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Banter Exchange with Jake Parker
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Jake Parker contemplating MM's swimwear
Banter Exchange with Jake Parker
This past summer at San Diego Comic-Con, I got the chance to meet artist/writer Jake Parker who was putting the finishing touches on his book Missile Mouse. Turns out that Jake is a master at the game of Mafia, but we never got the chance to find out since I put a hit out on him the first game. Jake was a great sport about it, and as payback I have to help promote Missile Mouse for free. In all seriousness, Missile Mouse is available in this month’s Previews and will be available in January.
To help familiarize you with the readers, where might we have seen some of your work before? And keep in mind this is a family site.
I've contributed to a few comic anthologies: Flight, Flight Explorer, and Out of Picture 2. And if you've seen the movies Horton Hears a Who or Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs you've seen sets I've designed.
Ah, Hollywood. So what made you decide to pursue a career in the world of comics?
I couldn't avoid it. Comics have always been a part of me. I've been drawing them in some form or another since I could hold a pen. My first comic ever was about an angry apple that bit people. I like to tell stories, and I like to draw, so comics seemed like the perfect extension of that.
Is there any chance of an Angry Apple comic? You could even have a Granny Apple that gives good advice.
Ha ha, no plans, but now you've got me thinking....
And you’ve got me thinking of a co-creator credit. Speaking of creators, who are some of your inspirations?
Deep inside me there's Bill Watterson functioning at a primal level. I'm not aware of it when I create, but it's staring back at me when I look over the final product. I love the technical prowess of Japanese artists like Yukito Kishiro, Masimune Shirow, and Katsuhiro Otomo. The panel-to-panel storytelling and page compositions of Mike Mignola are a huge source of inspiration as well.
I got a chance to take a gander at Missile Mouse this past summer at SDCC. What I saw was extremely cool. You do both the writing and the artwork, correct?
Wow, glad you liked it. Yes, I wrote and drew the book.
How long does a process like that normally take?
Writing is tough. And for me it's the hardest part. For Missile Mouse I spent a good six months cooking up the story. Figuring out the characters, figuring out dialogue. Drawing, inking, coloring, lettering, all took another six months.
Why Missile Mouse? Why not Missile Sloth or Space Kangaroo?
I first came up with Missile Mouse in my early teens. I had a couple mice as pets and thought they made for great little adventurers. But lets be specific...Missile Mouse isn't really a mouse. He's an alien from the planet Rodentia who have large ears, button noses, and tails. They stand from 3 to 5 feet tall, are bipedal, and can talk. He's only called a mouse because it's a nickname given to his race due to their physical similarities to mice. Ok, I'll put the pocket protector and taped glasses away now.
No need to, they bring out your eyes. Yeah, so anyways, Graphix is publishing Missile Mouse. Did you shop MM to them or did they approach you?
I got an email from David Saylor, head dude over there at Graphix, seeing if I was interested in meeting with him. He was familiar with my work in Flight and wanted to see if I had any interest in doing graphic novels. I showed him Missile Mouse and he loved it right away. Things worked out and I ended up getting a book deal with them.
Book DEAL? So how many are we talking here?
It's a two-book deal. Book one for 2010 and book two for 2011. If these books do well we'll talk about more books, but for now this is it.
Aside from any untimely demise for MM at the end of the book, is book two a possible sequel?
Yep! I'm working on book two right now. Both books are stand alone stories and can be read independent of each other. Sort of like James Bond movies. You don't have to know what happened in Dr. No to enjoy Goldfinger.
Did you just compare Missile Mouse to James Bond? Interesting. So which of the Bonds would play the best Missile Mouse?
Hmmmm...Daniel Craig James Bond, because MM isn't quite as suave or debonair as the others. He's got a little more bite and is rough around the edges like the Craig bond. However, Missile Mouse looks horrible in a tight little blue swimsuit so you won't be seeing him donning one of those anytime soon.
I do not want to know how you could possibly even know that. Awkward. Subject change: What is the top 5 in your pull list currently?
Invincible, Hellboy, and B.P.R.D. But let's be honest...I usually only get the TBPs (trade paperbacks).
Okay, shameless plug time. Go.
Go buy Missile Mouse HERE.
Thank you so much, Jake.
Thank you!
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