Temporary's Hurd, Smith: Q&A

Posted: Monday, December 6, 2004
Posted By: Tim O'Shea

Origin Comics’ Damon Hurd and Rick Smith are two storytellers, who if you’ve not heard about or read their work—given the advance word on Temporary #1: Cubes and Ladders—you’ll know the high quality of their tales fairly soon. Hurd and Smith were kind enough to discuss the project, which goes on sale this Wednesday, December 8. Here’s background on the 56 page black and white work itself:

“It’s never a typical day at the office for Envy Saint-Claire. Working for the AllTrades temp agency, every day she’s someone else - sitting at someone else’s desk, drinking someone else’s coffee, talking to someone else’s friends, doing someone else’s job, living someone else’s life. But only for a day. Everything in Envy’s life is temporary, and that’s just how she likes it.”

According to Origin Comics’ website:

“Damon Hurd is the author of four graphic novels, including his Eisner nominated debut, My Uncle Jeff, the three part A Sort of Homecoming and… The White Elephant. He lives in New Paltz, NY with his wife Kathryn, and their bird Zizek. …

Rick Smith is best known for his work with the devilish Shuck (which he produces with his wife, Tania). The Shuck Unmasked trade paperback (Top Shelf; ISBN 1-891830-47-3) collects the Ignatz-nominated Shuck Comics plus 48 pages of new material. His work has been favorably compared to that of Seth and James Kochalka. He and Tania live in Denver with their daughter Sage and cat Peco. …”

Tim O’Shea: It's never too shabby when someone like Johanna Draper Carlson says of this project: “On one level, it's disturbingly thought-provoking; on another, an amusing parody.” How hard is it as storytellers to skirt that line between amusing the reader while making them think at the same time?

Damon Hurd: It's a challenge and it's something that we are slowly learning to bring under control. The biggest difficulty for me is trying to find that balance on an issue by issue basis. Temporary is my first attempt at a series, whereas all of my previous works were graphic novels where the reader held the complete experience in their hands. With Temporary, the effect is different. Rick and I both know all about Envy, all the stories that made her who she is, but our readers don't have that complete picture yet. I am trying to look at each individual issue and story as its own mini graphic novel to better strike the balance between dark comedy and drama, as well as the balance between the issue's driving story and characters and our star Envy, making sure the readers get to know her as well.

Rick Smith: Damon crafted a story that does a good job moving back and forth between the amusing and thoughtful scenes. I enjoyed transitioning Envy between the two: especially the scene when she leaves the birthday party and takes the elevator upstairs. It's a good moment that embodies the smooth flow between the absurd and the sublime.

O’Shea: In a market where the BBC (and in the future NBC hopes itself as well) can find success in a show like The Office, do you hold out any hope of mainstream attention with a story setting like this?

Hurd: In a very pie in the sky sort of way. Do I think Temporary has mainstream potential? Definitely. Do I think it will find that success? Unlikely. We designed Temporary on the model of a television series rather than a comic book. We are intentionally aiming for a more mainstream audience and trying to craft a book that will appeal to not only all camps of comic book readers, but the entire entertainment spectrum as well. A lofty goal indeed, but I've always believed that if we all sit back and pronounce the comics medium dead, then dead it will be, because we killed it.

Smith: I think it's a premise that could move to another medium like television. It definitely works as a comic but we always thought about its potential elsewhere.

O’Shea: Pop Thought's Alex Ness recently said of this collaboration "...Hurd took a real world setting or event, and explored the hell out of it." My question for you both, do you think the most effective fiction can often find its roots in the "real world"?

Hurd: I think all fiction, even Sci-Fi and Fantasy (especially Sci-Fi actually) has it's roots in the real world. By placing b>Temporary firmly in our everyday settings, but giving a bit of a wacky spin to it, we are able to create something that people can relate to. I consider that the first job of a writer, is to write characters and to write a story that your readers can relate to and therefore invest themselves in.

Smith: The most effective fiction is that which rewards repeat readings and that deliver something new to the reader each time.

O’Shea: Call me crazy if you want, but in considering the following copy: “Working for the AllTrades temp agency, every day she’s someone else - sitting at someone else’s desk, drinking someone else’s coffee, talking to someone else’s friends, doing someone else’s job, living someone else’s life. But only for a day. Everything in Envy’s life is temporary, and that’s just how she likes it...." I actually was partially reminded of Peter Milligan's Human Target for Vertigo. Would either of you bristle at such a comparison? And if it is a bad comparison, what recent projects (in your mind) are kindred spirits?

Hurd: To be honest, I have never read that book. From the covers I always surmised the character was an assassin. I didn't even know that Peter Milligan wrote it, which is a real shame, because I love what he did with the X-Force and X-Statix books for Marvel. They gave me hope for the mainstream.

Smith: I haven't read the book either. I suppose the closest work to our right now is Pat Lewis' Thankless Job. His take on temp and office work is different than what we've done with Temporary, but it's in the same genre. Good stuff, by the way, if you haven't had a chance to read it.

O’Shea: What made you establish Origin Comics? What's on the horizon on 2005 for you two?

Hurd: I "established" Origin Comics back when I was a freshman in college and was writing some really terrible Vertigo knockoff books in my spare time. I kept the name and used it when I put out the first two self-published editions of My Uncle Jeff and I kept it for my website after being published by Alternative Comics. Now that we're self-publishing again with Temporary, Rick and I decided to keep it since there was already a relationship and account setup with both Diamond and Quebecor. As for 2005, we are continuing to work on Temporary with a goal to release a new 56-page book every three or four months. February will see the release of my latest work, A Strange Day, with artist Tatiana Gill. I am writing a new graphic novel that I hope to see released in 2006.

Smith: Damon has built a nice reputation with the books he's put out under the blanket 'Origin Comics' name - it just made sense to publish Temporary under that imprint.

O’Shea: You've done an impressive job of getting the advance word out on this work (with numerous advance reviews). When drumming up interest as you did, was there ever any concern that it might backfire on you, and in fact the book might suffer an advance bashing instead, poisoning your potential audience toward your work?

Hurd: This is always a concern, but really not a huge one. We've been very fortunate to have such amazing support from the press on all of our projects and for that I am really grateful. We've both gotten the occasional bad review, but I am of a mindset that ink is ink and I'd rather have more people talking about me than less. Honestly, I don't mind bad reviews if they are well written, in fact I find them useful. Tom Spurgeon of The Comics Journal fame recently wrote an unfavorable review of Temporary on his website, The Comics Reporter, but it was very well written and I appreciated his criticism.

Smith: There's always that risk, but we wanted people to have a chance to hear about it before it showed up on retail shelves.

O’Shea: For each of you, can you single out a particular character or scene that was a favorite when looking at the finished project?

Hurd: For me it would have to be the ice cream scene. I've always found office birthday parties to be so incredibly fake and insulting and clearly forced that I really wanted to have one in this setting that we created. In a story that is a metaphor for the insanity of corporate life, what better device than giving the inmates cake and ice cream to pacify and subdue them?

Smith: I liked the scene when Envy goes upstairs after the birthday party. I'll leave it at that, but it's a powerful scene. Of course, I'm also drawn to the last scene as well - but I always end up liking the surreal bits of whatever I'm working on more.

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