Jetpacks and Rayguns
An interview with Rich Woodall and Matt Talbot

By Matt Rawson

About a year or so ago I was walking around Wizard World Philly and, as I spent most of my time amidst the small press and creator owned tables (i.e. where the really good stuff is), I came across a booth with two guys hawkin’ a book called Johnny Raygun. Unfortunately the books I bought from Matt Talbot and Rich Woodall were lost among the umpteen-billion comics I procured at that con. Recently I pulled them out, read them, and laughed my @$$ off (and then proceeded to kick said @$$ for not reading them sooner). I decided that day I needed to get in touch with these wild and crazy fellas and find out what made them tick (yet ended up learning much about Diet Coke).

Matt Rawson: For those out there unfamiliar with Johnny Raygun, why don’t you give us the quick run-down.

Rich Woodall: Ok, it’s like a formula for Diet Coke: Take Spider-man (strip away all his powers) and make him part of the Green Lantern Corps. Substitute magical ring for a ray-gun… and you have Johnny Raygun. He’s really an everyday guy, tryin’ to pay his bills, and keep his comic collection up to date, while at the same time working for a galactic police force. He’s not the best agent, he’s not the worst, he kinda has a style of his own, and somehow (generally with the help of someone a bit more talented) gets the job done.

Matt Talbot: Yeah, pretty much what Rich said. Though I don’t really understand the Diet Coke reference — but then again, Rich tries to mention Diet Coke anytime he has the public’s ear. I think he’s angling for an endorsement deal or something.

MR: Johnny Raygun is absolutely hilarious! Where do you guys get your comedic inspirations?

RW: That’s a hard question… I know I get it from everywhere, TV, movies, my friends and family, pretty much anything… but I think it really comes from my Dad twisting my mind at a very young age. He found it funny to scare the crap out of me as a kid, and I was always hangin’ around him and he and his friends would tell jokes (really long jokes, the kind that drag on for five minutes before they pay off) and there was really just a lot of laughing. I tend to see the lighter side of everything too… I guess I’m the kinda guy who would get a brain tumor and then twist that horrible Kindergarten Cop joke into a comic joke… “it’s not Atuma, he lives under the sea, not in my head!” So I kid about everything, death, life, you name it, I’ll joke about it. They may not be in good taste, but I don’t take any situation serious… just ask my wife, I’m pretty sure it drives her crazy… when we get all serious all I want to do is to throw in a good joke or movie quote, but I know it’s not the time to do it, so I have to hold myself back a lot.

MT: When Rich and I write, we just try to make each other laugh. If we come up with something that has us both cracking up, it goes in the book. I just wish we could write something as funny as that old issue of Deadpool where Joe Casey “Forest Gumped” Deadpool into an old issue of Amazing Spider-man. I think that might be the funniest comic I’ve ever read.

MR: Are you guys fans of the 60’s/70’s style comics that Johnny Raygun is quite obviously an homage to?

RW: We are huge fans of comics produced between the 60’s to the mid to late 80’s… We’re more specifically ex-Marvel Zombies. We both grew up on the 80’s Marvel comics, and have since grown to appreciate the history that Stan, Jack, Ditko, and the rest of the hard workin’ Marvel bull pen created for us. They created so many cool characters, and it’s always been my dream to work with those characters. I kinda feel that those characters aren’t there any more. They just don’t read the same, they aren’t as fun, or get caught in as strange predicaments as they used to… so I created a world in which I could play with the same archetypes that I grew up loving, and have fun with them, and poke fun at them and ourselves, and how serious we take everything. I’m not saying that there aren’t comics out there today that don’t have that spirit, I think they are still out there… heck I’ve even started buying a couple Marvel books since Dan Slott started writing for them!

MT: Oh yeah, I love the 60’s and 70’s Marvel stuff. I’ve always got a volume or two of some Essential Marvel title going. I just can’t help myself… I get so giddy reading that stuff. I just love it. I like new comics a lot too, but I’m always way more excited when a new volume of Essential Fantastic Four comes out than when the new issue of Fantastic Four comes out.

MR: Do you find it difficult to maintain a family life, a day job and try to get a comic done all at the same time, or have either of you shed off the pesky day job?

RW: Matt and I both still have our day jobs, most likely not going to shake those off for a while (unless we hit the lottery or something!) Yeah, it’s really hard to balance a day job, a night job and a family. I’ve got a wife (Melissa) and two kids (Rebekah and Alex Kirby… yeah, I named him after the king!) I get up at 6:30am… go to work… work til’ 5pm (or whatever… sometimes past 5:00 if need be) then home by 6:00… eat dinner tuck the kids in, and go to work drawin’ the comic by 8:00… draw/write whatever I need to do until 12:00-1:00… go to sleep, dream of zombies and stuff… get up and start all over! I generally get about two pages done a week (during the weekdays…) If I’m lucky (or my family is unlucky) I’ll have a good weekend and get another two pages done. It’s been like that for as long as I can remember, so I’m kinda in a grove. If I’m not workin’ then I don’t know what to do with myself, so I catch up on sleep!

MT: It was tough at first, but now when I don’t have comic work to do, I get insanely bored. After a few years of doing this, I just don’t know how to relax if I’m not working on a page. I have to tear myself away from it. I watch a ton of baseball, and nothing’s better than listening to the game while working on comics. Also, my girlfriend, Jennifer Ormand, does her own comic (a daily diary strip at www.squarecatcomics.com), which keeps her occupied while I’m working. It makes things very easy, and very fun.

MR: How long have you each been fans of the comics medium?

RW: I’ve been a fan for as long as I can remember… my mom read Byrne’s FF to me as a little kid, and I just always had comics around. It wasn’t until I was twelve and discovered the X-Men that I really started “collecting” comics. After that my life hasn’t been the same.

MT: My parents started buying me comics when I was four years old. I learned to read by spending lots of time with Spidey, Hulk, Superman and Batman comics. I got out of comics for a couple years in the early 90’s, in the days of variant covers and so on. But it didn’t last — it couldn’t last! The pull of comics was way too strong.

MR: What, or who, are your artistic inspirations?

RW: So many. I find more everyday, but on top is of course Jack Kirby, as everyone knows the guy could just do anything. Others are Tony Harris, Mike Mignola, Erik Larsen, Art Adams, Bernie Wrightson, Wally Wood, the list goes on and on… so many I can’t keep track any more. I really try to find something good to take away from any and all styles, I think it keeps you fresh.

MT: I agree with Rich. I also draw a lot of inspiration from poster artists like Coop and Brian Ewing. Chris Ware is just amazing. I also like guys like Chip Wass, Ragnar and Shag. And I’m a super design geek, so work by guys like Chip Kidd and Stefan Sagemeister really gets me fired up.

MR: What are some pointers you would give someone interested in publishing in the small press?

RW: JUST DO IT! (© Nike) If you have a dream of breaking in, and you just keep hitting walls, just come up with your own thing and do it! In this day and age nothing can stop you from creating your own comic. If you have a little money or access to a copy machine you can easily put together something yourself… Ya don’t have the money to print one, fine, put it on the web, there you have access to an unlimited number of viewers. You build it and they will come (if it’s good, otherwise it’ll just be your mom and dad lookin’ at it). Matt and I just wanted to do work, so we did. It’s really that simple. If it takes you a day to do a page that’s great, if it takes a year, that’s fine too. Whatever it is, at least it’s giving you practice and you can build a portfolio with it.

MT: If you think you like doing comics, give it a try. It’s really, really tough work. If you can hang in there despite the occasionally crushing setbacks that you’ll most likely suffer, and you still LIKE doing it — well, there you go! Really, there’s not much reward in the small press. If you don’t thoroughly love doing it, there’s really no other reason to do it.

MR: Can readers of Johnny Raygun see either of your work elsewhere? If so, where?

RW: We’ve done a couple things for Savage Dragon, and some pin-ups for other Images/small press guys (you can get a list here : http://outcaststudios.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=1954)

MR: Johnny Raygun looks much more slick than a lot of small press ventures. What are your methods, if you care to divulge?

RW: Matt and I are graphic designers by day, comic illustrators by night, so we use our design skills in putting together the comic. I should say Matt does, he’s got the ol’ anal eye when it comes to details and all that good stuff. He’s totally responsible for the look of the book, he’s done an awesome job creating a brand to wrap around Johnny. We’ve been told a lot that our book looks like a professional book, and it’s all part of our package. If someone thinks it’s a quality book, they are more likely to pick it up and take a look at it. Then they see that it’s a Sci-Fi, Retro Superhero B&W book by two guys nobody’s ever heard of and they put it back on the shelf. : )

MT: Thanks for calling me anal, Rich.

MR: Well, at least he didn’t call you…Hey! All-ages site, now I remember… next question, next question..um.. If I were to say the word “Spricket,” what would that bring to mind?

RW: For some reason hamburgers… but that might be because I want one really bad right now.

MT: What does that even mean, Rich? Man, this guy can’t stop bringing up food in interviews. Well, two can play at this game.

MR: Hmm… makes me think of nipple-rings…but I digress… You have some fairly big name creators whipping out some covers for Johnny Raygun (Erik Larson, Ed McGuinness, Michael Avon Oeming). How did you get these mainstreamers to design your faceplates, so to speak?

RW: It’s good to have friends in high places! Like I said, we’ve done some work with [Erik] Larsen on a couple things and he was nice enough to spend his New Years Eve penciling, inking and coloring a cover for us (all within like four hours… crazy). Ed, Craig Rousseau are good friends of ours and Mike we contacted, and he had some free time, so we bought him a PS2 and bang we’ve got a cover!

MT: It’s amazing what a good ham sandwich can get you.

MR: Do either of you have formal training, or did you one day just say [blank] it, we’re gonna make a damn fine comic, by gum.

RW: I barely made it out of high school. But I was lucky enough to be hired by Fruit of the Loom to design licensed t-shirts for the NFL, NHL, MLB, etc., and learned a lot from the guys I worked with. I learned a lot about illustration/painting, computers, all kinds of stuff from them, it was great!

MT: I was an English major in college, and I took a few art classes. I got lucky enough to get hired as an intern at a cool design shop out of college, and that’s where I got most of my training in the wild world of computers and commercial art.

MR: Coffee seems to be the best friend of the comics-creator community, do either of you have a particular vice that gets the pages rolling?

RW: Diet Coke! I can’t sing the praises of Diet Coke enough!

MT: At least this was a food related question. I drink about a gallon of water a day. My girlfriend says that’s too much, but I’m always thirsty. Maybe there’s something wrong with me?

MR: What’s next for you guys, other than, hopefully, continuing Johnny Raygun (and hopefully not a bladder infection in Matt’s case)?

RW: Our next big thing is the Johnny Raygun/Savage Dragon Crossover (in color!) Erik was nice enough to let us play with his big green guy (that totally doesn’t sound right). It’s really a dream come true, Matt and I have always been Dragon fans, so we jumped at the chance! And at the same time we’re workin’ on Black Forest writer Robert Tinnell’s Raccoon Man script… it’s going to be about a 100 page graphic novel. Should be out some time next year. After that it’s just more Johnny, and we’ve got a trade comin’ out the end of 2005/beginning of 2006 for Johnny that collects the first six issues (plus a little more).

MR: Do either of you have a “must read” list for the savvy readers on comiccritique.com?

RW: Must read the Savage Dragon, Walking Dead, Invincible, The Perhapanauts, and Grounded. Oh and anything by Dan Slott… I love that guy!

MT: I’d like to add anything by Chris Ware, Dan Clowes, and Charles Burns. The Expatriate by B. Clay Moore and Jason Latour is awesome. Gødland is a Kirby-esque trip-and-a-half from Joe Casey and Tom Scioli. I also loves me some small press stuff. Runners by Sean Wang is just great, and The Rookie by Jason Becker and Greg Moutafis is a terrific original graphic novel.

MR: Well, I’d like to thank both of you for your time and I know I will continue to get Johnny Raygun as long as you guys are up to putting it out. I’d also like to thank both of you for making me extremely hungry during this interview. I hope Johnny Raygun #7 comes with a Diet Coke a freakin’ hamburger!

I highly recommend jumping over to www.jetpackpress.com and ordering Johnny Raygun. Or even better, talk to your local comic shop about carrying Johnny Raygun or any of the books Matt and Rich mentioned in the interview that might seem up your alley!