Rob Curley : The Interview

 

Rob Curley: It's hard to trace my love of comics back to it's exact origin. I remember buying The Beano and The Dandy and I definitely preferred The Beano. After that I discovered American comics through a friend at school I think.  Spider-Man and The Hulk stand out from those early days but I would have went on to collect The Avengers and X-Men. I think at one stage I tried to get a bunch of friends together and train them to be my very own X team but we couldn't decide on who would be the beast so it never really took of the ground, lucky enough!

 

RC: I had been in a band for around five years and it became apparent that fame and money were not around the corner so I had always had an idea of opening my own shop either music or comics so after the band finally called it a day I  started looking around for and opportunity to open a small shop somewhere. Obviously I had no money and my ambition was always beyond my means so my options were limited but I was lucky enough to stumble across the Grafton Flee Market which allowed me to set up a small stall from which I sold my own collection and some bits that I had bought from people through the Buy & Sell magazine at the time.

 

I remember doing up flyers for the stall and standing outside the Forbidden Planet on Dawson Street and handing them out to people as they went in or out. Pretty cheeky when I think about it but youth and innocence allow you to do almost anything. I grew up in the eighties and things were pretty grim so selling comics was my first real job unless you count selling Christmas cards door to door.

 

RC: When I first started Freak Show I had a lot more time on my hands than I do now so it wasn't that difficult to be honest. Things have changed since then with the opening of our third shop and with the creation of a lot more story ideas. Realistically I can't do it all so what I have done is contact other people to script my ideas and plots which will hopefully allow me to concentrate on the sales and promotion side of things which always fell a bit short in the past as you almost feel your job is done once you have the book out.

 

I have talked to a few people about scripting and to date people on board or interested in the idea are Maura Mchugh, Michael Carroll, CE Murphy, John Reppion and Leah Moore so it's an exciting time for Atomic Diner really and if things go according to plan you should see a lot of new books coming out over the next couple of years.

 

As for Freak Show Im taking a break for the moment but I will hopefully get back to it early next year. It was the first thing I ever wrote and I was as usual being more than a little bit optimistic about a fifty issue series. After saying that I have managed to get to issue twenty which is not to bad for a self published title.

RC: When I started Freak Show everything was new so I was just happy to be getting good artists on board and lucky to work with some of Ireland's best comic talent but like me they  were starting out and I think it shows in some of the work. If I could do things differently I would defiantly be more precise about what I wanted form the art but we all have to learn and mistakes are the only way we can do that. As for an artist affecting how you tell a story I think its fine to write for an artists particular style if your raising the bar but if your purposefully falling short on ideas and style in your work because you fell there not up to the job well then I think its best not to work with that particular artist.

RC: It depends on the story. Some ideas need a lot of research as they may be grounded in a certain time frame with historical reference whereas others are pure imagination. I enjoy both types of story telling as they each have their own particular charm. The more research you do the more ideas tend to come to you for the future as well as the story your working on which of course leads to more research and so causing an never ending spiral of ideas.

RC: Atomic Rocket Group 66 was my first super hero book and is I hope a playful take on retro super hero's from the forty's and fifties. I love that time period because it is so open to playing with its stereotyping of how life should be. Everybody had their own little box to fit into and of course that's just not how it works people will eventually find their own place in the world.

RC: Gerry is a bit of a maverick in the Irish comic scene. He kind of came out of nowhere just as people like myself and Bob Byrne were getting our act together. He had  pages from his In Dublin City comic and was looking for a way to bring it to an audience. I had just set up Atomic Diner and was looking for original work to publish so when our paths crossed it seemed like an obvious match. As far as I know Gerry is working on a new graphic novel for a large publishing house which should see print soon.

 

RC: The comics I'm enjoying the most at the moment are Captain America, Daredevil, Thor, Zorro, Sherlock Holmes and The Lone Ranger all of which are entertaining reads. Ive had my fill of mediocre books or at the other end of the spectrum Pretentious rubbish which trys to sell it self as an intellectual property.

 

RC: I guess [Leah Moore and John Reppion's] Sherlock Holmes is the one I'm enjoying most right now. It's a great read and the first two issue have had great cliffhanger endings which is what its all about.

 

RC: I love [George Orwell's] 1984 as I think its such a remarkable vision of our future. And it has the best ending to any book-- the inevitable truth that in the end we all surrender.

O: Excellent choice!

 

RC: I listen to so much music it's hard to say. Music is my true love even more than comics. The bands I listen to most would be Roxy Music, David Bowie, Duran Duran, Japan, Tom Waits, Nick Cave. I love that late seventy's early eighties sound which is lucky for me as a lot of bands have returned to that formula. I have a passion for vinyl especially 7inchs of which I have about twelve hundred. I guess right now Jack White interests me the most as he has his fingers in so many pies. The White Stripes, The Raconteurs, Dead Weathers as well as setting up his own label and recording studios.

O: Favourite films?

 

RC: Together, Charade, Some Like It Hot, Little Miss Sunshine, As Good As It Gets, The Royal Tenenbaums... I could go on and on.

 

Well myself and Maura hope to launch our first book together Róisin Dubh and of course meeting Mike Carey.