Interview: Lisa Fary (Intergalactic Law: Grey Squad, Pink Raygun)

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. Last week, we discussed the new series with them.

We already showed you what John had to say. Now we bring you the comic’s writer, lovely Lisa Fary herself.

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

Lisa: The original Intergalactic Law is a gag strip – we make it up as we go along, lampoon everything from George Lucas to Alien vs. Predator, and get as outrageous as possible. Grey Squad has a plan – should we win, we already have all of season one plotted, and know where it would go for a possible season two and three.

There is comedy in Grey Squad, but there are issues we’re addressing as well, such as generational conflict, diversity, loyalty. There’s humor, but as RKB pointed out in his excellent review, there’s pathos, too.

A good way to sum up the difference would be like this: you won’t see a guy giving birth to butt babies in Grey Squad, like you would in Intergalactic Law. Although there will be the odd poop joke. Poop is funny.

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?

Lisa: These eight pages are more of a prelude to set up the season long story arc. Sixty pages of nothing but fish-out-of-water jokes wouldn’t just be boring to read, they’d be boring to write no matter how much I’m drinking.

We’ve hinted at it in these pages. Janet is about to uncover something big at Grey Squad and will be faced with a tough decision about how to handle it. She’s going to get to partake in action, which feels like a normal, good day at work for her, but there will come a point where it won’t be rewarding.

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

Lisa: I’ve thought of it as a sci-fi police comedy. But looking at some of my responses here, I’d say it’s more of a sci-fi drama tempered with comedic situations.

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?

Lisa Fary (foreground). John Dallaire (background).

Lisa: I think we came at the front of a tide. We conceived of PRG around December 2006. Heroes was a hit (not to mention good back then) and I had a lot of anticipation for the return of Battlestar Galactica and Lost, which had been on hiatus (and, also, good). It was a really good time to be a fan.

We’d already been doing Intergalactic Law for a few months and were searching for an audience. I was trying to find places online where women were talking about science fiction and having fun with it and I just got so aggravated that all I could find were typical “hot babes of sci-fi” lists when I searched for “women in science fiction”. John and I happened to have the skills necessary to put something like Pink Raygun out there.

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?

Lisa: I definitely want to see my work in print as often as possible. That seems to be the Holy Grail, not just for creators, but for our families, too. When what you’re doing has a physical manifestation, can be held in hands, it becomes real for people who have been looking at you like you’re nuts for working so hard on something that’s only been online.

I think webcomics can open doors to print, which in turn will open a lot of other doors. However, there are a lot of possibilities with comics for cell phones, and once webcomics figures out what it wants to be, digital content is going to be where it’s at.

I’m also not limiting myself to comics. I recently finished the first draft of my first novel, Bruja-Ha, and have several other book ideas I’d like to pursue. Ideally, I want my career to go in both directions: comics and traditional books.

Read Intergalactic Law: Grey Squad at Zuda and vote. Follow Lisa on Twitter at http://twitter.com/pinkraygun and read her regularly at Pink Raygun.

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