On The Nightstand

KNOTS & CROSSES
by Ian Rankin

I've been buried under work for the last few weeks, but I've still found some time to do a fair amount of reading. Having been on a bit of a mystery kick lately, I decided to read the first few John Rebus mysteries by Scottish author Ian Rankin.

My parents are both voracious mystery readers and love the Rankin books. Come to think of it, I suspect I've bought them a few as presents over the years.

The best part of having readers for parents is that they'll often loan you the books you gave them after they've finished with them, which is how I came to read some of the later books in the Rebus series. But I've never read the first one, KNOTS & CROSSES.

Rankin's mysteries are always interesting and complex, driven more by the characters than the twists and turns of the plot. And I've always enjoyed the descriptions of Rebus' crumbling home turf, Edinburgh. But while KNOTS & CROSSES has plenty of atmosphere, Rankin is obviously just starting to master his craft.

Don't get me wrong, it's a good book, with a lot of great characterization and atmosphere, but it doesn't have the same polished prose as the later books in the series. Still, John Rebus is a fascinating character, and he appears here nearly fully formed. My only complaint is that Rankin's technique gets far smoother over time, which really isn't much of a complaint at all.

I've already set the next two books in the Rebus series on my nightstand. Deadlines permitting, I'm hoping to dip into them very soon.

Last Days

When I Left Los Angeles in the fall of 2000, the first thing I did was go and find myself a day job. I'd been working in comics for 6 or 7 years by then, and while projects popped up from time to time, they never came regularly enough for comfort. So I went looking for something that I could do at the same time as my comic book work and not steal too much of my creative energy. Being a voracious reader, I of course applied to every bookstore in the area, and ended up as a bookseller at Borders.

I've worked for them off and on ever since, with some time off in the middle for my stint at Crossgen Comics in Florida. Eight years, more or less, which has always amused me since one of the other bookstores I applied to didn't hire me because they thought I wouldn't hang around for very long.

Now, with the new project DC/Wildstorm under way, and the novel still in progress, I had to finally give up my position behind the information desk. Today was my last day. It's a strange feeling, knowing I won't be coming back, at least not as an employee. And I'm not sure how I will handle not having a day job to get me out of the house and interacting with people on a regular basis.

Working out of your house seems like a great thing, but you soon learn that it's far too tempting to work all the time and forget to go outdoors and spend some time away from the art table or the computer. Working at a bookstore was the perfect excuse to get away from deadlines for a little while and meet interesting people.

I could tell horror stories about difficult customers, but I can also tell you about helping someone find a new author or a book they've been trying to find for years, but couldn't remember the title. I've often said that my head is filled with useless information. It's a useful thing, especially when you work at a bookstore. You'd be surprised how often something you remember from a documentary on Post-Modern composers helps you find a piece of music for a customer.

But today is also the last day for the Borders I started at, eight years ago -- Borders #35 on Wolf Road in Albany, NY. I didn't plan it that way, but that's how it worked out. I haven't worked in that store for years, but I have fond memories of it and the people I worked with there.

So to all my friends at Borders #35 and #389, thank you for your kindness over the years, and the hours of interesting conversations about books and movies and music, not to mention your help keeping a roof over my head in between projects. But I think what I'll miss most of all is coming into work and seeing all the new books waiting to be shelved. There's nothing like putting away a stack of books and finding something interesting buried between all the romance titles and the Stephen Kings.

Coming Soon... Really

More than a year ago, I purchased the space for my own website, www.matthewdowsmith.com. At the time, it seemed like a good way to promote myself and give fans and editors a place to come and see my work. So I dropped a ‘coming soon’ sign on the site, sketched out some ideas, and promptly got buried under art and writing projects.

Now, with the help of the talented and patient Claire Stancampiano, the site is almost ready for visitors. We’ve created a gallery of my artwork, a short biography page, links to some of my friends, and a space for me to post short stories. The stories will be coming later, though hopefully sooner than it took me to get the rest of the site together.

We've got the new homepage up now, along with a few links. The rest will be online over the next few days, including some never-before-seen pieces from FADE, as well as samples from the upcoming MIRROR'S EDGE mini-series and several of my past projects like STORMWATCH:PHD and SUPERNATURAL: ORIGINS.

Thanks to Claire for all the help getting the site together. Without her, that 'coming soon' sign might still be there.

Now Playing

RADIOHEAD: The Best Of

A number of my writing friends like to play music when they’re working. And for some reason, most of them listen to a lot of heavy metal at high volume. They claim it helps blot out the outside world so they can focus on the interior world they’re trying to put down on the page. It sounds plausible to me, but I’ve never been able to do it. For one thing, I’ve never been a huge fan of metal, but mainly it’s because I have a hard time writing while listening to anything with words in it. I end up listening to the music instead of working.

When I’m drawing, I can listen to anything, though I tend to like podcasts and books on CD. They help pass the time while you’re sitting at the art table, and the words don’t seem to knock me out of the creative space we all create in order to work. But I can’t do it when I’m writing.

These days, I tend to put on some jazz or minimalist classic music when I’m writing, especially the ‘modern’ jazz of the 1950s. Love that stuff and the mood they create helps me sink into the emotional landscape of the book I’m writing right now.

All of which brings me to Radiohead. I never really got into their work, though many people I love and respect are huge fans. So when they put out a ‘Best Of’ collection, I thought I’d pick it up and listen to it in the car or something, get to know their work a little better. The collection had a number of songs I’ve heard and liked, if never enough to run out and buy the albums they were on.

Yeah... now I have to go out and buy the albums all those songs are on.

For years, people have been telling me how interesting and unique this band is, but I’d never listened to any of their songs enough times to pick up on all the layers they create in the music. I’ve always been a fan of English New Wave, and Radiohead builds on that tradition, adding in the distorted dissonance of American bands like Sonic Youth and some new elements I’ve never heard anywhere before.

I have to say, the music is just breathtaking. And the music geek in me just loves listening to it. I wish I could do things like that with a guitar, but I could never be that daring.

But the best part... I can actually write with Radiohead playing in the background. Something about the haunting and indecipherable vocals is just right for maintaining the delicate balance between creating a mood for me to work in and actually doing the work. We’ll see if it has any effect on the emotional landscape of the book. If anything, their music might influence it for the better.

Heroes & Influences

At some point in nearly every interview I’ve ever done, the interviewer will ask about my influences. It’s happened enough times that I have a little list in my head that I can throw out there whenever the question comes up -- Ray Bradbury, Neil Gaiman, Peter Straub, Terry Gilliam, Mike Mignola, and the Danish comic book artist Teddy Kristiansen. It’s short and to the point and usually satisfies the interviewer's expectations, though I keep waiting for someone to ask why there are so many authors on the list.

I can go through the names and explain how each one of these people influenced either the way I draw, or the kind of material I like to draw, or the things I write when I’m not drawing. But it’s not a very complete list. I’ve been influenced by just about everything I’ve ever seen or read. Or at the very least, I’ve learned something about storytelling from every book, piece of art, movie, or play that I’ve seen. It’s just the way I’m wired. I like to take things apart to see how they work, even if they aren’t working all that well.

For me, the really interesting question is “Who are your heroes?”. It’s a fun one to answer, because you get to talk about the artists or writers or directors you really admire, and it’s a little more revealing than the usual list of people who have influenced your work.

You might be asking, “What’s the difference?”. Well, let me use an example. Nothing against Neil Gaiman, but he’s an influence of mine, not a hero. His SANDMAN series got me interested in comic books after a long time away, and there’s no way I would be drawing comics if it hadn’t been for his work. And while I’ve enjoyed his projects outside of the comic book field, I don’t have a framed picture of him or a signed first edition on display in my office. I do, however, have a signed copy of Ray Bradbury’s ZEN IN THE ART OF WRITING that is among my most cherished possessions.

And while my heroes have all influenced my work to various degrees, they have taken on a special legendary status in my mind that makes me go a little weak at the knees when I see them at conventions. I do my best to hide it, of course. No one wants to see me faint from fanboy excitement. It's not a pretty sight.

So here are my heroes, in no particular order: RAY BRADBURY, F. PAUL WILSON, DENNIS POTTER, FRANK HERBERT, CHRISTOPHER FOWLER, KIM NEWMAN, RICHARD MATHESON, and MICHAEL PENN.

One of the really nice things about my life is that I’ve met most of my heroes* and all but one of my influences at some point or another. I’ve worked with a few of them, gotten to know others, and while I can’t say that we’re friends exactly, I sometimes get to trade emails with a handful of them every once and a while. And yes, I do get weak at the knees when I see their names in my email inbox. Can't help it.

Of course, now that I think about it, I DO have a signed copy of Gaiman’s MR. PUNCH, one of the truly great graphic novels of all time, sitting in my office. And I think I’ve got a signed first edition of CORALINE somewhere, too. So maybe it's time I finally added Mr. Gaiman to the list...

*At least the ones who are still with us, though I did meet Frank Herbert at a signing a year or two before he passed away. There's a photo of me at age 12 or 13 looking like I might pass out as Mr. Herbert signs a copy of HERETICS OF DUNE for me.

On The Nightstand

FLOATING DRAGON by Peter Straub

Peter Straub has written two of my favorite books of all time. The first is probably his best know novel -- GHOST STORY. It was such a huge bestseller that I think Peter Straub is probably tired of signing it by now*. The second is SHADOWLAND, a book that had a profound effect on me when I was a teenager. It’s one of a handful of books that inspired me to write and draw, and whenever I look at one of my very first attempts at writing -- the short graphic novel WALK THROUGH OCTOBER -- I can’t help but notice how strongly SHADOWLAND influenced the imagery in that story.

So it came as a bit of a surprise that I’ve had such a hard time getting into some of Straub’s other novels. I’ve read a number of them and while the level of writing is always undeniably high, I haven’t always gotten sucked into the narrative. But after reading Straub’s introduction to a collection of Stephen King’s non-fiction called SECRET WINDOWS, I felt like digging back into some Straub and settled on FLOATING DRAGON, a book I’d read in college and enjoyed, though not as much as GHOST STORY and SHADOWLAND, both of which he’d written before DRAGON.

Reading it again, I have to admit that I didn’t get it the first time around. The book is far more complex than I’d ever realized. On the surface, it’s the story of a classic haunted town, with a long history of bad things and an ancient evil waking up to wreck havoc. An excellent setup for a horror novel, but Straub added in a whole other level to the story, involving a “thinking cloud” made up of a dangerous chemical that may or may not be driving the town slowly crazy. The first time I read the book, I thought the two threads didn’t come together well, but now I realize that was the whole point. There’s an ambiguity to what’s happening in the town that even the main characters can’t help but notice. Without that ambiguity, FLOATING DRAGON would be a decent enough supernatural thriller, but Straub went for something a lot more complicated and interesting. I just didn’t notice it at the time.

Now I’m tempted to go back and read some of the other Peter Straub books I hadn’t liked as much. I suspect there are a number of interesting things I missed the first time through.

*Random side story: My friend Daniel Waters (an unbelievably talented writer in his own right -- check out his excellent GENERATION DEAD) brought a copy of GHOST STORY up to Mr. Straub at a convention and the author joked that no one ever brought any of his other books to be signed. When I finally worked up the courage to ask Mr. Straub for an autograph, I made sure I brought my battered copy of SHADOWLAND for him to sign. Not sure if I won any points, but it is one of two books I still have from my youth. The other is an extremely battered paperback copy of F. Paul Wilson’s THE KEEP, probably my favorite horror novel of all time. Still haven’t worked up the courage to have FPW sign it for me.

Introductions & Welcomes

I recently did an interview for a French publisher who asked me to introduce myself to the French audience. The only thing I could think to say was “My name is Matthew Dow Smith. I draw comic books for a living. And when I’m not doing that, I’m usually writing.”

It’s the best I could come up with at the time. But in retrospect, about as accurate as I could be without being long-winded.

I could have said, “My name is Matthew Dow Smith and I’ve been drawing comics for almost 15 years. I’ve worked for almost every major American comic book publisher and more than a few of the minor ones. It’s a crazy way to make a living, but it’s the thing I dreamed of doing ever since I was a little kid.”

Also accurate, but a little more long-winded.

If I’d really wanted to bore people, I could have said, “My name is Matthew Dow Smith. I’ve drawn a bunch of comics, but most people know me from some short stories I did with Mike Mignola for HELLBOY, and a NIGHTCRAWLER mini-series I did a while back, and this comic book I drew based on the show SUPERNATURAL on the CW network. And every once in a while, someone knows me from the short stories I do with my own character, Evan Fade, for the NEGATIVE BURN anthology.”

Slightly more long-winded, but also more or less accurate.

I also could have added, “I’ve recently begun experimenting with prose. I’ve written a couple of short stories featuring my Evan Fade character and now I’m working on a full length novel.” But that’s the point where I would expect them to roll their eyes and decide to interview someone far more interesting.

The truth is, I really don’t like talking about myself. I LOVE talking about comics, or novels, or music, or the things I’m working on at the moment, but not about myself. I love the creative process and there’s nothing I like more than talking about it with someone who’s a ‘process junkie’ like myself. I’m the kind of guy who reads the little author’s notes in short story collections. Sometimes, I like the anecdotes about the stories more than the stories themselves. But that’s a whole other issue.

When I decided to start a blog, I thought about how I should introduce myself. So far all I’ve got is, “My name is Matthew Dow Smith. I draw comic books for a living. And when I’m not doing that, I’m usually writing.”

And if you happen to be reading this, it’s nice to meet you. Welcome.