Interview |  Ed Siemenkowicz

During C2E2, Kara and Matt sat down with (stood up, wrangled, it’s all the same) with some great COMIXOLOGY SUBMIT creators to talk about their books, their process, and what they read themselves. Since these interviews were done on the fly and in the heat of the con, we also transcribed these interviews. Some parts of the interview have been abridged for maximum hilarity. Enjoy our interview with Chrome and Dust’s Ed Siemenkowicz!

Kara: Welcome back, here we are. C2E2, continuing our exploration of the wonderful world of comiXology – submit. Right now, Matt and I are with Ed Siemenkowicz, creator of Chrome and Dust, a crazy twisting post apocalyptic/present day tale.

Matt: Yes, we’re in our podcast studio obviously.

Kara: Shady back alley freight area emergency exit danger zone.

Matt: I wanted to keep the veil up but you destroyed it.

Ed Siemenkowicz: Fix it in post.

Matt: Welcome to the show.

Ed: It’s good to be here. I’m glad you allowed me to electrocute these hamsters. I’m sorry for any buzzing you may hear. [Editor’s Note: we recorded this right next to a forklift ok.]

Matt: We’ll get that all in post. Your book starts off in black and white. Something has happened in that era where “s” has gone down bad. The female character goes to a bar, then she harkens back to a time where things were better. Then the issue ends with them going back to the present day. What made you want to start that book out in a “Mad Max” era, then go back to pre-Mad Max?

Ed: I was faced with the problem of too much story, not enough time. I initially was going to do it chronologically because being a kid of the 80s, I really wanted to have fun in the 80s, and I wanted to take all that crap and destroy it.

I want to show these popping colors, the car chases, and have any kind of homage to whatever TV show or movie or property or actor in the background. Just in my discretion. But I also really wanted to get to the good stuff. I want to get to the nitty-gritty and the scary people. People eat people, all that stuff.

Matt: I love that part.

Ed: The best way to do it, I’m going to have to throw it out to “Lost.” Being a Lost fan, of being able to move a story forward while jumping forward and backward in time allowed me to have this. You mentioned the color in the black and white. The present is actually the black and white, which it’s ironic. I’m not trying to be clever.

Ed: You’re not going to have color. There’s going to be an in between where the color starts to fade. Spoilers. This is where I get to play in both worlds, and build a mystery around a missing main character that hopefully you get to like, and you want to know what happened to this person as well

Matt: Lost was a huge influence on you. What did you think overall of the Lost experience? Why didn’t you turn it into a Lost episode.

Ed: Yes, a Lost episode! There you go, you have a title, you’re welcome. Overall I was in with both feet. I recognize this has got a lot flaws, and I understand that there’s so many more shows that are being done now, on Netflix and single serve, couple seasons, but really complex storytelling.

They wouldn’t happen without Lost. If Lost didn’t come first and challenged TV viewers to do these things, a lot of the entertainment that we love right now just wouldn’t happen.

It’s got flaws, I love the characters. I was in it week to week, so I was really in it. I cried at the end. All right, you got me. I think, “I’m not going to cry, it’ a stupid TV show.” I cried, but that helped me to solve the problem of telling two stories at once.

Matt: When you sat down to write the book, how much did you have plotted out? I know a lot of writers plot out. “I’ve got 60 issues kind of outlined. I’ve got 80 issues.” For you as a writer what’s that process like?

Ed: I knew it would be a big story, so I didn’t really look at it like 60 issues. I started big and worked small. I think, “what’s the overall arc?” Characters start here, it’s going to end here. Resolve the time issue of telling some things in the future or the present where everything’s going to hell.

Going back 30 years, tell their story, develop them. I’ve just been taking it an issue at a time, and along the way throwing out things that are redundant or just don’t matter, combining characters.

As every book evolves, every story has to evolve this way. Initially yes, it was going to be this major thing. I was going to draw it the rest of my life. Now it’s a lot more reasonable. I have an ending, which makes all the difference in the world.

I don’t know how long it’s going to be, sadly. When you have things like day jobs, and people, and girlfriends, and sleep. God, life just drags the whole process out.

Kara: One of the moments in the first issue that really stood out to me was when our female protagonist walks into this bar and she sits down, and it’s all men. They immediately start harassing her and catcalling her.

One of them moves her hair out of her face, and they all realize that she’s older. They say, “Oh, you have wrinkles. We don’t want to talk to you.” At that moment I thought, “Ugh.” But that’s how people are actually reacting because we live in a weird society. I thought it was interesting that you took that and amplified it in this post apocalyptic mess.

Matt: Plus she was worn down at that point. She had been through something.

Ed: I had that challenge. Here’s a character that I love, but just like someone that you love in real life, you don’t see those “societal flaws.” I wanted to show her being attractive and strong, but also I have to be honest about her age.

You can’t have this Adrienne Barbeau type from 1982, and then have that exact same person in the future, and not show any wear and tear. Not show any scars. I wanted to be really honest about that. So that she carries herself and still looks good, but then you get a closer look. Oh my god, I was wrong. I don’t know. I’m glad you did take it that way.

Kara: It was just shocking first of all, to see that here’s a woman who so clearly had been through hell, and maybe you want to know. “Oh my god, what happened to you?” Also just to see her have to react to all of the weird, very vocal feedback she was getting from everyone surrounding her.

Ed: Right, it’s a really skeevy bar.

Matt: How many women are coming to that bar that they’re able to say, “She’s older. I’m going to go back to my beer.”

Kara: They were all like, “Oh my god, a woman!” I thought, “Aaaaa…what? who’s a wo…what?”

Ed: I really think about all these details. There’s no Cheers bar in the wasteland where you just pop in for a drink. The only other women that are in that bar, there’s a woman at the back who’s breastfeeding her kids. She looks like a total nightmare.

Her milk is probably full of toxic foods. She looks like crap. There’s another woman who’s seriously going to do it on a couch. That’s the kind person they’re used to.

Matt: It’s a bad scene.

Ed: Yes, so for her to come through, she’s frankly the best looking woman, who isn’t a sex slave or just some poor wretch in this world. The men are going to be jerks and calling the shots in this horrible life and death survival situation. She just walks in and says, “Yo, I need food and drink. Here’s some swag to barter with. By the way, piss off.”

Matt: Yes, leave me alone. Right before you started writing, what was the impetus for you to say, “I have a day job. I have a girlfriend.” What pushed you to say, “I’m going to do this. I’m going to start writing and see what happens.”

Ed: It’s really simple. When you’ve got a headful of stories, and you want to draw stuff…I can’t wait for anybody else to do this story. I can think about, “Maybe I’ll bring in an artist who’s style is great for this,” or “*maybe I’ll draw it but then I’ll work with someone.” No, I just didn’t’ have time, you know?

I feel like there’s a part of my life, especially after college, where I was wasting my time thinking about comics and messing around in sketchbooks, but not really doing it. Finally it was, “I just have to do it.” I’ve talked to other artists that are doing it, and that was their only advice.

I thought they were tricking me to keep me out of comics. “How do I start?” They say, “Just start.” I say, “You’re not helping. Screw you Geoff Johns, I’m out of here. Keep your secret club!”

I figured it out and I just started drawing, and making mistakes, making mini comics. Then I had this story that I didn’t take very seriously, but everybody that heard about it said, “That is so you. That is a story I want to read.” I say, “That’s a story I want to tell, but I don’t know if I’m ready.” I’m not getting any younger. You could die tomorrow, a million things, but just do it.

That became my life. I didn’t really care to do anything else. Once I got started, it’s a place I wanted to talk about and its characters I want to talk about.

Kara: How do you get in that headspace for that place and those characters to put yourself there?

Ed: Because it was born of so many different influences, I’m definitely a method artist. I’m not going to be listening to EDM when I’m drawing the Glory Hole bar with these seedy people. I’m going to go into Black Angels. I’m going to be watching “Deadwood.”

Really nasty places and vice versa when it’s 80s time. I’m going straight 80s. I’m going to fill my head with that stuff. I’m going to watch cop movies OR..

Matt: “Smokey and the Bandit.”

Ed: Smokey and the Bandit! Give it up! [Editor’s Note: An amazing high 5 took place at this moment.]

Matt: It had that influence.

Ed: #2 picks up with that, and I get to have my car chase, and it goes on from there. Things get more fun in the 80s. Things get worse in the future.

Kara: I liked how in one of the scenes in the future there was a tape player. It was playing 80s music. This song that was playing just did not match the situation at all. I thought, “Oh, what must that be like to just be in this wasteland and hear this peppy pop song from the 80s.” Oh, this takes me back, but I don’t know if I want to go back..

Ed: Yes, it was bittersweet. It’s supposed to be bittersweet. Obviously this guy Max has a lot of secrets. Everybody else is in squalor, why does he have a nice house? Why does he have a tape player? How does that work? He’s got a lot of explaining to do. Everybody’s got explaining to do in this story. I look forward to unraveling all those things.

Matt: What do you read now? What do you seek out on a weekly or monthly basis?

Ed: I confess that maybe it makes me a bad comics artist, but I don’t read a lot of weekly stuff. I don’t read a lot of superhero things. Mostly I read stuff I pick up at shows this. I veer more towards independent ventures.

I really love auto-bio things and quasi-fantasy things mostly. But at the same time, for instance, Saga. Almost needs no introduction at this point. Love, love, love it. I love the art to death.

Matt: How about Manhattan Projects, ever read that?

Ed: Manhattan Projects? No.

Matt: Jonathan Hickman. You mentioned semi-autobiographical.. Einstein is in it. FDR. It’s like an alternate reality version of the A-Bomb and the team that builds it. It gets way sci-fi crazy.

Ed: That I want to read. I just finished Over Easy. It’s just a nice little timepiece of a waitress at a diner in the 70s finding herself. You get to meet all these characters that she worked with.

It’s cute but it’s real. It’s everybody that comes through. These are real people. It’s like time travel for me. I get to see what this person’s life was like. I also got into Deadly Class, which is again, ‘87. I listen to the music. It’s like half Harry Potter, half Skateboarding and Assassins. The art again, killer art, just gorgeous.

Matt: Really good. The color in that book, too.

Ed: My god, the color. The page compositions blow my mind. Holy crap.

Matt: Great book.

Ed: Yes. Sorry, I want to leave and go draw.

Kara: You seem to be having heart palpitations over gritty character driven stuff.

Ed: Yes, if you pick up Chrome and Dust, you’ll see why. That’s pretty clear.

Matt: We’ll have a link to it in the show notes. I appreciate you taking the time out. Hopefully more people read the book!

Ed: Thank you!