BY JENNIFER M. CONTINO The Union of Novelty Costumed Performers might have hit a few publishing snags along the road to their miniseries completion, but that doesn't mean the thugs of Division 18 are down for the count. In fact, just the opposite. Creators Matt Bergin and Jeremy Donelson decided rather than have their miniseries met with delays in publication after the first issue was released from Silent Devil, they decided to take a note from readers and "wait for the trade" to allow the rest of the series to appear. So this Halloween the rest of the story will finally be told. Bergin said the trade would feature work by Neal Adams' son, Josh as well as some other bonuses.
THE PULSE: For our readers who aren't familiar with your series, who or what is Division 18?
MATT BERGIN: Division 18 is the River City branch of the Union of Novelty Costumed Performers, the representative voice for costumed entertainers nationwide. But the group in River City is a special case -- they're a collection of rejects and hoodlums who use the veil of the UNCP to cover up their criminal lifestyle. They like to think of themselves as the mascot mafia, though you're more likely to find them making balloon animals at a backyard BBQ than running numbers at the local track.
Division 18 is also a black and white comedy comic written by me, illustrated by Jeremy Donelson, and published by Silent Devil. We're putting out a trade in the Fall collecting three issues.
THE PULSE: We first talked about this in September. Then, it was a planned three-issue limited series ... but only one issue ever came out. Why?
BERGIN: The pitfalls of balancing a full-time job with creating a comic on your downtime? The harsh reality of a dwindling market for small press floppies? A readership practically trained to "wait for the trade?" Pick any of those. Then there's the whole Kingdom Comics thing, which our publisher, Christian Beranek, is part of the trinity of bosses (I believe he's playing the Holy Spirit role to Ahmet Zappa's Jesus).... It was in the works for a while, before they finally announced it this week, and it forced him to put things on hold for a bit while he worked out a contract with the House of Mouse. Division 18 #2 was ready to go on press back in January/February and #3 was already written and thumbnailed by March-ish. But there had been a few momentum-killing delays that were out of our control. Rather than resolicit that second issue and risk repeating the delays with the issue and again later in the year with #3, we decided to take a cue from the readers and wait for the trade.
It is a calculated move, for sure. We couldn't go back in time and regain the momentum from our first issue, but by moving right to the TPB, we may be able to reach a much wider audience. It wasn't an easy decision though, because we know we risk pissing off a few retailers... and actually probably already did piss a few off when it was clear issue 2 would ship late. But we hope to make it up to them by giving them a really fun and funny self-contained book to sell in the Fall.
THE PULSE: So what's going to be included in the trade? I mean, obviously all three issues, but what extras are you going to put in as well?
BERGIN: Well, it's important to emphasize that two of those three issues will be brand-new, never-before-seen stories. And, as has been our plan all along, issue three will feature a few pages penciled by friend of the Union, Josh Adams (fresh off of his guest appearance on MTV's TRL a few weeks ago with Robert Downey Jr!? [YouTube it!]).
We're also going to include Jeremy's cover, a few fake ads (a la the Scrap's Diner coupon in #1), and a pin-up of D18's resident badass/maid, Mimi, by Josh, all from our issue 2 that never was. My favorite extra is a collection of annotated outtakes of the "True Origins of Division 18," which we culled from the vast Division 18 archives -- also known as the 60+ page jam comic that we used to pass around at work, which evolved into this "real" comic.
THE PULSE: What is it about this series that you think really makes it unique in today's market? Why should our readers beg, borrow or steal to get a copy of it?
BERGIN: I think, just to keep in the spirit of the mooks in Division 18, readers should steal the book while in costume! I don't think begging or borrowing is their style, unless it's Fat Louie, and it's mealtime.
But what makes it special? It's funny and crude and mean spirited in the best possible ways... we create the illusion of lowbrow humor without having to resort to the cheap "dick and fart jokes" you might expect. And, even though we're talking about three issues at the moment, I think we've got a cast of character that are more than the premise and who readers will enjoy checking in on from time to time for many years to come.
THE PULSE: What are the plans for this series after this collection? Have you interest from publishers to do more?
BERGIN: If the collection does well, absolutely. But trying to do small press or self-published floppies is brutal, and everyone is keen on this newfangled Internet technology. Jeremy and I have been trying to figure out exactly how to go about it, but we'll probably do some form a web-to-print thing... build an issue or miniseries or OGN online, and then print it as a collection. Maybe. It depends a lot on the response to this trade and on whether we want to put a ton of energy into reinventing the wheel rather than just continuing to do what we've been doing already for print.
This is our baby, but it was also the first comic either of us has worked on. We had a lot to learn, and we still have a lot to learn. We've got other stories to tell, and we both want to dabble in working with other people... you know, who we haven't know for 15 years!
THE PULSE: It seems to be a crapshoot sometimes with comics, never knowing what people are going to go gaga over or what's going to come and go with a whisper. How frustrating is it to believe in something so much and be at someone else's mercy kind of to see whether it's feast of famine?
BERGIN: It's hard. But Jeremy and I are both old rookies... in our thirties and just getting started. We're both at the very beginning of our careers in comics, so we don't have years of frustration or bitterness slowing us down. At the same time, we don't have a catalog of projects that we're waiting to unleash on the public once we "arrive."
And the crapshoot analogy is a good one, because I hate gambling, so I also don't like playing the "hurry up and wait" games where I write on spec without know if have an artist lined up, a publisher lined up, or at least some money in my wallet to hire a collaborator and put something out myself. I never had the drive or the interest to write for myself. I write down ideas, and occasionally a short outline for something bigger, but I get very frustrated and discouraged if I feel like I'm working for nothing. It wasn't until Division 18 that I found myself in a situation to really work something out and follow through. Now that has created a few new opportunities and relationships where I feel like I can develop some other projects and know that they have a good chance of actually seeing the light of day. The point here is not to highlight my lousy work ethic, but to say I'm just now getting started at this whole comic thing.
THE PULSE: So what else are you working on?
BERGIN: For one thing, there's my comic blogging toplist, ComicBlogElite.com, which has been slowly growing over the past few months. The impetus was the frustration Jeremy and I had last year trying to identify the best comic blogs that might want to review D18, interview us, etc, because if you don't know, you don't know. I discover one or two new sites every day or so that are really worth knowing about. I also discover a lot of sites that day a quiet death, but don't get removed from other site's blogrolls. So I've been spending a lot of time and energy inviting bloggers big and small to join up. Next step will be to add a forum to the site to reinforce that goal of "community" that I'm going for with it.
As for actual comic projects... I've got a one-shot creator-owned project called "Strain" in the works with Josh Adams. It's pretty much a cover-to-cover fight between two characters infected with a literal "super" virus. Josh and I wanted to do something fun and loose in the superhero genre, but without any pretense that we could launch an ongoing series starring a Batman or Spider-Man knock-off. It's a big, dumb popcorn movie told in 40-50 pages of sequential awesomeness. We're trying to have a good deal of it done before shopping it to publishers, so hopefully more on that next year. (Have I mentioned how frustrating it is to do this stuff on spec?!)
I'm also writing one or two short pieces for an anthology series being edited by Evan Keeling and put out by the DC Conspiracy collective. I worked the New York Comic Con side by side with Evan -- me promoting Division 18, him promoting his book Crumb Snatchers -- and we got to talking about ways to work together, and came up with some neat ideas.
And finally, I'm working on a project that falls more into the realm of illustrated storybooks than comics. It's about a character I created in college and just sort of lost track of for a while, not sure what to do with him or how to do it. But things started falling into place recently (oddly enough, thanks to Division 18), and I think it could make for a pretty fantastic series. I don't think I can say too much more about it yet, though. Sorry for the non-answer.
THE PULSE: When will the Division 18 trade be in stores?
BERGIN: We're soliciting the book in the July issue of Previews for a September/October release. Just in time for Halloween! (Now those holiday endcaps don't have to be all Hellboy and zombie books!) If you keep an eye on Division18.com, we'll post the order code and any other details and updates over the next few weeks. We'll also be posting some new preview pages from the collection and the usual random nonsense I tend to post on the site.
Printer-friendly view of this topic
