LATOUR: Yeah. In terms of writing and drawing, I struggle answering the question about their differences because I don’t see much difference. Even when I draw stories that somebody else has written, I think about the writing first.

FIFFE: Well, sure, it’s ideally the same thing. It’s cartooning. But they have been separated to a large degree.

LATOUR: We talked about David Mazzucchelli earlier, and Miller and Mignola and what those three have in common is that when they draw a scene, the way somebody stands or the way the shot is composed or the quality of the line is as much part of the writing as what’s coming out of the character’s mouth.

FIFFE: That implies that when the writer and artist are the same person, a more direct and potent kind of work emerges. Whether the results are good or bad or whatever, it sprung from almost a purer source.

LATOUR: I’d like to believe that, but I don’t know if I’d like to bet my life on it. A lot of this is guesswork for me because I’ve done small things but I’ve yet to do a full blown book all by myself. But I don’t think that makes me or anyone not a “cartoonist.” Cartooning is an approach. It’s about being more than perfunctory.

FIFFE: That’s not to discredit collaborations in the slightest. There have been indisputably great collaborations that reach something that a solo act doesn’t.

LATOUR: Right, and for every one solo cartoonist that nailed it, there are many other books that go off the rails because honestly, you’re fighting twice the battle. Maybe it’s not necessarily harder, but I think cartooning is a compulsion. There are some stories that you could hand over to somebody else and it would still be great, but if you feel compelled to draw it then you should at least try it. I also think to be a cartoonist you don’t have to write and draw. You can draw other people’s strips and be a cartoonist. Wally Wood or Frank Quitely mostly work or worked from other people’s scripts, but there’s an authorship there. I also think you can be a writer that’s a cartoonist, who thinks like a cartoonist and doesn’t actually draw. All that said, I found my biggest leaps as an artist came when I tried new things, or tried to take on new parts of the process. I’ve done all the different jobs separately and with this new book, Loose Ends, that’s the first time I’ve written for somebody else to draw. I also lettered it.

FIFFE: Okay, but your main concern is that our center, our storytelling core, is at risk. Don’t you think that’s always been at risk? Great storytelling has never been the thing that has been kept comics afloat.

LATOUR: No, probably not. Well, actually—that’s an interesting point. For the sake of argument, think about how there are maybe ten great Batman stories and what those ten great Batman stories have done for comics in general. Maybe it doesn’t sustain the industry on a day-to-day basis, but good storytelling sustains it over the span of several years. There’s the idea that something has to hold people’s attention, even if storytelling or the aspiration to do great work. The Dark Knight Returns comes out and makes such a mark that people chase the dragon looking for the next Dark Knight. They buy years of comics just looking for that feeling. Those two things kinda work hand in hand. In fact, you might not think a Batman story like Dark Knight was great unless you’d sludged through some terrible ones. [laughter]

FIFFE: I think it’s natural to want to create your own property, but now that Marvel and DC are bigger than they’ve ever been, which is scary how dominant their presence really is, the “us vs. them” approach is futile. It’s a different ballgame.

LATOUR: Right, and I think there’s a freedom in that, knowing that they’re not your enemy. You’re not going to topple them. It’s silly to use that energy. Think of all that energy you spend trying to figure out how you’re going to beat them at their own game, when you can actually focus on your own stuff. Jeff Smith didn’t become Jeff Smith by thinking he was in competition with the Big Two. He just did his thing to the best that he could do it. I’m sure he doesn’t like a lot of that corporate stuff but it has nothing to do with what he’s doing.

...

FIFFE: I have to say, the last time anyone was a real threat to Marvel and DC…

LATOUR: Was Image Comics.

FIFFE: Right, Image Comics. I think that’s the last time the readership, by and large, cared about creators more than they did characters.

LATOUR: That’s probably fair. They were so popular that a lot of those guys’ work still translates to selling points at the Big Two. You put Rob Liefeld on your books and to this day you balance how many readers you’ll gain against how many you’ll lose.

FIFFE: Yes, but Image back in the day represented a movement against those huge companies.

LATOUR: Here’s the thing, I don’t want to pretend like I know what was going on in their heads, and maybe they did think that it was a revolution or whatever, but at the same time they were clearly testing the water.

FIFFE: Some of them were ready to go back to Marvel just in case.

LATOUR: A lot of those books had major delays, right? They printed one issue and made millions off of that issue and they probably weren’t prepared for that. They created a monster. I have a hard time believing that they thought of it as anything other than a smart business move. In a sense, it’s evolved. Now they publish interesting work. I have to give them credit. I don’t know what those dudes’ motivations were, but Image still exists. There have just been so many versions of Image’s story. Listen, we’re all storytellers so….

FIFFE: Sure. All I know was that back then I wasn’t a collector or a pro or a retailer. I was just another kid, a fan. To me, Image showed that there were independent possibilities and they branded themselves as a movement.

LATOUR: I gotta tell you, I dropped out. I liked a lot of those guys when they were at Marvel. I was such a Marvel head and I sort of didn’t care about Image. I liked the stories at Marvel and when Image started it was… all image.

FIFFE: You were that small percentage.

LATOUR: Yeah, but when they left, Marvel it clearly lost its mojo. So instead I went out and discovered Mignola and Miller and those guys. The product just looked better. Not to say I had great taste, I had terrible taste. But yeah, I don’t have an Image connection. Like you said, it might as well have been Kool-Aid Man.

...

FIFFE: It’s funny how there’s nothing like Image out there now, in terms of heavy hitters making a grand independent move. If every hot writer and artist got together, I don’t think the readership would follow in proportionate scale to Image’s first year.

LATOUR: Nobody’s that big anymore. So, yeah, you’re right, Image was the last time people cared about creators. I think it’s cyclical, though. If people stop buying the crossover events, they’ll stop doing them. If a Frank Miller comes along, people will follow no matter what. It’s a matter of timing and luck. Me and my buddies think that there’s a Cool Hand Luke-ness to all of this. We’re all in this together in a jail of our own making…

Cool.