ELLIOTT KALAN is the writer/creator of MANIAC OF NEW YORK, of which Volume Three: DON’T CALL IT A COMEBACK debuts this coming Wednesday, January 18th.
COMIC UNIVERSE at 446 McDade Blvd in Folsom, PA 19033 is hosting a special new release event to celebrate MANIAC OF NEW YORK. Everyone purchasing a copy of Issue #1 will be entered into a raffle for an AfterShock hardcover collection. All AfterShock back issues, sets and trade paperbacks will be on sale.
Elliott was kind enough to take time away from his busy schedule to answer questions related to MANIAC OF NEW YORK and other topics, This is Part Two of that interview . . . . . . .
POP CULTURE PODIUM: Is MANIAC OF NEW YORK your first venture not writing for comics? Have you previously worked in comics? Details? Is there more comics work coming from you that you are able to reveal at the time?
ELLIOTT KALAN: I don’t have a huge comic book output but I’ve been writing for comics in small spurts for a little more than a decade now - - - mostly short stories and one-offs for Marvel Comics, though I’ve written for DC and Valiant and wrote a few digital-only short stories for charity that were released through my podcast, THE FLOP HOUSE. It was in one of those stories that the earliest primitive version of Maniac Harry once appeared.
I love working in comics, but it’s hard for me to throw my whole self into because - - if I’m being brutally honest - - it doesn’t pay very much. Still,I have some ideas that I’d love to write that would work best as comic books, and I’d really love to work with Andrea (Mutti) again after this volume of MANIAC is finished.
PCPODIUM: Why write comics? - - not that I’m objecting to it. It’s my favorite medium in pop culture, has been since the age of four. However, from the point-of-view of someone outside the industry it would seem that screenwriting or scriptwriting for comedians/talk show hosts is much more lucrative. Might there be a different motivation?
KALAN: You’re exactly right. Writing for TV is much more lucrative, and really the reason I can afford to write for comics is because I have a better-paying day job that I can support my family with. I think if you asked a lot of comics writers why this medium in particular, they’d tell you that there are things you can just do in comics that you can’t do with any other medium.
The combination of words and pictures opens up methods of storytelling that you can’t find in TV, film, or prose. The things you can do in time and space cane very exciting. In addition, you need a fraction of the budget to tell a story in comics. To make something like MANIAC OF NEW YORK as a movie (which I very much hope to make happen eventually) would cost a lot more, take a lot more time, and require a lot more buy-in from a lot more people than telling it as a comic book.
I know for me, also, comics are just a special medium and a special business. The only people I eve get nervous or tongue-tied around are comics people. Their work can speak so directly to the reader, and feel so real and alive, that the world of comics just always had a special glow about it that I wanted to get into. The challenge, of course, is not to confuse that glow with reality.
PCPODIUM: How did you get into this business?
KALAN: I got into comics through a really weird, roundabout way - - which is the way I’ve gotten into every aspect of my career, really. I spent a number of years working at The Daily Show With John Stewart, and during that timeI became friends with one of the writer/correspondents, Wyatt Cenac.
Wyatt was supposed to be a guest on an in-person comics talk show in one of New York’s comedy theaters, and basically said to me: “I don’t want to do this by myself. Do you want to come with me?” I crave the spotlight, so I said sure, and joined him as an uninvited guest on the show.
One of the questions we were asked was “Has there ever been a comics story you always wanted to tell?” And I answered about how I always what happened to the Inuit tribe that worshipped Captain America when he was frozen in ice. How did they start worshipping this frozen blond guy? What did they do when Namor threw him back in the water, and they didn’t have a god anymore? What was it like to learn that your god was just a superhero since Cap is a pretty famous guy.
One of the audience members that night was Tom Brennan, then an editor at Marvel who was working with Wyatt on a story for an anthology book. He told me that the Inuit story would be perfect for another anthology book they were putting together and asked if I wanted to write it. I was really excited to, and it appeared in a book called AGE OF HEROES #4, with art by Brendan McCarthy. After that, Tom would come to me now and then for anthology shorts or one-shot stories.
PCPODIUM: Are there works that you are particularly proud of, that you’d recommend to those interested in exploring more of your art?
Other than comics, I’d recommend that fans of funny nonsense listen to my long-running bad movie podcast, THE FLOPHOUSE; that anyone with kids buy them my picture books HORSE MEETS DOG and SHARKO AND HIPPO, or play them my other podcast - THE WHO WAS? PODCAST; that people who want to keep my children fed watch HOUSEBROKEN on Fox TV, which is my current day job, or MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000 on Netflix, which was a previous day job; and that people who want to write jokes stay tuned for the book I’m writing now, JOKE FARMING, which will come from University of Chicago Press sometime after 2023. And there’s a comedy special I worked on with Ed Helms called THE FAKE NEWS WITH TED NELMS that I was really happy with and didn’t get the audience I would have liked it to. I think you can rent it on iTunes!
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