Nicholas Myers Interviewed!

Richard Caldwell continues his dissection of the A.N.A. braintrust, this time with writer, artist, and undead ninja, Nicholas P. Myers...

Nic, what was the first comic book you remember reading?

Wow, hmmm. I want to say Spider-Man. There has to be a reason he resonates so strongly with my childhood. I got a lot of hand me down comics growing up. My dad would show up with a box of them when he picked me up for the weekend and I'd devour them that afternoon and tell him I was bored the rest of the weekend.
But the strange thing was I was always interested in making my own comics rather than reading someone else's. My worlds were always more interesting to me. A bit conceited, right?

Not conceited, not at all. Anyone is capable of observing or even destroying in life, but few can create. How old were you when you were first getting bit by that creative bug? And did it stay with you, or was it something you returned to later on down the line?
What was your journey?

My earliest memories are of creating other worlds and making stories.

All throughout school, all I did was draw, and write stories. I think it was in third grade that I won a writing contest for a local college when I wrote the story of a boy and his Swamp Dragon. They had my mom bring me to the college with some of the other winners and they presented us with awards and everything. I felt like the bees knees.

In the summers, my brother and I would spend all day out in the woods behind our house and we would make up stories. I look back at that time in the woods with my brother and I think that's where my real creative fire came from.

The Creative Bug has always been with me. Only with me, it's more of a Creative Monster- always feeding and always demanding more.

When was the first time that you finally saw some of your work in actual, grownup, comic book industry print? What are your thoughts on that work now?

The first print work that I saw was the graphic novel, Oasis: Omnibus. I self published the collection through Lulu.com after various failed attempts at TRULY self-publishing, which included printing the pages, and the cover, binding the work, trimming the finished book and hawking it to anyone who was willing to listen.

It was an incredible feeling to have this hefty 312 page book in my hands that I had created. It was 5 years worth of work collected into that one book and at the time, I was quite disappointed at it's limited success.

Looking back at the book now, I cringe at how some of the pages look and the halting, jerking of the story in some places. But I'm still proud of it. I always will be proud of it because it's proof positive that you can accomplish almost anything if you work hard and long enough at it. It helps to be bull headed as well.

How did Floating Island come about? What was your involvement, if any, with Cadre Corner- was that setup a true precursor to A.N.A. Comics?
And speaking of bull-headed, do you as an artist find it difficult to balance sundry creative pursuits with a family life and day job responsibilities? Any coping tips that have worked for you? Meditation? Midget tossing?

If I were to participate in midget tossing, I would be the one being tossed.

As far as how did Floating Island coming about? There used to be this show on PBS that was called the Imagination Station and this guy would draw all kinds of crazy things and one of the things that stick in my mind in particular was a series of different floating islands. That and my favorite painting is most likely Castle in the Pyrenees by Rene Magritte. I often see myself as the individual whose floating in that island castle, alone and misunderstood. A bit melodramatic? Perhaps. But I'm an artist. I can't help it right?

I was brought into Cadre Corner through Comicspace. Jesse Hansen, who was the founder of Cadre Corner, recruited me you might say, and I came on board. That was where Anthony and Adrian and I met each other and we found out that all three of us had many things in common. There were many little things, I think, that lead to the formation of A.N.A. Comics and through some of these difficulties, Anthony and Adrian and I strode forth with our A.N.A. Comics banner proudly held high. If one were to become victim to absurd visualizations that is.

As far as the balance with family and the creative life? That's one of the cornerstones that the three of us share at ANA Comics. We are all very passionate about comics and all equally as passionate, if not moreso, about our families. It's been awesome for me. My wife has been completely supportive of all my creative ventures and Anthony and Adrian have both been supportive and understanding if family comes first.

But the other thing that makes it so easy is that my oldest daughter is very interested in art as well. So, we can sit and paint things together and we have been ever since I forced a brush into her tiny little hand.

I think the MAIN reason that I'm doing A.N.A. Comics is so that I can do something that my family can be proud of. So that I can create something and have my two girls point it out to their friends without being embarrassed. Perhaps one day, I can only hope, being proud of what their Old Man Pop has accomplished.

You currently have two webcomics being hosted at the A.N.A. website. How has the feedback been for TPANVP? And are you finding much cause for tweaking Oasis at all to make it work better as an online strip, or does it stand the test of time well enough?

I thought a lot about tweaking Oasis. I kicked around the idea of redrawing some of the pages or even rewriting it and redrawing it. But I think I'll let it stand for what it is. I did take out some of the language that I had in there as I was putting it up through ANA which were trying to make an all ages company. I think the story of Oasis works well still for all ages and so I just trimmed out the offensive parts.

And as far as feedback on The Precarious Adventures of Newton Von Brisby (I'm proud of that title by the way, can you tell?) I couldn't be happier. I've gotten feedback from other artists and writers as well as even some comments from readers themselves. Most of it has been positive and the few that aren't are only that way because it's more constructive criticism and that's definitely needed.

And no, I'm not going to rewrite the ending of Oasis for you just because you think it was sad.

You son of a blue meanie! So what do you like to read in your comics nowadays? Who is doing the formula best, in your mind?

Wow, that's harsh.

The most important thing in comics for me has always been the art. If the art isn't good then I can't get drawn into the story. Once we get past that, I want to make sure what I'm reading is unique. And I also look for stories that can inspire me in my own adventures. But it's also a hodgepodge of different things as well.

Some of favorites include Freakangels by Warren Ellis and Paul Duffield, Kukuburi by Ramon Perez. I also like Chickenhare which is a very unique world and represented properly by strong art. Some of the funnier stuff that I enjoy is PvP Online and Penny Arcade as well as XKCD and Perry Bible Fellowship.

But I think the MAIN reason I like those properties is because their creators OWN it. I don't mean in just the property sense, but they've put their heart and soul into the work and it shows through when you read it.

That is something wonderful about smaller press. You can tell more often than not, when a job is just a job, and when it's something the creators have lived with for awhile, slept with, eat and drink with.
Any closing comments before the jury rests? What does the future look like from way over there?

I guess the only thing I want to close with is to thank you for the opportunity to talk about this stuff. In the last couple of years I have been absolutely amazed by the depth and support that's out there in the indy community. You'd think it would be cutthroat but I've found that if you look in the right places, there is a tremendous lattice work of support and cooperation with other artists and writers who truly get the reason why we're doing what we're doing.

The future looks rather bright if you ask me.

Follow Nicholas Myers on twitter: http://twitter.com/NicholasPMyers