Ronald Wimberly a.k.a. Dπ

Ronald Wimberly draws comics.  And he's damn good at it.  But as a kid he wasn't that into comic books.  He watched movies and televison.  And he loves the original Aeon Flux shorts.

I know you’ve been back for a while, but screw it. Welcome home, man. How was Japan?

That shit is light speed, my friend... and at the same time, somehow slower than here. I love it, mangue. Yeah, it was cool. I like Japan. It feels mad unaggressive and clean. For me, it's an excellent vacation spot. I like Tokyo. It's like I got more hit points there. Black people receive a turf bonus of 300 pts

Anywhere else you’re looking to go when you feel like another break?

Man, I gotta go to Vietnam.

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Yeah, it’s amazing there. I've gotta get back soon. They don’t trust us, but they still treat us like visiting kings, it's crazy.

Man... sounds like fun. But shit... I don't trust "us."

Smart guy

(Laughing) You're a white guy, nobody trusts you, not even white women. (Laughing.)

Smart women.

Print that.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Of course we're printing that. So let’s get to it. Get me up to speed starting at the front. What were the first comics or illustrations that you can remember seeing and getting blown away by? Was there anything you saw as a kid and thought, this is perfect. I don’t know if I can ever do something like this, but shit LIKE this is what I want to do, forever. Anything still stick out for you like that?

Hmmm. Crazy thing is... I am more a product of moving pictures. Images that I saw that blew my mind were probably in video game manuals. I was never impressed by comics. I remember in the encyclopedia. There were many nude images, and old Greek statues and simple line drawings... like the black and red figures on old Greek pottery, that shit blew my mind.

Animation ever get you?

Well... I always loved stuff like Bionic Six, Voltron and other cartoons that everyone liked... I'd say it was part of my development. There was a dark animated shorts show that came on PBS when I was a kid. One of the stories was the story of Baron Munchausen... the one where the baron has a contest with a Turkish prince. I am late to the game of comics though man. The first time I can say I honestly wanted to own a comic was when a friend of mine had x-men #1 by Jim Lee.

Yeah, the late arrival to comics isn’t a huge surprise, it's usually all or nothing with that shit. I do remember that issue, with the 15 different covers that finally figured out how to properly rob kids. It was right before hologram covers. We were such idiots.

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(Laughing) Yeah I mean, I was just into Psylocke... she totally embodied my fascination with empowered women who exploit their sexuality... her and Aeon flux. I still watch that show, the shorts mostly

Well Jesus, why wouldn’t you watch that show? It’s Goddamn fantastic.

I really don't think people understand how important that show is.

Preach on it.


Well… for me, it was very important. For me... it is the Stooges to my Ramones. It is the Dylan to my Hendrix. It is the Klimt to my Schiele. That shit spoke to me when everything else was just trying to sell me toys... I mean, I love that other shit too. But it was one of the first animations I saw that had the visually engaging graphic language of anime while teasing my brain into thought.

I caught onto anime fairly early... early enough to realize there was none around for me to watch. But by the time everyone else had caught on, I was already fed up with the clichés. And that's when Liquid television first aired. I was raised by TV. When I was a kid, I didn't run the "skreets", well the reason why was because I was either reading, drawing, or watching a cartoon, a giant monster, or a Chinese man kick the shit out of some hairy white dude (Return of the Dragon)

That shit shaped who I am. I was reading classic British literature like Ivanhoe when I was in the 5th grade and we didn't have shit like Harry Potter so I was reading the Tolkein... I never realized there were no black people in it. I thought the elves were like Native Americans... I had no clue about Die Neibelrung or all that crazy shit. I applied everything I read to my environment.

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Flux came out in '91 and I first saw it around '92. It’s strange but that was the first time I think I was exposed to an adult relationship that wasn’t an over simplification of Tab A inserts into Slot B and so on. Aeon flux had some pretty intense shit going on for kids to see. I was watching porno flicks and soft-core television that aired on Playboy TV at the time, but even that was pretty straight forward and white bread, nothing compared to a lot of weird sexuality and emotional frustration being thrown around by killer acrobats. Did that hit you the same way?

Yeah that shit... when I saw it.. That shit was the perfect metaphor for sexuality. It is still pretty ill. For my adult views of sexuality and relationships, it’s pretty spot on.

Yep. It was as confusing at the time, as I was confused by everything else that had to do with girls.

Yeah.

But when you got closer it was just dead on. People wanting people to act other than they are, so that they can be together, people refusing to compromise... betrayal was constant, but never a mistake or unconscious act.

Yeah, I know the episode you're speaking of specifically, prob’ the best episode (other than the shorts) the one with Onan or something?

Man.... that one, the one with the spinal hydraulics, every time her and Trevor got in the same room... just constant. But nothing messed with my head like the one with the giant mutant infant that excreted a hallucinogenic opiate. I taped that one and watched it about a hundred times. I couldn’t believe they could air an episode with a giant velvet vagina that they kept slipping through hallucinogenic time in. That was the craziest thing I ever saw by the age of 12.

YES! I swear I watched it like a few days ago.

I'm jealous.

Yeah. I have stopped waiting for this to resurface in the pop culture dialogue. It's my turn to contribute. And I am. But yeah, man I am not your typical comic book artist who read Kirby and whatever and then got into comics... I got into it ass backwards.

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So then, what was your big break into comics?

Well, that brief episode with comics in the nineties did influence me a little, but only for a year or so. I found that I was more interested in the characters in arcade games. They were more abstract and more dynamic. Then marvel superheroes came out... then late in high school I found this indie compilation called non. It was the first time that I realized that comics could be really engaging beyond the fulfillment of my power fantasies. I saw this kid David Choe's work. He had a comic called "slow jams." That shit was crazy good, those little shorts were the only things that kept me in comic stores for a minute.

Then I somehow found Moebius. I immediately fell in love with the work... but still I didn't think my style... could work in comics.

The straw that broke the camels back was Paul Pope. That fool was the missing link. I saw his work and said, here's a guy who has been doing what I am doing. He obviously is from the same school of thought. He even uses the same tools I use and shares a love for some of the same graphic conventions... that's when I said, "I can do this."

So I slept through college for four years, a sleep punctuated by a few people who urged me to chase my dreams... pursued by bill collectors I dropped out just before completion and woke up in the real world. I'd also like to shout out Taiyo Matsumoto... he sho'nuff inspired me to get into comics... also a big shout to Pratt's Static Fish, Ted Lange III, Julien, Floyd and Dan James.

I mean I hustled, making comics while working at St. Marks Sounds (biggup James, Dennis, B and Molly “shrivel-up”). Then a friend of mine dragged me to SanD, I made a connect off of a short I did for Darkhorse's now defunct Stripsearch (Gratuitous Ninja: Tangerine). One thing led to another, and now Vertigo pays my bills... I am very grateful to Vankin and Bruning over at Vertigo for recognizing my talent.

All right, since we're on point right now with the official questions, tell me about the fifteen different projects you've got going now.

(Laughing) Fifteen…well…

It’s a fair guess, right?

I don't want to seem splintered... more like Leonardo. I'm working on Sentences with Vertigo. That’s my main project. That's what keeps the lights on. It's the life story of MF Grimm. He's an MC, if you haven't heard of him. He's often slept on, but he's nice. His story is crazy! His true story is crazier than the fake lyrics of the most thug-happy MC’s out there. And I am drawing it.

That’s awesome. I got into him through his old work with MF Doom and KMD. The guy’s a genius. I’m amped to see some pages soon.

As far as your working style, I actually rarely think of it that way, as splintered, maybe because I work that way myself, but if I don’t have three or four projects actively going with a pile more on the horizon, I start to slack. Hard.

Yes, this is true. I am the same way; I need pressure to make diamonds.

Absolutely. So did this project get handed to you out of the blue? Or did you work connects and fight for it?

Man... everything I've done in comics has come fairly easy... which means, that lady luck has a crush on me. I work hard, though. I just don't spend allot of time scheming on how to "make it" I just work hard at having fun and try to be honest about what I want... I was working with vertigo on some projects when they approached me with this proj. I was the right one for the job, what can I say.

How is it working with Vertigo?

It's one of the first places where I have been completely courted for what I do... so I mean, yo... they're mad cool from what I've seen.

That’s what I always wanted to hear about Vertigo.

They respect me. Their checks clear. All of that.

Two important things.

And yeah, they do keep it real gutter... but I think the way they approach readership will be the future of the industry. Just like other markets, I think that the comic book market will find true sustainable growth from reaching out to tribes of readership as opposed to giant markets of people who are interested in latex and capes. That’s about to be dead... and by dead I mean evolving into something else. Graphically succinct, regular-deadline hitting, personal, potent storytelling. I love that old stuff but I am definitely interested in the future... always. Actually the fact that I love the old stuff is the reason why I don't like much of the new stuff. I’m not hating, just not interested. “Kirby, Kane, Canif, Krigstein” that’s my personal American comics mantra.

Anything else to say about Vertigo before I change the subject?

I wanna big up Alex Toth and Mickey Spillane. R.I.P. Please proceed.

So tell me what you've got coming up.

I got a few comic projects dropping by NYcon next year.

Tell me all about it.

Well, it's super top secret, but a comrade and I are putting together a oneshot of a concept of mine. It's about a guy who delivers chicken in a fucked up remixed version of Brooklyn. It's Edo-fabulous, like if you scratched "Ready to Die" over an old enka album. "Brooklyn Nagaremono"

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Also I am working on a short story, which is about a young comic book artist living in an apartment and having a forbidden love affair. His life is punctuated with fantastic ninja filled fantasies... his life and the comics page are mixing together.

And then there's "Prince of Cats" which I am still scripting. It's like "Kill Bill" meets "Rosencratz and Guilldinstern are Dead", I'm doing all this shit on my own, B. I could give a fuck about convention. People with money need to hollur at me. I AM THE FUTURE!!! I’m saying, it's a ninjaupera, who else is offering up that?