|
|
|
Voices From the Other Side
"Eric Adams' Lackluster World"
Review posted: 02 April 2006
Writer:
Publisher:
Reviewed by Matt Rawson
|
|
Eric Adams |
I was first introduced to Eric Adams’ Lackluster World by none other than ComicCritique staple, and inventor of the XXXX-off brand deodorant, Adam White, about a year or so ago. While I was shuffling around last year’s SPX I saw that Eric Adams, who once received a fan letter from the real-life Patch Adams, had a table, so, remembering the praise Mr. White gave, I purchased the issues of Lackluster World and told him about ComicCritique, and that I would review his book, wash his car, do his homework, etc. — pillow talk, baby. Anyway, I read the books and loved them, but I was backed up with reviews at the time and Lackluster World got lost in the shuffle. However, when I first had the idea for “Voices From The Other Side” the first name to pop into my head was none other than Eric Adams. So, in an effort to make up for my promise to review his book, I now offer to you a full exposition on Adams and his work.
We’ll talk later about washing his car and doing his homework — that $#!+ don’t come cheap.
Instead of paraphrasing the whole story, I will let Mr. Adams explain Lackluster World further in his own words:
“Lackluster World revolves around Fahrenheit Monahan, a young, bitter newspaper journalist with albinism. He’s grown up under a wave of ridicule about his unusually pale appearance and sees himself as the only sane person surrounded by a world of ‘normal’ people. Those people include his aggressively Bible-toting brother and sister, Kelvin & Celsius, and his fellow journalist, Herman (Cog) Cogswell.
The story is about change. Fahrenheit sees his lackluster world as trying to change him, but tries to change it first through a series of city-wide vandalism and the proper journalistic media spin to help wake the population of The City from its routine-induced slumber. Kelvin has an undying desire to convert his little albino brother, putting him onto the righteous path of the Lord, no matter what it takes. And lastly, Herman wants to change. He is uninterested in his life and friends, yet he finds Fahrenheit’s lifestyle to be unusually interesting. [Herman] clings to him, subconsciously hoping that he can change somehow by befriending him.
Mixed with the storyline are many underlying themes. It relies heavily on monotony, repetition and the day-in/day-out routine of life. It portrays many of the facets of our lives that try to tell us who to be: commercialism, religion, the media. And it digs into the ideas of what friends are and how we form bonds, or rediscover them.
Lackluster World is a seven issue miniseries of which the first three have been released (#4 is almost here, though). “I used to say it’s released quarterly, but life always interferes with my plans. Now I just say soon.”
Lackluster World came about through Mr. Adams’s passion for film. “I loved the art of film making,” he says, “but lacked the experience and skills to do it.” He then found comics and felt that they were a “stepping-stone towards the film industry.” Adams states that he essentially “knew nothing about comics, had no story idea or characters or anything, but I sat down and told myself, ‘Okay Eric. Make a comic.’ I spent about six months scripting, collecting ideas, drawing character sketches and learning the ins and outs of comic-ry.”
Adams is also a founding partner and art director of a creative agency in Cincinnati, OH. He has taken the experience in design and marketing sifted from this position and applied it directly to his perspective on self-publishing comics. I asked Mr. Adams if he had any advise for people thinking about self-publishing and his predominant response was that most folks overlook the business end of the process. He says that “self-publishers are running a business, ergo they must become business-people first, and comic creators second.” He says that a great portion of success is weighed by how well one promotes him- or herself. “This is where I see most people fail,” he goes on, “they get a puff-piece on a comic news site, run a few advertisements, and then consider the job done.”
“There are so many business and marketing things you have to educate yourself on and prepare for,” he advises, “and you really need to be an expert on planning ahead if you want your comics to succeed.” Mr. Adams will be writing an article about this very subject over at Newsarama in the near future.
I wanted to find out his opinion on the state of the comics industry as it exists today. “Aggravatingly steady,” he responds. Adams believes “comics are artistically at their best and on the whole are getting a huge amount of publicity from the recent Hollywood phenomenon.” He does express trepidation towards the distribution factor of the business, however, stating that “people can’t easily find comics unless it’s the limited Marvel/DC selection at Borders or in a specialty comic shop.” He feels that the boon of the specialty shop is the ever-insidious stereotype of the ‘comic-book guy’ made famous by such influential sources as The Simpsons. “People should get over their preconceptions of others,” he states, “but that's easier said than done.” He goes on to say that “Diamond has built a distribution system that caters only to specialty shops — we desperately need alternative means of distribution, [much like what] Tokyopop is doing with their massive bookstore penetration.”
As far as influences, Adams states that music is huge on the list. He says that he has a “SUPER-INSPIRATION playlist (which is actually titled that), and it always perks me up. Music helps me visualize scenes. A certain track comes on and I start thinking of scenarios that my characters would be in where that particular music fits.” The biggest criteria for that list is music without lyrics. “Lyrics tend to distract me from my thought process because I start to sing along or analyze what the lyrics mean,” he says. And when he is not working, he watches films.
I went on to find out what comics Mr. Adams is reading nowadays. Black Hole by Charles Burns is “one of the best comics I’ve read — I closed the book and sat motionless for about 10 minutes just thinking the whole thing over.” In addition to Black Hole, Adams also reads Desolation Jones by Warren Ellis, “one of the few series I’m actually following in issues.” Street Angel by Jim Rugg and Brian Maruca, which he describes as “one of the more fun books I’ve come across in the last year.” And, of course, the brilliant Sin City by. . . oh come on people, if you don’t know who created Sin City pack your $#!+ and get out of here.
And finally, don’t expect Eric Adams to go running to the Big Two for work, either, unless it’s “an original story within one of DC’s divisions — Vertigo or Wildstorm — I don’t have any interest in working on established characters.”
If you want to find out more about Eric Adams and Lackluster World visit him at www.lacklusterworld.com or his blog site www.ericadams.net .
Accompanying this article is a preview of pages from Lackluster World #3 and a sneak peak at the yet-to-be-released cover to issue #4.
Next up will be Ken Knudtsen, creator of My Monkey’s Name Is Jennifer from SLG, and artist on I (Heart) Marvel, My Mutant Heart from Marvel Comics.
Take it easy.
—CCdC—
|
|
