On Thursday, September 4th, Alex Robinson, writer/artist of the acclaimed graphic novels Box
Office Poison and Tricked, as well as his most recent work, Too Cool to be Forgotten (about a man
traveling back in time to his high school years), stopped by to chat with our readers.
The following is an edited (for easier reading) transcript of the chat!
Enjoy!
Brian Cronin: Welcome, everyone, to Alex’s chat!
AlexRobinson: Hey!
Adam P Knave: *applause*
AlexRobinson: Oh, stop! Everyone sit down!
BrandonHanvey: Greetings
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Brian Cronin: How did ComicCon treat you, Alex?
BrandonHanvey: Yeah I got Too Cool there. The candy cigs were a nice treat.
AlexRobinson: Comicon was awesome–exhausting but awesome.
Brian Cronin: Do you like having it be so close to a new release? Or would you prefer to have had
more time to hype the book?
AlexRobinson: No, I like having something fresh and new.
AlexRobinson: The best situation at a show is to have people handing you money, so the closer you
can get to something being brand new the better.
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BrandonHanvey: Is there going to the a soft cover version of the book?
AlexRobinson: There are no plans for a softcover.
AlexRobinson: Top Shelf figured a softcover would go for around $10 anyway, so it’s not
that big a savings.
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Brian Cronin: Regarding designing the book like a cigarette pack, was that your first pick or did
you have other earlier designs?
AlexRobinson: Originally we were going to go with a yearbook theme but couldn’t settle on
an idea Top Shelf, Matt Kindt (the designer) and I liked, so we changed direction.
AlexRobinson: And I really love the cover
Brian Cronin: Yeah, it’s a striking look.
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Adam P Knave: Who do you follow, comic/artistwise these days?
AlexRobinson: I mostly follow a lot of the usual indy comics suspects.
AlexRobinson: But I don’t enjoy reading comics as much as I did before I “went
pro.”
Brian Cronin: How often do you go comic shopping?
AlexRobinson: I go shopping for comics about once every two or three weeks but I don’t buy
stuff all the time.
AlexRobinson: The last two books I bought were FART PARTY
and the collected JOURNEY.
Brian Cronin: Wertz reminds me of your stuff a bit
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BrandonHanvey: So does Too Cool take place the BoPverse?
AlexRobinson: My thinking was that TOO COOL takes place in the BOPverse but someone pointed out
some inconsistencies so I’m not sure.
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BrandonHanvey: So who came up the the editor’s note at the end of the book?
Brian Cronin: By the by, for the uninformed, Alex had a character think the word
“dad” where he meant to say “did” - Alex meant it as an intentional
Freudian mistake, the editors did not want people to think it was a typo, so there was an
editor’s note at the end of the book explaining that the typo was intentional.
AlexRobinson: The “editor’s” note at the end was a compromise between Top Shelf
and myself.
AlexRobinson: I really wanted to keep the heavy-handed foreshadowing in there and they felt just
as strongly to fix it.
AlexRobinson: So I semi-jokingly came up with the idea of the note from the “editor”
and actually wrote the comment.
Brian Cronin: How has the reaction to that been?
AlexRobinson: I think it might’ve been a mistake, since enough people have commented on it
that I think it might be a distraction, and at least one person told me that having that right at
the end was sort of jarring.
AlexRobinson: Top Shelf and I are sort of keeping a running tab on people who liked it and people
who didn’t, in case there’s a second printing.
Brian Cronin: It is a distraction, but I don’t think one that really affected my reading of
the book.
AlexRobinson: That’s good.
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BrandonHanvey: So how much research dit you do for the book? Did you go back to your old
highschool yearbook for ideas?
AlexRobinson: I have my yearbook from my senior year, which I consulted a lot of hairstyles and
stuff, and my wife who’s the same age has a few yearbooks
AlexRobinson: Hers were almost better since I could just look at the people objectively without
the rise of bile in my throat or sorrowful regrets.
Brian Cronin: Ha
AlexRobinson: I also used some references to try and make sure the pop cultural references were
at least close
BrandonHanvey: Did you use a lot of your own high school experience for the story?
AlexRobinson: I didn’t actually use too much of my own high school experiences in the book,
since I spent most of my free time in high school alone drawing comics
AlexRobinson: Which would’ve been very boring and I wanted Andy’s experiences to be
(I hope) more typical.
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Ben Dunn: Just wanted to drop a quick line to congratulate you on your recent success. Glad to
see you doing such great work and look forward to your newest work.
AlexRobinson: Thanks, Ben!
AlexRobinson: (in case people don’t know, Ben gave me my big break when Antarctic Press
published BOX OFFICE POISON as a series)
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WhiskeyTango: What’s next?
AlexRobinson: I haven’t talked about it publicly yet but I did settle on my next project.
AlexRobinson: I don’t want to go too much into it yet but it should be out in for Christmas
of 2009 and will be coming out from Harper Collins.
pooky: Are you going for a longer book like BOP or Tricked, or staying shorter?
AlexRobinson: The new project is pretty short, only about 60 pages, but I would like to do a
longer book next.
pooky: Kinda like Craig Thompson right now, working on the long book almost exclusively?
AlexRobinson: I’ve been thinking about doing another 500 page book but I think I would
serialize it this time, maybe over five books which would then be collected…maybe have
them come out as annuals
AlexRobinson: I like the idea of doing something serialized, giving people time to mull over the
story and imagine what’s coming.
AlexRobinson: I don’t want people to forget me while I’m working on a big long book!
Brian Cronin: That’s always the fear with collections vs. serial work
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Mordy: I’ve got a question, Alex. You clearly use music and music culture often in your
graphic novels. You’re also not alone (I notice a lot of comics, especially in Vertigo
right now) that find inspiration in pop music. Why do you think music culture keeps creeping into
graphic novels? Am I wrong in seeing this as a phenomenon?
AlexRobinson: Well, Mordy, I don’t think it’s unique to comics or graphic novels.
AlexRobinson: A lot of movie makers and TV shows use music as well, for various reasons
Mordy: Well, let me rephraise it then. Why do you use it?
AlexRobinson: I think I use it because I really like music, which sounds simple but that’s
the only reason I can think of.
Mordy: Also, Alex - with film and television, music tends to be a soundtrack. Something audible
to accompany a montage or something. You’re literally writing, often, about music culture.
Lyrics - bands - groupies - etc.
AlexRobinson: Well, I really only did it with TRICKED.
Mordy: (Btw, before I forget: I loved Tricked.)
AlexRobinson: None of my other books have musicians as main characters, but music does play a big
part in all the books (except LOWER REGIONS)
Brian Cronin: On sale for $3 now!
Mordy: So is it just because you’re a huge music fan yourself?
AlexRobinson: That’s about it.
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Brian Cronin: Are there any translations for Tricked?
AlexRobinson: TRICKED has been in Spanish, French and German
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BrandonHanvey: Your art seems to becoming slightly more cartoony. Is that a conscience choice on
your part?
AlexRobinson: I think my new book sort of lent itself more to a cartoony style, since it dealt
with teenagers who are naturally more cartoony
BrandonHanvey: Plus Andy’s glasses lent to the big cartoon eye effect.
AlexRobinson: Yeah, I think he got more cartoony as the book went on.
AlexRobinson: If you look at the first time you see him in the mirror he looks slightly more
“realistic”
Brian Cronin: True
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BrandonHanvey: Do you tend to do rough layouts and ink in the details or have more detailed
layouts?
AlexRobinson: I tend to use very rough layouts.
Brian Cronin: You posted an uninked piece of art awhile back, and wow, you really do add a lot of
detail in the inking stage (at least with that piece, you did)
AlexRobinson: I’ll lay the whole page out very roughly and then add details in pencil if I
think I need it or if it’s something tricky.
AlexRobinson: Since I work on one page at a time it’s kind of an ongoing process,
I’ll add details to the pencils of one panel after I’ve already inked another one.
Brian Cronin: How long did it take to draw the awesome “Andy made out of words” page,
then? That must have been amazingly tricky.
AlexRobinson: It’s funny because the things people assume are tricky and the things that
usually take the most time are things people barely notice.
AlexRobinson: The face made of words was actually pretty easy, and I was happy to do that page
since I finished ahead of my usual pace.
Brian Cronin: What pages would you use as an instance where it looked easy but was actually hard
for you to draw?
AlexRobinson: Hmmm
AlexRobinson: It’s hard to recall because it’s usually just something that’s
unspectacular but personally hard for me to draw.
Brian Cronin: Fair enough
AlexRobinson: Cars, for instance, are always a tremendous pain in the ass.
Brian Cronin: Hah!
AlexRobinson: Anytime you see a full shot of a car you can be assured that it was penciled and
erased many times
AlexRobinson: And stuff like that requires reference.
AlexRobinson: The big reason I did my LOWER REGIONS was that I only wanted to draw fun stuff.
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BrandonHanvey: Do you use text books for reference or more interent searches?
AlexRobinson: Mostly internet these days but I do pull out books occassionally.
pooky: Do you conscously spend time paying attention to things like proportion when you’re
drawing, or is it more automatic given your experience level?
AlexRobinson: It’s usually something I pay more attention to when I’m starting a book
and haven’t internalized the way the characters look yet.
AlexRobinson: By the time I get to the end of a book I can usually pretty much draw them by
heart.
AlexRobinson: But in the early pages you have to pay more attention.
Brian Cronin: Do you ever adjust the early pages?
pooky: how often do you find yourself scrapping a page and redrawing it? Are you pretty good on
the first pass or do you lean towards the perfectionist route?
pooky: (i’m assuming you already know what you want on the page from the writing
perspective…)
AlexRobinson: I definitely would not say I’m a perfectionist. Usually the only time
I’ll go back and scrap or redraw a page is if I have to change it for the story
AlexRobinson: I actually write it as a I go along, so there have been times where I’ve had
to “back up” and rewrite after I drew pages.
AlexRobinson: In that case I’ll scrap them, but it doesn’t happen much.
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Brian Cronin: Does something like what Lynn Johnston is doing now ever appeal to you for Box
Office Poison? Not that you would ever be able to actually DO it, but is the notion of reworking
your early work an appealing one at least?
AlexRobinson: I’m really hesitant to rework already published work because you wind up
being George Lucas and possibly ruining something that was already fine.
AlexRobinson: Plus, I don’t think my 39 year-old self should get to tell my 27 year-old
self what to do.
AlexRobinson: That was his book, if I think I can do better I should write my own.
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BrandonHanvey: How much computer work is involved in your art process? Or are you still mostly
pen and ink?
AlexRobinson: I don’t use the computer at all.
AlexRobinson: TOO COOL was the first time I even used the computer to make corrections.
_________________
BrandonHanvey: How often did the story of TOO COOL change? Did you write the whole script before
doing any art?
AlexRobinson: I never write a whole script out ahead of time, since I like to give myself a lot
of room to improvise.
AlexRobinson: The story didn’t change much from what I originally envisioned, though I did
wind up leaving some stuff out that I wish I’d included.
Brian Cronin: How detailed are your scripts? Do you at least have a specific end goal in mind?
BrandonHanvey: So you go with a rough outline of the story and start drawing pages?
AlexRobinson: I have a very rough outline in my head, keeping in mind what things are needed to
move the story along or key scenes, and then I’ll write
AlexRobinson: and layout page one in my sketchbook.
AlexRobinson: Then I’ll draw it, and move onto writing and penciling page two
BrandonHanvey: So you have major points you need to address and do scenes that connect those
points?
AlexRobinson: A lot of people have said it’s a crazy way to work since it makes editing
very annoying
AlexRobinson: I have key scenes or plot elements I’ll need to connect, but usually
I’m not sure how I’ll work it out until I get there.
_________________
Brian Cronin: Do you happen to recall any of the ideas you ended up dropping from the book?
AlexRobinson: I wanted to do more stuff about high school, like what it would be like to a gay
kid in the 1980s or a minority student in an mostly white school
AlexRobinson: and talk about a kid committing suicide, which seemed to happen to a lot of schools
at that time
AlexRobinson: But I found that too many of the high school scenes were already Andy thinking to
himself
AlexRobinson: “Wow, there’s so and so. Look, there’s that kid I knew”
AlexRobinson: I worried it was getting monotonous.
AlexRobinson: And of course, someone wrote to me saying they enjoyed the book but wish I had
shown some minorities.
AlexRobinson: But yeah, I try to keep the writing very loose.
AlexRobinson: With this new story I’m doing I’m actually adapting an existing story
so it will be an interesting challenge.
Brian Cronin: A novel?
AlexRobinson: A short story.
AlexRobinson: They’re doing a series of books adapting Christmas stories and I’m
doing one.
Brian Cronin: Oh, that sounds like a cool concept for a series.
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BrandonHanvey: Is your process changing since you are working with a whole story?
AlexRobinson: I’m going about it–adapting the story–in a very different way
since the plot already exists and I know I have to get it in at 60 pages.
AlexRobinson: Usually I have a lot more freedom in terms of page count.
AlexRobinson: Also, I’m adding some bits and adapting it but since it’s not really my
story I’m okay with them changing it, something I normally resist with my previous
books.
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pooky: where do you see your career in 10 years? do you want to keep doing comics? Is there
another area that you’d like to get into?
AlexRobinson: I can’t think of anything I’d like to do, or anything i could do, other
than comics so I don’t foresee any changes in that.
AlexRobinson: It’s always a balancing act, between working and living a life
AlexRobinson: I thought by this point in my life I’d have finished a lot more books so
it’s scary and depressing to think I’ll go to my grave only having done at most ten
books.
AlexRobinson: I thought I’d be Kurt Vonnegut with a whole shelf to myself.
pooky: Quality trumps quantity in my book!
AlexRobinson: Thanks! But it’s frustrating when you see other people who work much faster
than you do, cranking out books.
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BrandonHanvey: Do you do any freelance illustration in-between comics?
AlexRobinson: I’ve done some illustration but not very much.
AlexRobinson: I don’t have the stomach for shopping my stuff around and getting rejected,
and I think most real illustrators can draw better than I can.
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Brian Cronin: What’s the weirdest commission request you’ve had?
AlexRobinson: I’ve had a few blatantly pornographic requests, which I have done.
AlexRobinson: They were amusingly/disturbingly specific
pooky: How does someone request that stuff without being red-faced? i think i’d die of
shame…
AlexRobinson: He asked for my characters in various sexual sitiuations, but I drew the line when
he asked me if I would draw other characters like Gwen Stacy and Peter Parker
AlexRobinson: I felt like I could convince myself it wasn’t as bad if I was drawing my own
characters.
AlexRobinson: It was over e-mail.
AlexRobinson: The only time anyone’s requested nudity in person was in Europe.
pooky: Ah - anonymity makes things much easier (kinda like this chat!)
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BrandonHanvey: What is you character design process like?
AlexRobinson: I’ll usually come up with the personality first and build on that.
BrandonHanvey: Do you uses certain head/body shapes for certain personalities.
AlexRobinson: It’s not really that mechanical, where funny characters have round heads,
nerds have triangles, or whatever.
Brian Cronin: Nerds just naturally have triangle heads
AlexRobinson: Obviously some things convey personality, like big eyes suggest innocence, etc, but
I try to mix it up.
giftedstats: Has anyone ever copied your characters and changed the designs? i.e. bodyshape,
color scheme, logo’s etc?
AlexRobinson: If they have they’ve done a good job because I’ve never noticed!
giftedstats: Haha.
AlexRobinson: Sometimes people have “swiped” the question page idea from BOX OFFICE
POISON but that’s okay with me since I sort of adapted it from Dan Clowes anyway.
BenL: I loved the question pages in Box Office Poison!
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Brian Cronin: Does doing superhero work at Marvel or DC ever have appeal to you?
AlexRobinson: It does appeal to me but I’ve never been good at pitching ideas or working in
a more formal editorial structure.
AlexRobinson: I would love for Marvel to say “you have carte blanche on this title for a
year. Have fun!” but that would never happen.
AlexRobinson: If this adapting a Christmas story thing is a positive experience maybe I’ll
rethink working for a mainstream publisher.
BrandonHanvey: Any specific title you would like to have “carte blanche” with?
AlexRobinson: I’d be fine taking some obscure character and rebooting them or whatever,
like Jack Kirby did with JIMMY OLSEN
AlexRobinson: “Give me your poorest selling book.”
________________
Brian Cronin: Speaking of music, what do you typically listen to while you draw?
Brian Cronin: Do you actually pick specifc style of music, or just whatever you hapepn to have
on?
AlexRobinson: Lately I’ve actually mostly been listening to podcasts rather than music,
though I will listen to music podcasts like Coverville or All Songs Considered.
AlexRobinson: I’ll also put in movies.
AlexRobinson: But mostly podcasts lately.
Brian Cronin: That’s interesting - you don’t find yourself distracted by getting
involved in them?
Brian Cronin: Music strikes me as something you could almost tune out
AlexRobinson: I don’t listen to anything while I write but I think drawing uses a different
part of the brain.
Brian Cronin: It makes sense, I guess, that you listen to podcasts instead of music, as Dan
Savage tells me listening to music is over as podcasts are the future
AlexRobinson: That’s funny because Dan Savage is in my regular rotation.
AlexRobinson: His podcast, that is.
________________
BrandonHanvey: I’ve not found any yet, but do any BOP characters make a cameo in TOO COOL?
AlexRobinson: As for cameos, the only one that springs to mind is Mr. Valentine, the principal,
who is Sherman’s boss sometime later.
AlexRobinson: That was one of the inconsistencies someone pointed out.
BenL: Maybe he wasn’t a very good principal?
BrandonHanvey: Well I did see that Velma was in one panel, but she is more of an easter egg.
AlexRobinson: I put her everywhere, my beautiful, beautiful Velma.
Brian Cronin: Is there going to be a Crisis on Infinite BOP Earths?
Brian Cronin: To explain the inconsistencies?
AlexRobinson: Terry Laban once addressed this with his own work and said it was like the same
actors playing diffferent parts.
AlexRobinson: You’re like “That’s the guy who played the principal in BOX
OFFICE POISON!”
AlexRobinson: Caprice is the other one I’m always getting yelled at about.
AlexRobinson: Since at the end of BOP she talks about a future which clearly doesn’t happen
in TRICKED.
AlexRobinson: I need an assistant editor to manage this stuff.
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Brian Cronin: Speaking of Laban, everyone, be sure to check out Alex’s site for this realy
cool feature he’s been doing where various artists draw Alex’s characters
Brian Cronin: Laban recently did one
Brian Cronin: Laban is amazing
AlexRobinson: Actually, I only recentely posted it–he actually did it in 2000!
Brian Cronin: Hah
AlexRobinson: I had a bunch of pin-ups that originaly ran in the BOX OFFICE POISON floppies.
BenL: Laban’s ‘The Unseen Hand’ from Vertigo is great.
AlexRobinson: I haven’t read it.
BenL: Well, if you can find it, it’ll be in the quarter bin, which is a crime.
AlexRobinson: No.
Brian Cronin: That’s the downside of serial comics, as I don’t believe Unseen Hand
was ever collected
_________________
AlexRobinson: I count on people I know to clue me in to what mainstream comics are good.
AlexRobinson: Any other suggestions?
Brian Cronin: Skyscrapers of the Midwest is awesome, Alex!
Brian Cronin: From AdHouse
AlexRobinson: I loved SKYSCRAPERS.
Brian Cronin: My girlfriend and I spoke with him at MOCCA, and he was talking about the same
collected vs. serial thing you mentioned before
Brian Cronin: As he was considering going into graphic novels like you
AlexRobinson: It’s kind of like TV shows on DVD
Brian Cronin: Yeah, but, obviously, you fear being forgotten
Brian Cronin: You just hope you’re too cool to be forgotten
Brian Cronin: Yes, I had to do that awful pun
Brian Cronin: Couldn’t stop myself
AlexRobinson: The turnover in comics can be high, which is good and bad.
_________________
BrandonHanvey: Did you do any research on hypnosis for TOO COOL?
AlexRobinson: Personally I’m skeptical about hypnosis but I do any research since
it’s just kind of a magical gimmick in the book.
BrandonHanvey: What gave you the idea to use hypnosis?
AlexRobinson: As for the hypnosis, I just needed some way of getting him back to high school that
didn’t involve a time machine or anything to science fictiony.
AlexRobinson: I also wanted to keep it open for people to decide whether it “really”
happened or if it was all in his head.
_________________
BenL: Alex, not sure if you’ll know, but I’m curious as to why ‘Too Cool’
was released a week earlier in Australia than the States? I’m not complaining - was a
pleasant surprise, it just usally goes the other way.
AlexRobinson: I had no idea it was released early there!
AlexRobinson: The only thing I can think of is that they were printed in China, so they
didn’t have to go as far?
BenL: That’s the best I could figure.
AlexRobinson: I know we had to have them Fedexed over here in time for the release at MoCCA.
AlexRobinson: (that was the comics festival it debuted at)
_________________
Brian Cronin: Did you have fun at MOCCA?
AlexRobinson: I think that was the most pleasant American comics experience I had, since I got to
make the first sale ever.
AlexRobinson: And it’s always nerve wracking having a new book out so it was a relief when
it did well.
Brian Cronin: What is the closest american comics experience to the European experience?
Brian Cronin: MOCCA?
AlexRobinson: MoCCA.
AlexRobinson: Oh wait, I misunderstood.
AlexRobinson: I think probably SPX
AlexRobinson: But you can’t really compare, since comics are very big over there.
AlexRobinson: Imagine San Diego but only about comics instead of video games and movies.
Brian Cronin: Right.
___________________
BrandonHanvey: Which idea came first the idea of traveling “back in time” or the
smoking addiction?
AlexRobinson: First I came up with the idea about his dad, although it all came together almost
at the same time.
BenL: How involved were you in designing the packaging for Too Cool?
AlexRobinson: Top Shelf hired Matt Kindt to work with me on some ideas.
AlexRobinson: I wanted to do a yearbook idea and Matt came up with the cigarette(...)
)
and reject those that you are not interested in
(
)
Gaddis, Virginia Woolf, Isaac
Bashevis Singer, Grace Paley, Derek Walcott, Bernard Malamud, Flannery O’Connor
et d’autres encore, excusez du peu. Encore faut-il préciser que Giroux
avait la rare qualité d’être publisher et editor, l’un
des patrons de sa maison et le relecteur-conseiller littéraire de ses
auteurs. Mais malgré ses succès, jamais il n’oubliera ses deux
ratages historiques ; car l’un et l’autre, selon lui, étaient riches
d’enseignements sur la pratique du métier ; en tout cas, il en avait tiré des
leçons et n’hésitait pas à les raconter.
pourtant très vite 
Takara
Tomy dévoile un nouveau trailer concernant le titre très attendu Naruto : Clash of
Ninja Revolution 2 qui sera prochainement disponible sur notre console de salon Wii. Nommé
au Japon Naruto Shippûden Gekitô Ninja Taisen EX 2, ce nouveau jeu de combat est tout
de même disponible depuis le 29 novembre 2007 là bas. Le voilà prévu
avec l'éditeur D3 publisher aux USA et prochainement en Europe. En attendant voici la
nouvelle vidéo :
