Let’s Go to Utah! Interview with Dave Chisholm
Dave and Leif’s Excellent adventure!
The interview is also published in this week’s “IN Utah This Week”- inthisweek.com. Below is the unedited version as it was cut for space. If you’re in Salt Lake City (or the general region) go out and pick up a copy from your local retailer or newsstand now! And now, on with the interview!
Let’s go to Utah is unlike any other comic story out on the shelves right now, with it’s raw, violent, and madcap journey from Los Angeles to Utah. It’s a strange adventure set to an improv jazz session, from the colorful characters peppered throughout, to the locations found off the beaten path on the journey. The story of Dave and Leif’s road trip to Utah isn’t so much about the destination, but rather all points in-between you find when traveling through America in a car.
You see, Dave’s had a vision in a dream involving an ice scraper, a cowboy with no head, an old tree with a hole in it, and more surreal imagery, all pointing to Utah. Compelled to find the meaning of the reoccurring dream, Dave manages to “hook up” a ride with the mysterious Leif through mutual friend Pete (of “Pete’s Weird Stories!” fame, also available in this edition). Unfortunately for Dave however, he soon learns that Leif may be some kind of psychotic serial murder, or something worse if that’s even possible…
Dave’s first full length comic series is bold, honest, and uncompromising for a work of fiction, especially in regards to the art. As he says in the books Forward, “For a minute there, part of me wanted to go through and fix all the problems with my work-the wonky anatomy, the wacky perspective, and whatever else you might see…” Thankfully, he decided not to, as the book is fantastic genius as it is, and tampering with it would take away from the beauty of the roughness of the art that perfectly complements the story.
With the release of the collected edition of “Let’s go to Utah”, Dave was gracious enough to allow me to pick his brain about his book, inspirations, and more.
Martin j DeKay- I’m going to softball you to start with that age old question you ask creators, “What was the first comic book you ever read?”
Dave Chisholm – The first one I remember owning was a Hawkman comic from 1984 or something. To this day, my mom claims that my first word was ‘Spiderman,’ so Spidey was a huge part of my childhood. Any time my brother or I would lose a tooth, we’d get a stack of comic books from the tooth fairy. I sort of fell in and out of love with comics again and again throughout my childhood and adolescence. In high school, I would go to dr. volt’s comics every week and buy spawn, sin city, blade of the immortal, Akira, ash (gag) and some other stuff. Back then, I’d totally draw comics–I’d put together 8-page dr. volt stories and copy them and leave them on the counter for people to take for free at the store. Eventually, painting and then music became more important to me than comics, and I fell out of love with them shortly before college.
Initially, when I first met you, you had shown me quite a few drawings and pages inspired by the film The Dark Knight. Though it was influenced by the film, the work was very much your own style and flavor. Was Dark Knight the inspirational catalyst into your fore’ into creating comics? And if so do you find it ironic that a film based off of a mainstream comic property is what brought you into the world of creating and reading Independent comics?
Hmmm…You know, the buzz about the dark knight started at a perfect time for me. My musical mind was exhausted and I needed another outlet, so I naturally gravitated back to comics. I’ve always been a fan of batman, so I just started doodling batman and especially the joker. But I wouldn’t say it was a catalyst, per se, because I have been a fan of comics off and on for my whole life.
I do, however, find it mildly ironic that such a mainstream juggernaut led me to make a comic like Let’s go to UTAH! But, let’s call it like it is: a good movie is a good movie. A good book is a good book. Good comic is a good comic, regardless of property. I’m not biased against superheroes, I’m biased against bad art–I’m biased against crappy product. I am so glad that DC and Marvel have finally seemingly gotten over the ’90’s Jim-lee-image-clone style of art and are having great artists like Frank Quitely, JH Williams, Salvador Larocca, Gary frank, etc. on mainstream works. I love the variety of styles and work that one can find in comics right now. It’s totally awesome and refreshing.
Do you think having that time away gave you a fresh insight into the medium and allowed you to take more chances and experiment?
Hmm. that’s a good question. I think that the freshness has definitely afforded me opportunities to cut loose and find my own voice. There are parts in the first few issues (hell, in the whole thing!) where I’m still finding my voice–I mean, it’s something that we never truly find, right? But, yeah. it’s been really fun, and I also think the fact that comics are not a career for me has given me a fresh take on the industry–like, I’m not desperate to find a publisher, I’m not desperate to find a really ‘mainstream’ style. As a result, I sort of fell into a sort of niche that is pretty cool. I found an audience and they found me.
So, what was the genesis of LgtU? How did you know that was the story you were doing?
Well…I sort of knew the story I wanted to tell. I wanted it to be a super-episodic road-trip story. I wanted it to be called “Let’s go to UTAH!” I wanted Leif to be a character in it, and I wanted myself to be a character in it. I sort of wanted it to be a sort of coming-of-age tale wrapped in western cliché, surrealism, chance, fate, car chases, and tributes to the Coen brothers. I had a list of events that had to happen, and I sort of found threads to tie them together.
So it became a kind of pop-mesh of influences, not unlike say jazz music?
Yeah, totally, man! The definition of jazz is really nebulous. Does it need to swing? No. does it need improvisation? Hmmm…no. what defines it? to me, it’s almost this quest to interpret material through your filter, a quest to find personal expression in even the most banal material, whether it’s through improvisation, interpretation, phrasing, retooling something old to make it new, or whatever. And I do think that comics have very similar nebulous boundaries.
To me, they both come from the same creative place–I need to tell stories and both mediums offer me that opportunity.
You’re an accomplished musician and lover of music in general, now there are quite a few musical references in the story. As a matter of fact it almost seems like the story its self moves to a specific rhythm at times. Was that conscious in your story beats and plotting, or just a happy accident?
I’d say that the musical influence on my work is unintentional but absolutely there. Music is the driving force in my life, so it was bound to appear, and not just through me touting my friends’ song lyrics. the ability to pace a comic, whether it’s 2, 22, or 262 pages, comes pretty easily to me, and I have no doubt that this comes from my composing experience. In a way, comics share more similarities with music than with art that you see on the walls in museums–comics unfold like a song, and, if done well, the cartoonist will pace the reader’s eye through the work, just like a song. Sorry if this seems like gibberish. It makes sense in my head!
Right now, I’m halfway through my master’s degree in jazz studies at the University of Utah. I’m having the time of my life working up there. I’m teaching the second jazz band and quite a bit of trumpet, and I love it! I’m also playing in a couple of local bands right now: John Henry, which is a six-piece jazz group that is freaking incredible, and SLAJO, which is a 15-piece jazz group that has been around for about 6 years.
When you started, did you have a clear beginning, middle and end?
Since the dream sequence in the first issue informs the rest of the story, I knew the big moments throughout the book. As it went along, however, a fair amount of improvising took place, and fun accidents resulted. 
With the completion of the series and the collected edition of LGtU, do you have any serious plans to continue the story? In the final issue you didn’t exactly say no, but didn’t exactly say yes either. If you do in fact continue the storey, will it be a direct continuation with the characters, or rather follow the theme of the original with characters referred to in the series?
I have a few ideas for the characters, but definitely not anything solid. We’ll see if anything turns out of the ideas in my head. I do know that, right now, I don’t have time to do another 9-issue series. We’ll see. We’ll see.
Any plans for doing a color version of LGtU? Or digital versiosn for computers and mobile devices for that matter?
Absolutely no color versions. No no no. it was always supposed to be a dirty black and white, with tons of rough edges. No pretty colors.
With your Dark Horse Comics story (coming out on….), will we see more of the characters from the story (are they part of the LGtU/ Chisholmverse) in other stories, or is this just a one-shot thing only?
However you want to interpret it. I mean, part of me wants to say that everything I have ever drawn has been part of the same universe and that I am some evil genius, but that would be baloney, right? there are similarities between LGTU and “Martha” (that’s the name of the story, appearing in MySpace Dark Horse Presents collection #4, out in December, I think?!?), and maybe it’s because they wanted a similar story? Maybe it’s because it’s actually Dave and Leif when they’re really old? Or MAYBE…I only know how to write one kind of story!!!! Ha-ha either way, it’s really awesome and I can’t wait for everyone to see it.
We’ve seen the photo of Paul Pope (one of your fave creators) with LGtU, which is pretty impressive, considering you hope “someone” enjoys your work when you put it out in the ether. What was your reaction to seeing the picture? Have you had any contact with Pope in regards to LGtU?
DUDE I freaked out. It was a total fanboy moment. I gave him that in San Diego and he said that he had been “checking it out” online, which blew my mind. I have barely BARELY chatted with him online. I don’t want to be that annoying guy (even though I am sometimes). He was super nice, though, to give even a minor amount of attention to my silly little work! Have you seen his Adam Strange pages in Wednesday Comics? It’s a sequential MASTERCLASS!
Indeed I have! DC’s Wednesday Comics is my favorite book coming out right now and I’m a sucker for anything Pope.
OK, for those who’ve not read “Let’s Go to Utah”, why should they pick it up? What are they missing?
It’s an awesome road trip story for people who love comics and for people who have always been turned off by the ’spandex’ aspect of comics. It’s inky, sloppy, dirty, fun, violent, thoughtful, and delicious. there are car chases, bloody baseball bats, UFO’s (kind of), a headless cowboy, a woman with snakes for hair, dinosaurs (kind of), hordes of locusts, beautiful waitresses, creepy truckers, thunder, lightning, guns, white-trash, cops, and the soundtrack is good. It’s 262 pages of goodness and it’s only like 18 or 20 bucks. It has pin-ups/sketches by so many awesome artist friends of mine like Ryan Ottley, Derek Hunter, Jose Holder, Peter Markowski, Geoff Shupe, Simone Guglielmini, and more. There’s even a bonus mini-comic at the end that only like 20 people had seen before it got put in the trade paperback. WHY HAVEN’T YOU BOUGHT IT YET!??
So what’s next for you? Pimp it up! Spread the word to the people!
Hmm. I’m drawing a bunch of short little 2-3 page comics right now. Someday I might collect the ones that don’t violate copyright and put ‘em out!
Thanks for your time Dave!
Let’s go to Utah is available through the website- http://www.letsgotoutah.com/ and if you do go to Utah (or already live there), it’s available at the following local Salt Lake City shops-
Dr. Volts Comics, Black Cat Comics, Ken Sanders Rare Books, Slowtrain Records, Positively 4th Street Records, Nobrow Coffee, Cafe Niche, and Bevalo Coffee
Thanks to Dave for taking the time to let me interview him, and thanks to Amy Spencer at IN for running the interview, go check inthisweek.com for local SLC news, reviews, and tons more!
Mandroid out!
, and the movie that Paul W.S. Anderson is attached to.) This one looks a bit different than some of the others, but it looks well developed if nothing else.
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