 :: Monday, February 09, 2004 :: Digging to Chynna, Part 3: King Dork vs. The Chynna Monster! We have now reached the final part of my interview with the lovely Chynna Clugston-Major. If you missed the first two parts you can go here for part one, and here for part two, once you finish with those you can close off with this one. Enough preamble, let’s get back to the lady of the hour SUPER GAL! Jay D’Ici: Okay what about some of your favorite films? Chynna Clugston-Major: Well I just mentioned my favorite director, so obviously The Apartment and Some Like it Hot, those are two of my favorite films of all time. Kubrick, I really love Lolita, like you couldn’t guess. Lots of comedies. Wes Anderson, I just live for Rushmore, and I really enjoyed The Royal Tenenbaums. Bill Forsyth, he did Gregory’s Girl and Local Hero which I’ve always used for inspiration for my work. And just about anything Australian is really good too, Flirting and The Year My Voice Broke. Jay: So do you try to bring the visual storytelling styles from those films into your work in comics? Chynna: When I’m trying to get an idea for a scene in my head, I always see it as live action. I don’t know if that comes across or not- probably not- but it’s definitely something that I keep in mind. Occasionally I try to imagine how it would look if any of my favorite directors shot it, but that seems too lofty. I just do it my way most of the time. J: Okay then, can you cast the Blue Monday WB TV series? Just to make you gag at the idea of it being a WB series. C: Oh… Just imagine, not even being able to curse! What the Hell would that be all about? J: Okay the HBO series. C: Yeah, that’d be awesome! I’d definitely want to get Keira Knightly to be Clover. Aw… I don’t know. If I had the chance to look up young actors right now, I’d send you a list, but I'm up to my ears in work. I shouldn't even be on the phone right now! J: And would you want the headache of it being turned into a TV series? C: If it was done right, I wouldn’t mind it. I could live without it, though, now that I know a bit more about what's involved... like being screwed out of having any control over your own creation, for example. Kinds puts me off, that. When I was younger I always wanted to have something turned into a movie or a TV series, though. Well, not a network TV series, unless I could get away with cursing and so on, which would never happen. Point is, it’s not like it’d be a new idea, something that never occured to me. It’s something I always thought would be really cool, and was my ultimate goal, unless it was to be butchered, which it would probably be anyway. Hmm. Sort of a double-edged sword there. J: Well it depends, you could just let it go, or you could have the head ache of being Executive Producer and be in charge of it too. C: Well if it was Blue Monday, I’d want to keep as much control of it as I could. But something like Scooter Girl I could let go of a tad easier, it's not my life's work. That could be something that people could probably butcher up without me completely losing my shit, although I’d rather not have that happen- it'd be a major embarrassment to have my name attached to something that ended up as yet another crappy comic movie. J: I had some advice to a creator a while back: “Putting together your own comic is like having a baby, then you put it out into the world. When it’s out in the world it’s at college, and sometimes your baby gets pregnant and has a movie.” C: That’s pretty good. J: Occasionally, you don’t want that happening. C: The wrong people get a hold of it… Obviously they don’t care about it as much as you do. They’re just thinking “money maker!” And you’re just like: “NOOO! Quality entertainment!” J: Well I stepped away from the film industry after I realized that everyone was only interested in money, and I was interested in making something worth watching. C: I understand completely. I would love to make money, because it sucks being poor, but I don’t want to go out and get into anything just for that reason alone. That’s when you don’t really love the arts, or whatever you happen to be involved in, you're just greedy... and that’s bullshit. Money is just money, it’s nothing substantial. J: It’s your punk roots coming out to show once more. C: Greed is just so goddamn lame. It's too common in people, it's considered acceptable behavior far too often. Aaagh... It's how I honestly feel, but it sounds so cheesy to say it- everyone says the same thing half-heartedly all the time, then they jump in their Excursions and make a phone call to their broker and I fucking hate it. J: I know, it’s because that whole mentality ended up being sold out. C: Exactly. So you sound like you’re full of shit no matter how much you mean it. J: Okay, after the “true artist” rantings, who would you say are influences on your writing? I’ve noticed leanings to Oscar Wilde and Buster Keaton, obviously… C: Absolutely. I’m nowhere near as clever and never will be, but I try! When it comes to writing I keep those two in mind, and Billy Wilder. How much can I talk about that guy? I don't know. I'd say, a lot. J: You try to be witty instead of sticking to simple dick and fart jokes. C: Yes, I prefer complicated dick and fart jokes. Really, I just put down what ever comes along. If it’s a dick or fart joke, I’ll put that in there if that’s the first thing to come to mind that I think is funny. If whatever makes me laugh passes as witty, great. If not, ask me if I give a shit, you know? J: That’s why you were able to laugh and make a comic about videos of yourself. C: Yeah, how could I not? I should have known better. And, it was pretty funny after all. But, don’t get me wrong, you can definitely see when I get mad, too. When I was pissed off at certain friends and so on, the turds. I definitely take things out on people in my work. Instead of yelling and throwing a fit and smackin' them in the grill, I take it out on them on the page. Yeah… I think we were talking about writing influences? J: Yup, and then ended up insulting your friends once more. C: Yeah, they did enough shit to me, I can get them back now and then and they can deal with it. J: Actually there was another one I meant to ask: Was there an actual Mr. Bishop, and has he read the books? C: Yes there was a Mr. Bishop, but it wasn’t in High School, it was in college. I just sent him out the book yesterday. I wrote in them “Please don’t sue me.” He'll probably never write back, and instead be afraid that he's being stalked. I'd never stalk anyone, for the record. But, moving along... he was really cool, definitely the inspiration for the character, because how often do you get a teacher that doesn’t suck? One who’s amusing, who can make jokes that crack you up, who is really interesting and when it comes to lecturing- so much that you don’t ever fall asleep in a two-hour class. He was really, really cool and I always end up getting crushes on people like that, so I thought it’d be a pretty good idea to put him in. I've always sort of lamented not having a real teacher crush in high school. All my teachers were kinda toads back then. J: Okay it seems I have run out of questions at this point so now for the standard last question: If you could supersize anything in the world what would you supersize? C: The feet of my enemies! Think about it. *** I would like thank the lovely lady known as Chynna for her time and patience with this interview. Everyone should check out her forthcoming series Blue Monday: Painted Moon, and the last issue of Scooter Girl. If you haven’t read Blue Monday yet, I advise you go check it out here or pick up the books for yourself. Guess what’s coming next? Another interview! (It’s so nice to have someone help write half the column for me.) Yes I talk to a comic about comics! Acclaimed actor and comedian Shawn Baichoo was kind enough to sit down with me to talk about comic art and acting. Find out more come Thursday. -Jay 6:52 PM + Jay D'Ici + permalink |