The author behind Box Office Poison returns with Tricked, his first original graphic novel. In our first ever Panel Discussion interview, we get the scoop.

Many readers shy away from comics because, let's face it, there's not much to identify with in the standard adolescent male power fantasy that is the vast majority of superhero comics. If you happen to share this sour attitude, checking out Alex Robinson's Box Office Poison should be one helluva wake-up call.

Box Office Poison is a story of ordinary people, of dead-end jobs and wasted time. The ensemble comedy follows bookstore clerk Sherman and his struggles dealing with the girlfriend he loves and the roommate that can't stand her, plus his best friend Ed's struggles to score a career in the comic book industry, all captured by Robinson's impeccable, natural-sounding dialogue and knack for down-to-earth characters. The original BOP series, released in single-issue form by Antarctic Press, became an underground hit, and is now seeing life once again in a new printing of the 608-page monster edition from Top Shelf Productions. "I'm amazed," says Robinson, in response to his first major story's enduring fame. "As you might guess from the title of the book, I never imagined it would be very popular, so it seems crazy to me that it's done as well as it has."

Four years later, Robinson has finally completed his follow-up. The new book, Tricked, follows six seemingly unconnected people whose lives collide after an event Robinson cryptically refers to as "an act of violence." Like his previous work, Tricked still leans much more heavily on characters over mere plot devices. "The biggest difference is probably the structure," Robinson reports. "With Tricked, I gave myself the challenge of following six different characters, all with their own, separate storyline. Until the last scene, there would be very little interaction between them."

It's an interesting mix of personalities as well, with a rock legend riddled with writer's block, the rocker's obsessed fan, a counterfeiter coming ever closer to getting caught, a girl in search of her lost father, and an office temp on the verge of success. And to round things out, BOP's Caprice makes a return. "I've started to think of it as a good luck charm, to bring a minor character back to play a bigger part in another story," Robinson reveals. "I thought it would be fun to have Caprice be the link, since I like her and she was the most undeveloped, interesting character from Box Office Poison."

Robinson admits that creating Tricked was not without its missteps. "I had a bunch of false starts before settling on the story that became Tricked, so to some extent I was taking the best characters or situations from the earlier versions and fusing some of them together, like the Beatles did with the "Golden Slumbers" medley on Abbey Road...if I can be so pretentious as to compare myself to the Beatles," he laughs.

Since Tricked is being released as one complete collection, Robinson has no idea how the book will be received, but he remains hopeful. "I could be basking in the glow of another success or crying myself to sleep every night, a broken man," he counters. "The one thing I've sort of learned over the years is to get as much pleasure as I can out of actually writing and drawing comics, because everything else is, to some degree or another, out of your control. I just want everyone to like me!" | Jason Green

The Complete Alex Robinson interview (interview conducted by Comics Editor Jason Green)

I'm amazed. As you might guess from the title of the book, I never imagined that it would be very popular, so it seems crazy to me that it's done as well as it has. Top Shelf took a bit of a gamble, since they hadn't done anything that big before - big in terms of page count, not popularity - so I'm glad it paid off for them.

Other than a different cover and nicer paper, there's no real difference between this printing and the last one. I didn't want to add five new pages and call it a "definitive edition" or anything, since I hate it when people do that.

It was mostly Top Shelf's idea, actually. They figured that a graphic novel of all-new material would create more of a buzz than just-another-collection, and obviously the success they've had with [Craig Thompson's] Blankets and other books has proven them right. I have to admit I was nervous about it, at first, but hopefully it will pay off. It took me a while to get used to it. Having a quarterly/bimonthly schedule sort of forced me to stick to a routine and be more disciplined. Having a deadline that was so far away made it all too easy to let days slip by. "I've got a year to do this. What's one day spent in front of the computer playing Zoo Tycoon?"

I think there are other advantages to going all-original, though, especially with this book. Tricked is structured in such a way that someone who bought the first twenty pages or so as a floppy might not take to it immediately. Not that it's bad, but if you only read the first chapter it gives very little indication where the book will be going.

The biggest difference is probably the structure. Box Office Poison is done in a more conventional manner, with the scenes more or less going chronologically. With Tricked I gave myself the challenge of following six different characters, all with their own, separate storyline. Until the last scene, there would be very little interaction between them. To make it even harder for myself, I decided that I would always tell the characters' stories in the same order. That is, first I would have a chapter about Ray, then Nick, then Phoebe, Steve, Caprice and finally Lily. At that point I would start over: chapter two of Ray, chapter two of Nick, chapter two of Phoebe, etc. I didn't realize how difficult it would make it sometimes, sticking to that rigid pattern.

There are some other differences which people might not pick up on. I stopped using mechanical pens to ink and switched to these Japanese brush pens, so the art looks slightly different...better, hopefully! Also, very early on I decided not to use any real life pop cultural references.

Yeah, I don't know. I think part of it is that there are actually six stories, so summing them all up is hard. Box Office Poison had two main plots, so it was easier to tell people it was about an old cartoonist fighting a big corporation for the rights to his character, and a bookstore clerk dealing with a troubled relationship. But with Tricked: it's about a rock star [Ray Beam] struggling to write some songs, and then he meets this woman who he thinks could be his muse and solve his creative problems, and it's also about this guy, Nick, who's leading a double life as a counterfeiter, but it's also about this high school girl who's using her summer vacation to try and track down the father she doesn't remember and had assumed was dead, and it's also about an obessed music fan who has stopped taking his medicaiton waiting for Ray Beam's new album to come out. Meanwhile, we have Caprice who's working as a waitress and has just got out of a bad relationship and is worried that she's somehow screwed up and can only be attracted to cruel men. Finally, we have Lily, who's working as an office temp until she gets the rare opportunity to be the personal assistant to a famous person. It's a lot to summarize!

I think, also, like Box Office Poison, it's not as much about the plot. I think it's more about the characters and their foibles that makes it interesting.

I didn't get married until fairly late in the game, last Fall, so it didn't really have much of an impact. Plus, I'd already been with my girlfriend, Kristen, for ten years, so emotionally we were pretty much married already. Actually, it was funny because right after we got married I really had to get it in gear, drawing-wise, if I was going to have the book out for this Summer so the first few months I was married I feel like I hardly saw her, since I was working so much. I pretty much did a page a day for three months or so. It was exhausting!

I don't recall, exactly. I had actually had a bunch of false starts before settling on the story that became Tricked, so to some extent I was taking the best characters or situations from the earlier versions and fusing some of them together. It also might've been like the Beatles did with the "Golden Slumbers" medley on Abbey Road: take a bunch of unfinished songs that might not've been strong enough on their own, fuse them together, and see what happens. If I can be so pretentious as to compare myself to The Beatles.

Well, there were three reasons, basically.

For one thing, I was approached by a publisher in Spain about Box Office Poison into Spanish which I was very excited about, naturally. The translator said he had a few questions about some of the pop cultural references, and would I be kind enough to explain them? It turned out to be about a hundred questions. "What did ‘Kiss my grits' mean?" "Who were Laurel and Hardy?" "Who is Humbert Humbert?" on and on. It made me really self-conscious that I might be using pop cultural stuff as a sort of crutch, overdoing it.

The other reason is that because pop culture is constantly changing, and changing faster all the time, sometimes the nature of the reference can change. For instance, I made a reference to Anna Nicole Smith in Box Office Poison which was done before her TV show but now reads slightly differently. And, of course, in another ten years Anna Nicole Smith will probably barely be remembered at all, so if your work to have any timelessness at all you have to be picky.

The other reason was that one of the main characters would be a pop singer, and I didn't want to pin him down to any one type of real-life counterpart.

When I first came up with the character she was never intended to stick around longer than that one chapter of the book. She was actually supposed to quit the bookstore after that one appearance, as a way to show Sherman that it was possible. You could control your destiny, a lesson Sherman badly needed teaching. But I liked Caprice so much as a character I brought her back, and she wound up playing a big part in that story.

This is going to sound silly, but I've started to think of it as a sort of good luck charm, to bring a minor character back to play a bigger part in another story. For example, Jane from Box Office Poison was actually a minor character in another story I wrote back in college (which was never intended for publication). And so on. Using this sort of geneology, I can trace Tricked's roots all the way back to a story I did in high school called Quincy and Allison.

So I thought it would be fun to have Caprice be the link, since I like her and she was the most undeveloped, interesting character from Box Office Poison.

It's funny because I really like the idea of doing at least a short story showing what everyone has been up to, but I don't know if I ever will. For one thing, it's hard to come up with a story that could encompass all the characters. At the end of the book they've all sort of drifted apart, and I haven't been able to think of any logical reason that they would all get together, not that I've spent hours and hours thinking about it.

The other thing is that I don't know if the audience would like it, since they would all be very different people than they were.

As I'm answering these questions it's actually a few weeks before the book comes out, so I'm very nervous about it. That's one of the drawbacks to not serializing, I guess: I have absolutely no idea how the book will be received. A month from now I could be basking in the glow of another success or crying myself to sleep every night, a broken man. I try to stay optimistic, since I think it's a good book, but it's hard since I'm a pessimist by nature.

The one thing I've sort of learned over the years is to get as much pleasure as I can out of actually writing and drawing the comics because everything else is, to some degree or another, out of your control. I just want everyone to like me!

Click here for a 7-page preview of Tricked, courtesy of Top Shelf!

---