Broken Frontier

This is the second part of an extensive interview with Proof writer Alex Grecian.  In this section, Alex talks about the collaborative process, accepting criticism and gives readers a look into the world of the book.  You can read the first part, The Burden of Proof, here...

BROKEN FRONTIER:How long have you and Riley (Rossmo - the series artist) known each other? I know you guys did a great book called Seven Sons; was that your first work together or are there little strips you guys would rather not talk about?

ALEX GRECIAN: I think we’ve know each other about four years now, maybe five. We’ve got at least a half a dozen unsold pitches under our belts, including some work we’re really very proud of, but that probably won’t ever see the light of day. But Seven Sons and Proof are our only published collaborations so far. We’re actually working on another project right now that should debut pretty soon. We needed to find something that we could do together that would also allow Proof to continue on schedule, so it took us a while to settle on the right idea. Hopefully I can announce that within the next few weeks.

BF: I know when I reviewed Proof #1 I wasn’t very kind to Riley. Does he still hate me? Is he happy that I came around? How do you feel when harsh criticisms are made about the book? I mean you guys put a lot of hard work into this and you think it is great. It has to sting just a little right?

AG: Well, you weren’t the only one who took a while to warm up to Riley’s work. It seems odd to me… there are lots of illustrators out there whose work is interchangeable and bland. The real artists are always guys whose style is immediately identifiable. I think those are the guys who become household names in this industry and who develop a core following. And I think Riley’s in that rank. I really do. I’ve loved his stuff since the moment I saw it.

Of course, it stings when you get a bad review. The work we do comes from us and is a reflection of our personalities and obsessions, so it’s difficult to distance ourselves from criticism. But most creators have also been rejected over and over and over, to the point where we develop reasonably thick skins. There are thin spots in our skins, but most of the visible patches are heavily-calloused.

Riley had a rough time when the book debuted, but I don’t think either of us ever doubted his abilities or whether he was right for Proof. It was always a matter of waiting for the readership to discover how terrific he really is.

BF: About the process, do you have a ritual of any sort? Any tips you can give up-and-coming writers? Do you and Riley have a particular process or is it a give and take thing?

AG: I write a full script every month. I’m usually barely ahead of Riley. I get up very early every morning and start poking my way through a script while I drink a pot of coffee. When Riley emails and says he needs more pages to draw, I wake up right away and get things formatted and emailed out to him. Then I go back to poking along.

Although I’m essentially the editor of the book, we co-own it. When we started working on Proof, Riley and I recognized the dangers of two guys with equal creative control actually putting out anything on a monthly basis. So we made a pact: we share ownership, but each of us is in charge of different aspects of the book. If we disagree, we definitely talk about it, but if there’s a decision to made, he’s got the final say when it comes to anything having to do with the visuals and I’ve got final say on the storytelling aspects of it all.

Even though I write full-script and go on for pages, describing new characters when we introduce them, I don’t think Riley’s ever followed my descriptions. I’m always surprised when I see a new page. But I’ve learned to trust him. The one time I asked him to go back and redesign a character was the first appearance of Sheriff Elvis Chestnut. The way Riley drew him wasn’t anything like the archetype I wanted to portray and I thought it hurt the story. He was good enough to rework Elvis and make him look like I wanted, but then I realized I’d been wrong. And he says that he knew I would, but he went through the process anyway. We went back to Riley’s version of Elvis and trashed mine.

Basically, it all comes down to respecting each others’ abilities and contributions. Proof wouldn’t be the same book if either of us left. It reflects our mutual interests and I think that’s, ultimately, what makes it work.

BF: In one issue you guys made reference to the famous Wardrobe from C.S. Lewis’s books. You specifically didn’t talk about Narnia. Is there a door way to Narnia at the Lodge? Are there copyright issues at play (if not)?

AG: No, there’s no door to Narnia. I’m sure there are ways around any copyright issues (such as not actually calling it Narnia), but I have no interest in doing that sort of thing. Bill Willingham’s got that ground covered very well in Fables. There’s no overt magic in Proof and that includes magical worlds.

I was really sort of pointing out that there’s some historical basis to almost any story you care to dredge up. Yes, the Narnia books were about a fantasy land where lions can talk, but there was a wardrobe and it actually existed in our world and maybe that hints at a subtler kind of magic.

It’s also just a fun reference to throw in, to see if anyone’s paying attention. Leander needed a storage closet in his office and I thought "oh, what if it’s this particular wardrobe he’s using?" I had no idea I’d be misleading so many people into thinking the habitat was located in Narnia.

For the record, Leander’s a C.S. Lewis fan and tracked down the wardrobe. He uses it to store weird things he’s collected and as a hidden backdoor into the habitat, which is located right outside his office.

BF: Cottingley Fairies... you guys saw that episode of In Search Of... as well, didn’t you? They are vicious. What kind of role can we expect to see from them in the future?

AG: The fairies are really a force of nature. Right now, they’re mainly used as a deterrent, to keep Colonel Dachshund and his men safely squirreled away. But of course, they’re tremendously dangerous.

One fairy’s been singled out, a lone survivor from Autumn Song’s tenure at The Lodge. Separated from her pack and having been badly abused, she’s going to be a bit different from the other fairies and we start exploring that in issue #15.

Meanwhile, Nadine’s secretly raising three fairy children. One of them is a little boy named Joy. We’ve seen that male fairies continue to grow long after the females stop. They also become rigid and enter a sort of hibernation. I’m working right now on an annual that will tell the story of Joy’s search for his father. He’ll be setting off across the habitat to find the grove where the remaining two male fairies sit. Joy’s already beginning to stiffen up and lose control of his limbs, so he has a limited time in which to explore his world.

BF: As a fan, I get goosebumps from books that have highly developed worlds. Proof seems to be that kind of book. It was revealed recently that Proof was around when Thomas Jefferson was around. How old is he? Will we get bits of his past as the story goes or can we expect some one-shots and flashback minis? What are the chances of some Elseworlds type stories?

AG: Proof is somewhere around 220 years old. He doesn’t know for sure because he can’t remember his childhood before he was found by the Lewis and Clark expedition.

This spring we’ll be exploring his time with the circus in Victorian England and then in Czarist Russia. At some point soon after that, we’ll be relating the story of how The Lodge was founded. Frankly, Leander’s past is at least as interesting as Proof’s.

Riley and I would love to tell the story of Proof’s time with the Lewis and Clark expedition and his apprenticeship with Jefferson. Jefferson was a father-figure for Proof and taught him much of what he knows. Jefferson was also a fascinating man and one of my personal idols. I’ve got a long story worked out, but the way it’s structured it would probably work best as an original graphic novel. I don’t know how much of a market there is for that right now, so we’re waiting until we think Image might be willing to take that chance.

BF:The first trade has been available for a while. It is titled "Goatsucker". Will we be seeing more of the eponymous monster?

AG: Oh, goodness, yes. For starters, she appears in a couple of back-up stories that will run during the "Julia" arc. (Have I mentioned the "Julia" arc?) She’ll also figure prominently in that Proof Annual I just mentioned and she has much to do with the "Who Killed the Dover Demon" and "Cryptid War" arcs. She’s not going away anytime soon.

BF: At $9.99, I can’t imagine why people wouldn’t have already bought this. Especially given the acclaim the book has received. For those who have not picked it up yet, you want to plead your case?

AG: You mean there are still people who haven’t read Proof?!?

Riley and I were talking about this the other day… I genuinely think that there are many people who would dig Proof if they knew less about it. That sounds counterintuitive, but the high-concept hook for Proof is that it’s about "Bigfoot in a suit, working for the government to track down other monsters." Okay. And having said that, I can picture exactly what that series must be like. Except Proof is nothing like that picture.

Yes, it sounds a little goofy and it sounds light and frivolous. We’re going for something bigger, though. Here’s the real pitch: Proof is about what it takes to be a human being and whether being a human being is really all that worthwhile.

It’s really not a high-concept series. (Does that make it "low-concept?") It just sounds like it probably is. We’re exploring some difficult themes, but we’re using Bigfoot to do it. Along the way, we’ve got moments of horror, moments of comedy, drama, pathos… We’re aiming big with Proof.

There’s my case. Riley and I do this series for ourselves. We’re writing and drawing the things we want to read about. Hopefully there are other people out there like us.

Check back tomorrow for the third part of this interview.