“Found” Comics: Joe Infurnari on Ultra-Lad

By Chris Arrant

Earlier this week, a new comic debuted on the webcomics collective Act-I-Vate. Or is it new? That’s part of the story to The Transmigration of Ultra-Lad, which was “brought” online by Eisner-nominated cartoonist Joe Infurnari (The Process). According to the cartoonist, this comic was found in the attic of his childhood home that dates back to the early 1950s. The never-before seen flagship comic to a failed start-up known as Jolly Brand Comics. In the comic, Ultra-Lad goes through the rigors of youth, arch-enemies and adventure.

For more, we talked with Infurnari.

Newsarama: So, what is your comic, The Transmigration of Ultra-Lad about?

Joe Infurnari Well, I’m reluctant to call it my comic because it’s more a reprint of a lost piece of comics history called The New Adventures of ULTRA-Lad!

While rummaging through the attic of my childhood home, I found a very mysterious old comic. I had been up there to look for some of my older comics from when I was a teen and this comic, The New Adventures of Ultra-Lad was not at all familiar to me. I did a little research on it and it appears to have been a comic printed very shortly before the Seduction of the Innocent controversy and as a result of that, this ashcan comic never saw print as it was ultimately intended. In fact, the New Adventures of Ultra-Lad was to be the flagship of the startup, Jolly Brand Comics. Publisher Arnie F Junio had sunk all of his money into getting Ultra-Lad off the ground and the whole venture collapsed when the gavel fell and the writing was on the wall for comics. The artist and/or writer for this book are not credited and I fear their name(s) are lost to posterity.

So there I was with this rare comic whose art and dialogue is remarkably ahead of its time and whose story ties in strongly with my own work! I couldn’t let it or the creators pass away into obscurity. When the opportunity to do a webcomic on Act-i-vate came up, I discussed a few possibilities with Alexis Sottile. This time around we thought I should do something unconventional and post up pages from this comic that has inspired me so much. It’s a way for this lost tale to be brought to light and made available for anyone to enjoy for free. The comic itself is at times funny and campy but not without serious subtext. It deals with a lot of the issues of youth, growing up and growing old; things that will resonate with many comics readers in today’s market: the older comix reader who thrills at being transported to his youth and the young comix reader who delights at Ultra-lad’s outrageous feats of daring adventure and action.

NRAMA: Are you sure about this, Joe?

JI: Yes, yes I am.

NRAMA: …okay. Moving on… How does what you’re doing for Act-i-vate fit in with the Eisner Nominated webcomic you do called the Process?

JI: It does…a lot! After reading this very rare comic another feat of cosmic coalescence triggered the realization that this book had encapsulated many of the themes I was already dealing with in the Process. Some of these include identity, ideas about one’s interior life versus the external world, looking at your life from its beginning in youth and infancy and from its end in old age and death. It’s also an example of an idea that I hold dear. That is, taking a medium or in this case, genre, not accustomed to such philosophical and grand themes and use it to tell stories laced with such primordial concerns. In the case of this ULTRA-lad! book, it deals with an old man at the end of his life and his struggles with his Jungian shadow, ULTRA-lad!, who represents his lost childhood and vigor and in many ways his frustration with the fragility of his own life and the failed promises of youth. The arc of this story is the grappling with one’s life and moving beyond it without regrets. To free oneself from the shackles of your past and to grant oneself acceptance of a life on one’s own terms. Of course, this is the subtext that is buried within a hilarious, campy and action packed romp of a comic! It’s also one of the major drives behind the Process.

NRAMA: What are the virtues of working on a webcomic over print?

JI: For the ULTRA-Lad! story, the virtues are that a lost piece of comics can be brought to light and made available for free! The incredibly successful rediscovery of Fletcher Hanks that seems to have sparked a desire to unearth other under-appreciated comics creators like Boody Rogers and Rory Hayes shows that people want to look at and read this stuff. I’m not entirely sure that ULTRA-Lad! will stand anywhere near as tall as these other figures from comics’ past but I am hoping to simply give this character his chance to shine in the most democratic way I could think of, on the internet for free.

NRAMA: How did you get hooked up with Act-I-Vate?

JI: It was a strange confluence of events that can only be attributed to a powerful coalescing of cosmic synergy. Out of the blue, Dean Haspiel contacted me through Facebook about an online anthology he was putting together. We wrote back and forth a couple times before I was on board to do a story for his series of Next-Door Neighbor. Simultaneously, I had been in contact with Heeb/Smith Mag comics editor and Act-i-vate minister of hype, Jeff Newelt about doing some comics with him. I knew he was involved with Act-I-Vate but hadn’t been thinking about the uber-collective when I was writing him. At best, I thought I might get a comic inHeeb (which I did). Behind the scenes, Jeff sent a link to my site, www.joeinfurnari.com, to Dean as somebody to invite into Act-I-Vate. Dean agreed and when approached to do it, I leapt at it!

NRAMA: Why’d you choose to this comic out through Act-I-Vate and not your own solo comic website like you have for the Process?

JI: I didn’t include it in the Process site despite being a ‘chapter’ of the Process because it’s really it’s own thing and should be able to have it’s own life on it’s own terms in a more neutral space. The Process site is great. I am very happy with it and how it’s grown, I just felt that this comic should be given it’s own due and the best way to do that would be through Act-i-vate.. I’ve incorporated it into the chronology of the Process but I feel it also benefits from being somewhat separate. I’ve also tried to look at it that the ‘universe’ of the Process is vast and to have it on another venue helps expand it’s readership beyond just www.theprocesscomic.com.

NRAMA: What else are you working on?

JI: Readers should check out the latest issue of Heeb magazine for my one page comic called “Workin’ Girl Golem” and keep their eyes peeled for my Next-Door Neighbor contribution with writer Alexis Sottile. It’s called Vs. and I guarantee it will definitely leave an impression. It’s a true story of my hilarious and horrific New York rental history and is not to be missed by anyone who’s ever lived in this city or considered moving here. I’m also resuming my work on the Process as well as the Borrowed Time series with Neal Shaffer and Oni Press.

To read the first installment of The Transmigration of Ultra-Lad, go to http://www.act-i-vate.com/56-1-1.comic. For more of Joe Infurnari’s work, visit www.joeinfurnari.com.

Chris Arrant and I recently chatted about the Process and the interview is now up at Newsarama. Here’s the interview in its entirety:

INFURNARI ON THE PROCESS
by Chris Arrant

What is The Process?

Looking to the nearest dictionary, it is defined as “a continuous action, operation, or series of changes taking place in a definite manner”. In the new webcomic series The Process, cartoonist Joe Infurnari describes it as a journey and exploration to an imaginary landscape “populated by strange, wondrous creatures and archetypal characters”.

Best known for his work on the Oni GN series Borrowed Time, Infurnari is stepping out on his own in this recently debuted webcomic. Framed with a lush web design, Infurnari has released thirteen pages so far – pages that tell a story of nature and one creature’s mad rush to get out of the way of a calamitous event coming his way. Infurnari promises this to be an exploration of story and of his own creativity, and judging by what’s been released so far it should prove to be an eye-opening journey for reader and creator alike.

Newsarama: Although it’s early on in the series, what would you say the story is about?

Joe Infurnari: The Process is about some big ideas like life, creativity and spirituality told by looking at how our magical, mythological interior world of the imagination interacts with the real world that we all experience in our daily lives. There will be parts of the story that are pure flights of fantasy, visionary and mystical and there will be parts that are very autobiographical and true-to-life. By going into that timeless, elusive, fluid and mythological realm of our imagination, we learn a lot about our understanding of this world and sometimes catch glimpses of something more. This affects our day to day life in ways that we are not always conscious of and it’s this sort of thing that I want to explore with the Process. It really is a journey as much for me as it is for the reader, as I am keeping the story loose and open with only the next few pages worked out in my mind at any one time. I know the larger arcs and moments, I just don’t always know what happens in between. That way I can surprise myself as I go along and keep the creative process fresh. Part of that is my commitment to changing up the art style according to the demands of the story. I want to be able to really push the boundaries of what I can do artistically with this because the mingling of the imagined (our thoughts, dreams and mental images) with the real (paper, ink, water, paint, matter) is what creativity and the Process is all about!

NRAMA: The series opens with what looks like a crayfish running from a tremendous deluge. In the info you say his name is Scrit. Can you tell us more about what he is?

JI: Scrit refers more to the species than the character’s name. For the purposes of the story, I’ve used this little creature as a bit of a guide into this world. Through him we get to feel the fear that the animals feel for the coming storm and thereby show just how strange an event it must be. He also shows us a little of the landscape and eventually takes us to the cave boy. He’s also important because he shows us a bit about of how this world works and what’s at stake.

NRAMA: Also appearing in the first chapter is an unnamed cave boy of sorts. Although it’s early on, what can you tell us about him?

JI: This character is a bit of an archetype; that of the little primitive wild boy. He’s in this world for his own survival like all of the rest and for him, this storm is terrifying as well. From his point of view, the storm is a completely anomalous event and is therefore open to supernatural and magical interpretation. All of this is the setup for something big and this little boy will play a key role in that future development. Readers will just have to wait and see what I have in store for him, I’m afraid.

NRAMA: As I was reading the first chapter, I really enjoyed your open use of sound effects to heighten the story. I noticed it was dramatically more open than your work on Borrowed Time – what led you to going this route?

JI: I knew going into this that the first chapter would be completely silent. There is no dialogue or narration so I incorporated sound effects to engage the reader more, slow down the ‘reading’ of the pages and to help make the story more immersive by engaging as many senses as possible. It’s also important for the world to feel as realized and solid as possible despite being purely a work of imagination. It’s not a world available to us through firsthand experience so ultimately all of our experiences here are abstracted in some way whether as drawings or language. It was my goal to use those elements to maximum effect to make this world appear and feel as realized as possible.

You are right that this is something that I haven’t done much of in other projects. That was part of it as well. I wanted to try and incorporate that into my vocabulary and to see what comes of it. I’ve really enjoyed the work of other artists who dynamically integrate the drawing of the sounds into the design of the pages and I wanted to play with that myself. It’s been fun!

NRAMA: How long have you had this story in your head, and how did it develop into what you recently debuted online?

JI:It’s been jostling around in my head ever since I started working in the comics medium. For the past four years it’s undergone many mental incarnations, notes, sketches etc and I guess it had never crystallized or found a suitable medium until recently. There was always the question of how would I draw it or structure it. It originally was supposed to be a number of paintings that described key events in the story. Unfortunately, the story would have ultimately been largely incomplete since a series of paintings are really ill equipped on their own to tell the whole story. So beginning to work seriously in comics helped solve that problem. I may return to the idea of doing large paintings with these characters but that will likely come after the Process is well underway and I’ve worked out some of it’s most significant moments. After completing Mandala and seeing the response that book got, I had a better idea how to approach the Process visually and it increased my confidence in my abilities to tackle it. I also looked at some of the work I’ve done for Caveman Robot and Borrowed Time and saw that I can approach this story from a number of different visual angles. Once I came to that realization, I was energized to move forward.

NRAMA: You mention Mandala, the self-published print comic you did last year that you also put online. Why’d you decide to go exclusively online for The Process?

JI: Ultimately the Process should go to print. A lot of the artwork is on textured paper and it shows in the art and I think that will translate best when actually on paper. The decision to go online for now is to help work out the story and put it out there. Doing it this way allows me to work things out so that I can re-edit it and rework it when it comes time to go to print. It’s not called the Process for nothing. Readers here are getting a peak into the creative process itself and part of that is the working out of ideas, experimenting, exploring things and taking risks. It is a living thing that is constantly evolving and in a perpetual state of becoming. That fits perfectly with webcomics because they unfold over time and are participatory as readers can interact with me by posting their comments on the blog. Parts of the story are autobiographical and this works with the medium, too. Those pages dealing with my life act similarly to diary entries except in this case they are told in comic form and are posted online. Webcomics are just very dynamic this way, despite being a less intimate medium (not having a book in your hand), readers can be more invested because they can become involved in the unfolding of the stories by sharing their opinions.

NRAMA: Artwork from the Process and your previous comic, Mandala, is being featured in an upcoming art gallery exhibition. Can you tell us about that, and when people can check it out?

JI: The show is called, “The Fantastic Form: The Art of Comics & Graphic Novels” and it will be at the Perth Amboy Gallery Center for the Arts in Perth Amboy, New Jersey. It runs from June 14th to July 31st with an artists’ reception still to be determined. I’ll be updating the Process blog as more information is available. Like the title suggests, its fine art inspired by graphic novels and comics and it’s graphic novel and comic book illustration inspired by fine art. It looks to be a really interesting show with some folks exhibiting who are doing photography, video art as well as sculpture, drawing and painting. I would encourage everybody in the area who is an artist themselves or just a fan, to come see the show. If this show gets a good response, curator Raul Villarreal, has expressed a desire to do more shows like this in the future. So come out and show your support!

NRAMA: The other comic you’ve been working on is Oni’s Borrowed Time with writer Neal Shaffer. The second volume just came out – is there a third one in the works?

JI: There is a third book in the works as we speak! Neal is currently finalizing the script and once we have it ready to go, I’ll start drawing it. Fans of the series can look forward to many of the plot points from the first two books being developed with some exciting new ones thrown into the mix. We’ve seen a rising interest in this series from book one to two and we hope we’ll get even more on board after book three. I expect that it will likely be released close to the end of this year or the beginning of next.

NRAMA: Are you making any convention appearances this year?

JI: I plan on being at San Diego Comic-Con this summer in support of Oni Press and Borrowed Time as well as a book I am currently working on with the Caveman Robot team. It’s called Caveman Robot: Behold! The Dodecatron! and it’s going to be a full color book of concept art by Jason Robert Bell and myself for the burgeoning Caveman Robot animated series! Fans should stay tuned to the Caveman Robot blog for updates on this and all other Cavey related news.

The other convention appearance I have this year will be SPX in the fall. Once again, I’ll be backing up the boys and girls over at Oni while I’m there.

Read Joe Infurnari’s The Process at http://theprocesscomic.com/