Ed Quinby’s Teregrin, about a wandering rogue in the waning days of the Roman Empire, is one of the newest additions to Modern Tales. A new storyline, “A Shaggy Tale,” recently started on MT. Ed was kind enough to talk with me about Teregrin, comics, and Lee Marvin.

Shaenon Garrity: How did you get started as a cartoonist?

Ed Quinby I was always drawing in my school book margins as far back as I can remember, really. Since I was in parochial school my art process was often punctuated by a nun’s metal ruler to the offending hand. That only slowed me down a bit, though; I guess I was incorrigible. Professionally,it’s harder to say when my work started bringing in anything near what could be called an income. I grew up during the hayday of comics fanzines and the earliest indies and I contributed to lots of things, mostly gratis. I was the regular artist for Dave McConnell’s Media Report column in The Buyer’s Guide,now Comics Buyer’s Guide,drawing the Hollywood celebs of the day, and got a little money for that, but the professional cred was better than the few dollars.

SG: What are some of your influences as an artist? How about as a writer?

EQ: Really,I’m spongelike,at least they say that in local bars. I have stacks of art books,photo books and several thousand comic books to reference. There are artists I especially strive to learn from. Steve Rude may have the best compositional sense of anyone. Steve Ditko has a unique vision and such superfluid design that I wish I were more influenced by him,but he’s so darn inimitable! The biggest influence on my method of working is probably Gene Colan and I’m not sure how much it actually shows.

As a writer? I’m not a writer by nature and it’s come to me with considerable difficulty. What surprises me is how rewarding it has been. Since I began to write my own stories and not just illustrate others’, I find I appreciate elements of good storytelling in TV, movies, books and comics more than I did and some of that exposure must translate to my own work. As for Teregrin, the short stories of Fritz Lieber’s Fafryd and the Grey Mouser are a particular influence.

SG: What was the inspiration for Teregrin?

EQ: My original thinking was that I’d like to do something in a historical setting that hasn’t been done to death and wouldn’t be dry,boring or pedantic, and, well, two out of three’s not bad! Also,I had recently read the first five collections of the Fafryd and Gray Mouser stories and was struck by a small bit of dialogue between the two characters where they ruminate about whether they were, in fact, merely pieces of the same hero. I wondered what that combined character would be like in the fabulous world of Nehwon. Since both of them were thieves, drinkers, womanizers, mercenaries, at times crafty, at times gullible, he would have all these qualities, perhaps doubled!

However, in Teregrin’s second outing I supplied him with a backstory and elaborated a bit on his status in the 5th-6th centuries,building him more into his own man.

SG: What attracted you to the time and setting?

EQ: At first,it was the very vagueness of that post Roman Empire/pre Dark Ages period. I couldn’t find much on it initially! It seemed like a real-life Hyborian Era where differing levels of civilization and technology and random barbarian assaults made just about any type of story possible. Since then, I’ve amassed considerable literature on the era and find it more interesting than ever. Astute readers may note that later stories don’t have quite as many, or as egregious, anachronisms. I’m learning!

SG: What do you enjoy about writing a lovable-rogue type of character?

EQ: He keeps me entertained, and, as far better writers have said, I try to write something I’d enjoy reading myself.

Occasionally,I’ve been criticized that Teregrin’s and others’ speech patterns don’t reflect their times. No apologies for that. I don’t think 5th and 6th century street slang and colloquiallisms have even survived to any degree in the written record and,even if they had,the figures of speech they used would be pretty inaccessible without footnotes–and nobody wants that! I’d much rather read something approaching conversational english than dialogue stripped of anything that may have a modern ring to it. These characters lived in their present just as we do and I try to reflect that instead of slapping a faux Elizabethan phrasing on their speech to indicate “it’s a loong time ago.” I guess it should all be Latin,but I already admitted I didn’t always pay attention to what the good Sisters were laying down.

SG: At this point, do you have an idea how long Teregrin will be?

EQ: Aside from financial considerations, I’d like to work on the Teregrin strip indefinitely. No doubt my output will slow down after I’ve gone through the backlog of material already completed to its black-and-white stage approximately a year from now.

This might be a good place to mention that Teregrin’s looks are modeled on the actor Lee Marvin. That will be more apparent in the later stuff. Marvin had one of those great faces that could play equally to comedy, drama or straight action. I’ve always felt he made way too few movies in his career,so perhaps this is my way of attempting to rectify that.

SG: What do you have planned for the comic in the months to come?

EQ: A couple notebooks full of bits and riffs for Teregrin and other characters and some stories that are mainly exercises in form and technique, but certainly trips to Germany, Scotland and pre-Viking Scandinavia are in order, as well as shipboard adventures in the Mediterranean around Dalmatia and Crete.

SG: Are there any other projects you’re working on right now?

EQ: I have a Silver Age-style superhero group, Chance Inc., that I’m trying to find a home for. As to how I’d actually keep up with two ongoing series,I don’t know,but it would be fun/suicide to try. Other than that,I make time when commissions come in as that’s cash on the proverbial barrelhead which is always nice. I also do the front cover and usually the back for the long running comics review ‘zine Comic Effect. Each issue is a themed collection of articles on comics, pulled together as a labor of love by Jim Kingman. The man knows his comics! You can check it out at comiceffect.com.

SG: Any final words?

EQ: On the whole I’d rather be in Philidelphia? No,I’d really just like to thank Joey and Shaenon for the use of their hall. It’s a pleasure to have Modern tales as Teregrin’s home base and for me to associate myself with its enterprising but straight-up proprietor (he has plans,y’all!) and thanks for the interview, Shaenon.

Read Teregrin now!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 10th, 2009 at 12:25 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.