Broken Frontier

In October, an extraordinary addition to the world of romance comics will be published with Jamie S. Rich’s 12 Reasons Why I Love Her. Jamie sat down with Broken Frontier to discuss his upcoming book.

BROKEN FRONTIER: Can you give an overview of your upcoming book, 12 Reasons Why I Love Her?

JAMIE S. RICH: It's actually a rather simple concept that yields, I think, wonderfully complex results. Basically, we have a couple, Gwen and Evan, and the graphic novel is the story of their relationship. It's told in 12 chapters, or what we call "reasons." Each reason is a small slice of their relationship, and it ranges from a straight retelling of an event like their first date to more abstract moments like Gwen talking about a dream. There is even a childhood flashback.

What hopefully makes 12 Reasons a little more unique than your average love story is that we've arranged the reasons in a seemingly random order. They don't run in sequence of how they happen, but instead are put together in a way that will allow one reason to illuminate another in interesting ways. Hopefully, when you've absorbed all these things, you'll understand these two people and why they are together.

BF: How did you hook up with Joëlle Jones, whose art is amazing ? Is this entirely your story, or part hers as well?

JSR: Joëlle came in after the script was written, but she has made it so much more than I could have imagined that it really is both of ours, no question. I met her through Diana Schutz, who had contracted Joelle to draw Sarah Grace McCandless' story for the Sexy Chix anthology Dark Horse put out last year.  She’s a bit of a wunderkind, as when she met Diana Schutz, it was at a convention in Portland, Oregon, where we live, and it was the first time she had shown her work to comics professionals. She actually started with David Mack, who flipped out, and he was the one who told Diana to watch out for her. She's quite a find.

Unbelievably, this graphic novel is only her second comics work, but she's already light years ahead of the game. I tell her that she's easily more talented than I, because if she's this good now when she's just getting started, imagine how great she'll become!

We are very much simpatico when it comes to what we like and how we approach stuff. She really understood what I was hoping to achieve and conjured up these wonderful personalities. When you're doing a relationship book, it's not a lot of action, it's a lot of talking, so your people have to be full of life to keep the reader interested. She's really pulled my fat out of the fire on that front. Her acting is amazing.

BF: The story centers on two main characters, with very few secondary ones... do you feel more comfortable writing with just a couple versus an ensemble piece?

JSR: You know, I've never thought about it. My prose has a lot of characters, as does my comic book series Love The Way You Love, but I do tend to break people off from the group and single them down to twos or threes. I don't doubt I could handle larger groups, but I think what you may have actually stumbled on is my writing reflecting my own social activities. I am sort of an extroverted introvert. I can get on well in groups and even be the life of the party, but what I really prefer is one on one, let's you and I go out for drinks and talk. I probably do it in my work because it's just my natural instinct.

       

       

BF: Were the main characters of the book inspired by someone(s) in particular?

JSR: No, actually. I first approached [the characters] from an abstract position. I wanted them to almost be archetypes. My initial concept was trying to imagine my ideal couple for a romantic story. I am kind of a sap and I really enjoy romantic movies, and I think they live or die based on how much you like the two people falling in love. The movie could be clichéd and kind of crappy, but if you have a genuine affection for the actors, you get into it anyway and want them to be together. I wanted Gwen and Evan to be that perfect couple.

Of course, that meant adding foibles and quirks along the way, and naturally I plucked a few things from experiences I had or stuff I've witnessed, but they both really stand apart as unique individuals.

BF: If they turned this book into a movie, who would you like to see in the role of Evan and Gwen?

JSR: To be honest, I don't think about such things. I have such a clear vision of any character I write, they don't look like anyone but themselves, and now that Joelle has drawn them, I can't see them as any different than what's on the page. Though, I did once have a thought of a Gwen. When I was watching the movie Heights, I thought Elizabeth Banks might be good. I've always liked Leslie Bibb, too.

BF: You seem to change the style with each chapter, or reason. How intentional was this?

JSR: It was very intentional. I wanted the style to fit the scene, and I also wanted to keep the reader on his or her toes. The approach also keeps it from becoming static. Since most of the book is these two characters, it was important to keep it moving.

       

BF: In many of your scene descriptions, you keep the information vague – i.e. "How much you want to move in and out, how much you want to show in the panel is up to you". How much do you have to trust an artist to get your point across?

JSR: I have a ton of trust. We're collaborators, and I know where my expertise lies. If I could draw it, I would, but I can't, so I really feel a writer in comics needs to keep in mind that the artist is going to know their way around the page a little better than he might. This isn't to say I don't ever come up with an idea for a layout.

One of my favorite sequences in the book has Gwen leading Evan over a series of rocks in a river, and it's a metaphor for the delicate path they are walking verbally. That was my idea, and Joëlle really made it happen. If it had been a bad idea, though, I'd have expected her to tell me so, just as I would tell her if something wasn't working.

I just don't see the point in calling out every shot, of being a dictator about it. She took a different tack with a couple of the reasons, the one where Gwen tells a joke and the one about her dreams, because she saw a better way, and I was cool with that. I like the fact that she surprised me.

BF: Do you feel this is a better way to write, allowing the artist some creative input to the look?

JSR: Most definitely. You want all parties to be equally invested in what they are doing. I am really excited to work with Joëlle again, because we are really going to collaborate in full. We only live three blocks from each other, so we meet up all the time, and so we can have regular get-togethers to go over the script. It's going to be a crime book, which was her idea. I took that suggestion and went back to her with a basic concept, and then she added some things, suggested we go to the horse track, for instance. It's a relationship of mutual inspiration.

BF: Your descriptions of the character’s emotions are very detailed, like "Evan throws his hands up, frustrated. Gwen is calmer now...". Are you worried that they will get lost in translation?

JSR: No, because as I've said, Joëlle's acting is one of her best skills. She understands body language, gesture, and that the character’s face should match the thrust of what is being said. Actually, there was a point in the script that confused someone who had read it early on, a misunderstanding between Gwen and Evan on their first date. I stood by the scene, though, and I had a feeling of validation this year at Comic Con International when a random fan was looking through the photocopies I had of the pages. They weren't lettered, so he was just looking at the art, and he said, "Oh, I get it, such and such happens." You can't beat that. It didn't even need my dialogue!

BF: You write "It occurred to me the other day that films have it easy" in reference to conveying emotion and movement. What advantages do you see comics having over movies?

JSR: Control is a big thing with me, and Joëlle and I have final cut. Unlimited budget as far as what you can show visually, but without the resulting marketing concerns. I think we can also engage the audience in a different way. It's more interactive. You can control the turning of the page, can choose to linger on a particular image. It doesn't just go by in such a way that you can't stop and savor a moment the way you are barred from doing in the cinema (though, you kind of can with a DVD).

BF: Your script has several color cues, for example "white contrasting with her darker red”. How do you feel this will transfer due to the fact that the book will be black and white?

JSR: It's probably not going to in the sense that a reader will see red when I said red. It's more about values, of thinking of the full experience. A reader will color the book when he or she reads it, and I do the same when I write. I don’t see in black-and-white. Putting it in the script will hopefully evoke a reaction from Joëlle, and also suggest maybe how she might
ink it.

BF: The story jumps around, as opposed to occurring linearly. What advantages as a storyteller do you gain through this style?

JSR: We all know how stories usually run. There are patterns we can expect, particularly in a genre like a love story. People meet, they fall in love, they kiss, etc. As a result, what should be a surprise isn't really. With this structure, I could control how you received information in a certain way in hopes of having an effect on you.

For instance, you see the reconciliation from a bad fight before you see the fight, and it might take you back a little bit. It also takes out some of the threat of the fight, because you know they'll get over it. At the same time, I think it makes you feel that their love must be even stronger, because while you know they can get over something so horrible, it's not just a convenient turn the story takes. It causes the whole scenario to feel less formulaic. 

The way I put it together also allowed me to make it so the reader will leave on the emotional note I want them to leave on, but I think in a way that is far less predictable. I just watched Noah Baumbach's Kicking and Screaming, and he pulls a similar trick the way he weaves a sequence of flashbacks through his main narrative, and he cuts to the end at a moment of hope. Since it already happened in terms of the film's "present," it actually makes the audience have more hope for that present, that the lovers can regain what they had prior.

       

       

BF: Also, as the story covers several years, what devices do you use to convey the change in time?

JSR: We didn't want to overdo it. Subtle changes in how the characters look and dress is one, and then just the dialogue. I was conscious of either Gwen or Evan saying something to indicate they were on their first date, or later, to tell you it was their first year anniversary. In some cases, the reason exists within an amorphous space. You just know it's somewhere in there, and it's not necessarily important what the exact period is.

I figured the explanations being integrated into the narrative was better than hitting you over the head with explanatory captions. Those would probably end up just being confusing, because as a reader you can spend too much time sorting out what time it is. Like, I never pay attention to what day or hour it is when I watch Law & Order. Does anyone?

BF: One other interesting aspect about the book is that each reason has a song attached to it. How important is the music to this story?

JSR: Not a ton. It's not like Love The Way You Love, where the soundtrack indicators show up in specific scenes and throughout the story. These [songs] are more subtle mood indicators for each reason. It's the sort of thing that people who like to see soundtrack listings can take further if they so desire, or if you don't really care for the device, in this book in particular, it's easy to ignore and your reading experience will be just fine. I do listen to those songs as I write, though, and I kind of cut the scenes to the rhythm of them. I know Chynna Clugston does the same thing. We used to discuss the process all the time.

BF: Many authors are involving music in their titles and storytelling. Why do you think there is such a correlation between comics and music?

JSR: I think they are the two forms that with existing technology you can go out and make your own art and do it exactly how you want and find avenues to put it in the hands of the people. Both forms are also considered a kind of low art by the establishment, so choosing rock 'n' roll or comics is like a rebellious act. To me, the interesting figures in American history are the rebels and the outlaws, and these are also two art forms that really got their start in America. Other countries have done amazing things with them since, but you know, they do embody that certain spirit.

Then again, that's also kind of bull. It's probably that most of us are shut up alone all day doing our thing, and music is our only friend.

BF: This is - and correct me if I'm wrong - your first full-length book. What lessons have you learned while working on it so far?

JSR: It's my first done-in-one comic book, to be sure. Like I've said, though, it's also very unique and it came kind of easy because I began with this concept that had its own structure right from the get-go. At the time I was writing it, I was over half-way through and knee-deep in The Everlasting. That book was much larger and far more unwieldy. As a novel, it didn't have the same kind of page constraints a graphic novel might.

I mean, 12 Reasons could have been any length, but I'd still have to think page by page, with right and left and what falls where, what fits in a panel, all of that. So, while The Everlasting as a narrative indulged any tangent I wanted to try, 12 Reasons became the alternative, it became a grounding. Working on it was almost like a vacation from the prose, and I wrote it even before Love The Way You Love, which grew out of one of The Everlasting's tangents).

As a result, I'm not even sure we can say I have done it yet. The next book may be the true test. This one, I swear, from start to finish, it's been so easy. It's the old chestnut of catching lightning in a bottle. It's clicked in all the right ways all along the way, and it's never stopped. Joëlle has kept that feeling alive, and if I've learned anything, it's when it is working, don't doubt it, just go with it.

BF: Can you tell me a little about your relationship and history with Oni?

JSR: As most people know, I was editor in chief there for six years. I left to pursue my writing back in 2004, and they've been awesome to me every step of the way. Even when I was uncertain about what I was doing, they never doubted me. I love working with those guys, I love the space the company creates for people to do what they need to do. It's always been a gutsy company, and Joe, James, Randy, and Doug continue to consistently take chances. In fact, I think that their pattern of taking chances is so consistent, people take it for granted. After a while, that tightrope-walking becomes their ironic version of playing it safe. With stuff they are doing now, with Scott Pilgrim and Sharknife, and with stuff like the recently announced Stephen Colbert comic, I think people are getting a nice reminder of just how unpredictable Oni is.

BF: Finally, do opposites attract?

JSR: Absolutely! Look at me and Joëlle. I'm a hideous troll with limited potential, and she's a beautiful spirit with nowhere to go but up... and here we are.

BF: That's all I have for now. Is there anything else you'd like to mention here?

JSR: People always ask me where they should start when it comes to my books, and right now, I would say 12 Reasons Why I Love Her is the place. Take a chance, and I think you’ll like it, and if you do, then take a look at what else I've done. Right behind 12 Reasons is the book I mentioned earlier, The Everlasting. I really feel I've captured something in that novel. And if you want a bit of fun, Love The Way You Love – the comic I do for Oni that Marc Ellerby draws – comes out every three months. It's a romantic soap opera with rock music. What more do you need?

Trust us on this one; this book is going to be amazing. 12 Reasons brings out the best of what our medium can do, pulling on the heart-strings when not spreading a smile across the face of an unsuspecting reader. The fact that this cinematic flair is accomplished with truly stunning art, creates one impressive package. See for yourself when 12 Reasons Why I Love Her hits the shelves on October 11th.