Broken Frontier

Filmmaker Ann Marie Fleming recently turned her award-winning documentary, “The Magical Life of Long Tack Sam,” into a graphic novel.  Read on for an interview with her about how she made the transition from film to comics.  But first -- Reader Q&A!  (And, as always,  click here to submit your own questions for future columns.)

Taimur Dar: Hey Greg. You've got a lot of stuff coming out from Marvel and I'm loving everything you're doing!  

Greg Pak: Thanks so much!

TD:  My questions of course, pertain to working on the Hulk and with a co-writer, in this case Fred Van Lente.  

GP:  Who is a genius.

TD:  I was wondering if you could tell us how and why the collaboration came about with Fred...

GP:  I’d wanted to do a spinoff series starring the Renegades, that wacky group of heroes crazy enough to side with the Hulk during “World War Hulk.”  But when it was time to pitch the series, I had my hands pretty full with writing the final issues of “World War Hulk” and its “Incredible Hulk” tie ins.  So “Hulk” editor Mark Paniccia suggested Fred Van Lente as a possible co-writer.  Fred and I hit it off immediately and worked up a brilliant Renegades pitch under the expert guidance of Marvel assistant editor Nate Cosby. 

Alas, Marvel realized there were a few too many team books launching around that time.  But a couple of weeks later, Marvel Sales and Circulation Senior VP David Gabriel came up with the idea of keeping the “Incredible Hulk” title going as “Incredible Hercules.”  It would be a buddy book, with Herc and Amadeus Cho, and Fred and I would write it.  And so it was and so we did.

TD: ... and how the writing process on “Incredible Herc” differs from “Warbound” and “Hulk”?

GP:  Fred and I both live in New York City, so we’re able to get together face-to-face a couple of times a month to hash out ideas and plots and character arcs.  After we’ve worked out the basic storyline of a given issue, one of us sits down and hammers out a page-by-page outline.  Then he emails it to the other guy, who tweaks and edits and emails it back.  Then the first guy tweaks those tweaks and then the second guy tweaks those tweaks and so on until we’re ready to send it off to Marvel. We’re talking on the phone and emailing each other throughout this process, sharing research and inspiration and goofy jokes.

Once our editors approve the outline, we go to script.  Usually one guy tackles the first half of the book and the other guy tackles the second half.  Then we trade off, tweak each other’s stuff, and a few months later, another transcendently brilliant issue of “Incredible Hercules” hits the stands.

The huge joy of collaboration is that your partner is constantly bringing you to the next level.  And if you never have to sit scratching your head -- you can pick up the phone and within minutes the two of you are not only solving the problem at hand, but discovering new twists and payoffs to bring the whole series to the next level.

TD:  Finally, I was lucky enough to attend the World War Hulk panel at the last Wizard World Philly where you answered my following question: Will Betty Ross appear in World War Hulk? "I never like to spoil anything but... no," to which everyone laughed. But now that the story has come and passed, did you at any point intend to bring Betty Ross back, and if not, any future plans?

GP:  Betty’s an awesome character.  But “World War Hulk” just wasn’t the right story for her.  During the course of “Planet Hulk,” the Green Goliath found love with the Shadow warrior Caiera the Oldstrong, who may be the first woman to love the Hulk precisely because of his anger and strength.  And “World War Hulk” was waged because of what happened to Caiera -- and the Hulk’s unborn child -- on the savage planet of Sakaar.  (I’ll say no more for fear of spoilers, but all is revealed in the pages of “Planet Hulk.”) 

There will probably be a great time and place for Betty’s return at some point in the future. But “Planet Hulk” and “World War Hulk” were informed by the Hulk/Caiera relationship -- bringing Betty in would have been a nifty shocker, but ultimately could have undermined the emotional throughline of the stories.

TD:  Hope you don't mind the free plug, but can't wait to see you again and Fred Van Lente at the January 29th show of The Comic Book Club at the People's Improv Theater.

GP:  Hey, I love free plugs!  Alas, the delayed nature of publication schedules means that we’re plugging this event after it’s already passed. But I believe an intrepid soul videotaped the show -- my good buddy Fred Van Lente has the links at his site.

Speaking of free plugs, my production company, Pak Man Productions, has jumped right smack dab into that crazy thing the kids call “the internets” by starting up a MySpace page.  Check it out at www.myspace.com/pakbuzz.

And now, the “Pak Talks Comics” interview with Ann Marie Fleming! Fleming's feature documentary, "The Magical Life of Long Tack Sam," won rave reviews at film festivals and nabbed prizes like the Grand Jury Award of the 2004 Asian Film Festival of Dallas. And now it's a  graphic novel that the  American Library Association has named one of 2007’s Top Ten Graphic Novels for Teens.

Greg Pak: Please describe the book in three sentences or less.
Ann Marie Fleming: "The Magical Life of Long Tack Sam" is a graphic novel based on the animated documentary of the same name, which traces my search to find the life of my great grandfather, Long Tack Sam, who was a world-famous, globe-hopping Chinese acrobat and magician that my family had really not know very much about at all. It takes us on a trip of the events of the 20th century through the prism of this one particular man's life, and, stylistically, it riffs off from the collage-like, multi-media quality of the film itself.

GP: How did the plan to make the film into a graphic novel come together?

AMF: This was very serendipitous. Megan Lynch, an editor at Riverhead Books in New York City, saw the film on the Sundance Channel and got in touch with me, asking me if I'd be interested in adapting it into a graphic novel. She thought it would be particularly relevant for teaching inner city kids about valuing themselves in the world through the stories of their own families.

GP: How did working in comics allow you to tell the story differently than working in film?

AMF: 2D is VERY DIFFERENT from 3D... from time-based media. I had to completely rethink the film. I didn't have the sound and music element, and my voice-over, which is such a large part of the film and gives it so much of its colour.

I tried to shift the layout on every pages, so you can explore the information differently, and change it up... I guess it was my way of visually pacing... I added other elements (like Stickgirl, my avatar, the narrator) and I also got to go on more tangential lines which I had to cut down or out in the film. I play with lists and timelines, which is very much how I began to structure my search in the first place.

GP: The book uses photographs, archival material, your own cartoons, and sequential art by Julian Lawrence. Tell us about the challenges in adapting this particular story to comics and how you made your decisions about how to tell the story.

AMF: I was really intimidated, and didn't know how to begin to make this into a comic. I am a huge fan of indie comics, graphic novels and have such respect for the artistry of people in the field. It was like, I was stuck. I took a page (sic) out of the world of 'zines... which said "collage is okay".

After all, it had worked for the film, and I think was a good parallel expression to the nature of Long Tack Sam's act and life. I used so many different media and techniques because I did not have any film of Long Tack Sam's act, and it turned out that the scrapbook nature was perfect for my subject... which really is finding a life.

GP: How did you find Julian Lawrence and what was the experience like working with him? Did you have to learn new techniques to work with a comic book artist?

AMF: I am an animator as well, and I used to have a production company that had interviewed Julian for some storyboard work for commercial projects. I thought he would be perfect for creating the Golden Age of comics style for the origin stories in my film. and tim stuby animated them. I worked with a whole bunch of different artists. Julian was fantastic, as his background was both in comics (he does his own indie comic... "Drippytown," which is an anthology of people's works) and in film storyboarding. So, his sensibility was perfect. It was so great to be able to represent his work in its original form in the graphic novel.

GP: What new information or experience will fans of the film get from reading the comic book?

AMF: Well, oddly enough, the book is more emotional. And it takes you to a few more places, asks a few more questions, shows you a few more things. It was made a few years after the film, and I am constantly finding out new information. Some which augments, some which corrects, what I knew before.

GP: Tell us about your own history with comics. You're well known for your Stickgirl animated films -- is there a secret life as a cartoonist that we don't know about?

AMF: Yes, I have done a ton of animated films, and I TOTALLY SUCK with my drawing abilities. As a kid, in high school and in university, I used to draw comic strips. I was a voracious comicbook reader, from Archie and Little Lulu to the action heroes. I used to recognized the names and styles of the artists and the writers of all the Conans to the work of Seth, Chester Brown and Los Bros Hernandez and Chris Waring. And I love Little Nemo. Manga. Loustal. My hero was Charles Schultz, and i think you'll see Jules Feiffer's influence. Do you remember the strip about Woody Allen, the detective?

GP: Any more comics work in your future? And what's next for you in the film world?

AMF: I used to do a Stickgirl comic blog on my MySpace site for sleepydogfilms. Right now, I've just finished an animated film (Stickgirl with acupuncture pins, actually) that was scored by 4 different composers that just played live with the Victoria Symphony the other day. That was a fantastic experience. I'm trying to promote my latest feature, a dark comedy called "The French Guy" through an on-line festival which viewers vote for. I need your clicks on: FromHereToAwesome.com/thefrenchguy. I'd love to turn it into a teleroman. It would be perfect for that.
Also, I'm adapting an illustrated memoir to an animated doc for the National Film Board, and I have a few live action ideas up my sleeve, including a dramatic version of Long Tack Sam's life called "Shanghai Follies". I'd love to have an opportunity to write another book. I've always thought of my independent film work as self-publishing.

Thanks for reading -- we’ll be back soon with another thrilling installment of “Pak Talks Comics.”  Please  click here to submit your questions for our Reader Q&A section and see you next time!

© 2008 Greg Pak.  All rights reserved.  For more about Greg Pak’s comics and films, visit www.pakbuzz.com.