Geek Syndicate
RG: Yeah, Image is much like John. They are extremely laid back, almost to a fault. I could see a lot of people getting really aggravated working with them because they are so hands-off. There are no editors at Image Comics at all. Dark Horse has editors; of course the Marvel and DC guys have editors. There are only thirteen or fourteen guys on staff at Image Comics and a whole crapload of comics that they put out. So, it’s extremely laid back. Basically, the only time we ever hear from them is whenever we’re finishing an issue and send it to them and they’re asking us questions about production or we ask them questions about future issues. We’re doing a special thing for the next ComicCon issue that we’re doing. It’s going to be the Secret Agent Poyo oneshot. It looks like we’re going to do a foil cover or something like that. So, basically, we just email them, the Image guys, and say, “Hey, what are the chances of doing chromium cover?” and they’ll look it up and give us the details and we go from there. I think Image likes working with us because we like having fun and experimenting. It’s been great working with them. Again, I can’t picture working with another publisher because I’ve kind of been spoiled at Image. GS: Yeah, because this is really your first venture into comics, isn’t it? RG: I’ve done some things in the indie scene with Ape Entertainment and with Tokyo Pop. I’ve done some stuff with Ran16
dom House in the UK. I’ve done a few things here and there, but Image is kind of the first big thing I’ve ever done and it’s completely different from any of the other experiences. It’s been perfect for me.
which is really weird. But no, we could not have forecast that it would be anywhere near as successful as it’s been. GS: How many Eisners has CHEW won? Three? Two? RG: We’ve been nominated for like four, and won two. GS: Yeah. Pretty good run. RG: And we’ve won two Harveys also. We’ve had a really good run so far. GS: What about the characters in CHEW? Do you ever base any of them on people you know or anything like that? RG: From very early on, when I first came on, I asked John, “When you think of Tony Chu, who do you think of? Who is he based on?” just to get an idea of visually what he would look like. He would give me actors, like for Tony it was Ken Leung from the show Lost. He was Tony. And Colby, I had a hard time getting a grasp on who Colby was. Because he was such a slob in the script, I kind of pictured him as a Sam from Sam and Twitch, a fat guy. That was not at all what John had in mind. He was like, “Colby is like a good-looking slob.” Naturally, I started thinking of Josh Holloway, from Lost also. The good thing about that was that around the time that Sawyer and Miles, Ken Leung’s character on Lost, actually started becoming buddies on the show, and their dynamic was perfect. So, I started thinking, “What if I based these two characters off these two characters and mimicked that dynamic?” The
GS: Since CHEW began, both you and the comic have gotten a lot of exposure and awards. Has this ever surprised you? Did you ever think CHEW wouldn’t be successful? RG: Well, John and I both had the idea that we could gain a cult following because we both really liked it and figured that there’s bound to be a small group of really weird people that probably dig it as much as we do. It just so happened that the group of weird people was bigger than we expected, which was great for us. No, we never could’ve imagined. I mean, I didn’t actually know anything about the Eisners or award or stuff until we started getting nominated for them. It was never really the goal to win an Eisner or anything like that. It just kind of happened,