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Big Things: Patrick Neighly
Patrick Neighly is a globetrotting telecoms journalist who only turned to comics creation in the past year. An experimental self-published one-shot in early 2003 led to the decision to go whole hog with the full-length colour graphic novel SUBATOMIC, released last August. He also co-wrote ANARCHY FOR THE MASSES, perhaps the definitive guide to Grant Morrison's INVISIBLES, which is published by Disinformation. BIG NEWS: Recent focus was all about my 136-page self-published graphic novel SUBATOMIC, which examines contemporary issues of Homeland Security through the lens of traditional comic spy agencies like SHIELD. Under Ashcroft, these guys are less likely to be looking for the Red Skull and more likely to be snooping through your e-mail and checking out your library history. SUBATOMIC follows a young agent named Mark who decides that this sucks. We follow him over the course of a year as he goes on the run and tries to live a life outside of the "with us or against us" paradigm. Some well-known writers have said some very kind things about the book, but my favorite moment was having Douglas Rushkoff give me a cover blurb and ask me to come on board his own debut graphic novel as editor. That really told me I was doing something right. But now I'm shifting gears to my new ongoing series, which ships in May 2004. BLACK-EYED SUSAN is a "pop" science fiction comic that finds a young woman leading an unlikely rebellion against Martian warlords. BIG BUSINESS: I've always wanted to be a writer, but medium didn't much matter to me. I started out writing some plays in high school that are best left forgotten, and promptly got swamped in non-fiction once I graduated college and began doing magazine features. Then I turned to screenplays, which became comics due to expediency, really. There's nothing stopping you from putting a book together, and the punk DIY aesthetic in the industry is really appealing. My self-published books look very professional because I'm obsessed with that sort of thing, but I really admire the fact that doing the legwork oneself is worn as a badge in comics. In the proper book world you'd be shut out from the start. BIG TROUBLE: The biggest barrier to self-publishing is money. These things aren't cheap to do in color, and there are so few retailers willing to stray far from the top three publishers that the economics are extremely difficult. Readers and retailers are both very conservative in trying new titles ? which is their right, and I understand why they must be conservative ? but it really hampers the introduction of new voices and new genres. Also, I can't draw, so I've got to hire artists. BIG SPENDER: I can afford to make comics because I'm not trying to run a business. That's it, basically. The economics work if you're ruthless and canny, but don't talk to me about profit yet! Let's just say that the money I spend on publishing could be spent on weekends boozing or whatever. I just make a decision about where my discretionary income goes. I've been fortunate to break even to date, because I know a lot of amazing self-publishers who deal with constant flows of red ink. I'm also very fortunate to be married to a professional designer, so I have no production costs. If I had to pay for coloring and lettering, this wouldn't work. Having two decent incomes in the household really helps! But 2004 looks to be a transformative year for me as a self-publisher. SUBATOMIC is in active development for television, and that's opened a lot of doors for me in terms of Hollywood access to my next batch of graphic novels. It also looks like Mad Yak Press is about to close a lucrative content deal in Asia based on a few upcoming projects that will basically give us carte blanche to continue publishing in color without money worries. BIG AMBITION: I love stories, and I love comics, so it was probably inevitable that I'd do some, but I don't understand why the industry is clogged with guys who had a few interesting stories in them at one point but kept writing past their sell-by date. I'll probably be doing comics for another four or five years, but if it becomes a career I'll be very surprised. Truth be told I'd much rather be making movies or writing novels. Grad school beckons. I don't really have the desire to be a comic "name". BIG UP: There aren't any creators I'll buy from blind, but Mike Allred, Grant Morrison, Alan Moore and David Lapham get more trust. I know it's gauche to admit this, but I don't otherwise tend to follow creators. If a book looks interesting, I'll pick it up. I don't understand that particular comics bugaboo. I don't only watch the episodes of SIX FEET UNDER written by Alan Ball, you know? I buy a lot of Eduardo Risso stuff. Philip Bond, Bill Sienkiewicz and Alan Davis don't do enough work. BIG TIME: The funny thing about plugging SUBATOMIC is that it's old news to me. Written ages ago and finished last spring. I'm more concerned with what's on my plate at the moment. I've sold a children's graphic novel to NBM and am racing to meet the deadline for that. Next up for Mad Yak Press is TEXARKANA, a bizarre graphic novel about sci-fi Texan cops that I think is the best, craziest thing I've ever written. The artist will be working at Marvel the day the book drops, he's that good. Every month, I'll be taking people behind the scenes of the making and marketing of the book for The Paper Curtain, my regular column at www.newsarama.com. TEXARKANA is the first in a planned series of six color books, and will be out by this year's San Diego Comic-Con. I've also got a period vampire piece in the can called THE SUPERNATURALISTS. That one will probably come out from Mad Yak Press in time for the holidays, although three other publishers have expressed an interest in the galleys. But it looks like there's a film option bubbling around that one before it's even released, so I might just go it alone and keep all the cash! Elsewhere, I'm involved in three upcoming books with The Disinformation Co., including an anthology that will feature the first comics work of political figures such as Noam Chomsky and Arianna Huffington. BIG FINISH: I'm not too concerned with leaving a "legacy" in comics, because it's not the industry I'm really focused on. I hate awards and I'm not concerned with sales rankings. The biggest honor for me personally would be impacting a young reader the same way someone like Chris Claremont did me back when I was a kid. We might not think too highly of writers like Claremont in today's market, but for a twelve-year-old in the '80s he was an amazing escape for twenty-two pages each month. If there was a kid out there who looked forward to picking up my books like that... That would be cool. But really, I'm sure I'll vanish in the great pool of unremembered indie creators... BIG DEAL: My books are available from Diamond, Cold Cut and FM International. They can also be ordered directly from www.madyakpress.com with free shipping in the US. SUBATOMIC is permanently in stock at Diamond, and BLACK-EYED SUSAN is solicited in the current issue of Previews. TEXARKANA will be in Previews for items shipping in July.
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