Ninth Art - For the Discerning Reader - http://www.ninthart.org
|
Big Things: Jeff Coleman & Stephen Greenwood-Hyde
Jeff Coleman and Stephen Greenwood-Hyde hail from Austin, Texas and Shipton Bellinger, England, respectively. After meeting in Paris in 1990 they created the world of PROGRESSIONS - which Steven Grant described as "a world of rock clubs, kung fu, ambitious groupies, mice, detectives and unexpected twists" - and have been working on it ever since. In 2001 they began releasing a PROGRESSIONS minicomic on an erratic basis and have since gone monthly, with a new issue due next month. BIG NEWS: JEFF: Right now we're still working on PROGRESSIONS, a science-fiction adventure comedy romance. With martial arts. It's set on the planet Minerva, fourth planet from the Sun ? between Earth and Mars ? in Minerva City, the solar system's last human colony. PROGRESSIONS covers a cross-section of characters who live in this world, from itinerant slackers with a limited wardrobe to struggling rock bands, celebrity weirdoes, ambitious groupies, gangsters, thugs and masters of kung fu. I'm working on finishing up the design of the website and laying out a kung fu story called JOURNEY 01 for Progressions #12. STEPHEN: As well as the story itself, I'm writing about Minervan martial arts. Every PROGRESSIONS story comes with an insider's view of the setting in the form of news, reviews and articles from Minerva City's magazines and newspapers. There's so much background information, in fact, that it's led to the creation of the Encyclopaedia Minerva, which reader will soon be able to check out at progressions.org. We've got a lot of stories in development, too ? more music stories, more kung fu, more mice, more gal in batty rider, you name it. As well as writing PROGRESSIONS, I'm also a prose writer, and right now I'm looking at markets for short fantasy and crime fiction. We're gearing up to begin our second series at Webcomics Nation ? SPARK-TOWER WILSON'S SILENT SONG. It's our outer space blues fable, a Minervan story of music and fame, fathers and sons, love and loyalty ? a full-colour story formatted for the PC rather than for the page, completely unlike anything else we've done so far. As always, it was a truly collaborative project, but this time the script often came after the artwork was finished! We'd pin down the events and emotions we were trying to capture, then Jeff would draw and I'd write and then we'd sculpt the words to fit the images rather than letting the word balloons lead the story. A lot of it is silent ? which, paradoxically, is much harder to write ? but it's also about the only story where we've used captions. The hard work was mostly Jeff's, though. He devised a whole new look and style for SPARK-TOWER WILSON which makes full use of the colour and light that's an integral part of onscreen comics. We're really proud of the whole thing, and we've had great reactions from the people who've had a sneak peek, plus those who saw it as a work in progress in Dan Carroll's webcomics anthology E-volution. It was a lot of fun appearing there alongside Joe Zabel and some other talented types, but we're really excited now that we finally have the perfect venue to put out the whole of the story. BIG BUSINESS: JEFF: As John Lee Hooker says, "It's in him, it's gotta come out." I've made comics as long as I can remember. The subject changed depending on what I was doing and reading at the time. I did a goofy funny-animal superhero when I was 12 or 13. In high school I read WATCHMEN and then wrote up a synopsis for a bleak futuristic story inspired by that and ROLLERBALL. I showed that to Stephen when we met, but instead of working on that, we made up something new and good, and kept making it better. STEPHEN: I decided at the age of ten that I was going to be a writer, and by then I already loved comics. I started on 2000AD, then I discovered the old Len Wein/Berni Wrightson SWAMP THING, and from there the Alan Moore version, then V FOR VENDETTA and WATCHMEN... But I never really thought of writing comics until Jeff and I came up with PROGRESSIONS. We started inventing the world and characters, then it acquired a life of its own ? we have no choice but to make this comic, because the ideas just keep on multiplying exponentially until the best bits just explode into being as stories. BIG TROUBLE: JEFF: The biggest challenge in all this is balancing the number of stories we have to tell with the time available. So far we've resisted focusing on a single character with a continuing narrative, because we want to be able to shift our focus and look at Minerva City from different angles. That way we can get a better understanding of the whole world and all its different types. STEPHEN: It's true that the sheer number of plots and characters we generate makes life complicated for us, creatively speaking. The problem for me is, I'm like that with prose, too ? while we're finishing up an issue I'm usually writing the incidental text, working on the script for the next one, redrafting a fantasy story, researching my crime novel and writing a bunch of stories. It used to be a challenge for me to write scripts or any kind of dialogue at all. I was insecure about it not sounding realistic, but eventually I realised I don't speak realistic dialogue myself, so fuck it, why should my characters? BIG SPENDER: JEFF: Making minicomics and webcomics is actually pretty inexpensive. I draw using Painter IX and a Wacom tablet, so I don't need to waste money on brushes and illustration board! And Webcomics Nation is cheap and easy to use for hosting comics. STEPHEN: The main thing is to keep on making comics, whatever the format. Webcomics are great because they're so accessible, and a well-produced minicomic can be as satisfying to buy and read as mainstream comics. BIG AMBITION: STEPHEN: Money and time aren't factors when you're making the comic you want to make. When I'm teaching my great-grandkids to tell lies with a straight face, I'll still be writing PROGRESSIONS. JEFF: We've always believed in doing exactly the project we want to work on most at any given time. PROGRESSIONS is a long project with a lot of different stories to tell - we're just working our way through them, one at a time... BIG UP: JEFF: At the moment, the comic I'm enjoying most is SHOJO BEAT. I don't buy many other books, but I'm digging NANA and CRIMSON HERO from that. Some of the biggest inspirations for me personally have been Dave Sim, for his dedication and drive; Rumiko Takahashi, for perfecting the situation comedy in comics; closer to home, Rafer Roberts, for his tireless work on PLASTIC FARM, which gets better every issue; and Sean and Wendi Strang-Frost on JOHNNY PUBLIC, which started out so good it's almost hard to tell that it's getting better. I'm also following Kieron Gillen and Charity Larrison's BUSTED WONDER with rapt attention. STEPHEN: Right now I'm looking forward to exploring WEBCOMICS NATION, which has a lot of stuff on offer, but the names which spring to mind are mostly old favourites. Rumiko Takahashi's MAISON IKKOKU ? a sublime blend of cartoony comedy and poignant, pathetic romance. Jaime Hernandez is always a joy ? his characters are so sharply defined in his art and writing, and his storytelling reminds me of Angela Carter. And every weekend when my daughter Plaxy comes over, bedtime stories are provided by Hergé. Tintin is great to read aloud and a personal all-time favourite, so I always look forward to that. I read more novels than anything else ? just lately Dashiell Hammett, Yukio Mishima, Patricia Highsmith, Salman Rushdie and Minette Walters, among others. BIG TIME: JEFF: PROGRESSIONS is a monthly minicomic for the foreseeable future, so we will be releasing those regularly for a while. The stories will also be released in weekly instalments on the web, every Thursday at progressions.org. Our ambition over the next couple of years is to begin releasing graphic novels and start working on some longer-form PROGRESSIONS stories, including a couple of non-PROGRESSIONS projects that we have been developing for a while. STEPHEN: We already have over 200 pages of finished stories, from six to eighty-seven pages long, which we're in the process of making available right now. And in the immediate future we've got several issues of the minicomic planned out, all of which we're really excited about ? including the next martial arts story and the return of our raucous teen-tearaways of rock, The Psychobabes! BIG FINISH: JEFF: I'd like to be remembered as someone who inspired people or made them happy in some way, as someone who gave something to the medium and told some kick-ass stories. STEPHEN: The year is 3505. Genetically engineered pterodactyls wheel and shriek in the azure sky above the steaming jungles of what was once Britain. One, a magnificent specimen of rose pink with a four-foot beak, swoops suddenly ? revealing the rider who reclines in the intricate saddle between its mighty leathern wings. A beautiful woman, dark skinned and flame haired, who controls her mount effortlessly with a silken cord and murmured words ? a woman with a sword on her hip and a song on her lips, a female avatar of strength in repose. Rider and beast together drop towards what at first seems a speck of white in the jungle... but no, as it looms before them it takes shape ? a human shape, magnified many times and wrought indelibly in stone. It is a vast edifice in the form of a head ? features somewhat indistinct from the immense age of the hewn stones, but clear enough to recognise ? the pale granite of the slightly pointed head catching the hot sun's rays, the wide mouth gaping in a laugh to form a great portal, the long, pointed beard made up of steps which descend to the edge of the jungle... The woman lands her elegant reptile in the sacred chambers reached via the vast left eye, whose pupil is a passage into the bizarre building. Therein she bathes and dons ceremonial robes, to appear in a short while on the temple's intricate steps amidst a mellifluous fanfare of chimes and flutes. With joyous song she calls the people forth from the jungle ? some have travelled all the way from Mars, a journey of several hours ? for the beginning of the feast. On this day, it is forbidden to scold your children, and all cats must be given double portions. On this day, it is customary for everyone except babies and the drooling senile to create some small piece of art, and it's unheard of to criticise the results. This day is Stephentide, when the legendary God of Scurrilous Verbiage is honoured! Something like that, anyway. BIG DEAL: JEFF: PROGRESSIONS is updated every Thursday at progressions.org. Currently we're publishing a complete story from the archives every Thursday, until we catch up with the new material. After that we will be releasing three- or four-page instalments every Thursday, with the complete story available the last Thursday of the month. Minicomics are being printed now and will be available for sale through the website as well. STEPHEN: Alternatively they could try burgling my flat, though if I caught them at it things could get messy.
Ninth Art is not responsible for any transactions entered into. The Ninth Art small press spotlight is designed to help small press creators reach a wider audience. If you'd like to be considered for inclusion, get in touch. Ninth Art endorses the principle of Ideological Freeware. The author permits distribution of this article by private individuals, on condition that the author and source of the article are clearly shown, no charge is made, and the whole article is reproduced intact, including this notice. Back. |