| Artist/writer
Jim Rugg, along with co-writer Brian Maruca, has created one
of the most interesting, funny, and original comics to hit
the stands in a good long while: Street Angel. Published
by Slave Labor Graphics, the first five issues have been collected
into a handsome trade paperback called Street
Angel: Princess of Poverty. For this edition of the
footnote’s famed comic book column, “Hooray for
Comics,” our own fanboy D.J. Kirkbride chats it up with
Rugg about Street Angel, writing for an audience,
artistic influences, ninjas, and more… much more…
DJ: Jesse Sanchez, the hero of Street Angel,
is, basically, a superhero without a costume. Or a home. Or
decent grades. How did this character come about?
RUGG: I wanted to draw a lightweight, action-packed
mini-comic. Superheroes seemed like they could be something
fun to try. I had done some sketches of a punk, skater girl.
I liked the visual, so Street Angel developed from
that. We talked about various superhero conventions and kept
the ones we liked and tried to avoid the ones we didn’t
care for.
 DJ:
You draw Street Angel and co-write it with Brian
Maruca. How does this creative relationship work?
RUGG: Brian and I work at the same day job.
Our cubes are next to one another. So when we get bored we
throw out amusing ideas and from those ideas we construct
stories.
DJ: Each issue of Street Angel is a jumping
on point as, aside from an old school caption or two explaining
whom Street Angel is, every story is it's own self-contained
adventure. Was that one of your goals at the outset? To just
drop people in the mix Star Wars (original trilogy)
or Buckaroo Bonzai style?
RUGG: The self-contained format was appealing
for a number of reasons. First, the book started out
as a single mini-comic, not a series. Then when we decided
to do more, we knew the frequency would be at least bi-monthly
or quarterly, plus it’s hard to keep up with a small,
indie comic. I wanted anyone who found an issue to have something
worthwhile, a complete story. The comics I grew up reading
were almost always self-contained, or at least they would
have one storyline that was self-contained. I like that. I’m
also not a fan of cinematically influenced, decompressed storytelling
style. I think that style of storytelling necessitates the
exclusion of the some of the classic comic elements I enjoy
like implied motion/animation, dynamic action between panels,
and visual shorthand that classic comics relied on. If I want
to see a movie, I’ll rent a movie. I just don’t
know why so many cartoonists aspire to the movies-on-paper
model. If I wanted to make movies, I think I’d go to
film school or LA and try to make movies. I guess I got off
track there. Back to your question, the repetitious, introductory
captions of old comics amuse me, so we definitely wanted to
keep that.
DJ: How'd you get Street Angel to Slave Labor
Graphics? Were they the first company you approached?
RUGG: They were the first company. And what
happened was, we did a mini-comic first. It’s extremely
similar to Issue 1 of the series. After we finished the mini-comic,
we had scripts and ideas for a number of subsequent issues.
Meanwhile the mini-comic was met with great enthusiasm from
readers. We felt we might have a commercially viable comic
and decided to look for a publisher. From what I knew of Slave
Labor’s titles, I thought they would be the perfect
fit. We followed their submission guidelines, mailed them
a package, and were contacted by Dan Vado, SLG’s publisher.
DJ: Your art is very clear, not flashy or particularly
showy. It's concise and gets the job done swimmingly. Are
you going for a more classic style? Who are your influences?
RUGG: I don’t know if I’m going
for a classic style, but that’s probably accurate. I
hadn’t thought about it in those terms. It’s reflective
of the comics I like and that influence me. The influences
are pretty wide within the comics field, from old comic strips
to contemporary alternative greats like Dan Clowes and Chris
Ware. I don’t know if there’s a difference between
comics I like and comics that influence me. Some of my current
favorites are Herriman, Frank King, Shulz, Gould, Segar, Crane,
Harold Gray, Bud Fisher, Crumb, Kirby, Mignola, Clowes, Ware,
Sacco, Mazzuchelli, Panter, Fort Thunder, Porcellino, Johnny
Craig, Gene Colan, Nowlan, Kim Deitch, Sammy Harkham, Kevin
Huizenga, Anders Nilsen, Taiyo Matsumoto, Jeffrey Brown, Paul
Grist’s Kane, Dick Sprang, Chester Brown…
DJ: Each of the single issues of Street Angel
had a back cover done in a different artist's style (also
included in the trade). Was it difficult to tap into your
inner Dan Cowles or Jhonen Vasquez?
RUGG: Dan Clowes was difficult. That one
might have been the most difficult. The Jhonen cover was an
interesting challenge as well. I had to really study.
DJ: While many comics seem to stretch one idea for
as long as possible, each Street Angel story has
tons of concepts that could be explored further: ninja gangs,
time traveling pirates, land sharks, and the like, as well
as numerous characters who could easily headline their own
comics (like Cosmick and Afrodisiac to name a couple)... you
ever worry about running out of ideas?
RUGG: No. It’s easier to generate one
hundred ideas than it is generate one.
DJ: Though Street Angel is, page for page,
an excellent comic, there is one GLARING error that I'd like
you to explain, and no, it's not Jesus kicking some unholy
ass (as a carpenter, he probably had some of old school, strong
muscles). I'm referring to the shocking notion that pirates
are tougher than ninjas. Care to explain yourself? Will there
be a retraction in future printings of the trade?
RUGG: There is a major misconception about
ninjas in pop culture. They are not very tough. They are extremely
cunning and deceptive, like fighting a well-armed magician.
But if you encountered a ninja in the middle of a street,
face-to-face, you’ve already overcome his greatest advantage--stealth.
(His response, while surprisingly well thought out and
even logical… is wrong! LIES! NINJAS ARE THE ULTIMATE
BADASSES!!! –d.j.)
DJ: Street Angel, with its varied styles
and tones, at times seems like it could be all ages (the first
issue for the most part), but then, as with issue three ("Going
Street to Hell"), things get more graphic in terms of
violence and scares. What kind audience are you writing the
book for? Ever any thoughts like, "If we just cut this
limb slashing, I bet Nickelodeon'd be interested in a cartoon"
or something? Or would that be negatively censoring yourself?
RUGG: The only audience consideration I have
is me. If our ideas amuse me and don’t contradict the
character, I’m satisfied. The whole licensing thing
is something of a mirage in my experience. It takes a LOT
of work to move something from a comic to a screen. When I
think of drug dealers, I always think, why not get a real
job. Drug dealing sounds good, but there’s a lot of
overheard, you still work a lot, and you face a huge risk.
At the end of the day, drug dealers aren’t getting rich,
they’re getting killed or imprisoned. Trying to infiltrate
Hollywood, TV, or video games by way of comics is sort of
like that. There are very rare exceptions where properties
are optioned for huge sums of money upfront, but I’d
compare that event to winning a lottery. It’s not something
you can plan on. I make comics to entertain myself. That’s
the only part I can control.
DJ: What creators influence your work? Not just in
comics, but any media.
 RUGG:
Wes Anderson, Kurt Vonnegut, Kobe Abe, I don’t know…this
is a hard question because you never really lose an influence
and as you go through life I think you’re constantly
being influenced. Right now I’m reading the Crying
of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon, and I watched Primer
this week a couple of times. Both of those things stand out
in my mind at the moment. I don’t know how influential
they will prove to be, but I’ve spent some time thinking
about both. I also discovered the work of Todd Hido recently,
and I find his suburban house photos very interesting.
DJ: What comics are you reading right now? Any books
out there getting you particularly excited about the potential
of the medium?
RUGG: I haven’t read many comics lately.
I think in the last year or two I overloaded on comics and
got burnt out. I just reread Kane, by Paul Grist.
I like Stray Bullets, Hellboy, Eightball. I’m
very excited for new Chris Ware books.
DJ: Your background is in graphic design. You obviously
used that training with the eye-catching Street Angel
cover designs. While the logo constantly changed, the book
always stood out due to the ever-present pink. How'd you come
up with that idea? Any worry it'd back fire, confusing some
readers? And why that particular shade of pink?
RUGG: I found that shade of pink pleasing;
it’s warm and soft. I didn’t think it would confuse
anyone. I didn’t market the book to die-hard, Marvel/DC-exclusive
readers. The infrequency of many indie books works against
the success of recognizable, recurring logo as a branding
mechanism. I don’t think it would hurt a book to have
a consistent logo, but I don’t think having different
logos loses any sales.
The pink came about because Brian and I wanted the covers
to stand out on the rack. We went to a great local store and
stood back and tried to find the books that grabbed our attention.
We developed the cover design from that initial experience
and lots of trial and error.
DJ: In the trade, some of the characters get a "stats"
page in between adventures. They reminded me of old toys (like
Transformers) packaging or the old Marvel trading cards from
what I like to call "back in the day" (early nineties).
Is that where they came from? As an aside, I was shocked at
Jesse's lack of basketball skills. What's up with that?
RUGG: Remember Kevin Arnold, in The Wonder
Years? That was one smooth dude, but he was terrible
at basketball. Just because you have your shit together doesn’t
mean you can play basketball. Kung fu does not mean you got
game.
There are [also] lots of old toys and stuff that had those
stats and character profiles. Half the time the profiles were
better than the actual toys. The reason we used them was because
we had to have two pages between each issue’s reprint
in the trade paperback, so spreads would line up correctly.
I didn’t want to use two pages for a chapter title,
so we struggled for a long time to figure out something to
fill that extra page. I’m not sure which of us came
up with the profiles idea, but I was pretty happy to add those
to the book.
DJ: Is Street Angel on hiatus, or are the
adventures of Jesse Sanchez over with issue five?
RUGG: I hope it’s only on hiatus. We’ll
see.
DJ: Are you planning on introducing any new titles
or series to comics?
RUGG: Not at the moment, but sooner or later
I have a feeling Afrodisiac will find his way into his own
book.
DJ: What'd I forget to ask you that you need to get
out to the public?
RUGG: I’ll be at Riot Comics, 2202A
Gettysburg Road, Camp Hill, PA 17011 on November 12th for
their grand opening. Brian Wood and Dean Haspiel will be there,
too. People in the area should stop by and check it out. Also,
I'll be at SPX September 23 and 24. Anyone going to the show,
stop by my table and say hey. Zack Soto and Jasen Lex and
I are sharing table space. Those dudes will both have awesome
new books. I’ll have crummy old books as well as new
stories in the SPX Anthology and the True Porn
2 book!
DJ: If there's anything you'd like to ask me, feel
free to turn the tables now (but my personal life is off limits--
just a standard policy I have).
RUGG: Are those initials or are you a real
DJ?
DJ: Them’s my initials (can’t divulge
what they stand for, though). Anyway, I haven’t spun
any records since the 80s.
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