Comic Books and Cookies: Spotlight on Fatherhood by Ryan K ...

Fatherhood is a rare creature. It?s a comic that seamlessly combines a pair of genres that wouldn?t usually go together, but Ryan K Lindsay, the writer/mastermind behind this one-shot, has done it seamlessly. Putting together a realistic family drama with a sudden twist into the depths of noir, Fatherhood is an emotional journey through what it feels like to be a father, or hell, to be a parent at all- and doing whatever it takes to make your child happy.
Fatherhood follows the story of a nameless, divorc?e Dad who only sees his beloved young daughter every once in a while. One morning, while sitting on his porch, he reads the mail and discovers there?s a sale on a Perky Pat doll, something that he believes would bring a smile to his daughter?s face. Tearing out of his house, trench coat and trilby to hand, he joins the queue of anxious women waiting outside the local toy store to buy up the doll. When the store opens, all hell breaks loose, and the women fight tooth and nail to get their hands on Perky Pat, leaving Dad with nothing. Dejected, he goes back to his car, puts on his hat and coat, and decides to get a doll, by any means necessary? I am by no means a parent. This fact is pretty well-known, but I couldn?t help but sympathise with the father in this book. By the time I?d finished Fatherhood I had a shiver down my spine, a prickling of tears in my eyes and the overwhelming desire to phone my Dad and tell him how thankful I was for everything he?d ever done for me. ?Fatherhood is an incredibly powerful, emotional comic-book, and is well worth a read. No matter your age or who you are, you?ll find something here to love. The artwork is beautifully simplistic, and matches the exact tone of the story, and Daniel Schneider does an amazing job on capturing facial expressions and constructing backgrounds. Not only that, but Paulina Ganucheau?s colours are well and truly sublime, fitting the change in tone and mood brilliantly in the story. Shifting from bright to dark colours infrequently, Ganucheau shows real promise and adapts the story beautifully.

I recently had the chance to speak to Ryan about Fatherhood (both the series and his experiences) creating ?comic books and his future work?

A: What was the influence behind writing Fatherhood? R: I?ll be really honest and give up the dirty little secret. I stumbled across this whole story by accident. I was being an idiot on twitter ? not usually where great writing is spawned ? and I was playing a little hashtag game all by myself. I was making up new noir genres, I did a stack; #beardnoir, #funoir, #dognoir, #beachnoir, #winenoir, and then out popped #fatherhoodnoir. It stewed for a few days but then, after discussing possible plots for a short film with my brother, I got pretty much the whole tale in one go. So, the secret to success was actually procrastinating on social media. Usually it?s quite the opposite.

A: You mention in the epilogue that you have children yourself. Are the events of Fatherhood based on your experiences as a father?

R: Ha, thankfully not. I?ve come close a few times to losing my mind. My son wasn?t a great sleeper for about a year and a half so I?d be up every two hours rocking him back down or pacing the house with him. In those times, I?d concoct all sorts of scenarios and stories to keep my mind busy. I went on all sorts of crazy adventures but nothing quite as sad as this. Yet, ultimately, for me, FATHERHOOD is about how much a man can love his child. To that end, I feel like I could lift a car above my head to make my son smile. If he wanted that doll, yeah, I?d get him that doll. A: What inspired you to include a noir element to Fatherhood? R: I like noir. There?s something about that downward spiral that has always attracted me. I was writing noir years ago before I discovered noir or knew what it was, I?ve just always been a guy who likes to take his characters down into dark places. As for bringing it to this tale specifically, besides the awesome twitter game that brought forth the tale, it kind of just felt right matched against the futility of parenthood, which is by definition a quest to pull someone as close as can be possibly attained in the hopes that they will learn how to set themselves free. A: Why did you decide to create a comic? R: Because I love comics. Most of my ideas formulate into comics. I like writing other media but comics will always feel like my home. I love the structure, the collaborative nature. I could have tried this story as a prose short but the turn in the tale wouldn?t have worked half as well. This story needed images. A: What are you working on right now?? R: I?m busy writing my ongoing book from Action Lab Entertainment?s Danger Zone imprint called GHOST TOWN. It?s a semi-futuristic action thriller with a lot of heart. I?m nearing that beautiful crest on the finish line for a script of an issue that won?t see fans by 2014, for sure. Other than that, I have maybe five comic pitches in various forms alive in my project wheelhouse right now. I?ve finally getting my book of essays about Daredevil (I wrote some and edited the others) called THE DEVIL IS IN THE DETAILS: EXAMINING MATT MURDOCK AND DAREDEVIL coming out from Sequart this year and debuting at my table at ECCC at the start of March (Table G-01 with Paul Allor). I?ve got a few comic anthology shorts at various stages of completion, I?ve got another project with FATHERHOOD artist extraordinaire Daniel Schneider lined up, and I?m also trying to fit in as much TV watching and comic reading as I can before my second child is born. A: What was the first comic book you remember reading? R: This one is hard to pin down because my house always had comics in it. It could have been any one of my flings with a Claremont X-MEN issue, or a WHAT IF? with Throg on the cover, but the comic that really first won me over and became my date was a reprint of VAULT OF HORROR #1 my brother bought me off the racks. That book turned my world upside down. A: What comic books do you read now? R: Let?s list a few active ongoings I?m digging right now: BATMAN, THE MASSIVE, BLOODSHOT, JUDGE DREDD, DAREDEVIL, SAGA, THE MANHATTAN PROJECTS, THE ACTIVITY, MY LITTLE PONY, THOR GOD OF THUNDER, CONAN THE BARBARIAN, LOCKE & KEY, AMERICAN VAMPIRE? I hate doing these lists as I?m sure I?m missing a few I adore and they?ll come back to me the minute you post this, ha. A: Where do you want to take your comics in the future? R: I want my books to find enthusiastic fans. I can think of nothing better than to have someone read something I wrote and to find enjoyment. I want people in love with something I wrote. But, that?s like the pinnacle of what I?m after. For now, people can just quietly nod appreciatively, haha. A: Take me through the process of creating Fatherhood! R: It started on my iPad. I wrote up the story in page breakdowns and was very pleased when it equalled 22. That was synergy right from the start. I then started scripting it on my iPad which is unusual for me because I nearly always have to script on my computer. The iPad is for notes only, but this time I had the script on there and that meant I took it with me everywhere. I tooled the script up any chance I got. If there was a five minute wait, I busted out FATHERHOOD. If I was bored, I got the script out. This kept it fresh in the brain and meant it didn?t actually take long to write. Well, the first draft didn?t. I went through a number of drafts, as I normally do, and in that process I sent the script to some critical friends who I can trust to call me on any self-indulgent garbage. Once the script was tight, I approached Daniel ? we had been talking about something else but I really wanted him on this story ? and he jumped in artistic hands first. From there, it?s the usual tango of thumbnails, pencils, inks, colours, letters, and me hovering the whole time like an overprotective parent trying to ensure everything is perfect. And with my creative team, it always was. A: What have you learnt through creating Fatherhood? Having an amazing creative team is the absolute best. Daniel on art, Paulina Ganucheau on colours, Brandon DeStefano on letters, and Christopher Kosek on design. That?s the posse I rode with to make this beast and they were the best. There?s something about having a whole team click that just makes it all worthwhile. It?s a journey making comics, and a long one, so you need to pack in with only the best. A: Describe Fatherhood in three words! A: Who is your favourite family in comics? R: Matt Fraction and Kelly Sue DeConnick. Purely because they have kids together and they also work their ass off and they manage to produce great content that has heart and reflects themselves as people. I?d love to get to that level some day. A: What do you hope to bring to the comics world? R: Another bearded writer. No, wait, that?s terrible, how about, a killer Australian accent? No, I got it; heart. I want to bring heart to the pages I write. That?s what I?m interested in reading so it?s what I want to deliver, some good old fashioned heart. There?s plenty of it in comics already so I?d be honoured to add some on top, you can never have too much. A: What are the benefits of creating independently? R: Absolute creative control. Only working with people as passionate as yourself ? or else why would they be there? The ability to completely shape a project in house and make it just so to your satisfaction. A: What are the disadvantages of creating independently? R: Minimum income, maximum expense. I don?t expect to make money on this book. In fact, it?s pretty much a flat out certainty I?ll lose money on it. I?ll also be lucky if the readership for this book ever reaches 3 digits. But that?s not the point of the venture. The point is to enjoy doing it. I love comics, I love making them, and so I wouldn?t change a thing about making FATHERHOOD. I?d love to have a publisher foot the printing cost, and organise distribution to thousands of retailers across the world, but I?m fine with doing this thing with my sleeves rolled up. This is where you start and it?s perfect because to pass this test you have to love it. If you?re looking to make indie comics for the ?phat money? and groupies then you are in the wrong place and always will be. You have to make this stuff for love of the game, and I have to admit that getting this out there into the world has been like a drug. It?s just amazing to see people having the opportunity to read something that was merely a thought in my head and on my iPad a few months ago. Oh, and I sometimes wished I had a ?manager? of some sort because I always feel like an ass emailing someone and asking what they are up to. I don?t want to feel like some overlord on the project but I was always so damned excited to see the next step in the progress that I couldn?t wait. When you run a book from start to finish you feel like you have to be checking up on things and then that makes you feel like the boss and that?s not how it works. I collaborated with my team and so I wasn?t barking orders or watching over shoulders, but I always felt like I was, so a ?manager? for my indie comic would be rad. It would make me spend less time procrastinating on email, that?s for sure. Ari, I also just wanted to say, thank you very much for taking the time to chat with me. It?s so hugely appreciated. I hope some of your readers get a chance to read FATHERHOOD, it should be available on www.readchallenger.com pretty soon, so stay tuned. Thanks for reading! You can find Ryan on Twitter here, and he's making an appearance at ECCC, so be sure to stop by and tell him I sent you!?

Source: http://myheartliesinfilmandcomics.blogspot.com/2013/02/spotlight-on-fatherhood-by-ryan-k.html

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