Athena Voltaire

Launched in 2002 as an online comic, Athena Voltaire became one of the most talked about and critically acclaimed series on the Internet. Industry praise included an Eisner Award Nomination for Best Digital Comic in 2005 and the 2007 Russ Manning Most Promising Newcomer Award for series artist Steve Bryant. It has since gone on to be published by Ape Entertainment in two, full-color collections – The Collected Webcomics and Flight of the Falcon. After collaborator Paul Daly left the series, Bryant produced the Athena Voltaire half of the 2009 Black Coat/Athena Voltaire One-Shot (Ape Entertainment), working solo. Westfield’s Master of Disaster, Josh Crawley, talked with Bryant about his exciting upcoming plans for Athena Voltaire, including his interesting way of funding the project.

Westfield: Where did you hear about Kickstarter.com? How long did it take you to decide to use it?

Steve Bryant: I heard about it through Mitch Gerads, artist of the wildly successful (150% funded!) comic, Johnny Recon. Mitch and I are both members of the comics art blog Comic Twart, and he was finishing up his campaign when Johnny Recon came up as our theme at Comic Twart.

After picking Mitch’s brain, I immediately decided I wanted to do a Kickstarter campaign for Athena Voltaire. I have a friend who teaches entrepreneurship at Bradley University (Hi, Eden!), so I ran it by her. She thought it was a great idea, so I dove in.

Westfield: What kind of prep did you do?

Bryant: Prep time was almost two months. The first version of the video we shot was filled with me saying “uhm” about a million and a half times, so I had to reschedule a weekend day to shoot – a logistical situation in and of itself, as a single parent. The second version was much better (filmed by my friend Ben, who also provided the cool PBS-style voiceover).

Then it was a matter of me learning iMovie and Garage Band to edit – and borrowing Ben’s computer to work on, as my Mac G4 wept tears of blood when I tried to use it for editing.

Westfield: How did you decide on pledge levels and incentives?

Bryant: Pledge levels were a whole other internal debate, part of which I detailed in my first Kickstarter update . In the end, I tried to make each level of incentive comparable to how I price books, sketchbooks, and original art at conventions.

Westfield: I love that title: Athena Voltaire and the Volcano Goddess. It rolls off the tongue really well, in one of those Hollywood blockbuster ways. While I have the feeling you may have told me this title years ago, I don’t trust my memory enough to say for sure, but you may have mentioned some story points to me. Is it safe to assume you’ll be bringing pre-Atomic Age tiki action to the printed page?

Bryant: Oh, yes! It’s no secret that I love tiki culture, and I love drawing lush jungle scenes, so this was a no-brainer for me.

Westfield: If you get the target amount of pledges, do you think we’ll see Volcano Goddess on shelves before the end of the year? I’m asking because, in my head, this is how I imagine I’d schedule the various steps (for those who don’t realize just some of the many steps in creating your own comic book): pledging stops near the end of May; write in June/July; pencil and ink in July and August; letter in September; color in August/September; and solicit the first issue in October and shipping to stores in December.

Bryant: It all depends on how quickly I can strong-arm my publisher into cramming it into their schedule!

Flight of the Falcon #1

Westfield: Though you’ve always intended Athena Voltaire for print, with the proliferation of webcomic-to-print collections, could you ever see yourself returning Athena Voltaire to her webcomics roots, possibly using a publishing model similar to Warren Ellis’ FreakAngels?

Bryant: I definitely could. Ideally, it would be nice to keep AV as a print comic (and make it somehow profitable) and launch another property on the web. I seem to have a ton of ideas for stuff I’d love to write and draw but need to find the time for.

Westfield: I’m still looking for the 30-hour day, myself! With your work on Athena Voltaire, pulp character commissions (and that time coming up with those great ideas), some recent Domino Lady interiors and an Airboy cover, some may have the impression you only do period work. This isn’t the case, though, as can be seen in 24: Cold Warriors. Is Beau Smith really as manly as everyone says? And what was it like working for now-Diamond Premiere Publisher IDW?

Bryant: Beau Smith is, in fact, the manliest man in comics.

From a personal point-of-view, working on Cold Warriors was a career low point — not because of anything that IDW did. My dad had a stroke right after I started on the project, so much of it was drawn while I was at the hospital and after he died. I always feel compelled to point that out whenever that book comes up because it’s not my best work. But I did the best I could, given the circumstances.

(I’d known about the health issues and passing of Steve’s father while working on the book. However, I hadn’t expected him to discuss the issue, especially in such a personal way. –Josh)

That said, everyone at IDW was incredible to deal with, from Beau to my editor, Andrew Steven Harris, to IDW EIC Chris Ryall. Everyone was understanding of my situation and was patient with me. I’d work with any of them again in a heartbeat.

Westfield: You’ve also got your own contemporary creation, Cypher. Formerly known as Ursula Wilde (named after the character), it’s a series you’re co-writing with Molly McBride featuring art by JunBob Kim. You aren’t going to let some hack letter it, are you?

Bryant: Nope! For the first time, I won’t have a hack (me!) letter it. Some amazing dude named Josh Crawley is adding his calligraphic skills to the book.

Westfield: Before anyone gets the wrong idea, I was the hack I was referring to! All kidding aside, can you give us any news on when we might expect to see more? (Well, more to those of you who were lucky enough to get the Ape Cartoonapalooza from Free Comic Book Day 2009.)

Bryant: JunBob has issue one finished and is starting on issue two as I type this. I’m not sure when it will see print. I don’t want to put anything on Ape’s schedule until it’s done. Once we solicit, I want to make sure we hit all the release dates!

Westfield: The retailer in me loves to hear thing like that: hitting release dates! Thanks for taking the time to do this interview, Steve. Anything else you’d like to add?

Bryant: In addition to Ursula Wilde/Cypher/whatever else I’m calling it this week, I have another pulpy character that I’ve created and am in the process of developing with a terrific artist, Kyle Latino. It’s a generational book, with part taking place in the 40s and part taking place in the 60s. Kyle’s work has a terrific spontaneity and I’m super excited to be collaborating with him.

And I have a ton of Athena Voltaire stuff planned. If we meet our Kickstarter goal, I’ll be able to tackle the tip of the iceberg. If we exceed our goal…well, let’s just say that regardless of how much we get pledged, I have plenty of ideas for my little globetrotting aviatrix to keep me busy for two months or 20 years.

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Josh Crawley is the tenured Master of Disaster (whether he’s heroic or evil remains to be seen) for Westfield Comics, not to be confused with Josh Crawley, the keyboardist for Everclear.

http://www.twitter.com/joshcrawley
josh@westfieldcomics.com

Westfield Comics
ATTN: JOSH
7475 Mineral Point Rd STE 22
Madison WI 53717