Artist, writer, matchmaker, instigator, bruiser, hopeless romantic, and cover boy (yeah, that’s what I’m talkin’ about), Dean Haspiel has his stars firmly placed in just about every corner of the comics firmament. Tender years spent learning at the knees of industry giants (Bill Sienkiewicz, Howard Chaykin, Walt Simonson — sheesh) paved the way for an impressive bibliography, including BILLY DOGMA, AMERICAN SPLENDOR, X-MEN UNLIMITED, stints in the Alternative Comics anthologies, THE AMAZING ADVENTURES OF THE ESCAPIST, THE QUITTER, and, of course, the co-conspiratin’ (with Dan Goldman) of that little comics collective we all take our shirts off for, ACT-I-VATE.

But Dean’s reach stretches far beyond his own work — from what I hear, to say that he’s responsible for more successful creative hookups than the best literary agents is only a slight exaggeration. And it all happens under your nose. Dean’s behind the scenes machinations are responsible for at least some of your favorite comics hoo-has — I’d lay many a milkshake on the line. (Along those lines: three guesses, and the first two don’t count, as to who brought Zornow and I together.)

Dean’s passion and commitment to comics, storytelling, and us indy underdogs is like the Bat signal — visible from a distance. Put simply, he walks the talk. And he probably doesn’t know this, but his “put up or shut up” attitude has wrested me from the clutches of the virtual couch (read: that’s what we call a pity party in our house, folks) more than once.

If my Wikipedia serves me right, 2007 marks the 20th anniversary of Dean’s first published work (Verdict, a 4-ish miniseries for Eternity Comics). But he’s far from done. In fact, he’s just getting started. Check it.

By the by, it’s Dean’s 40th birthday today. May we get 40 more years of his comics.

Talk to me about stories. Clearly they’re at the heart of everything you do. What makes a good story for you?

The thing I look for the most in any character driven story is that I get engaged and attracted to the protagonist/s early on. Otherwise, I won’t care what happens next and every subsequent scene will fail to resonate and the story becomes futile. Whether it’s memoir, action-adventure, or a spaghetti western, the reader must bond with the journeyman early on if the story thesis is going to make any kind of emotional impact. Every story between author and reader is a relationship. If you can’t get past the first meeting the readers attention wanders and, unless you can make a human connection, your protagonist is left standing on a street corner holding a bag of broken promises.

Is the connection stuff part of the reason why you’re so fascinated with romance?

Romance is the stuff of life. Otherwise, go write a behavior manual for cybernetic dolphins in the year 3012. You know what I mean? It took me a long time to figure out that the glue between all good stories has something to do with love and its many interpretations. This is how we connect and why we become loyal to certain people and certain storytellers. Heart and soul manifests in many abstract ways and none of it means a damn without the passion to get what you want. When a character meets his or her desire the story is over…until there’s that mysterious tap on the shoulder. To be continued…

Have you ever given any thought being an editor? Leland and I are both convinced you’d be great at it.

Big hugs to you and Leland for the vote of confidence. I have given some thought to being an editor and I think I would be good at it. I’m no grammar Nazi [that why I would need an assistant] and, according to my girlfriend, my table manners are a sight for sore eyes [ergo, power lunch meetings in the bowels of Wo Hops in Chinatown], but I think I have an eye for great stories and great storytellers and I’ve been highly instrumental in putting successful projects together. Not only for most of the projects I’ve been involved in but I’ve also lent my keen senses to projects for other talented folks to realize. I firmly believe in the old adage that “90% of great directing is great casting.” And, I would never dare focus group concepts. I go with my gut feelings which has served me well. If I were to convince a publisher to give me a workable budget, exploit their marketing resources, and let me hire a couple of expert comix cronies and take over the editorial reigns of a graphic novel imprint, I would surely bring the awesome. No ifs, and, or buts.

If you could have a drink with any one person, living or dead, who would it be? Why?

Jack Kirby. I never met my hero. ‘Nuff said.

What would you talk about?

Gosh. A dream meeting with Jack Kirby would’ve most likely yielded something impossible for me to express. I imagine we’d talk some comix shoppe and I’d ask to watch him compose a page and witness Jack think on paper. In my life, that’s worth more than all the diamonds and gold in the world.

You’ve had a ton of projects under your belt. Which mean the most to you?

This may seem coy but the most important projects are the ones that are ahead of me. I’m currently in the middle of writing and drawing my favorite project to date: THE BILLY DOGMA TRILOGY, which unfurls weekly at www.ACT-I-VATE.com. Billy Dogma is my comic book avatar where I get to express emotional truths while trading narrative fisticuffs with my favorite genres. I tackled a war of woo in IMMORTAL [ http://www.deanhaspiel.com/immortal.html] and now I’m tackling the notion of an eighth deadly sin in FEAR, MY DEAR [ http://deanhaspiel.com/fearmydear.html]. The trilogy wraps up in a story called AS BIG AS EARTH. I’d be remiss to not mention projects like THE QUITTER and my AMERICAN SPLENDOR collaborations with Harvey Pekar, plus, my current graphic novel collaboration, THE ALCOHOLIC, with writer/pal, Jonathan Ames. Also, I’m quite fond of my punk rock days with Josh Neufeld on our two-man anthology, KEYHOLE, my semi-autobio collection, OPPOSABLE THUMBS, and my early BILLY DOGMA efforts.

Where would you like to be in five years?

If Marvel ever lets me tackle THE THING again, I’d love to do my definitive monster romance story. Otherwise, DC should let Nick Bertozzi and I revamp OMAC. Also, I’d like to finally get a Mark Waid collaboration under my belt [”Thor Smash,” or “Metamorpho,” or some other lucrative franchise that could use a kick in the underoos], and I’d like to persuade Warren Ellis to write something honest for me to draw. I’d like to write a screenplay or two, have written a novel, and continue producing comix that I write and draw and makes me money while I sleep. And, last but not least, I’d like to actually/finally/truly take weekends off from work.

Name five stories within easy reach.

1] Once Upon A Time In The West by Sergio Leone.
2] Bottomfeeder by B.H. Fingerman.
3] The Eternals by Jack Kirby.
4] Triumph Of The Won’t by Tim Hall.
5] Bone Machine by Tom Waits.

It’s a very special episode, coming up this Thursday….

Things get ugly. And I do mean ugly.

Check in next Tuesday, June 5, where things really start to go south for our hero.

For our last Five x Five (for the forseeable future), Tom and I invited a special friend along to help us put the cap on STUCK…fellow ChemSetter and comics journalist at large, Chris Arrant:

ARRANT: Last week’s page, page 36, confirms it. It’s not an accident or a natural disaster – a group is bombing the trains in NYC in Stuck. Given the post-911 world we live in and the fact you’ve been working on this series for about 9 months, has your work on Stuck made you relate to terrorist attacks and hostage taking different in the news?

DELSANTE: A little bit.  I’ll be the first to admit that my news comes from either the paper or the ‘net as I find the nightly news on TV a little too much to take.  So, if Paris Hilton isn’t being arrested, yeah, there’s something there and it affects me.  I find that the type of news that gets to me the most is when it deals with kids being caught in the crossfire.  But that’s starting to divert from the question a little.

I don’t think that any of us could possibly relate to being in a hostage like situation.  Sometimes, living in NYC, you feel like you’re a prisoner in an open cell.  Saturday, I was working at my day job (@ Hanley’s) and there was a bomb threat at the Empire State Building…they found a package outside and treated it as suspicious, which is S.O.P.  The cops wouldn’t tell us what was going on…the only reason I knew anything about it is because I asked a friend of mine to stop by another store and grab a book I needed before it closed.  The cops asked us to let all the customers out, lock the door, and wait.  So we did.  And then I started getting claustrophobic.  Add to that the fact that WE weren’t told to exit the building, and I felt like my life was at stake (in retrospect, I’ll admit.  In the moment, I was fairly calm).  So, getting back to the question, I feel like it’s a little easier to relate to what the passengers are going through in the story, but that world that we created…while it could exist, it doesn’t right now at this very moment.  That’s true life scary, and that I do feel.

WILLIAMS: The subject of terrorism comes up alot ’round where I live.  They’ve caught two terrorist suspects on my street. There was an arrest earlier this spring. I’m not kidding. One of them was allegedly involved in the Brooklyn Bridge plot. It’s in the back of my mind as I draw the story but I try to not let it run my life. Most of the Muslims on my street are great people.

DELSANTE:  You know, there’s eventually going to be a Muslim passenger on the train that, obviously, gets stereotyped and profiled by the passengers, especially Frank.  Which is why we introduced “Raven 1.”  I wanted to play a lot of these dramatic elements up, and to do so, I had to show Raven 1 early.

WILLIAMS: Yeah, I wouldn’t want to stereotype anyone. A terrorist could be anyone.

ARRANT: Although you’re taking a hiatus for a bit, it’s quite an accomplishment to do 36 pages of a comic, online no less. How did it come together though – did you agree on the story then decide to do it as a webcomic, or were you set on doing a webcomic and then decided on the story? And why?

DELSANTE: That’s a good question…and a little hard to answer.  I think what I did was I had a concept for a story…actually two stories…that I thought could work as a serial.  One of them was STUCK, obviously, and the other (I wonder if Tom remembers this) was a fantasy story about the Lost Boys returning to Neverland.  If there’s a book Tom Williams should draw, it’s that!  But I think someone scared me off because of copyrightinfringement or something, so I went with STUCK.

WILLIAMS: Vito contacted me last summer with a couple of different ideas.  He had seen some of my work on my livejournal blog. Both were great ideas.  I would have done either.

DELSANTE:  I knew I was doing a webcomic, so I guess that came first.  I had the idea for the stories prior to The Chemistry Set, but deciding on the story, and trying to find the right one for Tom to draw (which was based solely on his enthusiasm for either project) came at around the same time.  The format did dictate the choice of stories, that much is true.  I have about five or six other projects on the back burner, but they’re not webcomic material.

Truthfully, I don’t think STUCK is webcomic material, and that’s my own fault.  I should have wrote in more cliffhangers for every week…something that would naturally bring people back week after week instead of…dangling dialogue.  You know what I mean?  When someone is talking and it’s the last panel of the page and it is relatively stilted speech.  There’s a flow in STUCK when you read the story as a whole, but I think, and again, totally my fault, that the weekly format might have hurt it in some ways.

Tom, did you feel drawn to either idea in particular?  I mean, did you think there was one that was more suited to your abilities moreso than the other?

WILLIAMS: The Lost boys would have been good for the fantasy element.  Stuck has a nice here and now subject matter about it. It was tough choosing either. The legal concerns made it easy. I would have said yes to either because I hadn’t tackled either subject. Every story I work on I like it to be different from the last one. Keeps everything fresh.

DELSANTE: I always wondered about that.  If anyone has ever read NO DEAD TIME, it’s so obvious that you have a really good handle on fantasy characters in real world settings…which is what the Lost Boys story was going to be, but it would have taken place in the 50’s so I could use the “Red Scare” allegory for Captain Hook and the threat of the nuclear bomb…that whole thing.

ARRANT: Back to STUCK.. In the three chapters so far you’ve developed quite an ensemble cast. Who’s been your favorite to use, and who do you think has more up their sleeve than people have seen so far?

DELSANTE:  Can’t wait to hear who Tom says, but I really try to fit Eric and Hector into every scene.  I don’t know why…actually, I do know why.  It’s because the way Tom draws Eric…he kind of looks like me.  And when I came up with him, Eric was, essentially, me.  So, it’s weird…I’m not familiar with what these passengers are going through, yet I want to be on that train.

WILLIAMS: I was looking forward to the teens next and the homeless guy.  Hector and Eric had a really good rapport with each other.

DELSANTE:  I think in one of the earlier Five x Five, Tom said that Lefty was his favorite one to draw, so I tried to write him in more often.

ARRANT: You both mentioned the Eric & Hector rapport. Can you tease that out a little more, and tell us why it works for you and what you see it in that you’re trying to convey to the reader?

WILLIAMS: Reading the scripts early on, it struck me like there could be some more male bonding later on between Eric & Hector. Maybe there will be..

DELSANTE:  Yeah, there’s just something between them…like when you meet someone your own age, or someone who was born the same year you  were.  There’s just a part of you that says, “Oh, he/she gets it.” If you remember the first chapter, Hector tells Eric he should have  gone after the girl (who got off the train before they got stuck).

And there’s a part of Eric that’s thinking, “Sonuvabitch, he was right.”  Right there, Hector “gets” Eric, and there’s a bit of the inverse too.  And eventually you will see them bonding even more.  We made it almost
obvious that Hector is destined for big things.  If you notice, he’s got a prominent part in every chapter so far, and that won’t change.  Hector, the fire department cadet in training, is the de facto leader of the group.  How he falls into that role has yet to be told, so I don’ ‘t mind teasing it a bit.

ARRANT: Since we’re standing here at the beginning of a hiatus, can you tell us why? And when you’ll be back?

DELSANTE:  I think this is a case where I have to shoulder the blame here.  The main reason for the hiatus is that I feel like I’m writing in a vacuum.  I can’t tell if anyone is reading the strip, and not to sound all whiney and “why me?” but I didn’t want to fool myself into thinking that we had found an audience beyond our friends that read the strip because they like us.  I want a bigger audience, as I’m sure Tom does, and right now it’s not there.  I think at one point, in another earlier interview, I was foolish enough to say, “If you build it, they will come” and I’m still waiting for them to come, but its not happening.

I was having a conversation with Dean Haspiel and he said something to the effect of, “If you don’t feel it, don’t write it.  Everyone will notice,” or something like that.  And for a stretch, I was phoning it in…giving Tom scripts late, stuff like that.  And then my computer died and when I was ready to write, I couldn’t.  It was a conspiracy, or so it felt.  Every cell in my body told me to step back from it.

But, there’s more, and positive stuff in there too.  I’ve been given a tremendous opportunity to write Young Audience Graphic Novels for Simon & Schuster, and the fruits of my labor will be seen sometime next year.  It’s a lot of fun and, unfortunately, time consuming.  Add to that the work I’m doing for DC Comics (by no means am I exclusive to DC or working on a regular monthly book for them!), and you can see that the paying work is too good to pass up.

I have every intention of returning to STUCK in the near future.  There’s still one more chapter to go in Book 1, and there’s still two books to go!  There is a definite beginning and ending for STUCK, and I’d be cheating myself out of it if I didn’t finish it.  I also think I’d be doing Tom a great disservice if I didn’t finish it with him, so for now, once our schedules clear up, we’ll come back to STUCK.  I plan on taking a huge vacation at some point and sitting down and just cranking the whole thing out, sending it to Tom, and saying, “When you get a chance.”  As for a time frame?  I couldn’t say, but it wont be before 2008, that much I know.

WILLIAMS: I’ll be back to the Chemistry Set before you know it. I’ve got a something cooking up with a new member to our roster and one with Elizabeth.  As for Stuck: when Vito’s ready, I’ll be there.

*****

That’s all for now.  In the next few weeks, expect an announcement on:

Our new Monday strip…

A possible new initiative…

and a new way to read STUCK…

Again, Tom and I thank you very much for coming by every week and checking us out.  Words alone can’t express our gratitude.  And, fear not.  There is plenty more STUCK to come in the future.

Thanks again,

Vito (The Departed) & Tom (GoodFella)

It’s so hard to find good help these days. Even from Gary Cooper and Grace Kelly, I suppose…

Come on back next Tuesday, May 29 for Page Six!

Back in two with some flashback.

Dig!
–Kev

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Story by Chris Arrant
Artwork by Daniel Warner

The clock is tickin’! What’s our hero to do?

Circle back for Page Five next Tuesday, May 22!

Previously…in…STUCK…

*****

*****

That’s it!  STUCK goes on an indefinite hiatus from here on.  Coming in the next few weeks, a special Five x Five with Tom, Chris “One Way Ticket” Arrant, and myself.  Plenty of answers and maybe, after today, a few new questions.

With that, I’d like to thank all of you for your support and your faithful viewing.  It’s extremely hard to cultivate any kind of following with an online comic as it’s a new field, and it’s because of you, the faithful reader, that we do this.

What comes next?  Tom will be contributing more work to The Chemistry Set, so you should all stick around for that.  Seriously.  I’ll hunt you down if you don’t!

As for me, unfortunately…the reason for the hiatus of STUCK rests solely on my shoulders.  So, the reality is…I’m the one taking the hiatus.  I’m sure we’ll cover this in the Five x Five, so I’ll just keep it to thank you, and see you soon.

-Vito (cue Incredible Hulk end credits theme) & Tom (cue the Friends opening credits theme)

It’s possible we take a quick skip after next week, due to my ass needing to get back on track. You have been warned. Also, happy b-day to our compadre Dan Goldman.

Dig!
–Kev

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