mean like age eight or ten. That never wavered. It just took me decades and decades. I’m not sure why comics as far as I know, there’s been no other choice.

I totally understand that. Do you have any recommendations for a writer whose trying to get their start.

JL: Yeah, don’t do it.

(Laughter) That is an original answer I like it.

JL: I’ve been trying to do comics since 1995 and now I’ve got a comic that some people care about and that makes it a hit. It’s been a long road and you better freakin’ love comics. It takes awhile.

Before we get into Chew we had a question that had to do with stuff you’ve done before. One of our favorite comics is Planetary. You edited some issues for that series. How was it working on such a prolific title? How did Ellis’ scripts and writing affect your writing style?

JL: I have to say Warren Ellis is my favorite comic book writer. Other than maybe Alan Moore. But I haven’t seen Alan Moore’s scripts month after month like I have with Warren Ellis. I would like to say Ellis’ scripts have influenced me but his scripts are very short and very concise and not work wasted. I just ramble and talk about Star Wars and I just go off on tangents.

With Planetary I was just a traffic cop. That was all Warren Ellis. I just got the pages and maybe I caught a couple typos but I just made sure everything moved smoothly. I was a traffic cop and happy to be a traffic cop. It’s one of the greatest series of all time.

You have full agreement here from us. We absolutely love that series.

Going to Chew and your own material. How exactly did you come up with the concept of Chew. What was your inspiration for the series?

JL: No idea. Everyone always asks me that and I can’t remember. Chew’s kind of wide. There’s the food stuff, the bird flu stuff and the cannibal cop stuff. It’s all different. I had all these different kinds of things and food unifies it. So why don’t I make it about food? So the hook was cannibal cop and the backdrop was bird flu and the rest of it is different. I wish I had a great story for this but I have no idea where it came from. I had been developing this for so long that that’s the one question I can’t answer.

Yeah, you just have to ask because it’s such a high concept.

JL: I do have other books I wrote where if you asked how did this happen, BOOM, I could tell you. But this I have no idea.

So we’ve gotta ask. Why beets? Why can’t he get a read on beets?

JL: Originally, I just needed to pick something semi gross. I know a lot of people don’t like it. I’m ok with it. Like some people are ambivalent and some people hate it. Hmmm…beets you know? It’s one or the other. No one loves beets. Everyone’s either like, “Yeah I’ll eat it with an occasional milk.” or they hate it. Also, it’s blood colored and I thought, well visually I can do some cool (sets? not sure here) with beets. It’s like one of those synchronous events where it has come to play a role that it never was intended to when I first started if that makes sense. So now I have an answer but the truth is it’s blood colored and I pulled it out of my butt.

So you ended up selling Image on printing the comic. How did you end up with Image? What was the path of the comic?

JL: Well, I thought it would be a Vertigo thing first. I tried pitching it to a lot of Vertigo editors. Then I kinda knew what I wanted and part of me knew that the trade off with Vertigo is you get the money first. You know, you get a page rate.

They would hire a Vertigo artist and I knew I kinda wanted it cartoony, light and funny. Because I didn’t want to read gross stuff. I like humor and you need a certain artist to pull the humor off. So I knew I wanted some like Rob (Guillory) and it took me awhile to find him.

I actually had the thumbs up from Image before I found Rob. They basically said we like the concept so find the right artist and do it. So I did.

So how exactly did you hook up with Rob?

Typically, from what we understand, you need finished pages to get a publisher to sign off. Did Image sign off before?

JL: That’s the typical thing. I’ve been in comics since 95′ and I’ve worked for every company there is except for Dark house and DC proper and you know, you know people. And originally I had called Eric Stevenson from Image and said, “Hey I’ve been looking for artists for this book”. You know I ended up pitching it and he said, “Wow, that book sounds cool. Find the right artist”. That’s only cause I’ve known Eric for like, you know, a decade or more. I mean I went through the back door and I didn’t mean to. It was never really a pitch and it just sort of happened.

You said it yourself, that it’s about a cannibal cop, it’s about bird flu, it’s about a lot of high concept and outlandish things. What was the initial pitch like? Was it interesting to pitch it for the first time? Was it difficult to present it correctly?

JL: Well, I tend to undersell myself. There’s a lot of people who were like, “What are you working on?” and I was like, “This dumb book that’ll never sell with this cannibal and bird flu and all these weird food things”. Most of my friends would just pat me on the back and be like well good luck and I probably should have sold it a little harder.

Well apparently it worked out pretty well.

JL: Yeah.

I guess that ties into the next question. What was your reaction, I mean you go everywhere IGN, MTV Splashpage, Newsarama, Comic Book Resources and all the big guys are just completely in love with Chew. Has the intensely positive reaction surprised you at all? I mean what’s that been like?

JL: Oh yeah, it completely freaked me out. There was a hurdle I sorta had to overcome. Probably issues seven through nine was when I was really scared and like second guessing myself. Like this stupid thing is a hit and it wasn’t supposed to be and you know what do I do and what do I do with people about to turn on me. It didn’t help that issues six through ten was a really difficult story to write. Just going back to where did your idea come from. One of the ideas I had was I want to write this big story about a new fruit that was found on an island.

That became the second arc. Part of me’s like I take this character that people like and I take him away from his supporting cast and put him on an island for five issues. Is that a smart thing to do? That’s a stupid thing to do. You know, am I going to lose my audience? I was second-guessing myself and getting very panicky but it was the story I had to write.

That one had been there for so long. The hardest parts were seven through nine and now I just wrote issue fifteen and I’m just really happy. I’m just enjoying it and I think it’s really great.

Well if the second arc was what you were worried about loved the first arc but the second arc has just blown me away. It’s so entertaining and it’s just fantastic.

JL: I appreciate that but six through ten is scary because it’s a little more linear. You know, its on an island where the other one was more short stories. Does that make sense?

Yeah, it actually ties into the next question because our EIC for Multiversity was wondering, Chew kinda reads very episodic but it’s still serialized and there’s self-contained stories that tie to a central narrative. Is that a formula you’re trying to follow? Is it difficult for you to maintain and why did you take the book in that direction?

JL: You know, I just want you to not wait for the trade. I want to give you your moneys worth per month and to the point and to make it exciting and unpredictable enough that you want to buy floppies or the monthlies or whatever it’s called. Then want the trades for your bookcase.

I have become a trade waiter and this is what it would take for me to buy floppies that I read. So that’s what I wanted to do.

That makes sense. So much of the industry has moved toward trade waiting. So we appreciate that as fans.

Going into more of the details of the characters and everything. Two of our favorite characters, Tony obviously, and Agent Savoy were there any inspirations for the two of them?

JL: Tony is based on a guy I know named Tony. He’s this very subdued and quiet guy. Once you get to know him you want to know if he’s just seething with anger and I basically made Tony Chu based on that. Tony is a powder keg. He’s kinda like Seinfeld in that Seinfeld’s supporting cast was much funnier than him and he’s the reactor to all that. So making Tony kinda swear and not fun and a guy who’s gonna get pissed really easy makes it easy to have someone like Kolby who pushes his buttons al the time. It’s fun to torture Tony Chu.

What about Savoy?

JL: Savoy was supposed to be just a kind of mentor slash blowhard figure and I did sorta say he should be Orson Wells and his bombast. Walks around with his chest out being the boss of things. A lot of it was Rob’s design just bringing the character to life. The writing became the design and the design became the writing. Rob and I are really in a great groove together.

One thing that I thought was interesting about those two characters in particular is that fact that they both share this gift. But Tony is a guy who chooses to eat as rarely as humanly possible and Savoy seems to be a type of man who still savors everything even though he has the same gift. How did you decide to do that? Just a contrast of the characters or what?

JL: Yeah, again what is unlike Tony Chu. We eat hamburgers. We know where they come from. We know it’s horrible and yet we still allow ourselves to enjoy it. The same thing times fifteen or twenty. He knows, he feels it, but fuck! Hamburger tastes good!

JL: I’ll tell you this. Everyone thought, when you read the first five issues, that number four was this weird throwaway that didn’t make sense and kind of sat outside the others. The odd thing is, in the big scheme of things, four is the most important issue of all. Issue four is the most important issue of the first five issues.

Alright, thank you for that. We’ll have to go back and take a look at issue four again.

In other interviews you’ve said you already have Chew’s ending planned. Does that still stand? Is that where you’re at?

JL: I don’t have it written but I know what will happen. I kinda always figure out my endings. Originally when I didn’t think the book was going to sell like when I thought it was just this weird book. I was like “okay I’ll do five issues with this artist Rob Guillory and a year from then I’ll make my money back”. I invested in this. Paid Rob with my own cash. After a year of all this I’ll hire a new artist then once we make our money back we’ll do another five issues. If I had the story to tell completely bare bones, as fast as possible, it would be twenty-five issues.

Now, I’ve kind of got the time to take my time with it. Superseded all expectations. Rob’s onboard. Rob wants to do the whole thing. So I figure Preacher, Y, Trasnmetropolitan, all these great books sixty seems to be the magic number. The books not to fat or padded or whatever and so, you know, we plan for sixty.

I’ve got about the first thirty issues planned out and then about the last ten. I told Rob, “Ok, when this character does this action we move into endgame and that will take us to the end”. But based on sales and everything I think we’re going to go sixty issues.

I’m sure it’s ramping up every month. It just seems like there’s a storm of people talking about it right now.

JL: I don’t know if it’s ramping up but we found our level and it’s a real nice level for an independent book. So, you know, we figure even if we were to lose thousands (of readers) all of a sudden cause they were trade waiting our numbers are healthy enough that I think we’ll be able to get to the end. Unless, we start sucking and it turns disastrous but I don’t think that’s going to happen.

With the second arc we’ve seen the concept brought to a whole new level, with Cyborg agents and things like that. Is that something we’ll see regularly? Will the concept continue to ramp up or has it reached it’s highest level already?

JL: There’s more weirdness to come but it’s not going to get like, suddenly I’m thinking quantum leap… but it’s not going to get any weirder. More weirdness will be doled out but it wont be incomprehensible.

As you were saying, when you guys originally planned, you could have done it in twenty-five issues. Now though that you know you can do sixty issues does that allow you more freedom as a writer to explore the world?

JL: Oh yes! Yes! I had a small cast and I can be like wow this character was a lot of fun in this issue and I want that person to come back and do this. Five months ago I had up through issue twenty planned and as I introduced characters the ideas are coming fast and furious and basically I have forty more issues to tell the rest of the story.

This is probably a long shot but did you find that the timing of swine flu paranoia…

JL: Yeah, swine flu helped us.

That’s what I thought. I was thinking about that today and it seems to pair perfectly with your story.

JL: Because I was pitching this thing, when I first came up with the Bird Flu aspect that was in 2001 or 2002 or something. You’d see people in Tokyo on a train with these masks, and the story came out of that. I took my time with it and by the time I pitched it, Bird Flu was completely old.

Then boom — all of these people were dying of Swine Flu, and what once sounded ludicrous, “oh they’re going to do Bird Flu prohibition”, suddenly in Egypt they kill 50,000 pigs because of Swine Flu. Suddenly, a few million people died…is it so outrageous that they would outlaw chicken? It was really fortuitous timing.

Sorry for anyone who died or was affected by that!

It really made Chew seem contemporary after it wasn’t for quite some time.

From the very beginning you said Robert Kirkman was a big inspiration for making Chew happen with his Kirkman Manifesto. Can you elaborate on that?

JL: It was less the manifesto than this book I worked on for Image called Puffed. Three issues, in and out, beginning, middle, end. I did it and the fourth month I did a book called Stay Puffed. There’s an art gallery in it called “Saddam Hussein’s Art Gallery” and in the pages is a spread of The Walking Dead. I did this four issue mini-series, it ended, it went nowhere, it was collected by IDW, and then Kirkman’s The Walking Dead got big.

Why did I do a four issue thing with an ending that everyone would forget about? People want, I don’t want to say a soap opera, but comics are serialized drama. Without a huge name, a short series isn’t going to get you anywhere. I thought I had to get a continuum series where people will care about the characters and what happens to them next. Kirkman did that at the same time I did Puffed.

It always reminded me, “Why didn’t I do a Walking Dead?” or Y (the Last Man) equivalent?

So I started polishing it up about the Kirkman Manifesto, where he said “guys write your own stuff because you’ll get more satisfaction out of that than anything. I’ve written Marvel stuff and there’s a big thrill because I’m putting words into Spider-Man’s mouth, or Daredevil or Wolverine. That’s awesome.

But it’s really awesome to have characters that you’ve created that people write you letters about and say “I really care about these characters and what happens to them next.” It’s a great feeling.

Another thing about Kirkman is he has Invincible and every once in a while other characters leak into it, like Astounding Wolf-Man joins in. Obviously we’d notice a zombie apocalypse in that world, but he’s created his own world. Do you ever think about making more titles to pair with Chew?

JL: No, I think it would only be interesting, I think it’s limited in scope. Chew can completely encapsulate that world without needing more.

That being said, I’ve written kind of far ahead, but issue 8 introduced Poyo, and he appears again in issue 12. I think if I was going to stand something out, I’d do a Poyo special.

Oh please god. Please do.

JL: You’ll see why with issue 12. Poyo is going to appear very infrequently but people will really like him a lot.

I have to admit; just looking at the cover I was immediately sold. If I was walking down the aisle and saw this cover with Poyo, “King of Cocks” on it, I’d probably be sold.

JL: I can’t believe we got that on the cover. It’s kind of obscene you know.

(laughs) More power to you. It’s awesome.

When you aren’t writing, what do you to do get your mind off cibopathic FDA Agents and fruit that taste like chicken.

JL: I build a lot of Legos. I have a LOT of Legos. You wouldn’t believe how many Legos I have. I play Warcraft. If I have time I play video games, I wrote this game Champions Online. I spent the last two and a half years to perfect that, and when I came back I needed to write something to show editors to get freelance work. Chew was supposed to be that comic book. It’s done so well I don’t need to call up editors and beg them for work.

Outside of your own work, is there anything you’ve been enjoying in particular in comics?

JL: I really love Eric Powell’s The Goon. I just have to say, I’m very inspired with his ability to make it very funny one minute and just turn tragic and ultra violent. I just love The Goon. I can’t say enough about it.

It’s also beautiful art. It’s breathtaking art.

I kind of wanted to avoid the hype of Scalped by Jason Aaron, but I finally picked up the first trade. I wasn’t saying I was avoiding Jason Aaron, I just don’t read a lot of Vertigo/DC books, and it was great. I immediately went and got four trades in a row, so I’ve been loving that recently.

I go in and out of superhero phases; I either read nothing or everything. I’m kind of more indie sensible lately.

Have you guys read Afrodisiac?

(David) No… (Brandon) YES! I have read it. They had a great quick view on ComiXology.

JL: It’s required reading. It’s beautiful and so wonderful.

Thanks to John Layman for participating in this interview. Look for more from this interview series and from John Layman in coming months from Multiversity.