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Stan Yan: Q&A

Posted: Wednesday, December 31
By: Tim O'Shea

Stan Yan is a creator who is part of the Squid Works Creative Cooperative, which wants to "become the established leader in small-press, self-published creators' comix distribution and creator incubation through regular, reliable, and continuing release of promotional information about new creator work to Colorado and Indy-Friendly retailers. Squid Works strives to be a desirable distribution channel for up-and-coming comic creators." SBC recently caught up with Yan to discuss Squid Works and his work in particular.

Tim O’Shea: You've been self-publishing since 1992, in what ways has it gotten easier (or harder) to be a self-publisher after all these years? Self-publishing has gotten easier through the years because of the amount of information that

Stan Yan: I've been able to learn from other self-publishers. It has helped to me to make better educated decisions on a cost-benefit basis. That's what the Squid Works is all about -- a pooling of knowledge that we can all hopefully share with one another. It has probably also gotten harder in a way, since the market for self-published and independent comics has been very cyclical and has been a little tighter in a poor economy. In a way, this is good, since that is primarily what I have experienced since I have really been putting more effort into my marketing and sales of my work. As evident by the demise of some high-profile publishers, I think that exploring more grassroots and guerilla marketing may help give us some staying power by not blowing our proverbial wad upfront.

TO: Can you give folks a rundown of the players involved in the Squid Works creator co-op?

SY: The Squid Works is currently comprised of about a dozen or so Colorado-based self-published comic creators, although our monthly meetings are open to whomever is interested in attending. We meet every second Sunday of the month at a local coffee-house called Pablo's on 6th in Denver from 1 - 4 pm to critique one another's projects, share work, and share information about comic-related events and other comic business. The dozen or so members I speak of are dues-paying members and their self-published works listed in our online catalog for sale at http://www.squidworks.com/offerings.html. Most of us only draw comics part-time, and not for a living, so we feel like we have power in numbers. Even if each of us can't come out with something new on a quarterly basis, at least ONE of us can... which in turn keeps our names out in front of retailers and readers on a regular basis.

TO: How long was The Wang germinating in your brain before you published the first issue?

SY: The Wang got its roots way back from the beginnings of my self-publishing, since all of the characters are based on a book I wrote in 1992 called, The On-Campus Crusader. This is the first book in a three-book mini-series that I like to call The Pre-History of the Wang: The Superhero Years. Included in this mini-series are OC2: Eugene the Queen, and Only Chaos.

While writing Only Chaos, I had determined that the things I really liked about these stories was less the superhero parody, but rather the dysfunctional relationships that protagonist, Eugene Wang had with his mom and girlfriend. So, I continued using these characters -- I simply took Eugene off steroids and had him shed his tights, and voila!

The Wang is something I describe as the spiritual, erotic, and neurotic awakening of Eugene Wang and those around him. Readers can expect cynically-veiled, but scathing commentary about relationships, organized religion, corrupt business / sales practices, and the stock market, presented chock full of puns (phallic and otherwise).

TO: Did you hesitate at attempting sexual toy mishap comedy, as you did with the first issue? How many folks (counting myself) have admitted they've been amused but disturbed by the plot development involving Eugene's girlfriend and his mother?

SY: Of course, I hesitated -- That's when I know I'm on the right track. If it makes me cringe, it must be good. I realized pretty early on that I wasn't writing stories for my grandmother as my target audience, so I shouldn't hold back too much.

TO: In issue 2, you did a story dedicated to your late mother. How instrumental were your parents and your mother in particular in the development of your creative talents?

SY: Actually, the main part of The Wang storyline in issue number 2 was fairly short, so I decided to include a benefit comic I did for the MDA webathon in that book as well, since it was so well received. This story was a humorous short starring myself and my late mom.

My mom continually encouraged me to explore my artistic and musical side (the musical thing didn't work out). She was an amateur painter, herself, but it wasn't something that was forced on me. My father used to bring home reams and reams of scratch paper that was discarded computer printouts from work on which I was able to hone my craft. I never really consciously thought about preferring to do comics until I was in junior high, but now that I think of it, I was always more interested in creating illustrated narrative than portrait images.

TO: Would you like to see The Wang become an ongoing series?

SY: I'm actually in the process of concurrently presenting the first 4 issues of The Wang to some publishers and applying for the Xeric grant. Depending on the interest, that will determine how this mini-series eventually sees the light of day. It may see broad release as a graphic novel or it may come out serialized. I'm also toying with the idea of approaching Modern Tales (www.moderntales.com) with it as well. I have begun to write issue number 5 already, so depending on how well received the first 4 issues become, Eugene and company may continue to have life beyond this. In fact, I did a 7 page story featuring Eugene in Potlatch: Comics to Benefit the CBLDF that may eventually appear in a future edition of The Wang if I ever get that far into his career.

TO: You're presently at work on issue 4, will you be producing a trade paperback after its release?

SY: I hope to. The current issues of 1-3 that are for sale on the website are actually the ashcan versions of my story. I'm selling them to help defray some of my printing costs as well as elicit reviews and feedback of which I've received quite a bit of very enthusiastic response.
What else is on the creative horizon for 2004?

Currently, I'm focusing mainly on producing work for The Wang, but I also hope to contribute a short story to the second edition of the Smut Peddler anthology and the United Front 2004 anthology. I also have continued to contribute short stories to some of the experimental pieces for the Young American Comics publications.