Jillpoke Bohemia: An Interview with the Author, Conducted by Himself – Part 2

Let’s talk about the music behind Jillpoke Bohemia. Webcomics don’t typically have soundtracks, but one can imagine that a Jillpoke Bohemia soundtrack might sound pretty cool.

Sure.  Maybe the comic could be represented by a virtual band, in the tradition of the Archies and the Gorillaz.  If we could find a couple of unknown musicians who sound the way I imagine Darby and Kieran might sound together, and if they were willing to work for free — why not?

If you were to try to describe Jillpoke Bohemia’s imagined sound on paper, what might you say?

I’ve kind of already done that in the strip, through fictional music journalists and critics.  Obviously they’re an acoustic outfit — just a girl with a guitar and a guy with a banjo, very minimalist.  But they make the most of their limitations.  Their sound, as I hear it in my head, isn‘t quite like anything we‘ve heard before, despite the proliferation of real-life roots music and alt-country people mining the same territory.  As Kieran might say, it’s a synthesis of seemingly disparate forms–bluegrass, punk rock, and reggae, to name just three.  There’s a lot of harmonizing, though Darby and Kieran usually take turns on lead vocals. 

In my head, Darby’s singing voice has kind of a husky, sexy quality to it — sort of Peppermint Patty meets Patti Smith.  Poly Styrene, Loretta Lynn, Joan Jett, Donita Sparks — these are all singers who would have influenced Darby’s vocal style.

And what about Kieran?

Kieran’s real gift is his virtuosity on the banjo, though he does have what I’d call a serviceable singing voice.  I’ll know it when I hear it, if I ever hear it.

With apologies to Nick Hornby (High Fidelity), what would Darby’s desert-island, top-ten album list look like?

That’s tough.  Like mine, it would probably change frequently, depending on the day of the week, or her state of mind, or whatever.  I’ll take a shot, though… 

Darby’s Top 10 Favorite Albums:

1.  X-Ray Spex – Germ Free Adolescents
2.  Loretta Lynn – Honky Tonk Girl (Box Set)
3.  Ramones – Rocket to Russia
4.  The Clash – The Clash (U.K. Version)
5.  Minor Threat – Complete Discography
6.  Black Flag – Damaged
7.  Joan Jett – Glorious Results of a Misspent Youth
8.  Minutemen – Double Nickels on the Dime
9.  Gram Parsons – GP/Return of the Grievous Angel
10.  Bob Marley and the Wailers – Natty Dread

It’s interesting that only a couple of country albums made the list. 

Well, early punk and hardcore are what Darby cut her teeth on.  She came to reggae by way of punk — the Clash’s “(White Man) In Hammersmith Palais” is a favorite of hers. The country influence came a little later, thanks to Kieran.  [The alternative country band] Uncle Tupelo should probably be on Darby’s list somewhere, because their music really helped bridge the gap between punk and country for her — and for me.  The difference is, I grew up on country, which traditionally was always a more adult genre, and only embraced punk rock later on, at an age when a lot of people have already outgrown it. 

What about Kieran’s desert-island list?

You’d see a lot more bluegrass, newgrass, and traditional country there.  One of the first songs Kieran taught himself to play on the banjo was Bob McDill’s “Song of the South,” which he learned from the Earl Scruggs and Tom T. Hall recording.  Scruggs is his idol, in terms of banjo picking, and he’s said that Tom T. is one of his favorite songwriters.  In fact, Darby and Kieran regularly perform “Harper Valley P.T.A.” live. 

You’re talking about them as if they’re a real musical duo.

To me, they sort of are.

Getting back to the music, Kieran’s also a fan of Ricky Skaggs, whom Darby can’t bring herself to like.  Bela Fleck and New Grass Revival would  also be high on his list. 

One seminal recording for Kieran is the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band’s original  Will the Circle Be Unbroken album, an indispensable and probably indisputable classic.  Kieran would tell that if you want to hear traditional country and bluegrass at their best, that’s probably the place to start.

And we know he likes Emmylou Harris.

Who doesn’t?  She’s a gifted singer and an ageless beauty.  In Kieran’s mind, she’s pretty much the queen of neo-traditionalist country, apart from being his most enduring celebrity crush.

So, where did Darby and Kieran first find musical common ground?

Probably early cowpunk and its corollary, which is ‘90s alternative country, for lack of a better term.  Bands like the aforementioned Uncle Tupelo, Bottle Rockets, and the Drive-By Truckers were a kind of gateway drug for them.  That’s where Darby got hipped to the darker, gothic aspect of traditional folk and country ballads.  At some point I imagine she and Kieran arrived at the same revelation I did, that punk rock is really just urban folk music. 

Early on in your webcomic, Darby and Kieran had a platonic musical partnership.  It didn’t seem to take long, though, for them to hook up physically. 

I probably rushed that a little bit, which may be why they keep breaking up and getting back together.  There was sexual tension between them from the get-go, but for a long time they managed to keep it at bay.  Through flashback, we have seen that they met as college students and began making music together at the University of Maine, then migrated south to Portland, where they thought it might be easier to launch a musical career. They were roommates before they became lovers, which didn’t happen until after Darby got sick and realized the depth of Kieran’s devotion to her. Her first sexual overture toward Kieran seemed tentative at best, which is an indication she probably wasn’t quite ready to take that step, only because Kieran was already her best friend and musical partner.  She was reluctant to mess with that dynamic by sleeping with him.  She didn’t want to run the risk losing him as a friend, or do anything that might lead to the breakup of Jillpoke Bohemia–the titular musical duo, that is, not the comic strip.   

In a flashback to Darby’s high school years, one of her classmates makes a comment alluding to Darby’s sexual promiscuity.  Was the classmate just being a mean girl, or was there some truth to what she suggested?

She was definitely being mean.  “Slut-shaming” has long been a popular high school sport.  Is there truth to what the girl said?  We’ll see.  There are things I know about Darby that the reader hasn’t been made aware of yet.  I will say this:  If she was promiscuous as a teen, you can be sure there was an underlying issue.  I’m firmly of the opinion that there’s really no such thing as a slut, just like there’s really no such thing as a welfare queen.  The truth is usually more complicated than the mysoginistic language that’s used to marginalize women of a certain economic or social class.  Darby’s probably been guilty of using that sort of language herself, though she should know better.

You seem to have given this some thought.  Are you at all concerned that your comic has exploited the sexuality of its female characters?

If that’s the perception, then it’s regrettable.  Certainly that was never my intention.  I never wanted Jillpoke Bohemia to be a trashy comic strip, and I don’t draw women the way I draw them in order to appeal to readers of Playboy.  I draw them that way to please myself, because I’m into female beauty and sexuality.  I’m generally not a huge fan of superhero comics, but I’ll take a Wonder Woman or Ms. Marvel book over Superman and Batman any day, if they’re drawn by someone with an obvious love of the female form.  That’s why I love Jaime Hernandez’s “Locas” [Love and Rockets] stories so much.  Jaime says in an interview somewhere that when he first started making comics as a kid, he only wanted to draw women, because he was horny all the time.  I get that.  I was that kid.  I’m still that kid, a lot of the time.  Maybe my aim should be higher, but I’m really doing the strip for the adolescent in me.  That doesn’t mean I want the strip to be vulgar or dirty.  Not to sound disingenuous or priggish, but I always hated porn, even in college, and the idea of doing a smutty comic is not in my wheelhouse.

That said, I would definitely like to see the writing become a little more sophisticated in terms of its treatment of sexual issues, including the use of sexual humor.  Too often I’ve tried to wrap up a strip with a dumb one-liner that ends up stripping a subject of any inherent gravitas it might carry.   And yes, my comic has probably been guilty of objectifying women, usually because I’m lazy or feeling too rushed to think things out and dig deeper.  That’s something I’d like to correct.  There’s nothing wrong with depicting sexuality in a comic, but it should never trump a character’s dignity, or the integrity of the comic. 

Do you think some of the challenges you’re talking about are inherent in the form? 

Not necessarily.  Other comic writes have overcome them.  I do know that it is hard to write and draw well consistently when you’re churning out three or more Sunday-style strips per week.  I have wondered if Darby and Kieran would be better served by their own comic book, as opposed to the comic strip format.  That’s an option I’d like to explore at some point in the not-too-distant future.     

Maybe a Jillpoke Bohemia graphic novel? 

Why not?  I’d also like to start publishing the collected strips in print form, sooner rather than later.  At this point, I wouldn’t even care if the books sold wildly or not.  I just want to have them out there.

You’ve described Jillpoke Bohemia as a metacomic.  Were you always a fan of metafiction? 

I always thought Vonnegut did it well.  Apart from his stuff, I haven’t read a lot of it.  I’m not even sure why I decided to go there with the comic.  Maybe because it’s a way of working in more self-deprecating humor.  I also like the idea of interacting with my own characters.  It’s good that they can tell me when I’m missing the mark or not being true to them with the writing. 

See, I have a tendency to paint myself and the characters into corners that are hard to get out of.  The current storyline is a perfect example.  Having Fonda Dinero shoot Darby was probably a bad idea.  I decided that I needed to put the strip on hiatus again for a while, and I thought I needed a cliffhanger.  It was a spontaneous decision, which I shouldn’t allow myself to make when writing.  In retrospect,  I think the violence was out of place.  I was going for shock value, but that was inappropriate.  Half the time I don’t have a clue where these plots are going when I start them. 

The funny thing is, back when I was trying to be a novelist, I usually had to have everything outlined in advance, and I tended to overthink everything.  With the webcomic, I have the opposite problem.  I don’t map things out enough, and as a result, I sometimes end up with these out-there, half-baked story arcs.  I’d retcon a few of of those stories out of existence, if I didn’t feel that would be cheating somehow.  But yeah, Fonda’s shooting of Darby was not well thought out.  Frankly, Darby’s been through enough already. 

What’s the deal with Fonda Dinero anyway?  We’ve seen her literally in bed with the “creator,” presumably a cartoon version of yourself.  Some fans have speculated she might be based on someone close to you — your  wife, perhaps? 

The only thing Fonda Dinero and my wife have in common is that they’re both redheads.  And they wear glasses.  And they’re hot.  Also, neither of them seems to like Darby much.  But that’s where the similarities end.  

Your wife is jealous of a comic strip character?  Enough to want to shoot her?

Well, that’s a ridiculous question, isn’t it?  How can a real person shoot a comic strip character?  My wife doesn’t even follow the webcomic, though she does glance over my shoulder to see what I’m up to, on occasion.  All she really knows is that I get up in the wee hours of the morning every day to spend time with an imaginary woman. 

How did my wife get dragged into this?  Let’s move on.

You’ve been painfully honest about some of your missteps. Are you this webcomic’s worst critic?

Someone’s got to be.  I’m not always sure that I’ve gotten it right, but I know when I get it really wrong.  I half wish the characters really could take the keys away from me sometimes.  Darby and Kieran tried, but I ended up driving the thing into the ditch anyway.  So it goes.  I’ll winch it out.  Let’s just hope I’ve learned from my mistakes. 

At least you know they’re mistakes.  You said you’re not always sure that you’ve gotten it right, but that implies sometimes you are sure.  Can you name some times when the strip has succeeded on its own terms?

The comic is at its best when it’s being true to the characters.  One of my favorite examples of this is the strip dealing with Darby’s road rage, which is really just a symptom of her moral anger and sense of justice.  Some woman is texting while driving on the Interstate and nearly runs Kieran and Darby’s van off the road.  Darby wants accountability, but Kieran tries to stop her from going after the woman, because Kieran hates confrontation.  I think that strip really captured the dynamic of Darby and Kieran’s relationship, and illustrated why they need each other.  I think I hit the mark with that one.  Unfortunately, that doesn’t happen every time.

You obviously have affection for your characters.  Do you consider them your children?

Heck no.  That would be sick.  I wouldn’t let Darby do half the things she does if she were my daughter.

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NEXT:  DISHING ON THE LOVE INTERESTS. 

 

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