Interview with Eric Adams conducted by Gerhard
- Do you have a background in advertising? Yours was one of the
best-designed table spaces that I saw at SPACE last year. All of your
promotional materials were very well designed and displayed. Also, did
it work? Did you have a lot of people stop and look at what you had on
display?
Indeed, I was the art director of an ad agency for four years and still
do freelance design for agencies on the side. All of that experience
certainly spills over into my publishing ventures and it has made me a
bit of a perfectionist in terms of promoting my work and myself.
Placing an ad, posting a web site and "waiting for them come" simply
doesn't work. You need to make your promotional materials grab
people's attention and make them remember you by being clever,
consistent and most importantly non-intrusive.
SPACE 2004 was my first con. At the time, my table and merchandise
seemed to be doing well, but I had no measure against just HOW well.
Since then, I've setup up at several cons and come to learn that my
display does a fantastic job of attracting attendees. By the way,
SPACE 2004 has been my best show to date.
As for the promotional materials themselves, I get positive feedback
about them regularly. It seems I did something right there.
- How far along on the seven or eight issues are you and have you
decided whether it will be seven or eight issues yet? Does the story
seem to be changing as you proceed or is it pretty much how you
imagined it from the beginning?
I am toiling away on LW#3 which is due for a May '05 release. LW#2
will be physically available in February '05.
As the books have progressed, I've become about 95% confident that it
will be seven books and not eight. There is a portion of the story I
have questioned since I began. It was to fall towards the end of the
mini-series, but the closer I get to it, the more unnecessary and
potentially confusing it seems.
The overall story has made a few small turns, but I spent a significant
amount of time outlining the overall arc before I began work on any
issue. With each book, I have a place I must start, a place I must end
and a checklist of things that need to happen in each. Other than
that, each issue is fair game and it has opened up some potential
subplots and mini-arcs that I may or may not use later. Overall, LW
has stayed on track since I first said, "Welp, the story is done. Time
to start drawing."
- You list Angela Young as Creative Assistant. In fact she's the only
person besides you who is given a creative credit. Can you give some
examples of what she contributed to the nominated work and how you
think she's made Lackluster World a better work than it might have
been?
Angela is a good friend and we actually worked together at the
previously mentioned ad agency for a number of years. In fact, we went
to college together too.
She had been working with some other writers on a comic project but it
had fallen trough for her. This was about the time that I somehow
spawned the idea to make a comic myself. We teamed up.
At first, we had nothing. No story, no characters, no sketches,
nothing. We spent about six months just getting together in our free
time to brainstorm ideas, sketch up character designs, etcetera and I
was designated the writer. To our dismay, we haphazardly planned to
both do the illustrations but never really defined who would do what.
After I finished the script, we attempted to illustrate together, but
it was like putting a square peg in a round hole. We both had the
talent, but our work routines differed and having two artists on LW
just didn't work. She decided to withdraw and just let it be my baby.
Without her input and ideas, LW might not have ever happened.
Somewhere inside the chemistry of simply bouncing thoughts back and
forth, Lackluster World was born. We're still great friends and it is
very likely she will be making some contributions to future issues.
- Have you got anymore of those great television channel-surfing
moments in future issues? We thought those were really funny. Would
you mind posting those with your answers? Also, what's the most
interesting reaction you've had to the "Where Were You the Day You
Died?" t-shirts?
There may be some more TV moments later, because I agree – I laughed
pretty hard while making them. You can definitely expect to see that
same absurd humor applied to other forms of entertainment and
commercialism throughout the series.
The "Where Were You the Day You Died?" shirts were just announced
(December '04). They tie into LW#2 and I had planned to have them
ready for purchase along-side said issue. However, because of the
surge in demand for them, I'm bumping the timeline up and hope to have
them for sale online in 2 to 3 weeks. Thus far, the feedback has been
very positive, but there have also been a few people who just don't get
it. I can only assume they aren't familiar with LW.
- How did it feel to get such positive reviews from Comic Queen, Fanboy
Planet and Comic Windows? That's really a very softball kind of
question, but I figured it was also a clever way to get these Day Prize
interviews linked to some other sites.
Well, it feels good I suppose. It's nice to know that my work has been
regarded so highly thus far. These specific reviews came about after
LW#1 hit store shelves and were a direct result of these reviewers
buying copies directly off of the store shelf. It was a bit of a
thrill to realize that my first book had finally come full circle.
A large number of reviews had been done before I had distribution setup
through Diamond, and those were equally positive.
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