This weekend an interview - our first ! - with the authors of The Maier-Files was published on the website of
Stripelmagazine. Since the
interview is published in Dutch we translated it into English for our readers. Here it is:
Striking new initiative: The Maier-Files,
first comic book of the debuting duo Pat & Dorn. They have a go at
it without a publisher but with a complete website, provided with a
webshop, a crowdfunding possibility and an option to read the prequel to
the series for free. By the way, you can understand “debuting”
literally.
Pat:
“I come from the multimedia world and always worked there behind the
screens. So I’m completely new to the world of comics.”
Dorn:
“I met Pat for the first time some twenty years ago in a pub in
Schaarbeek (Brussels). When I recently gained lots of spare time, he
came along with a project on which he had been brooding for some years
and got to the “active” phase in the first months of this year: The Maier-Files.
Would you like cooperating on that ? Yes, indeed. That I have been
collecting comic books for half my life and so have some reference
material was a nice little extra.”
Pat:
“I have been brooding on the project for a few years indeed, but the
theme of the key story and the start of it – which you can read in the
prequel – literally come from my childhood years. My grandfather was a
great storyteller and we had lots of mysterious stuff in the attic. At
least, that’s what I thought as a kid. And with each of those objects
came a story. On some autumn day he dug up a box with a picture of a
passing V1, a few one million Deutsche Mark notes, rationing coupons,
his forced labor papers from Germany … Tangible pieces of history making
his stories more lively and his world really graphic. In that way he
created an early multimedia history, a history of which you became part
yourself. And that is exactly what we want to do: a bigger, contentual,
interactive whole. And an attic like that, a warehouse packed with
mysterious objects, is also where our story starts.”
What’s the comic series about ?
Pat:
“The best way to get an impression is actually to read the free prequel
on the website. It provides an image of where we’re going, be it
however that the first full book goes back to events seventy years
before what happens in the prequel. I’d call it a magical-realistic
story, a story of seemingly impossible friendships against a background
of worldly schemes, secret societies and their agreements, conspiracies
and hidden agendas in the past century.”
Dorn:
“The story is very close to reality in many aspects and tries to bestow
us a look behind the screens of known facts. ‘Trust no one’ is a good
baseline for The Maier-Files, though the friendships Pat is
talking about are what keeps our main characters going. They are put to
the test, but we hope they’ll survive the intriguing.”
You’re
approaching the project in a rather big manner, not only concerning the
content but also the form, with your own website and a Dutch and
English version.
Pat:
“Well, ‘big’ is only a matter of perspective, isn’t it ? We actually
couldn’t approach the project in a smaller way given the economic
reality. We sincerely hope to get The Maier-Files launched
without a settled published. The whole project depends on the two of us,
our publicity budget is as good as non existant.”
Dorn:
“Honestly spoken, it consists of blood, sweat and tears (laughing). But
up till now it has been one of the most educational experiences of my
life. Incredible what one learns when one does everything on his own.”
Pat:
“And the choice for an edition in two languages is merely due to the
fact that the English-speaking market is a lot bigger than the
Dutch-speaking market. If we don’t just want to have fun with The Maier-Files,
but keep on doing that for a while, we have to take that in account.
We’re both working on this more than fulltime, so we can only hope the
response on our first books will be enough to make it possible to go
on.”
You’re self-publishing the comic. How are things going ?
Pat:
“We have a printer, all technical issues are resolved and at this
moment we’re reviewing the ‘draft’ of the first book. So, we want to and
will publish Book 1 in October. And yes, we think there’s room on the comics market. We don’t intend to publish just another comic …”
Dorn: “Precisely. You have to tell a story which is worth reading, different from the others. And I think The Maier-Files
is exactly that. It’s a fascinating story packed with colorful
characters, exciting though little known history and discoveries … No,
I’m sure there’s enough place on the market for a comic like this one.”
Pat:
“Furthermore we want to do more than publish this comic series. You
could compare the comic to the stories my grandfather told, but there’s
also the objects in the box on the attic. We want to create a full
experience for our readers. With the technical possibilities of today
that can be done. We want to create a world of which the readers can be
part too.”
Dorn:
“Remember he said we were not actually approaching the project in a big
manner ? (laughing) First of all we want to offer a good comic series,
maybe immediately adding some possibilities for the readers who want to
go deeper in our world, and then, when reactions turn out to be positive
and with sales showing so, take the following steps. But that will be
after we’ve published Book 1.”
Pat: “Exactly. Book 1, working title The Inauguration, will be decisive for the future of The Maier-Files.”
Your enthusiasm certainly is no problem, gentlemen. Good luck !