Iconic: Interviews with the creators - part 1 - National Comic Book

Iconic Gerimi Burleigh Jesse Toves Comic Artists Guild CAG David M Gutierrez David Gutierrez

Iconic artwork copyright Comic Artists' Guild

The Comic Artists' Guild (or CAG) is an international group of comic book professionals of all levels whose chief intent is to create comics. In a stroke of brilliance, they have recently published "Iconic," an all-ages graphic novel collection of popular myths and stories.

Jessey Toves and Gerimi Burleigh supplied and the words and pictures for one installment, "John Henry: America's First Superhero." The familiar story of man vs. machine takes an interesting twist in Toves and Burliegh's version - it's a murder investigation with a focus on politics and labor conditions. It's heady stuff, but the tale maintains its classic, all-audience feel.

In a first installment of a two-part series focusing on "Iconic" creators, Examiner.com sat down with Toves and Burleigh to discuss their story.

Examiner.com: Why this story?

Jesse Toves: It's funny but there was a song I was taught in the fifth grade - basically one of the many folk songs based on John Henry - that started me thinking about the character at all. Over the years I would remember the song and that determined tone and refrain of "Before I let that Steam drill beat me down I will die with this hammer in my hand." It really stuck with me as a child and the image of it was something that I would remember into adulthood as an anthem for basic determination in the face of ridiculous odds.

Examiner.com: How did you two end up collaborating? What was your process?

Jesse Toves: The two of us were actually members of the ComicBook Artists Guild which has chapters across the US and a few in some other countries as well. They formed an LA Chapter under Philip Clark of QuantumComics and he told us CAG was fishing for pitches on an anthology which would be based on public domain characters. After my story won selection as a pitch and Gerimi was selected as an artist, the editorial staff matched his work to my story after he submitted some samples.

I am actually an artist myself and thought I would draw the story initially, but the ComicBook Artists Guild rules regarding the production of the book required that the creative work be distributed fairly throughout the guild's membership. I was actually very shocked that the Guild chose my story pitch at all because I am really not a writer (which some reviewers of the project have been kind enough to point out - haha).

But When I heard Germimi would be picked to draw the story I only had one actualy point in the story which needed to be made visually and it was the last three panels of the story. Basically it depicts the dwindling image of a character but the rising refrain of the song. It was my indication that this particular character will be forgotten forever but John Henry would be remembered forever.

As for a collaborative process there really wasn't one that I can point to because aside from that one demand I tried to be as completely hands off with Gerimi as possible. Mostly I was really experiencing this process as a writer for the first time and the CAG editorial staff helped me write in a pretty strict page and panel format for clarity.

I am actually quite used to writing very decriptively for animation, and that transitions quite easily into writing for sequential art in some ways. So as soon as I finished the script it went to Gerimi. I do remember he had quite a few pages thumbnailed by one of the last CAG meetings we held and I felt very confident he would understood exactly what I was trying to say.

Gerimi Burleigh: Originally, I wasn't even planning to contribute to the CAG anthology because I was trying to wrap up my graphic novel at the time. I remember Jesse telling me the general premise of his story and I thought to myself, "Damn! I wish I had thought of that." Even though we didn't know we'd be paired together, I was secretly hoping I'd get to draw that story. The pitch was a big part of me deciding to submit samples to CAG editorial. It's one of those ideas that makes so much sense and brings a mythological, almost-supernatural tone to one of the great pieces of American folklore.

As soon as I got the final script, I started chugging away on layouts. The back and forth was pretty easy going. Here and there

Jesse had suggestions for a panel, but he pretty much let me run with it. I'd make changes and kept rolling until the entire story was laid out. There was one page where a flashback was supposed to mirror events that were happening in the "present" and I hadn't structured it that way. I didn't pick up on the mirroring element, but Jesse emailed me some thumbnails and explained what he was going for. His layout was way stronger than what I had intitally drawn anyway, so we were off to the races.

Examiner.com: How did you come to be involved in the project?

Jesse Toves: I became involved with the ComicBook Artist's Guild in early 2008 which met at the Brave New World shop in Newhall. It was led by Phil Clark, who also lettered the John Henry story in the end. CAG was accepting pitches for the Iconic anthology and I actually ended up submitting two pitches - the second of which was based on "Macbeth."

Gerimi Burleigh: Unexcitingly, the same as Jesse's [story]. I submitted pages from a project I was already working on.

Examiner.com: Is it hard to adapt something so well known? Is it hard finding an angle on such a familiar tale?

Jesse Toves: I didn't find it terribly difficult to write at all but possibly only because the reconstruction period in the United States is an area where I had actually spent an enormous amount of time in college history courses. I actually graduated with a minor in history and a healthy portion of my writing in some of those courses dealt with American military history - particularly the Civil War.

But the "angle" on the story was straight up Hollywood - "The Usual Suspects" is one of my favorite films, as is "Glory." So I guess I borrowed conventions from other fav-films and comics, tossed them into a blender and out came my John Henry story.

Gerimi Burleigh: One of the things I still wish I had done better was visual reference research. I've historically been a bit weak on the backgrounds and would like to have put in more time on that end. I was working fairly quickly, though, and in addition, there was a lot of story to fit into 12 pages. Sometimes, I had to focus more on shots that told the story, instead of showing the world. In an ideal scenario, I'd strive to do both.

Examiner.com: What are you both working on these days? Any future collaborations together?

Jesse Toves: Other than my tan? Just kidding. Actually I have participated in five of the last 24 Hour Comics Day challenges and only completed three of them to date. The last two were overly ambitious but they were the closest to being actual stories so I am taking the time to finish them and compile them into a series of stories a la "Sin City" - very future noir.

For this year's challenge, I will hopefully tell the last story in that series and finish it (not necessarily in the 24 hours) and combine them with the other two stories and then self publish them somehow.

Gerimi Burleigh: I'm writing and drawing a series of short horror stories, the first of which, is about a man who breaks his neck and is isolated from any assistance, medical or otherwise. After that, I've got another graphic novel plotted out.

Examiner.com: How do you feel about the end result?

Jesse Toves: I am mostly happy with the John Henry story although I wish I had time and space to more carefully allude to the manner in which he died. Something about the misdirection in that story fell a little flat to me because I spent a lot of time setting tone and not enough actual story.

I also am a little concerned about the general knowledge of the actual folklore - especially with younger readers. One of the more interesting themes to explore is how much of American folklore like Henry's is going to be lost to our technolust and modern lifestyle.

But now that the experience is really complete - with reviews and all - I am pretty happy. This is actually my first work published ever - and it's as a writer. I actually came here from Guam about fifteen years ago to try and break into comics and/or animation. Well I got into animation but the comics thing had to wait quite a while.

Gerimi Burleigh: I like it better now that I've it in print. I was a little down on my artwork when I first finished it. Most artists are never satisfied with their own work, but I was also experimenting with a new visual style and I didn't quite capture what I was going for. Still, after a bit of reflection, there are some nice story moments and expressions that I've warmed up to. There's things I would do differently if I were drawing it now, but I'm proud to have worked on it. I don't want it to sound like I'm sucking up to Jesse, but I really liked his story much more than I liked my art on it. The tale is an excellent read.

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