New York City Comic Con may have happened close to a month ago but Multiversity Comics’s coverage of the East Coast’s largest comics and pop culture event is just getting going. Multiversity sent 14 of our staff to the event this year for interviews, panel reports, and more so expect lots more to come over the next few weeks. This way, even if you couldn’t make it yourself, you can still see the con through our eyes.
Terry Moore is a name that we here at Multiversity Comics like to mention a lot (or, more specifically, I like to mention a lot.) A long time B&W cartoonist and an early member of the self-publishing movement with “Strangers in Paradise,” his books are character explorations set against big genre stories that draw you in and hold on. Hot on the heels of his twenty-fifth anniversary celebration series, “Strangers in Paradise XXV,” Terry is hard at work on the crossover series between all his books’ characters, “Five Years.” And that’s what we’re here to chat about! Well, that and his lettering. And the wonderful, changing self-publishing landscape.
So you’ve been publishing on your own for 25 years?
Terry Moore: Yeah, exactly. We celebrated that 25 year mark, last year with a lot of special tchotchkes.
How’s the self publishing market changed, over the last 25 years or even over the last five to 10 years? You are one of the early adopters of the self publishing movement.
TM: Purists will say self-publishing started in the 70s with certain people. And then there was this “brat pack” that came along in the early 90s, and they were one year ahead of me, one or two years ahead of me. I wasn’t in that brat pack, I was the second generation of that. So I started ’93 and people already knew who Dave Sim, Jeff Smith, Neil Gaiman, who all those people were, Colleen Doran. That was the first wave. They opened the door, I came through it.
And it’s night and day since then, because everything was print. If you got a book, it’s because it was delivered to your town on a truck. It’s very old school, very 20th century. And now of course, it’s all different. I only have one print distributor, and that’s who trucks the books out to the comic shops. Everything else is digital. There’s an absolute convention center full of indie cartoonists, but I don’t know them all. So it’s not the type of plan that used to be for survival, now everybody’s kind of their own planet, and they have their own digital world and their own following. We’re all like individual little satellites now.
You’re still working black and white, with a high degree of detail. What are some of your tips and tricks? What have you found that you enjoy about producing the new stories?
TM: What drew me to comics, the “Peanuts” Christmas special when I was a kid. And what I took away from it was not the jokes, but the neighborhood. His neighborhood was better than mine. And I wanted to be there. So when I grew up and had my chance to draw my own stuff, I just wanted a place that I’d rather be than here. And I’ve met so many cartoonists who say the same thing. They’re trying to world build, basically. So when you see somebody with their own characters and stuff going on, that’s a place they want to be. Katie Cook has started her own series, “Nothing Special.” And it’s just some place I’m sure she loves. And you love the characters but they need to be somewhere. If you’re cartooning on one thing for a long time. It’s not just about that character, what they said today. It’s about that place, and what happens. And that’s what keeps me going. You never know what’s going to happen next.
Is that the impetus behind creating this art and making it a shared world between your works?
TM: Yes. Because I started off just focusing on my first series and their world. And I started the second series, and I realized, hey, this was probably happening at the same time in a different state in America. Why not? They needed something that somebody in the first series knew how to do. And so I had them make the phone call, and suddenly they’re talking to somebody from the first series. And I thought, well, of course, this all makes sense. It’s all one Terry-verse. And that’s not a new idea of course. I got it from Robert Heinlein. Robert Heinlein was a sci-fi writer from the 20th century and he got about halfway through all of his books, and decided they all were in one world. And he started connecting them through one common character, and it worked! The Heinlein-verse, it’s famous!
Continued belowSo I thought okay, Heinlein-verse, Terry-verse. So every book I’ve made after that has something in common with the first book. Now the thing I’m doing this year is zipping all those storylines together into one massive storyline, kinda like Stephen King’s Dark Tower. That’s what I’m doing. Everything I’ve ever referred to before, it can all connect on one big plotting map. It’s a crazy thing to try but so fun.
Would you say “Five Years” is more plot-intensive than your other books?
TM: Yeah, and it’s the ultimate of the world building. You built a bunch of little hamlets, now show the planet. It’s the ultimate big picture. And a lot of it is implied. There’s more there if you know the backstory of all these people, so you have to do all your reading. But making it all work is ambitious, and I’m not really a good chess master. I work more organically. I have a destination but crap happens along the way that I didn’t plan so it’s exciting for me. I’ve got to go back to work on Monday on the new issue and I’m really not quite sure exactly how it happens, you know? So that’s what keeps me going.
Were there any events so far in “Five Years” already that have been moments like that, where like you got through the end of it, and I didn’t expect it to be in there?
TM: Yes. The issue I just put out, issue four, has Francine and Katchoo, who are my main two. . .they have a big moment. And Francine’s behavior is something I did not script. As I’m drawing it, I’m thinking about her and I’m thinking, now that I think about it, she would say this, she would act like this, she feels like this. And I didn’t plan that ahead like a cold-hearted writer. I just felt it as I’m drawing it and I put it in there. And then when you read it back, you go, oh, yeah, that works. It’s like actors improv, and then they nail it.
I wanted to focus on a little bit of your lettering, because you have such a distinctive and beautiful style. It really helps bring the worlds to life. So, how do you normally letter your comics?
TM: I letter them like it’s 1951. I get out a ruler and blue line it and do it by hand on the page. Because I love that so much as a kid, reading MAD magazine, and all those guys from the 50s and 60s. I just thought it was so cool. I remember seeing art from “Eerie Comics” in the 70s, and I saw a couple of pages of “Little Annie Fanny” from Playboy, and they were old school. The letters were on the page and everything. I just thought that’s how you do cartooning. And everybody in the 90s got their fonts made and did that. I just stuck with what I did, because I like to stretch the lettering however I want at the moment to be very expressive, and not have to rely on Photoshop or InDesign or whatever. So my lettering is part of the art to me. It can be very expressive.
At one point I decided I wanted you to know who was talking off panel, whether it was the male character or female character, so I started switching balloons to be male or female. And then when society got more fluid, people get the balloon they want. It’s just one of the things I never talked about or mentioned, but you pick up on it after a while. Hopefully it’s a modern way of doing that. It’s very timely and respectful.
Would you say that’s the power of lettering?
TM: There is some power to it, because obviously, it’s not just what the words are saying, the literary aspect of it, which better be good. But it’s how you present it, and how you present it is part of the visual impact. The power of the comic book is that you can leave that page on the table, and if you like it, that quality is appreciated immediately on sight all day long, as long as it is in sight. If you hate it, it’s offensive all day long, as long as it’s on the table face up. And so that’s a tremendous power that the cartoonist has to immediately impress you with something appealing or disgusting and between those two is your story.
Continued belowSo “Five Years” is slated to be 10 issues.
TM: Yeah, it was, but I’m working too slow for that. I’m five issues in, and I just now got everybody positioned.
It’s looking to be a little bit longer?
TM: Yeah, if this was a chess game, I’m only five moves in. I’m drawing the new comic and. . .it’s only a 19 page story, each comic, and I’ve spent 10 pages just on one character. Which is not really the Marvel way, but it plays so well that way. The timing and the pacing of the scene really works because I gave it time to work. So I don’t know how to work fast and choppy.
You’ve established a tone for your world, a very character focused one that’s a little bit slower. But when you get through it, it’s fulfilling.
TM: I’ve always had an attitude of “the more you know, the more you care.” So it’s about the characters, not the plot. And that’s really opposite of so many comic book success stories. People who have great plots are far more successful than me. But I’m more interested in: if the world blows up, what about the people feeling? Pick one. What about Joe? How was his day? How did he manage? So I stick with Joe, and I’ll let somebody else describe everything else that happened.
Do you prefer shorter stories as a reader, and do you prefer shorter stories as a creator?
TM: Shorter, as in what way?
As in number of issues. Because “Strangers in Paradise” had across three volumes, close to 100 issues. But your more recent projects, “Motor Girl,” “Strangers in Paradise XXV,” and the original length of “Five Years” were all 10 issues.
TM: The answer is very down to earth. That’s due to trade waiting. When I did “Strangers in Paradise,” people bought single issues. I was able to continue to do the series a long time and make a living. But now people trade wait and they don’t support the single issues. So I can’t make a living unless I keep launching a new series every year. So I can launch a new series and I get a lot of support in the beginning, and then the retailers order less and less and less real fast, because people may read the first issue or so check it out like okay, this is good, I’ll wait for the trade. . . And then I’m left on my own for the rest of the year to die and suffer. And they hope that the trade is going to be there, show up in December. But I don’t know how to get to December without income.
What I’ve learned is to work shorter and shorter periods. “Motor Girl” and “Strangers in Paradise XXV” were both one year long each and that just made it. I just made it out of the year, made it work and now I’ve got the same thing with “Five Years.” It seems like the more successful a series is, the more people decide to trade wait. I got terrific reviews on “Rachel Rising,” my dream come true in terms of reviews. And the numbers just weren’t there, because people said, great, I can’t wait for the trade. And it’s a different world on the trade. A lot of people who live on trades only, they have another job like, oh, I’m also an art designer, or I’m working at ad agency or something. I’m a full time cartoonist so I have to figure out a way to navigate. And thank God for digital, that helps. Thank God for conventions. I can come here, that helps.
Do you think libraries could also be a big part of that?
TM: Libraries are very helpful actually, because they put out great reviews. They read everything. Every librarian really loves books. They’re actually at the front of the process. They see stuff first, write about it. The New York Times book list pays attention to librarians’s web pages and reviews. So it trickles down from the librarians, actually. All the interest in a book’s life and all that. It starts with the librarians. It doesn’t end at the library. It starts with with the librarians.
Continued belowI am a librarian.
TM: So you know that!
I know!
TM: Yeah, the networking is incredible. Everybody actually reads each other’s blogs and reviews. And we spent five years on the ALA circuit. And we did it firsthand, and they all know the book. You talk to one head librarian of a city metroplex, and you’ve got orders into 30 libraries. So it’s just a terrific networking, terrific waterfall effect. They’re my heroes, actually.
That’s awesome. I don’t think librarians often get their due.
TM: Anybody who knows how it works, loves libraries. I guarantee you, people like Neil Gaiman love librarians.
Thanks again to Terry for taking time out of his convention to have a chat! “Five Years” #5, and the rest of the series thus far, is on sale now at your local comic store, at his website, or digitally.
