Broken Frontier

At this year’s Emerald City Comic Con, editor Michael Woods announced “ Outlaw Territory ,” a 240 page comic book anthology featuring tales of the Old West from comic creators such as Khoi Pham, Dean Motter, Joe Kelly, Steven Grant, and Joshua Dysart.  (My own contribution is a story called “ Rio Chino ,” illustrated by the brilliant Ian Kim.)  The book hits stores in September.  Read on for a sneak preview of art from the book and an interview with Woods.

GREG PAK:  Why Westerns?  And why now?

MICHAEL WOODS:  I love Westerns.  It didn't occur to me to do a Western anthology until I was looking for an artist to illustrate a short story I did called “Gut Shot.”  He asked if it was for a Western anthology and I responded immediately, "It is now."

As for the timing, I wish I could say it was planed to release a Western when films like “3:10 To Yuma” and the upcoming “Blood Meridian” started hitting theatres, but this book has been in the works a little longer than that.  I would say I wish I got it out earlier, but given the line-up that is there now, I can't see how things could have come together much better.

GP:  Which of the stories in the book surprised you the most?  Tell us a little about a few of them.  

MW:  I received so many great stories with a lot of different takes on the Old West.  So much so when some of those first scripts started coming in, I went back and reworked my script just to keep up.

From “Rio Chino,” written by Greg Pak
with art by Ian Kim.

As for surprises, I would say “Rio Chino,” but I new you'd do a great job with it.  I didn't know what to expect from Ian Kim, but he's producing some gorgeous stuff.

From “Incident Over Thirty-Six Days in the Colorado Rockies,”
written by Joshua Hale Fialkov and illustrated by Christie Tseng.

“Incident Over Thirty-Six Days In The Colorado Rockies” from Joshua Hale Fialkov and Christie Tseng was great.  It's a thriller about an old marshal escorting a prisoner over the Colorado Rockies in a storm.  Reminded me of something from the old EC reprints without going over the cross genre thing.  I was very pleased.  

From “He Will Set Your Fields on Fire,”
by Chris Moreno

“He Will Set Your Fields On Fire” from Chris Moreno was something I worried about from the pitch (which featured a traveling salesmen and a grizzled old chimpanzee), but it came out fantastic.  Chris did a great job making sure not to go silly with the material, which is a credit to his writing ability. 

From “Savage Practices,” written by Len Wallace
and illustrated by Christopher Mitten

The art I'm getting back from Christopher Mitten on “Savage Practices” is wonderful.  I knew he'd do something great but the coloring style he came up with was not what I was expecting.  It was a wonderful surprise. 

“Where The White Man Cannot Follow” from Joshua Dysart and Paul Azeceta is the one that really left me floored.  It's about the Massacre at Sand Creek.  I don't know what I was expecting in Josh's script, but that was really something.  I think people will agree once they have read it.

That's about it for surprises.  I expected great things from everybody and was not disappointed anywhere.

GP:  As far as I know, all of us creators pretty much did our own thing and sent you the results.  How varied are the stories, and how similar?  Any bizarre coincidences or nifty contrasts?

MW:  Yeah, for the most part I was pretty hands off.  Though not every story was accepted, I did give people free rein as long as it fell within certain parameters.  I find giving people freedom with just a couple restrictions to maneuver around tends to yield the best results.  Keeps people creative and still allows them to do work they really want to do.

GP:  What makes a book like this work when you're reading it cover to cover?  Have you spent hours agonizing over the order of the stories?  Any other tricks or techniques you're using as the editor to pull the book together?

MW:  Well, I think that you need to start fast and end strong.  You want the first story to grab the reader and leave them hungry for more.  The last story in an anthology is the one that people will really take with them.  Like the last fifteen minutes of a movie.  That is what the audience really remembers.  So, you need to give the audience something that will leave a good taste in their mouth and avoid the whole 'Family Circus' moment.  

It's the middle bit that tends to be what I agonize over.

GP:  As I recall, when we first spoke about the project, your one big requirement was that the story be a straight Western as opposed to a cross-genre robo Western or mutant cowboy story.  What was your thinking behind that?

MW:  Quite simply, I wanted to produce a book that would showcase the genre I love and do it with people who share that passion.  I have nothing against cross-genre stories, but this wasn't the place for them. 

GP:  You've pulled together a pretty remarkable group of creators.  How did you recruit and what were the magic words that got so many folks on board?

MW:  Well, “please” is a good one as far as magic words go.  It always helps.

Honestly, there are no magic words.  No tricks or compromising photos for leverage.  I just make a wish list and I contact those people I can.  I think being honest as opposed to dressing up the project goes a long way as well.  Plus, I think I got lucky in the number of western fans out there with so few places to do them.

I don't know.  What did I say to convince you?

GP:  Heh.  You said, “Westerns” and “creator owned” and “eight pages.”  And I said, “Awesome.” 
What's the biggest challenge of producing and editing an anthology project like this?

MW:  Time.  It requires a lot from you and things never go as well as you hope no matter how well you plan ahead.  So, you worry about a lot of different stories and if they are making deadline and how they are coming out and so on.  It's a ton of work, but it's 100 percent worth it at the end of the day.

GP:  How did you get into editing anthologies, anyway?  Tell us a bit about how you got into comics.

MW:  I've pretty much always wanted to write comics.  My first job in the industry was back in 2000.  I was working for Digital Broome as a production assistant.  Flatting pages and pulling pics for DVD menus… that sort of thing.  I got the opportunity to co-write a couple comics while there, which, though not my proudest work, was a huge learning experience and helped open a few doors for me.  I also learned a lot about how the books are put together and how much time and work go into them from every level of production.
As for editing anthologies, I'm a huge fan of short stories and there just isn't a lot of opportunities to do them.  My editing anthologies comes out of the desire to see them on the shelf.

GP:  Where will people be able to buy "Outlaw Territory"?  Anything folks can do to ensure they're able to get their hands on a copy?

MW:  It will be available at your finer comic retailers and book chains.  It should also be available for purchase or preorder soon.  I'll be getting that Amazon link out there as soon as the listing goes up.

GP:  Any chance of an "Outlaw Territory 2"?  What's up next for you?

MW:  There will be a second volume of “Outlaw Territory.”  It's in the works as we speak.  It'll be the last anthology I put together for a while, so I'm going to make sure it's a good one.

Beyond that, there are some short stories for Popgun that I'm writing and a graphic novel (also from Image) I'm working on with Michelle Silva called “Bruised Peach.”  “The Rampart Legacy” and “DragonWinds” are a couple mini series on the horizon.  Everything else is a little too early to talk about. 

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.