Bloggasm

Dave Campbell stalks the misty forests of the Pacific Northwest, where he works for a nameless Huge Corporation by day and writes like a man possessed by night. His blog, Dave’s Long Box, chronicles one man’s increasingly pathetic attempts to cling to the halcyon days of youth by reviewing all the old comic books in his collection. Dave can sing “Stairway to Heaven” in pig latin and is a master at the “I’ve got your nose” sleight-of-hand game. Beware his power.

Simon Owens: You say on your blog that you want to write for comic books. How does one go about being a comic book writer? Is it a hard field to break into?

Dave Campbell: Breaking into mainstream comics is insanely hard and you’d have to be a madman to try it. That, or totally self-delusional like me. The comics market has contracted so much over the past twenty-odd years, but the number of people who want to write for it seemingly has not changed. There are a number of possible routes into the thrill-a-minute world of mainstream comics, but the most reliable seems to be either self-publishing or getting published by a smaller comic book company as a means of establishing a toehold in the industry. It’s critical to partner with a decent artist to illustrate your scripts – it’s impossible to get published without an artist. Come to think of it, I think it might just be impossible to get published, period. I’ve diversified a little over the years and am not solely interested in writing comic books – I’m working on screenplays, children’s fiction, humor books, and my blog - so that helps take the sting out of the whole deal. Now I can fail in a number of different fields instead of just one!

SO: Have you ever published your own underground comics? How does the underground comic scene compare now to when it did when Crumb first got started?

DC: The underground scene as it existed Back in the Day is no more, but it has evolved into something different, more diffuse. Technology has made a big difference. There are a lot of mini-comics and ‘zines being published these days that are printed at the local Kinko’s, and a lot of people who would have made underground comics in the sixties are now putting their stuff on the internet. Many people look at self- and small press publishing as a stepping stone to working in the major leagues, so you get a lot of clichéd spandex-and-zombies comics that are just very poorly done imitations of what major comic publishers are doing. However, the indy spirit still exists and thrives and there are people out there doing incredible small press and mini-comics out of sheer creativity and love for the medium. A lot of these cool “art” comics can be found at shows like APE, The Alternative Press Expo in San Francisco.

SO: What is your opinion of the latest bunch of comic book movies? Are directors (for the most part) doing a good job at translating these stories to the big screen?

DC: The well seems to be drying up a little in terms of untapped comic book properties that have broad public appeal. In a few years all the major possibilities will be exhausted and we’ll be stuck with movies about Captain Carrot and his Zoo Crew and Man-Thing. Actually, they just made a Man-Thing movie, so there you go.

I have high hopes for Bryan Singer’s Superman and Joss Whedon’s Wonder Woman, but am holding my breath in anticipation of Ghost Rider and X-Men 3, which will most likely suck. Some comic books translate more easily to the screen than others - I really enjoyed Batman Begins, which was well-handled. The Fantastic Four , on the other hand, was hideous and caused me physical pain. The movie suffered from a concept that doesn’t easily translate and poor execution. I think by necessity movie producers need to feel free to tweak comic properties to make them work on the screen, emphasizing some aspects and downplaying others – even at the risk of alienating fundamentalist fanboys. You can’t be too loyal to the source material because let’s face it – sometimes the source material is goofy as hell.

SO: What are the five blogs everyone should be reading (besides your own)?

DC: I’ll stick with comic blogs, because those are my people:

The Absorbascon is a blog devoted to the minutia of DC Comic books with tongue firmly in cheek.

Progressive Ruin is the daily saga of a California comic store owner and is necessary reading for any geek.

Beaucoup Kevin is a savagely funny blog that regularly takes the piss out of the comics industry.

Chris’s Invincible Super-Blog is just what it sounds like: comedy gold, baby.

The Velvet Marauder. I know I shouldn’t pimp my other blog, but I must! This is the online diary of a vain, lower-level urban superhero who is as obsessed with his media image as he is with fighting crime. I stopped updating it, but there’s a year’s worth of archives to sort through. It’s kind of amusing.