FractalMatter decided to interview two of the creators behind Ursa Minors, Paul Cote and Neil Kleid. Neil can be found at RantComics.com, he’s previously done Nintey Candles, Brownsville and quite a few others. Whereas Paul’s first work in comics is Ursa Minors.
So sit back, relax and enjoy the chaos.
Neil, thanks for saying yes to doing this interview we’ll both agree to the interview on Paul’s behalf. I’m sure he’ll be fine with that.
First off, you’ll have to explain who you are and what you’re new book is about, before I completely lose track of the plot.
Neil: I’m Neil Kleid: Writer, cartoonist, comics racontuer. Received a Xeric Grant to produce a graphic novella entitled Ninety Candles and Brownsville, my mafia graphic novel with Jake Allen, debuted in February from NBM Publishing. I’ve been writing The Intimidators for Image Comics/Shadowline, a unique take on superheroes and culture clash, and my short X-Men Unlimited story for Marvel (How to Be An Artist; Issue #14) hits stands on April 5th. I’ve coordinated/contributed to anthologies like 9-11: Emergency Relief and True Porn (Alternative Comics), Hero Happy Hour (geekpunk.com) and the Even More Fund Comics anthology to benefit the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. Feel free to look through my website: RantComics.com.
What is Ursa Minors about? The series explores the hyperkinetic friendship of three lifelong friends…who also possess wonderful,
maginificent and mysterious robotic bear suits. It’s the Ninja Turtles if they were guys in bear suits. With beer. And cussing. And lots of tangents. It answers the question “What would the average pop-culture raised internet age twenty-something do if granted a high-tech, fully armed robotic bear suit?” There’s action, comic books, movie references, ninjas, dinosaurs and in case you missed it, robotic bear suits.
Paul: I agree to pretty much everything without pause. Apparently Slave Labor has a clause in their contracts now that calls for them to cut off my head and freeze it for a thousand years. Oops.
Seriously though, I’m happy to answer all questions regarding this fun project that Neil and I (and Fernando) have cooked up.
I’m Paul Cote and I’m a newcomer to the comics industry. How new? Ursa Minors! is my first project, and hopefully not my last. When I’m not making up crazy stuff for the printed page, I’m a pop culture enthusiast/metalhead/caffeinated madman at large; who hails from Canada. I’m the token William Shatner of the team you could say.
As for what Ursa Minors! is all about. It is an emotional and spiritual journey of three friends who must find their place in a world that they never made. There is triumph, tragedy and an intense exploration of the human condition…
…which is complete and utter bollocks. This a comic about guys in robotic bear suits, beer, midgets with weird sex fetishes, and loads of happy go lucky skullcrushing violence! It’s a comic that proves that beer can make everything better!
Ursa Minors! is the comic equivalent of Gumby freaking out on crystal meth…with a flamethrower.
Dare I ask what brought on the idea of robot bear suits?
Paul: The genesis of the Ursa Minors! mysterious and wondrous robotic bear suits is an interesting story. Most of it I’ve conveniently forgotten over the course of the last few years so I’ll make it up as I go along.
What it really boils down to is that it’s Neil’s fault for the whole thing. In a post on the long defunct Warren Ellis Forum about the comic Sky Ape, he made a throwaway joke about a comic about simian lawyers called Ape Suits. I, having far too much free time, remembered said post a few years back and contacted Neil via IM. Over the course of a few nights we were coming up with wild and crazy stuff involving the Ape Suits premise.
It was in those early chats that we decided our three heroes Tom, Richard and Harry would already have their amazing suits, which at that time, were ape-like in appearance. Neil and I then quickly wrote up an internet teaser so we could feel out the characters and just brainstorm dialogue and story ideas. Then, about a year or so ago Neil said he wanted to change it to BEAR suits. At first I was against it but after talking it over with him I saw that it was the right thing to do.
The suits allow for our characters to rip, tear, mangle and generally annihilate their foes without too much trouble or need for strategy. Thusly giving Neil and I the ability to come up with “wacky” and “amusing” situations for the comic, without too much trouble or deep thought.
Ursa Minors! is the comic book version of hanging out at the bar with your friends, making jokes, hitting on barmaids and occasionally saving the world with a well placed kick to the nuts. You know, the usual Saturday night shenanigans.
Neil: You see a lot of what people are calling “fight comics” these days, like Scott Pilgrim or Street Angel, where things just happen, is the area we wanted to explore, but go one better by adding more sarcasm and in-jokes. I like to refer to the style as “IM Comics”, where the concept is something you come up with by screwing around late one night, instant messaging your friend while hopped up on gin
and Tylenol, laughing about doing a comic about guys in bear suits; which is basically what happened. At the time Paul and I came up with the book, we were very fixated on the revival of the “serious funny animal” book – Sky Ape, Rex Mantooth, Ninja Turtles and Shappy, the Tadpole with Nunchaku Who Could Not Love. We started off with a book focused on big apes who could also be lawyers, dressed in armani, and called it Ape Suits. We moved from there into the grizzly realm when monkeys started to grow weary on the comical world.
Q: So we have 4 issues of Ursa Minors! to look forward to. Care to spill the beans on some of the references you included?
When I flipped through the preview I instantly spotted that one of the guys looks like Spider Jerusalem and the Smithbots were hard to miss as well.
Neil: Boy, howdy… we pretty much namecheck everything from Ice Pirates to Quantum Leap, and From Hell to Voltron. There’s subtle digs at the comic book industry, major motion pictures, old cartoons we dig, obscure
music about dinosaurs, hackneyed plot devices from old Flintstonesepisodes and time travel movies.
Also, one entire issue is practically Harry Potter as done by John Landis’ animal house. So we’ve got that going for us. Which is nice.
Q: What are you reading these days?
Neil: BOOKS: I finally succumbed to the nightmare that is Dan Brown’s Circle of Jesus books, but now I am tearing my way through several fascinating treatises on the amazement that is the high powered modern train as I research a new story.
COMICS: DMZ, True Story Swear to God, Dork! , All-Star Superman, Fables, and a little something called The Intimidators.
PAMPHLETS: Some dude handed me something about dolphins saving the universe on the C train and I can’t put it down. It’s the must read pamphlet of the year - and it might just save your life!
Paul: Reading? What’s that again? Something involving books other than comics? BLASPHEMY!
I’m reading some trashy pulp novel and the latest edition of Tobin’s Spirit Guide.
Q: What’s the geekiest thing you have in the house?
Neil: Wow. Uh. Superman/Batman cookie jar? South Park shot glasses? Plastic Darth Vader mask with rasta hat? Full scale Ghostbuster uniform? You be the judge.
Paul: You’re looking at him, baby! Now gimme some sugar…and coffee. Copious amounts of each.
Q:Who were your major influences when you were younger (comics or otherwise)?
Neil: I was mostly influenced by the PSAs at the end of G.I. Joe cartoons. They helped me avoid stray power lines and often pushed me to wonder just how Roadblock knew where the poison was in my medicine cabinet (and how the heck did he get in the house?).
I was also influenced by Jem. She was truly outrageous. Truly.
Q: Just what was the motivating factor that made you decide to break into the industry?
Neil: Desire to eat and desperate internet message board love. Well, that and it being a medium that allows one to meld flim, literature yadda bladda yadda, whatever; LOVE ME!
Paul: William Shatner answers all of these questions.
Q: Any new projects coming up you can tell us about?
Neil: I’m working on a new cartoon book called Migdal David, which explores growing up with a developmental disability in an orthodox Jewish home. It’s about my family, and specifically the story of my brother and I. It’s going to be published by Seraphic Press in late ‘07. As well, Brownsville artist Jake Allen and I are working on our next two projects - one is a cross between LA Confidential and The X-Files; the other is samurai and gangsters in early 1900s San Francisco.
Also, you know, various projects in pitch and development at the Big Two.
Paul: The inevitable Ursa Minors! sequel and various other things that I cannot reveal lest Cthulhu’s minions find out and write nasty things about me online.
Q: Which books are on your essential comic books/graphic novels shortlist?
Neil: Ninety Candles, Brownsville, Call of The Wild (adapted), The Intimidators.
Oh, uh, and Watchmen, Bone, Starman, Finder and From Hell.
Paul: Sky Ape, The Essential Conan, and the collected editions of Scud: The Disposable Assassin. Yowzah.
Q: What’s the last CD you bought?
Neil: Ray Charles, Genius Loves Company
I rarely buy CDs, preferring to beat kids up in front of Tower Records and run away with their copies of Bo Bice’s latest. America loves you, Bo! You were robbed!
Paul: A whole mess of them but the one I’m really enjoying is Here I Go Again, 2 discs of rock hard Whitesnake love!
Q: If you could have a drink (or many) with a fictional character, who would it be?
Neil: The cast of the Intimidators, because you know that’s gonna be one hell of a bar brawl and SOMEONE’S gonna get laid.
Note: We were too scared to ask Paul the above question so we didn’t.