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WORK TITLE: Through the Habitrails
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE: 10/5/1962
WEBSITE: http://fatherandsontoon.com/jeffchron.html
CITY:
STATE:
COUNTRY:
NATIONALITY:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Nicholson * http://www.bleedingcool.com/2014/12/30/habitrails-jeff-nicholson-back-print-dover-books/ * https://www.lambiek.net/artists/n/nicholson_j.htm * http://www.cbr.com/nicholson-explains-how-through-the-habitrails-brought-him-out-of-retirement/
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born October 5, 1962.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Author.
AWARDS:Received six Comics Industry Eisner Award nominations, and Xeric Award comic book self-publishing grant, 1992.[
WRITINGS
Also contributor to anthologies and periodicals, including Negative Burn, Image Comics (Berkeley, CA), 2006-08, and Taboo.
SIDELIGHTS
SIDELIGHTS: “Jeff Nicholson,” wrote Alex Dueben at CBR.com, “became a major voice in independent comics when Ultra Klutz began in the 1980s.” Soon after the release of Ultra Klutz, Nicholson earned a reputation as one of the most innovative writers and artists working in the comics medium. “Between Father and Son at Kitchen Sink Press and Colonia, which he originally self-published, the cartoonist did nothing but solidify his reputation,” reported Dueben. Besides these projects, Nicholson also contributed to several anthologies, including Taboo, Negative Burn, and the DC Comics series The Dreaming. After the 2004 release of Colonia, Nicholson temporarily retired from creating new comics. In 2016, Nicholson published a retrospective edition of what is arguably his best-known work, Through the Habitrails: Life Before and After My Career in the Cubicles.
Reading and drawing comics occupied much of Nicholson’s time growing up. “I had a pretty typical, comfortable suburban childhood,” Nicholson told Sequential Tart contributor Barb Lien. “I didn’t really like to go outside, I liked to stay inside and draw. My quantity of television viewing was appalling, with monster movies and Ultraman being my favorites. Everything changed dramatically at around age 15: I lost weight and shed my “fat kid” persona, started making my own friends instead of taking my older brother’s hand-me-downs, got involved with girls, and even graduated high school as soon as I turned 16. I stated college right afterwards, and even started my first published comic around that time.”
At his home page, “The Jeff Nicholson Chronology” (hosted at Father and Son Toon), Nicholson commented on his decision to end production of new comics: “In 2005 I stopped obsessively pushing myself down the vanishing highway of the American printed comic book market. Even though they bloomed and have been legitimized as an art form, comic books are no longer a mass medium, no longer a way to make an even meager living. My goals have not just been artistic, but to sell a lot of copies, just like the role models I emulated in the 70s, 80s and even the 90s. This pursuit was like climbing a peak on a sinking island…. I’ve had some real highs to be sure. Six Eisner Award nominations, fantastic fan mail, and some great reviews that fill my scrapbooks.”
Through the Habitrails
Through the Habitrails tells the story of Jeff, “an advertising illustrator working in an environment where allegories of working conditions are real,” noted Rich Johnston in Bleeding Cool. The tale’s allegorical and surreal elements include hamsters who act as managers; there’s also a tap or spout attached to the side of Jeff’s head, from which his employer extracts his “juices,” as Johnston put it. “Each successive chapter sees the depth of [Jeff’s] predicament deepen,” explained a Graphic Policy reviewer Ryan C., “to the point where he pursues dead-end relationships, `escapes’ to the countryside, and even pickles his head inside a jar of beer, all in order to try to either numb the pain of, our outright forget about, a life that he’s literally selling away. The problem is, of course, that the reach of his corporate/gerbil overlords is so vast that they’ve managed to hollow out all of existence itself, and each of these temporary `solutions’ proves to be an insidious trap in its own right.”
Nicholson freely admits that Through the Habitrails draws heavily from his own experiences. “I’m trying to remember the timeline but it was based on a real life experience that would have happened before I finished the book,” Nicholson told Dueben. “I think that influenced the ending,” Nicholson added. In an interview with Austin English done shortly after Through the Habitrails was first published, Nicholson recalled: “I worked in a small newspaper and I was a full time illustrator. And it was really a small corporation so, looking back, it was nothing like working for PG&E, which is a true big, bloated corporation. This was just a little small-town corporation. But it still had the sense of being creative for someone else’s vague goals.”
Nicholson says that telling the story was a transformative experience that “began a new phase” in his career. “The book editions … could be sold in bookstores as well as comic book specialty shops,” Nicholson elaborated. “I thought I would turn a quick profit on these higher priced items but soon learned they are a long term investment. The first and second editions of Habitrails sold about 1,500 copies each, but over the course of about six years, that’s a labor of love and not a livelihood.” The third edition of Through the Habitrails presents a new epilogue, written after Nicholson sees life from a different perspective. “The epilogue is obviously about aging,” Nicholson told Dueben. “For this character the world calms down so the epilogue is less extreme. There are some things that are obviously surreal and couldn’t exist on this world, like a dog just walking through walls and eating paper. The fact that it’s a little more grounded is part of why I wanted to do it. In a way it’s like a happy ending.”
Austin English summed up Through the Habitrails as “the chilling story of office life, failed romances, and the cruelty of life, with a little bit of optimism shining throughout.” “It still remains quite disturbing though,” continued English, “especially with the admission from Nicholson that it is virtually all autobiographical (except for all the animal metaphors).” Win Wiacek at his blog Now Read This! likened Through the Habitrails “to the darkly surreal glamour and oppressive verve of Terry Gilliam’s Brazil or Spike Jonze’s Being John Malkovich.” Wiacek then observed: “This potent dose of exploratory surgery for the soul simultaneously dissects why comics are made and why some of us must make them whilst telling one of the scariest tales of modern times. Although certainly an acquired taste, Through the Habitrails is a must-see, never-forget graphic novel for anybody with a vested of intellectual interest in the Ninth Art.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Publishers Weekly, April 4, 2016, review of Through the Habitrails: Life Before and After My Career in the Cubicles, p. 67.
ONLINE
Bleeding Cool, https://www.bleedingcool.com/ (December 30, 2014), Rich Johnston, “Through the Habitrails by Jeff Nicholson Back in Print from Dover Books.”
CBR.com, http://www.cbr.com/ (March 16, 2016), Alex Dueben, “Nicholson Explains How Through the Habitrails Brought Him out of Retirement.”
Father and Son Toon, http://fatherandsontoon.com/ (January 1, 1999), Austin English, interview with Jeff Nicholson; (March 14, 2017), “The Jeff Nicholson Chronology.”
Graphic Policy, https://graphicpolicy.com/ (January 17, 2016), Ryan C., review of Through the Habitrails.
Hooded Utilitarian, http://www.hoodedutilitarian.com/ (June 9, 2009), Bill Randall, “Fandom Confessions: Ultra Klutz.”
Lambiek Comiclopedia, https://www.lambiek.net/ (March 5, 2017), author profile.
Now Read This!, http://www.comicsreview.co.uk/ (December 13, 2016), Win Wiacek, review of Through the Habitrails.
Sequential Tart, http://www.sequentialtart.com/ (March 5, 2017), Barb Lien, “Comic Book Buried Treasure: Colonia Creator Jeff Nicholson.”
03.16.2016
by Alex Dueben
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Nicholson Explains How “Through the Habitrails” Brought Him Out of Retirement
Jeff Nicholson became a major voice in independent comics when “Ultra Klutz” began in the 1980s. Between “Father and Son” at Kitchen Sink Press and “Colonia,” which he originally self-published, the cartoonist did nothing but solidify his reputation. In addition to his own projects, he contributed to anthologies including “Taboo” and “Negative Burn” and had a story in Vertigo’s “The Dreaming.” Following the final issue of “Colonia” in 2004, Nicholson retired from comics.
Despite his lengthy resume, “Through the Habitrails” remains arguably his most acclaimed work. The story of a stifling, surreal workplace touched a nerve when it was first published in 1989, and its biting humor remain just just as raw more than 25 years later. Dover’s new collected edition contains a new epilogue, the first comic from Nicholson since his retirement.
CBR News spoke with Nicholson at length about what originally inspired the project, why it originally ended so abruptly, and his decision to retire — and un-retire for this new edition — from the medium.
CBR News: It’s been a while, but do you remember the origin of “Through the Habitrails?”
Jeff Nicholson: I had been doing comics for a living with “Ultra Klutz” for a few years and I had to put it on hiatus and go back to work. That led me to work at a newspaper that I had actually done an internship at in college. It was a newspaper and we did freelance graphic design. What you see in “Habitrails” is — if you can imagine it — a mutated version of this newspaper. I only worked there for a little over a year but that’s what bore the whole series.
It’s ironic that “Ultra Klutz” went on hiatus — which was a very sad thing — and if that didn’t happen, I wouldn’t have worked at this paper which would not have led to “Habitrails,” which got me a lot farther in comics. It’s one of those funny twists of fate. If I didn’t go on hiatus, who knows what different reality I would be in now.
“Ultra Klutz” was a part of the 1980s black-and-white indie comics boom, was it not?
That’s right. I was one of the lucky ones. I had been doing comics since 1981 and when I launched a new version of “Ultra Klutz” in ’86 was really when that was taking off. It was just perfect timing.
The character designs in “Through the Habitrails” have always stayed with me. The large heads, no mouths. It’s very distinctive. Where did that aesthetic come from?
The designs were inspired by this illustration Charles Burns did for the Sub Pop record label — Nirvana’s first album was on that label. That Charles Burns style with a lot of crosshatching and had a hunched over character with a big head. He didn’t have the no mouth thing, so I’m not sure where that came from. Afterward people would say it’s a metaphor for having no voice and all that, but I wasn’t really consciously thinking anything like that. I think it just made them all look a little more simple. I think I was trying to have less expression on them.
I read “Habitrails” previously, but I didn’t know all the background until I read Steve Bissette’s introduction in this edition. How did the book originally come together?
Like I said it was after “Ultra Klutz” went on hiatus. Part of this new series was based on my experience in this newspaper and it just quickly took on a life of its own. I think I had a rough idea of what some of the chapters were going to be right away. I had this weird idea of each chapter being published by a different independent publisher, which I thought would have been weird and spooky. I sent copies to Comico, Eclipse, and whoever was around at the time. Dave Sim had sent copies to Steve Bissette, which is how Steve became aware of it. I don’t think I was even aware of “Taboo” at the time. Comico had responded with interest and Dave Sim got excited about that and said, “I’ll do a preview in Cerebus, let’s get a bidding war started between some of these publishers.”
That’s when Steve called me and pretty much secured it for “Taboo.” Comico went bankrupt shortly after that anyway. The chapters started coming out in “Taboo” in 1990 and were coming out pretty briskly for two or three issues. Then he was having financial troubles and so there was a gap and then he started getting money from Tundra, which he talks about in that introduction. The really wonderful thing I always like to thank Steve for is he paid me a page rate for all of the pages-including the ones that were never published because ultimately “Taboo” did go under. That that was extremely generous and he returned all the artwork and we’ve always remained friends. It was an excellent experience. A few more years had gone on. I tried another series which really flopped miserably. I thought I’d better get “Habitrails” in print in a collected volume and do it myself. That came out in 1996 and it did well. It made a modest profit, but it was at the time when there was a lot of troubles in the comics industry and distributors were merging or folding and so it wasn’t a big smash.
Did you work on “The Dreaming” at Vertigo during that time, or was that later?
What was next would have been “Father and Son.” I had these cycles of going back and forth between self-publishing and having a publisher. I went back to Kitchen Sink with “Father and Son,” which is another great experience. Denis Kitchen is just a stand up guy. It did pretty well, always just barely enough to make a living which keeps you going. But then you’re starting to think, I’m not making as much as a plumber and all that good stuff. That was Kitchen Sink.
Then there was “The Dreaming” for Vertigo. I did some work for Paradox Press. I was doing comics coloring for DC, ghosting for someone. I was doing comics for a living between all these different things. That’s when I became bold enough to do a second edition of “Habitrails” with the goal of trying to crack the book market. I didn’t focus as much on comics and I really learned about the book trade and went after that pretty aggressively. I had one book distributor. I was selling to Tower Records — for anybody who remembers the Tower Records chain — they were going pretty strong at that time around 1996-7 and bought a lot of copies. But again, it was just not enough to make a living. By then I’m getting into my thirties and it gets harder and harder to live like a college student. I think that’s when I finally transitioned to trying to do comics on the side of my day job. ’97-’98 was when I pretty much knew this was not going to be a full-time gig. That’s when I did “Colonia,” which was all done while working full-time. The second edition of “Habitrails” didn’t sell a ton at first but it ultimately completely sold out the second edition.
“The Dreaming” was one of the first times I saw your work, and in a number of ways it feels like a companion piece to “Habitrails.”
Oh definitely. It’s a funny story there. They first approached me because of “Habitrails” and that went on for so long. I think it was a year and a half or two between their first contact and when the book was printed. I felt like, don’t they make movies faster than that? [Laughs] I’m glad I did it but it was a learning experience. First they said I’m going to be in the first issue of “The Dreaming” and do a story arc and it was going to have Cain and Abel. Just writing a draft of that was a kick because I read those old comics with them in the ’70s. The original story that I pitched eventually ended up becoming this thing called “No Regrets” that I did later. They ended up rejecting it and said why don’t we have you do one issue with Mervyn Pumpkinhead. Then it went on and on. I think it ended up being issue #15. There’s a little bit of editorializing but not too much. I love the colors. I love the lettering. I loved the experience of being published by DC. When I grew up, in the early to mid-’70s, that was my favorite company so all and all very cool.
In his introduction, Bissette called it an unofficial sequel and that feeling of escape drives both books.
Definitely. I don’t think it was conscious, but that book was still so current for me and even though I wasn’t working at a newspaper I was still struggling to make a living. It’s a similar motif here. Boxed in by things that are corporate and you want to be doing something different. Yeah, the guy in “The Dreaming” is definitely a kindred spirit of the “Habitrails” guy.
In the original end of “Habitrails,” you comment in the text that it feels odd and abrupt. So why was that the ending?
It was mostly based on real life experience. It was something happening at the time that was optimistic. I’m trying to remember the timeline but it was based on a real life experience that would have happened before I finished the book. I think that influenced the ending.
For this new edition, you wrote and drew a ten-page epilogue. I liked the comic, and I’m going to ask you a question I hate, but I’ll ask it anyway — how autobiographical is it?
Here’s a cheap answer, parts of it are and parts of it aren’t. [Laughs] How much? I would say, maybe twenty percent? There are obviously metaphors in there like the rest of the book. The dog is clearly metaphor.
I suppose that it’s probably as autobiographical as the rest of the book, but it’s less absurd so people read it differently.
Right. I don’t know if that was intentional but I like the way the epilogue is obviously about aging. For this character the world calms down so the epilogue is less extreme. There are some things that are obviously surreal and couldn’t exist on this world, like a dog just walking through walls and eating paper. The fact that it’s a little more grounded is part of why I wanted to do it. In a way it’s like a happy ending. As you said was a little too abrupt in the first, and this is a little happier but also a little slower and more reasonable and maybe makes a little more sense.
I loved the comics ghost town in the epilogue.
That is thinly autobiographical in the sense that I am a ghost town enthusiast. I go and drive through the desert and look for stuff like that. It was actually an idea I had for a comics series. It was the only series that I thought of doing after “Colonia.” I have lots of dreams about having new comics series, but they’re just dreams. I’ll have this dream where I’ll have this whole series I never did and then I wake up and it isn’t real. It feels very real because I was always making new series.
The ghost town studio was the last idea I had thought of and was excited enough to write down. I ended up just making it part of this epilogue because really I never did start it. The epilogue is a blend of a sequel to “Habitrails” that I had written a synopsis for and this ghost town studio idea.
You retired from comics after “Colonia” ended. Why was that the end for you?
I was just not getting enough returns for the energy. Which is hard to really quantify. It’s not just financial. Some form of success whether it’s financial or fan reaction or critical acclaim. There are different degrees of success. Something could sell really well like “Ultra Klutz” #1 and make lots of money. Something could get really awesome reviews like “Habitrails.” Something could have a cult status. I don’t know, but there’s a threshold where you need a certain amount of whichever form of success it is to make up for the fact that you’re making comics on the evenings and the weekends. In the case of “Colonia” I was so determined that this thing would be get out of the box that I did three bimonthly issues. I was going to give it my all. I just worked my ass off on evenings and weekends. I totally hit the wall and didn’t take it any farther.
The epilogue is the first thing you’ve drawn since then, is that right?
The last thing I did was I started doing thumbnails for “Colonia” beyond the published issues. I don’t know if you’ve seen them but they’re on my website. I did about twenty pages of thumbnails and scripts. I think that was before I knew the end was near and so I was still pretty enthused.
AiT/Planetlar was doing the collections of “Colonia.” The nail in the coffin was that there’s also the theory that maybe people are not reading the periodical because they’re waiting for the collected volume and that’s why sales are dropping. They were reluctant to print the second volume because they had gotten the orders in from the distributors and they were too low. I said, if you go ahead and publish the second edition you can compare the royalties on the two and take the deficit on the second one against the first one. So they went ahead and published it. That’s when I knew. All this time I was thinking, maybe everybody is just waiting for the collected and then it barely sold. That’s when I stopped.
How did sitting down and drawing again feel?
Wonderful. [Laughs] I couldn’t believe I was doing it. Just to give you an image of how wacky it was, my drawing table was my 13th birthday present from my parents. I was always drawing on a counter top or drawing in the corner somewhere so for my birthday I got a table from my parents. That’s the same table I used my entire career. I couldn’t bear to throw it away so it’s always been in the garage and when I realized I was really doing this epilogue I brought it back in the house and set it up. I took a picture of it and emailed it to my parents and said, “what’s wrong with this picture?” My dad said, “You’re drawing comics again?” [Laughs] I was surprised at how delighted I was. People have approached me about reprinting things and a lot of times it seems half baked. Even with Dover I thought, whatever, but when I realized it was credible and Drew [Ford] said, what about an epilogue? I think it was because I knew they were credible. Because they were seeking me out, which is different from me forcing the world to want more of me. If someone is coming to you and saying, we really want you to do this, that’s a little bit different motivator. I distilled it down to a nice ten pages which was really all I was up for. I have a very demanding day job and I just couldn’t imagine doing an entire comic, but ten pages was just right.
So maybe we’ll get another ten pages of comics from you next decade?
[Laughs] It’s hard to say, but it could happen. And of course when I retire, who knows what will happen. That may be such a freeing experience I’d want to do more, but it’s hard to speculate.
I’m glad you got back to enjoying making comics again.
Absolutely. It was super fun. And luckily I saved all my art supplies because they don’t make a lot of particular supplies anymore. I still had a lot of Windsor Newton #2 brushes. I got lucky. There was a college store that I think mis-priced them and I bought about twenty of them because they were so cheap. Luckily I had those stashed.
Are there any other collections of your work you’d like to see in print?
I would love it if someone wanted to do a “Father and Son” collection. I did one collection that collected the Kitchen Sink issues and I didn’t print much overrun. It sold out and it doesn’t include the other single issue and some short stories I had done. “Ultra Klutz” has been collected, “Nicholson’s Tirade” has been collected, “Colonia” was collected, so if there’s one other thing I’d like to see it’s a complete “Father and Son.” I don’t know if anybody would be up for that, but I think that would be fascinating.
“Through the Habitrails” is on sale now from Dover Books.
Jeff Nicholson
(b. 1962, USA) United States
Ultra Klutz, by Jeff Nicholson
Ultra Klutz
Jeff Nicholson studied communications and worked in the field of landscape maintenance during college. In the early eighties, he published his first underground comic book. Titles that followed were: the 'Ultra Klutz' series, 'Through the Habitrails' and 'Lost Laughter'. His work is characterized by dark humor and surrealism. In 1997 he began his comic series 'Colonia', which he self-publishes through Colonia Press.
Jeff Nicholson
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jeff Nicholson (born October 5, 1962) is an American comic book writer, artist and self-publisher, known primarily for his work on Ultra Klutz, Through the Habitrails, Father & Son, and Colonia. Nicholson received a total of six Comics Industry Eisner Award nominations in his 25-year career,[1] and was one of the first four recipients of the Xeric Award comic book self-publishing grants in 1992.[2]
Contents [hide]
1 1981-1989
2 1990-1997
3 1998-2005
4 2016
5 Works
6 References
7 External links
1981-1989[edit]
Nicholson's first self-published title was a 1981 underground comic book Ultra Klutz, which used humor and satire.[3] He later published 31 issues of a more mainstream Ultra Klutz comic in the direct sales market under his Onward Comics imprint.[4] Ultra Klutz was “a comic that began as a parody of Japanese superstar Ultraman but soon evolved into a convoluted and complex fantasy soap opera.[5] All issues of Ultra Klutz were acquired from Alexander Street Press and are available digitally to the library market worldwide.[6] During this period Nicholson also issued the 60 page Nicholson’s Small Press Tirade, a “A critical examination and critique of the small press scene of the 1980's in comics form,”[3] which was selected for inclusion in the Treasury of Mini-Comics Vol. 2 from Fantagraphics Books in 2015. [7]
1990-1997[edit]
Nicholson made a major career shift with Through the Habitrails, in which “There is a frightening internal logic to Nicholson’s stories that is the hallmark of the best of horror.[8] This series of surreal, dark humored short stories about life in the corporate world of commercial illustration was first published in four volumes of Stephen R. Bissette’s Taboo (comics) anthology[3] (alongside Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell’s From Hell series),[9] and elevated Nicholson from a relatively cult-like status to receiving more substantial coverage in the comics journalism and mainstream media of the time.[10][11][12][13] His comics were also published by various larger or more mainstream publishers from 1992-1997, including Hyena magazine (Tundra Publishing), Negative Burn (Caliber Comics), The Big Book of Little Criminals, The Big Book of Losers (DC Comics / Paradox Press), The Dreaming (Vertigo (DC Comics).,[3] and Father & Son, a four issue series published by Kitchen Sink Press,depicting “the misadventures of a slacker Gen-Xer and his type-A boomer dad… nominated for two Eisner Awards (the Oscars of comics, as people in the industry like to call them)… depicting the ironies of mundane everyday life".[14]
1998-2005[edit]
Nicholson returned to self-publishing with Colonia, an all-ages fantasy adventure series. The unique spin on the series was the setting in the New World with real geography and alternative history considerations. “As an artist, Jeff Nicholson adopts a lean, earnestly straightforward approach… he conveys genuine enthusiasm for both his characters and for the legendary age of exploration which frames their adventures.[15] Nicholson was selected as a featured creator for the book Character Design for Graphic Novels (Focal Press) based on his Colonia characters.[16]
2016[edit]
After a ten-year absence from comics, Nicholson came out of retirement to create a new ten page Epilogue to his acclaimed Through the Habitrails for a third edition of the book from (Dover Publications)[17]
Works[edit]
Nicholson, Jeff. Through the Habitrails. Chico, Calif: Bad Habit, 1996. ISBN 9781885047038
Nicholson, Jeff. Colonia: Islands and Anomalies. San Francisco, CA: AiT/PlanetLar, 2002. ISBN 9780970936073
Nicholson, Jeff. Nicholson's Small Press Tirade and Other Works, 1983-1989: Obscure Short Stories. Chico, CA: Bad Habit, 1994. ISBN 9781885047014
Nicholson, Jeff. Colonia: On into the Great Lands. San Francisco, CA: AiT/PlanetLar, 2005. ISBN 9781932051407
Ultra Klutz (Journal) Chico, CA : Onward Comics. 1986-1991
Nicholson, Jeff. Through the Habitrails, Life Before and After My Career In the Cubicles. Mineola, New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 2016. ISBN 9780486802862
The Jeff Nicholson Chronology is a continuous scrolling page with three Swim Lanes, representing 40 years of activity.
You can also use the hyperlinks below to jump you to a topic in the Chronology.
Proto Comics
Animation
Music
Underground Comics
Father & Son (V1)
Trade Paperback Collections
Small Press Comics
Films and Videos
Ultra Klutz
Small Press Tirade
Through the Habitrails
Ultra Klutz 2/Lost Laughter
Father & Son
No Regrets/The Dreaming
Leaving Comics
Colonia
PROTO COMICS: 1975-1979
Like most cartoonists, my first comics were drawn in pencil on scrap paper during grade school when I was supposed to be paying attention. But in junior high I got serious and started making fully inked, colored, and hand bound mock-up 32 page comics.
I did 6 issues of Ultra Klutz (a torturous parody of Ultraman), 4 issues of The Justice Chumps (a superhero parody), 4 issues of Alpha Centauri (a sci-fi series), and 3 issues of Shnerd (a parody anthology). This was very Mad Magazine type stuff, but a little seedier and also influenced by underground comics. All these editions were lost in 1996, with the exception of these two tiny b&w halftone covers made for an editorial in a subsequent "real" issue of Ultra Klutz in 1986.
UNDERGROUND COMICS: 1981
My comics career officially began in 1981 with my first self-published underground comic book, a reworked Ultra Klutz #1 (commonly referred to as Ultra Klutz '81). With fresh-faced enthusiasm, I printed 10,000 copies of this raunchy and still very crude parody of 1960's Japanese monster tv. The book was inspired by underground comics, but I failed to notice that their peak period was 1967-1973, leaving this book completely without a market in 1981 (until it became a "collectable" in 1986 and sold out).
SMALL PRESS COMICS/
ULTRA KLUTZ (V3): 1984-1985
When the underground Ultra Klutz flopped, I retreated to music and the Father & Son tomfoolery, but in 1984 I discovered the existence of photocopy 'zines. This rejuvenated me to get back in the comics game, which was my one true career goal. I rebooted Ultra Klutz (again) with a new #1, this time more influenced by Jack Kirby (The New Gods) and Dave Sim (Cerebus) which resulted in more of an "epic" type of series than pure parody. I also submitted several short stories and strips to other small press publications to try and proliferate my name in this little genre. In the space of a year and a half, I did just that, and released five issues of the new Ultra Klutz, which by the latter issues were getting established in retail stores and select distributors.
ULTRA KLUTZ: 1986-1988
If this were an episode of VH1 Behind The Music, then this would be the part where I was signed to the majors and hit it big. I self-published the aforementioned Ultra Klutz (version 3) zines as full blown comics with North American distribution and had a hit. The first issue sold 18,000 copies. I continued on with it as a monthly series for the next two years.
"ULTRA KLUTZ is dynamite! Funny, boisterous, thoroughly original."
-- Scott McCloud, UNDERSTANDING COMICS
Ultra Klutz was my obsession during the 1980’s. Although the comic book series began as an Ultraman parody, it evolved into a complex interplanetary comedy soap opera that for the most part defies description. Always consistent was my unquenchable enthusiasm for the series and keeping the publication going, which was as much a part of the series as the story itself. A bust in the independent comics boom led to the series sales dropping to 10k, to 5k, to 2k over the course of those two years. It went bi-monthly with issue 24, and took a year-off hiatus after 27 when I could no longer make a living from it.
THROUGH THE HABITRAILS: 1989-1992
I made a major career shift with sudden turn to a collection of dark humored short stories about life on-the-job and beyond. Based on working as an illustrator for a newspaper and graphic design house, the opening installment, "Increasing the Gerbils," introduces you to a surreal and strangely symbiotic world in which the precious life fluids of the worker are drained like tree sap to be fed to the company gerbils, which scurry through a network of tubes throughout the offices. The semi-autobiographical nameless hero tackles marriage, inter-office romance, fellow dysfunctional workers and banal tasks, or attempts to leave the company behind entirely and search for that elusive something more. As you progress Through the Habitrails, the short stories combine to form a larger novella which spirals towards a dramatic conclusion.
Through the Habitrails dramatically advanced my career from a "small presser with a fluke hit and cult status" to a respected peer with critical acclaim. The series was originally published in chapters in the Will Eisner Award winning anthology Taboo. One of my installments, "Escape #2: The Dry Creek Bed" gained me my first Eisner nomination for Best Short Story of 1992.
Sadly, even Taboo wasn't safe from the ever declining comics market, and although I was paid for all of the installments, many of them didn't see print when Taboo was cancelled.
FATHER & SON: 1994-1997
After finally completing Habitrails, Ultra Klutz, and its sequel, Lost Laughter, I had a clean slate. My old Father & Son characters suddenly seemed to have more potential in light of the emerging generation gap stereotype of the time: The self-righteous ex-hippy boomer vs. the gen-x slackers. In reality, my characters were more WWII generation vs. blank generation, but I could see them in these new roles perfectly. And considering even my critically acclaimed Habitrails wasn't paying the rent, I wanted to do something more commercial and make a living from it. I drew the first issue on spec and shopped it around.
I landed a four issue contract with Kitchen Sink Press (a well established publisher going back to the underground days), for what I believe was their last original humor series. It sold well initially (nearly 4,000 copies) but not well enough to weather the constantly dwindling market and distributor consolidation wars going on at the time (from which Kitchen Sink ultimately did not survive past 1997).
Despite jabs from the press of it being a "sell-out," I got two more Eisner nominations from 1995 for BEST LIMITED SERIES and TALENT DESERVING OF WIDER RECOGNITION. Then Caliber Press in conjunction with American Entertainment offered to publish Father & Son monthly with hopes in exploiting it with media deals outside of comics. They wanted a free ride, though, which I found out after creating two more issues (a verbal agreement to pay in advance of publication evaporated). I retained the material and published it myself in 1998 as the double-sized "Like, Special #1."
As you can see I re-tooled the characters again, stepping away from the fading grunge look, and even made these cool animation style model sheets.
Now, for the current webtoons, I have sent them back in time to the styles of the early 80's where they belong. Considering my animation is as limited as it was the early 80's, maybe that's more appropriate.
LEAVING COMICS (NICHOLSON'S LAST SMALL PRESS TIRADE): 2005
In 2005 I stopped obsessively pushing myself down the vanishing highway of the American printed comic book market. Even though they bloomed and have been legitimized as an art form, comic books are no longer a mass medium, no longer a way to make an even meager living. My goals have not just been artistic, but to sell a lot of copies, just like the role models I emulated in the 70s, 80s and even the 90s. This pursuit was like climbing a peak on a sinking island. When I got to the top I was back at sea level. A stable, year after year circulation of even 2,000 copies on a creator owned comic book series has been proven impossible. *sigh*, life goes on.
I've had some real highs to be sure. Six Eisner Award nominations, fantastic fan mail, and some great reviews that fill my scrapbooks. My first three series started off strong, with sales around 18,000 (Ultra Klutz), 10,000 (Habitrails, via Taboo), and 3,800 (Father & Son), but comics generally have diminishing returns after making a splash. Less sales, less reviews, less mail. I don't take it personally. In a shrinking medium, retailers and distributors struggle to make room for something new to break the shrinking cycle, but are forced to cut everything else 5-10% per issue to do so, even if they believe in those titles 100%. Each of those series eventually dropped below the 1,200 copy mark (the financial break even), even though I was improving as an artist and promoting more aggressively. I dutifully completed those stories, sort of riding on the fumes of my old passions, with blinders on to the fact that the potential I grew up with was not really there any more.
In 1997 I "quit comics forever" for about six months or so. Then I started Colonia. I decided I hadn't given it my personal best yet. My more recent work had been getting polluted by obsessing over sales, so I focused totally on the art and the back story research. I was rewarded with a new lease on life. The first issue sold 3,000 copies. Including the second printing and trade paperback collection, that first story now has cumulative sales of over 5,000. Wow! That kicks ass.
But the old patterns returned. By 2004, after busting my ass with a bi-monthly schedule on the 9th, 10th and 11th issues, and spending $3000 in advertising, the sales slid down below the 1,200 copy break-even. I held out hope that readers were not buying the single issues in anticipation of trade paperback reprints, but the second of those (collecting issue 6-11) came out the following year and only sold 300 copies. That was the final blow. I could not dust myself off and dutifully complete Colonia when it was spiraling into obscurity, as I had on other series in the past.
GHOST TOWN AND DESERT TREK PHOTO ESSAYS: 2010-Present
In the year 2000 I enbarked on a four day 1600 mile tour of California and Nevada deserts. This led to nearly all my vacationing being done in remote corners of desert parks and BLM lands. In 2010 I decided to start photo journaling all of these adventures via Flickr. They will bore you to tears if you aren't passionte about the majesty of the desert and the vanishing ghost towns, but if you are, these 30 treks include over 3,000 photos, details of the routes and locations, and each photo is georeferenced and mapped.
GHOST TOWN / DESERT TREKS
ANIMATION: 1978
At age 15 I got a super-8 camera and made several animations and claymations, the most ambitious being the seven minute full color Justice Chumps cartoon.
FATHER & SON (V1): 1982-1984
Long before the real Father & Son comic series by Kitchen Sink Press, the characters existed in the form of doodles, home made comics, and even musically in some of the "cartoon bands" we used to record in our music projects. This was purely for private goofs and I never had any intention of trying to do anything commercial with them until the 90's.
LIVE ACTION FILMS & VIDEOS: 1985
Because I was 22 years old and brimming with energy, I decided a quarterly zine and recording projects on top of college was not enough, so I dusted off the old super-8 and made some Father & Son films. Then I realized a video camera was that much easier. Below are a few scenes.
In addition to Father & Son I started using video for our cartoon bands like "Big Z and the Speed Freaks", performing Call of the Wired.
NICHOLSON'S SMALL PRESS TIRADE: 1989
When Ultra Klutz was on hiatus for a year I made a brief return to photocopy small press. In this self-examination of creativity and the search for audience, I openly criticized the faults and self-delusions of the small press community, which caused some heated controversy in its original release.
ULTRA KLUTZ: 1990-1991
Despite my growing success with Habitrails, my Ultra Klutz obsession was still very much alive and I released issues 28 to 31. Sales continued to drop and the series went on hold indefinitely. In a last ditch effort I created Ultra Klutz Dreams, a series of stand-alone short stories that were created for an anthology comic in 1991. They were more absurd and funny than the main series (which was getting more dramatic), with a clean art style meant to be reminiscent of animated cartoons. The anthology folded faster than Ultra Klutz itself and I eventually issued the short stories in a stand alone comic in 1998.
LOST LAUGHTER: 1993-1994
In perhaps one of my worst career moves, I channeled my new found dark humored skills on Habitrails into my still active Ultra Klutz obsession, in the form of an Ultra Klutz sequel. Lost Laughter was a subtle and eccentric series that started with a basic premise: A comic book universe that was once lighthearted and whimsical is now "doom and gloom" (bleak revisionist history was a big trend in comics at this time). In my stab at it, it is the Ultra Klutz characters and settings that go Kafkaesque. The story is set in motion when some of the characters begin regaining memory of the simpler times, and stumble upon clues that explain just how this transformation occurred. A race ensues to solve the mystery and get the universe put back to right before it decays into unmanageable chaos.
Lost Laughter was my biggest sales disaster. I released four issues and only survived bankruptcy due to the fact that it was made possible by a grant from the Xeric Foundation. I dutifully finished the series in three additional chapters in the Caliber Press anthology Negative Burn.
NO REGRETS / THE DREAMING: 1996
In late 1994 DC Comics' Vertigo imprint invited me to write some issues of The Dreaming, a spin off of the popular Sandman series, which was just in the planning stages. I worked on a proposal for a five issue story arc called No Regrets, but they decided it would be best if I start over with a single issue focusing on their Mervyn Pumpkinhead character, but that I would also draw it. Writing and drawing a single issue was actually more appealing than writing a multi-issue story arc. For reasons unknown or long forgotten, it took until January of 1996 to actually receive contracts and a green light from Vertigo so I could proceed. By then I had taken the No Regrets story and condensed it down and drew it myself. It was published in chapters in the Negative Burn anthology (#30-#36) by Caliber Press. This was never collected into a single book so I've posted an online version: NO REGRETS
But getting back to The Dreaming, the money was great (over $300 a page for script, pencils and inks combined) and all delays aside I turned in some top notch work. It also has pro lettering by Todd Klein and excellent color by Danny Vozzo. It was later collected in the Vertigo trade paperback, Through the Gates of Horn and Ivory. I believe all of the Vertigo trade paperbacks are available at amazon.com.
Click here for a preview of a few pages from my story, "Day's Work, Night's Rest"
COLONIA: 1998-2005
The birth of COLONIA is pretty simple, really. In 1997 I had finally finished all the series I had wanted to do since childhood. I had an even cleaner clean slate than ever before to work with. At the time there was bit of a movement away from gritty and dark humored comics, and towards more back to basics adventure comics that could be enjoyed by "children of all ages." I wanted to do something of this type, and I wanted to take very a traditional approach to comics. I was also crowding out my creativity with the desire to make a living from it. For this series, it was all about the story and the art. I would keep the day-job while doing it, and sales were secondary.
Once I got the notion of creating a fantasy-adventure series that was set in the New World instead of the Old World, I felt I had something I was excited about working with. And once I drew the first sketch of Adarro, the old man-of-fish, I knew this was it. I embraced the use of reference for the first time in my career, and set out to essentially learn to draw all over again, rather than keep repeating my old habits. For the story, I spent a good six months just daydreaming about it (instead of my typical meticulous note-taking). Characters began populating my head, the back story and logic of this world began to brew, and it became unstoppable. I think I had the first five issues written before the debut issue went to press. Unlike past series, where stories came during fits of insomnia or while dutifully sitting at a typewriter, the COLONIA stories have all come to me of their own will while I've been out hiking.
In the first issue of Colonia Jack and his two uncles wash ashore of an unfamiliar island, after escaping the hands of the pirate Cinnabar. Still unsure of where, or when, his is, Jack encounters a man made of fish and long lost Spanish Conquistadors. The most rational being he meets is a talking duck named Lucy, who is just as unfamiliar with the world Jack comes from as he is of hers. As they consider joining forces, they are shanghaied by yet another band of pirates. Click below for a tour of the first eight pages of Colonia #1.
A Colonia Preview
In the first five issue story arc of Colonia, Jack meets a Norwegian colonist named Kelsey during his adventure aboard the pirate ship of Anne Reed and Bonnie O'Malley. Aside from the unpleasant prospect of spending his summer in forced labor, there's also the matter of arriving in the waters of the dreaded Fin-Men, and keeping duck soup off the menu. While Cinnabar catches up with Uncle Pete and Uncle Richard back on the island, Jack experiences his first boarding party. Also, Adarro, the old man-of-fish, arranges for Jack to meet the eerie mermaid Teela, who answers the question of how our trio from Massachusetts got to be in the world of Colonia. Jack is eventually reunited with his uncles, only now they are all under the thumbs of both Cinnabar and the pirate queen Anne Reed. A clever plan must be hatched to regain their freedom, as they face a marooning on the island of the Ghost Ship.
Colonia #3 Preview
Colonia #5 Preview
In 1999, while working on the first story arc, I did an interview with a young Austin English, who came to my high rise day job office one day and we did it by hanging out in an empty confernce room. In turned out to be one of my favorite interviews because it was live (most interviews are actually via e-mail) and we just had a really good chemistry. Unfortunately the interview has long disappeared from the web, but I had a copy and Austin graciously allowed me to post it here on my web site:
The Austin English Interview
In the next story arc of Colonia, the ship runs aground and the travellers turn from the sea to the interior. Faced with seemingly endless miles of inhospitable Florida swampland, they are victims of a cruel irony. All of the water is tainted, perhaps by magic, and there is not a drop to drink. Their trek takes them to an old Spanish fort, which is populated, yet has no visible means of entry. The secret to the fort unlocks a secret to all of the New World Colonian Hemisphere. Heading North in search of a civilized port town, Jack and company meet Sally, who hails from a nearby Pagan village. While these villagers live in harmony with the New World, they are feared by the superstitious pirates who hail from the Old World. Fears turn to reality when Sally’s ability to "way-hop" are given a sudden and dangerous boost by Jack, and they vanish into an alternate reality.
Colonia #8 Preview
In the last story arc of Colonia, Jack and company finally arrive in the port town Cartier, where the barmaid at the Pelican Inn bears a striking resemblance to Teela the mermaid, Melmo the confounding beast has a conversation with Adarro down at the docks, and down-and-out pirates Stuart and Marco try and sell our heroes a ship. Their plans are interrupted by rumors of an old man in the hills, who, like them, seems 300 years out of place. His name? What else... Rip Van Winkle. They take a detour to find him with hopes he has a clue to how they arrived in the world of Colonia in the first place. Perhaps the most surprising twist yet! After finally negotiating their new ship, the entire town of Cartier is being held hostage by the notorious pirate Smokebeard, unless some brave individual will deliver him a chest of medicine. Cinnabar rises to the occasion, and Teela the mermaid has a run-in with Jack, setting up anticipation of further intrigue.
Colonia #10 Preview
Ad used on the final Colonia Story Arc
All eleven issues of Colonia are collected in two trade paperbacks, published by AiT/PlanetLAR. COLONIA: ISLANDS & ANOMALIES and COLONIA: ON INTO THE GREAT LANDS. They both contain unpublished sketches and the best of the text back matter sections. One of the books is missing a page, which can be found here: The Missing Page.
In 2005 I began work on the next collection COLONIA: THE WAY HOME. Unfortunately, I only created this cover, some fragmented scripts, and 17 pages of thumbnails before making the decision to stop making comics.
In case the cover looks familiar, it's a tribute to Jack Kirby's Kamandi #11.
The Way Home thumbnails
FATHER AND SON TOONS: 2007-2013
I thought when I finished comics that I could just have a day job, hike my hikes, and enjoy life, but I don't seem to be able to do that. I get kinda itchy and feel short circuited when not doing something creative that I think will reach people, so I needed a new outlet. I've always loved animation but historically it was too expensive and time consuming. I got some software from ToonBoom Studios and after a learning curve started having fun with it. It's still pretty time consuming so I was not animating so much as making audio comics. I still drew the backgrounds and most of the elements with traditional ink on bristol (because I'd rather be sitting at a drawing table than a computer if possible), and then scan them in. I made five that way 2007-2009, and after a few years hiatus got a digital tablet for the sixth and last installment in 2013 which was all drawn directly in the software.
The nice thing about web animation is I no longer had to invest in printing and advertising, dealing with distributors and waiting on pins and needles for purchase orders, or filling my closets with overstock. When I finish one, I just slap it on the web. These days everybody is watching movies, tv shows, old music videos, and various forms of mindless entertainment on their PC. It's a busy world competing for our attention out there, but at least there is a potential to grow an audience than to be guaranteed to lose it in the old print world.
All images ©2015 Jeff Nicholson, except Spore photo by Becky Dunn ©1986 The Orion, Taboo #5 cover ©1991 SpiderBaby Grafix & Publications and ©1990,1991 Jeff Jones, The Dreaming #15 cover ©1997 DC Comics, LOST logo ©2004 ABC Studios.
F&S Toon Home
MUSIC: 1980-1992
Unlike cartooning, which goes back to my earliest memories, music started in the teen years. Also unlike comics, which I later made a career of, playing and recording music always remained a hobby for me. Just for fun with no professional pretensions.
My brother Richard and I made mock albums under various pseudo names and with various friends, and in the latter years joined real bands that gigged and recorded on more and more sophisticated equipment. To give you an idea of the depth of material, when I filter my iTunes for "home music," there are 18 bands representing 54 albums, and 591 songs. Below are the liner notes and cover art of my burn-it-yourself CD era compilation, JEFFOLUTION, which touches on some of the recording projects and bands.
WHAT, WHY, IS JEFFOLUTION 1980-1988?
This is sort of a "best of" my solo junk and the projects and bands I was involved in, but also is an attempt at a worts-and-all representation of things put to tape from ages 17 to 25, including the spontaneous, goofy, and intoxicated stuff.
DRUGS (2:47) excerpt from the "Concord Chronicles" April 1980. My first time playing any stringed instrument, and first time memorizing a song, all caught on tape. Recorded live directly into a boom box condenser mike. Once I knew I could keep time and memorize notes, this whole guitar thing became appealing. However, nothing I recorded in the next two years that I wrote and played guitar on is very listenable.
LISTEN / CONVINCE ME (4:53) as "Low Fidelity" April 1982. "Blue Oyster Cornwell," as a friend described it, since the influences were painfully lodged in Blue Oyster Cult and Hugh Cornwell (The Stranglers). Still, a bad-ass sound on guitar (naively run through a pawn shop country-western bass amp). And we are multi tracking thanks to a hot rodded 8 track cassette player. Nice lead chops by Rich. Now the official “Father & Son” toon theme song.
DRINK AND DANCE (3:46) as "Monocromagnon" February 1983. Now multi tracking on standard cassette deck somehow (Rich had a knack for figuring out how to discriminately de-actitave the erase heads), since 8-tracks have no rewind which gets old. The first song utilizing "Drum Drops" (store bought drum tracks on both vinyl and cassette), which served us well until real bands and real drummers. My guitar solos start to come into their own here.
SLIM'S GENERAL STORE RAG (5:07) as "The Drunken Fools" May 1983. All songs were actually recorded drunk with this bunch. Low tech, no practicing, and you probably had to be there kind of thing, but these beer sessions help keep the spontaneity up and taking ourselves seriously down. Back to the primitive boom box condenser mike live.
TEENAGE PASSION (3:00) as "The Frets" May 1983. Now multi tracking properly on open reel, so the sound is getting clearer. A Buzzcocks wannabe song, if I ever wrote one. We blew up some tweeters trying to use home stereo speakers as monitors. If you listen closely you can hear the landlady’s dogs barking during the first bridge.
GOON OUTTA TUNE (2:15) as "Skizzy and the Screechers" September 1983. Our own version of Spinal Tap. Skizzy is a luck-less, confused metal band with a complete history and three mock albums.
POT, POT, ALL FOR POT (5:44) as "The Totally Boatally Band" December 1983. Although none as prolific as Skizzy, we had a lot of these mock "cartoon" bands. This one based on my pothead cousin. Obviously unrehearsed, recorded without overdubs, but it has some of my best spontaneous leads. Totally bad!
PAROLLED (5:58) as "Skizzy and the Screechers" February 1984. More Skizzy. Our old progressive rock roots coming through on this one. Fun shit if not taken too seriously.
REASONS 2 (3:34) as "The Unrehearsables" April 1984. The Unrehearsables were another side band like the DFs, except recording with a friend who didn't drink. An amazingly creative guy but he never committed any of his ideas to paper or memory. Just while the tape's rolling.
SHE'S KILLING ME (5:41) as "The Unrehearsables" April 1984. There are six or seven albums worth of this Unrehearsables stuff. Here's one of the more raucous.
HARSH WINTER (1:51) as "Monocromagnon" May 1984. Suddenly obsessed with LA hardcore like Black Flag and Circle Jerks, I made my own album of obnoxious 1 or 2 minute wonders. Here are two of 'em.
FUCK (:52) as "Monocromagnon" May 1984. I think I am intentionally devolving musically here.
FRIGHTENED LOVERS (2:53) as "Monocromagnon" October 1984. Jeff sings! College vocal and piano classes give confidence for 80's style ballad. Sharp contrast to the last track.
HELTER SKELTER (3:45) as "The Drunken Fools" December 1984. The DFs also had six or seven albums worth of stuff, probably about half covers like this one.
I HATE THE MEDIA (3:22) as "Monocromagnon" June 1985. Now multi tracking on 4-track cassette, buy the way. I was usually to lazy to take care with the recording process without Rich at hand, but took my time on this one solo.
PARANOID (1:25) as "The Drunken Fools" June 1985. This new member of the DFs can hardly play guitar, but I still have fun with it.
WEIRD DASHBOARD (3:15) as "The Frets" November 1985. Rich and I plunk out an ep of clean, drum-less goofs.
BEFORE I WAS ME (4:31) as "The Killjoys" November 1987. My first band with a real drummer. These sessions are rough live ambient recordings in the practice shed.
GET OUTTA MY FACE (2:48) as "The Killjoys" January 1988. Second round of sessions, this time live to the 4-track machine. The mix downs are crap. We only had one live gig (The Ice House, Chico) after this, then disbanded as a chickenshit way to get a different drummer.
JUST ONE PERSON (4:11) as "Mr Greenjeans" July 1988. My only live show ever recorded (330 Wall Street, Chico). The sound is pretty weak, but I’m glad I caught at least one show before becoming a recording only guy. Listen, someone is actually clapping!
CAUGHT MYSELF THINKING (4:39) as "Mr Greenjeans" July 1988. The drummer died of a drug overdose a few years later, which I guess makes me officially rock and roll.
Before moving on to newer music, first a shout out to SPORE, one of my favorite local bands of all time, from my college days in Chico, CA. In an alternate universe they would have been signed and had their day in the sun. My brother played with them for three years, and in 1988, I was a member for one day as new bass player after the original left. But it was not to be and they never played again after that last rehearsal.
In late 1988 two things happened that led to a big rush of song writing in my life. I got a bass guitar, and I quit drawing comics for nearly a year. It was the first and only time the bass became the instrument I would primarily practice with and develop new songs from. The fact that it was a second-hand thrash bass left over from SPORE made it all the better.
With that rumbly old bass I came up with most everything on my final MONOCROMAGNON album, as well as the JEFF & PAUL album I co-authored with British bloke Paul Edwards, both of which were recorded over the course of 1989 to 1992.
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THE COLLECTED EDITIONS (TRADE PAPERBACKS): 1994-2003
My desire to get the entire Habitrails in print began a new phase in my career, the book editions that could be sold in bookstores as well as comic book specialty shops. I thought I would turn a quick profit on these higher priced items but soon learned they are a long term investment. The first and second editions of Habitrails sold about 1,500 copies each, but over the course of about six years, that's a labor of love and not a livelihood. Still, they legitimized my past work, and unlike the comics issues, are still readily available through Amazon.com and a host of other aftermarket web booksellers.
Above: The first out-of-print edition of Habitrails, which does not contain the new introduction or epilogue, and the Nicholson's Tirade trade paperback, which contains all the early 80's small press work as well as the 1989 Tirade mini-comic (also out-of-print). Because the latter is more difficult to find, I've posted an online version:
NICHOLSON'S SMALL PRESS TIRADE
THROUGH THE HABITRAILS
$14.95
144 pages
Second edition. Introduction by Stephen R. Bissette.
ISBN 1-885047-03-7
ULTRA KLUTZ BOOK ONE
$29.95
520 pages
Collects the first 23 issues plus unpublished material.
ISBN 1-885047-02-9
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ULTRA KLUTZ BOOK TWO: THE WANDERING BEAST
$24.95
400 pages
Collects issues 24-31, Ultra Klutz Dreams 1, and Lost Laughter 1-7, plus unpublished material.
ISBN 1-885047-04-5
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FATHER & SON: EVERYBODY'S SELL-OUT
$9.95
120 pages
Collects the four Kitchen Sink issues plus one "lost episode" and one unpublished page.
OUT OF PRINT
ULTRA KLUTZ TV PILOT STORYBOARDS: 2005
I briefly contemplated making a budget live action Ultra Klutz pilot called Ultra Sam. I don't know what I was smoking, but thought it would be fun to make an intentionally crude pastiche, making cheap models and sets in my apartment, getting my girlfriend to sew costumes, and exploiting the patience of my friends to act the parts. I didn't do any of that, but did get as far as writing and storyboarding a complete script. Imagine if you will, that Ultra Sam is a guy in a rubber suit, with a hard shell mask (like on Ultraman), except whenever his mood changes, the hard mask is suddenly different. I still think that would look pretty funny.
Here's the link to the complete script. Enjoy!
ULTRA SAM TV PILOT SCRIPT
iTunes LIBRARY: 2006-2007
I distracted myself during my withdrawl from creating comics by building my itunes library from all my CDs and 400 gigs of archived wave files. It took a year and a half to convert, tag, and assign album art for all of it!
LOST - Island Chronology: 2011
After learning to use software editing tools for my toons and old films and videos, I was bitten by the "fan edit" bug and created my own version of the television series LOST. I was so impressed with the adherence to continuity on that show that I was inspired to make a re-edit to portray events taking place on the island in chronological order, from pre-history to the last days after Jacob. Includes all flashbacks, time travel sequences, outtakes and webcasts, but no events off of the island, with the exception of the epilogue.
The Austin English Interview (page one of three)
It's hard to categorize Jeff Nicholson in today's comics scene. He doesn't fit into the superhero crowd and he doesn't fit into (in his own words) the "hipster" scene of comics. However, his work is part of a small, but very noticeable movement in comics today. Along with Linda Medley, Jeff Smith, Mark Crilley, Zander Cannon, Gary Sassman, and a host of others, Nicholson is working at making comics more whimsical. More lighthearted. More fun. With the realease of Colonia, a story about a present-day young man, who suddenly finds himself surrounded by pirates, talking birds, fish men, and all other things that populate New World mythology, Nicholson is at the top of his craft. Colonia is relentlessly researched, with high attention to detail, and just as importantly, self-published. Nicholson has been self publishing since the eighties, when he first released Ultra Klutz, which has been described as a strange spoof on Ultra Man, that soon turned into a masterful epic, with a huge variety of subjects gracing every issue. Nicholson is also the author of a story much darker and sophisticated than his other work: Through the Habitrails. Habitrails is the chilling story of office life, failed romances, and the cruelty of life, with a little bit of optimism shining throughout. It still remains quite disturbing though, especially with the admission from Nicholson that it is virtually all autobiographical (except for all the animal metaphors).
But with Colonia, a new day has dawned for Nicholson. He's finally enjoying comics again, something that hasn't been true for years. He also feels comfortable with self-publishing, all of which he discussed with me for an hour and a half, inside his office at Pacific Gas & Electric (like many cartoonists, Nicholson must have another job to support himself) in downtown San Francisco. One thing is obvious after reading this interview: Nicholson is having the time of his life, and it shows in Colonia. .
Background
Where and when did you grow up?
I was born in 1962, and grew up in Concord, CA, which is right across the bay and over the hill from San Francisco.
Did you end up going into the city a lot?
No. Very rarely. I remember driving to the city as a teenager and thinking I was driving over the Golden Gate Bridge, when I was on the Bay Bridge. (laughs) That's how unfamiliar I was with this side of the bay.
What kind of place was Concord?
It's a very dreary, suburban town, with a large population, but no real identity.
Not a place that would encourage creativity.
No. No, not at all.
Can you talk a little bit about your parents, and what they did?
Yeah, my folks are my role models for a good marriage.
You don't see much of that.
No. And they were very young when they had my brother and me . . . and they're just doing really great. I feel real fortunate, because I meet a lot of people with a lot of, like, problems with their parents, and all that. So I'm lucky to have a good relationship with my parents.
Can you recall anything in your childhood that you saw, or that your parents gave you, that might have spurred your interest in what your doing now for Colonia, such as the pirates and folklore?
Oh, my mom loaned me this book, I forget the title of it -- let's look it up (flips through copy of Colonia #1, sitting right next to him). My mom loaned me, Conquest of Paradise. A book about Columbus.
When you were a little kid?
No. Around the time of the 500 year anniversary, when there were a couple of movies coming out.
Oh yeah, like 1492 . . .
Yeah. And this book came out, and I was at my parents' house and saw it on the shelf, and said "Oh can I borrow this?" And that's where it all started, I mean essentially.
During the 500-year anniversary, I was in a school that just basically taught that Columbus was, y'know, the Devil basically.
Ah, right, right. Bad man!
Yeah, exactly.
This book was the same way. This book really slammed Western culture, basically. But it was a good book, because it really debunks the myths…
What about when you were a kid? Do you remember being influenced toward what Colonia was to be about? Or is that book really the genesis of Colonia?
Yeah it is and that's really a good point, because what's so special about Colonia, is that unlike all of my other series, Colonia has nothing to do with my past or my childhood. It's the first thing that I started completely fresh, just a couple of years ago, with no pre-conceptions, and no old influences.
Hmm. Because I would think that it would be something that you were interested in as a child, because it's something that's very accessible to a child. Can you recall being exposed to comics in general, as a child?
Yeah. I guess the kind of comics that influenced Colonia indirectly, because they're not, y'know, they're not about pirates…or fantasy, but comics like Kamandi by Jack Kirby.
That's when I first started reading comics regularly, when I was about 13 or so, in the early seventies. So Kamandi, the Last Boy on Earth, it was kind of a post-apocalyptic comic, and it had that sense of adventure that has influenced Colonia.
Was it mainly Kirby who influenced you, or where there any other people at that time, that you recall influencing you?
Kirby definitely, probably some Bernie Wrightson at that time…because I was really into monsters at that time…and that's when Bernie Wrightson was doing Swamp Thing. I caught the tail end of that, when that was still new.
If you liked Swamp Thing it must have been neat to have Stephen Bissette do the introduction to Through the Habitrails.
Oh yeah…that was a big dream come true, to work with Steve.
On Taboo? (Note: Taboo was an ill-fated horror comic anthology, which serialized much of Through the Habitrails.)
Yeah. And then to actually have his introduction here (in Through the Habitrails), and that whole process, that was where I really felt like I grew up as a comic book artist . . . to be working with those people.
I like (Bissete's) stuff.
Definitely. And he influenced this work (taps Through the Habitrails).
But when I read the introduction, he said that you came to him with the work…
It was introduced to Steve by Dave Sim. And I sent Dave Sim copies just to show him, and he sent them to Steve, and Alan Moore and some other people, just because he was so excited about it. That led to Steve calling me, so that was…I remember the day that call came in and that was very exciting.
When do you remember first having interest in art? Or wanting a career in art or comic books?
Very, very early on. I can't remember when I didn't draw. I remember drawing at my grandmother's house, when I feel like, this maybe is impossible, but I wasn't even in kindergarten, I don't know, but I was just always drawing, as long as I can remember. And then I remember wanting to have a career as a cartoonist as early as third or fourth grade. This was the time when there were a lot of those monster hot rod artists going around. In the late sixties, there were Odd Rods trading cards and other things. Big Daddy Roth, and there were even model kits that were based on wacky monsters driving hot rods, and I use to build those . . .
Perfect concept. Monsters driving hot rods.
(laughs). Yeah, yeah. The models were designed after illustrations from cartoonists, and they'd (the illustrations) be on the box, and I remember as early as fourth grade, dreaming, that's what I want to do when I grow up: draw monsters driving hot rods, for a living, and grow a beard. That's when hippies where in vogue, y'know but…
Okay, did you go to art school? Lots of cartoonists talk about going to art school and hating it.
Indirectly, I went to a design school, which was graphic design, and so, I learned a lot about design there, but it wasn't an illustration program, per se. I've always rebelled against illustration teachers, unfortunately.
Yeah, because if you like art, it's hard to listen to somebody say…to teach you art. I hate that.
Exactly, exactly. Yeah and so I would always…I always rebelled, and would not draw what I was supposed to. I don't think I caught on to the value of learning until later on. I pretty much just drew the way I wanted to draw all throughout college. But I really did soak in the design, because I think that's an important part of comics.
Yeah you have to learn all aspects of comics.
Yeah, even designing the back matter pages, and the cover, and even the weight of the pages, in addition to just drawing skills, I think that's really important.
Was Ultra Klutz the first thing you self-published? How long have you been self-publishing?
Well, that was the very first book I did. It was in '81, and I believe I was seventeen, and that was an adventure…and an education as well.
Could you describe Ultra Klutz a little?
Sure.
I've heard it described as a satire on Ultra Man, that turned into an adventure series…that…
That's the gist of it right there. And then I always hate to use comparisons but it is kind of like Cerebus, in the sense that it started out as something kind of whimsical, like Cerebus was just a little parody but you didn't know it was gonna go on for so long.
Yeah but when you look at like the first two issues of Cerebus, and then you look at like the current ones, it just like completely different, and it's mind boggling.
Like it was drawn by a completely different person. And I actually, I have to say, I really enjoyed the early Cerebus's a lot more than the newer stuff, just because they're self-contained stories, which is what I'm trying to do with Colonia now. He was so good at telling self-contained stories, for about the first 25 issues there. But Ultra Klutz was like that in the sense that it started off as something goofy, and it turned into something more, and I think the reason for that, with Ultra Klutz, and I would assume with Cerebus and a lot of other creations like that, is the character and the series become a repository for all of your creativity. You give yourself over to this one book and this one character, and everything creative you think of becomes an Ultra Klutz story! Even if it shouldn't have been, maybe it should have been a really good story about people, but no, you're determined that everything is going to be an Ultra Klutz story. So it becomes a place for all of your creative ideas to go to.
So, do you feel that helped your ideas, or putting them all into one place kind of limited you?
Both I suppose. It helped me because I always had a place to go, so whenever ideas would come up they were never discarded, they could instantly be funneled into this series. But then the downfall was that…
Your ideas had to be married to this concept.
Yeah, to this book. And if this book didn't appeal to certain people, they were never gonna read my stories, because they'd think "Ultra Klutz, stupid name" and never look at it. "Just a silly book." And that definitely happened, so I had to get beyond that.
Can you talk a little bit about, what actually goes into self-publishing? Because I think there's a lot of misconceptions associated with self-publishing.
Yeah definitely. People need to be aware that there's a huge difference between self-publishing and self-promoting. Self-publishing is a snap, while self-promoting is really where all the work is.
Well probably the most significant thing I did differently with Colonia than any other work was that I completed the entire first issue and the color covers…before I solicited it to the distributors. And so I had a full blown comic piece that I was able to send out to the so called movers and shakers in the business.
A review of Colonia was in Comic Shop News's review section, "Give and Take." That's a great column by the way there.
Yeah. I like that a lot. And…I forget who else. Some people ran it early as well. And so I think by sending a full copy before it's listed you are in a sense trying to make fans out of the people who will review it.
And sometimes people…fans will be reading a review, and they'll think "Oh, it's already out…I missed out." If it's coming, then (there's more of a sense of being able to get into the story).
Yeah. Right.
You've self-published and you've worked for semi-big time publishers. Obviously there are huge differences, but can you talk about the differences between the two?
The biggest difference to me is, the amount of control over time, rather then control over editorial content. Because they do have control over editorial content, and to some people that's a big problem. But the whole issue with me was that it was more a matter of them being in control of the schedule, and the timetable, and the way it's released. For someone who's primarily self-published and banging stuff out, that's sort of excruciating.
So in a way, they are limiting your creativity, under the guise of limiting your schedule.
Yeah, by slowing down the timetable, they're pretty much undermining your creativity. You get burned out or you get tired of waiting and your creative oomph just kinda dies.
Like many cartoonists, you can't make your living solely on comics. So you have to do a job like this (working in downtown San Francisco for PG&E, Pacific Gas and Electric). Do you feel like your work suffers from not being able to devote all your time to it? I mean, from having to go from this, to then on the weekends having to work on comic books.
Yeah . . . well, I hate to always answer with "both" and then give you both answers. (Laughs). It suffers a little bit because I would like to totally immerse myself in it. I definitely get on a roll. And I enjoy being able to draw a page every day, because you stay sharp. But there's a huge benefit right now with Colonia and working for PG&E, because it's the first time I've been able to quit worrying about making a living on (comics). That's always been part of the equation.
So it's like "Colonia might not sell, and make me rich, but I'll always have this to fall back on."
Right. Right. It's just forced Colonia to be something that I do for pleasure, and I lost that sense of doing comics for pleasure, for about 3 or 4 or 5 years. Before Colonia, I was drawing to try to make a living, and not drawing because I love it, and so now… to try to give you a sense of what this is like, I really, I love just the way the pencil feels on the paper. The actual act of doing it, and I lost that for a long time.
Well that's a really interesting answer, because most people will just say, "Well, I want comics to be my living . . . I want it to be what I do," but I've never heard someone say they want it to be something they do for fun.
Yeah. And that's because I've been hurt by wanting it to be for a living too many times. It's like a big gamble, y'see…and then crash!
And then you've committed yourself to something that's really hard.
Or you go broke. (Laughs). And that get's tiresome when you're thirty-six years old.
I think we lose a lot of great cartoonists that just go broke, and just can't cut it. Do you think there's a myth associated with comics that if you publish a really great story you can become successful? Like, you can have your comic become the next Bone?
Yeah, I think that is a myth. And that goes back to that self publishing versus self promotion. If you just say to yourself, "I've got a really, really good story, I'm just gonna put it out there and people are gonna discover it," you can have a rude awakening. That's definitely true. You need a really, really good story and some good promotion. And then maybe you still might not be the next big thing.
The Austin English Interview (page two of three)
Through the Habitrails
My personal favorite of all your works is "Through the Habitrails" and, first off, how auto biographical is "Through the Habitrails"?
Let's see. (Picks up TTH, and flips through it). That's a hard one to answer. In a percentage? In proportion?
What types of things are autobiographical?
Well, I always like to let people know that all the animal metaphors, the killing of animals, is completely fictitious. Some people come up to me, and they want to know about that.
That? Out of all the stuff in there, that's what they want to know?!
That is the highest amount of metaphor in this book, and is the farthest removed from reality. The closest to reality, probably, the interaction with women.
So you were really married to someone that was similar to the cat lover? I don't want to make you answer anything you don't want to…
I was married to someone very much like her. Very much similar to this. I have no idea if she's ever read this or not. But yeah, this is pretty much on the money.
And did you work in a business that was similar to the one portrayed in TTH?
I worked in a small newspaper and I was a full time illustrator. And it was really a small corporation so, looking back, it was nothing like working for PG&E, which is a true big, bloated corporation. This was just a little small-town corporation. But it still had the sense of being creative for someone else's vague goals.
Could you talk a little bit about that story "Be Creative" where they tap you for creativity?
That's basically the idea of being creative just to…just to sell soap or whatever. But it's worse than that, because it's not like you're working for the company that makes the soap; your working for the company that sells ads, to sell the soap. And so your drawing basically a bar of soap, and the original manufacturer isn't even aware of this illustration. Y'know, it's all so far removed from any real creativity.
Is it easier to work in a job like PG&E, where creativity isn't even a question?
Definitely. Especially when not only do you have to fake creativity, but you have to fake enthusiasm. And I think I tried to get at that a little bit in a story called "The Infiltrator", with a guy who would come around behind you and say "Oh! That's really great! That dumbass bar of soap you're drawing!" and you don't want to just be rude to the guy and say "Fuck off! I hate this!" So your just stuck kind of smiling and nodding, saying "Yeah…"
One of the things I'm sure you hear from a lot of people is that, your work, from piece to piece . . . I mean I don't know if there could be something more different than Colonia and TTH. How different is your creative process, when you work on something like TTH? Is it more draining to you?
Definitely. Definitely.
I mean you talked about having joy from doing Colonia. I don't feel that's something you'd get out of doing TTH.
No. I think TTH was more like therapy. It was more cathartic. And it was draining. And it was hard… because at the time I did this, I was re-married, so y'know, here I am doing a story about the cat lover, when I'm married to someone else…
To the women you meet at the end of TTH?
Yeah, and so, y'know, it's draining, and it's also disruptive of your personal life, because people don't like to watch you be cathartic.
They think that you shouldn't have to be cathartic.
Right. They don't like the idea of you spending eight hours a day, drawing about someone else. Like songwriters, they still need to write love songs, and they're not all about their current love.
Okay. Many of the other office personalities in TTH are very fleshed out, kind of stereotypical office personalities, so did you actually take co-workers personalities, and try to flesh them out more. Or are some characters like the doomed one, more creations?
No these are…now that I think about it, I think almost every character in here is from a real person. Some of them are augmented in some way, and some of them are just virtually that person. The Doomed One, the Dark Spiral character, this person is virtually (him) without any alteration. The Infiltrator is one that just becomes way more surreal and metaphorical, because this person didn't really die. But yeah they are all fleshed out versions of real people.
Could you talk a little bit more about the metaphors or gerbils, and putting people in cages and stuff like that?
Yeah, that was the initial idea of the whole Habitrails series, which I think I came up with while I was at work. They're by products of the worker's emotions. They're sort of there to remind you of what you are, as you sit and work for this company, and then they're also there to relieve you of your own stress and strain to help keep you there.
There's that great image of when you're trying to get the gerbil to pour you a glass of beer.
Yeah alcohol played a big part in the creation of this series.
(Sarcastically) Oh your kidding. There's no alcohol anywhere in this story.
(Laughs). Yeah. Not just the drunkenness, but the... I think this is more relevant to people who know about drinking, there's more to it…The drying out aspect of alcohol is seen in this series. When your drying out is really when you're kind of buggy and…it's hard to put my finger on.
Stephen Bissette describes Habitrails as Kafkaesque. What's your opinion? Do you think that's an accurate description of it?
(Reluctantly) I guess so. I actually hadn't read any Kafka until recently. Stephen says in the introduction that he wasn't sure if I had read Kafka, and I actually hadn't. And so I read The Trial…I guess it's kind of Kafkaesque, but mine has an undercurrent of optimism, um, not just at the ending, but here and there, if you know where to find it…and I couldn't find any in Kafka. It was just so incredibly bleak. It was disturbing.
What was it like working for Taboo, with Stephen Bissette?
That was really rewarding but also a little bit frustrating as far as the timeline.
Because Taboo just collapsed.
Yeah, and it just took longer and longer for each issue to come out and so, it was just a situation were I was so grateful to be in the book, and to be paid as well as I was, but there was always the frustration of, will this ever come out? And some of it didn't, and so you're in a position where you're grateful but you want to complain about it at the same time. Unfortunately, there's not much you can do about it.
You talked about there being a little optimism in TTH ("The Escape" stories convey a lot), but to be frank, a lot of TTH, contains a lot of depressing stories. But then at the end there's this, y'know, it becomes a happy story as you meet the other woman. But then in the second edition of the collection, you publish a 3-page epilogue, which tears apart the happy ending. Was it that you kind of felt dissatisfied with the happy ending, or did events really dictate that things needed to end this way?
Yeah, that's a good question. I don't like the epilogue personally. I don't like it because, um, the whole story, the whole book, other then the epilogue, really had a lot of thought in it, whereas the epilogue…
Could have been a whole book in itself, but you describe it in a couple of paragraphs.
Right. Exactly. I almost thought it could be a sequel, but I just didn't want to do it (laughs). But, I did it too hastily and so, while the whole series is thought out and reviewed, and kind of self-edited, the epilogue I did really quickly. I think with too much…too much emotion. Too much autobiographical, emotional jabbing out, instead of stepping back and thinking (it through). I think it was all a little too hasty.
Because I think in "The Cat Lover," you presented exactly what happened, and in this one, it just your view.
Right. I think that's the problem with it. And I probably just did it up in a week or two…and off it went to press.
Was it kind of added for people, so they could buy the second printing?
No it really wasn't that, it was something more. I think we all go through different levels of bitterness about past relationships. And I think at the time I did the second edition of TTH, I was probably at a peak of bitterness, about the relationship that starts at the end of Habitrails. It was just my own inner demons that got in the way of telling a good story.
Well, it does kind of work as like a warning that, things don't always work out like they seem they will or should.
And I did get a lot of criticism for the original! So, I was thinking this would satisfy those people, so I did have the audience in mind a little bit. I think a majority of people said about the first book, "I really like the book, but the ending is a cop out." So the new ending is kind of saying to those people, "Well, take that!" (Laughs). But then there were people who just said, "I can't handle this new ending, it's just way to depressing." But it's reality, isn't it?
The Austin English Interview (page three of three)
Colonia
Now I want to talk a little bit about Colonia, which is basically what the interview is about. You don't really see any pirate comics anymore. Why do you think that is? The only pirate comic I've seen other then this, is the story in Watchmen, which I think a letter writer commented on.
Yeah. I don't know why that is. Someone…I think there is one book, I have to check it out, called Blood Thirsty Pirate Tales, which is going around, but I don't know if it's a series, or really gory or anything. But I was just thinking about that today. Actually I'm working on the third issue, and I'm working on a sequence that I thought of when I first thought of Colonia. Sometimes there are scenes that I thought of when I thought of the premise, that I won't even get to for a while. So here's one that's of a boarding party, and the two ships are going at one another, and the gist of it is, that Jack sleeps through it, or he sleeps in when this is going on, and what's unique about it is, it's all told in pantomime, there's no dialogue, no sound effects. So it was really a challenge, because every panel had to tell a story and there's also no lettering to obliterate part of the panels, so there's a lot more illustration going on, too. It's taking a lot of time.
Yeah. I'm a big fan of silent comics, because I never like the look of balloons interfering with the illustration work.
So, I think I'm on page four, slow going, but basically, the sun rises, and, they're coming up on the ship, and then it all goes into smaller panels, and it's just in pantomime. And even here, y'know, he's ringing the bell, but there's no "clang, clang, clang" because the more I thought about it…if I started putting in "clang, clang, clang," then I have to put in every sound effect. And I don't want all this "pow pow" "zing, boom."
Yeah, well there are all these weird nuances of comics. So, when you do something like this, the reader has to pay attention. They can't skim it, they have to really read the panels.
Yeah. So, it's a lot more engaging for the reader. And so here's Jack, still asleep, and that's about as far as I've gotten. So, to get back to your question, when I was looking at this yesterday, this sequence goes on for eight pages. And I was thinking, y'know it's probably been thirty years since somebody has done an eight page pirate battle sequence in a comic book in America. Or more! I mean I don't know. (Laughs).
Well, definitely more then thirty years since one that's actually been published and seen daylight.
Well, that was definitely a kick, and it made me think, "Wow, I'm really doing something different here." (Laughs).
Well, there's so many comic types within the mainstream, besides superheroes, like crime and sci-fi, but it seems to ignore pirate comics, and I don't understand that, because in other media, they're relatively successful.
Right. And they're like a whole mythology in our culture that people still really identify with I think.
Sea life is such an interesting thing to do a story on…
And sea mythology. There's gonna be a lot of that. There's so much, in the series, and it's not even into that yet. It's gonna be a blast.
Already, there's lots of characters in Colonia, that are kind of like new world folklore. When did you decide to incorporate that element into Colonia? Or did it just seem like a natural thing to do?
I think it all started at the same time. Actually, it started as a desire to do fantasy. I'm not really attracted to the medieval fantasy, and I wouldn't want to draw kings, queens and castles, and trolls and all that, and as soon as I thought of placing it in the new world, that's when I knew "Yeah! That's what I want to do." So I started thinking about, oh I don't know, Ponce De Leon, Paul Bunyon, and who knows…Rip Van Winkle I think is one of them I thought about, Headless Horseman, all that stuff.
Well, what struck me about the folklore within Colonia, is that it's less well known than Paul Bunyon, so when you read it, there really is more of a sense of discovery and surprise. Whereas, if you put Paul Bunyon in there…it's less new.
Yeah. I definitely use the more obscure of the legends.
Again, in the Father and Son Special, you talk about losing interest in comics, and then having that interest rejuvenated. Is that rejuvenation still carrying off into Colonia?
Oh, Colonia really was the reason for the rejuvenation, because I had actually, I had thought of Colonia before I did the Father and Son Special, and so, that's why to me when I look at the Father and Son Special, I can see all the oomph in there, where I got the excitement back. And some people have commented on it, but if you notice, the figure drawing is far beyond the old Kitchen Sink issues of Father and Son. I really started caring about the drawing…
Well, Father and Son, is not my favorite thing but…(Colonia) is a lot more detailed with the background, and all the research that goes into it. I mean comparing it to TTH, there's so much more inking and detail. In the first issue of Colonia, you introduced so many whimsical characters and there's so much going on, but at the same time, it doesn't take itself too seriously. Do you think comics have kind of gotten away from the whole whimsical light hearted thing, because I know those are the kinda comics you like, because you like Castle Waiting, and all that good stuff.
Yeah. I think comics do take themselves too seriously, and I really wanted to step far away from that. At least in the early issues of Colonia. Later on, there will be some subjects that are a little weightier, like Bone for example: I really love Bone, and it's a lot of fun, but early on, after the first couple of issues, the big hooded character shows up and says, "We must find the one with the star on his chest!" And it's the old cliché.
There's just a scene in here where Jack is talking to a talking bird, and there's no real explanation, and he just says "Hey! You're a talking bird!" and then they just carry on the conversation. And there doesn't need to be an explanation. Letting it unravel in your mind is so much more appropriate.
And maybe they would do that in real life. I mean, if you were alone and a duck talked to you… I wouldn't run away. I would probably talk to it. If it had a personality, you wouldn't just dismiss it, you would converse with it.
And with scenes like that, Colonia can really be presented to younger kids, but it's not…it's not dumbed down. I mean, that's something really hard to do…to be able to do a story that appeals to everybody, and not dumb it down. How do you do that? Is it even conscious?
It's not a conscious effort at all. Most of Colonia is written almost kind of subconsciously, which I'm really enjoying. When you asked about Habitrails, and if there was the same kind of joy -- there wasn't. Habitrails was sitting at the typewriter going, "How am I going to tell a story about all this bad stuff."
Sometimes it's a lot harder to tell a story, where, you know what happens.
And Colonia is not sitting at a typewriter, it's just waiting for the stories to come and get me. It sounds funny but it's really true. Most of them I've come up with while I've been out hiking, and I just let it all go in the back of my mind, and every once in a while, a story will just come along and show up. And that's the way I've been doing it. I've got the fifth issue completely written in my head and partly on paper. Five issues worth have all just come forth, rather then me having to go get them.
How hard is it managing a book with as many characters as Colonia has? Because as you're doing the story, you have to know where everyone is and not forget about them.
That's been real easy and natural with this series. That's working out the same way as the plotting goes. They're (the characters) pretty much writing themselves. To me it's sort of a person in my head, and as soon as you decide to put two of them together, they just start creating their own dialogue, without me having to come up with it.
Well that's a sign of really well developed characters if you know them so well.
Yeah. I enjoy that so much. Another scene that I thought of when I first thought of the series is in the fourth issue, which I've already written out, is when the pirates are having interaction between he two uncles and Cinnabar…but when they're just relaxed…and, what would they talk about? It's pretty interesting.
I liked the interaction between them in the second issue though.
Oh, the adversarial contact. So yeah, your comment about all the different characters will become even more interesting when they all come together. Because now, they're all scattered around, but ultimately were gonna have Jack and his uncles, Cinnabar, and Captain Reed, Lucy, y'know everybody is all gonna be interacting together.
A lot of the times, having a huge cast can be helpful, because if you focus on just one character, his beliefs and character traits may limit you from telling different kinds of stories, but if you have a huge cast, you can tell those kind of stories. Obviously, lot's of research goes into Colonia. Could you talk a little about this process? Does a lot of it come by chance?
I have been seeking it out, going to bookstores, hunting for it, and then there's some luck when something will come up on TV, and I'll tape it…in fact I have two or three tapes, where, I don't know how I would have done this without those tapes. They're pirate documentaries, they're just invaluable. Well, here I am on the third issue, and you think I could draw a pirate ship by now, out of my head, but for some reason looking at a ship while your drawing it and drawing it out of your head, it's so different. So, even if you know the whole structure in your head and you can draw a blueprint of the ship, you can't quite get the feeling of the ship, without seeing one. So I'm still looking at reference all the time, which makes things more interesting, because I drew everything out of my head for years, and that gets kind of boring.
So yeah, I go to bookstores, and hunt for good stuff. And you can find reference really cheaply. You can just find some stupid old book about ships from the seventies, and it's two dollars, and it's got killer pictures and, y'know, (laughs), and it's got wharves or whatever you need in it.
Colonia is a really funny book, but I don't think humor is it's driving force. When your writing a story, or when your drawing a story, how do you keep it so that the humorous parts won't really overpower the book? Or it doesn't take over?
That's a good question. I don't know if I've ever thought about that.
I mean, going back to a book like Bone, some of the issues will be too dark, and then some of them will be…where he's trying to put a joke into every panel. Sometimes, that just doesn't work.
I think the answer there, is that I let the humor just come out when it's natural and I never say, "I need a joke here." It's like real life. It's like when you joke around with people that you work with, the jokes just come, they just arrive, you don't say, "I'm gonna have a funny day now!"
And the least funny person in the group is always the person who's trying really hard to make a joke.
The joker! "I'm the funny guy!" Right. So, yeah, I'm glad you brought that up, I hadn't thought about that. The humor is just there when it…when it's natural. And…I really, really avoid anything being corny.
Well, the humor in here isn't sit-com kind of humor, or corny kind of humor.
It's situational humor. Or it's just a drawing like…like to me, one of the funniest kind of things is (flips to scene in Colonia #1) when Jack says "What is this? This looks like a weed." When he's looking at a peanut plant. And Lucy's looking at it too, and she has this kind of look that says "Ohh, I'm so proud!" (Laughs). This little face that…and then (points to panel where Jack uproots the peanut plant, showing that it's not a weed), she's all, "See, see, I told ya!" (Laughs).
This is something I mentioned earlier, but the color covers on Colonia are really beautiful. And I think that the cover adds a lot to that. So, my question is, do you think that black and white limits you at all.
No, because that's what I'm so used to. It would be hard to imagine working on the interiors, thinking of them as being in color, just because that's so much work. I used to do color for DC (by way of Medley Studios). I colored comics for a living for a while. Green Lantern, Batman Adventures . . . Batman Adventures was the one that was made to look like the cartoon, so the color struck you more on that one, because we had to use real flat colors. But it's a lot of work, it's the difference between a cover, which is one design, one palette, whereas in the book, you've gotta juggle all the panels that need to be colored in a certain way, and then all in harmony, and phew, it's just a lot of work. Linda Medley taught me the ropes.
I'm really happy with black and white interiors and color covers. I just think it works. I mean like Cerebus, I couldn't imagine that in color. But then the covers, I couldn't imagine them in black and white. I think it really works.
That explains a lot, that you did coloring before, because when I looked at the cover of Colonia #1, I had never seen you work in color before, and just all the work that went into it was great. The concept of Colonia, a present day young boy, is thrust into a reality where it's still 1999, but pirates still exist, the new World is called Colonia, and much of the new World is uncharted, seems like a pretty commercially successful idea. But the way you execute it, it becomes something beyond the idea, and a whole wonderful universe is created. Could you talk a little bit about fleshing the basic idea of Colonia out? Or was the initial concept what you used to anchor all of these ideas you had been having?
I think I first thought of the concept of fantasy in the New World, and that's when I knew, this is something I want to think about, and daydream about. And then, when I created Adarro the fish man (a character with fish that pose as a human being, sort of), I knew, "Now I'm starting…now I'm starting this book because of this guy." (Laughs). His first appearance is a very important moment in the first issue. So that's when it went from concept to living, breathing characters, that just have to…have to be drawn now. Have to start talking.
In that sense, the possibilities of Colonia seem really limitless. Do you think coming up with all these ideas is kind of a reaction to the other work you've done like TTH and Father and Son? They were really limited in their concepts…and Colonia is…you can do anything with it.
Someone compared Colonia being more like Ultra Klutz, then anything I've done…and I think he was right. Ultra Klutz was really open ended too, and anything could happen, which is probably why it went on for 31 issues. I really enjoyed that. Colonia is gonna go on as long as it entertains me and, hopefully, other people.
Colonia feels a bit like Castle Waiting, and you've worked for Linda Medley. Do you want to comment a little on her work and her hiatus?
I don't know much about her hiatus. She's working for Vertigo…on Books of Faire I think. I haven't talked to her personally about it. Her work was one of the biggest influences on Colonia. Her work, and Jeff Smith's work on Bone. I would have to say, that if I had never met Linda Medley, Colonia would not exist.
So she's really a direct influence.
Both as an artist, and as a self-publisher.
Well, Colonia feels like a lot of stuff that's on the Trilogy Tour . . . and it's not in the Fantagraphics area . . . but it does really feel like a movement in comics. Can you talk a little bit about that? Why is this happening now?
It definitely is, at least as a spontaneous…how do I say it. It has a lot to do with Bone. Bone showed people that you can do something really fun, and it can be successful. So, I think that's led to a lot of the books that seem to be part of a movement.
But Bone is so different because it's got these characters that can be really commercially successful, that can be marketable, whereas Castle Waiting and Colonia, they're really different in that sense.
They are. Castle Waiting and Colonia I think are more the kind of books that you want to get inside. You want to go curl up and live in there. You don't want to play with action figures of some of these characters, you want to pretend you are there. That's how I see it.
Will you stop working on Colonia, when it stops being as fun as it is now?
My wish is to only draw this book from now until it's finished, and as for as how far it will go I don't know. I've written the first five. I then I kinda stopped myself because, I want them to be fresh, so, I don't want to just keep plotting stories up to 11, 12, when I can't work on them till the year 2010. That's frustrating. So I kind of stopped day dreaming about it. And at some point I'll start again, and it'll all just come jumping out.
It must have been hard to actually stop day dreaming about.
Oh yeah. And I stopped reading books about folklore, and so forth, and I just don't look at them because I can't handle having too much of this in my head. It takes, just so long to draw. But to give you an idea of where it's going, I'm kind of following the history of Western culture, through the New World, and that's why I start with a lot of Columbus reference, and it goes into the Spanish, and I'm gonna wind up in Florida. And were gonna walk through the whole East Coast, and we're eventually gonna go to the West.
So, soon it's gonna stop being a sea story?
Yeah.
In a way, it's a confusing story, because it's the same year (as now), but yet we're back to where The Americas haven't really been charted and they're still being discovered. Where did this idea come to you?
This was part of my answer to agonizing over "how do I do fantasies and the New World?" I didn't want it to be a specific real period in history. And people can get away with that when they're doing Medieval fantasies. They cannot reference the year, you can just imagine, its probably the year 900 or something, who cares? But in the New World, there's such specific progression of events, and western powers coming over and dominating certain areas, that you can't pretend that it's not a specific year. Y'know in history, if the Spanish are here, and the French are here, it's gotta be this time in history. And I didn't want that. I didn't want to be limited by history.
So, not only did I want the fantasy characters, but I wanted that open-ended sort of playground in the New World, and my answer to that was an alternative history. And not that many people have tried to figure this out yet, which is good, because I really want…down the road, people are gonna look back at Colonia 1, 2, 3, 4 as just the really simple fun issues that don't start getting into what's happened to history because it's so complex and I've spent a lot of time reading history and I have an alternative history completely worked out. As far as what has happened to Europe, what's happened with religion, there's a lot of issues that you really have to work out.
So beyond being just a lighthearted story, it is gonna delve into other issues.
Yeah. It's gonna be…I don't wanna say it's gonna be more adult, but it's just gonna be weightier, I think is the best way to describe it.
Well there's one scene where Jack says, "I just like history," and I kinda gathered that was you speaking through him.
Oh yes. I love history. And my favorite part of history is political geography, the way the boundaries of nations have changed over the years, especially in the New World. I also have maps I created that show who is where in the New World…and I'm never gonna print them in the book because that gives it all away.
Once you do that, it'll take away the sense of discovery.
Yeah. That's right. You want to feel like you don't know where you are. But I've got that all plotted out. Different (European) countries have different regions (in the New World), some that follow true history, and some that follow different directions.
Well, there's the obvious device you can use where Jack is from a different time, and is sort of out of place in this world. Are you going to use that device?
I know that plays into the humor a little bit, because that's the scene I was referring to a little bit before with the uncles and Cinnabar. When I thought this up, it just cracked me up, and basically the uncles are so clueless, they start talking about "What you need on this ship is a good engine…" and they start describing, y'know, "Let's make an engine! C'mon," saying it needs steel and this and that, and Cinnabar's playing along like (English accent) "Oh, all right." "Oh, we have excellent steel!" But it's just, it's ridiculous really! (Laughs).
You should really emphasize that Cinnabar has an English accent, because it's so much more hilarious, hearing you do his voice. (Laughs). So you obviously have so much enthusiasm for this project, and when you have enthusiasm do you feel you work better?
Oh yeah. This is so important, and I had lost that for so long. I refer to after Habitrails and before Colonia as my fat Elvis period (laughs). Just wasn't doing the good work. And didn't even know it. So, that's all come back. I mean, I've just moved beyond anywhere I've been, as far as personal satisfaction.
I think everybody notices that, because when I was telling my comic store guy that I was gonna do this interview, he said, "Oh, I've liked that guys work, but Colonia is just the best thing he's ever done." And I think people really seem to latch onto Colonia. I think it's because of your enthusiasm for the work.
That's good to hear, and I think that enthusiasm was necessary for me to look inward and discover why I love to draw comics, and not think about how to sell them so much, even though that's still important, I need to promote them, but I really needed to just love to be there drawing it. This (Colonia) is still primarily for my own artistic pleasure, but there's some commercial thoughtfulness in it. I was aware of the ability of artists like Jeff Smith and Linda Medley to not only reach people who just appreciate good comics, but tap into that old fashioned kind of comic book fan. But I guess as far as the old fashioned comic book readers go, my work appeals to people who really just grew up loving comics, as a kid, who read the same stuff as I did growing up, like Kamandi, who loved TV shows like Lost in Space. That primary enjoyment is that you want to be there. And that's what I remember most about those shows and those comics, is thinking "I wish I could go there. I wish I could talk to the robot." (Laughs).
Actually I did get to talk to him! A few months ago the robot was here in downtown San Francisco. They were preparing to film a commercial right on the sidewalk. No one was even stopping to look, but I just stood there transfixed like a little kid. Then I realized Bob May (the actor who worked the suit in the original series) was standing right there. I got to shake his hand and tell him I was a big fan of his work. It was a happy day.
I hope you didn't see that Lost in Space movie.
Ohh. Horrors.
I saw it, but I was never a fan of the old Lost in Space, but I still didn't like it because it was so noisy, there were so many effects, and from the small amount of LIS I've seen, I just knew the Hollywood execs missed the whole point. It was so absurd to slap the LIS name on this bloated project.
The best part of (the old) Lost in Space is Jon and Don just sitting at their little picnic table in the dirt, with a cup of coffee, bitching at Doctor Smith. That's the best part (laughs). But they didn't even do that in the movie.
Hollywood people see something that was popular once, and automatically know they can make money on it. And they did! I mean, you went to see it!
Yeah, because I'm an old fan, and I had to go. But yeah, I think that's the audience I'm trying to reach, is that old fashioned fan, that still respects and enjoys their young persons look at comics, whereas a lot of the hipster comics crowd ignore the fact that they enjoyed simple fun comics when they were a kid. They wanna deny that.
Your comics are like "C'mon, join the fun" when Hipster one's are like "Well, maybe your good enough to read this if you really try"
Right. We'll get back to you.
Of course, it doesn't just appeal to old fans, it has really wide range appeal, because it's so much fun. Okay, last question. So far, how do you feel about your contribution to the comics' field?
Well…I guess beyond just my work, I think I'm a role model for tenacity. People will come up to me, and say, "Wow, you're still doing this?" I think younger cartoonists can look to me, and say, "Well, he had some problems, but he's still putting stuff out, and he's not broke, so maybe I can make it too." So, since I've been at this for so long, I think that's my best contribution.
Comic Book Buried Treasure
Colonia Creator Jeff Nicholson
by Barb Lien
In my search for exciting indie comics (preferably ones all ages can enjoy), I've seen a lot of interesting concepts. Colonia, a pirate book set in an alternative timeline/alternative earth, is one of the better set ups I've seen for awhile. It's an exciting, action-packed book that proves that adventure comics don't always have to involve men in tights. I'd like to see more comics like Colonia get out there, especially to long-time comic book fans who now have children of their own. But, enough of my blarney, let's hear from Jeff Nicholson, Colonia's creator...
[ Colonia ]
Sequential Tart: Tell us about your background/who you are (name, what you were like as a kid, what you watched on TV, college experiences, that sort of a thing)...
Jeff Nicholson: I had a pretty typical, comfortable suburban childhood. I didn't really like to go outside, I liked to stay inside and draw. My quantity of television viewing was appalling, with monster movies and Ultraman being my favorites.
Everything changed dramatically at around age 15: I lost weight and shed my "fat kid" persona, started making my own friends instead of taking my older brother's hand-me-downs, got involved with girls, and even graduated high school as soon as I turned 16. I stated college right afterwards, and even started my first published comic around that time (an underground inspired series that featured, what else? - monsters!).
ST: How'd you get interested in comics?
JN: Comics were a staple of road trip entertainment. Our parents always got us a hand full of Archie's for when we went camping.
ST: Early projects you've done?
JN: The above mentioned monster comic was called Ultra Klutz. It began as a crude parody of Ultraman, but ultimately ran 31 issues and had a sequel: Lost Laughter. It became the place to put all my ideas, until I realized that my more maturing self needed new places to put fresh ideas, and I put the old series out to pasture.
ST: Tell us about the comic you're doing now.
JN: Now I'm doing Colonia, which is an alternative-history fantasy/ adventure set in the Colonia New World. It's a real back-to-basics approach for me, after some years of experimentation. It can be enjoyed by kids or adults of either sex, although most of my readers seem to be aging comics fans (like myself). I would enjoy seeing it distributed in Wall-Marts with a Comics Code seal of Approval on it. Perhaps people would buy them for their kids when out on a road trip to go camping!
ST: Who are your influences (comic book creators and other art forms)?
JN: Old movies and theater animation are influencing Colonia, because they have such a straightforward storytelling method. But there have been cycles. As a kid it was Mad magazine, and cartoonists like Basil Wolverton; as a teen it was the underground comics, primarily Crumb and Shelton; in my twenties Dave Sim was king, with some Steve Bissette and Charles Burns creeping in there; more recently it's been what I would call "innovative traditionalists" like Jamie Hernandez, Jeff Smith and Linda Medley.
ST: Favorite comics/movies/books?
JN: The above references would cover the comics, with Replacement God being a recent discovery; I'm completely burned out on mainstream and/or action movies and enjoy quiet quirky movies about people, such as Walking and Talking and Suburbia (the 90's one not the 80's one); and for books it's history or fictional history or anything by Kurt Vonnegut.
ST: Best/worst part of your job?
JN: Best part? I get to make shapes! I've tried to distill the essence of what it is I love about what I do (making comics), and aside from telling a story, it's making shapes with a pencil. Sounds goofy and simplistic, but I think on some primitive level it's why we artists want to sit for hours and draw. We can make shapes! The worst part is all the isolation. I loved it in my twenties; don't like it so much in my thirties. I recently went back to my day-job two days a week just to have some interaction.
ST: What do you love/hate about the comic book industry?
JN: I love that it's familiar and cozy and easy to understand. Unfortunately, that's a by-product of how small it is. I'm not happy about the small-ness, but the world is changing and it's not entirely our fault. I used to have a huge list of gripes about the biz but now I don't trouble myself with it and just focus on telling stories and making shapes.
ST: If there's one thing about the industry you'd change, what would it be?
JN: Put more action (as opposed to talk) on comics for kids for entry level consumers. I know it's a tired old spiel we've been hearing (from ourselves) for over a decade, but it's very important. It's up to the big companies. I'm doing my part as a creator, but I can't do everything. I applaud DC for putting out the Cartoon Network line, but I'd like to see more innovation and some original material to light a fire. Ninja Turtles and Pokemon lit fires. Scooby Doo won't. Imagine new material supported by a campaign aimed at parents that promotes comics as literacy and creativity and an alternative to mindless video games. Maybe it's too late. Maybe in our fragmented and technologically intoxicating society it isn't possible to influence a parent's role in their kids entertainment. Maybe nobody goes camping anymore. But we have to at least try innovation and not just use Batman over and over again.
ST: Any advice for those wanting to get into the comics industry?
JN: Don't go nuts and shoot yourself in the foot or burn yourself out. It's easy to get worked into a tizzy that you're going to "take off" and be the "next big thing." Just relax, be slow and steady, love what you do, and next thing you know you're one of us.
ST: What job would you like, if you weren't doing what you were doing?
JN: Actually, I like my day-job just fine. I get to digitize map elements for spatial data and make really cool maps. In other words, I get to make shapes!
ST: Who was the most important teacher you've had in your career?
JN: Wow, what a great question! I'd have to say Miss Allen, my high school art teacher. Whereas all previous art teachers dismissed my self-taught drawing skills, she embraced them to the point of introducing me to commercial ventures: Entering school-related brochure contests that actually paid, creating a mural for the school bathroom entrance that had nothing to do with "school" graphically; cool and empowering stuff like that.
ST: Do you think that there are certain kinds of stories which are better told in one media than in another? What does the comics medium offer you that other media does not offer?
JN: Complete autonomy seems to be the biggest advantage. It takes team-work to make movies or television. Even prose usually involves an editor. Superheroes have proven to be the story type that don't translate well into other mediums. My own work, as surreal as it is, could still translate to film, I think. Through the Habitrails could be a very creepy black and white David Lynch film, and Colonia could be a fun and baffling Terry Gilliam film.
ST: Do you get creative blocks? What do you do to get past them?
JN: Not blocks per se but larger career lulls, that's for sure. When I'm in that place I just don't produce work. If someone offers me paying work I get going and that ignites the spark, but there were certainly times when I was uninspired. Colonia has turned all that around fortunately. The stories come to me without a struggle. The first eight or nine issues have all showed up in my head while daydreaming, and I'm only up to issue five on the drawing. I don't think I will ever sit down at a blank page and say "now what?" on this series. If I do it's probably time to end it. I think that dreamy, organic quality comes through and I don't want to lose that.
ST: If someone were to make a movie of your life, what genre would it fall under, and who would play you?
JN: That's a frightening question. It would be a pathetic romantic comedy where the guy always gets dumped and I would be played by Carl Reiner circa 1964.
ST: Words to live by?
JN: Let it go.
ST: What achievement are you proudest of?
JN: Colonia!
ST: Where can interested readers get the comic if they can't find it in stores (contact info, in other words)?
JN: Visit me at http://www.coloniapress.com and http://www.home.pacbell.net/badhab
Through the Habitrails: Life Before and After My Career in the Cubicles
Publishers Weekly. 263.14 (Apr. 4, 2016): p67.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2016 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
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Through the Habitrails: Life Before and After My Career in the Cubicles
Jeff Nicholson. Dover, $14.99 (144p) ISBN 9780-48680-286-2
An ordinary workplace is revealed as a hellish dystopia in Nicholson's excellent but long-unseen brutal pseudo-autobiography. This reprint shortens the graphic novella (originally published in the early 1990s) and adds a newly drawn coda that finds the protagonist at peace with his decision to walk away from comics, mirroring Nicholson's own history. The visual metaphors are well crafted and chilling, such as showing the main character's head in a giant pickle jar to reflect his alcoholism, and taps on his body that his bosses use to drain workers' creative vitality. Some of the material is extremely disturbing, depicting ideas that most just imagine about but this character acts upon. There's an amazing skill to the linework, including an expert use of shading, the claustrophobic office setting, and the eerie way most of the characters lack mouths. Despite its age, Nicholson's themes still hold true today, perhaps more than ever. (Apr.)
Through The Habitrails By Jeff Nicholson Back In Print From Dover Books
Posted by Rich Johnston December 30, 2014 Comment
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It is certainly one of my favourite comic books of all time. I have the original serialised chapters from the early nineties horror anthology Taboo and the first and second collections. Looks like I’m going to have to buy it over again.
Because Dover Books are putting Through The Habitrails by Jeff Nicholson back into print. A semi-autobiographical story, Jeff is a advertising illustrator working in an environment where allegories of working conditions are real, the hamsters that have the run of the agency, nipping at the souls of the unwell, the tap on the side of your head from which executives drain your juices and the alcohol filled water bottle around the head, pickling and isolating you from the day to day. He has no mouth but he must draw…
His isolation continues outside of work which he comes to see as an extension of the workplace. The original ended surprisingly with the finding of his soulmate, and his realisation that everything was going to be okay, fighting against the nihilism of the rest of the comic. It would take another printing for the ending to be changed, with Jeff leaving the woman in question, now one of the many monsters who surrounds him.
How will this version end now? That is to be seen. Dover Books describe it having new material and “the definitive Through the Habitrails collection, with the new material by Jeff mentioned above being the icing on an already delicious cake!”
I used to work in advertising folks. But this book doesn’t just speak to this specific job, or even bad jobs. It applies to jobs you think you enjoy as well. Especially for those who turn their hobbies into jobs and then end up hating their hobbies…
REVIEW: THROUGH THE HABITRAILS: LIFE BEFORE AND AFTER MY CAREER IN CUBLICLES
Posted on January 17, 2016 by Ryan C. (trashfilmguru)
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Let’s face it : work sucks. In my experience, while not quite everyone hates their job per se (and about 99% of those who claim they don’t are actually lying), everyone certainly hates getting up in the morning and going to it, and why shouldn’t they? Every single worker on the planet is being played for a sucker, and on some deep, intrinsic level we all know it — after all, we’re trading away the time of our lives (and chances are we’re only going to get one of those) in exchange for little green pieces of paper that we’ll use, by and large, to keep on surviving so that we can keep on showing up for work. A rawer deal than this is, frankly, impossible to conceive of : work doesn’t ensure that we’ll ever “get ahead,” only that we’ll have to keep on working, and the folks who benefit from all of our labors are a fattened, greedy clique of corporate parasites who, by and large, don’t do any work themselves.
When you really sit down and think about this patently absurd set of circumstances, you come to realize that not only is it deeply tragic, it’s also deeply evil, and trust me when I say that’s not a term I use lightly. About the only thing remotely comparable to it is the wretchedly inhumane concept of schooling, which dictates that, at a given age, we have to hand our kids over to either a private or state-run institution in order for them to be “educated”with the “skills” it takes to achieve a “bright” future — as part of the fucking work force. As an old poster I used to have on the wall of my apartment back when I was a 20-something states : “If you liked school — you’ll love work.”
And since we’re on the subject of my early 20s, a time which I now look back on as being quite formative in terms of developing my overall misanthropic/nihilistic (in other words, highly accurate) mindset, it was at about this time that I first discovered the writings of “anti-work” anarchist philosophers like Bob Black and, especially, John Zerzan, who were able to concisely, if depressingly, articulate the breadth and scope of the world-wide existential crisis that is labor and employment, and to point out in stark terms how, no, it absolutely doesn’t “have to be this way,” and, in fact, it’s only been “this way” for a relatively short amount of time as far as the whole span of human existence goes. And right around this same time, in one of those oddly perfect bits of serendipity that life sometimes throws our way, I first came across Jeff Nicholson‘s superbly bleak Through The Habitrails, then being serialized in the pages of Steve Bissette’s ground-breaking horror anthology series Taboo, and immediately fell in love.
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Nicholson “gets it” because he’s lived it, apparently “doing time” in the advertising/graphic arts business, and while I’d been marginally aware of his earlier work on his self-published B&W series Ultra Klutz, the simple fact is that book, while equal parts amusing and tragic in its own way, was too steeped in a kind of loving-yet-somehow-resentful nostalgia for the old Japanese TV show Ultraman (a theme the cartoonist would return to with a more mature eye and better results in the sadly-truncated Lost Laughter, which I sincerely hope he’ll either return to, collect, or both, at some point) for it to really “hit home” for me the way Habitrails did immediately — and has continued to do for nearly two decades since.
Told through a series of vignettes that interlink to form a philosophically-unassailable whole, Through The Habitrails tells the story of a blank-featured, nameless protagonist, rendered in sharply-detailed-yet-appropriately-anonymous style, who toils away at a drawing board inside of a cubicle at a typically gargantuan and generic corporate office where his “creative juices” (and, by extension, his very life essences) are drained in order to feed the gerbils running around in the habitrails that criss-cross the concrete tomb he’s whiling away his life within, hence the title. Each successive chapter sees the depth of his predicament deepen, to the point where he pursues dead-end relationships, “escapes” to the countryside, and even pickles his head inside a jar of beer, all in order to try to either numb the pain of, our outright forget about, a life that he’s literally selling away. The problem is, of course, that the reach of his corporate/gerbil overlords is so vast that they’ve managed to hollow out all of existence itself, and each of these temporary “solutions” proves to be an insidious trap in its own right — kinda like how you’ll go on vacation for a week and spend the last half of it dreading going back to work the following Monday.
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Obviously, then, this is far from “feel-good” reading, but it sure as hell is essential, and while Nicholson — who would, believe it or not, go on to do an issue of the Sandman spin-off series The Dreaming for DC/Vertigo — actually ended Habitrails‘ initial run on an uncharacteristically optimistic note by having his stand-in meet the girl of his dreams and, apparently, live happily ever after, now that the entire series is coming back into print for the first time in far too long thanks to the superb Dover Books collection Through The Habitrails : Life Before And After My Career In The Cubicles, he’s availed himself of the opportunity to insert new material throughout and to modify his earlier conclusion in order to wrap things up on something of a different, and perhaps more accurate, note. Does our hero still ride off into the sunset with the love of his life? You’ll have to read it to find out.
And read it you most certainly should — okay, fair enough, Dover provided Graphic Policy with an advance digital copy for review purposes, but this is something I’ll be plunking down my hard-earned money for a physical copy of regardless, even though I’ve got Nicholson’s self-published original printing, simply because, in addition to the just-mentioned new material, there’s a new foreword by early-fan-turned-comics-superstar Matt Fraction and an absolutely exhaustive new introduction by Steve Bissette that’s worth the $14.95 price of admission alone. Those familiar with his work know that there’s no introduction like a Bissette introduction, and the agonizingly thorough blow-by-blow he provides of his struggles to bring Nicholson’s work to print in the pages of Taboo is a genuinely gripping read. Plus, his love for the material remains obviously undiminished even after all these years.
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And while I may not have the physical package in my hands — at least not yet — my best guess is that Dover’s going to do a bang-up job on the production given the high standard they’ve set with works like their collected editions of Stephen Murphy and Michael Zulli’s The Puma Blues and Sam Glanzman’s A Sailor’s Story. In short, a lot of work is going to go into presenting this story about just how demoralizing and draining work itself is. All in all this book gets a solid 9 for both story and art and a very strong BUY recommendation from your humble reviewer. Now quit reading this and GET THE FUCK BACK TO WORK.
Story: Jeff Nicholson Art: Jeff Nicholson
Story: 9 Art: 9 Overall: 9 Recommendation: Buy
Dover Publications provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review
Through the Habitrails: Life Before and After My Career in the Cubicles
Posted on December 13, 2016 by Now Read This
By Jeff Nicholson (Dover Comics & Graphic Novels)
ISBN: 978-0-486-80286-2
Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Epic Self-Exploration and Terrifyingly Revelatory Erudition… 9/10
To cheekily hijack a common aphorism, Comics Will Eat Itself whenever an opportunity occurs. The way creators, readers, devotees and collectors respond to the medium is infinitely fascinating to us and has formed the basis of many stellar strips and novels: not just in the arena of Graphic Autobiography but also in other picture/prose genres…
For a brief while and every so often, Jeff Nicholson was a comicbook creator. His most well known works are probably 1980s self-published satirical parody series Ultra Klutz and the award-winning Colonia. After this last concluded in 2006, Nicholson quit comics.
Somewhere in between those two radically different creations, he produced one of the scariest yet most compelling ruminations on the experiences and compulsions of making picture stories and working as an artist-for-hire ever put to paper.
From 1990 to 1997 Through the Habitrails appeared episodically in Steve Bissette’s groundbreaking horror anthology Taboo and there has never been a better examination of an (extra)ordinary guy being creative on command, turning visual tricks and drafting wonders whilst under corporate pressure and an obsessive personal need to make art…
Moreover, he crafted the experience as a mesmerising blend of autobiography and toxic, paranoid terror-tale; rendered even more isolating and crushing by adopting a fiercely bleak science fictional tone and deeply symbolic method of illustration…
After Matt Fraction qualifies the vicissitudes of the modern work experience in his ‘Foreword’ Bissette’s Introduction offers history, context and untrammelled appreciation in ‘Never on Monday: Through the 21st Century Habitrails’ and ends by explaining how Nicholson was persuaded to return to his sinister seminal work to update – if not placate – his growing legion of (perhaps unwanted) admirers…
Lettered throughout by Chad Woody, the cartoon catharsis begins with ‘Increasing the Gerbils’ as a literally faceless wage slave – drawing to order in a corporate studio which is only a small division of a massive mercantile monolith – describes his increasingly intolerable life. The office is crammed and ponderously industrious and incorporates tubes and tunnels in the walls where creepy rodents run maze-like from room to room: a Byzantine and barely explicable connection with the serried, unknowable Powers That Be…
None too slowly, the line between employee and subject beast of burden begins to blur…
Another unwholesome aspect of the job is how Management wanders the halls, arbitrarily tapping the workers and consuming their vital spirit, as grimly revealed in ‘It’s Not Your Juice’…
The steps taken to remain an individual are touched on in ‘No End’ and pitifully laid out in ‘Jar Head’ as the worker describes the use and variety of intoxicants used by the not-quite-captive Creatives to maintain output before his attention shifts to describing the fate of ‘The Doomed One’: the worker who did not bend to an oppressive, self-selected yoke but instead tried to rebel. Her fate was incomprehensible and appalling but not unexpected…
Such pressure to perform can not be endured forever and our pictorial peon eventually found release in walking and wandering in his downtime. The shocking repercussions of ‘Escape #1: “El Muerte”’ were expansive but still tantalised him with a promise of better… once he returned to work…
Not all needs can be met by the benefits of being a corporate drudge. Nevertheless, it’s the most likely place to meet potential mates. When ‘Futile Love’ happens and goes horribly wrong, naturally it provokes another deviation from protocol and ‘Escape #2: “The Dry Creek Bed”’ quietly carries him far away but ultimately only back to where he started from…
The unshakable drive to resist only brings uncomfortable attention from the managers who simply demand ‘Be Creative’, but after another pointless close call the worker heads home and in a barren wasteland discovers a possible answer to all his problems: a weapon he secretes as a tiny, prospective notion of rebellion he chooses to call ‘Animal Control’…
With a glint of hope and a possible ally in reserve, the thought that one of his fellows might be untrustworthy begins to dominate, but the truth about and fate of ‘The Infiltrator’ leaves nobody wiser or happier…
The hunger for space and wish for clarity push the artist into ever-greater unsanctioned ventures but ‘Escape #3: “Concow”’ again proves that no matter how far you go, what awaits is never going to be a welcome surprise…
A near-escapee who was dragged back into the fold attempts to rationalise his twice-lost liberty with the suffocating security of wage slavery and constant draining by creating an exposé. Sadly his assumptions about the value and efficacy of his ‘Dark Spiral’ can only end one way and the artist must resort to collusion with his dark side as delineated by ever-encroaching sometime ally ‘The Gerbil King’…
With work and notional reality fully at war, a catastrophic climax approaches as ‘Jimmy’ enters his life and changes everything forever…
Was that all a little vague? I certainly hope so because this is something you really need to work your way through on your own. The tone fits though: don’t read this unless and until you’re psyched up and suitably apprehensive…
The material has been collected a number of times since it first appeared but this superb Dover Edition offers what we smart-arse cognoscenti never expected: a continuation of the tale and dialogue with the creator from a place and position far less dark than that animal-infested region of the 1990s.
Preceding an ‘Afterword by Jeff Nicholson’ and the now-mandatory ‘About the Author’ feature, the comics self-diagnosis concludes with ‘Epilogue 1: Beyond the Habitrails’ and ‘Epilogue 2: Ghost Town Studio’: bringing us up to date in an equally abstracted but far more upbeat manner and supposing that at the end of some tunnels – or tubes – there can be light, not darkness…
Barbed with allegory, using metaphor like a scalpel and employing all the darkly surreal glamour and oppressive verve of Terry Gilliam’s Brazil or Spike Jonze’s Being John Malkovich, this potent dose of exploratory surgery for the soul simultaneously dissects why comics are made and why some of us must make them whilst telling one of the scariest tales of modern times.
Although certainly an acquired taste, Through the Habitrails is a must-see, never-forget graphic novel for anybody with a vested of intellectual interest in the Ninth Art.
© 1994, 1996, 2016 by Jeff Nicholson. Foreword © 2016 Matt Fraction. Introduction © 1996 Stephen Russell Bissette. All rights reserved.
Fandom Confessions: Ultra Klutz
by Bill Randall
June 9, 2009 5:00 pmFandom Confessionsno comments
So far in this roundtable, Noah’s fessed up to Freudian SF and Tom to… Nabokov? If that’s the bar, let’s limbo.
My Younger Self (not drawn by Kate Beaton, sadly) had the first sin of reading lots of comics without reading the words. When you’re indiscriminate in the 80s with a forest out back, you cut to the chase. So I never suffered through John Byrne’s captions. My dutiful brother actually read all the words and some Hardy Boys to boot, so he could fill me in if the plot got confusing. I don’t remember if I made up the plots or inferred them, though I spent hours copying the drawings. I still have vivid memories of certain pages and panels, like silent cinema dreams.
I did, however, read both the words and pictures for a few choice comics. Most were newspaper strips, like Bloom County and those B.C. paperbacks. Others I got at the store, in particular a Canadian parody of network TV called To Be Announced. And the one I remember best: Ultra Klutz by Jeff Nicholson.
This comic, a black-and-white slapstick parody of Ultraman that quickly became a sprawling epic, is my second confession. I don’t know that I can recommend it. I do know that it is one of my favorite works from childhood. While other kids read Tintin and Raymond Briggs, I read Ultra Klutz over and over. I’m sure UK is no Tintin in Tibet, but for me it was a perfect substitute for the Godzilla movies our UHF antenna could only pick up on a clear day.
Even though I read all the words, I didn’t get the drunk jokes. It didn’t matter. The buoyant art transfixed me with clear, easy to copy forms. The story I liked as well: a fast food worker from planet Klutzoid ends up on earth, basically becomes Ultraman, and starts fighting the monsters popping up in Japan. He’s not very good at it. The monsters get odder, going from a Godzilla clone to a giant tin can and the Devious Yuffle Worm, looking smart with a handlebar moustache and Mickey Mouse gloves. The plot gets odder too, with parodies of whatever was current in the Comics Buyers’ Guide. There’s a continuity agent, some off-DC heroes, and plenty of metafiction. I think the plot’s tangle didn’t offend my younger self because the main characters were still pretty dumb. Nicholson has a gift for drawing boneheads, which I mean as a compliment and hope he would take as one.
I’m sure there are a dozen ways to criticize Ultra Klutz. Its art shows Nicholson learning when he switched from pen to brush. It might have had a Cerebus infection. And its ideas are so messy, so bursting and scattered, that it needs a lot of generosity from its readers. I can’t even call it representative of its time. I don’t care. If I pull it off the shelf I end up reading the whole thing. I don’t do that with any other comic from that time, and only a few from my first few years of getting back into the form.
I stopped reading comics for almost ten years when adolescence hit, trading CBG for CBGB’s. Coming back, I found Jeff Nicholson starting to come into his own. I enjoyed his psychological horror series Through the Habitrails, originally in the anthology Taboo. I also enjoyed his solo issue of The Dreaming, with the pumpkin-head guy. But tastes change. By the time he started Colonia, a pirate fantasy, he seemed to have found a stride that would finally bring him a wider audience. I had to labor to read fantasy at all, so I wished him well in my head and dug into something more convoluted which I’ve since forgotten.
Nicholson wasn’t working that whole time, though. He’d actually quit comics more than once because of how its market punishes artists who fall between its mainstream and counterculture. He’s been nominated for Eisner Awards and Colonia had positive reviews. Now a trip to his Colonia Press website finds nothing but that girl with a backpack and a clutch of ads. It’s done.
He’s moved on to a new site for a cartoon based on his Father & Son comic. However, on his “Chronology” page, you’ll find a page and some covers from Ultra Klutz, as well a very personal overview of his career. At the least, read the last section, “Leaving Comics,” which starts with:
Facing the fact that I had invested my entire life in a dying medium was a very painful thing to do…
He breaks down the numbers that show why he never finished Colonia. It seems like a good decision. He also explains how he realized he was done with the form, which feels like a confession itself. It’s strange to read with a child’s affection lingering in me. I’m not particularly nostalgic, so I think I’ll just stop.