Hey, Kids! It’s interview time again!

D.J Coffman‘s been in the news a lot recently, both for good stuff and bad, and he’s always been a willing victim friend of Fleen’s. So when I decided to get back into this crazy little world, at least on a limited basis doing interviews, he’s the first creator I thought to contact.

Yeah.

That’s right.

I’m back. Doing interviews.

Want me to interview you? Just write in and ask.

Meanwhile, here’s what’s up with D.J.

Fleen:
Can you tell us a little bit about your creative process?

D.J Coffman:
Well, technically, I draw on bristol board then scan art in and do the rest in the magical photoshop. I have a rundown of how how a Yirmumah strip gets made on my forum at http://www.yirmumah.djcoffman.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2367 with photos of my tiki bar setup where I draw.

F:
Is this answer just a secret ploy to get people to register for your forums?

Or would you consider it an obvious ploy to get people to register for your forums?

D.J.
Well, I just figured if people are really interested beyond, “I draw on bristol, then scan”, they could see the whole process there, but yeah, you’d have to go through the 20 seconds of trouble to register on the forum to read it. 20 seconds on the internet IS an eternity though… hmmm…

F:
You’ve said in other interviews and made public statements that you find your readers to be a great inspiration and a source of strength… Have you had to take an active role in generating the community, or has it been more self-regulating and generating?

D.J.
Yirmumah, I think, is a feeling. People either have that dark humor mindset, or they don’t. So, the audience seems to find it on their own, through links, blogs, whatever. When I was doing pop culturey gag stuff, I’d get tons of people following jokes about the death of Don Knotts and then find my Don Knotts in Hell strip, then fall in love with Yirmumah.

That’s usually the story… they stumble on a crazy strip, then fall in love with llama.

F:
Do you think you would have a different relationship with your readership if you were doing a different kind of comic – where the story was less based on real events and more “fictional”? For example, John Allison has changed his plotlines on a number of occasions because his fans figured it out before he was done.

D.J.:
Well, that happened to me when I started doing the “Origin” comics in July. I had many readers try to figure out the plots, etc… Most people stumbling in don’t think it’s really a biography strip of any kind. Since I wasn’t working too far ahead, I thought it was fun and challenging to just change my plots or keep people guessing. If someone sees something coming, it’s not always a bad thing, but it would be lame if you could predict everything you read. You know what though? I honestly believe the key to your readership is being there for them. If you say you’re going to be there daily, don’t miss it. If you have to take a break, (like I am now) be honest and let them know. Don’t surprise them or leave them hanging and waiting for an update. It’s a value of time thing.

Don’t waste their time, and they’ll reward you.

F:
Where do you think your comic will be in five years?

D.J.
On the holonet.

I definitly plan on drawing Yirmumah until I’m dead, so hopefully it will still be around in 5 years if you know what I mean.

F:
Do you have actual plans for Yirmumah beyond the completion of Origins? Or are you just planning on sticking to your basic premise and seeing where it takes you?

D.J.
The completion of “Origin” is a tricky thing, because it’s based on my life so, I’d have like 30 year of stories to tell. I think when a chapter ends, that’s the end of those installments, and hopefully they are fulfilling and still leave you wanting more. Origin Chapter One and Two, for instance, are basically the story of “Mom and Dad” and end where they met. You get to know a little about where “Drew” came from, the type of genetic makeup or whatever.

Overall, my goal with that is to be able to hand it to my kids when they are my age so they can know my story of where I came from, what influenced or inspired me, and perhaps a little of what almost destroyed me at times.

F:
How much of the overall story arc of HBN have you plotted out?

D.J.
Long answer….. There are essentially two stories with HBN… the original HBN is who you get in the webcomic. 1945-1956. I have a rough outline of key moments in his 11 year career that I’ll be touching on in the webcomic. We’re running it all the way up into March 2007 I believe, then where the story of the original HBN leaves off…. the books will begin running on the site a page a day.

Now, issue one of the book series, which takes place in modern day Steel City, is scheduled to be in the Previews catalog in January, and in bookstores and comic shops in March. So, as it’s hitting shelves, it will slowly be displaying on the site a page a day, encouraging folks to pick up the books that will be coming out monthly. So, if I’m correct, I think we may have updates at the site planned through July 2007. Depending on how things go with sales and readership, I’d love to do a full on monthly title or continue the daily comic with this, because I have hundreds of stories to tell with HBN. We’ll see where it goes!

F:
What do you consider to be the defining habits of successful comic creators/cartoonists?

D.J.:
Cartoonists are an odd lot. They definitly don’t get much sunlight, especially if you’re up against deadlines of some sort. I don’t know about other cartoonists, but if I’m working and have some sort of job that needs done TODAY, I’ll keep working until the job is done, and I’ll break only whenever I feel like I’m going to pass out if I don’t eat. It’s just like when I was bachelor, except there is actual real food in the here and now.

Just yesterday, I made myself Kraft Dinner as my actual “dinner”, just for old time’s sake.

F:
So the difference between a successful cartoonist and an … let’s say ‘aspiring” cartoonist is that the successful cartoonist doesn’t *have* to eat Kraft dinner?

D.J.
That might be the litmus test. If you can only afford Kraft dinner with your cartooning money, you might want to keep a side job stocking shelves at Walmart.

F:
Would you describe what you consider to be an “average” day as a professional cartoonist?

D.J.
Well, you could probably sleep until noon, but if you have kids like I do, you’re up early and getting them out the door for school. Then there’s usually a boatload of procrastination in the mornings drinking coffee, trying to wake up, while reading through a bunch of RSS feeds just to see if anyone is talking shit on you. OH, you said professional…. right, well, there’s a lot of the same stuff there, but mostly you find yourself working all day. Breaking for sustenance. And if you’re as obsessed with comics as I am, you’d find yourself working entirely TOO long. You tell yourself you’ll take a break at 10pm, but find yourself back at the desk working on something, and before you know it, the late late show with Craig Fergusen is over and Oprah reruns come on…. then you know it’s time for bed.

Curse your enemies and go to sleep.

F:
Do you find the word “professional” to be an odd match with “cartoonist”?

D.J.
I don’t. I know others do though. No one outside of the profession considers it “real work” or an actual “profession” but it totally is. It’s dying one, but still a profession none the less.

In fact, I would like to personally smite anyone who would find that an odd match.

F:
Can you talk about the subject of “professionalism” in comics, then?

D.J.:
Well, sadly, just because someone is a professional, doesn’t mean they act like it. And I hate to say it, but nice guys usually finish dead last. For every nice succesful guy, you probably have about 200 succesful dickheads out there, and cutthroat mothercrunkers who will undercut your rates, etc… just like any business, really. It’s SLOWLY creeping into webcomics too, and that’s sad.

Some people consider me an asshat, but honestly, I try to be as helpful and honest as possible with other creators.

I’ll bend over backward to help other creators and encourage more people to try harder. I think when you have an honest outlook and don’t see the glass half empty, then it’s MUCH easier to see and hear the bullshit. There are a lot of creators in webcomics right now looking for a cookie cutter approach, or scrambling trying to figure out how to turn an easy dime. The problem is, they want WEBCOMICS to be a business, whenever it’s actually already a profession… cartooning. And that already IS a business. Webcomics aren’t an “industry”, they’re just a new medium for cartoonists who choose to draw comics. When more people figure that out, that’s when you’ll see an ass ton more “successful” webcomics.

F:
What’s the hardest time of day in which to be funny?

D.J.
I say middle of the day. That’s when your brain gets bogged down with the to-dos and whatever the media might be shoving in your face.

F:
If you were asked to draw a cheese ninja, what kind of cheese would you use?

D.J.
The String Cheese Kind. No… Longhorn. I’m all about the colby longhorn cheddar.

F:
You’ve got a lot going on recently, between your longer running story in Yirmumah about “Origins”,and the burgeoning Hero By Night franchise. if Steve Jobs came to your door with a movie contract and a fistful of dollars. what would you say?

D.J.
For Yirmumah? I’d say, let’s talk buddy. For Hero By Night, I’d refer him to Platinum. Then I’d go click my heels in a corner and yell, HUZZAH!

F:
Following up a bit more, would you have time to do a movie, or would you have to scale back on some things?

D.J.:
Well, I can’t make movies.

But if someone wanted to do a movie or something based on something I created, that’d be fine with me. I don’t think it’s any sort of ultimate dream for me or anything, it would just give me some more money to continue making my own comics for a longer period of time and not have to worry about bills, that’s a nice though, but a little pipe dreamy. I know and have worked with several creators in Hollywood and that’s a whole other ballgame out there, so I’d rather let the pros handle that field and I’ll stick to the comics.

F:
You’re putting a lot of little details into Hero By Night Diaries. Have you had much reaction to things like showing 8 pin integrated circuits from 1945, or is it too early in the life of this comic for ravening fanboyism at that level?

D.J:
Actually, it’s really funny you mention that. HBN may be the only webcomic out there right now with a team of REAL honest to goodness editors. My main editor is Meredith Berg, and she saves me from many of my spelling goofs (since my spellcheck in photoshop 7 doesn’t seem to work anymore)– But they totally caught that circuit thing and sent me notes. Also I used the word “transistor” which one of the other editors told me wasn’t even a word until 1948 or something.

I changed “transistor” to “assembly kits” and left the photo I found on there thinking, “meh, it looks like a bunch of parts, I’ll leave it..” and the next day I had two people point it out.

UNTO which I must always say, that it’s a COMIC! And you must suspend disbelief. The minute you start to try to explain EVERY detail and make it as real or believable as possible, then it becomes lame and tired, because real life is boring and mundane.

I could explain it away that ol’ HBN has access to technology that’s not available to the public yet, with his military background connections and all. I mean, how fun would Batman be if readers disproved all his gadgets, or people told the Rocketeer creator that the guy’s ass would burn off… it goes on and on… but really, it was just my goof. Now I get a kick if anyone mentions it, because it means there are smart readers out there paying attention. I love it.

Mostly, the editors will cover my butt though. They have my back!

F:
Mai Tai, Navy Grog, Planter’s Punch, or Suffering Bastard?

D.J.
Mai Tai.

F:
With or without Orgeat?

D.J.:
With, of course.