This interview with comic book artist Michael Netzer was conducted by Director Sébastien Dumesnil via email during the post-production of his documentary film, Adventures Into Digital Comics. This interview is a part of the second set of interviews, which means that Michael Netzer received a set of questions created from what ended up in the movie, rather than what could end up in the movie. Once again, you may find a repetitive aspect to the questions asked, but don't forget that these interviews were conducted within the limits of what was established in the film.

I'm a storyteller and an activist of sorts, by nature, drawn into the comics at the peak of its Silver Age in the 1960's, profoundly influenced by the dramatic realism of Neal Adams' artwork yet captivated by a host of creators of that era including, Kirby, Steranko, Wrightson, Smith and many others. I emerged onto the comics scene in the 1970's, at a young age, working from Neal Adams' Continuity Associates studios but found myself quickly awakening to the global conflicts and dillemas our world was in. I then began a course of exploring the power that the comics hold in our culture and have since embarked on weaving our collective historical and social experience as a civilization into the medium. I've found that there are some very intrinsic underlying currents in the comics which point to this medium playing a very primary role in the global events unfolding in our time. I strive to bring these undercurrents to the forefront in the hope to inspire the comics community, headed by its creators, to take the more active role in our world—a role which awaits the comics industry in the future and is coming nearer to being realized today. One of the steps recently taken to help advance this change in awareness within the creators' community is the coming together of a core group of creators to form The Comic Book Creators' Guild, which aspires to strengthen the creators' independence in the medium in order to help bring a better tomorrow for the comics and for the world they thrive in.

In the film, we discuss the nature of comic books. Can you tell us what, for you, a comic book is?  What are the strengths and ideas you like or intend to explore?

First and foremost, the comics exemplify the human spirit in its raw pure force. Whether suprehero, reality-based alternative or simple cartoons, the comics explore the most intense energy inherrent in the human experience. This is perhaps why its heroes and villians are super and its melodrama driven to the highest emotional degree. Unlike other commercialized and more lauded cultural vehicles such as literature, art, music and theatre, the comics—by virtue of having been the bastard child of the creative endeavors—have maintained an independence which allows them to explore aspects of our existence that other forms can't. The creators in the comics remain a breed apart in their renegade exposition of their innermost views of the world they live in. If we were to look at the worlds within the comics as a metaphor of our world, it's easy to absorb the piercing messages that this medium brings. The synthesis of the visual and literary forms within it connect the comics, in a very primordeal way, to the very first communications forms that mankind developed, be they the first etchings made in the dust of the earth, the stone age cave art, the development of the first alphabets, the literary works of ages gone by and even the renaissance art movement from before half a millennia. The comics are a concentrate of the most basic need to communicate and tell stories in order to drive forward the human experience - and civilization as a whole.

There is a debate about the nature of the growth of comic book sales in the early 90s and the subsequent recession. Would you qualify these events as a boom followed by a crash, or an aberration followed by a “back to normal” situation? Why? In the case of a boom followed by a crash, do you feel that the small press was hurt during the same period?

Perhaps both analyses are true for the early 90's at once. There certainly was a boom followed by a crash and yet that boom was also an abberation followed by a return to a semblance of normalcy for the comics—at least normalcy as it's been perceived until now in the medium. I believe this is because of the "labor pains" like phenomenom which the industry endures in its struggle to rise from the stature of the rejected black sheep of our culture, and to stake a claim as the primary source of inspiration for statesmanship and leadership in the world. It appears that this aspiration is what's at the undercurrent of the medium and that many of its creators gear their work for this eventuality. Frank Miller, Alan Moore, Warren Ellis and Mark Millar are only a few examples of creators who've put forth sharp socio-political statements in their work. Within such a scenario, the industry endures sharp dramatic rises and falls and there's no doubt that the last crash of the early 90's, and the long time span it has endured, is an indication of an unprecedented rise which awaits the comics around the corner. I also see the setback suffered by the small press through this time as akin to an incubation period it's going through, and that a flourishing of this corner of the comics industry is inevitable. Two decades ago the small press was all but non-existent while we have scores of such publishers today gracing comics world with a wide array of new and innovative work.

In contemporary comics, storytelling tools like thought balloons or captions are mostly absent. As an example, John Byrne told us he stopped using captions when he realized that readers did not read them. Do you think that these tools are now perceived as a stigma?

I believe it's preferable for a creator to take the lead in their storytelling form and not to be led by what's perceived as the readers' whims—which change from time to time anyway. What would Dark Knight be like without captions? For example. I believe that even if captions and thought balooons are perceived to be a stigma today, an innovative creator can bring them back to popularity as viable assets in their storytelling. Creators should take the lead here and remain innovative in their work. To allow themselves to be driven by a populist perception of readership whims only stagnates a creator's true ability.

In the 90s, we saw the rise of digital lettering and coloring. Nowadays, there’s even this new trend of digital inking that people like Tim Townsend dislike a lot. What do you think about the use of these digital tools in the making of print comics?

I've been using the computer as the primary drawing, inking and coloring tool in my work for almost 10 years now and find it to be a marvelous innovation for the artist. It's still early, however, for it to become popular as such in the comics community today. Artists are traditionally a very sensual breed who need the feeling of the raw material under their hands, which the computer can't give them. I believe this to be an Achilles' Heel for the creator, which forces them to cling to tradition at the expense of advancing their craft. What I have discovered is that there is nothing which can be done with the traditional tools that cannot be done better with a computer. To me it's analagous of an imaginary situation where DaVinci would go back in time to the stone age and present the canvas and oil paint to a cave artist. The artist then says that it's nice but he needs to feel the material—as he continues to carve the raw images onto the cave wall with a stone. It would be prudent for comics creators to become more receptive to the computer as a drawing tool and to begin learning how to use it as such. The computer is becoming the tool for tomorrow's generation of creators and it's encumbant upon us to help bring it to them as such.

In the film, Chris Gossett says it is a very tough gig to try to make an original graphic novel and sell it on the American market. How difficult is it nowadays to sell an original graphic novel in the US if you’re not Alex Ross or Neil Gaiman?

Even Alex Ross and Neil Gaiman had to begin somewhere and gained their popularity through the innovative and relevant work they produced. It's clear to me that the American market is very receptive to original graphic novels and would greatly encourage them when they begin addressing the relevant concerns of the American people. When Dark Knight and Watchmen emerged in the 80's, the graphic novel form which they were compiled into, was practically unknown and it was believed that the comics were on their death bed. Through these two works and the popularity they atained then, we can learn that the relevance they both exhuded to the American people is what provided them with their success. There is a vast expanse of subject material being explored in the comics today, yet a great deal of it is still searching for a clearly defined identity. This should be a time of introspection for the creators. A time of considering the removal of the metaphoric veils which enshroud the myths of the comic book world, and for speaking more directly to the people about the world we live in. The creators possess this spirit within them, yet have subverted it in search of the commercial iconography inherrent in the pop culture. Comics books, however, came into being in order to lead a cultural evolution and not to be led by the pop frivolities all about. I have no doubt that when creators step forth with a clear and concise message to the American people in their graphic novels, that the market will react favorably and elevate such work into the limelight.

In the film, Scott McCloud says there are more golfers in this country than comic book readers. By right, we should be able to sell comics about golf, but it’s not happening. Do you feel there is an issue of diversity going on?

There is no doubt that the comics need to become more diverse and that they need to learn to communicate to the diverse populaces amongst the people. This will hapen when the act of reading a comic book becomes trendy, so to speak. It will become so when the comics become relevant and desirable to a wider audience. In order for this to happen, the comics must learn to address what it is that the potential readership is interested in and looking for.

The world has changed and evolved greatly since the days when the comics could ignore the environment they thrive in and still hold their own. The manner in which the comics based films are proliferating in Hollywood indicate that the comics community needs to consider the notion that it no longer exists within the bubble it once did. Imagine how the medium could be elevated into the limelight when it begins to present a model for a new political leadership in America, for example. Or when it begins to unravel the cobwebs from the confusion which engulfs our religeously diverse social heirarchy. These issues, and more, are at the core of the human experience for the American people today, who feel as if they've been led astray for generations by a leadership which they once believed had their best interest in mind.

Since the attacks on America by Al-Qaeda, it's becomig more evident that the socio-political leadersip in America and the world may not have the best interest of people at heart, but rather scrambles about only in attempting to bolster its own powerbase—at the expense of the people—while promising a nearby rose garden which they can never truly provide. The comic book creators have been delving into these issues of our experience for decades and stand poised to put forth a new and clear path that can deliver our civilization from the catastrophe which its present leaders inadvertantly bring upon it.

Do you think that it is now easier for kids to find printed comics or to find webcomics on the Internet? For you, what is a webcomic? Why would people read them?

The advent of the electronic age places our generation at the seam which is binding the two worlds—the pre computer world of the hard copy and tomorrow's world of digital machination expressed through the light images of the monitor. Neither the innovators in the web world nor the audience which is catering to these innovations have yet settled into the creative and viewing conventions which await them. In this time of change, it's important to understand where the trend is going and to be receptive to the changes it brings. It is much easier today to find a comic strip on the web, especially for the kids who spend much of their time at the computer. Yet there is a large group of kids who haven't adopted this machine as a companion—and for them, the printed comic book is much more readily available at hand's reach. The webcomic embodies the same essences that a printed comic does while offering a more diverse platform with which to present it. People read them for the same reason they read a printed comic book—and in that both of these platforms ultimately provide a similar experience, each with its own unique characteristics inherrent in its form.

In the film, artists like Patrick Farley and Cat Garza say they make webcomics because publishers would not touch their work, because it’s too offensive, different, etc. As an example, Farley talks about his Apocamon webcomic, a Manga style rewriting of the Book of Revelations. Do you think that the Internet could be the next logical step of the comic book for artistic or business-related reasons?

The greatest gift that the Internet has given to civilization is that it's put the dissemination of information and media within the hands of the people. Until now, a creator needed to be published by another entity in order for their work to be seen widely. This is the revolution which artists like Patrick Farley and Cat Garza are leading—by taking advantage of this development to bypass the dependency on an outside entity in order to distribute their work to the people. The even greater by-product of this development is that the creators can now produce the type of work they see fit, without the commercial constraints that the marketing forces have enforced upon them in the past. What this will eventually do is radicalize the creative process, allowing for a more pure communicative message to be put forth by the creators. When they begin to realize the incredible gift this is to their creative aspirations, the creators will eventually turn the Internet into their artistic and business base of operations. Most creators are not yet comfortable with this eventuality but I believe this will change as more innovators from the community begin to show notable successes on the web.

Finally, do you think that the tactile experience of holding a book in your hands is necessary to the comic book reading experience?

It's not necessary to hold a book in one's hand in order to have a good comic book reading experience, such as there is on the web today. I believe, however, that both forms will continue to thrive alongside each other in the same way that the television soap opera thrives alongside the romance novel. What is important here is that the reading audience understands that the digital age is bringing us a new form and leading us through a very large leap in our cultural evolution. When perceived as such—and not only as an abberation—the world of the web will live more harmoniously alongside the world of the hard copy and they will both provide a gratifying experience for their audiences.