| Writer
Mark Andrew Smith done bust onto the comic scene not long
ago with the funny, surreal, and action-packed The Amazing
Joy Buzzards from Image Comics. With artist extraordinaire
Dan Hipp all up in it, AJB has garnered some impressive
sales and praise from the likes of Jim
Mahfood, Scott Morse, and Dave “Pamela” Crosland.
In this month’s edition of “Hooray for Comics”,
our own D.J. Kirkbride shoots the shit with this up and coming
comic creator…
DJ: Where the hell did you come up with The Amazing
Joy Buzzards? Was it a combo of too many Hanna Barbara
rock band/ crime fighter cartoons as a young ‘un and
some mildly hallucinogenic drugs?
 Mark:
The Amazing Joy Buzzards (AJB) were inspired mostly
by cartoons and stuff from the ‘60s that I caught in
reruns as a kid. It’s funny because the influences are
really strong at first and then you forget where everything
came from. It becomes its own beast.
DJ: Were you a comic kid as a… kid? (That was
worded poorly, and I note that here.) If so, what kind of
stuff were you into? And -- AND did those books have an influence
on your comic output? (That was more than one question. Sorry.)
Mark: I think I learned how to read from
Mad Magazine, which um, I’m not sure if it
was a good thing or a bad thing. I read comic books as a kid,
too, but very little of them had an influence on my work.
I think that it was with my second discovery of comics that
most of my influence stems from. One influence from when I
was a kid was the black and white Mirage run of Teenage
Mutant Ninja Turtles The work that they were putting
out was so incredible, and I’ve got so many issues that
we’re personal favorites that continue to inspire me.
DJ: After coming up with these pretty off-the-wall
ideas (pink robots, bass players turning into Gila monsters,
a rock band with a headquarters in Mount Rushmore), how’d
you get it made into a comic? Especially in this superhero
saturated market?
Mark: That bass player thing really happened.
Well, yeah, there are way too many superhero books. I’m
so unbelievably sick of superhero books. For the most part,
I hate them, and if they stopped making them, or if DC and
Marvel crumbled to ashes never to be heard from again, I’d
be okay with that. In fact, I think it would be the best thing
in the world for comics. I think the fact that The Amazing
Joy Buzzards wasn’t a superhero book was probably
one of the best sells in terms of getting the book into Image.
Plus we got by with a little help from our friends.
DJ: How’d you hook up with artist extraordinaire
Dan Hipp? I don’t mean, like, you two “hooked
up”… though I’m not saying it’d be
wrong if you did… I just meant… um…
Mark: We hooked up…er I mean um, we
met up at Comic Con years ago and kept in touch over the years.
Hipp is the greatest, though, and I love every minute of working
with him. There’s this great energy, and it’s
almost like he can read my thoughts.
DJ: The response to The Amazing Joy Buzzards has been
pretty awesome. Do you get a warm, tingly feeling when you
think about that?
Mark: Yes, I get that warm tingly feeling
all over, including my pee pee.
DJ: Okay, so AJB seem to be the biggest band in the
world in the comic. What kind of music do they play, though?
From the looks of ‘em, I’d say some alternative,
probably poppy, rock-stuff. Which means, if they are the number
one band, this must take place in a delightfully alternate
universe (pink robots and angry gods aside)…
Mark: I usually always dodge this question
because everyone likes different types of music, they are
the number one band in the world but what’s really interesting
about AJB is that readers plug their favorite band into the
spot for AJB. Given this plug in effect no two readers create
the same soundtrack for the book. I think that’s awesome
to keep them guessing.
DJ: How’d you go about getting established pros
the esteemed likes of Jim Mahfood and Scott Morse to do pin
ups for the back covers? And who do you have lined up for
upcoming issues?
Mark: Well, Mahfood and Morse are comic book
heroes to me. In fact after the comic market fell out in the
‘90s I stopped reading comics altogether. Then one day
,as if by the winds of fate, I stepped into a comic shop,
and there on the shelf I saw Voodoom #1, which was
a jam comic that Jim and Scott did. I picked it up and loved
it and knew I had to go back and see what other stuff was
out there in comics. So, overall my admiration for the ‘Food
knows no bounds. For upcoming back covers we’ve got
Kare Randolph, Sean Galloway, Aaron Jasinski, and there are
going to be a bunch of pinups in the trade from a lot of talented
folks. The trade is out in June. I’d like to see upcoming
back covers by Becky Cloonan, Matthew Woodsoon, [Mike] Allred,
Paul Pope, Farrel Dalrymple, Chynna [Clugston-Major], and
Kevin Eastman.
DJ: Is AJB a mini-series or ongoing? And
is there an overall arc, or are they pretty much unrelated
wacky adventures?
 Mark:
There is an overall arc to AJB from between 12-15
issues. The ongoing story starts with issues five and goes
until around issue nine. Then we go back to some crazy unrelated
adventures and some origin stories, and after that we get
back to the beans and steak. We’ve talked about what
we want to do beyond that, but right now we’re just
focusing on doing what I’d call a perfect series. Once
that’s done we’ll go from there.
DJ: One of my favorite, kind of subtle bits in the
comic, is how the strong and silent bassist, Steveo, speaks
in, I guess, pictogram word balloons. Was that in the script
or something Hipp came up with?
Mark: It was my idea that Steveo would never
talk, or just talk in jumble. I had a squiggle line drawn
in one of his word balloons, Hipp took this to the next level
and went crazy in the first issue and he usually writes or
draws in Stev-O’s word balloons. I’ve kept it
in mind though well scripting so I’ll do a few here
and there, but it’s overwhelmingly Hipp’s brilliance.
DJ: If you had to have a romantic evening with anyone
of The Golden Girls, which one would it be? (Don’t
worry, I mean The Golden Girls in their 1980s prime,
not now, dude.)
Mark: Blanche because she’s the slutty
one. She could slide out those dentures and we could have
a nice romantic evening.
DJ: Speaking of The Golden Girls, who are
your influences? Not just comic biz related, but in life?
Like, one of my greatest influences is Michael J. Fox. He’s
my anchor.
 Mark:
Usually I’ll draw in influences from all around and
especially film. Mostly Foreign cinema, old TV shows, and
really obscure stuff. I think in the next year I’m going
to stop reading comics altogether and catch up on a lot of
books I’ve been meaning to get to.
DJ: What comics do you pick up on a regular basis?
Mark: I read comics usually by creators that
I follow. So Mahfood, Allred, Morse, Pope, Popgun War,
Blue Monday, Flight, Mora by Paul Harmon, Pigtale
by Ovi, Street Angel, The Goon, Hellboy,
Dean Haspiel’s work… and much much more.
DJ: Do you have any other comic series in the pipeline?
Mark: Yes. “Victorian Space Tales”
with Paul Mayburry, “Beta Boys” with Jason Howard,
“The Devil in the Gears” with Jim Pezzetti for
Paper Museum, “Solomon Wakes” with Mark, “The
Grenade Jumper” for Zowie with the Esteemed Ed Reynolds,
“Sullivan’s Sluggers” with Marco, “The
Short Bus Superheroes” with Rob, “Sex Wax Holidays”,
“The Phantom Spiders” with Ryan Odagawa, “Koji
& the Dragon” for Flight with Richard Pose,
“The Titanium Steel Bullfight” for Flight
with Aaron Jasinski, “Pablo Sanchez: Poolman to the
Stars” with Reilly Brown. And um, I hope that’s
it…
DJ: Ties: skinny or wide?
Mark: It depends. But skinny for the most
part.
DJ: Is there anything that you wish I’d asked
but didn’t? If so, feel free to both ask it now…
Mark: … What time is The Golden
Girls on again? |
