Mark Ricketts
NoWhere'sVille (writer/artist)

Mark Ricketts, the critically acclaimed writer/artist of NOWHERESVILLE has arrived. 'Nuff said.

#1.
Q: OK, let's start with an easy one: Who are you, and what do you do?
A: Back in the days when I was driven to join the rebel alliance against the thousand-year-old empire known to many the Catholic school system I was an unholy beast. All I had to do was think bad thoughts and glass would break...bread would go stale. The nuns would daily beat the love of Christ into my pink little buttocks and Father Duffy refused to listen to my confessions due to their graphic nature. Today I'm as pure as Krishna, as wise as Buddha and as innocent as Baby Huey. I'm also the writer/artist of the subversive comic known as "Nowheresville" published by Caliber Comics. Oh, and I'm an untapped national treasure.

#2.
Q: Where did the idea for NOWHERESVILLE come from?
A: You share ownership with 2 other fellows in the special, and seem to have complete ownership by the mini. Where are they now? (a) I had a revelation when reading the passage from Steve Allen's 1955 classic "Bop Fables" where Little Red Riding Hood questions the wolf in a grandma disguise by saying,"I don't want to sound square or anything, but you don't look like my grandmother at all. You look like some other cat." It dawned on me that this little basket carrying chick was doing some detective work (big teeth, big ears,etc.) to solve a mystery. That's a pathetic answer. Here's an interesting story, that in a strange way, led to the development of Nowheresville. Allen Ginsberg's classic Beat poem "Howl" was dedicated to Carl Solomon. Carl was the nephew of the owner of Ace books. Ace books pumped out trashy crime novels in the fifties and due to Carl's nagging his uncle, also published William Burrough's first book "Junkie". The cover to "Junkie" has that great paperback cover art popularized by crime fiction of the time with a tough guy keeping a blonde bombshell from her fix. Maybe that's the first time the crime genre and Beat sensibility were fused together. Still, unless you consider the old T.V. show with John Cassavettes as piano playing, hipster detective "Johnny Staccato" there hasn't been a lot of beat detective stories. Duh, what was the question again? (b) I like to bounce ideas around with people outside comics. Rick Conrad and Alain Sherter were never interested in pursuing comics careers, I dragged them in kicking and screaming! However at my request, Rick continues to do single illos for the book. Also, I like it when he screams.

#3.
Q: Most comic book creators seem to have their roots in superhero comics, yet I can't recall ever seeing your name on an issue of Spider-Man. Where did you get your start?
A: Senator McCarthy ruined my film career in the '50s. At age 12, my affiliation with the Banana Splits fan club caused me to be blacklisted. I was forced to change my name and turn to comics as a creative sanctuary.

#4.
Q: Who are your major influences, both in the comic book field and without?
A: Astroboy. The Aquaduct. Kafka. WeeGee ( the photographer - not to be confused with the Oujii board . Though I have been influenced by its otherworldly guidance on occasion.)

#5.
Q: How would you best describe both your work on NOWHERESVILLE, and the comic book itself?
A: (a)We all know that the creation of a quality comic requires complex scaffolding, sandblasting, manuals translated from the original Sanskrit and a team of eggheaded, pocket-protector wearing technicians working around the clock with any number of electricity draining devices. This book is no exception. Actually, I think in terms of Light and Dark when I work on "Nowheresville". If you create a dark atmosphere thick with fog and long shadows you've already set the scene for a mystery. The characters that live in that neon washed world are bound to be colorful, right? The city at night is the most important character in a crime noir tale. After the sun goes down, it's the place where the threat of danger and excitement lays in wait, perched to strike. In David Lynch's "Blue Velvet" the opening scene shows a sun-shine soaked, normal, squeaky clean suburban lifestyle complete with happy firemen and dad watering the lawn. When dad suffers his heart attack and hits the ground, the camera follows moving down into the little seen dark place of mystery and paradox that lies hidden under that green facade of manicured lawn. It's day meets night. It's light meets dark. It's good meets evil. In "Nowheresville" - and especially "The Nowheresville Special", I tried to capture that feeling by beginning the story at night in a dark cafe, and dragging it through a series of moonlit adventures to its sad and pitiful conclusion under a backdrop of the harsh light of day. (b) Nowheresville is a perturbation in the reality field in which a spontaneous, self-monitoring negantropic vortex is born tending progressively to subsume and incorporate its environment into arrangements of unspeakable cool stuff. In other words, it's a crime cocktail with a beatnik twist. Perhaps the best way to describe the book is through the development of the characters. The typical, violent crime noir detective character is devoid of spiritual background and even though he appears to have a heart when it comes to certain dames, he still uses any morally bankrupt means to solve a case. In Nowheresville however, the main character Chic, is a seeker of truth- he investigates on the outside and lets the criminal expose himself - without resorting to violence. Chic pushes, but he's a hipster and therefore always in an understated state of grace. He's self sufficient, but he's a curious cat. He's Jack (Kerouac), the quizzical. Queeg is the other kind of hipster- the flipster. He's Neal (Cassidy) , the sensualist. He likes to howl at the moon with abandon. Wherever he goes that's where the action is. The obvious problem I encountered was in trying to keep the two sides of the Beatnik coin in Chic and Queeg's personalities while throwing them in a genre formally inhabited by tough guys. It's difficult staying on the road to enlightenment when that road leads to homicide, but it's the contradiction that makes it interesting.

#6.
Q: Moreso than most comics, NOWHERESVILLE seems to need some serious researching for the look and the dialogue. Seeing as how it's set in a period that ended quite a while ago, what do you use for reference points?
A: Nowheresville is set in the 50's so there's the obvious research to try and get the time period down. Then, I must have watched "Kiss Me Deadly" and "Sweet Smell of Success" a hundred times before I even started sketching for the first Nowheresville book. There's a scene in "Sweet Smell of Success" where Tony Curtis is slouching on a street corner in black suit, stove pipe pants, and skinny black tie. He is giving a sideways glance of contempt and envy to Burt Lancaster in the foreground. That slouch says so much. It defines his character. It defines the time. It's the kind of inspiration I look for to complete my own personal vision. In "Kiss Me Deadly" there is the glowing, enigmatic suitcase that seems to elude those who wish to possess it. That feeling of something weird and sensational dropped in a cloak and dagger mystery is also an inspiration. I noticed that Quentin Tarantino used the same "glowing suitcase" image in "Pulp Fiction". I also studied "Touch of Evil" and "Chinatown" for mood. I reread Kerouac's "On The Road" to examine Beat philosophy and mythology, and Steve Allen's " Bop Fables" to get a feel for the language of the hipster. I listened to Lambert, Hendricks and Ross do Basie, Miles and 'Trane "Smokin" and "Cookin", Babs Gonzales "Manhattan Fable"and Ken Nordine's "Word Jazz". I soaked myself in the time, the culture, the Beat legends of Greenwich Village, and the backstreet logic of pulp crime fiction.

#7.
Q: Open racism seems to be a part of the era NOWHERESVILLE takes place in. How difficult is it to portray this aspect of the book?
A: Does it ever get uncomfortable scripting it? The worst part of it is that I'm always concerned that readers will confuse me with one of my bigoted characters. Still if all my characters were PC - the story would be pretty boring

#8.
Q: NOWHERESVILLE is one of a growing number of crime genre comics out there today. It definitely has a different feel to it than the others, but were you at all influenced by Sin City, Armed & Dangerous, etc.?
A: No. I was more influenced by my love of both Beat literature and Film Noir. I admire Frank Miller's use of shadow in his illustrations, enjoy Brian Michael Bendis' sense of humor, dig the whimsy of Paul Grist's art, and admire David Lapham's ability to push the envelope of the genre... still, I can't say that I'm influenced by them. But if we ( crime noir comics creators) were all brought together to discuss our collective influences I think we might find that they are somewhat similar.

#9.
Q: Caliber seems to be experiencing a resurgence in popularity not seen since the days when they published The Crow. How did you end up publishing with Caliber, instead of Dark Horse, Sirius, etc.?
A: I picked up a Caliber title in a comics shop and read a short story about two garbagemen. The story followed the two men as they collected the day's garbage and engaged in an existential conversation. It was brilliant, original, and seemed to walk a line between the storytelling of underground comics and conventional mainstream comics! I knew this had to be my publisher, so I submitted my work to them. They published my first mini-series ("Warpwalking"). They published my second mini-series ("International Cowgirl Magazine"). They published my third mini-series and complementing graphic novel ("Twilight People/Book of Twilight"). They publish "Nowheresville". That's a sci-fi fantasy, a satire, a horror tale and now crime fiction. How many publishers are gonna give an up-and -coming creator this kind of freedom to experiment and grow?

#10.
Q: While NOWHERESVILLE is a black & white book, I've seen your color work as well - NOWHERESVILLE covers, Mr. X covers, etc. Which do you prefer to work in?
A: If someone wants to pay for color seps and printing, I'm going color!!

#11.
Q: While you don't shy away from the racist language, the book still remains one that's pretty much safe for all ages to read. How do you decide to draw the line and why? (ed.note-this was the stupid question....)
A: Safe!!??!! I'm sure the Bible belt would disagree with you on that score. Drug abuse. A murdering transvestite. Homosexuals. Bondage. etc. (ed.note #2-silly me! I totally didn't think of all that! My main thought was the lack of explicit sex & violence. I explained that my parents read what I read, and simply explained things to me, rather than banning them. Mark's response? "Your parents are ver enlightened." Yes, they were.)

#12.
Q: Are any of the characters in NOWHERESVILLE based on people you know?
A: I'm gonna take the 5th on that one.

#13.
Q: Which of the NOWHERESVILLE characters is your personal favorite?
A: McCarthy... because he's a big jerk. I almost feel sorry for him. Also, He's fun to draw. A friend once said that he looks like a really twisted Jimmy Olsen.

#14.
Q: Do you have any plans for spinning off any of the NOWHERESVILLE into their own one-shots or series?
A: I'd love to do a story about Hayley sweating it out in an all women's prison days before she gets the juice. Who knows?

#15.
Q: While writing NOWHERESVILLE, did you ever worry that the dialogue would be too much for the average comic book reader to take?
A: Have you cut back on the dialect/slang at all in order to make it more accessible? I think it has put a few people off, but those who stuck it out and got involved in the story have come to realize how important the language is to the mood of the piece. Some cats and kitties dig that word beat. You just gotta stick your angel-head in the gone sphere, dad!

#16.
Q: NOWHERESVILLE is a departure from your previous work (yeah, I did a little reasearch!) and, from what I've read, The Lost is quite a change from NOWHERESVILLE. How difficult is it to slip in and out of genre's, from project to project?
A: Which one of my multiple personalities are you asking?

#17.
Q: Have you been approached by anyone wanting to bring NOWHERESVILLE to the big - or small - screen?
A: No comment...just cross your fingers.

#18.
Q: Will we be seeing more of NOWHERESVILLE, or is this all for the forseeable future?
A: If you're buyin'...I'm flyin'!

#19.
Q: Any chance I can get a mention of this site (4Color-Review) in a future letter column?
A: You got it!

#20.
Q: Not a question, just figured I'd give you a spot to plug your current and upcoming projects!
A: In March, "Nowheresville:The History of Cool" hits the stands with a series of short stories illustrated by Phil Hester (Swamp Thing, The Wretch), Brian Michael Bendis (AKA Goldfish, JInx), and Galen Showman (Reinfield, The Lost). It also features surprise guest artists, the ultimate '50s film noir list, and Selena's 'cool blue' cocktail recipe. Also in March, "The Lost" #3 comes out and Wendy gets her first taste, The Pan gets an eye full, Hook leaves a love letter and Tiger Lily gets down.

  If you folks out there are interested in any of these books ("The Nowheresville Special" #1, "Nowheresville:Death By Starlight" 1-4, "Warpwalking" 1-4, "Int'l Cowgirl" 1-2, "Twilight People" 1-2 and the "Book of Twilight" Graphic Novel) try purchasing them directly through Caliber comics by calling 1.888.222.6642.