It stands out as a fresh new example of the stylistic horizons that only a comic book could explore while, narratively, it presents a unique approach to exploring questions of meaning and existence

These are just a couple of the reasons why I was extremely excited to talk to Ray Fawkes about his new graphic novel, One Soul.

Fawkes is well-known for his ages comics’ Apocalipstix, which he wrote and Cameron Stewart illustrated, as well as Possessions Book One & Two. In addition to being a two-time Joe Shuster Award nominee in the “Outstanding Canadian Writer” category, Possessions Book One: Unclean Getaway earned him a nomination for a YALSA award from the American Library Association.

He also wrote the comparatively much darker comics Mnemovore, Spookshow and Black Strings. In the case of the latter two and Possessions, Fawkes assumed the artist mantle as well.

One Soul, which he wrote and illustrated, tells the story of eighteen different lives that all share the same soul. Each of the eighteen stories is told simultaneously, by way of eighteen dedicated panels;  nine on each page of a two-page spread, each following a different character.

If one of the eighteen lives ends before the others, for the rest of the book that panel goes black.

You’ll have to wait until July to get your hands on a copy of this innovative new comic, but for now, you can read what Fawkes has to say about it below:

KD: How would you describe the premise behind One Soul, in eighteen words or less?

RF: ONE SOUL: Eighteen’s people’s lives, from birth to death, across time and around the world – together telling a single story.

KD: You started this book by writing, drawing, and lettering the first fifty pages (in what could only be described as an act of faith) before submitting it to Oni.

What is it about this story that made it so important to you that you were willing to make that first step entirely without publisher backing?

RF: Well, first off, I come from a DIY background – I’ve put out a few self-published pieces – so it wasn’t hard for me to start out under the assumption that I was going to be producing and publishing this book myself. In fact, I often write scripts without a publisher’s commitment, and occasionally start drawing the books as well.

One Soul in particular, though, is a book that struck me as impossible to pitch in writing – there was no way to demonstrate how the book was going to work until someone could hold a portion of it in their hands and experience it the way it’s meant to be read. It was my good fortune that I had the chance to present it to the editors at Oni Press once I had put together enough of it to demonstrate how the whole book was going to work – and that they reacted so positively to it.

As far as the story goes – it’s the story I feel I need to tell. I can’t say it plainer than that. I’m one of those writers who feels the stories curling in the gut and feels the imperative to get them out.

The moment I conceived of this one, I knew I had to create this book, and I knew that I would undertake whatever effort or expense was necessary to complete it and put it out.

KD: What can you tell me about some of the characters whose lives you explore in One Soul?

RF: I’m not going to answer this one in too much detail, because watching the characters grow from infancy and develop into their adult selves – with the surprises, both pleasant and disappointing – is part of the experience of the book.

Here’s some of what readers will see: warriors – both bloodthirsty and reluctant, healers – both competent and helpless, teachers – both wise and cruel. Altruists, egotists, criminals and victims. Human beings.

KD: What sort of research was involved with putting together a book like this?

RF: There was a fair amount of research involved in the early stages of this book: setting research, to make sure I had the time and place pinned down for each character, costume research (of course), and some reading to ensure that the roles the characters played fit well into their settings. It all boils down to a lot of reference reading and image sourcing – work that I hope allowed me to construct a framework that supports the story invisibly, without creating any jarring mis-steps.

That said, I’m sure there are people out there who will make an effort to point out my mistakes.

KD: Artistically, what did you have in mind when you came up with the style for One Soul?

RF: I needed the art to be cartoonish enough to generalize the characters, but detailed enough to create a feeling of connection and sympathy for them. A black and white, fairly detailed “clean line” approach seemed most appropriate.

KD: How do you feel your approach differed in this from your previous illustrative work?

RF: I tend to try to vary the style of my illustrations to match the feel of my books and best convey the atmosphere of the script. ‘Possessions’, an all-ages comedy series I create, is illustrated in a much more spare, saturday-morning cartoon style. If I were to do a horror story, I might work with a looser, darker, spattered style.

KD: Is it strange for you to switch gears between working on a project like One Soul and doing something kid-friendly like Possessions?

RF: Not in the least. I find it relaxing to switch gears! Especially when I can switch from something as serious as ‘One Soul’ to a light, silly romp like ‘Possessions’, or vice-versa.

KD: Speaking of your ongoing projects, can you say anything about what stage of development ‘Junction True‘ is in?

RF: I can’t say much about it right now. Vince Locke is creating the artwork for the book – each page is fully painted – and it’s in progress. I’m hoping he’ll be done this year, and the book can make its debut as soon as possible after that.

KD: Is there anything else you have on the go or in the works that you can speak of?

RF: I’m working on the next volume of ‘Possessions’, of course, and heading back to the shelves to see which of my other pieces to do next! After finishing ‘One Soul’, I took a couple of months off just to rest and think…and now it’s time for me to lay the groundwork for the book that will follow…

ONE SOUL debuts in July from Oni Press. For more from Ray Fawkes, you can check out his official website or follow him on Twitter.

-Interview by Kevin de Vlaming

I mean, sure they managed (using black magic and wizardry) to congest Crime and Punishment down to a palatable 85 pages of overview, and yes, Jane Austen is a lot more sensible when you don’t have to muddle through hours of haughty 19th century prose.

Still, do you ever find yourself thinking that they really could have gotten where they were going a lot faster?

Enter Ontario-based comic artist Eric Kim, who answered a resounding ‘yes’ to the above question. To prove that any classical narrative could effectively be reduced to two-to-four panels of dialogue, Kim set about putting to shame one of literature’s greatest icons; the Bard himself.

“My friends and I were all sitting around, having some drinks and watching movies,” Kim says modestly of the project’s humble beginnings, “At some point in the night, someone mentioned Scott McCloud and the notion of condensing a narrative into two panels. It sounded pretty ridiculous, so I tossed off a two-panel version of Hamlet. Turned out it to be pretty funny, actually. My friends all thought it was pretty hilarious, so I kept it up.”

From there, Eric embarked on an epic two-and-a-half-month quest to translate all of William Shakespeare’s plays into glorious, two panel comic book form. That’s right, Every. Last. One.

The results were collected and published Eric Kim’s new book, The Complete Plays of William Shakespeare. I’m delighted to say that Kim’s friends were right to encourage him – his collection of masterly rendered stick-man drawings and modern takes on Shakespearean dialogue are truly, ridiculously funny.

Any author that describes the first part of A Midsummer Night’s Dream with the dialogue “Holy shit! I’m a donkey!”/”Well shit! Let’s get it on!” has my vote of confidence.

“It’s weird,” says Kim, on the reaction he’s been receiving from Shakespeare fans, “It’s all been pretty positive. I think it’s because I’ve made an adaptation that doesn’t dumb down the material, and in some cases, actually incentivizes (is that a real word?) the reading of the work. I hate Shakespeare. And now I want to go read “A Winter’s Tale” because of how people have responded to it. It’s kind of fascinating.”

Hate, perhaps, is a strong word. As the dedication to the source material would indicate, Kim’s research on Shakespeare’s works alone shows his appreciation for the legendary author.

Says Kim:

“I’ve read Hamlet, Twelfth Night, Macbeth, King Lear, and Romeo and Juliet. Basically anything that was required reading for high school. My appreciation for Shakespeare is pretty superficial.”

Thank goodness for Wikipedia.

Despite Eric’s extensive research, some plays still proved harder than others to Coles-size into accessible versions of Shakespeare.

“The hardest to summarize was the last one in the collection, Cymbeline,” says Kim. ” It’s a lot of plot to compress into two panels, so that mostly became just two people summarizing everything. Well, I guess most of them are about two people summarizing everything.”

If only Will Shakespeare lived to see the Twitter generation. He certainly could have learned a thing or two about getting to the point.

The easiest play to summarize, says Kim, was Hamlet.

“I know that play pretty well, so I was kind of sad when it was over. I think that it has more of the intent of the book at heart: to compress what people already know and put it into a humourous context. The lesser known plays tend to read more like summaries, which is fun too, but sort of aside from the initial intent of the work.”

I also asked Eric about his influences outside of the Elizabethan area in putting together the book. Specifically, I was curious if he was inspired at all by fellow history-reinterpreter Kate Beaton.

“I have a huge admiration for her work, and also for her depth of knowledge about so many figures in history,” he says. “You can see her passion in it, as well as all the little things that bother her in recounting of history, I think. In comparison, I think I tend to care about literature, so history is just to lend context to the work I’m reading. Admittedly, most of my reading is pretty much pop-culture stuff. I’m pretty fascinated by sci-fi in the mid-eighties. But when I need to research, I go into it.”

Eric says his modern inspirations fall more in the camp of xkcd.

“If it were written by Larry the Cable Guy,” he adds. “I think that Kate Beaton’s writing is much more clever and far less profane than mine.”

Kim’s not entirely sure if he would ever extend the two-panel author concept beyond Shakespeare:

“I’d always pictured this to be sort of a one-off thing. Though I’ve really considered making a “safe for work” version. Ultimately, I’d hate to be pigeonholed as someone that just does this one joke over and over again. There are many things that I’d like to pursue, as my editors at Oni Press are well aware.”

Unfortunately, at this time he can’t say much about his current work with Oni Press. Whatever it is, it has been big enough to keep him from updating his Transmission X webcomic, Streta, for several months now.

“I think I’m going to have to let that one go,” Kim says of the sci-fi webcomic, “I’ve been rewriting Streta ever since I went on hiatus, and it’s just not lining up right. I think I’m freaking myself out, thinking that people want more than what is there. But on top of that, all of my fears as a writer, they’re being realized. I have to stop until I can see where I’m going again. I don’t think it’s going to happen by November, ultimately. I’m not sure when it’ll happen.”

Sad news for Streta fans, indeed.

The good news is that whatever Kim’s working on for Oni Press, he reassures us it will be interesting. And until then, there’s always The Complete Plays of William Shakespeare – which you should probably pick up from Kim’s online store as soon as possible, if you haven’t already.

Consider it doing your brain a favour.

For more from Eric Kim, you can check out his various works on his official website, view recent art updates on his blog, and follow him on Twitter.

While you’re at it, here’s a rad illustration that he did for VENT, UDON’s 10 year anniversary anthology:

-Written by Kevin de Vlaming

Vancouver comic artist Steve Rolston is a man of many hats.

Originally trained in classical animation, Rolston’s career has seen him as a storyboard artist for children’s cartoons, an art consultant/designer for Electronic Arts Canada, a part-time teacher at Van Arts, and a comic book illustrator who has worked alongside some of the biggest names in comics today.

In fact, his very first professional gig in comics (way back in 2000) was penciling the series Queen & Country for highly celebrated writer Greg Rucka.  He’s also worked alongside such names as Warren Ellis (on Mek), Brian K. Vaughan (on The Escapists), and  Brian Wood (on Pounded).

All of this comes in addition to writing and illustrating his own graphic novel for Oni Press, the critically lauded pulp adventure story One Bad Day.

Rolston’s most recent major work has been on the graphic novel Emiko Superstar, which he penciled for writer Mariko Tamaki. Emiko Superstar was released in October of 2008 under  DC Comics’ Minx imprint, as part of their lineup of titles designed exclusively for teenage girls. The book revolves around the transformation of Emiko, a teenage girl living in the suburbs, from shy  babysitter to underground performance artist extraordinaire.

The Fabler interviewed Rolston about Emiko Superstar, his early inspirations, and his upcoming comic Ghost Projekt (with Joe Harris). He also shared some insight on his experiences teaching a course on comic book production at Van Arts, along with a few words of wisdom that he imparts to his students each semester.

The interview is below:

KD: What are the earliest comics you can remember taking an interest in?

SR: I used to read a lot of Archie when I was a little kid. I also used to read Alf comics, and Madballs – stuff like that. That’s the earliest stuff I can remember. Then of course, like a lot of kids, I stopped reading comics for a few years until I was a teenager. That’s when I really got into it. But Archie definitely planted the seeds.

KD: When you got back into comics, what were the titles that would inspire you to pursue the medium as a career choice?

SR: I remember the first one that happened to perk my interest in comics again was this random issue of Spider-Man. I wasn’t actually really intrigued by the story, but it did clue me in to the possibilities of telling stories visually with artwork.  The problem with Spider-Man comics at the time was that this issue was in the middle of those title-spanning story arcs where you have to buy all five different Spider-Man titles to know what’s going on.

That really turned me off. Luckily, Image Comics was starting up around that time, so I wound up picking up Gen 13 # 1, Spawn # 1, the Maxx # 1 – to start at the beginning with those was really a great thing for me.  The Maxx had a pretty big impact, and J. Scott Campbell’s art on Gen 13 probably had a certain impact on my drawing style. Then Spawn had a Cerebus guest appearance, which led me to look up Dave Sim. That then led me into more black and white independent comics, which is probably where my interest really took hold.

KD: In addition to your own indie work, you’ve worked alongside some huge names in the industry, such as Warren Ellis, Greg Rucka, Brian K.Vaughn… What has it been like for you to work alongside those writers?

SR: I consider myself quite lucky to have worked with those guys. I don’t know, I mean once you start your first gig working with Greg Rucka, it sets the bar pretty high. It was great as a learning experience, since they all have the ability to tell great stories. Even just reading a script from Greg Rucka or Brian K. Vaughan, I could totally see the way things would work playing out in my head. Those guys really understand the form of comics.

KD: Do you have a favorite project that you’ve worked on to date?

SR: My favorite project at this point would probably have to be Emiko Superstar.

KD: Let’s talk about that title. What were your first impressions when you were approached to do Emiko Superstar?

SR: I was excited. I had contacted Shelly Bond, the editor, and told her that I wanted to be involved with something on the Minx imprint. She looked at what writers she had and what stories they were submitting, trying to find what would be a good fit for me. Emiko was what she sent to me, and I read it, the pitch, and said ‘yes, this is the story I want to draw. This is totally my kind of thing.’

Once I got to talk to Mariko it was even better, ’cause I could tell we were on the same wavelength with everything. It was a great experience, and the best fit between me and a writer that I’ve experienced so far.

KD: What was it about Minx that made you want to approach them about getting involved yourself?

SR: The idea of a concentrated effort to get more teenage girls reading comics, and to try and put out graphic novels that are rooted more in drama as opposed to superheroes. I just thought that was a very worthy project. I’d love to see more genres available, and I’d love to see more teenagers, especially girls, reading North American comics.

Also, I gotta admit, I have a tendency towards enjoying teen drama myself. Before this, I’d drawn a Degrassi graphic novel, and I grew up on Degrassi and I still enjoy shows like that sometimes. My inner sixteen year old brain still enjoys that kind of stuff, so it works for me.

KD: Since doing Emiko Superstar, have you noticed a different demographic of fans approaching you at conventions, or otherwise contacting you?

SR: Not too much yet at conventions. I’m not sure that the type of people who read Emiko Superstar are the type yet to go to comic conventions. I have had more contact from librarians and schoolteachers who have told me how much their students enjoy Emiko Superstar.

Actually, Emiko just got nominated for the Joe Shuster Awards ‘Comics for Kids’ award. The nominations for that award are picked by schoolteachers, so that was pretty sweet to get that kind of endorsement.

KD: Moving forward a bit, can you talk at all about the upcoming project you’re doing with Joe Harris, Ghost Projekt?

SR: The book is a five-issue miniseries coming out from Oni Press whenever I come a little further along on the artwork. I think we’re probably going to be looking at early next year for the first issue to drop. The writer, Joe Harris, is going to have a few black-and-white copies of the first issue art down in San Diego this weekend. The actual comic will be colored by Dean Trippe, and I’m looking forward to seeing what he does with my stuff.

It’s a horror/mystery/supernatural fantasy set in Russia, dealing with the after-effects of a secret Cold War project that the Russians were involved with.

KD: What’s your relationship with Joe Harris like?

SR: We actually came up with the idea for Ghost Projekt about five years ago. I first met Joe on some message boards, and we got along well, and bounced some ideas back and forth. I actually even drew some art for the project, but our schedules just didn’t work together at that time. It wound up on the shelf for a long while, so it’s good to finally be working on it now.

KD: You also teach a course on an Introduction to Comic Book Production over at Van Arts. How do you find the time for that in your already busy schedule?

SR: It’s only one night a week, for three hours. So it’s not too much of a commitment, and it’s worth it, in the end. They’ve asked me if I could expand it, but that would take too much time away from actually drawing comics.

I’ve been teaching for about four years now, minus a few semesters where the registration numbers weren’t quite high enough. It can be a fun class to teach, depending on how enthusiastic the students are. We’ve got a good group right now.

KD: How has teaching a course like that influenced how you feel about the next generation of Canadian indie comic artists?

SR: It gives me some promise and hope, just to see people wanting to turn to comic books to tell their stories. It’s also good to see a nice range of interest comics out of students who are interested in manga, or superheroes, or indie stuff. We also get a lot of animation students who want to tell stories, and realize that comics is a more affordable way tell them than animation.

KD: What do you think is the most important advice that you can impart to your students?

SR: Well, there’s a couple of key pieces. I tell them, “don’t be a dick”. And then the other most important thing is I tell them to start small. A lot of artists when they start out, they want to tell their 500 page epic. They usually don’t realize not only how hard it is to sell something like that, but also how hard it is to even complete it.

In my class, I walk them through the steps to doing a four page comic. Four pages doesn’t sound like a lot, but when you’re new to it four pages is really a fair amount. So you typically start with your first four pages, then move on to your first twenty pages, and so on. You really improve so much at each stage. After you do four pages, you’ll hate that first page. After you do twenty, you’ll hate the first four.

That’s why I tell people to pick small projects to start with. You don’t really want to have all the trial stuff you’ll hate later as part of your 500 page epic. Plus I think there’s also the sense of accomplishment of actually finishing something, wrapping it up and having it done. That accomplishment can motivate you onto the next thing, so you don’t get dragged down by having too much weight on your shoulders.

For more from Steve Rolston, you can check out his website and livejournal.