Interviews

Interview with Nunzio DeFilippis & Christina Weir: Part Three

By LJ Douresseau
December 14, 2003 - 09:26

Was Oni receptive to it? Did anybody bring up My Big Fat Greek Wedding?

ND: Oni was very receptive. There was no direct BIG FAT GREEK WEDDING talk, except for an occasional "the timing's right for a wedding story" comment. There's not a lot the two stories share beyond big families from the Mediterranean.

How did Jose Garibaldi become part of the project? How well do you think he conveys what you were trying to do? Considering his style and your large cast, did you think he'd be able to pull off making each person look different? I think he did. It's neat the way he makes the son, Joseph Pirelli, bare a strong resemblance to his father, Franco.

CW: James Lucas Jones suggested him to us. We saw some of his work and really liked his style. It's completely different from Brian Hurtt's very realistic style in SKINWALKER and THREE STRIKES. But that's a good thing. Jose's style adds a nice flair to the story. And we were so impressed with how he defined the very large cast. He was able to make each character look distinctive and yet make it seem like they were all part of the same family. I can't imagine anyone else drawing Maria's Wedding.

How much work did it take to define the story and establish a large cast and exactly how each person fit in the story?

ND: We tend to break our stories down methodically, so we're always looking towards pacing the character stories and arcs. In this case, we had a larger cast, so we kept an eye on each "scene" and moment. Who was getting their time and their moments? Who hadn't been seen in a while? Where do we need them to go? It was a juggling act, to be sure.

We'd briefly discussed your family's reaction to the book considering that it's based on your relatives. Were there really hurt feelings and some anger?

ND: This book has been a painful learning experience for me. I knew, in writing it, that I ran the risk of offending certain extended family members. The ones who had the same sorts of problems with my brother's wedding. They were not going to like how Giulia's family was depicted. Those family members haven't seen the book and may never see it. But if they do, we're bracing for major fallout. But the surprise for me was how my brother and his husband reacted, and how my parents reacted. In the end, I had to realize that stories that are so personal will never satisfy those close the actual events. The parts that are true will be too true, and the parts that are fiction "never happened that way." Everyone will be too close to the story to look at it without getting upset. This was a troubling lesson because it puts this distance between the writer and the family, and I think it is a permanent thing.

How much consideration did each of you give to using your personal lives as a template for the book? In hindsight, do you think you were insensitive to feelings, and how will that play on your future works? Or do you consider yourselves storytellers, and damn the feathers that you might ruffled?

CW: I think Nunzio is much more hesitant now given the family reaction to Maria's Wedding. But I think it's a fact of life that as a writer you draw on personal experiences. Those are the things you have the most insight into. Those are the things that matter most to you. It inevitably creeps into your writing. I don't think we were insensitive to his immediate family's feelings. But as Nunzio has already said, they were probably too close to the story to react any other way. Because they are family and we care about them, it's bothersome that this was the outcome, but Maria's Wedding is still a project we're both very proud of.

Did Oni show this Maria's Wedding around before publication, and what has the reaction to it been like? Are you aware of what the sales are both in the direct market and bookstores?

CW: All the reviews have been very positive. It's probably the best-received thing we've done to date. But I have heard nothing as far as sales figures go. I know Oni sold out at the San Diego Con, but that's about the extent of my knowledge on the subject.

ND: Our Oni work generally seems to get good reviews but manages, I'm afraid, to avoid generating much real buzz. It seems like people like what we write, but then it dies down, and it's kind of distressing. With Maria's Wedding, I think we were overshadowed by BLANKETS, a graphic novel with autobiographical content that bowled over everyone. To have our (smaller) GN with a 'real-life' subject matter come out only a couple of weeks later really left us in a big shadow.

Are you going to revisit the Pirelli's?

ND: If we do, I don't think I'll tell my family about this one.

CW: We had never really thought about it. But several people have asked so we've contemplated other stories we could tell. But I don't think it'll be any time in the near future.

Tell us about your upcoming comics projects. Everything - story, format, and likely shipping dates. Heck, even share the stuff that's just floating around in your head if you wanna.

CW: We have a six-page Wonder Woman story coming out in January in Wonder Woman #200. it's an anniversary issue and DC is doing a bunch of stories. We wrote a Silver Age tale that is a campy look at Wonder Woman. We also have two graphic novels coming from Oni Press in 2004. The first one, ONCE IN A BLUE MOON, is due out in April. It will be the first in a series of fantasy books. We went with a manga-esque flavor and the book tells the story of a teenage girl who falls through a storybook into a magical kingdom. There she discovers that she is destined to ride the last dragon and save the people from the evil tyrant. The art is by Jennifer Quick.

ND: The other graphic novel from Oni is THE TOMB. The Tomb is a cross between a pulpy archaeologist in the ruins, curse of King Tut tale, and a classic haunted house story. It's the story of a house in New England where a long-forgotten member of the Tut expedition holed up after stealing several artifacts. When he died, he buried his household staff with him. Now, 50 years after his death, an archaeologist and a tabloid reporter are leading an expedition into the house - only to find the place is haunted and loaded with traps like an old Tomb. And once they get in, they can't get out. The book is due out in July 2004, with art by Chris Mitten, who did the art on the excellent Oni graphic novel LAST EXIT BEFORE TOLL.

Are you hoping to do more work with Marvel and DC or are you looking to do more independent, creator-owned, graphic novels and series? Do you look at Marvel as a paycheck, and Oni as a place to freely tell stories and to explore comics as a form of storytelling or is it a bit more complicated?

CW: We're hoping to do both actually. There's no denying that working at Oni allows us the chance to tell many stories that we couldn't tell elsewhere. But we'd like other jobs from Marvel or DC because obviously the pay is better. However, we don't think of Marvel as "just a paycheck." We're having fun with the characters we're working with and trying to come up with some great stories. You just have to remember that at the end of the day, you're playing in someone else's sandbox so to speak and they get the final word.

At the end of the day, where do you feel most comfortable as storytellers, Marvel or Oni? Why? Or is this a loaded question from a messy a-hole.

ND: Not a loaded question, but one with the obvious answer. Oni. At Oni we are telling our stories, and we have the final say in how those stories go (Oni has the final say in if they are stories they want to get involved with, but otherwise, they let us exercise near-total control). At Marvel (and in our limited experience with DC), we're telling the stories and we're very proud of what we do, but in the end, we're telling THEIR stories. We may come up with everything from the characters to the plot to the beats to the dialogue, but they own it all, and can change any of those elements. You have to be aware of that going in. We still approach the process the same way, creatively, but you can't get as attached to what you do. You have to do the best you can and then let it go - which is often easier said than done. But having to distance yourself from your work, even marginally, keeps the process from feeling as organic as it does at a place like Oni.

Have you been able to write for (The Disney Channel's) "Kim Possible," and would you like to share your thoughts on that work? If it's worked out, can we get episode titles?

CW: We developed some story ideas for Kim Possible. Disney bought two of them, but ultimately had someone from the Kim Possible staff write them. We're not sure when they'll air. Probably some time in 2004. One is called "Mother's Day" and the other is called "O Boys." The ideas were fun to develop and if given the chance we'd do more work with them, but for now that's been the extent of our involvement with the show.

As of this time, what are your thoughts about staying in comics for a while. Would one of you like to leave and pursue other work or is writing a team deal for the time being?

ND: I definitely think writing comics is a regular thing for us. It's where we hope to make our steady living. We haven't given up on TV or film, but our focus has been on the comic stuff. We pride ourselves on writing fast and being able to focus on multiple projects, so it's not like we have to choose. We have let TV fall a bit behind, because we're not sure what opportunities there are for us right now. We'd rather write the comics, try to sell them as films (if they're creator owned) and use the extra time to come up with new film ideas (which we will often send to Oni first so they can be comics before we write a screenplay). We plan to go back to TV once we have some film success, enough to develop our own show.

CW: As for writing as a team, we've always told each other that the other person has to feel free to pursue projects on their own. I don't think either of us would want to stop the other from doing something. But as we see it, for now we make each other better writers and we have fun working together. So for the time being, we're a team all the way!

What are the comics that you enjoy reading? In fact, do either of you look at comics as an art form in such a way that you're reading magazines like The Comics Journal and Comic Book Artist and are also trying to examine international comics?

ND: We don't tend to read a lot of the publications ABOUT comics, like the Journal, or even Wizard (unless we're looking to see if they're mentioning us). We do read a lot of comics. We read most of what Oni puts out. I particularly like QUEEN & COUNTRY, COURTNEY CRUMRIN & ALLISON DARE. In the super heroic arena, I like what Brian Bendis has done with ULTIMATE SPIDERMAN. I didn't read it right away, but am catching up in trades, and really like that book. I think what he's done with DAREDEVIL is a great new direction. I like Greg Rucka's take on WOLVERINE and have enjoyed his first few issues of WONDER WOMAN. Geoff Johns is really talented, and I enjoy THE FLASH and TEEN TITANS. I also keep up with the X-books and do a lot of X-reading, mostly X-TREME and NEW X-MEN. Our fellow Tsunami books have some real winners in there: RUNAWAYS, SENTINEL (great book that should not have been cancelled before there was even a trade!), MYSTIQUE are my favorites. I also like Karl Bollers' EMMA FROST title.

I like to offer the subjects a chance to freestyle and say whatever they want. Fire!

Hmmm... we've answered so many questions on so many topics, broken into so many e-mails, it's hard to think of something we haven't at least touched on already.

But thanks for the offer.

AND WE CLOSE THE DOOR. Of course, I want to thank, Nunzio and Christina for even tolerating such a long interview. I asked them back in the summer about an interview, and they agreed. I didn't begin until October and kept badgering them with questions until December. If you like their New Mutants, you simply must partake of their fine Oni comics, including Maria's Wedding, Skinwalker, and Three Strikes, which you can get by visiting www.onipress.com.

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Leroy.

Last Updated: August 31, 2023 - 08:12