Interview: John Dallaire (Intergalactic Law: Grey Squad)

Lisa Fary and John Dallaire from our Fangirltastic sister site Pink Raygun have a comic competing at DC Comics’ webcomic line Zuda this month. Every month Zuda picks 10 submissions to compete for a contract and become ongoing series getting real paychecks from them for every new page. We’ve always enjoyed Intergalactic Law, the sci-fi gag series which Lisa writes and John draws, and now they’ve created a spin-off storyline series, Intergalactic Law: Grey Squad. We discussed the new series with them this weekend. Here’s what John had to say.

(We’ll give you Lisa’s answers soon in a separate post. Save the best for last, right?)

Lisa and John ready for Zombie Prom.

Q. What do you hope to accomplish with Grey Squad as opposed to the original Intergalactic Law?

John: Intergalactic Law was created as an open-ended newspaper strip, one that was entirely character based, and that could jump from each new interest or news item without worrying too much about continuity. While Grey Squad is also very character driven, these characters also exist to serve a larger story. We might use the original Intergalactic Law to rip on a presidential race, or poke at silliness in genre entertainment. With Grey Squad, we have in mind somewhat deeper themes of generational conflict, and doing what’s right vs. what’s legal.

Q. Your comic stars a woman of action, which is something we certainly like, but the humor in this 8-page introduction to Intergalactic Law: Grey Squad grows out of how Grey Squad has her sidelined away from the “real” police action. If the Grey Squad comic gets picked up, will that be her ongoing situation or is this just the prelude? Will action be her reward?

John: I see the humor as being very “fish out of water.” It’s not so much that she’s been sidelined from the action – Janet is very much Real Police – but that she’s the fresh, young whippersnapper with fancy gadgets and add-ons, and she’s been plopped down into what is, effectively, a pre-retirement retirement home. I think if we had placed Janet in any new unit, the humor would still be about her finding her place in the pecking order.

Q. I thought Grey Squad was pretty amusing, but Zuda lists it as science fiction, drama. What is it in your eyes?

John: I wish Zuda had a Dramedy category. Lisa writes the strips so they can work as standalone, gag-a-day screens, but within that format, we’re aiming for something with a bit more meaning.

I have friends who work in life-or-death situations, and even in a highly dramatic environment like a hospital, or military unit, or police squad room, there is a fair amount of humor flying around. People in those stressful environments find comedy in the darkest of situations, primarily as a coping mechanism.

We want to capture some of that.

Q. Science fiction is important to you. Your ScifiBabe project became Pink Raygun, a site focused on women’s views on speculative fiction (science fiction, fantasy, horror). Obviously there was a niche for a site like that, but why did you happen to be the one(s) who itched to fill that niche?

John: We started Pink Raygun because, honestly, we were looking for a place to promote Intergalactic Law. Lisa kept searching for female-oriented science fiction sites, but kept finding “Hot Babes of Sci-Fi,” or very academic sites, or angry feminist sites. Now there’s nothing wrong with any of those categories, but none of them lend themselves to promoting a silly piece of fluff like Intergalactic Law.

After several days of searching, Lisa expressed her disgust at the situation to me in very colorful language and hand gestures, and I said “Well, why don’t we just start one ourselves?” That was Christmas 2006, and by February 2007 we had Pink Raygun off the ground.

Q. You’ve been working for DC Comics’ Zuda line already. I guess you must be fairly happy with Zuda because here you are, entering another comic in their monthly competition. Where does Zuda has room to improve? What would you like to see more of, less of, done differently?

John: This is actually my third property with Zuda. I’m a hired gun on Black Cherry Bombshells – I came on board around screen 30 to do the colors. I had a losing entry in January with the science fiction author John Zakour, and while that competition was running, I drew, lettered and colored Grey Squad.

I’m not sure how wise it is to criticize Zuda while I’m in the midst of a competition, but I can safely say that the general consensus (consesnsii?) is/are:

1. The interface is horrible. Most new readers never know that you can blow up the comics to full screen, so most new readers find that the comics are illegible.

2. Running the comics through Flash is a bad idea – there are lots of people who run things like FlashBlock on their browsers, so they may never see the comics at all. There’s also the issue of no SEO with each strip – if they were to remove the strips from the confines of the Flash player, each creative team could tag the jpg with appropriate key words and descriptions. The opportunities for new, random audiences just looking for something about “zombies” (for example) will find LOTS of other content long before the Zuda site pops up.

3. It’s nearly impossible for a new reader to find the ongoing strips. Sure, each day’s updates are right there on the front page, but if something like High Moon might be to your liking, if you show up in between updates, you might not ever see it. They also need to separate the ongoing, “winning” strips from the also-rans, just so people can find the content that lasts longer than 8 screens.

4. Related to #3 – Lots of creators continue the strips elsewhere if they lose the competition. I’d like to see that final screen 8 linked out to whatever site is hosting the continuing story. Sure, it may seem against DC’s best interests to be sending readers over to the competition, but that’s short-term thinking. By providing the link-out service to their readers, they’ll foster good feelings toward DC that will pay off long term.

Q. We know a previous Zuda competitor whose main interest in Zuda was as a way to break into comic books, so for him the webcomics were the means to an end. What about you? Ideally where do you want your career to go?

John: I just want to draw, and I want to have at least partial ownership in those things I create. I’ve been a freelance illustrator for the past fifteen years, working primarily for advertising and ad-specialty companies in Las Vegas. The one thing that I have learned is that at the end of the day, if you’re working for someone else, you’ll always be doing so at their pleasure. As a freelancer, you’ll always be competing with the low-ballers, both here and abroad. By investing time and effort into creating our own properties, we open ourselves up to the possibility of something becoming big (or at least self-sustainable). That simply can’t happen working for “the Man.”