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Column:
Voices From the Other Side
Sean Wang: On The Run
By Matt Rawson
Published: 2006-09-02
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It seems most of my Voices articles somehow originated at
that Wizard World Philly I attended a few years back. This one is no
different. I originally picked up the first couple issues of Sean
Wang’s Runners from his table at that very convention. I loved every
page, and earlier this year reviewed the trade for Runners: Bad
Goods, the first full story-arc. When I started Voices from the
Other Side with the idea of helping to promote the small press and
self-publishers, I had Sean Wang in mind. Turns out he has done quit a
fine job himself with a new book from Image Comics coming out in December
with writer David B. Schwartz, but more on that later. Read on and find
out a little more about this excellent creator.
Sean Wang (who had a conversation with Mark Hamill for his film
Comic Book: The Movie, but was regrettably edited out)
self-publishes his comic Runners and has a few tid-bits
of advice regarding
this very process. “The biggest piece of advice I can
give,” begins Wang, “and this is something I wish I had done myself,
is to really have a solid marketing plan for the book.” He
continues, “I proceeded under the mistaken impression that if a book is
good, readers will find it. But while Runners has received
stellar reviews across the board and I’ve gotten amazingly positive
comments from everyone who’s picked it up, all that doesn’t
matter if the retailers aren’t convinced to order it.”
That said, he offers what can be done: “The key thing
is to really plan out your promotion and marketing for the book to get
as much buzz for the series before it comes out.” He goes
on to say that “this should include getting sample pages
online, doing interviews or articles for comic news sites, getting coverage
in comic publications like Wizard (although honestly, I still
can’t seem to crack that one myself), sending out press releases,
getting ashcans into retailers’ hands, etc. That way, retailers will
know about the series beforehand,
increasing the likelihood of them ordering the book; and if they do that, not
surprisingly, it makes it a tad easier for readers to then buy the book
once it’s actually stocked on a store shelf.”
Next I picked his brain about what comics are floating his boat
lately. “I’m really enjoying Nextwave
from Marvel, which is the perfect blend of completely ridiculous
characters and great artwork. I really loved Hector Plasm: De
Mortuis which has some very cool ghost-busting type stories with
really amazing art.” Wang continues, “There’s a sci-fi
series called Wake (by Jean David Morvan and Philippe Buchet,
published by NBM) that’s a lot of fun with very cool sci-fi and
alien designs. I’d also recommend Daisy Kutter: The Last
Train (by Kazu Kibuishi, published by Viper Comics) and Mouse Guard
by David
Petersen”
Moving on to his own comics, I asked Mr. Wang how his self-published
Runners came to be. “Runners actually came about in
the mid-’90s, back when I was trying to break into
the
industry as a penciler. I eventually got frustrated with the submission
process and the type of stories being produced by the bigger companies
anyway, so I decided to do my own series. Basically Runners is the
kind of story I wanted to read myself, and since that kind of fun
sci-fi action comedy wasn’t being done I figured I’d fill the
void and do it myself.” He continues, “I got side-tracked
working on Tick and Arthur for New England Comics for a few years,
but I always knew that Runners was what I really wanted to work
on.”
Curious what Runners is about? I’ll let Mr. Wang
describe his series: “Runners is a fun space adventure
series about a group of alien smugglers. The first graphic novel,
Runners: Bad Goods, is about them trying to complete one particular run
while being hounded the whole time by police, pirates, and bounty
hunters, who are all trying to steal their cargo away from them.”
At San Diego Comic Con 2005 Sean was approached by the graduating
class from Digital Animation and Visual Effects (DAVE) School in Orlando,
Florida. As a final project they wanted to make
Runners: Bad
Goods into an animated short film. I asked Sean what it was like to see
his characters and story in motion: “The results are really
amazing, especially when you realize that it was a class of about 30 students
doing the whole thing in under three months. It was very surreal seeing
the characters actually moving and talking, but it’s certainly
something I wouldn’t mind seeing more of!”
In addition to Runners, Wang has been hard at work
providing the art for the upcoming Image title Meltdown. Along with
this column make sure you check out the first seven full color
preview pages
of Meltdown over in my First Look
review of Meltdown #1. Sean gave me the rundown about how
Meltdown came to be: “I was set up at the San Diego show in 2005 and
an old junior high friend (David B. Schwartz) happened to pass by and
see my name on the display banner. As it
turned out, he had submitted a story concept to Image and they were all
set to go ahead with the book when his artist dropped out of the project.
David liked my art on Runners so he asked if I wanted to work on
his book. The concept sounded very cool to me and unlike anything I had
ever heard of, so I pounced on the opportunity.”
I asked Sean to describe Meltdown, and he offered that, basically,
“it’s about a hero whose super-powers are killing him.
The story is about him reflecting back on his life and the
many mistakes
and bad decisions he’s made along the way and his struggle to
correct his failures before he dies. It’s a
really strong story and I’ve been having a lot of fun with the
artwork since I get to play with a lot of different art styles. The
childhood flashback years are much cleaner and cartoonier, and as he gets
closer and closer to death, the art style gradually gets darker and
grittier. So it’s been a real challenge, artistically.”
The question, however, that has been burning on my lips since I
finished Bad Goods is, Can we expect more Runners soon?
“Definitely! I’m a huge Lord of the Rings fan and I
love epic storytelling, so I have a very big story planned for the
Runners universe. The first graphic novel story arc is pretty much
just the light introduction to get people familiar with the universe,
but there will be much more to come.”
For more information on all things Sean Wang, visit his website SeanWang.Com.
—CCdC—
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