In Daniel Clowes ’ 2004 comic book The Death - Ray , a totally average 1970s high - schooler list Andy discovers that he gains top-notch - intensity whenever he puffs a fag .
This revelation leave Andy on a vigilante quest filled with beer , high - technical school implements of war , and hapless decision . With The Death - Ray coming out as a graphic novel next week , io9 spoke with Clowes about superheroing with no adult supervision .
Most people be given to associate your funny output with books like Ghost World or Wilson . Why a superhero Bible ?
It ’s complicated . For old age , I felt like the way of life I explained my work — as oppose to the mainstream comics — was to say , “ Mainstream comics are about superheroes , my work is about other material . You know , the opposite of superheroes ! ” It ’s like I was always name my work as part of the whole field that I come from , people like the Hernandez Bros. and Chris Ware .
After a while , it was nagging at me that that was n’t really lawful . That was just a really well-fixed way to explain it to masses . It ’s actually something more to do with the approach taken and frame of mention myself and other artist are using . I always felt like I was pass around this Trygve Halvden Lie that somehow that was the only difference . Somehow it move me into one 24-hour interval need to do a superhero comic just be able to discombobulate that theory out the window .
Is there anything autobiographic about Andy ’s travails in The Death - Ray ?
Yeah , young Andy looked a lot like I did at that age — back in the Seventies , when we all had trough haircuts and wore stupid clothes , fundamentally the same clothes that Kyd are wear nowadays , which is always strange to see . When I do these comics , I strain to create graphic symbol and make other the great unwashed . I ’m not think in terms of my own experience at all .
The characters always seem very remote from my own life , but when I go back and re - read them years later on , every exclusive panel is filled with personal details I had n’t mean to put in there . I was just look through The Death - Ray — all the high - shoal kids are base on kids that I go to high school with . But not really intentionally , I just remembered what these tiddler looked like unconsciously . They could almost sue me for representing them in such specific ways .
Superhero origin tend to be incredibly striking . In The Death - Ray , Andy gains his power when he smoke . It ’s such a superbly mundane origin .
It was something of a metaphor . It seemed like something that an adolescent would retrieve of , something that shit one an adult . Those of who are looking back at that advantage point can see that it ’s actually the opposite word . kid who acquire up take comics always conceive of , “ What would we do if we had world power ? ” We opine secluded identities and girlfriends like Lois Lane that we would deliver , but reality is much more complicated . I certainly do n’t commit anyone I jazz with that variety of power .
I was mugged recently , so I really enjoy how the account book present vigilante justice . The Death - Ray really nab the realities of vigilantism — it ’s pretty visionary .
I ’m sorry to hear that . Geez ! As a fry , I had a serious walkway to shoal . I was punch in the stomach many times , I had my bike steal . It was a very tense day-after-day ritual I had to go through , and I develop some form of fancy about a weapon that would protect me .
Was this a different fibre than The Death - Ray ?
I sort of manufacture The Death - Ray under a dissimilar name when I was about 16 . I was going to judge my own superhero comedian . I cause as far as drawing the covert 500 time and never pull anything inside . But I had the whole floor cipher out . It has some similarities to this character . He had a ray gun and lived with his grandfather . It was fundamentally a full riptide - off of Spider - Man where the grandfather gets kill and he seeks revenge . To my credit , I never actually drew it until I was too old to know better .
The Death - Ray has a fantastically retro costume . Ever see any D.R. cosplayers ?
There was a hombre online who made a Death - Ray costume with all of the different footfall . He looked pretty skillful — the whole homemade costume and schlubby guy in a wrinkled courtship seem that so many of my part have . It was middling impressive . There have been a few others , but it ’s a pocket-sized airfield .
Any update on how the movie version of The Death - Ray is going ?
It ’s one of those project that we ’ve been exercise in our excess metre for a duad years . It ’s very much a living undertaking — it ’s still ongoing . I ’ve just publish a new draft for it . It ’s a very different edition of the character . When I originally did the comic , I was go to do half of the Word about the teen Andy and half of the Scripture about the heart - aged Andy . It did n’t cleave as a story , so I picked the teenage side . But when I was finished , I missed all the material about the old Andy , so the screenplay is the end edition of the comedian . The teen part is much smaller in proportionality .
So , what else is cooking ?
I ’ve also been work on the first swig of the Wilson movie for Alexander Payne , and everybody seemed to like that . I ’m also working on a graphical novel that I ’m not going to talk about for another class . I also just eat up a monograph of my artwork that has my entire career shrunk down to 220 pages , but that ’s come out next year . There ’s break to be a traveling museum show that begins at the Oakland Museum in April 2012 .
Final interrogative — do you have any posterior ofOK Sodastill lie in around ?
I actually only have one can after all these years ! It was get all dented and looking like it ’s filled with botulism . My dad died a few years ago and I was cleanse out his workshop . I line up this one-time glass bag , and I decided to reckon in it . It was fill with okay Soda cans ! Now I have 12 of them . I had no idea he in reality knew about it . It ’s rather strange .
The hardback reprint of The Death - Ray remove memory October 11 from Drawn & Quarterly . you’re able to take a preview of ithere .
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