INTERVIEW WEEK: FOCUSING ON THE CREATIVE WITH MICHAEL MAY

A friend, Joltin' Joe Hilliard thought that I should meet Michael May.  We were both large Minnesota men, each interested in comics, horror, and we both spent a lot of time asking other creators questions in interviews.  Michael and I were rightly suggested as friends.   We worked together a few times and Michael also added a foreword to the book Lancelot which I was a creative on.  He has a buttload of talent, and he is truly one of the most kind people I've met, in life, and for damn sure the comics industry.  As a moody poet I don't do well with most places, and the comics industry is definitely another.  But I've watched as people swarm around Michael, he hasn't been a huge name yet, but if it was a result of being beloved, it'd be him at the top.  That isn't hyperbole.  (Yes I know what hyperbole is, and it isn't a hyper boil that requires a jackhammer to pop.)

Thank you Michael for being available and willing to answer my questions about creativity and the creative artist.

What made you a creative artist?  Were you born to do it, did you find you had talents and worked to find the right outlet?

It's definitely something that I felt called to as a kid. I was a huge reader and loved filling my head with stories of other worlds. My mom would take us to the library and I'd just load up on Edgar Rice Burroughs, Robert E Howard, and whatever scifi adventure caught my fancy. At some point it was natural that I started making up my own worlds and stories and dreaming about writing them down. I liked to draw as a kid, too, and got pretty good at it, but my passion was always going to be writing. I'm terrible at drawing these days, but I love the craft of storytelling and keep working to get better at it.

What is your pattern of creative activity?  Do you plan it, sit and work or, does it happen in a fit of activity?  Do you listen or watch anything while you work?  Do some media give you inspiration, or does it just give you company?

Sadly, it mostly happens in a fit of activity these days. I'm a firm believer in setting aside a certain amount of time each day for disciplined writing and I'm working on getting back to that, but the reality is that I'm very deadline driven. I tend to work on whatever's due next. I'd love to get ahead of my own schedule though. That would be really nice.

I can't watch anything while I'm writing and I can't listen to anything with lyrics, either. I get too distracted. I work best in silence, but sometimes I'll try playing some instrumental music in the background to set a mood. It's not really for direct inspiration though. By the time I sit to write, the inspiration should already be there.

How did you move from having a talent, to having a project to actually arriving upon being published?  Is it an accident?  Did you have a business or creative art business plan?

I got started by teaming with a bunch of friends who were artists and writers and also hungry to publish stories. We put together a couple of anthologies and self-published them. I did have a plan, but it was super naive. I figured that I would just sort of move my way up the ladder. Self-publishing would lead to something at a very small press which would lead to something at a slightly larger publisher and on up until I was either writing the X-Men or my own, extremely hot creator-owned comics (if not both). Some of my friends had similar plans, but it rarely works that way. 

I mean, it CAN work that way. It's not a bad plan. But I've learned - in life as well as in creative endeavors - not to get too attached to one plan. It narrows your vision so that you can't see other opportunities when they pop up.

I ended up skipping a lot of steps in my plan and went from self-publishing my stuff to being published by Dark Horse. That was almost entirely thanks to Jason Copland (artist and co-creator of Kill All Monsters) and his relationship with Dark Horse. So maybe that's an accident? It's certainly not because of anything that I specifically did other than just make Kill All Monsters as good as I could when we were self-publishing it.

In other words, it's very useful and important to have a plan. But it's even more important to do good work and form relationships (real ones, not fake, mercenary "networking" relationships) and keep your eyes peeled for open doors.

What was your first published work, and how did it make you feel?  Do you look on that work now as being hopelessly juvenile or, do you find great pride in it as a work for the time that was good, even if you have now moved far forward?

It had some issues, but I still have a lot of fondness for it. I had a few stories in a horror anthology called Tales from the Inner Sanctum. It's the one I mentioned earlier that was self-published by a group of friends I was hanging out with online. I don't know if it was juvenile, but maybe it was. I definitely fell into the trap that a lot of horror short story comics writers do: going for those EC-style twist endings. Those are fun to write, but when you read an anthology full of them (and most horror anthologies are) they make the collection tough to get through. The most valuable lesson I learned from that is that I probably shouldn't be writing horror comics short stories.

What works are you brewing, and what works are in print and on the way soon?  Do you have any long range hopes like licensed works of your creative property?

I'm currently writing the sequel to Kill All Monsters, but I have a couple of other projects that should hopefully be available in the next year or so. One is a werewolf adventure story, but the other is too far away to talk much about. What's currently in print is the Kill All Monsters Omnibus from Dark Horse and a couple of adventure anthologies. There's a full list on my website: michaelmay.online.

As for licensing my creative property, Jason and I are absolutely willing to accept a couple of truckloads of money from anyone who wants to make a Kill All Monsters movie or TV show. I'll show you where to park it.

What would you recommend other people who seek to be creative do to get on the right track?

It's very old advice, but just do the work. I firmly believe that everyone is creative. It's what we are as humans. No one needs permission to create and there is no gatekeeper. If your goal is to be creative, just start working on stuff. 

If your goal is to make a living being creative, that's a whole other thing and I'm not the best one to ask. I do recommend that people do what I did though and get to know people who make their living as freelance writers and artists. I learned enough to know that that's not the job I want. Writing is a passion for me, but making a living at it and quitting my day job isn't. Freelance is a hard gig and it's not for everyone, but there's no rule that says you have to make a living off your creative endeavors. It doesn't diminish those endeavors even slightly if they don't pay the rent. For me at least, the work is its own reward.