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 Interview by Richmond Clements
For many years, artist PJ Holden has been an unsung hero of the small press. He has contributed to many independent titles, providing the covers for the first three issues of Futurequake, as well as strips and spot illos for many other titles, from Solar Wind to The End is Nigh.
In this, his first ‘solo’ foray into the world of self publishing; he collects a sizable number of these strips together for the first time. Being small press and strips not originally intended for publication, you would expect the standard of scripting to veer between brilliant and rubbish. But being that Holden is illustrating scripts by the likes of Gordon Rennie, Jaspre Bark, and Paul Von Scott, the standard of writing is remarkably high throughout.
We were curious about the hows and whys of doing a book like this, and decided to grill the Holden droid about this project and a few other things beside.
The most obvious question is why did you decide to put this book out?
There were a couple of reasons the two biggest being the availability of a cheap printer and the second, which is a little more complex, is that I've been doing conventions for a number of years - science fiction/rpg cons specifically, and I've never charged for sketches. I didn't feel able to (at least not without feeling guilty) - so I figured that if I put together a sketchbook I could charge for that and a sketch. The plan was to do something like it once a year.
Around October last year I started putting it together with my friend Jim Lavery (a graphic designer), initially as a sketch book (with an introduction by Malachy Coney) but I was just never happy with it. I couldn't pick sketches that I liked and the book really felt like it was getting away from me. It started feeling really self-indulgent and not, conversely, something I would like to read. Then, as Q-CON (Belfast RPG convention) was coming up I thought I'd dust the whole thing off and put something much simpler together - a straight forward comic. Which is what I did.
 One of the most striking things about the art in this is the variety of styles you employ. You've got your gritty style for the action and horror stories, the finely detailed work on the Warhammer strip and an radically different cartoony style for the shorts. How easy do you find it switching between styles, or is it even a conscious thing?
Well, the first thing to note, is the work was done over six years or so, and the book you're looking at was put together to specifically contrast styles (which I thought would make the whole thing stronger) so some of the actual changes in style are, in reality, probably much more organic. Having said that, I will sometimes try and do something specific to match the tone of the script. This doesn't always work and, if I'm doing a longer piece, it can be hard to maintain - but even
the failures help me improve, I think. I do like it when people ask me who the different artists are, that, I find, endlessly amusing.
This was (almost) your first try at self publishing- how did you find the experience?
Totally painless - when I decided to redo the thing as a comic it was just a matter of picking the material (which largely boiled down to 'what do I have that is hi-res and printable') re-lettering some strips (that I didn't have the lettered versions of) and producing a hi-res PDF. I sent that to Small Zone, about two weeks before I wanted it published, they sent a proof which I okayed it. Then, a day before Q-CON, a big box of comics arrived. By that stage I'd sold about 20 online and was bringing 10 with me to the convention (I'd hoped to sell, maybe 20 over the entire con, then scaled it back to 10 because I thought 20 was a ridiculously high number to sell at something that wasn't a comic convention). Annette (my wife)
persuaded me to bring another 5 with me and I sold the entire lot out in the morning. Nipped home, got another 30, sold those in the afternoon and then sold another 20 the next afternoon (missed the morning). Now I'm down to eight copies - and a handful that I've kept for people who have threatened to buy it.
 Are you going to do it again?
Absolutely, first thing is to fix some typos - maybe make a minor price adjustment, contact Forbidden Planet about possibly stocking it (in Belfast) and then reprint. After that I have enough material for a second issue and maybe some more for a third. The original plan was to do one book a year, but it's fairly addictive when you start.
You're hoping to sell Previously through the Belfast FP store. Any hopes to sell it to a wider audience? Maybe other FP stores or Dublin or Derry shops, for instance?
Actually, I've just got word they'll take 50 copies, which is great and, if it does well there, who knows? I would really love to bypass comic shops and try and get the comic into the hands of an audience who don't read comics (not because they look down on them but more because they've never seen a comic or comic shop). If I was smart enough or savvy enough I'd be down at Clements (is Clements NI based?) or Starbucks or similar and trying to convince them that publishing the comic and selling it in their shops is a no-brainer way of differentiating themselves from the competition. I might even have a go at that for the craic. I want to avoid paying for a massive print-run and having hundreds of pounds worth of comics just sitting in my room - so softly, softly for the moment.
What did you learn from this time that will make the next book easier?
I think there are things I did right and things I did wrong, so I'll list those:
RIGHT
- Content - it was a really good mixture of material, sometimes silly, sometimes dark and scary. The short one pagers were great for showing to people, getting a belly laugh out of them and then convincing them they should buy the comic. The darker, longer stories though were exactly the right material for the RPG crowd. Everything in it was self contained - no multi-part stories.
- Selling it - I really pushed the comic at the convention. I think there were two or three people who didn't buy after talking to me, but, for the most part - if I talked to you, you bought it.
- Cover - Good, strong logo, easy to read at a distance. (The colouring for the cover was lifted from a bunch of eerie comics covers that I googled).
- Back cover - I had the opportunity for a full colour backcover, but took a gamble on using some greyscale work as a way to contrast against the front cover - and I think it paid off.
- Timing - I'm glad I published just one day before a convention. While I am selling it online the immiediacy is gone when you sell online, there's nothing like talking to people and getting them to buy it.
- Conventions - The RPG con, I think, was a great venue for selling the comic, I was the only self-publisher there (in fact, there was someone selling comics - but only graphic novels as part of there general RPG stall) and the people were really there to spend money. It'll be interesting to see how/if it compares to a comic convention.
WRONG
- Price - I think I went too low, I was selling for £3 for the comic or £4 for the comic with a sketch, next time I'll make £3.50 for the comic or £5 with a sketch (certainly at Q-CON the sketch was the selling item).
- Numbers - 100 wasn't enough - I'd planned to have the book for the entire year, one weekend later it was gone. If I sell the same sort of numbers at each convention then I should really go for a print run of about 500 - but money and storage are a factor, so, next time, at least 200.
- Proof-read - really need to get more people to proof read the damn thing BEFORE publication.
I'm sure I've done much more wrong, but so far, touch wood, for the modest print run, everything seems to have gone right.
 Every now and then, you'll come up with an idea for a book, write about it on your blog and then we never see it again- remember Doc Atom? Whatever happened to him?
Ideas are easy, execution is hard. I think everyone has a lot of half-baked notions in their head but they usually have the good sense to not share them.
I've been spoilt by working with a lot of talented writers so when I cook up some idea which I like, the actual writing of it becomes a real slog and never matches what vague whim I originally started out with.
Doc Atom hasn't gone away. Ok, he has. He was only ever a half conceived notion. A funny way to retell Flash Gordon stories and make terrible puns and have a hero who smokes a pipe. I blog them because the alternative is to just forget them.
And another one is/was Maid in Belfast, which you're talking about government grant aid for..?
Well, a lot of the ideas come out of imposing certain restrictions on yourself and trying to figure out ways around them. 'Maid in Belfast' was me walking down the street wondering how I could convince Belfast City Council to pay me to publish 'Previously' and you think, well they'd want to encourage writers in Belfast. Yes, but that's not enough. Well, they'd want stories about Belfast. Ok, stories made in Belfast. So, hang on, Maid? Made? Why Maid? Who’s the Maid in Belfast? Well, if the Maid in Belfast was a Greek muse, trapped here then you know, you could do any sort of story in Belfast set within any time frame about the muse or, better, using the muse as a story telling device. Linking the stories.
 So then, in your idle thoughts, you think, well, I could look around for short story writers and ask them to write short one/two/three page scripts and maybe get a name. And so on. Course nothing may ever come of it, but it seems a shame
not to take the thought process and do something with it. So I post on the blog. Then I get emails asking me why I'm faffing around on my blog and not drawing.
What are you working on now the 86ers is complete now seeing print. Does Gordon have plans for more series of it?
Well, Gordon has seeded so many different ideas in the 86ers that I'm pretty sure he has plans for more (I know I need the money). At the moment though, I'm finishing a long overdue book for image Fearless by Mark Sable and Dave Roth, after that I'll be hoping to beg for some more 2000AD work (Dredd, please oh Mighty One!)
Read more about "Previously" and PJ Holden's other work on his official blog.
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