You may have heard of Dirk Manning from his well-received anthology of short horror stories with a Lovecraftian through-line called Nightmare World, which he spoke to Crave Online about at length a while back, or perhaps from his Bleeding Cool column Write or Wrong, which he’s compiled into a book designed to help people figure out how to get their start in comics.This month, he’s launched another series of short but mighty tales called Love Stories (To Die For), and he’ll be making his first foray into writing characters he doesn’t own with The Legend of Oz: Wicked West for Big Dog Ink, which takes characters from The Wizard of Oz and gives them a wild west flavor.
He’s a pretty cool guy I’ve known for quite some time, and he’s a hard-workin’ man about to embark on a grueling convention schedule throughout the Midwest, and he’s a project-plugging machine. I had a good time speaking with him again about his new stuff. The guy’s the real deal, and he wants to help you be the real deal, f’realz. What’s not to like? Here’s what he had to say.
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CRAVE ONLINE: First of all, let’s establish that Dirk Manning is “A Force To Be Reckoned With.” Your Nightmare World anthology series has been much beloved – to the point there are rumblings of it jumping to other forms of media. Is there any truth to that, and if so, what can you tell us?
DIRK MANNING: Dang, you’re going right for the jugular with the first question! [laughs]
CRAVE ONLINE: Well, you are kind of a big deal, right?
DM: I don’t want to be that guy who talks about something that ultimately never comes to fruition – and then looks like a chump because of it – but I will say this. Contracts have been signed, and now it’s just a waiting game.
And I mean, really, with the success of The Walking Dead as a television series it was only a matter of time before some savvy people looked around Image Comics for another great horror series that would lend itself to that format… but, again, there’s a wide gap between signing a contract and a final product hitting the screen. So, to this end, I’d just encourage people to “stay tuned” and, if they haven’t checked out the Nightmare World trilogy of graphic novels I wrote yet to order them from their local comic shop, Amazon, or even Comixology. That way, if the series does indeed take-off in another medium (or two) they’ll have bragging rights about being “on the tip” before the masses. [laughs]
CRAVE ONLINE: Love Stories (To Die For) is off to a strong start, telling tragic tales of, well, love and death. The first issue contains two stand-alone stories – how many issues do you have planned? How did the project come together?
DM: I have several more similarly-themed yet genre-hopping one-shots like this done or currently in production… so it’s now just a matter of seeing how well this first issue is received by readers, really.
Jim Valentino at Shadowline has always been very good to me in regards to my non-traditional approaches to releasing my work, whether it be web-to-print (as was the case with Nightmare World) or my idea for doing two full-length stand-alone stories in one really cool flip-book format like this. All the advanced reviews of Love Stories (to Die For) have been positive, so that’s a plus, and I’m spending September through November doing 10 consecutive signing and convention appearances throughout the Midwest to promote the book… so we’ll see where things shake-out from there.
I have more stories in the hopper and would love to keep going with it, but where only going to do more in print if there’s a demand for these type of genre-hopping, horror-based one-shot morality plays, you know?
CRAVE ONLINE: Anyone that follows you on social media knows that you’re one of the hardest working men in the business: Between doing those ten different conventions/signing appearances in ten straight weekends to promote Love Stories (to Die For) and continuing to write the instructional/inspirational column/book Write or Wrong: A Writer’s Guide to Creating Comics, you’re also now penning an upcoming arc in The Legend of Oz: The Wicked West which starts later this month. How are you handling the schedule?
DM: I’m always writing something, be it creator-owned stuff like Love Stories (to Die For), the Write or Wrong online column from Bleeding Cool (while, yes, I slowly gear-up for a second book collection of the columns), or – most recently – some work-for-hire stuff at Big Dog Ink such as my short story for the Critter Annual #1 or now a four-issue story-arc for The Legend of Oz: The Wicked West. Some people play video games in their free-time. Some ride bikes. Some watch movies. I write.
It’s all really just a matter of scheduling. You won’t “find” the time for anything. You have to “make” time for what’s important to you, and writing great comics is important to me – much more so than movies, video games, or even a social life…[laughs]
CRAVE ONLINE: Let’s talk Flying Monkeys. Starting with The Legend of Oz: The Wicked West #12, you get the opportunity to delve into the history of the some of the most iconic characters in popular culture: The famed Flying Monkeys. How’d you get into the Legend of Oz mix at Big Dog Ink?
DM: Big Dog Ink has been putting out some really solid books for a while now, so they’d been on my radar for a bit when, about six months or so ago, co-founder Tom Hutchison put out a call to writers looking for someone to write a short story for the Critter Annual #1. While I’m not much of a superhero guy, per se, I jumped at the chance to work with Big Dog Ink, and a few e-mail exchanges later I landed the gig, writing a short story that revealed why the book’s supporting superhero character Charity never seems to do too much to help out her fellow heroes. I don’t want to give anything away… but I’ll say that the truth isn’t pleasant and leave it at that.
Well, after that, Big Dog Ink and I were set-up at the same show, and we talked for a bit and decided to get together for dinner afterwards. After dinner and a rousing game of “King of Tokyo” (I won’t say who won), Tom, Kim and I started talking business. When they suggested me perhaps doing a story-arc on The Legend of Oz: The Wicked West, I immediately said I’d want to write the origin of the Flying Monkeys… to which Tom replied “EVERYONE wants to write that story.” Knowing it was “now-or-never” time, I pitched him my idea for how to handle their origin… and a week later I had the contract in my hand.
CRAVE ONLINE: Nicely done. The Wicked West series so far has been interesting, kicking off with the gun-totin’ Dorothy Gale, the Tin-Star Sheriff, the mime-makeup Lion and the enigmatic mute Scarecrow girl. Now, we’ve got Jack Pumpkinhead running around and Gale is nowhere to be found. Do you get to mess with the current events at all, or is this pure flashback action?
DM: It’s funny how you mention that Dorothy Gale has been nowhere to be found for a while, because she returns on the very first page of my first issue – The Legend of Oz: The Wicked West #12 – as the bona fide new Witch of the West. So, yeah… I’m definitely dealing with the present as much as the past in my four-issue story-arc.
Specifically, this story-arc is about Dorothy – who, like I said, is now the new Witch of the West after killing the previous witch – trying to acclimate to her new position, and she decides to start doing that by finding out just where the Flying Gorillas (that’s what they are in this book – gorillas rather than plain ol’ monkeys) came from and why they obeyed the former witch so much when they clearly hated her. What she learns – and how she reacts – will tell readers a lot about both the Flying Gorillas as well as Dorothy herself… and her former(?) friends Tin Man, Jack Pumpkinhead and the like. I’m very excited to see how people respond to what I have in store for all the characters over the course of this four-issue run.
Also: Keep an eye on the Tin Man. Especially towards the end of issue #14.
CRAVE ONLINE: To this point, most of your work has been self-contained. How tricky is it to fit in this backstory to what the previous writers have already established? Are you excited to see what future writers do with your stuff?
DM: Not only has most of my work been self-contained, but also creator-owned… so that tells you how much I like Big Dog Ink to ask to write a four-issue story-arc on their franchise title for them! As for building on what came before me, Tom has built a very dynamic cast over the course of the series, so when I got to start writing them, it was like slipping on a comfy pair of tennis shoes. That being said, though, I think I introduce (and/or at least flesh-out) as many new characters in this story-arc as I do delve into the old ones… so there’s a nice balance, there.
As for seeing what Tom does from here – well, I’ll be just as excited as everyone else will be to find out… but I really do hope I get to revisit some of these characters sooner than later. Especially Kingu, the giant Flying Gorilla enforcer who’s really the star of this story.
CRAVE ONLINE: Your book Write or Wrong: A Writer’s Guide to Creating Comics, meant to give everybody a leg up with important advice about how to muscle their way into the comic industry, has been a success for you as well. Has anyone come up to you at the conventions and given you any success stories springing from the advice given in that compilation book?
DM: Oh yeah – and it still almost moves me to tears ever damn time. Seriously!
Here’s the real kicker, though: It was people coming-up to me at conventions (and e-mailing me) telling me how much the “Write or Wrong” column helped get them started in their own comic-making careers that finally convinced me to take a year off from the online column so I could revisit a lot of the older “nuts and bolts” columns and use it to put together one “definitive” bookshelf collection of the material. Now whenever someone asks me advice about how to start making comics, I can just hand them the book (or point them to Amazon) and say “Here. If you’re really serious about wanting to make comics – especially if you can’t draw them yourself – invest $15 in your career, because this 216-page book is everything I could ever tell you about how to most successfully get started.”
Point blank, I’ve written and posted the column online for years and continue to do so on a monthly basis (#78 should be up by the time this interview sees print), so it’s not like I’m trying to bilk people out of $15, you know? Heck, anyone with an “Amazon Prime” account can even “rent” it for free! [laughs]
I really do write the “Write or Wrong” column – and printed the book collection – and will print a second one and probably even a third one, eventually – in order to help other people realize their dreams of making comics. When I was getting started, I promised myself that if I ever got a chance to make comics, I would do everything I could to help other people break in, too, and now doing that is just as important to me as creating my own work. When creators go out of their way to help other aspiring creators, the result is good comics. My career to date alone is a testament to that fact, and I’m going to continue to “pay it forward” for as long as I possibly can.
Sorry… that probably isn’t what someone expected to hear from a “horror comic” guy, huh? Oh well. I guess I’ll just have to let my comics speak for themselves… [laughs]
