erasing clouds
 

by tonydoug wright

Talking Chickens Rule The Universe: An Interview with John Ira Thomas of Candle Light Press

Over the past few years, Candle Light Press has published some innovative but interesting graphic novels that go outside the comfortable realm of the superhero vs. super villain stories. The works of Candle Light Press are original and at times challenging but they breathe life into what some consider a stale mainstream that has been pumping out recycled stories for decades. Candle Light Press' success lies within their creative talents, including writer John Ira Thomas, who has been involved with Candle Light Press since 1997. His works include Zoo Force, Man Is Vox and Numbers (to see past reviews of Thomas' work click here).

John Ira Thomas was kind enough to answer a few questions via e-mail. A special thanks goes out to John and the staff of Candle Light Press for allowing Erasing Clouds to review their fantastic publications.

How would you describe the works of Candle Light Press (CLP) to those who are not familiar with your company? Is there a release from CLP that you would personally recommend to a newcomer?

The works of Candle Light Press are personal visions first and foremost. There is no "house style" or editorial dictum to make the books the way they are. We emphasize the "novel" in "graphic novel". As to recommendations, I usually ask what people like in movies. Thriller people might like Numbers and The Fairer Sex; people into adventure I suggest Dub Trub; folks who like underground humor I show them The Scrounge Wuz Here ; if they like things like David Lynch and David Cronenberg I try Man Is Vox; people into more personal stories I suggest Leap Years and And The Sky Turned White... ; if they laugh at the thought of a talking chicken, it's Zoo Force for them.

I am often surprised which books resonate with people. But fans frequently say that they made a particular book their own through reading and rereading it. If you're looking for something different, we're a good place to look.

John your work at Candle Light Press represents a true indie spirit in the world of comics and graphic novels. You definitely go outside of the box when it comes to stories and characters. What writers/artists/etc have influenced your unique works?

I suppose it starts with having colorful parents. They both have steel-trap minds for stories. I grew up hearing story after story about relatives, neighbors, all sorts of people. Their rhetoric pattern is always tilted toward the point of the story. They're not so much small-talk people. So I was constantly exposed to speech that aimed farther on down the road. We lived in small towns, so that multiplies the stories; the smaller the town, the more stories you hear.

To hear Mom tell it, I was reading words at the age of 18 months, and sentences not long after that, I hit every book I could find in the house--a lot of novels, Ian Fleming (I remain a loyal James Bond fan). I think I hit my first weird book in grade school -- Freddie The Pigeon by Seymour Leichman. That's a crazy book. I recently nabbed an old school copy off Alibris and reread it and it was like putting on an old shoe. If you squint you can see bits of the Man Is Vox style in there.

What else? Power records. Oh my gosh do I love Power records, those wild original dramatizations of everything from Kojak to Superman. The Superman record with Mystery of the Mad Minnows is easily the best. I found a Spanish copy of it recently and felt weirdly like I knew Spanish listening to it. The Power records were hell-bent on telling you some story or another in 8 or so minutes.

I am also forever indebted to Chris Graul of Baltimore PD for letting me chat him up for an hour in the wee hours of the morning about the little details of being a homicide detective. I know he was expecting questions like "What's it like to find a dead body?", but I was mostly curious about shift length and how you get a partner. That talk alone was enough to supercharge my interest in cops.

Also: any and all police manuals and textbooks, Connie Fletcher's books (esp. What Cops Know ) and movies. Movies make me want to make comics. I walked out of Kill Bill v1 and told Carter [Carter Allen, co-creator of Man Is Vox] "I can make an uncomfortable Tarantino moment." The Mr. Way versus baby Beacon sequence in Paingels was a response to Kill Bill v1 . The Fairer Sex is Jer [Jeremy Smith, co creator of The Fairer Sex] and my shot at making an Argento-influenced giallo. The movie influences are all around.

I don't really try to emulate or identify with any particular writer or artist; the work is the important thing. Some things are accidental and some things are the result of a brilliant plan. Some things are a little of both. In the end, all we really have is the work to guide us. Someone can tell you the secret of the unsettling scene in the cab scene from Suspiria, or you can look at the glass in the upper left when your point-of-view's in the back seat and see something amazing. It's better when you draw it from the work yourself.

You definitely have numerous influences on your work and it seems that they have played a role in your non-traditional graphic novels ( i.e. Man Is Vox and Numbers). Also, your works do not pander to the lowest common denominator (which is a good thing). Do you feel that comic book and graphic novel readers are still stuck with the stigma of being juvenile in their reading level and intelligence?

They don't have to be stuck. Time wins out in these things. I can remember being given a videotape by my Junior High librarian with "Japanese cartoons" on it. This would have been 1983. It had Arrivaderci Yamato and Galaxy Express 999 on it. They made Superfriends look pretty thin. I remember showing it to friends and they were mostly down on it--too long, why would that guy do that, what's the point of this? Now you might be hard-pressed to find a junior high kid who hasn't seen some anime. In 1983 I got my comics at Safeway. Now I can go into Prairie Lights, a very well-regarded bookstore in a very literary town and there's a graphic novel section all the way across the room from the Humor section, and they don't even sell role-playing games (the traditional shelfmate to graphic novels in the past).

But I do feel that comics are in a bit of a trap when you try to make something more complex, more challenging. We've run into folks who complain constantly about the juvenile content of comics who dismiss our work as "too complex". So I guess Spider-Man needs erectile dysfunction or something to hit that target. Someone sent me a link to a blog that dismissed The Fairer Sex as "too confusing" and pinned it on mine and Jeremy's "poor storytelling skills". A lot of comic readers want every character laid bare every issue; they consider the "Where's Wolverine, our comrade in arms now gone these last months searching the Canadian Wilderness for his true identity, Storm, our leader since Cyclops left?" gimmes an essential way to understand comic narrative. I consider getting to know the characters to be an essential plot element.

A large part of the comics audience already has the comics they want and deserve. But they're also the most well known part of the audience at the moment. Until that changes, the stigma stays.

Candle Light Press has been successful at delivering an alternative to mainstream comics. Has it been difficult getting these graphic novels into Mom and Pop stores and regional/major retailers?

The great thing about the right sort of print-on-demand is that you get distribution as part of the package (we're distributed by Ingram, one of the largest book distributors in the US). Whether anyone takes advantage of access to your books is another problem entirely. Most stores and chains have a policy about print-on-demand books--they don't order them unless someone special orders them. So it's a little harder than it is with returnable books.

Many POD outfits let you make books returnable, but unless you're working with a lot of capital, returns can flat kill you no matter how good your book is. There was a recent report in The Independent (UK) about how returns on the last Harry Potter were taking a sizeable bite out of the profits. Scholastic sold 11 million books and had another 2.5 million books sent back.

Most of our sales come from the "long tail"--Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Booksense, all the online retailers. When a book is sold, it's printed and shipped along. When something sells well enough, they buy some to have on hand to make shipping quicker. The odder books seem to have a better time of it online. Their shelf-life is certainly the longest there. There's only so long that a bookstore will face your book out before it hits the sale table. We're in some offline bookstores that we know of (I bet we're in more libraries), but that's been a direct result of our efforts to get them into each one. Since we don't use Diamond, comics stores are the same way. We're also distributed through Cold Cut Comics Distribution, though, so it's better than it might have been.

In the end, it's been the reviews, the word of mouth and online stuff that's moved us forward. The reach that print-on-demand has provided us has freed us up from what is traditionally a time-consuming and difficult enterprise--self-distribution. When I was making comics in the 90s that were distributed by Diamond, I had a heck of a time explaining to my mother where she could buy them (you know moms, they don't want the freebies). Now I tell her any bookstore that orders through Books in Print (ie any that sell new books) can nab her one as easy as any book they don't carry at the moment. Easy.

John, with the year winding to a close what can fans of Candle Light Press expect in 2006?

Well, let's see:

Atlanta by Carter Allen
Dub Trub 3: This Dangerous Game by Carter Allen
Dub Trub 4 by Carter Allen
The Fairer Sex v2 and maybe v3: A Tale of Shades and Angels by myself and Jeremy Smith
In Brothers' Arms by Michael Ayers and Carter Allen
Lost In The Wash by myself and Will Grant
Man Is Vox 3: The Other Way by myself and Carter Allen
Zoo Force 3 by myself and Jeremy Smith
A Zoo Force Collection (working title), the first three ZFs collected without the puzzles and coloring--a library edition. It will have other goodies that don't encourage you to write in the book.

Ian Bennett (Leap Years) is making room in his schedule to do a new book, but he's being quiet about what it will be.

We'll be rechristening our "why candle light" catalog as an "annual" as well. It will still have sequential selections from each of our books plus extra fun bits and glimpses of the future. It will still be available for free to retailers and librarians who request it.

We work in a swirl of books all the time here. Sometimes books will shift a bit depending on all sorts of factors. Since we print as soon as we finish, there's no lead time like there is for traditionally-printed books. I'm currently writing a Dub Trub story for a volume that's at least a couple years off--just think of the output if we didn't work day jobs!

If you want the day-by-day news on when something's about to come out, our blog at www.candlelightpress.net is a great place to start. We also have a newsletter you can subscribe to at http://www.candlelightpress.com/contact.htm .


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