The following is an interview with Christopher Irving regarding the launch of two consecutive Kickstarter campaigns for Madman Comin’ Atcha 3-D Trading Cards: The Collection and Graphic NYC: The Essay Collection. In this interview, Fanbase Press Editor-in-Chief Barbra Dillon chats with Irving about his experiencing in revisiting such pivotal projects from his career, the incredible backer rewards available with both of the campaigns, and more!
Barbra Dillon, Fanbase Press Editor-in-Chief: This month will see the launch of not one, but two Kickstarter campaigns for your work with Madman Comin’ Atcha 3-D Trading Cards: The Collection and Graphic NYC: The Essay Collection. For those who may be unfamiliar, what can you share with us about each project’s premise?
Christopher Irving: Yeah, it has been a busy month, for sure. Both involve my revisiting two of the most pivotal projects from my time in comics.
The Madman Comin’ Atcha 3-D Trading Cards: The Collection collects my first Kickstarter campaign from ten years ago, a set of trading cards designed in 3-D (hence the title), hitting the high story points of Michael Allred’s stellar indie comic, Madman, from the ‘90s through 2010s. Madman debuted in 1992 and rocked my teenage mind with its infusion of pop culture, existentialism, superheroics, and good ol’ superhero-ish action. And don’t get me started on Laura Allred’s blammo colors! The book steered me away from just reading superheroes and had a huge impact on my life.
Since then, I’ve periodically visited Mike’s Madmaniverse for everything from more trading cards to a metal lunchbox, to yo-yos and critical essay booklets (Madmania). This collection funded in twelve hours and is sort of a victory lap for myself and collaborators Christian LeBlanc (conversions) and Rich Fowlks (designer), and allows newer fans of my campaigns a chance to get this sold-out card set in a bookshelf form.
Graphic NYC: The Essay Collection is a 624-page behemoth of a paperback that, for the first time, collects 82 interview-based creator essays written for my old web project, Graphic NYC (2008-2013), and the book version, Leaping Tall Buildings: The Origins of American Comics (2012). I also have a smaller and lower-priced collection of 34 select essays.
I started working with photographer Seth Kushner on this ambitious project to not only document comics creators from all eras, but to also feature them in Seth’s stunning portraiture. (He came from a slick magazine background.) It covers the years I was lucky enough to live in New York and was able to interview everyone in-person.
The earliest creators are Joe Simon (Will Eisner is in there through my archival interviews.), Irwin Hasen, Carmine Infantino, Joe Kubert, and then up to Neal Adams, Dennis O’Neil, Chris Claremont, Larry Hama—and all the way up to creators like Michel Fiffe, Raina Telgemeier, Molly Crabapple, and Jeffrey Brown, who were then earlier in their career. We also featured webcomics creators like Kevin Colden and Joe Infurnari.
This also serves as a really interesting document of the time when comics were on the precipice of going digital, and how everyone was trying to figure out what that would look like. We’re still figuring it out, but back then, I never would’ve anticipated subscription-based services like DC and Marvel have.
BD: In revisiting your work from earlier in your career for both of these collected editions, was there anything new or intriguing that you took away from the projects that you hadn’t anticipated when originally creating them?
CI: They’re both exact opposite experiences: The Madman one is another chance to engage with my backers and celebrate a full decade of Madmania. I’m really proud of keeping Madman out for his fans, as Mike and Laura continue to dominate comics with big series like Silver Surfer, Superman: The Silver Age, and Batman: The Dark Age (amongst a ton of other books). It’s always a real treat to work with my two collaborators on this one, too!
The Graphic NYC collection is personally a huge one for me: I took the website down after Seth passed away after an incredibly brave fight with cancer, between not having more to say without him there and unsure how to move it forward without him. I was also exhausted from the intense workload and felt it time to shift my focus into other aspects of comics history.
Reading through it again, I’m really proud of how I wanted to experiment with what comics journalism actually was, trying to fuse elements of New Journalism (Think Gay Talese.) into what I called New Comics Journalism. If the magazines like Comic Book Artist, Comics Buyer’s Guide, and Back Issue are where I grew as a young historian in his twenties, Graphic NYC is where I grew as a writer in his thirties. Getting all of this in print will not only make it available as a resource, but will also serve as a closure on that really important stage of both my life and career.
I can’t begin to tell how great the experiences of going to talk to creators with Seth were, including meeting up with Grant Morrison, going to Chicago to interview Chris Ware in his house, and having coffee with Brian Michael Bendis outside the Flatiron building. The friendships I made in New York, especially while sharing a studio in the Gowanus building that also had Dean Haspiel (who introduced Seth and I, getting the ball rolling on Graphic NYC), Simon Fraser, Mike Cavallaro, my old pal Reilly Brown…They mark a change in who I was as a person and historian/journalist.
BD: You are no stranger to crowdfunding, having successfully run several campaigns for various projects. Why do you feel that crowdfunding has been such a valuable resource to ensuring the success of today’s comic book creators?
CI: I taught at Virginia Commonwealth University for about eight years, and regularly told my students how lucky they were to have the ability to raise capital for their projects, and how print-on-demand makes it so affordable and realistic today. Had Kickstarter and POD been established when we did Graphic NYC, we most likely would have been able to self-publish.
The low overhead of POD also lets burgeoning creators get their work out on their own terms, giving us an indie comic that’s DIY and punk rock like the best Underground and Alternative books.
Something I also stress is the community behind crowdfunding: The Graphic NYC campaign, launching on June 16th, will be my 70th campaign in a decade. I get many repeat backers (I affectionately call them my “usual suspects.”) that help these campaigns become a reality and, because of that, have gotten to know them as people. I think the next stage of crowdfunding is for a platform to build a true social media component, because I feel it’s where things are headed.
But, yeah, crowdfunding is the most liberating method for creators to not only get their work out there, but to also fund it. I’m, as you can imagine, a huge fan.
BD: In light of the currently running Madman Comin’ Atcha 3-D crowdfunding campaign, are there any particular backer rewards or tiers that you would like to highlight for our readers?
CI: If you’re a die-hard Allred fan, there’s the Signed Mod Metal Level, which features the book, three metal bookmarks, a comic book-sized metal print (in 3-D and featuring a succession of Madman seen through mirrors. It’s nuts!), and a certificate of realness signed by Mike and Laura Allred. Otherwise, there are many add-ons, including all issues of Madmania, my digest essays each covering a different era of Madman comics.
The really cool thing I threw in is a reissue of the Madman Lunchtime Digest, which features 60 pages of Madman stories and pin-ups. It’s a great primer for new fans.
Finally, I will be at Heroes Con in Charlotte with Mike and Laura, along with some earlier swag for sale.
BD: Lastly, what would you like to tell readers who want to learn more about these Kickstarter campaigns and your other work?
CI: Both campaigns are the result of hours upon hours of love and hard work, and I get a kick out of being able to share that. If you want to learn more about my comics history work, I can be found at www.christopherirving.com, on BlueSky at @clirving.bsky.social, and on Instagram (@snapcityswag).
There are excerpts from my Graphic NYC interviews, as well as a link to the campaign’s preview page at www.graphicnyc.com.
My other work is winding down when I defend my doctoral dissertation on superhero adaptation on 1940s radio on July 9th. I also moderate regularly for the GalaxyCon shows and will be at both the New Orleans and Raleigh, NC conventions. And when life calms down, am diving into a research project on crooked comics publisher Victor Fox from the 1940s.
Somewhere in there, I get sleep, but not much!
https://bsky.app/profile/clirving.bsky.social
https://www.christopherirving.com/
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/drawnword/graphic-nyc-the-essay-collection
https://www.graphicnyc.com/
