Starting out on Movie Poop Shoot, Chris Ryall has come a long way in a short space of time. His work on properties ranging from Shaun of the Dead to the upcoming Transformers Movie prequel has taken him from one side of the editor’s desk to the other and he has a unique insight into how a comic company works. We talked to him about his editorial approach, the lessons he feels IDW have learnt from Crossgen and Dreamwave and the really meaty issue, Zombies versus Robots.
How did you make the leap from Message Board poster to EIC?
I never posted at IDW’s message boards before coming here. Really, other than maintaining a presence at MoviePoopShoot.com, the site I ran for Kevin Smith for about four years, I wasn’t posting at comic book message boards. I mean, years before, I did, at Brian Bendis’ Jinxworld site, or at Steve Niles’ board on occasion, but there was no leap from posting on boards to coming here. It had more to do with me developing a friendship with Steve Niles and kicking around some projects together. When Jeff Mariotte decided to move on, Steve knew that what I was doing for Kevin’s site was very similar to what this position entailed in a lot of ways, so he called and asked if I’d be interested in the job.
Of course, the position itself sounded great—it was more a matter of, was I ready to consider a move from Los Angeles to San Diego (assuming IDW offered me the job). My wife was all for it, and much like when Rocky finally gets Adrian’s blessing to “win” in Rocky 2, it made it so much easier to consider knowing that she was behind me.
How do you juggle so many different roles at IDW?
It’s what I love to do, so it becomes less about juggling than it is about me just opting to watch less TV or go out less or any of the other things you inevitably have less time for when your nights are spent on these sorts of things. But writing comics was always something I wanted to be doing, so it was just a matter of doing the job during the day, writing at night, and then squeezing in a little time for the wife (and baby now), too. I’ve always either worked two jobs or written on an extracurricular basis (for magazines or newspapers or Web sites), so really, I’ve gotten used to less sleep and more juggling of assignments. Although, with an infant daughter, I appreciate sleep much more than I used to.
Are you ever worried that you are too “hands-on” for IDW, or do you think that is a strength?
Well, I personally feel it’s a strength (since it’s me and all), and I’m not sure I’d know how to do less. We’re a very small company that puts out 20-25 books a month, so just by necessity, I’m very involved in most every project we do. And beyond just the sheer work, well, I grew up reading Stan Lee’s comics, and the one thing I always loved about Marvel’s ‘70s comics, and then later comics that Mike Gold put out, was the fact that they made the readers feel involved and a part of things. Doing letters pages is something that IDW hadn’t really done before, and I wanted to bring those back the best I could, and just try to give a little personality to the company. I always liked their books before I joined up, but the one thing I could never get a handle on was who they were. I’m sure that doesn’t matter to a lot of people, as long as the books were good. But it always mattered to me, and I also always like talking to and engaging the fans as best I can. So like I say, I don’t know if it drives other people crazy—I certainly make sure not to be one of those “in your face” types—but it’s my way of trying to really contribute to an industry that gave me so much enjoyment for so long.
When it comes to writing comics for us, I tend to tackle things that either just make the most sense for us to do in-house, or things I really feel strongly about, but I certainly don’t ever write anything to take work away from anyone else.
What lessons has IDW learnt from Dreamwave and CrossGen?
Honestly, nothing—we had a sound plan in place from the start, and have always watched our overhead, kept spending down, paid our talent on a timely basis… I never worked for either place, so all I know about them is what I hear or read. I just know they had their own way of operating, and we have ours. And so far, for about six years now, it’s worked for us.
What do you see as IDWs aim in the comics field, is being non-superhero and producing licenced comics the whole picture?
Not the whole picture, as evidenced by things like our Dick Tracy reprints or GrimJack and Jon Sable collections and successes of creator-owned books like 30 Days of Night and (I hope, I hope) Zombies Vs. Robots. But we did make a conscious effort to avoid superhero books, because that area’s very solidly covered by folks who do them better than we ever could. Our aim is mostly just to offer an alternative to superhero books. If you want something more than those, and like either horror comics or comics featuring a favorite TV show or movie characters, or comics based on videogames, well, we try to offer you something good in those areas. And we try to give you the best production values in the business at the same time.
When did you start wanting to write comic books?
Probably as soon as I read ‘em as a 5-year-old. But I entertained serious notions of doing so maybe 5-10 years ago, after I’d established some writing credentials in very different arenas (corporate speechwriting, TV proposal writing, ad copywriting).
What’s your favourite comic?
It’s so hard to say currently since I look at things so differently now than before joining the business. But the guy whose books I respond to in the most “fan-like” way now is Brian K. Vaughn. Between Ex Machina, Y, Runaways, The Escapist, his amazing Baghdad graphic novel, and even Doctor Strange, he just doesn’t really miss, does he? There’s just a lot of great comics right now, though, so I’m always reticent to name any names, for fear of leaving off another dozen great creators. That’s one great thing about this job, is getting to know and work with so many talented people, although my wish list of people to still work with is always growing, too.
You have written a number of film adaptations for IDW, how much work really goes into such books compared to developing a story and script from scratch?
An amazing amount, to be honest. It does depend on the project—with something like Shaun of the Dead, where the movie already existed, it was more a matter of hitting all the good beats of the movie in the comic (which was also a challenge, since it’s such a wordy movie). Land of the Dead, we produced the comic before the movie was finished, so that one was tricky. And I have never, ever written anything as labor-intensive as the adaptation of Clive Barker’s The Great and Secret Show. I swear, I wrote all of Zombies Vs. Robots in the time it takes me to do five pages of that comic. With novels, it’s an entirely different game from doing a movie. In fact, it feels a lot like an adapted screenplay, only we have to also cast the characters and direct the scenes, in addition to molding an 800-page book into twelve 22-page comics. It’s been an immense, and really rewarding, project. Of a very different nature are the stories I’ve done for Doomed magazine—those are adaptations of prose stories, too, but in the case of that mag, the tone we wanted was that of the old Creepy or Eerie magazines. Which meant fleshing out short stories in some cases, or condensing others (and yes, I’m extremely aware of the nerve it takes to “edit” a Clive Barker or Richard Matheson. It caused me great pain at first, like, “who the hell am I to change their words or their story?” But I also realize each medium requires something different when it comes to telling the most effective story. And since the first Doomed story I did got an Eisner nomination (thanks largely to Ash Wood’s amazing art), it at least made me think I’d treated their work reverentially. That was certainy my goal.
On the upcoming Transformers Movie Prequel, that one’s not any kind of adaptation, but it did have to start with the movie itself, and then I sort of worked backwards, figuring out what I wanted to do, where the story would go, and then what we’d be allowed to do (surprisingly, an awful lot). So each one brings their own unique challenges.
Which lucky editors get to cover the Editor in Chiefs books, and do they fear for their lives?
Well, we all give every book a once-over here, but I’ll admit that my books are pretty well handled by me from top to bottom (so, you know, if anything comes off badly, I suppose I can only blame the guy staring back at me from inside the mirror).
How much talking to yourself comes with the job/ For instance, do you tell yourself off as an editor if you don’t meet one of your writing deadlines?
It’s mostly yelling at myself after the fact—“Why’d you do that THAT way?” But the good thing about comics and collaborating with others is, I never want to let the other guy down. So I am absolutely diligent about being ahead of the deadlines I set for myself.
There’s another reason for that, too—I don’t feel I have the right to be hard on others about blown deadlines if I’m not living up to what I tell them. “Practice what you preach” and all that.
How do you respond to criticism of your books?
If someone pays money and reads the book and genuinely doesn’t like it, I can live with that (even though one negative comments hurts exponentially worse than the good feelings brought on by ten positive comments). I feel bad that something I did didn’t work for someone, and that they spent money on something they didn’t enjoy. But that kind of criticism at least gets me trying harder next time. It’s the online sniping, usually when a project is announced or when a piece of art gets posted and some people just slag it horribly, just to be shocking. I’ve gotten good at not responding or letting it affect me outwardly, but inside, it causes agita, man. I just hate seeing wrong-headed or malicious things posted online, because it seems that quickly becomes facts in some people’s heads. Computers—the best AND worst thing to happen to the industry.
What’s the best part of your job?
Just being immersed in comics, an industry I’ve loved since I was old enough to know what a comic was. Writing them, working with others on creating them, dealing with talented artists and other writers and having a medium where you can talk so directly to the fans… it’s all so much more rewarding than some other jobs I’ve had (from the automotive industry to the television industry). I really love having a chance to contribute something to this industry, and hope to be able to do so for years to come.
And the worst?
Blown deadlines and poor work ethics.
Which books have been IDWs most successful, and which do you think have been the best (even if they didn’t do so well)?
30 Days of Night has been a perennial bestseller for us. Supermarket did very well; The Transformers books overall have performed well, and the Spotlight issues have been among the most successful of those, which was a pleasant surprise. It’s also been nice to see titles like Angel or The Great and Secret Show hold steady and not follow the usual month-by-month decline that most comics face.
As for “underrated” books, I truly loved Alex DeCampi and Igor Kordey’s Smoke—it was a fantastic book that just didn’t quite catch on. I think, more recently, Brian Lynch’s Spike: Asylum book was an extraordinarily well-written comic, just funny and poignant and violent and everything a good Spike comic should be. Doomed magazine never caught on with large audiences, but my oh my, do I love that mag—such a blast to work on.
Are there any writers/artists you’d like to get over to IDW for projects?
It’s a list longer than we’ll ever have projects to accommodate, probably… so many people, from established pros like (Roger) Stern, Steranko, Sienkiewicz, (Paul) Smith, and other guys whose names don’t start with S, to people like Dan Slott and Vaughn and Brubaker and all the others who’re locked up in exclusive contracts. I’d give my left editor for a chance to work with George Perez. Again, I hate to name names, because there’s no way to list everyone here (MooreGaimanEnnisEllisByrneWaidbusiekMignolaMiller…) But wish lists being what they are, I have to also say it’s been great to have a chance to work with guys who would be on any wish list of mine, people like Ash Wood and Peter David and Beau Smith and Don Figueroa and Simon Furman and Igor Kordey and Eduardo Barreto and Ted McKeever and Kelley Jones and many others, as well as with guys like Gabriel Rodriguez, David Messina, Franco Urru, and Len O’Grady, people I met through this job but absolutely adore.
(And the rest of you I forgot to name, you’re all great, too)
What can you tell us about the upcoming Transformers Movie? I understand you’ve been allowed on set?
Actually, no—I visited the 30 Days of Night set, but not this one. I’ve read the script, and worked with Hasbro and Paramount closely on the four-part prequel that I’m doing with Simon Furman (and Don Figueroa on art), and seen quite a bit of the characters, but not been on the set itself (Michael Bay, gimme a call). The one main thing I know from it, and that will be even more evident in the prequel, which is aimed even more at the Transformers fan base and not a wider audience, is that fans will see that this IS a solid Transformers story. Don’t let any different designs or early art seen online fool you—Spider-Man’s black costume took some time for people to accept it, too—this is gonna be a lot of fun. Can’t wait for 2007.
James Dodsworth - Born and raised in Yorkshire, residing in London since 2000, James has a Law Degree and works for the Anti-Financial Crime Office of a International Asset Management Company. He is a writer and editor for FractalMatter.com.
But his main claim to fame is living next to the pub where Shaun of the Dead was conceived.