"Indie Comics Showcase"

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John: Eric, Welcome to and thank you for being a part of Indie Comics Showcase. I am happy to be discussing your Indie Comic Book Company, YerStory Comics, and your new titles with you today.

Eric: Glad to be here!

 

 

John: Before we get started I was hoping you could tell us a little bit about yourself .

Eric: I’m a farm boy. I grew up on a family farm and started reading from a very young age, and I started writing stories when I was five or six, because on a farm you’re either working or you’re sleeping. In between those times–which there isn’t a lot of!–there’s not a lot to do, and we only had a tv with get this, three channels, no media player, no computer, these were pre-internet days so no internet either, imagine that…so you got to entertain yourself. Which in hindsight, is perfect for developing an overactive imagination. I collected comics growing up, and any superheroes I liked I’d copy and learn to draw that way. Eventually I started writing and drawing my own comics on looseleaf and staple together the pages. They were really bad! Hilariously amateurish but lots of fun.

 

 

John: What can you tell us about YerStory Comics? Where it’s been, where it’s going, and your plans for the future?

Eric: YerStory is the first name I picked for my freelance video production concept years ago. I had this idea of starting a video production company that focused on video archiving grandparents’ stories–so, “your story” became “YerStory”. The company didn’t go anywhere, but the name stuck. The goal of YerStory is to be a micro production studio where the ideas, stories and characters that I come up with can be expressed in different media of films, games and comics, while staying within an indie budget and spirit. And that’s not because I want to be fancy; it’s about being creative while exploring avenues to monetize those ideas as much as possible so I can be self-sufficient.

 

 

John: Can you tell us a little bit about how YerStory Comics came to be, how the characters and story were conceptualized?

Eric: I’m writing all the time and I have a bunch of scripts that I just want to turn into something in collaboration with a talented creator who’s on the same page as me, whether that be games, films, comics, or all of the above. Preferably all the above. The first comics I got going are “The River Knows” and “UFO: Undercover!”

 

 

 “The River Knows”, which is kind of like X-Files meets Mad Men, it’s set in the early 1960’s and is about a city detective and a government agent who couldn’t be more different, like the city detective is this blue-collar everyday guy and WWII veteran but a master tracker, and the government agent is a real tightwad introvert. But they somehow find they’re really good working together investigating abnormal and supernatural crimes and occurrences. The trick is, the government agent uses magic to solve the mysteries and the detective doesn’t know anything about it.

 

 

For “UFO: Undercover!” it’s more about two best friends, one is a conspiracy UFO blogger and a bit of a romantic who is trying to find meaning in the universe while still trying to pay the bills, and his best friend is the more 9-5 job guy who has his life on track, and yet keeps getting caught up in the first guy’s drama. And of course they’re investigating UFO sightings which may be real. I remember growing up there used to be this show I watched called “A Current Affair” which was basically a tv version of a 1950’s lurid pulp magazine, and they focused on true crime and supernatural stuff. That was a big inspiration for “UFO: Undercover!” as well. My next two comics “AEON” and “Through Space & Time & Stuff” were interesting in how they got started. “AEON” was an idea I had since I was a kid, it’s my spin on the whole “superheroes actually do exist!” trope; and “Through Space & Time & Stuff” is actually the most true story to my nature, which is a comedic story set in space. I really love comedy and readers will find my writing in general to contain a lot of comedic elements to it.

 

 

John: What are some of the first comics you remember reading?

Eric: Spider-Man was a big one growing up; but when I seriously started collecting comic books, Justice League International, Justice League America and Justice League Europe, with Keith Giffen and J.M. DeMatteis and their run with those books, were my jam. I loved the comedy and the balance with more tragic or horrific storylines. They brought a personality to the superheroes and made them more like people. Plus, they showed that you could have your own unique approach to superheroes with such a big brand as Justice League. Huge respect for Giffen and DeMatteis. Also I should mention “Starman” with the Roger Stern and Tom Lyle run. It was the first comic I remember reading where the hero was just a normal everyday guy with a normal job, didn’t grow up rich or have some melodramatic backstory, struck by pure chance to be a superhero. And he has to figure out how to be a superhero, and there’s sometimes things he can’t tackle or easily solve with his powers, like poverty, I remember there was one storyline about that. Really interesting stuff. The personal dynamics and relationships between the characters were just as interesting as the superhero antics.

 

 

John: What are some of the comics that have made the biggest impact on you?

Eric: After the Justice League/Giffen & DeMatteis period, I left collecting comics for a time and focused reading more fantasy and sci-fi novels and really working on my craft of writing; when I got back into comics, it was through more graphic novels than comic books, like “Red Son” or “Y: The Last Man”, “Sandman” or “Constantine” or “Watchmen”. The biggest influence though was Garth Ennis’ work…all his stuff. He’s just such a great writer with a really unique voice who can also render a character with some personality. I also really liked Joe Hill’s “Locke & Key”. There’s tons of graphic novels and comics that are really well-written. You get to a certain point as a writer where it’s less about enjoying the great story, and more about figuring out how they did it, how each writer has developed and applied their craft and unique voice in adapting the story idea, and how you’d do it yourself.

 

 

John: What does YerStory Comics mean to you, what about it makes it a story you want to tell?

Eric: For me it’s really about just making a great story everyone can enjoy that’s approachable; and if one were so inclined, if you want to look under the hood, there’s something there as well to discover. So I strive for simple but smart. That to me is the very definition of grace in writing and it’s very hard to do. Depicting the little truths of life, those details, that everyone can recognize and identify with is very important to me.

 

 

John: What are some of the things get your creative juices flowing when working on YerStory Comics? Do you read anything, watch any shows, listen to music as you work?

Eric: I’m constantly watching tv and films and listening to music. The last season of “Twin Peaks” that came out recently was fantastic; I’m a big fan of “Twin Peaks” and in fact I’d say my “The River Knows” comic book is an ode to Twin Peaks in some ways. But I do watch a lot of tv and films, and read indie comics especially when I get the chance. Lovern Kindzierski is a fantastic comic creator talent, and he’s from my hometown of Winnipeg. Actually there’s a few talented comic book artists, writers and colourists from here that have worked for the big guys.

 

 

John: Who or what have some of your influences been over the years and how have they affected your work?

Eric: Aside from Giffen and DeMatteis, and Ennis, my first loves for writers are J.D. Salinger, and the big one–no one will know him probably–Gordon Korman. Gordon Korman is a young adult writer, and he wrote a series of books with these two characters, Bruno and Boots, about these two kids at a private boarding school and the hijinks they get up into, that have indelibly shaped my joy of reading and my writing sensibilities. It’s interesting because in most of his books, now that I look at them, the stories are fueled as the dynamic between two unlikely partners: one is more offbeat and eccentric and risk-taking, and the other is the “normal” one, or really the one who represents the perspective of the reader. Anyone who’s read “Don’t Care High” or “A Semester in the Life of A Garbage Bag” or “Son of Interflux” knows exactly what I’m talking about. If John Hughes was the conduit of high school angst for Hollywood, Gordon Korman was his literature equivalent. 

 

 

John: What are your hopes for YerStory Comics for the future?

Eric: Just to manage my productions as efficiently as possible, work on my sales and marketing for YerStory, and slowly expand my line-up of comics with a group of talented people that I can rely on and that I can in turn, help build them up too. My goal is to collaborate with as many great artists as possible and help create that whole ecosystem around YerStory between creators and audience, and ultimately be a sustainable original content production company.

 

John: Can you tell us a bit about your creative process?

Eric: When first coming up with a concept, a few ideas will come to me, and I think on each one a long time and work out the characters and possible scenarios in my head first and basically get 50% of the writing done mentally. Then I write the story down in film script format. I work on multiple scripts at a time and I write pretty fast and furious with some time in between to rest. After a couple of revisions and giving the script some time to marinate and make some tweaks, I’ll give scripts to my artists and they can run wild with it. They give me a draft and unless there’s something really glaring that needs to be changed, I approve and they ink or colour. Then I get the finished pages back to letter them, and I reinterpret my script back to the pages. This is an ideal process and one that works very well for me and my artists because it gives them a lot of creative control over the story, and it make us more partners in the process; and when it comes back to me to letter, I can make final tweaks, which actually helps take out the parts that don’t work. So it’s a process that’s probably a little more improvisational, but I and the artists love it, it works great. And the reader gets something that’s hopefully more energetic.

 

 

John: Is there anything else you want to share with us before we sign off?

Eric: Writing and creating is fulfilling to me, and I can’t not do it. If it was my only option, I’d still be doing comics on loose-leaf and stapling them together. Thanks very much for the exposure!

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