Broken Frontier

Broken Frontier: The first thing then would be to ask you a bit about  Ferret Press, how did you decide to start it up?

Dara Naraghi: I started Ferret Press back in the spring of 2002. It came about mostly due to getting together with other comic book creators here in Columbus (Ohio) and becoming very excited and energized at the prospect of creating comics. An artist I met had an idea for a book, and thought it would be cool to put the first issue together as a small press book to debut at SPACE (Small Press and Alternative Comics Expo, based right here in Columbus, now in its 6th year). That was just the kind of motivation I needed, and so the time was right to come up with my own imprint.

I used to have a ferret as a pet, and he was a fun little guy and I thought "if I ever start a publishing company, I'll go with some sort of reference to him". It’s basically my own little... I don't know what to call it... imprint, vanity press, creative outlet. I use it as an umbrella for all my self-published comics. By the time the Panel group decided to work on an anthology together, I had already set up a website for Ferret Press (complete with an online store, etc.) and was in with the two small press distributors (Cold Cut and FM International) so it just made sense to "publish" our collective work under the FP banner to take advantage of the groundwork that had already been laid.

BF: So, aside from the Panel books, what types of books have you put out under the Ferret Press banner?

DN: Let's see... the book that started it all was "AKA", an action/detective story starring two female leads. It played up the humor and character interaction a lot more than the actual "mystery" to be solved. Sadly, the third (and final) chapter was never completed. Next was the "BigCityBlues" one-shot, which I describe as "...where slice-of-life stories meet the fringes of the superhero world." It focuses on the lives of ordinary citizens of a town populated by superheroes and how they are affected, positively and negatively, by the presence of these superhuman beings in their city. But the superheroes themselves are never featured for more than a few panels here and there; they are nameless and have no voice in the stories. Then there's the Ferret Press Little Art Book: Hybrid. It's an art book featuring 18 artists with diverse styles interpreting the theme of "hybrid" in their own unique way – single page illustrations in a variety of mediums, including watercolors, photographs, digital manipulation, graphite, traditional pen and ink, and more. I also put out a 15-track, 1 hour music CD "soundtrack" to accompany BCB. It's called BigCityBlues: Street Music and features songs about big city life, and all its associated themes, performed by 4 different bands.

BF: I saw that you had some presence at a local music festival. Would you say that musical styles are a big influence on your writing?

DN: Oddly enough, my writing probably isn't all that much influenced by music. I know it sounds weird, especially in light of almost every single writer blog that I visit having a whole list of music they are currently into. I tend to enjoy it more as background atmosphere. But for some reason, I kept thinking of appropriate song lyrics after writing each of the 4 stories in BCB, and so I ended up including them in the book. The CD soundtrack actually came about half jokingly. I happen to work with a lot of talented musicians and they are all also into comics or art in general. So I mentioned to them once in passing that it would be cool to put together a soundtrack for this comic I'm working on, and they all thought it was a great idea! The rest, as the cliché goes, is history.

BF: Very cool. Now, moving onto the Panel books… How did all of the creators involved in the books meet? Is there a common bond in there aside from living in proximity to each other?

DN: Several of us first met by replying to a flyer at our local comic store, The Laughing Ogre. (Shameless plug: One of the best, most diverse comic stores I've ever been to and they support local talent and small press books with everything they've got.) Tim Fischer was the artist who put up the flyer, looking for fellow artists and writers to meet with on a regular basis and learn from, share knowledge with, offer critiques, support, and generally be a motivating factor. There were 5 of us at the first meeting. It dropped down to 4 by the next one. But over the years, new creators have joined, some old ones have moved on, and we've grown to somewhere between 7-9 "active" members. And eventually came up with a name for our little collective: Panel.

BF: And the newest book, Myth, is the 5th volume of this series.

DN:Yes.

BF: Each of the volumes seems to have been built around a theme. How do you each end up deciding what that theme will be?

DN: It usually comes down to a cage match. (Laughs) No, but seriously the first volume didn't have a theme. That's back when we were just stumbling in the dark, and feeling our way around this whole "collaborative anthology" idea. But once it came out, we were so excited by the possibilities that we decided to spend more time planning the subsequent books. One of the first suggestions was to choose a theme that each person could interpret loosely. The process usually comes down to everyone throwing in their suggestions on the table, discussing them, and then picking one that everyone is excited about. A couple of times I think it came down to a vote, but other times it just seems like everyone gravitates towards one and the decision is easy. For volume 2, we decided on "architecture", which was actually one of my favorites because there's so many different ways to approach it. Vol. 3 was "space" and it debuted, appropriately enough, at the 2003 SPACE con. Vol. 4 was "home", vol. 5 is "myth", and we're currently hard at work on vol. 6, "music".

BF: Now, is one of the goals of Panel to get to work with as many of the different creators within the group as possible?

DN: It's not a stated goal, per se, but that's how it's shaping up to be. It just came about very naturally. Everyone has different interests and styles, and additionally we're all very curious and open to experimenting with different storytelling methods and approaches, so we end up working with different people each time. Of course, some of it also has to do with the logistics of only having so many artists in the group. This is probably a good time to point out that most things within Panel are done organically. We've always prided ourselves on not being an "official" group of any kind. We have no bylaws, requirements, rules for joining (and for that matter, rules for getting kicked out!) or stated goals. We're all just creators who love the comic medium and enjoy sharing our talents, knowledge, and enthusiasm. Everything else seems to just come about naturally out of that basic premise.

BF: Do you all discuss you're story ideas within the group as you're putting it together or is it more of a surprise when you see the finished stories?

DN: Mostly the former. Since the main goal of getting together has always been to offer suggestions, comments, and critiques, we all try to share as much as possible at each stage of the process. Writers e-mail out their scripts ahead of time, and the artists bring character designs, rough layouts, and penciled pages to meetings for input from the group. We all work on stories outside of the Panel books as well, so there's a lot of other sharing of works in progress. A great example was when Tom Williams got the gig to draw a 138 page graphic novel for Oni (No Dead Time). For months on end we were treated to his character sketches and raw inked pages (before he gray scaled them on his computer) as he slowly worked his way through the book. It was really quite fun to see the whole book come together in front of our eyes… By the way, that isn't to say that we create comics "by commitee". The intent is to absorb all the feedback, but it's still up to each creator to decide for themselves which suggestions to incorporate and which ones to ignore/discard.

BF: Sounds like a fun group… OK, so to wrap up with a big question. Is there anything you would like to say about your particular contributions to the Panel books, maybe some more info on how to get in touch with you guys for anyone else in the area who might want to join up, anything about Ferret Press (i.e. if people can ever expect the 3rd and final part of AKA) or Panel itself that we may have missed?

DN: As far as the Panel group, we're not actively searching for new members, mostly because we're at a size that we're really comfortable with and there's a great chemistry between all the members. Any bigger, and I think we run the risk of it becoming too "formal", and not being able to spend equal time on everyone's work. Having said that, I'd like to invite anyone who's interested in comics in general or small press books in particular, to visit our group blog at www.ferretpress.com/weblog where most of us post on a regular basis on everything from comics to politics to weird Internet sites. And we encourage feedback through the comments section.

My contributions to the Panel books... as corny as it may sound, I'm just proud to be a part of the books. I've learned so much about design aesthetics and production details just by working with all the other guys involved in the books. It's hard for me to pick any favorite story. The cool thing about being able to work with the different artists in the group is that each experience is unique and teaches me something new. For instance, Andy Bennet (Vampire: The Masquerade and Kolchak) prefers to work from more of a "plot style" script, as opposed to a full script (which I'm most used to writing). So I learned all sorts of things about trust, flexibility, and the importance of dialogue to covey ideas not immediately present in the visuals. Doing an anthology book like this with people you know and trust is the best training any of us could hope for when it comes to honing our respective crafts.

The 3rd issue of AKA, unfortunately, will probably never see the light of day. I wish there was more I could say, but that's about it. I'm toying with the idea of just posting the full script for the issue on the Ferret Press website, for those loyal fans of ours who really like the book and have been waiting for it.

And finally, if I may plug a current project that I'm very excited about... I've been doing a weekly webcomic over at Kevin Smith's Movie Poop Shoot site. It's called "Lifelike" and can be summed up as "slice of life vignettes, and beyond." I'm working with a rotating cast of artists, each on a different story, including my fellow Panel member Tom Williams. You can check out all the strips so far at http://www.moviepoopshoot.com/lifelike/archives.html.

And that's about it.

BF: Excellent, so I'll wrap it up with a Thank You for your time and wishing you the best on all current and future endeavors.

DN: Thanks, and I appreciate you taking the time to review our book and doing the interview...it's always great to see people exposing small press books to a wider audience.