CHRIS RYALL
by David O'Leary
On the eighteenth edition I am delighted to be joined by the Editor-n-Chief and publisher of IDW, Chris Ryall.
David O'Leary: Hi Chris, thank you for taking the time to chat with us today here on CR. Firstly, IDW celebrated a decade in business last year. How and when did you get involved?
Chris Ryall: At just about the halfway point-I started in July 2004, so my sixth anniversary is rapidly approaching. Or, as I like to think of it, 2004 B.T. (Before Transformers. Bringing on that license really helped change the company into what it is today.) In those days, we did around 13-15 titles a month, whereas now we're producing upwards of 40 books a month.
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"We didn't want to get typecast as just a publisher of horror"
- On the branching out to other genres
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DO'L: You are of course now EIC and Publisher of IDW, you have been behind the scenes in the rise of IDW to one of the top company's in the industry. Often lauded as one of the soundest business models around, how gratifying is it to have market respond so well to this?
CR: It's always been the goal of the company, and it's very personally satisfying to me, too. I've been a fan of comics since I could read - before that, really - so to be in a position where I can help make what are hopefully lasting contributions to this industry that I love is, as you say, very gratifying. Being able to break through the Big Four "Premiere" status with Diamond, something no one else has done in the 15+ years that structure has been in place, is another thing we feel very good about.
DO'L: IDW is an example of licensed comics done very well compared to the well documented disaster that was NOW Comics from the 1990's. Was there any looking to the past to ensure that the future doesn't turn out the same?
CR: Aww, poor NOW. Their books had great covers, though, didn't they? For us, we've always strived to make sure that the pages of our licensed books between the covers get as much effort as the covers. The thing about not having many big trademarks of our own, like a Spider-Man or Batman, means we can bring our ';A' game to bear on the licensed books we do, whereas others don't always do that. Which is ultimately the key. If we take pride in what we do and present the very best comics we can, hopefully the fans keep having reason to buy. Licensed comics now, especially where we're concerned, are just treated with the same importance as other comics, which has overall led to them being taken more seriously and being more respected by the fans than in decades past.
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"It's really, in my mind, the very best thing IDW has ever published"
- On Joe Hill's Locke and Key
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DO'L: Although initially a horror studio, you have been careful to branch out into other genres and have found success. What were the reasons for doing this?
CR: The answer is largely in your question. While horror comics are what put us on the map and are something we really like, we didn't want to get typecast as *just* a publisher of horror. The long-term growth of the company would benefit from branching out. So we looked for ways to offer other superhero alternatives to people. We've left superhero comics to Marvel and DC, folks who do it so well that most other attempts to join them on that level have failed, but we've tried our best to expand into any number of other areas so that when people want an alternative, we've got whatever they might be after.
DO'L: Worthwhile Books is the children's imprint of IDW, aimed at kids. There has been a lot of criticism of comic companies for neglecting this market in recent years, but books like Michael Recycle are good sellers for you. How was this niche first identified and will there be more to come from this imprint?
CR: It's funny-people criticize comic publishers for not offering more comics aimed at kids, and then kids' comics get offered and don't get supported. And I'd venture to guess that as many adult comic fans buy something great like Tiny Titans as the kids they're aimed at. But with Worthwhile, this wasn't us trying to offer kids comics (although we do that, too, and digests and the like), it was trying to reach the 4-8-year-olds (and their parents), with hardcover picture books. That's a tough market to break into, especially if you don't have something like the Caldecott Award seal stamped on your book cover. We're re-evaluating the line right now and deciding what we'll do next. We're doing some Early Reader Graphic Novels, with Transformers and historical books aimed at kids, but we'll see. (And I know that whenever anyone says "we're re-evaluating," it usually means "we're cancelling the line." We've not done that but we're trying to pick and choose. Books based around themes like recycling, or holidays, or with princesses, still seem to be viable contenders in that segment, in our experience.)
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"Bringing on that license really helped change the company into what it is today"
- On acquiring the Transformers license
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DO'L: Dean Mullaney's Library of American Comics is an imprint of the company and handles some of the great past strips like Dick Tracey and Little Orphan Annie. Was there any trepidation on your part that there may not be market for these books and now that there seems to be will we see the complete works in print?
CR: Not really any trepidation, no. We make a lot of informed decisions about what we do by gauging the interest of the mass-market bookstore buyers before we jump in. And especially with material like this, Dick Tracy or Terry and the Pirates or Bloom County, there are legions - well, generations - of fans of this material, and similar collections of Peanuts and Gasoline Alley had been well-received, so we assumed that these would go over well, too. And they certainly have, especially under Mullaney's stewardship. That guy is amazing, pretty much carrying the entire Library of America Comics on his shoulders. Add to that Craid Yoe's line of Yoe! Books and I think we're competing nicely in that space and offering some great collections.
Our plan is certainly to offer complete collections of everything - we've done that with the Terry books, are ten volumes in on Tracy and going strong on the others.
DO'L: Having received critical acclaim from its print run, 30 Days started a bidding war between various production company's over the right to film the franchise. That must have been an exciting time for all involved?
CR: It was. It predates me, but I know enough about it to know how that really helped establish IDW as a comics publisher. Being a publisher of monthly comics wasn't even necessarily in the cards for IDW until that happened.
DO'L: Two creators have become synonymous with the company are Steve Niles and Ben Templesmith. Do you think without a company like IDW to promote their unique brand of storytelling that it may have been harder to find their place at other companies that don't specifically gear towards horror books, considering that 30 Days for example was turned down all over the place before finding a home with you?
CR: I think they would have been fine, since both guys are talented enough. But it was certainly gratifying to do the book here and to show the vision that the other publishers who passed on the material were lacking. The other amusing thing is that, once we really got that going and established ourselves as a horror publisher, a couple other places went directly after the horror audience and started proclaiming that they were the publishers responsible for bring horror comics back! Yet they passed on 30 Days of Night. Hindsight is a funny thing.
DO'L: There have been some surprise hits at IDW in recent years, among those being Joe Hill's Locke and Key. What was it about this book that resonated with so many people?
CR: I think the fact that it's just brilliantly written and drawn. It's really, in my mind, the very best thing IDW has ever published. I remember reading books like Sandman and Preacher and being very aware that they were special and trying to appreciate them every month since they wouldn't be going forever. And I feel that way about Locke & Key, too, even being on this side of it. Joe Hill's story manages to be scary and suspenseful and funny all at once, and all those things are among the hardest things to pull off in comics. And Gabriel Rodriguez and colorist Jay Fotos are just amazing. The other thing I appreciate and I think/hope others do too is the consistency. There've been 18 issues now by the exact same creators, and they're all well into issue 19 (which is technically issue 1 of Locke & Key: Keys to the Kingdom, coming in August), which is pretty rare nowadays. Add to that the fact that Gabe and Jay Fotos have also done five issues of Land of the Dead, twelve issues of Clive Barker's The Great and Secret Show, and four issues of Beowulf (all written by the guy typing this, so I'll take a little credit for this match-making) and that's a helluva lot of issues by the same art team.
DO'L: What other titles are in realistic development for film right now?
CR: We have various titles that have been optioned and are in various stages of development right now, but it's always best to not get into that since things can change. The last two projects we got a big option on were Ashley Wood's World War Robot and also Locke & Key. But others are in development as films and TV pilots, too.
Chris Ryall
DO'L: After years of overseeing the company's books you made the leap to writing your own title in Groom Lake. Combined with Ben Tempelsmith on art the book was well received. How long was that book in planning and will you be seen back on scripting duties anytime again?
CR: Well, I actually wrote from the start here. I first did a few adaptations, like Shaun of the Dead in 2005, and the books mentioned above. I got an Eisner nom for Best Short Story for something I did for our (sadly presciently named) Doomed magazine in 2006, too. And there've been a few Zombies vs Robots series with Ash Wood, Weekly World News this year, and even a prose book about comics last year, Comic Books 101 (co-written with Scott Tipton). So all told, somewhere around 50 comics. Groom Lake was something I'd had in mind for years, but only after Ben agreed to do it did it change from a darkly serious conspiracy-type series to the more blackly comic thing it became. I really love that series and what Ben did with it. I'm currently working on adapting a Robert Bloch/Harlan Ellison project and also spear-heading and co-writing a big IDW "event" coming up at the end of this year, too. So there's always something...
DO'L: Thanks for your time Chris.
And that bring to a close another edition of our fair column. Due to personal circumstance I will be taking a short break from 5 minutes With...I want to thank everyone for their support and kind words in what has been a very fun column for me to research and write. And I hope that when we get back on track that you continue to enjoy it. Talk soon.
Interviewer Bio
Name: David O' Leary
Email: idwfan@yahoo.co.uk
Bio: David has been with CR since June 2008 and started out as a reviewer and has expanded to do a couple of columns for the site also; starting with 28 Words Later with artist Declan Shalvey and later 5 Minutes With... where he talks with the industries best and brightest from Kubert to Moore.
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