Broken Frontier

For all the great material there is in comics, it’s still rare for me to find a graphic novel or trade collection that I can mention when someone asks me for a comic recommendation.

Seeing as the person is usually a casual fan looking for a book they might like in a confusing comic market, I often struggle to come up with something that hits the mark. It has to be fairly self-contained, not too genre specific, yet representative of all that’s great about the comic medium.

That’s why when I finished reading the Johnny Hiro trade by Fred Chao and absolutely loving it, I made a note that this would be on my short list of comics to mention when I was the recipient of the aforementioned question.

Surprisingly, it took me quite a while to come across Johnny Hiro. I missed the issues when they were release and it wasn’t until just before the release of the trade that I heard a review that really stuck with me. I wish I could remember where I heard it, but the review said that this was a book for everyone who wished Spider-man were still the same old Spider-man that made his so relatable to begin with, the one who was just trying to cope with everyday responsibilities all while being a misunderstood hero.

And this is essentially the story of Johnny Hiro. He’s a young man living in Brooklyn, doing the best he can in life, working a crap job while making sure to save enough time for his family and his girlfriend. The hero side of his life isn’t as well defined. He doesn’t have powers or don a mask or anything. It’s just that Johnny seems to get a lot more trouble sent his way than normal, such as a Godzilla-like monster taking his girlfriend and destroying his apartment (which his landlord is totally not cool with). I suppose it’s this type of absurdity placed in the context of everyday life, rather than explained through meteors or radiation, that might not appeal to some readers’ sensibilities, but as for myself, it’s something I really enjoy. It’s a great way to tell a story as only comics can.

My favorite issue is #3 where Johnny is trying desperately to have romantic date with his girlfriend at the opera; you never know when construction on the subway or a Samurai attack will get in the way. It’s this kind of outlandish adventure done with heart that really appeals to me.

So you can image how pleased I was to see Johnny Hiro’s creator, Fred Chao, at one of the social events I was attending (as mentioned in last week’s column). I really wanted to know more about where he was coming from when he created this comic and what kind of adventures he had gone through himself to bring it to print.

Fred gave me a wealth of information. Unfortunately, there’s no way I could fit it all in this column, especially the earlier stories of his life. But suffice to say, he didn’t take the traditional path into comics or go to art school or anything like that. Instead, he bounced around a bit, studying everything from theater and screenwriting to design. This journey took him from Boston to San Francisco to London, and then to Brooklyn where he currently resides.

It was this time in Brooklyn that brought him around to the idea of creating his own comic. As he puts it,

I had moved to New York and was experiencing how hard it was. I was dating a lovely girl who was incredibly supportive. I was living in a crappy apartment. Oddly enough, I worked pretty regularly at Gracie Mansion for Mike Bloomberg, washing dishes and stuff. The whole thing was weird and overbearing and wonderful. I think I wanted to incorporate all that into a  comic, really make a comic about this city, and trying to build a solid life not knowing if what you’re doing is at all the right thing. Of course, these are the  struggles of everyone, but I think there’s something about New York in particular that amplifies all this stuff, which works out great for a comic.

But Fred wanted to do something a little different from the typical autobiographical comic, so he created a fictional character, Johnny Hiro, through whom he could draw from his life experiences while still throwing in some really crazy adventures and situations to add excitement to the story.

Because Fred had a design job during the day, he had to create Johnny Hiro during the little free time he could find, working mostly at night when he wasn’t too exhausted from his day. And with writing, drawing and inking the book himself, this took some time. But after about 6 months, he had the first issue done.

Fred then tried to find a publisher. He knew he wanted a publisher for the project because he’d already had a foray into self-publication earlier in his life with prose and knew about the difficulty and unbelievable amount of time that went into it (tell me about it).

Unhappily, Fred’s initial submissions came with the usual rejection letters. His favorite was from Dark Horse where the editor raved about how much she loved the story…but ultimately had to pass.

Luckily, one acceptance finally did come from Adhouse Books, who were willing to give the comic a shot. Plus, they were willing to allow Fred to maintain ownership of his characters and to basically be in control of the story pages. He says that it was their recommendation that Fred use grayscale, but other than that, it was up to him.

Johnny Hiro came out as individual issues from Adhouse Books, but only made it to Number 3 before the distributor raised it’s new minimum order standards. So despite some good reviews, award nominations and a fair amount of supporters, Fred decided it would be best if he finished the last two issues on his own before going to print with the collection.

When it came time for the trade, Fred pushed to keep the price down. Adhouse suggested a hardcover, but for Fred it was really important to keep the price point lower. He went with a softcover, but one with a nice thick cardstock with French flaps. The publisher supported this decision and they were able to keep the price at $14.95, which is an absolute bargain if you ask me.

The sales of the book have been strong, but Fred has had some trouble getting reorders from comic book stores. It seems that many stores have sold out of their initial order, as it’s typical for a store to start low before seeing how it sells, but despite the publisher having more copies, the distributor has been incredibly slow at providing these reorders.

As for what he’s working on now, Fred is shifting gears a little and working on a children’s book. He does have plans and many more adventures for Johnny Hiro, but for now he needs to take some time off. It can be tough to deal with all that life throws at you and still find time to be a Hiro.

You can find Johnny Hiro on Amazon and at the Adhouse website. Also, you can follow Fred on his blog, where he’s spotty, but does his best to update, at robotchao.wordpress.com.