ICv2 caught up with Dave Sim to ask him a few questions about his new project, Glamourpuss, lauching in April (see 'Aardvark Vanaheim to Publish Glamourpuss').
Who is the target audience for Glamourpuss?
Me. Writing and drawing comic books is so time-consuming (it takes an average of a full day to produce roughly five seconds worth of entertainment) the only sensible thing is to do a comic book that you are 100% interested in, personally. From there, it probably breaks down to 'people like me' who always go back to the classic realists in comics: Alex Raymond, Hal Foster, Al Williamson, and Neal Adams.
Why will they buy it?
At first out of curiosity, I would imagine--fans of my work who are always going to want to see what I'm doing next across the spectrum to those people who are hoping I'm going to fall on my face and want a front row seat in case I do. After that? 'Where is he going with this?' After that? Hopefully 'Please put Glamourpuss on my 'pull file' list.'
Is there a planned length for the series?
Not at this point, no. In the first issue I hint that I'll start talking about Stan Drake and Neal Adams in issue two. I'm a little over halfway through issue two and I'd be surprised if I get to Stan Drake and Neal Adams much before 2009. I have a clear mental idea of where I'm going, but I'm also improvising each page to try to keep everything fresh. It'll be some number of hundred pages long is my best guess.
When will the first book collection appear?
When the work is completely done. On a bi-monthly schedule I'll be doing 150 pages a year. If it turns out to be 500 pages long, the earliest the book collection would come out would be the beginning of 2012. I'll be keeping the individual issues in print all the time.
Will it be sold to the book trade?
No, I'm a big believer in the 'dance with the one what brung ya' theory. Without the brick-and-mortar comic book stores and the direct market I wouldn't have the opportunity to do Glamourpuss and have complete creative control. It seems a very straightforward quid pro quo that brick-and-mortar comic book stores be the only environments to profit from my work.
