Q&A with IDW Publishing’s Chris Ryall

In his now-annual San Diego Comic-Con International recap for BOOKGASM, comic-book writer Joshua Jabcuga got IDW Publishing editor in chief and publisher Chris Ryall to reflect on his company’s announcements at the 40th convention.

BOOKGASM: Let’s start with your, ahem, pet project. There was a surprising amount of floor buzz for the announcement of your partnership with WEEKLY WORLD NEWS to bring Bat Boy and other denizens of the paper, like Ed Anger and Manigator to the world of comics. I know you’ve been a fan of these characters for a long time, but at what point did you sit down and say to yourself, “I can do something with these characters. Let’s go after the license and have some fun”?

RYALL: It really is something I’ve wanted to do for years, so the fact that it not only came together, but seemed to be met with initial enthusiasm when we announced it, is great. I think it took people by surprise, simply because the idea doesn’t come from movies, TV, books, or video games — all the usual places that lead to licensed comics.

But at the same time, the characters are so comic-ready, I’m surprised it never happened before. In point of fact, it sort of did happen before, in the pages of the paper itself, with great guys like Peter Bagge doing Bat Boy comic strips. Artists like Sergio Aragonés and John Byrne, and comic writers like Paul Kupperberg and Bob Greenberger also wrote for the paper, so comics and WWN has been linked for a while. But I’m still happy as can be that we were able to pull together an actual comic-book miniseries. The first of many, I hope.

So, yeah, for years, I’d been looking for a way to make this happen. It was really only when Neil McGinnis, the current WEEKLY WORLD NEWS CEO, was so open to us using not only Bat Boy, but also many other good WWN characters, that it started to go from just an idea to something that could actually work. Once I was granted the use of right-right-right-wing columnist Ed Anger, Manigator, Ph.D. Ape, UFO Alien, Lemmie the Lake Erie Serpent, Freeze-Dried Baby — all of these things — that the idea for sort of the polar opposite of Alan Moore’s erudite, literate LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN started to come together in my head.

And so far, writing this series has been the most fun I’ve ever had in comics. So hopefully that all translates when people actually see the comic in 2010.

BOOKGASM: At Comic-Con 2008, you and I briefly chatted before NEW YORK TIMES best-selling author Joe Hill’s panel for LOCKE & KEY. It was a nice turnout, and I got the sense that Joe was on the radar of some of the fans, but his popularity was mostly positive word of mouth, with room to grow. At the time, he still seemed like comics’ best-kept secret, but that the appreciation for his work — in particular, the hype — was about to explode off the charts. Judging by the autograph lines and panel attendance this year, there’s no doubt that comics readers have really embraced Joe’s — and artist Gabe Rodriguez’s — work. What a difference a year makes, huh?

RYALL: Joe might’ve been comics’ best-kept secret, but the passionate fan base for his books seem to have already been there for years. And this year was a nice extension of that, while also more of a coming-out party for comics readers. The Eisner nominations hopefully got some more people paying attention to the work he and Gabe are doing. The fervor for the book has sustained and grown because LOCKE & KEY has only gotten better and better, I think. So word of mouth seems to be attracting more readers, and the pretty much unanimously positive press the book’s gotten also makes a big difference.

At the same time, it’s still seen as a horror title from a smaller publisher — read: no superheroes — so there’s still quite a bit more audience we can reach. I think the February launch of Joe’s second novel, HORNS, will get even more people paying attention. But ultimately, what’s helped the book build and keep an audience is the fact that it’s just so damned good. And he really drew a nice crowd at the booth this year, as he did last year. So his fans are loyal and growing to legion.

BOOKGASM: On the topic of NEW YORK TIMES best-selling and critically acclaimed authors, I was thrilled to hear that Charlie Houston would be working on DEATHLOK for Marvel Comics. You’ve also got Max Brooks, who wrote the fantastic WORLD WAR Z, on tap to work on a G.I. JOE miniseries for you and IDW. Why does it seem that more “mainstream” authors are looking to dip their toes into the business of comics? Or would it be more appropriate to say that nothing has changed — it’s just the mainstream press and news outlets are more willing to provide coverage?

RYALL: You know, I’d actually love to see Charlie Huston write DEATHKLOK comics … but comics have always had a literary pedigree and guys who were more known for prose than comics writing them: Ray Bradbury for EC in the 1950s, Harlan Ellison writing AVENGERS and DAREDEVILin the ‘70s and ‘80s, and, hell, even Stephen King writing a bit for the HEROES FOR HOPE comic back in the 1980s, just to name a few. But I think we’re seeing much more of that now than before.

Whether it’s comics gaining mainstream acceptance like never before, or just the idea that comics provide a more immediate outlet for writers who typically release novels once a year at most, or just the fact that many of the big writers nowadays are our age and grew up reading the same comics and loving the same characters as us, I don’t know. It’s probably a combination of all those things. Whatever it is, I’m just happy to have guys who are such good storytellers wanting to tell comic-book stories.

BOOKGASM: There’s been a lot of rather amusing bickering among fans that Hollywood is co-opting “the Comic-Con experience,” especially this year with hordes of “Twi-hards” camping overnight for the TWILIGHT movie sequel panel. I agree with some of it, but then again, one could make a very strong case that all of this started with STAR WARS. As publisher and editor-in-chief of the third-largest comic-book company, what’s your take? Have you noticed any percentage of the “Twi-hards” looking to sample actual comic books, or are they destined to be comic-book virgins for life, there to catch a glimpse of movie stars, and that’s it? Until the TWILIGHT graphic novel is released, that is.

RYALL: It really was a noticeable thing this year. The crowd at the con on the day before and day of the TWILIGHT panel was so much more heavily skewed toward female fans than ever before. Which is great — I love anything that brings in a wider audience, and ideally, at a show like this, that audience who might only be drawn there by TWILIGHT will then see something else that catches their eye and gets them into comics. I don’t know if that happened this year to any big degree, but the exposure can’t hurt. I certainly see it as a good thing.

BOOKGASM: With all that said, it was refreshing that Darwyn Cooke’s brilliant THE HUNTER — based on Richard Stark’s novel — garnered much well-deserved praise at Comic-Con and from the mainstream press, sweetened by it debuting at No. 3 on the NEW YORK TIMES best seller list. Where do things go from here for Cooke and PARKER? How much of his beautiful work was Donald E. Westlake, aka Richard Stark, able to see before his passing last year?

RYALL: Westlake saw Darwyn’s initial artwork and plans for the book, and signed off on it based on that. So he did know what shape and form the book would take. But at the point Cooke had a big chunk of pages ready to show, Westlake headed out for a vacation over New Year’s, which is when he passed away, so he was, unfortunately, never able to see the pages themselves. That really struck Darwn hard, but I think the sheer adulation the book has received from Westlake’s family, his peers, critics and fans alike all demonstrate that Westlake would have loved what Cooke did with the book. As to where they go from here? They go to THE OUTFIT, Cooke’s second Parker graphic novel, due in late 2010. With more to follow.

BOOKGASM: So I hear some guy named Scott Tipton and you have co-written a book called COMIC BOOKS 101, which you promoted at the show. In the interest of full disclosure, I’m partial to the book, so why don’t I let you take over here? Tell us about the book.

RYALL: We launched the book a month before the con, and it was really gratifying to get it done and out there. We’d been shopping it for about five years or more, and working toward that point for a period prior to that. So by the time it finally released, it’d been maybe six to seven years of work. And well worth it, when all was said and done.

It’s essentially an overview and history of comics — the publishers, characters, creators and events that gave it life over the past 70-plus years. We were able to use 100-plus color images, and get contributions from folks like Stan Lee, Harlan Ellison, Joe Hill, Clive Barker, Mark Waid, Gene Simmons and many others, too. So it hopefully offers something for everyone, from new fans to longtime collectors. Which should tide people over until COMIC BOOKS 201, he said even more hopefully … —Joshua Jabcuga

Jabcuga is the author of SCARFACE: DEVIL IN DISGUISE and THE MUMMY: THE RISE & FALL OF XANGO’S AX. He writes a weekly column for Comics101.com.

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OTHER RECENT BOOKGASM AUTHOR INTERVIEWS:
• Q&A with CAPITOL REFLECTIONS’ Jonathan Javitt
• Q&A with SHADOWS IN THE MIST’s Brian Moreland
• Q&A with WORST NIGHTMARES’ Shane Briant