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I met Diana Tamblyn at the Toronto Comic Arts
Festival (TCAF), just prior to the event she was
given coverage in The Globe and Mail (one of
Canada's largest national newspapers) as one of 4
creators to watch. She's done some mini comics and
has contributed to several anthologies. This
interview covers her background, her work, her
future and comic book conventions.
Jamie:
Tell us about your background, when and where
were you born?
Diana Tamblyn:
I was born in 1971 in Mexico City. My dad is
Mexican and my mom is Canadian, so I have dual
citizenship. My mom and I moved back to London,
Ontario (her hometown) the next year though, so
unfortunately I don't speak Spanish (although I'd
still like to learn someday).
We have been back a few times to see my large
extended family there which is always interesting
because only my youngest cousins speak English!
Jamie:
How did you get into comics?
Diana:
When my mom and her 3 brothers were young, my
grandfather bought them each a comic every week
after church on Sunday (as a kind of reward for
attending I guess). One day when I was five I came
across a huge box of these old comics at my
grandparents house and from that moment on I was
hooked! It was full of old DC and Gold Key silver
age comics, so those comics still hold a special
place in my heart - like Magnus Robot Fighter,
Superman, Legion, etc...
Jamie:
Many pros get into the industry hoping to one
day write or draw their favorite characters from
childhood. Do you have any interest in working for
Marvel or DC?
Diana:
I wouldn't have any interest drawing for Marvel
and DC - my style just wouldn't suit their books
like X-Men or Superman. I have to admit that I
probably wouldn't say no to writing something for
the "big 2". Hey - even Gilbert Hernandez wrote
Birds of Prey for 6 issues!
But really, something more offbeat like Gotham
Central or Alias - something with secondary
characters would excite me. It would also be a
dream come true to do something for DC's Bizarro
Comics anthologies!
Jamie:
Do you have any formal art training?
Diana:
I have a Bachelor of Fine Arts in film animation
from Concordia University in Montreal.
Jamie:
Did you ever do any animation work?
Diana:
I did do some animation work after school for a
dot-com company that I worked at for a few years.
They did multimedia emails and I did some
e-greetings for them (Valentine's Day cards and
such). I also worked on some animations for some
of our clients like Boeing, and Sony. They were
quite popular and did very well. Unfortunately I
don't have copies of any of them.
Jamie:
Do you use your illustration skills in work
outside of comics?
Diana:
Well my day job is managing some of the websites
for Scotiabank so although I don't do any
illustration as we only use photographs on the
site, I do do page layouts and am using photoshop
every day modifying/changing images. I also work a
lot with ad agencies and so I do provide art
direction/consultation. It actually does provide a
fair bit of creativity.
Jamie:
Was there anybody in particular that helped you
in self publishing?
Diana:
In the beginning, I wasn't sure how to even put
together a book and Dave Lapp (who is a great
local Toronto cartoonist), actually went to a
Kinkos with me one day with all of the artwork for
my first mini and helped me assemble it and run it
off. I was really grateful because I had no idea
of where to start.
Jamie:
Was there an event in particular that made you
want to be a pro?
Diana:
It might have been when I went to San Diego in
1991. It was a really exciting event for me. I
used to work at a comic store when I was in high
school and university so I went with a friend from
the store and we got to go to the industry stuff
which was neat. I swore then that the next time I
came back it would be as a creator. I actually
haven't gone back since then (basically because
it's so expensive) but plan to in the next couple
of years, with my comics in hand.
Jamie:
So far you've done a lot of small stories
ranging from 8-12 pages long. Do you have any
longer stories in the works?
Diana:
Right now I'm working on some short entries for a
few different anthologies, but once I'm through
with these I'd like to tackle one long story. One
of the problems is that I'm very slow, so a long
story will probably take me a few years.
Jamie:
Do you have a long story in mind already?
Diana:
I won't say too much because I don't want to jinx
myself, but based on my experience doing the
Banting story, I want to go back and do another
Canadian historical story. I have a few ideas, but
each will require a lot of research and as
mentioned will probably take me a few years to
complete.
Jamie:
What inspired you to do a bio on Frederick
Banting?
Diana:
That story was originally done for SPX 2002, which
was an anthology that had a theme of "biographical
comics". Basically you could do a comic biography
on anyone famous or historical. As the book is an
American publication, I wanted to do a story
specifically about a Canadian, and at the time I
was reading up about "Ferry Command" which was a
regiment that my grandfather served in, in WWII.
In my reading, I came across the story of
Banting's death which involved the Ferry Command
and I was really surprised that I never knew that
part of his story. I thought all the parts of
Banting's history that we didn't know (as many
know of his discovery of insulin and that's it),
were interesting enough to do a comic about.
Jamie:
Both Writers Block and That Thing You Fall Into
feel like very real stories. Did those stories
happen to you or people you know?
Diana:
I have to admit that "That Thing you Fall Into"
has strong biographical elements to it, but
"Writer's Block" is almost completely fictional.
The only part of that story that is similar to my
life is that I have very strong relationships with
my uncles, and I wanted the relationship between
the two kids and their uncle Al (the main
character of the story) to feel really true,
genuine and loving without being hokey.
Jamie:
Your comics are filled with very real,
believable characters telling stories that are
down to earth (for lack of a better term). Why do
you do these types of stories instead of more
familiar genre's this industry typically produces?
Diana:
Well, the thing about comics is that it's a
medium, not a genre. So although the big box
office films tend to be mostly special effects
driven car chases and fight scenes, the films that
affect me the most are the smaller, quieter ones.
It's the same for comics with me. I enjoy the
super-hero stuff when it's done well, but these
are not the stories that I want to tell.
And with comics like Louis Riel and Ghost World
getting a lot of attention and generating some
strong sales, I think regular folks are slowly
catching on to the fact that comics aren't just
super-heroes.
Jamie:
How did you develop your ear for dialogue?
Diana:
Honestly, I just try to really listen to people
and their rhythms of speech. I also say the
dialogue out loud as I'm writing it and go through
quite a lot of re-writes until I think it sounds
right.
Jamie:
I assume you go to a number of conventions to
sell your work. How well do you do at smaller ones
like TCAF vs. the larger ones?
Diana:
Since I'm a big comics nerd I've attended pretty
much all of the big conventions (like San Diego
and Chicago), but I've only exhibited at the
smaller ones like TCAF and SPX. This is because I
think the indy people tend to get lost at the
larger shows and if I'm going to spend the money,
effort and time to have a booth at a show I want
to make it worth my while, and I do great at the
indy shows.
I honestly can't see this changing too much in the
future, but what I would like to do is attend the
smaller shows with more regularity. I'm hoping to
do that next year in fact - we'll see...
Jamie:
Comic conventions tend to be either superhero
heavy or indy heavy. As a result, Indy fans avoid
the superhero cons and superhero fans ignore the
indy cons. Since you've been cons of all types, do
you know why there is such a divide in comic
fandom?
Diana:
I'm not too sure, it's an interesting question. I
think it probably has a lot to do with who's
organizing the show. The people who do the big
shows are shelling out a lot of money for "media"
guests, so need a lot of people to come through
the doors thus are focusing their energies on
people like Elijah Wood who can bring a lot of
traffic and publicity. I also think that these
people, although they may love comics aren't too
well versed on the indy -scene and don't have the
inclination or time to find out more about it.
Conversely, this means that that shows like TCAF
and SPX were created that appeal to people who
really like the indy stuff. That being said, there
are a few shows that try to appeal to both, and
these ones focus on comics and not the affiliated
movies, games, etc that come with them. Ones like
this that spring to mind is the Paradise Comics
Toronto Comicon show (whose sole focus on comics
recently even brought Warren Ellis to the city),
and the Heroes Comic con in the states.
Jamie:
Why are you printing your comics and trying to
sell them? Mini comics usually lose money and some
would argue if you are interested in getting
noticed, putting the comics online for free would
be much more effective. Is there particular reason
you are doing comics on paper?
Diana:
That's a pretty interesting question. There's no
doubt about the fact of mini-comics losing money,
but I honestly have never thought of putting my
comics on the web. I think it's because one of the
things I love most about comics is the look and
feel of them, the hand-crafted nature of minis,
and the portability of them. I also like to put
them away and re-visit them whenever I like. None
of these things can you do with webcomics. As I
mentioned before, I'm a real comics nerd and one
of the first things I do with a comic or graphic
novel is open it up and smell it. Really - there's
nothing better, I love that smell on fresh ink on
paper...
Someday I would like to do some Flash animations
and put those online, but the style would be
different from my printed stuff. I would probably
use a much more simplified style of drawing and
make use of a lot of flat colours to suit the
medium. You're probably right about having a
larger audience online though, something to think
about, I guess.
Jamie:
What are your goals in the industry?
Diana:
This past year I've been on maternity leave and
it's been a great experience for me for a number
of reasons - one of them being that it's given me
time to draw almost every day. It's been in small
increments as I work while my baby is sleeping,
but being married with a full-time job, I've never
gotten to draw this much since school and I've
really enjoyed it. It's made me more sure than
ever that if I could, I'd just work on comics all
the time. So, my future goals are to keep
improving my storytelling and drafting skills and
keep at it. It's a labour of love but it's
definitely worth it!
I'm also participating in more anthologies which
is great, and I now have enough of a body of work
that I can collect it into a trade paperback, so
I'm thinking of shopping this around. Ideally I'd
like someone else to print it and distribute it,
because I think then it would get into more
reader's hands.
Lastly, I've just started as a regular contributor
to the website Comic Book Galaxy, writing about
comics and the Toronto comic scene in particular,
and I really enjoy it.
Jamie:
There are a lot of very talented cartoonists in
the Toronto area. Do you know what got so many
people in the area to become professionals?
Diana:
Well I think there's a number of reasons why this
is. First of all Toronto is the biggest city in
Canada, so there is probably a higher number of
just about every kind of artist here to begin
with.
Also, I think that creative people are drawn to
places where there's a vibrant arts scene
happening - whether that's music, theatre, film or
fine arts, and if you're Canadian there's just a
few spots that fit this bill - namely Vancouver,
Toronto, and Montreal (and maybe Calgary and
Halifax to a lesser extent).
To use a small example, myself, Marc Bell and
Bryan Lee O'Malley are all from London, Ontario
yet all of us moved away and are now living
respectively in Vancouver, Toronto and Halifax. I
think this is a pretty common thing.
As well, the more creators that are in one spot,
the more that spot will attract like-minded
people. And, if there are good comic stores in
that same area - I think they act as a sort of
magnet for people to congregate in (and Toronto's
also got some of the best comic stores in North
America).
Again to use a non-Toronto example, there's a
fabulous comic store in Halifax called Strange
Adventures. Since they opened their doors a number
of years ago, the number of comics creators in
that area has started multiplying. They now have
Steve McNiven, Bryan Lee O'Malley, Hope Larson and
Darwyn Cooke is moving there in a few weeks! I
don't think this is a coincidence and Toronto is
just this multiplied by 10.
Regards,
Jamie Coville
http://www.TheGraphicNovels.com
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