By Zack Quaintance — Writer/artist Tony McMillen recently funded a Kickstarter for his new book Serious Creatures on Day 2 of his campaign. It’s easy to see why this concept found such a fast audience — McMillen’s project blends his own striking cartooning style with a story that involves Hollywood in the ‘70s, growing up with creative aspirations, and the classic movie Jaws. Recently, I had the chance to send Tony a few questions about the book, all of which you can find below before heading over to the Serious Creatures campaign page to back this project.

Enjoy!

Tony McMillen Interview

ZACK QUAINTANCE: My first thought when I saw your project (which looks great) was this dude must love Jaws. So, can you start by telling us about your relationship with Jaws?

TONY MCMILLEN: Thanks for the kind words; Jaws is one of the few films I’d call a perfect movie. It might be the most rewatchable film of all time too. It’s one of the first movies as a kid that I’d watch making of documentaries about and that got me curious about the whole story behind the story of it all. Which is of course what my comic Serious Creatures is all about. 

The reason my comic begins on the set of Jaws (ostensibly, our story’s analogue film is called Fin) is because Jaws is the beginning of the blockbuster era of filmmaking and that’s something we as an audience are still dealing with  all of these MCU movies dominating the industry now. And a big part of  the success of these new blockbuster movies in the mid 70s and 80s like Jaws, Star Wars and Close Encounters were the state of the art special FX showcased in all these films.

Jaws and Spielberg are so interesting because he is an auteur filmmaker and it is an auteur film; but the style he introduces with the film and subsequent works becomes so popular and influential that the emulation of it has become the default mainstream style of popcorn movies. 

 But of course, none of this imitation comes close to what he achieves with any of his films especially Jaws, which remains his best.

ZACK: What’s your experience with Hollywood like in general? Have you ever worked in film?

TONY: I’ve only been there once but can say that I highly recommend Roscoe’s Chicken and Waffles located near where they film The Price is Right.

I’ve never been on a Hollywood production but I have been a part of a slew of independent (zero budget) movies shot in Tucson Arizona. I’ve worked as an actor and screenwriter for these movies and even performed a few stunts.

Part of the research of this book was talking to people who have worked in Hollywood in the special FX and props departments and asking them what an average (there is no average really)  day on set looks like. What are the social dynamics like on different shows? Do the craft service people hang out with stunt drivers or is there an unspoken hierarchy? That sort of stuff. The answers really helped me shape my comic.

ZACK: Another thing I was struck by was all the bonus material, from in-universe movie posters to essays by novelists, movie critics and more. What are some of the highlights of the bonus material you’ve compiled?

TONY: Making the in-universe movie posters was a nice way to take a break from comic page layouts and just indulge purely in design and illustration . There are six movie posters included for the fake films,  Fin, Bigger Brotha, *Untitled Foreign Space Opera Rip-off, I Scream the Body Electric, A Connecticut Werewolf in King Arthur’s Court and Stabbin’ in the Woods but I think Connecticut Werewolf has the best title and the best overall design of the lot.

The bonus feature I’m most excited for people to read is my Cartoonist Commentary which will be a PDF download that comes with each purchase of the comic. It’s going to be a massive page by page breakdown of all the easter eggs, references, and personal anecdotes I’ve hidden into this comic; and all with visual aids!  I’m still putting it together now and it’s been fun going back through the work and remembering what I did, “Oh, yeah, that’s a Basil Gogos Famous Monsters homage and then that’s a character based on the stop motion animator for Robocop even though the way I draw makes him look like that drug dealing ice cream man I knew as a kid.”

ZACK: Your Kickstarter looks like an outstanding success. How has the process been on your end?

TONY: Thank you, yeah, this thing seems to be working out just dandy. We’re at 200% funding now and new people are still finding it. The process has been a lot of fun if only because it’s made such a fuss for the book so quickly.  But I think if I’m successful with this it’s because of the same thinking I apply to everything I make: Would I buy this? 

I try to be really honest about what I would and wouldn’t put my own dollars towards. That informs how I shoot my promo video, how I make my rewards and how came up with my tagline “A horror adjacent coming of age comedy.”  

So, using that as a compass, the process has been illuminating for me. 

Mostly it’s illuminated me to the fact that I’m terrible at math! But thankfully I fixed all my mistakes when calculating shipping costs and whatnot BEFORE I launched my campaign. People, check your maths!

ZACK: Finally, I know you say on the campaign page there’s more Serious Creatures to come. Can you give us some teases or hints about the potential future of this story?

This collection tells a complete story arc entitled Never Been to California but it’s only  the first half of the overall Serious Creatures saga. The final story arc will be called Now Leaving the Golden State and it picks up with our main character Bobby Feckle at age 20 about to begin making the special FX for what we’ve been told will be his masterpiece. A sci-fi horror film called It Knocks which will rock the effects world as well as cement Bobby’s legend. But without giving away too much of ; Bobby’s various relationships have already taken on some battle damage by the end of the first arc of the story and when we return they’re going to be tested to the breaking point. Bobby is becoming more and more isolated even as his talents are becoming more and more articulated… Bobby’s career is loosely based on FX legend Rob Bottin’s own and this next film in Bobby’s career is analogous to John Carpenter’s The Thing that Bottin made his name on. So, if you know anything about how that shook out at the box office, in pop culture history and with Bottin you know Bobby is in for some monstrously rude awakenings.

SERIOUS CREATURES

Serious Creatures
Writer/Artist: Tony McMillen
It’s 1974, Bobby Feckle is fourteen years old and sneaking onto the set of some movie about a shark terrorizing a New England tourist town. The movie will change Hollywood and Bobby’s life.…If they can just get the damn animatronic shark to stop sinking.
Back It Here: Serious Creatures