One of the promising possibilities about the new year is what’s happening in indie-comics. Greg Anderson Elysee is an award-winning comic-book creator and writer. He also has had successful Kickstarter campaigns and is one of the few indie-comic creators where you see his work in brick and mortar stores. Review Fix talks with comic book creator and artist Elysee about his inspiration for his character Is’Nana The Were Spider and comic-book series The Gentleman and the future of Webway Comics.
Review Fix: How did you get started in comics?
Elysee: When I picked up and bought my first comic book, Superboy #19. After that, it was a wrap. Years of obsession and money spent, delight. Towards the end of elementary, I started writing my own stories and in middle school I had a teacher who encouraged me to draw them out and create my own characters instead of just writing Batman and Mortal Kombat fan fiction. But it was high school when I decided I wanted comic books to be my career. Falling in love with writers like David Hine, Peter David, Christopher Priest, Dwayne McDuffie… that did it for me. I bought books on writing comic books, structuring. I published my first story in a comic anthology my cousin produced, did a lot of articles and interviewed many comic creators, then many years later I finally published my own with Is’nana the Were-Spider.
Review Fix: After reading Is’Nana The Were Spider I love your use of African mythology and folklore. How did you decide to use the children of Anansi as a way to drive the narrative in some of your comics?
Elysee: Thank you for that. I created Is’nana, one of Anansi the Spider’s sons, to represent the next generation reclaiming our roots and continuing to tell our stories. At the time when I made the story, I was used to a lot of people telling me they didn’t know who Anansi was. Many Black people. That formed in my head that our stories were dying, especially if you didn’t know the Black God of Stories himself. So as a way to keep them alive, Is’nana would be the one to keep some of the tradition alive, even if it meant modernizing some of it. But hopefully with the modernization, it can prompt new readers to seek the originals, which I’ve had many readers contact me to tell me how much they learned after my introduction to various characters and figures.
Review Fix: Your Kickstarters have been successful in recent years. Obviously there’s an audience out there for your comics. How challenging is it to get your work out in stores or digitally?
Elysee: It is very difficult, especially when you’re self published and not a part of a big company nor make enough to be put on by Diamond. But you can still do ok. There are many shops that support me and have reached out. Some eventually start to see the product and after hearing the pitch, they’ll order a couple and then reorder when they sell. You just have to keep on hustling. I also travel a lot for conventions, so while I’m in a new town or city, I’ll do some research and try to find some shops that may have some interest.
Review Fix: With the monotony and lack of diverse/interesting characters and redundant storylines of larger comic book imprints, where do you see a place for indie comics such as your comic for mature audiences The Gentleman?
Elysee: Growing up, I found myself being someone who didn’t always see himself reflected in a lot of the works I enjoyed. Marginalized people are used to that and quite frankly you just have to put your foot down and do it yourself. I never seen a Black bisexual male be the main hero of a horror story so I decided that was where I’d take the Gentleman character for SFC Comics when I was asked to pitch an idea for him. I also wanted to showcase a poly type character. There are triad couples out there and people who practice being in open relationships but it’s still so taboo. I want to normalize a lot of taboo aspects, especially concerning Black people, whether it’s their culture, spiritualities, sexuality, etc.
I also wanted to tackle the misinformation of Black spirituality, mess around with it a little bit.
Review Fix: There’s this black character on a now defunct show that said in essence there isn’t a place safe for a black man in American history. However, if you could go anywhere, anyplace at any time in history where would you go and why?
Elysee: … Hmm. I think I’d like to visit the Harlem Renaissance and meet and hang out with so many of the Black literary writers. Also, if I can prepare a lot of what I can before my travels, maybe bring forth many books and details of what’s to happen back to Haiti when we won our independence and find ways for them to not get caught up in a lot of the mistakes that ended up screwing us over. That may wipe me out of existence though [laughs].
Review Fix: One of your successful Kickstarters Is’Nana The Were Spider: The Ballads of Rawhead and John Henry has an essay from John Jennings with a piece of his artwork representing Is’Nana on the back cover. How did this collaboration come about?
Elysee: John Jennings has been an inspiration to me since I started following Black independent comics. The man hustles and has so much amazing work out. Be it sci fi, horror, he writes for Black folks in the comic realm. When I got to finally meet him, that was it for me. I sort of look at him as a mentor. I was honored when he asked me to be a part of Black Comix 2 and I’m always honored when he messages me about anything, even to confide in me about certain things. I wanted him to be a part of Is’nana in some way and was ecstatic when he said yes. I was loving what he was doing with Bitter Root with informative essays after the issue and I thought it’d be cool to have something similar with this Ballad issue, a lil’ more bang for the buck. I’ve interviewed him in the past and it’s always been a joy as well. Fingers crossed we can work on a project in the near future when our schedules permit.
Review Fix: Marassa full on commits to Black Speculative Fiction and Afrofuturism with space pirates and black mermaids. With the diversity of characters what other stories can we look forward to in the coming year?
Elysee: Well the pacing for the release of Marassa has unfortunately dropped than what we had originally hoped but I’m hoping at least issue 3 and 4 will be released this coming year. With that series, I really wanted to showcase a lot of Black spirituality in a futuristic sci fi setting. We’ll be seeing more of that but more so as backdrops for the characters and their creation. Unlike Is’nana where I may spell some things out explicitly, Marassa showcases these themes in a more subtle way while being a bit more adult. So some more research and knowledge may be required but you can still follow the plot and the characters. I plan to have an Indigenous American character play a role within the series. I’m always trying to do research and read up on different things for ideas.
Review Fix: What sort of impact do you want for the comics you’re working on?
Elysee: I would love to inspire other people to make their own work but also make people who are usually reduced as secondary characters or tokens in the backgrounds to feel more at home with my stories. If I can give a safe haven to Black fans of speculative fiction, LGBTQ readers, poly people, marginalized people as a whole… If I can give them something that treats them as normal with an escape from the same old type of stories where we need a reason to be represented, then I’m doing what I want to do.
ReviewFix: The horror genre feels like an essential aspect in the storylines of your characters. What are the horror films that no matter what, you stop to watch it, even if it’s on network television with the commercials? And why?
Elysee: Haha. For sure! I love the 30s and 40s films of Val Lewton. He made what he would call “terror†films but were more psychological horror. They were like the rivals of the Universal Studios monster films. Lewton’s films for RKO were B movies and didn’t have the budget to do a lot of things but he took advantage of that and produced a lot of subtle horror that resonates with me and other horror fans today. Anything from Cat People to I Walked With a Zombie to Isle of the Dead… always gets my attention., Including the Innocents from the 60s. And I’ve been loving Jordan Peele’s recent stuff with Get Out and Us. All I’ve ever wanted was fantastic Black horror films and once and a while we get some interesting ones, but Peele’s been gradually changing the game in just what we can do and what type of stories we can tell with us on the forefront.
Review Fix: What’s next for you?
Elysee: I have a new Is’nana the Were-Spider one shot in the works called Showtime. Born and raised in Brooklyn and I have a lot of love for the kids who break dance on the trains to raise a bit of bread. There’s been some attacks on them, some folks trying to criminalize it but I feel it’s a part of our culture. Black and New York. In this story, Is’nana meets a group of these dancers and hangs out with them, dancing along with them and learning some things about himself in the process. It’s drawn by Miguel Blanco with Angael Davis-Cooper on colors. Hopefully Deron Bennett on letters!
I’m also working on something with Quinn McGowan and Rivenis, a bit of a speculative fiction one shot with two stories. If it does well, we may do more, like an anthology of sorts. And of course, more traveling!
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