Kyle Baker has recently been making waves with his
recent critically-acclaimed Vertigo book, King
David. Previous works have included Cowboy
Wally, Why I Hate Saturn, You Are Here, and I
Die At Midnight. Baker is also the creator
behind the ten-page Elsewords story, "Letitia
Lerner, Superman's Babysitter," which made comic
book headlines when DC objected to it, banned it, and
destroyed it, but later decided to reprint it in the Bizarro
Hardcover. At the 2000 San Diego Comic-Con,
Kyle received two Eisner Awards, one for I Die At
Midnight and another for "Superman's
Babysitter."
Slush talks to Baker about his current and future
comic projects, as well as good 'ol Hollywood.
Just what does he have to do with Bugs Bunny?
Read and find out.
Dan Epstein: What made you decide to the story of
King David?
Kyle Baker: I like it because it’s got all the
standard elements I look for when doing a story. It’s
got action, girls, and a moral.
DE: And lots of foreskins.
KB: Yeah.
DE: Are you Jewish by the way?
KB: Nope.
DE: I had to ask because I read King David
over Passover and I was asked a million times if I was
reading it because it’s a Jewish holiday.
How many times did you have to read the story of
King David in order to get it down?
KB: Plenty. I kept referring to it because it’s
pretty accurate. I didn’t change a lot; I made up
some goofy dialogue.
DE: Did you read comic book versions of the Bible
at all?
KB: I remember seeing one that Joe Kubert drew. I
looked at it, but I didn’t read it.
DE: There are some hysterical throwaway lines in King
David, such as, “What is it with you and
shepards.” How long do you spend thinking of those
one-liners?
KB: With this book I blasted through a first draft
just to get it down. It’s not like I have to get the
script in shape for another artist to draw. I write a
really long first draft and then I draw the book
without looking at the script at all.
DE: Really?
KB: Yeah, because I want to it to work visually.
You can read that book without ever looking at the
words. Then I go back to the script and take the
funniest lines and put them into the book. If you
write a script with way too much funny stuff and then
take out everything that didn’t end up being funny
you end up with just enough funny stuff.
DE: King David seemed to have the cartoonish
look as well but with a little scratchier line than
the last book. Why?
KB: I did it with a marker.
DE: Was that because it wasn’t a noir type?
KB: I just try to not do the same thing over and
over again.
DE: The story seemed to get much more serious and
have less jokes towards the end, is that because the
original story was much more serious at that point?
KB: I thought so. I usually like to change tone.
DE: King David seems to be a throwback to Why
I Hate Saturn in that it’s a heavier story. It’s
not super fun.
KB: I enjoyed it.
DE: Did it bum you out?
KB: Well, towards the end a little.
DE: How much did you identify with the character of
David? He seemed to look like you as a grown man.
KB: He looks like me as a kid too. That’s how I
used to look. I referenced a lot of pictures of me as
a kid. [laughs]
DE: King David is almost like a novel except
you get to skip the hard part of writing description
by drawing. Do you think you could write a novel?
KB: I’ll find out. I’m writing a novel this
year. A Superman novel. One of those paperbacks. I
thought it would be fun to try. I haven’t done
superheroes for years, but Superman is pretty easy to
do.
DE: How much do you identify with any of your
characters? Probably the most with Annie in Why I
hate Saturn.
KB: I guess. It’s extremes of personality. When
you’re making a character they’re usually pretty
one-dimensional and you make them you to an extreme.
DE: You’ve said you grew up watching Disney films
but if I had to equate it to a cartoon I would say Don
Bluth [director of All Dogs Go to Heaven and Titan
A.E.] rather than Walt Disney. What do you think
of that?
KB: I just like good cartoons. I look at everything
I can. I look at a lot of Mad magazines. Right
now I’m working on new Looney Tunes so I’m
watching a lot of Looney Tunes. I’m staff at
the office of Warner Bros watching tapes.
DE: What are you doing with Looney Tunes
exactly?
KB: They’re bringing Looney Tunes shorts
back for theatrical release. So we’re here cranking
out shorts.
DE: Did they wait until Chuck Jones died or
something?
KB: No. It’s funny because he died a couple of
weeks into it. It’s interesting; I’ve never had a
job in an office before.
DE: Weren’t you an intern for Marvel Comics?
KB: Yeah, but that’s interning. You can come in
whenever the hell you want [since] they’re not
paying you.
DE: Rolling Stone magazine named you Hot
Comic Book Author of 1991. How did that change or help
your career?
KB: I guess everything helps but I didn’t notice
much of anything different.
DE: You also work on the Rugrats newspaper
strip.
KB: I did it because I’m having kids and they can’t
read my books. I thought it would be for them and the
money was just terrible and they were just a pain a
neck to work for. Because you really can’t be very
creative, you have to draw the Rugrats in that style.
DE: SHOOT magazine described
you as a cutting edge African-American illustrator.
What do you think of that?
