Interview: Alex Robinson

For this week's column I talked to Alex Robinson about his book Box Office Poison and indy publishers in general. Alex is such an extremely talented storyteller that it boggles my mind everytime I get to talk with him. So here is the full interview I had with Alex:



RYAN MCLELLAND: How hard of a pitch was BOP? How long did you struggle trying to work everything out and how many times were you rejected before getting picked up by Antarctic?

ALEX ROBINSON: Actually, looking back it wasn't that much of a struggle. The market was a lot healthier back then, with three or four big distributors operating instead of just one. I graduated from college in 1993 and started putting out mini-comics on a more or less quarterly basis, and I did about eight issues before Antarctic picked up the series.

I'm not sure how many times I was rejected. I did eight issues, as I said, and I would send each issue out to as many publishers as I could think of, which was probably around ten or fifteen. Of course, most of the time I never got a formal rejection, they just wouldn't reply. I did get some form letters, and a few polite but encouraging responses. I would also send the comics to cartoonists I liked for feedback.

RM: In a world chock full of superhero comics, how did readers first 'receive' a story about a book clerk, his 'fat' artist friend, and the rest of BOP's crew? What kind of support did you get, from both fans and the press?

AR:Well, I didn't really think the book would have much success with the mainstream, superhero market, but the alternative, black and white ghetto had plenty of "slice of life" and autobiographical comics, so I thought I had a shot at it. In that context, I wasn't doing anything revolutionary.

It's sort of ironic, in a way, because it was when WIZARD did a feature on BOX OFFICE POISON that it really took off--it saved the book, actually, since sales had been steadily declining since the first issue. I think it was a good "alternative" book for people who were getting tired of superheroes but might be too intimidated by the more experimental or esoteric indy stuff. My stuff is pretty linear and straightforward storytelling, so I can see how a superhero fan trying to see what else is out there could get into it.

So I wound up getting praised by WIZARD and trashed by THE COMICS JOURNAL, which wasn't the way I imagined my career going but I'm happy with it.

RM: What advice would you give young writers and artists out there looking to be published by the smaller publishers?

AR: Only do it if you really, really like drawing comics. There is almost no money to be made, so even if you do "make it" and get published, 95% of the time you have to keep your day job.
As far as nuts and bolts stuff:

1) Don't give your stuff to publishers at a convention. Publishers tend to be handed a lot of mini-comics and submissions at shows so it's very easy for your stuff to get lost in a pile of photocopies. So...

2) Send you submissions through the mail. If you want to encourage a response, include a self-addressed stamped envelope.

3) Know what kind of books publishers publish before you waste everyone's time. Don't go to Drawn and Quarterly with your gritty, edgy superhero story. Don't go to Marvel with your downbeat story about a guy getting over his recent break up. Of course, ideally every publisher is interested in a good story no matter what genre it's in, but in the real world, people tend to publish books that are like the ones they already publish.

4) Keep at it. When I was in my early years of bitter struggle, Dave Sim told me that if you have fun doing what you're doing and you keep doing it, eventually publishers will catch on. I think this is true.

Thanks for the interview Alex! More to come tomorrow so come on back around!