Interview: Tony Breed Kickstarts FINN AND CHARLIE

For an ongoing slice of life packaged neatly in a web comic, look no further than Finn and Charlie Get Hitched. The weekly strip by artist and writer (and moustache enthusiast) Tony Breed has been collected in three volumes to date, but now the opportunity has come for a full color printing of a fourth edition, funded through Kickstarter! Tony took a few moments out to tell us about the series and what we can expect from the new edition.

kickstarter-headerMatt Santori: So, Tony, “Everyone is Someone’s Fetish” is the fourth book in the Finn & Charlie series. Can you tell me a little about how the characters originated and the journey they’ve taken until now?

Tony Breed: The comic started out with just Finn and Charlie, who were loosely based on me and my husband. It was never an autobiographical comic, but it was based on reality. I didn’t want Finn and Charlie to have to represent all gay people, so I added other gay characters, notably Kevin, to provide counterpoint. And then I added other characters to balance things out — Nina and Mike were added because most of my friends (hell, most of the world) are straight; Krys was added so there would be another female character, and one who wasn’t explicitly attached to a man. I found that I really liked writing for an ensemble. (Book 4 is mostly ensemble material.) You put the characters in a situation in your head and see where it goes. Writers often say things like “my characters tell me who they are”, and it’s kind of true. You just keep writing them, and over time you figure out who they are. They become real to you, and then they can be real to the reader.

MSG: One of the things that strikes me so much about the series is the quirky calm and comfort of it all. With debates about same sex marriage across all the news channels running non-stop, how much does that affect your worldview and translate into the storytelling?

TB: At the beginning, that was explicitly what I wanted to do. I’d hear people really freaking out in the media about the notion of gay marriage, and I wanted to say, hey, this is my life, and it’s really not weird at all. My marriage is pretty much like my straight friend’s marriages. So it is a big part of my worldview. Also, I know there are a lot of young gay folks out there who don’t have a model for what an adult relationship can look like, and I’m conscious of using the comic to provide that. At the same time, I don’t want it to be a message comic, where the message takes over and the plot becomes stilted; when I’m writing, I’m just trying to tell something truthful.

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MSG: Finn and Charlie have a strong supporting cast (quite literally at times!) that speaks to a lot of different people’s experience as well. Why was it important to you to expand their world for the strip and what do you think it brings to the audience?

TB: I have friends from a lot of different backgrounds, with a lot of different experiences, and I sort of hear them in my head saying “hey, it’s not like that for everyone,” and then I think, oh, well I’d better include that in the strip. The counterpoint certainly makes everything more interesting. And also, I think representation in media is important. Everyone wants to see themselves in books, on screen, in comics. I look at the people around me, and I look at who they are and what’s happening in their lives, and then I bring it into the strip. For example, several of my friends have kids with special needs (my life is a statistical cluster), so I decided to bring that into the strip.

MSG: You’ve been on the web from the very start with Finn and Charlie. How has the demands of a weekly web audience influenced you and has the reception been what you’ve hoped?

TB: Being on the web has been great for me. I think I would have given up long ago if it weren’t for the feedback I was getting, and the weekly deadline. Once on a message board, someone told me, in so many words, “get off the internet and go work on your comic so I can read it,” and I thought, WOW, someone cares! The reception has been better than I’d ever hoped. Web comics don’t get a lot of formal attention — our books are rarely reviewed — but we get a lot of personal feedback, and that’s great.

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MSG: One of the big pluses to the online weekly over just reading in collection (although I daresay going with both is the way to go!) is your brief commentary on each strip. Why do you think it’s important to share some of the personal anecdote behind the work?

TB: I don’t know — it just feels right. I just have thoughts I like to share. And at the same time, it’s helpful to form a personal connection with your audience. When people like you, they like your work more. I try to be approachable.

MSG: Why have you decided to work with Kickstarter on the new book?

TB: I’ve always wanted to put out a nice quality book, but it’s expensive. You need to have the money up front. Kickstarter gives you that. Also, so I understand, Kickstarter reaches an audience wider than the one you already have. There are people who browse Kickstarter for projects to back. I created one backing level where you get all 4 books specifically for people who hadn’t heard of the comic before.

MSG: You’ve begun recoloring a bit of the earlier work for the volume. How has your process changed recently, and in a broader sense, how do you feel your style has since you first began the strip until now?

TB: My style has changed immensely! For one thing, I’m just a much better artist now. My basic process has been the same for several now — I work on bristol board, I start with non-photo blue pencil, I ink with PITT pens, and I add shadows in yellow ink. I used to do those shadows with a pen, and convert them to grey on the computer; now I do them with a brush and ink, to get a watercolor effect, and I convert the color to brown or blue. I tried to do color early in the strip, and the results weren’t good. I didn’t know what I was doing; color doesn’t seem hard, but it really is. I came back to it very slowly — first by adding some color highlights, and then more, and eventually going to full color.

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MSG: So, what can fans expect to see from Finn, Charlie and the gang in the pages of this new book?

TB: In Book 4, we see the friendship between Krys and Ken deepen, and we see Ken and Corey get back together. Finn’s brother Gus gets married; Kevin shows up and causes trouble. We touch on topics like depression and having a kid with special needs — heavy topics treated with a light touch. And through it all, there’s Finn and Charlie, living their mundane lives, hanging out on the sofa, still in love.

Tony Breed’s Kickstarter for Finn and Charlie Are Hitched: Everyone is Someone’s Fetish runs through Tuesday, February 25. For a weekly look at Finn and Charlie, as well as an opportunity to purchase previous books, visit hitchedcomic.com.

 

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