CJ Standal chatted with cartoonists Marc and Daniel Michaud on the recent release of HΩME Vol. 3, the latest and largely stand-alone entry in their HΩME series. They also discussed Marc’s experience being a member of the Cartoonist Cooperative in general, along with his experience having them select HΩME Vol. 3 as one of their campaigns, one of their cartoonists’ releases to support (disclaimer: CJ Standal is also a member of the Cartoonist Cooperative).

15 page preview of HΩME Vol. 3

Graphic Policy: Describe your graphic novel (each of the stories) and why readers should check it out. Also, where can readers get HΩME?

Marc Michaud: HΩME is a soft sci fi series that I do with my brother, Daniel Michaud, where we each write and draw our own stories set in a shared universe: ARC29 and DEMETER. Think Star Trek meets Little House on the Prairie with a touch of David Lynch.

In ARC29, Patrick, the protagonist and captain of the ship, decides to read the journals left for him by his now deceased mentor, setting up a story within a story where Patrick learns more about his friend.

In DEMETER, Captain Thoreau is spiraling as he is confronted with the difficult choices he must make ahead of settling this new, harsh, planet. His delay has Cyril confronting him, asking “Where is the Captain?!”

I think readers should give it a try because it feels like long form serialized comics are getting to be rare in the indie sphere and I’m here for the long haul. 

The books can be ordered at your local comic shop, online or on my website homecomics.ca

GP: Brothers working in a shared title and/or universe isn’t completely unheard of in comics (the Hernandez brothers and brothers Ba and Moon leap right to mind, for instance), but it’s always an exciting situation.

What is it like working with each other in the same universe? 

MM: Generally, it’s a very positive experience. I use Daniel as my sounding-board as well as a critic, helping me get the best possible page or sequence. He is also my first reader, so he tells me what does and doesn’t work. I trust and value his opinion so this is a very important step in my process. 

Daniel Michaud: As stereotypical as it may sound, it just feels totally natural. We’ve been collaborating and sharing discoveries in our artistic practices in some way or another since childhood.

GP: How much of your separate stories are planned ahead of time and how much of the stories evolve based on what you’re seeing the other do?

MM: The stories are separated in continuity by about 400 years or so, meaning the characters don’t affect each other in direct ways. We share locations, ideas and a robot, otherwise the stories mostly stand on their own, all while informing and enriching each other. 

DM: Marc generally keeps his cards close to his chest when it comes to his stories. He’ll send me “roughs” that I dissect and comment on. I, on the other hand, need input as the stories grow. I call him on the phone when needed.

GP: How do you resolve any disputes between you two, whether there is a difference of opinion for content, storytelling style, or publishing/marketing decisions?

MM: Rarely, we’ll argue over a story element but it’s usually resolved quickly. Since we’ve worked hard to keep our stories connected but separate, most of these issues are minor details. Some things have been added or altered in my story to accommodate his and vice versa. We talk nearly daily on the phone, usually touching on the comic in some way before veering into whatever else might be of interest at the time. It can get fiery but our goal is always to make the best comic possible, so we work it out.  In terms of publishing and marketing, I usually take control and make the decisions after consulting with Daniel. 

DM: Working in comics has actually greatly reduced our disputes. Painting murals, on the other hand, things weren’t always so rosy. We’d frequently raise our voices and get in each other’s faces about silly things like value schemes and colour choices. Nowadays I’d say that the disputes are mostly centered around my current productive output.

GP: How much world building did you two do together before you created anything? How much do you have to do, if any, as you’ve created more graphic novels in this shared universe?

MM: Not much. I’m a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants writer, for the most part. I planned the first book of ARC29 and left myself many holes that I would have to fill as I went along. 

DM: Hopefully there’ll be much more to come. DEMETER has been much more about the founding rather than the colony itself. I anticipate working closely with Marc when it comes to world building on the planet as it will invariably influence his story.

GP: One of the similarities between both of your stories and styles that I noticed was that you both seem to evenly balance futuristic things like spaceships and robots with more contemporary things like baseball and horses. Was that intentional and why so? Or, if not intentional, why do you think that happened?

MM: It was intentional from the start. My core concept, for ARC29, was to develop three storylines that I could jump between as I wished: Patrick’s tale of leaving Demeter and inheriting the ship, Orlando’s journals and last, the colonization of Demeter some 400 years earlier. When I initially explained this concept to Daniel, he immediately saw the scope of the project and offered to take over the telling of the settlement, to which I agreed wholeheartedly. The original idea was to have this settlement on a backwoods planet that would resemble, in large part, the difficult situation facing the pioneers in northern Canada. Daniel had long talked about making a comic that was essentially a soap-opera about pioneers, so we transplanted that idea into a sci-fi colony.

GP: I also noticed that you both like the story within the story approach, not just on the level of you each doing your stories in the same universe but also in both using extended flashbacks. Did you both do that intentionally, and if so, why? If not, why do you think it happened coincidentally?

MM: I think it happened coincidentally. It has to do with the way the stories are structured that flashbacks become necessary to tell the whole thing, especially since our stories happen at separate times. It becomes difficult to have a “now”, if that makes sense? 

DM: I just can’t think of another way to tell a story

GP: You’re a member of the Cartoonist Cooperative, and HΩME is one of their featured campaigns. What has your experience of the CC been generally?

MM: Very positive. The idea that there’s a group of like-minded folks that are helping expose my work to more people is amazing. Given the nature of indie publishing today, where the artist is also the promoter/marketer, this is a wonderful thing to have, especially since I’m not very active on social media and am not yet a well known artist. The sense of community fostered by the cooperative is also invaluable. The solitary nature of cartooning makes it easy to isolate oneself and the coop acts almost like a remote support group. 

DM: Marc is totally satisfied and is genuinely excited when he talks about the CC. I think it’s a noble initiative which aligns with my values. Cartoonists helping cartoonists.

GP: It strikes me that working as a brother team in your shared universe might be good prep and practice for working with the CC. In what ways has working together prepared you to work with the CC and in what ways has working with the CC been different?

MM: With the CC, I’m appreciative of the smallest action; a post or shared post, an email sent or an interview. I would never tell anyone in the coop what to do, the same can’t be said between brothers, haha 

DM: I’m not exactly very active online, but please tell me what I can do to be of service to the CC.

GP: How has your experience with them on the campaign specifically been? In what ways have they helped you and your graphic novel’s launch?

MM: We’re still actively in the campaign, but so far I think it’s helping it get seen, through posts and shares and emails to websites and influencers and such.

GP: I didn’t read the previous ARC stories but found this easy to understand and pretty much self-contained, which was your intention, clearly stated at the beginning.

GP: The exposition paragraphs at the beginning that places this story in the series’ context is something that is a little more old-fashioned in today’s comics. The rest of Arc, in terms of storytelling, feels much more contemporary (thinking of a lot of the silent pages/filmic storytelling). In light of this, why choose the more traditional, expositional approach at the beginning?

MM: This is the first book that I use this tool since book one starts in situ and book two is a flashback to Patrick’s youth with no direct connection to book one. With book three being a direct follow up to one, chronologically at least, I felt the narration was needed to establish where and when we are, for new readers as well as those who’d read the first two. It never occurred to me that it was old-fashioned but given the retro style we’re working with, it does seem to fit nicely. I think it also speaks to the mish-mash of influences in my work.

GP: Other than what I mentioned above, I do sense a fusion of new and old approaches in content and storytelling. In what ways do you feel like your work is more traditional and in what ways do you think it’s more innovative?

MM: I think my work is traditional in the sense that I’m trying to reach the heights of the classic storytellers working in black and white and tone. My working method is a hybrid, thumbnailing on paper, roughs and pencils are done digitally then printed in non-photo blue and inked/lettered by hand. I think my work is innovative in the focus and structure of my stories, having multiple storylines to jump to. This becomes much more evident in book 4 ;)

GP: How did you accomplish this, making a self contained, yet serial, story? What story or character elements did you leave out from previous volumes and how did you decide what to take out/leave unsaid from previous volumes vs. what connections to make and leave in? 

MM: You’ve touched on what is one of the trickiest parts of writing, as far as I’m concerned. My goal is to write what feels like a complete story every time, so that a new reader can feel like they’ve understood enough but if they’ve read the rest, it will be richer for it; not necessary, but better and certainly bigger. With each successive volume, I’ve tried to increase the scope of ARC29.  I can only hope that I’ve been successful in this task.

GP: How does that approach compare to the way you produced other Arc stories in previous volumes of HΩME?

MM: Since the previous volumes are out of chronological sequence, I felt it was easier to keep them as separate, complete stories. The new challenge, in book three, was to connect it to the previous books and use them as a framing device to tell a new complete story within a story.

GP: In what way do you think Arc compares/contrasts with Demeter? In other words, what does it add to HΩME that Demeter doesn’t, and what do you think Demeter adds that Arc doesn’t?

MM: If nothing else, ARC29 brings volume. For multiple reasons, I’m able to produce more pages faster, so there’s substantially more ARC29. I also think the multiple storyline approach brings some vitality to the project. DEMETER is a much more singularly focused story that is only starting to take shape. I have the advantage of knowing where it’s headed and its epic nature, which is in contrast to ARC29’s smaller scale, personal stories. 

GP: I didn’t read the previous Demeter stories but, like Arc, I found this easy to understand and pretty much self-contained.

DM: Thanks, that means a lot.

GP: AArc had an exposition paragraph at the beginning that placed that story in the series’ context. You didn’t do that here. Why?

DM: Comics are really hard, it’s honestly just something that I forgot to do. When my editor read and commented on the book, he suggested that I help the reader with more “signposts” in the future, which makes total sense. You can expect an exposition paragraph and other various “signposts” starting in book #4!

GP: How did you accomplish making the story self contained, especially without beginning expository captions? What story or character elements did you leave out from previous volumes and how did you decide what to take out/leave unsaid from previous volumes vs. what connections to make and leave in? 

DM: Marc has always spoken about the importance that his books be self contained and it makes sense to me. It’s difficult to judge if I succeeded without having outside readers such as yourself tell me it works. It’s been a very challenging to pull off because I set myself on a very strange path starting in book #1. Marc had already drawn his entire story (twice if I’m not mistaken) before I had the opportunity to devote myself to the project. Knowing I couldn’t draw a 40+ page story within a reasonable amount of time, I decided to create a 15 page preview. Much like a movie trailer with loosely coherent themes and abrupt ellipsis, book #1 anticipated stories I’d tell in the next 4-5 books. As of book four I’ll be out of that hole and on to vastly different comics.

GP: In what way do you think Demeter compares/contrasts with Arc? In other words, what does it add to HΩME that Arc doesn’t, and what do you think Arc adds that Demeter doesn’t?

DM: When we were younger and exploring psychedelics, it struck one day that Marc was always looking up at the sky, pointing out clouds, colours, birds and stars. My attention was always focused on the ground. At the plants and mosses and the little life.

GP: Is there anything else you’d like to mention?

MM: I’d like to thank you for the thoughtful questions and the coop for their help in promoting the book. Look forward to more HΩME comics, book 4 is almost done! 

DM: Thanks for taking the time to read the comic and for all of your effort in contributing positively to the milieu.