And as promised last week, here’s my interview with Matt Bors regarding his new Graphic Novel WAR IS BORING —out today!
1. How did you hook up with David Axe to work on War is Boring? Is this your first graphic novel? Or at least the first time working with a writer?
I first hooked up with David at a comic convention where we were both seated at the NBM table. I was familiar with his book War Fix and he was looking for an artists to do the sequel, his previous artist having fell through. Though he had only seen my political cartoons, which are drawn in a more cartoony style, I was able to convince him to give me a shot at the book. That book fell through and we developed War Is Boring, which, after an incarnation as a weekly web comic, was developed into a graphic novel and shopped around to publishers.
2. What about the subject matter attracted you to the project?
As someone who writes his own comics, I don’t want to give away my time to another project unless I feel strongly about it. While this is David’s life we are telling, he happens to have an interesting one. There is something immediate and important about the places he visits and the stories he tells. I’m very interested in politics and world affairs in the most impoverished, war-torn areas of Earth. I don’t get to go to these places, but this way I do get to help tell the stories.
3. What was your working process like? Had David written a graphic novel before? Or did you have to break down a regular book script into the graphic novel format?
David has published War Fix and has a few other graphic novels in the works. He writes scripts with a very specific panel breakdown and what’s happening in each scene. As we grew more familiar with each other’s approach, I felt comfortable suggesting changes where I didn’t think things worked and he was very good about giving me artistic license to rework certain scenes – either condensing them or drawing them out over more panels.
4. Did you design the overall look of the book? I’m thinking specifically of the Chapter pages.
I did design the chapter pages and the overall look of the book. The only thing I didn’t do was the type design on the cover, which was handled by Penguin.
5. Did you find doing this type of hard after creating so many political cartoons that haven’t focused on sequential art as much? Having read the book, I immediately wondered if you found any of the chapters harder to bring to life than any of the others (due to specifics of the story or tone in those chapters)?
I’ve been wanting to do some long form comics forever so I was clamoring for a chance. The entire time I was alternating between this book and my editorial cartoons so I had to start thinking differently for each one. I can’t think of any particular chapter that was hard, but getting the look right for each country took a lot of photo references for clothing, architecture and military hardware. Thankfully David brought a camera on his trips.
One area of the book where the tone completely changes is a surreal fever dream David has in East Timor that features talking animals. That is really uncharacteristic of the rest of the book so I did small things like use different panel border to signify to the readers we weren’t in reality anymore.
6. Word on your Twitter account says you’re headed of to Afghanistan. When, where and why? Are you at all nervous?
On August 9th I’m leaving with two other cartoonists, Ted Rall and Steven Cloud, for a month long trip through Afghanistan. Were are traveling to Taloqan, Herat and remote regions in the Southwest near the Iranian border to see how Afghans are coping with nine years of American occupation and war. We won’t be with the military, an NGO group or any other media outlets–just completely on our own. Ted and I are both filing comics form the ground to our syndicates. Ted is doing a daily cartoon blog for the LA Times and I will be posting sketches, comics and such to my website as well as lining up some longer work when I get back.
After nine years of sitting behind my drawing table, I feel I should put a little on the line to see what’s happening with my own eyes.
7. How hard was it getting War is Boring to the masses? What was/is your relationship like with your agent and publishers? How long did you have to work on the finished book?
This is New American Library’s first graphic novel and they were great about giving us editorial freedom and promoting the book. We hooked up with our agent, Bernadette Baker, fairly quickly and she was great in placing the book with NAL. As for the time frame, it took me about a year and a half to draw. It’s only 130 pages, which is on the short side of graphic novels, but drawing it in that time frame and still meeting my weekly deadlines for the political cartoons was pretty grueling.
8. Will you be doing any signings for War is Boring? Any kind of book tour?
There won’t be a book tour, but David and I are doing various appearances. I’ll be at Wordstock Book Festival in Portland in October. David and I will also be tabling at APE in San Francisco.
Thanks to Matt for taking the time to answer my questions. For an earlier interview with Matt, head here. And don’t forget—go buy WAR IS BORING.
The Boston Bibliophile is running an interview I did concerning my graphic novel/web-comic GO HOME PADDY. Head over and read it if you’re interested; the interview contains questions and answers regarding the genesis of the project, the use of the Victorian visual stereotype of the Irish and why I think the story of immigrants coming to America is still so timely.
Read the latest page at GO HOME PADDY.COM