Living Life in the Gutter: A Talk with Ryan Sohmer

LIVINGLIFEIN THEGUTTER
A TALKWITHRYANSOHMER
AARONBROVERMAN
here I come from, the word gutters has at least two
meanings:Of course, there'sthe obvious one that brings
about images of street urchins, destitute circumstances
and an annoyance synonymous with falling leaves. However, if
you're a comic fan, you know gutters as those little white spaces
between the panels. Well, comic geeks will have to add another
definition to that list becauseGuttersis the newestwebcomic from
writer and Blind FerretEntertainmentpresidentRyanSohmer.
Some of you may already know the Montreal-native,and owner
of local comic store The 4'h Wall, as the writer/creator of both
Iaast I C-anDo, - a strip chronicling the misadventures of a
twentysomethingcad named Rayne Sommers- and Luking hr
Gmtry,a multi-layeredfantasyquestoriginally intendedas a parody
of Vhrld of Wawaft. Both comics are drawn by lar DeSouza.
In GutteTs,Sohmer takes on the mainstreamcomic industry and
lampoons it mercilessly with the help of a new artist for every
stand-alonepage. The comic appearsevery Monday, Wednesday
and Friday on www.the-gutters.comand takes on everything from
Batman's recent iourney through time, the death of The Human
'Ibrch
and Disney's acquisition of Marvel. You can wind your way
back to the first strip online, or you can just buy the strip's first
trade paperback, The Gutterc Omnibus Vol. 1. To celebrate its
release,Ryan talked to us about his early history as a journalist,
what it takes to write a comic strip joke and whether he is on
Marvel and DC's hit{ist for making fun of them.
Comics & Gaming Monthly: How did you start out, did you rise
through the convention scene?
Ryan Sohmer:'No, I've only been doing conventionsfor five years
now. I use to write in a lot of newspapersand then I got this idea for
LeastI C-ouADo and I wantd to iust see if I could do it. So, I put
up a shitty website, paid someoneto do the art and I iust started
doing it. I didn't focus on makng money off of it or getting a huge
audience for it, I iust wanted to see if I could learn how to write
in that medium. Over time it kind of happenedorganically that it
developedan audiencewith a demand for books and a demand for
merchandise.When that was going well, we took what we leamed
from that and put it into Iroking fur Group and then Gutters.You
just take what you make and reinvest it."
"Beforecomic books,I wos
ottroctedto comic strips,
As o kid,
I useto reodthem everymorning
in the poperond I lovedit,I
obsolutelyfell heod over heels"
CGM: You mentioned you wrote for newspapers, were you a
journalist?
RS: 'l was an entenainment rcporter and I wrote a syndicated
column called Accordingto Me, which appearedin 40 to 50 papers
in the U.S. and Canada.It was around for two or three years and I
startedgening bored with it, so I moved on."
CGM: What attracted you to the comics medium?
RS:"Beforecomic books, I was attracted to comic strips. As a kid,
I use to read them every morning in the paper and I loved it. I
absolutely fell head over heels. I love Doonesbury,I love Hagot
I love Caluin and. Hobbes and I always wanted to see if I could
producesomethinglike that."
CGM: What is sonething you like about each one of your strips
that none of the others have?
RS: 'ln looking hr Grcup for example,I get to tell a very large scale
fantasy epic-adventurekind of thing, which I love doing because
you can pretty much plot out about ten years worth of material
and it's awesome. I just love teasing the audience with bits and
pieceshere and there.Then you have somethinglike LeastI &n Do,
which tells a story on a much more personal scale,but I can also
do one day gag strips and basically do any random shit that pops
into my head. Then you have Gfiters, which is very different from
the others and I get to play in whatever sandbox suits me that day.
Plus, becauseit's a parody, I can write Deadpoolonce, I can write
Captain America, I can write Superman.I can write whatever it is
that catches my attention. They are each pretty unique and they
each fulfill me in very different wavs."
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Wherc did the idea for Gutters come from?
RS: 'It's actudly been burning in my head for a while. I've been a
huge fan of comics and I love everything about them. But, like every
other good fan out there, there's nothing I enjoy more than poking
fun and having a good time with them. It's iust comics, there's
no reason to take them too seriously. So originally I was thinking
maybe I should start pushing for work and get work in mainstream
comics, but I couldn't decide which one I wanted to write for - so
what if I wrote for dl of them?Then, boom! Gutterswas formed."
C|GM: I krow Gffterf, was launched most recently, but did the
germ of the ldea come before your other comics?
R5: 'Gufters has been around for almost a yeirl now, so it's fairly
new in relation to the other stuff. I've been doing Least I C-o,tMDo
for about ten years and.Lmkir€fr,rGroup for almost five years now,
so Gufters is definitely a newer idea."
OGM: Doeathe fact that you're a comic ehop owner have anything
to do wtth the type of Industry controrrersier you sadrize in
Gutfe7s panele?
RS: 'Not really, I try to come at the iokes with an angle that the
majority of fans will get, relate to, or understand and most of fans
aren't comic shop owners. Frankly, I own a store, but I really don't
do much for the store. I'm really not involved in the day+o-day
operations, it's just a cool place to hang out and I love it, but I can't
redly take credit for anythirrg that happens there."
CGM: A unique feature of Guttens is lt has a new artist errery
strip, what made you decide to do that?
RS: "Originally it came ftom completeindecisionbecauseI couldn't
decide who I wanted to get to do the comic. Then, I was talking to
'Why
Lar and he mentioned,
don't you rctate? One month this guy,
another month this guy...'Then, I took it one step further and said,
'F-k, let's do it every page.'That openedit up, so that we could try
so many different things and use established talent, or erpose new
tdent. It has been hard, there's no question about it. It's difficult
to manage the dayro-day of it, but it's been worth it and I think it
provides something that hasn't been seen before."
OGM: What are the advantages of havlng a dlffercnt art otyle for
every *rlp?
R8: "When you look at Gutten hopefully they're funny, but the
other thing is, I hope that as you look through them you get a taste
of what comic talent can offer and what comics can be. There is
different talent out there and not every single strip has to look like it
was pulled from Marvel or DC. You can show variety and I'm trying
to push that."
CGM: How do the art styles work with the jokee? Do you feel
it works bett€r to have varylng etylea simply because you .tre
lampooning the comlc book induotry?
RS: "Well, I think becausewe are lampooning and, in essence,wery
page is a stand-alonecomic, set in its own world, its own timeline
and its own everything, I think each one having its own style kind
of goeswith everything else."
CGM: Can you paint ne a picture of some of the logirtical
difflculdes you experience from changfng artbtE dl the tine?
RS: -So, the staff on gutters is mg an editor who scoutsner r talent
and finds pages and there's the assistant editor who manages the
communication and makes sur€ everyone is getting paid. We have
a letterer, Russ Wooton and we have a colourist, Ed Ryzowski. We
have all of these guys in addition to whoever the artist is, so it's a
lot. There's a lot of in-between. It all goes through all of us, so we
all comment and we all see what's going on with any changesas
necessary.Sometimes the pages don't work out like we planned, so
at the last minute we'll deal with it and do a new one."
OGM: How does the average stripl
gcenes?
cr€ation work behind-the
RS: "The first step is, I write the script. I write a irll one page
script. I treat every page as a movie script, so I write in that sense,
I will then send it off to Rich Young the editor and Jeff Moss, the
assistant editor and I'll tell them the style I need for it. We'll then
go through our list of old talent, new talent and whatever we have
on file, which is an always growing roster. Rich will then say, 'Okay,
'Okay.'
Person X will be doing this page,' and I'll say,
lt will then go
:r
u-i:s who will makesurethe artist has everythingthey need
! rf templatefilesand just kind of answerany questionsthe
r:'. -f,i about the script. From there,the artist creates a layout
&: .<:Js it to Moss and to me and we approveit or suggestany
:-.-r-: rhar needto be made.The artistthen doesthe pencilsand
ilr --r-r Once approvalthere is done, the pagegets sent back to
n:r. iid to me. Mossthen sendsthe pageto our lettererand our
j: They will eachdo there own work and then it will come
:rr;,-,-:
:r . '-' Js. It will then go out to our art directorLar DeSouzawho
r.^ ' .]ll. puts it all togetherand makesany necessary
last minute
.-r:=s Then it goesback to Mosswho uploadsit to the system,I
r--. : blogand we'reoff to the races."
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FOUare
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so many cogs in the machine, does missing deadlines ever
I<orDe an issue for these artists?
'. ',r'ould
Gl
saythat of the 120pageswe've doneso far,we've had
:'.- : slx pagesthat we just had to kill. They just weren't working
:'-' '.': \'ariousreasons.I think now as we've gotten bigger and
j'-.' 'r'rurationhas startedto exist,we get in peoplewho genuinely
!i-' :rr work on the project,so they want to put a lot of effort
:' .: So, we haven't had any problemsrecently,which is quite
: ' : ls opposedto when we were starting.But for the most parl
:- :.e have beengreat and when it comesto missingdeadlinesI
r.r.:' .r Z€rololerancepolicy.If you don't makethe deadline,that's
' , r re done. No exceptions,it's a payingjob like anythingelse
. ,ir' pay you on time, so I expectthe work to be done on time.
, - deliver,then everybodyis happy.We try and keep the strip
: -:1. so we can't havea massivebufferand we reallywork week-
page
ln5e.
, the
then
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180
RS:"lt hasbeenmy full-timejob now for almosta decade.bur I looi
at someof my earlierstuff and think, geez,that was bad. I didn r
know what the hell I was doing. Like any other creativepalere.r'ou
just learn by doing. The more you do, the more you try and push
yourself,the better off you're going to be. Come naturall)'i \o I
don't think so, it camethrougha lot of failure."
What are the mechanicsbehind your ioke writing?
RS: "WheneverI write any kind of ioke for whatevercomic ir mav
be, I always write the dialoguefirst. The dialoguehas to be able
to tell your joke or tell your story, whateverit is you're trying ro
get across.I has to be able to do that with the dialoguealone.li ir
doesn'tdo it, it's not goingto work in the comicand the art is nor
going to saveit. lf you get the dialogueto a point where it rvorks.
everything
elseis just icingon the cake."
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Not everyone knows the pacing for comic strip jokes, did thar
come to you naturally?
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imeline
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Where do you get the inspiration for what kind of art stvle !'our
going to use that week?
RS: 'lt kind of dependson the ioke. SometimesI like to plal' a ioke
straight.Reallygo for it in that standardMarvel or DC an srvle
It kind of makesthe dialoguepop that much more. SomerimesI
just like to go off the wall and go really cartoony.Other times th.'
guys will suggesta specificstyle and we'll go with that. Realiv.
everythingis determinedpageby page.Thereis nothingsavingthai
the next five pageswill be in this particularstyle. Eventhing iust
goesaccordingto the ioke and we go from there."
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I know o lot of people in the industryreod ii becousethey tellme. For
the most port,ld scry997"of them ore in on the joke,Theymoke comics
for o living,you got to know how to hove o good iime
Does the notoriety from your other strips lLeast I Ctn Do &
Lnking For Grcupl attract talent for Gutters to you?
RS: "No, my stuff has beenaroundfor a while,which is nice,but
by the sametoken Gutrersis about the comic book industry,so it's
exclusivelymadefor that market.In that market,i'm not superwellknown and Gutterswill hopefullyhelp with thar."
Well, it seemsto be working, as The Boysartist Darrick Robertson
did the cover for The Gutters Omnibus Vol. I. and Wolverine:
Ordgdnswriter Daniel Way wrote the introduction. How did those
collaborationscome about?
RS:"Lar Desouzaand I wereflown out to Australiathis pastOctober
to do a show there and in New Zealandand funny enough,Daniel
and Darrickwerealso flown out as well. We were there for a week,
so we reallygot to hangout and get to know eachother.Fromthere,
i'm like,'Hey,let'sdo somethingtogether."
Has anyone in the comic industry been offended by their
appearancein Gutterr and have they ever given you flack for it?
RS: "l know a lot of peoplein the industryread it becausethey tell
me. For the most part, I'd say99ohof them are in on the foke.They
makecomicsfor a living, you got to know how to havea goodtime.
If you're taking comicstoo seriously,maybeyou needto stepback.
It's a fun medium and all we're doing is havingfun within that
world. Most peoplesay, 'This is funny, nice one.'Funny enoughI
met Joe Quesada,C.B.Cebulskiand Brian Bendisin New Yorkand
both C.B. and Bendisread it and thev eniov it -- that was kind of
cool to hear."
What do you like about the online webcomic versus the comic
book?
RS: "lt's a lower cost of entry and I have more of an ability to
try new things. I can experimentmore without having to print up
30,000comics.I can publishsomething
onlineand seehow it goes.
If it's great,great.If it's not, well,sometimes
thingsdon't work. It's
a lot easierto get rid of."
What advice do you give fans who approachyou at conventions
and want to break into the industry?
RS:"For artists,I say,'Giveme your portfolio.If I like what I see,
I'll assignyou a page.It's just that easy.For writersor anyoneelse,I
say,'work at it and treatit like a job that you love and just hammer
awayat it. Don't stop.Don't getdiscouraged.
Keepgoing."
What do you hope for the future of your strips and the future of
Blind FerretEntertainmentin general?
RS: "We havea few new propertieslaunchingin the next few years
and onethat'slaunchingquitesoon.I hopethat we keeptryingnew
thingsand we keeptrying mediumsthat are not within our comfort
zone.We'realsoexploringnew avenuesbecausetechnologyis very
dynamic,it's alwayschanging.So I'm looking forwardto what the
internetwill becomeand what will happenwirh iPadsand mobile
gaming.Whereis everythinggoing to go and how can we exist in
that world?"
Is there anything you'd like to teaseabout what's coming up for
Guttersor any of your other strips?
RS: "For Gutterswe have some largerartist namescoming along
that might surpriseyou and we even have a few big name guest
writersthat will be poppingin from lime ro time rhat will fill in
for me. I can't give you any namesyet, but they're namesyou do
know."