Home > COMICS > 'INDIE JONES' Q&A: ELIJAH BRUBAKER
'INDIE JONES' Q&A: ELIJAH BRUBAKER
The cartoonist discusses his latest series based on the life of Wilhelm Reich
By David Paggi
Posted 7/31/2008
Cartoonist and illustrator, Elijah Brubaker has really started to get critics attention with his current comic book project Reich, from Sparkplug Comics: a fictionalized account of the notorious life of psychoanalyst Wilheilm Reich, who was persecuted throughout his professional life for his theories on human sexuality. Through a long time fascination and exhaustive research, Brubaker has crafted an absorbing portrait of a tortured and ambitious man, and he hasn't even gotten to the part about aliens yet!
INDIE JONES: What came first for you: scholarly interest in Wilhelm Reich or the desire to make a historical fiction comic?
BRUBAKER: I've been fascinated by Reich since I was about fifteen, first reading his name in a book by William Burroughs. Initially I was drawn to the wacky outsider, mad-scientist personae that had been foisted upon him. He was a cool thing to talk about at parties. Later in my life I began reading about him in a more complete and compassionate way. I saw Reich as a flawed human being, much the same way I was a flawed human being, the way everyone is, deep down, a flawed human being.
In 2005 I was casting about for a biographical story to tell. I'd been drawing mini comics about how great I thought I was and how drunk I could get but that grew dull and I wanted to find a story that would fulfill my urge to tell "real" stories but was not so close to my personal life. I began work on the life of a murderer in Gray's Harbor Washington named Billy Gohl but lack of any real concrete data led me to temporarily abandon that project. I considered other subjects. All were already too well documented or so slimly reported on that my research couldn't turn up enough to make a complete biography.
Then I remembered Reich, who'd been documented as a fringe hero in some sectors but nonetheless a man that many people had never heard of.
(In the introduction to the first issue of Reich I state that I created a Reich mini comic in 1995, I have no idea why I wrote that. It's not just a typo, it's so much worse. I didn't just get the year wrong. I got the wrong century even. The Reich mini comic was printed in 2005)
What struck you so much about Reich to make Reich (the comic)?
BRUBAKER: I think a lot of the problems that Reich faced throughout his life are still very real threats to anyone with so-called "crazy" ideas and I hope examining those problems through the lens of the past will shed some light on the social ills of modern life.
My less grandiose and presumptuous answer is; Reich's life combines some of my favorite topics and themes. Human sexuality, fringe science, Nazis, political oppression, there's even some stuff about weather-control and aliens later on. A lot of that stuff is just plain fun to draw and riff on.
Tell me about your research. How many books on Reich have you read?
BRUBAKER: I've spent as much or more time researching Reich as I have drawing it. I think I've probably read almost every English language book about Reich and most of the books that Reich himself wrote. I've also spent a lot of time reading various books about Wiemar era Germany/Austria, World War II, Communism and psychoanalysis. I've read books about friends and colleagues of Reich's like Otto Fenichel, Karen Horney and the cartoonist William Steig. Wilhelm Reich was actually a pretty horrible writer, I wouldn't recommend reading his books for pleasure. Reich's son Peter wrote a strange, meandering memoir titled A Book of Dreams That's the first book I usually recommend to people who want to read about Reich.
What has been the most difficult part of making a story out of all your sources?
BRUBAKER: I think the most difficult part is that everyone who knows about Reich and writes about him has these very strong opinions and no one's opinion seems to jibe with any other. Finding my own narrative voice with the character of Reich was difficult without letting other people's judgment cloud my writing too heavily.
Another problem was that I simply can't wedge every detail into the story that I'd like to. There are several small anecdotes involving Reich that, while interesting, have little to do with the thesis of my book.
Do you have any idea how long Reich will be?
BRUBAKER: Reich is planned to run between 12-15 issues. Every few days I rewrite things and switch things around so I'm not sure exactly but the final manuscript should be around 350 pages.
One of the things people seem to be commenting on (in a positive way) is the meeting of your stylistic/exaggerated art style and the realism of the story. Is what we're seeing on the page just the way you've chosen to draw the story or are you making any deliberate artistic choices in your cartooning?
BRUBAKER: I don't know how a cartoonist would be able to make comics without making deliberate artistic decisions, it would be a mess. I didn't sit down and outright state "I'm going to juxtapose this straight narrative with these cartoony images and it'll blow people's minds." But the images definitely helped dictate the tone of the story and vice versa.
You mention Chester Brown's Louis Reil in the appendix of the first issue, and kind of model the style of your appendix after his. Was that a piece of comics historical fiction that you admire? Are there any others?
BRUBAKER: I do admire Brown and Louis Riel is a great book but I kind of regret putting his name in that first issue. Other than the notes and some banal stylistic things I stole from Brown I don't see Reich as having much in common with Louis Riel. The tone and pace of our books are almost diametrically opposite.
As for other biographical, historical, or non-fiction books I admire: I really like a story by David Collier in his book Portraits From Life about David Milgaard, a kid that was accused of a 1969 murder. Collier is a great cartoonist. The SPX 2002 anthology has some good biographical sketches but there's also some really terrible stuff in there. Then there's the obvious comics like Maus and Joe Sacco's work and Crumb's bio comics like the Religious Experience of Philip K. Dick and his blues biographies.
Have you found writing a researched bio-fiction comic a more fulfilling or as you put it, "real" experience as opposed to an autobio?
BRUBAKER: No, I didn't mean to imply that working on a biography would be, or is, more fulfilling than autobio. I meant that, at the time, my interest was in non-fiction. My autobio stories were beginning to become formulaic and boring, even to me. I was at the end of my rope in a sense because I still wanted to make non-fiction comics but I wasn't skilled enough to tell stories from my personal life in a way that pleased me. All my stories were just semi-funny anecdotes about my crazy friends or what a neurotic weirdo I think I am. Switching over to someone else's story allowed me to see the events in that person's life with sufficient distance that I could build a story out of them that, I feel, has more resonance.
Have you had any feedback on your depiction of Reich from any biographers or historians outside the comics community?
BRUBAKER: I get the most feedback from people outside the comics community. At least I get more feedback worth hearing from people outside comics. Most people within comics are focused on the form and presentation. I hear a lot of comments from other cartoonists like "the cover looks really nice" or "I don't like the way you draw legs." Which is all worth listening to but it doesn't really affect my approach much.
I've received some nice comments from professors and therapists (usually through email) that comment on certain aspects of Reich's life. So far the feedback has been pretty supportive and complimentary which is cool. I worry that my comic might draw some fire from Reichians eventually though. Reichians can be pretty defensive and vocal when Reich is criticized and I have no interest in presenting Reich as a completely upstanding and flawless individual. I don't want to demonize the guy but I'm not going to whitewash things either. So, yeah, I expect the hate mail to start flooding in around issue ten or so.
You mentioned Billy Gohl before, who you've gone on to depict in a web-comic. How is that going? What came together about your research of Gohl that got you started on that?
BRUBAKER: Billy Gohl is updated sporadically but I've done much of the preliminary work for the entire story. It's written and thumbnailed and much of the pencil work is done but right now Reich is a priority so Gohl is only updated whenever I can get around to inking a few panels. Originally I meant for Billy Gohl: the ghoul of Grey's harbor to be a pretty strict and well researched biography much as Reich has turned out to be, but the lack of concrete data prohibited that. The impetus to go back to the strip was simply a change of perspective. Like I said I originally wanted to stick to the facts with Gohl but after reading what little biographical information there was on the man I realized that my strictures would have to go out the window. Gohl was a blow-hard and a loudmouth and told tall-tales whenever he could, to bolster his ego and his status among his community. I decided to fictionalize his story and incorporate small hints of "truth" whenever I can. Part of my interest in the Gohl story is that contrasting relationship between truth and fiction and the notion that we, as scholars and laymen will, at best, only be able to perceive the gray areas that lie between.
When is the next issue of Reich due out?
BRUBAKER: I'm doing this interview when I should really be prepping Reich #5 for the printer, that's how close I am to being done. It should be out in less than a month.
Here's a shameless plug for another book I'm working on. I've recently agreed to do the backup pages in the next few issues of Papercutter from Tugboat Press (www.tugboatpress.com). I had a long-ish feature in the third issue of that anthology and anyone looking for more stuff featuring the same characters can check out issue #8 when it comes out.
Reich is published quarterly in issue format by Sparkplug Comic Books. For more information visit www.sparkplugcomicbooks.com or www.elijahbrubaker.com.
And make sure to check in with the Wizard Universe blog Indie Jones for all your indie comics news and reviews!
