Broken Frontier

This is an Inter-Review—a review and an interview in one! Today we look at Chumble Spuzz #2: Pigeon-Man and Death Sings the Blues, the second graphic novel sized “issue” featuring those two The Maxx-inspired creations, Gunther and Klem , written and drawn by the great Ethan Nicolle, and this time with a little help from his bro, Isaiah.

So after I ranted and raved  like a mad man about how wonderful and brain-bursting the first GN was, I couldn’t wait to dive into this second 150-page monstrosity, and when it comes to Chumble Spuzz, “monstrosity” is an apt label in more ways than one (especially regarding the “Pigeon Man” story).

Feel free to prime yourself for this article by reading an interview regarding CS #1 posted over at Project Fanboy.

Broken Frontier Review: Ethan Nicolle careened onto the comic book scene in 2007, brandishing his masterpiece sci-fi horror action epic, The Weevil, which garnered him the supposedly scientifically-impossible absolute zero of critical, fan, and professional recognition. So he ditched comic-land  (who needs us, right?), puttered about making a Flash animation movie, though he never quite found the wherewithal to finish it, was then, for some reason, called back to the off-key siren song of comics, adapted said Flash animation into Chumble Spuzz #1, and the rest is history. He’s a man championed by super-star comics creator Doug TenNapel (Iron West, Earthworm Jim, Creature Tech) as a guy who doesn’t just think outside the box, but “…done blown the box up!”

Chumble Spuzz #1 featured the unforgettable “Kill the Devil” (and if you, dear reader, know of a single story to have so many ideas and jokes packed into so few pages, I need you to tell me, because I need to know) and “Salmonella” (I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again—the funniest damn comics story I have ever read to date, across the board, putting the “period” in “periodical”), wherein readers were introduced to Gunther and Klem, two short little guys with Sam Kieth overbites, and then also a ridiculous supporting cast including the Revered Mofo (he who screams: “In the name of the Lord, Biotch!”), a militant survivalist woodchuck and his fellow militant survivalist rat, and, of course, Satan, because no comic is complete without Satan.

That first collection hit full instrument's-worth of chords for a packed-house number of critics, yours truly included, but also readers and industry folk alike, and so a second round was quickly green-lighted, and what clocks in at seven regular-sized issues of story and art were completed by one-man in an astonishing 3.5 months.

BROKEN FRONTIER: Now, not that it isn’t a wonderful thing for the reader (for the obvious reasons), but why the comparatively grueling schedule to pump out a second book? To capitalize on the success and general recognition of the first?

ETHAN NICOLLE: Well, I had some pretty solid ideas for the second book, I just needed to write and draw them. When Book One was finished, I knew I wanted to do a second one right off the bat, and ideally, to keep the momentum alive after putting out that last book, getting the second out hot on its heels is very helpful (hopefully). Also, it was timing.  I wanted to have it done for comic con, so for that to happen I had to have it done in 3 and a half months.

BF: I gotta say: I absolutely adore that you number the Chumble Spuzz GNs like “Giant-Sized Annual” issues, or some ridiculously old-school thing like that. It’s so much cooler to think I’m purchasing a 150-page issue rather than a graphic novel. Your idea or SLG’s? Any particular reasoning behind it?

EN: Well I found an old EC comic cover online and I modeled my whole cover after that. I wanted it to feel like an old "funny book". So everything on the cover is based on those old comics that would boast things like "in brilliant COLOR!" or "over 100 HUGE PAGES!"

BF: So looking back, how do you feel about the first Chumble, how do you feel on a personal level as well as a professional one?

EN: I'm very proud of it. I definitely see parts of it that could have been improved. To me, the first 60% of the book's artwork is pretty weak and I feel like I found my artistic groove by the time I got my characters into the pits of hell (which happens around page 60 or so). Part of that is just growing as an artist. It's also because this was my first book I'd drawn digitally, so I think that I had to get my technique down a bit. Writing-wise, there are awkward moments that bother me, some of the jokes feel forced. But as I get responses to the book it's always a surprise what people found to be the funniest part. All in all I am very happy with it—I think “Salmonella” is still my funniest comic yet, I love that story. 

BF Review: In general, Chumble Spuzz #2 gets to breathe a bit more than the first outing—the primary introductions are all out of the way, new characters alone necessary to be added to the mix, and while plenty of new faces indeed do crop up, the book still feels roomier, less packed, less frantic, more focused. This is likely due to the above-mentioned foreshortened schedule—it’s a hell of a lot harder to overcrowd a page when you have a fraction of the time to spend on it. This proves both an improvement and a lament in ultimate effect. The book flows better, the story breezier though no less eventful; the plot points and character interactions are handled with a much more solid, recognizably standard execution of cause and effect. Like all new authors, Nicolle’s storytelling skills (here conjoined with his brother, Isaiah’s) develop with every book, which makes CS #2 a more accessible package than the first, though of course, to some slight degree, also a step away from the I-don’t-know-what-I’m-doing-so-I-guess-I’ll-do-anything feel of CS #1. 

BF: Did you feel the storytelling of this second Chumble Spuzz book was an easier or at least more whirlwind experience than the first? Can you compare the two for us, and where do you come into play here, Isaiah?

ISAIAH NICOLLE: I’d helped Eef [Ethan’s nickname] originally months before the first CS, and before that book was even going to be a comic. But after the first CS was published, I was so inspired, I e-mailed him immediately, and told him I was ready to step it up and start writing again.

EN: Yeah, one thing that bothered me about “Kill the Devil” was that there were points where the entire story would come to a halt for a joke. I wanted to try to make the story the joke, so that as the jokes were told the story continued to move. So in CS2 I gave this my best shot. It's much harder, and I have a lot of respect for comedy writers who can do this.  Randomly scattered gags are the easiest form of comedy, though they can get an easy laugh, too, and I have plenty of cheap gags in the book. I think that each of my four CS stories (two in each book) are noticeably different from each other, because I'm really still experimenting. “Pigeon Man” almost turned out to be more of an action story.

BF Review : That said, my claim of the so-called “standardization” of the sequel isn’t to the point of changing the general flavor or effectiveness of the expected humor. It'd even be a damn dirty lie to call the new book less edgy or offensive, as the “Pigeon Man” story alone contains some of the most disgusting and borderline distasteful material casually offered in comedy-adventure form (and I mean that as a huge compliment). Tackling the subject matter of feral humans—those raised by animals in the wilderness, who fascinatingly develop both mentally and physically in different ways than those of us raised by other humans—Nicolle dodges the I’m-gonna-sue-you bullet by lampooning the only folks who’ll never know he’s doing it, and who, by definition, don’t have any family to do it for them, either.

BF: In “Pigeon Man”, you guys take the subject of wild humans to about the furthest extreme I think it’s possible to take the subject. It’s hysterical but also unbelievably exhaustive. So prove me wrong: was there anything you didn’t add or had to cut from the final draft? Anything you censored yourselves on?

EN: Me and my brother, Isaiah, who helped me write the story, had a lot of brainstorm material for the feral humans. I ended up using a lot of them but there were definitely ideas left behind.

IN:  I seem to remember more fecal matter jokes believe it or not. But Eef replaced the nastiness of fecal matter with the nastiness of guts and gore and the ripping of private parts that made it ten times better...or worse, depending on your outlook.

Join us tomorrow for the second part of this two-part Chumble Spuzz Inter-Review.

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Chumble Spuzz #2  will be out in July, though you can order it now from the SLG site  (click on that last link).

For those interested, Volume 1 (featuring stories “Kill the Devil” and “Salmonella”) can be purchased from the SLG site (go HERE ). Once there, you’ll find a video trailer of the first book and a link to download the first chapter for FREE in PDF format. Ah, you know what, screw it, here’s the free preview link right  HERE  (30 pages, baby!).

And be sure to check out Ethan’s Myspace page  and the official Chumble Spuzz Myspace page  to drop a line and keep track of what this magic man is up to!