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Alex De Campi, Working On Two Novels, At Wizard World Austin

Published Mon, 26 Sep 2016 15:00:27 -0500

Last updated Tue, 27 Sep 2016 21:37:44 -0500

Gene Selassie talked to Alex De Campi at Wizard World Austin.

During the opening day festivities at one of the largest comic conventions in central Texas, I got to sit down with Alex De Campi, whose flight just arrived shortly before the convention started.

We discussed her multifarious background. She discussed her days being an art major at Princeton, to investment banking in Hong Kong to music video directing and all of the stops in between. Alex was in the Philippines for a year, followed up by a short stint in Latin America and then lengthy stay in London for ten years. She joked about being overseas so long that when she came back, all that she picks up from television are the commercials for prescription drugs. A peculiar thing she noticed is how corn syrup is in damn near everything here.

The conversation then moved into the projects that are in progress at this time. Alex stated she has two novels that she's working on, the main one (which she refers to as the 'wife' novel), a story about identity and what that means to a person. She is also working on another one that she has to keep hush about right now (which she referred to as the 'mistress' novel).

Smoke (De Campi's first published comic work that also won an Eisner Award) was the next subject of our discussion. She stated that while in London, they look at spy/espionage thrillers differently than the culture does here, with much stronger literary intelligence. Alex cited playwright Edward Albee and screenwriter/director Sam Peckinpah as huge influences in her work. She stated that sometimes people get lost in the huge toy box of writing comics with the unlimited budget the stories allow for and followed this by stating "just because you CAN do anything in comics doesn't mean you always should." Restraint is an underappreciated trait.

We moved on to her Grindhouse anthology series with Dark Horse Comics. This is where her Peckinpah influence really is seen, with intense action and weird setups. She feels violence in comics needs to have consequences and many times it doesn't. She did this series because she got really tired of mainstream comics exploiting the language of exploitation cinema.

One point that we were both on the same page with was about representation in mainstream entertainment. She stated that there were more black female action heroes in a lead role between 1971 and 1976 then there have been in the past twenty years and the fact that no one sees this as a problem IS a problem.

Alex then brought up her Manga with TokyoPop, Kat & Mouse, which is essentially a modern Nancy Drew or 'Tween CSI'. A popular girl at her old school transfers to a new school where she isn't as popular. A punk rock Asian American girl befriends her and together they embark on several mysteries throughout the town. I noted that, from experience, writing teen dialogue is sometimes incredibly difficult, but she somehow nails it every single time. She stated that people tell kids 'these are the best years of your life'. Alex said that "no, they're not the best years of your life. They're shit, just get through 'em. Shit gets better once you get out of high school. You'll never see half of these people again, so don't let them get you down." She stated that Manga was doing something that American comics weren't doing in large numbers; providing young female lead characters in something (besides just magic/fantasy stories). We agreed in that audience avatars/protagonists all being the same (straight white males), foolishly leaves money on the table. By providing more stories for young female characters, LGBTQ characters and characters of color, AND NOT MAKING IT A GIMMICK, it only makes sense in 2016.

The prior few minutes provided the perfect segue into her next comic, No Mercy (Image Comics). It is about a group of rich prep school students that signed up for a trip to Central America to make their college applications look good. However, after their bus crashes and many are badly injured, the students are now stranded and have to wade through this unfamiliar terrain. Ultimately, it's a 'strangers in a strange land story' where the characters are even strangers to each other. This concept ups the dramatic tension to an eleven. Alex cited Manga influences like Attack on Titan and Death Note using story structures highlighting discovery as what helped to move the plot and characters forward.

We then discussed her adventures in her late teens/early twenties crossing Russian, Cambodian and many other borders. These experiences where she was, as she stated, "a naïve first world White girl that nothing can happen to" and she quickly learned how truly naïve.

Going into what brought her into comics, it was Claremont's X-Men run that brought her in. The teen drama element (along with her idol, punk rock Storm) sold her.

When asked "what book would you love to write for the Big Two", Alex didn't hesitate to say Howling Commandos (but told through the lens of Inglourious Basterds), followed up by Winter Soldier, which was her espionage thriller side talking.

Some of De Campi's favorite comic work is from Ed Brubaker, whom she stated does some of the best and most underrated character work in the business. She also loves the work of Jason Aaron, Rick Remender, Charles Soule and who she also stated is Mr. Jack of All Trades, Mark Waid.

Her next comic project coming up is Mayday, a spy-thriller set in 1971. She stated it's like Terrence Malick's Badlands if the couple were Russian covert operatives.

This was a fun and enlightening interview with Alex De Campi. Bleeding Cool will be bringing you more from Wizard World Austin.