@’s by TALES OF MR RHEE’s Dirk Manning!!!
Sup, sup. It’s AKAThe Kid Marvel or Chris Massari, whether you want to go by my reviewer name or the one normal people call me, bringing you an interview I did last month, at Special Edition New York with comic writer Dirk Manning. I had the pleasure of interviewing the former Ain’t It Cool alumni, who’s made quite the name for himself in the independent comic scene, with titles such as NIGHTMARE WORLD, TALES OR MR. RHEE and his guide to comic writing in, WRITE OR WRONG. For the past couple weeks, I’ve actually done two reviews on his series TALES OF MR. RHEE and this is the culmination of those pieces, all leading up to this interview. I highly suggest checking out those reviews, because it’s an amazing series and I definitely recommend giving it a read. Manning graciously took the time out of his day at his booth, to give me this interview so without further ado, here it is:THE KID MARVEL (DKM): Chris: For those who don’t know who Dirk Manning is, do you mind painting alittle word picture for those people, of who you are?
DM: I am the writer and creator of NIGHTMARE WORLD, TALES OF MR. RHEE, and I’ve done the long running column WRITE OR WRONG, which is now the book WRITE OR WRONG: A Writer’s Guide to Creating Comics.
TKM: You recently launched a very successful Kickstarter for TALES OF MR. RHEE. Could you talk alittle bit about that, like the general reception you received, what it entailed and how it’s made being an independent writer possibly easier, rather than a publisher you have to adhere to? DM: Sure man, yeah TALES OF MR. RHEE is about a magician who lives in a world after Armageddon and the Rapture happened. Everyone wants to think the world is back to normal, you know, it’s not as post-apocalyptic waste land, but the people who are left, society is kind of normal again or so they think. Mr. Rhee is a magician and he knows things are not normal after all and he is trying to kind of show people what’s really going on. And that’s kind of the crux of TALES OF MR. RHEE, very much a Koffka-esque, manigan society type of story. We just launched a Kickstarter with Devil’s Due for TALES OF MR. RHEE Volume 2. We also did a Kickstarter for Volume 1. Very, very positive reception, people really enjoy this character and point blank, the monster hunter trope has been done. You got HELLBOY, you got THE GOON, you got CONSTANTINE and HELLBLAZER (two different characters), but umm TALES OF MR. RHEE, Mr. Rhee is a very different type of character. To say too much, would really give away some of the fun of discovering what kind of person he is in the Devil’s Due series.
But fans really, really supported the Kickstarter, really gobbled it up. We got great word of mouth, Devil’s Due is really kind of resurging, as a really strong publisher of creator owned books and they really use Kickstarter as part of the marketing strategy. Working with Devil’s Due has been great. The reception to the comic has been absolutely fantastic. People really love the character of Mr. Rhee and want to know more about him. I’ve just been very grateful and the other thing is, people like that this is a horror book. MR. RHEE is not an action book with monsters, this is a horror book and I think people respond to that well and the book is really about the effects of fighting monsters, would really have on a person. He does not fight a monster and go home and eat a sandwich. How do you have friends? How do you talk to people? How do you live in a world where what you do is not real? Or how do you function in a world, where you don’t know if someone you know, you don’t know what they are or are capable of. So that’s what the books about, working with Devil’s Due is great and the receptions been great and it’s just been a very positive experience and horrors not dead, horrors not dead.TKM: You covered my second question and my third one too, that worked out excellent. But umm what were your inspirations for the series if any. Was it a homage to anything specific or several of your favorite genres, anything like that?
DM: I think with TALES OF MR. RHEE I really wanted to show, what would it be like to live in a world where you know monsters are real and in this case, left over. There’s still things left behind. Like I said, how do you make friends? How do you work? How do you function? And that was really the impedes because there’s a lot of monster hunter books out there. But I think a lot of those types of books, they’re a superhero book, but instead of superpowers they have magic and instead of supervillains, there’s monsters. That’s not what TALES OF MR. RHEE is. I’m not cutting down those others books, but MR. RHEE is a book about a guy who knows monsters are real, fights monsters, deals with monsters, deals with demons and really the psychological effect of that has on someone.One of the coolest things that people will read MR. RHEE and say you know, this guy has post-traumatic stress disorder. Like absolutely, he does! This is a very difficult world to live in. How do you live in a world where you can’t bond with anybody and what you do, people tell you what you do is not real and you begin to question, is this real? So that’s really what I think the impedes for the book, to show what kind of damage would this do to someone, to live in a world like this.
TKM: Alright so you started TALES OF MR. RHEE back in June 6th of 2006, obviously that was a done for a reason. However, you only recently finished the second volume of the series. Has this been you deliberately taking your time, to work through the next phase of the story or was it simply of fact of scheduling between Cons and other projects?
DM: We launched TALES OF MR. RHEE on June 6th of 2006 as an online comic, Josh Ross the artist and I did it together. It was meant to take the place of NIGHTMARE WORLD, the comic book we were publishing online. We published the book online, we had to take a break due to a couple different circumstances. Josh got a job as a full time tattoo artist. I had some other books coming out, including the WRITE OR WRONG, things like that. So we took a hiatus, to finish the book online. We then got picked up by Image Comics Shadow line, as part of their web comic hub. But then ultimately for printing, we decided to go to Devil’s Due. We actually printed the first collection of the whole online comic last year. Did really well. This year we did volume 2, next year we’re doing volume 3. Now that we have a home to publish with through Devil’s Due, the goal is to put out a new volume of TALES OF MR. RHEE every year.TKM: Awesome, so other than those future plans, do you have an end goal for the series or something you simply want to keep writing until basically you can do it as long as you can?
DM: Yeah, I know the ending of TALES OF MR. RHEE and if I had to write one comic forever, it would be TALES OF MR. RHEE. No disrespect to NIGHTMARE WORLD or other books I do, this is if you made me choose, this would be the book. I know the end of TALES OF MR. RHEE, I’m not going to say when it is, because the cool thing about the story is, volume one is in the present, volume two is mainly a prequel to volume one. Volume three is a five issue mini-series. Five issues, five self-contained stories, five artists and that’s back in the present again. Volume four will be in the present again. I know what the end game is but, I don’t want to give away too much about how we’re going to lay out the story we do. But there is an end game, but as people have seen already we jump around in the time line alittle bit too, the continuity. But yeah, I know how it ends and I know what the last story line is, volume one was “Procreation of the Wicked”, volume two is “Karmageddon”. I know the title of the last story, I know it’s going to end, but we got a way to go to get there. Volume three is called “Those Who Fight Monsters” and it ties in very heavily to NIGHTMARE WORLD. We have a big universe to explore, but this series is all about forward momentum and things are going to happen hard and fast, it’ll be like a snowball rolling down a hill to hell.
TKM: What are some other projects that you’re working on? I understand you’d rather work independent for creative reasons, so is there anything you yourself are working on besides TALES OF MR. RHEE series? DM: Yeah, like I said TALES OF MR. RHEE the five scripts are all in the hands of the artists right now. The plan right now for what I’m looking at in 2016, TALES OF MR. RHEE volume 3. People have been asking for a long time when it’s gonna happen, NIGHTMARE WORLD volume 4. Then TALES OF MR. RHEE volume 4, WRITE OR WRONG volume 2. Those are my big projects , I’ve got a couple of other things in the works as well that’ll be popping up. Those are kind of the milestone books right now. RHEE 3, NIGHTMARE WORLD 4, TALES OF MR. RHEE volume 4 and WRITE OR WRONG volume 2.
TKM: You covered my next question too, besides comic projects, what inspires you as a writer? What is your driving factor of what makes you do, what you do?
DM: If I did not write, I would go mad.
TKM: Good uhh, simple answer.
DM: [laughs] That’s for the comic books, but I do the WRITE OR WRONG books, because I genuinely want to help other people make comics. I always said when I started, I always said from day one, if I get to the point that I’m making comics, you’re sitting at a table with me right now. I got a whole table full of graphic novels, mainly creator owned work. I would do what I could to help other people out. WRITE OR WRONG is my pay it forward book. But uhh yeah, the other stuff if I didn’t write I’d go crazy.TKM: What’s the difficulties working independent, are there any or is it alot easier than working specifically for one publisher? Basically work for hire type of stuff.
DM: Yeah I really enjoy the perks of creator owned books, but when you do creator owned books you are the captain of your own ship. With Devil’s Due and TALES OF MR. RHEE, I set up my own artists. I negotiate the page rates with them, with the colorists, with the letterers. I have to do all that stuff myself. That’s all on me. As opposed to like I did some work for hire stuff for Big Dog Ink, that was nice cause I got to turn in the script and he gets the artist, he gets everything and I get paid right up front. But I really enjoy doing creator owned work. Devil’s Due has been wonderful to work with. Josh Blaylock and I have really learned how each other work. I always joke around , he’s punk rock and I’m heavy metal. We draw our water from the same stream, but we have a different approach. As we have learned how our styles complement each other, it’s been a very good relationship. And creator owned work I can do whatever I want. I can kill Mr. Rhee tomorrow and it’s my book, I can do what I want. As opposed to doing work for hire, you definitely have to work within the confines of their plan and their structure.
TKM: Do you have a dream project you’d like to work on? DM: TALES OF MR. RHEE and I would to do a NIGHTMARE WORLD omnibus, so stay tuned.
TKM: Is there any advice you’d like to give to prospective comic creators for the industry itself? Or would one just look to WRTIE OR WRONG?
DM: I mean, I don’t want to be a shill but, there’s alot of books out there about how to write scripts and they should be read. Read books like UNDERSTANDING COMICS and things like that. But I would also read WRITE OR WRONG for the real practical knowledge, about how to get yourself going and how to make comics. The other thing is, WRITE OR WRONG: A Writer’s Guide to Creating Comics aside, it’s available on Amazon, it’s easier than ever to make comics. It’s easier to meet artists. It’s easier to get your work published on demand, to offset printing for small print runs. Do the work. Do the work, do the work, do the work and this can happen.
TKM: Alright, two more questions. What’s been the hardest aspect of your career so far, has it been the travel, the creative end, building your own brand or is it something totally different?
DM: Uh…that’s a good question. [silence]
TKN: Do you want me to pause the recorder? [laughs]
DM: Yeah you could put like dot, dot dot. It’s rare to shut me up, that’s a good question…umm, you know I’ve done a lot of conventions. Last year I did 37 conventions and I did 24 of those shows, in 18 weeks. The travel is difficult. I think the hardest part is finding the balance between promoting yourself at conventions and finding the time to write. You know I don’t get to watch much TV. I don’t get to play video games, because during my free time I have to sit down and write, but I love it. The difficult thing is not getting as much free time to watch Netflix, to play video games. I would love to play video games, people are talking about this new Fallout game coming out. Everyone is like dude, Fallout is the best game ever! I would like to be able to take time to play Fallout. Find out what this Fallout is and play it. I don’t have the time. I mean I would love to be able to relax playing a video game, but I have stuff to write and you know so, the hardest thing is not getting as much leisure time. Because on weekends I got to conventions, I promote my work. I come talk to you. I sell my books to people. That’s the big thing. It would nice to be at a place someday where I can continue to have this amount of output, but no do the day job or not have to work as much on a day job and to be able to just write and do conventions. And play a video game every once in a while. Or watch a movie and not feel bad about it.TKM: Last question, if you had to choice one artist to work on any project in the world with, who would they be and why?
DM: You know, I’ve been really fortunate to work with the first two TALES OF MR. RHEE volumes, Riley Rossmo, one of my favorite artists did the cover to volume 1. Eric Powell, who does THE GOON, did the cover to volume two. I’d love to eventually get to work on a cover with like Dan Brereton, Mark Teixeira, some guys like that. I’ve also been really fortunate to work with like Seth Damoose, I think he’s one of the most criminally underrated sequential artists in the industry right now. Great guy, good friend of mine, I love working with Seth. Those are some of the big ones.TKM: I greatly appreciate the time Manning took out for me and the advice that he gave after our interview. He’s been a great help in my own journey as a writer and I cannot thank him enough. As I said earlier, I’ve done reviews on his first times volumes for TALES OF MR. RHEE, both of which I very much enjoyed. The second volume of TALES OF MR. RHEE will be available this month for purchase in print, while volume 3 will be released as a digital print first later this year, so keep an eye out for that. Hope you enjoyed the interview and I look forward to futures encounters with this awesome human being.
Proofs, co-edits & common sense provided by Sleazy G
