
@’s by TALES OF MR RHEE’s Dirk Manning!!!

THE KID MARVEL (DKM): Chris: For those who don’t know who Dirk Manning is, do you mind painting alittle word picture for those people, of who you are?
DM: I am the writer and creator of NIGHTMARE WORLD, TALES OF MR. RHEE, and I’ve done the long running column WRITE OR WRONG, which is now the book WRITE OR WRONG: A Writer’s Guide to Creating Comics.

DM: Sure man, yeah TALES OF MR. RHEE is about a magician who lives in a world after Armageddon and the Rapture happened. Everyone wants to think the world is back to normal, you know, it’s not as post-apocalyptic waste land, but the people who are left, society is kind of normal again or so they think. Mr. Rhee is a magician and he knows things are not normal after all and he is trying to kind of show people what’s really going on. And that’s kind of the crux of TALES OF MR. RHEE, very much a Koffka-esque, manigan society type of story. We just launched a Kickstarter with Devil’s Due for TALES OF MR. RHEE Volume 2. We also did a Kickstarter for Volume 1. Very, very positive reception, people really enjoy this character and point blank, the monster hunter trope has been done. You got HELLBOY, you got THE GOON, you got CONSTANTINE and HELLBLAZER (two different characters), but umm TALES OF MR. RHEE, Mr. Rhee is a very different type of character. To say too much, would really give away some of the fun of discovering what kind of person he is in the Devil’s Due series.

TKM: You covered my second question and my third one too, that worked out excellent. But umm what were your inspirations for the series if any. Was it a homage to anything specific or several of your favorite genres, anything like that?

One of the coolest things that people will read MR. RHEE and say you know, this guy has post-traumatic stress disorder. Like absolutely, he does! This is a very difficult world to live in. How do you live in a world where you can’t bond with anybody and what you do, people tell you what you do is not real and you begin to question, is this real? So that’s really what I think the impedes for the book, to show what kind of damage would this do to someone, to live in a world like this.
TKM: Alright so you started TALES OF MR. RHEE back in June 6th of 2006, obviously that was a done for a reason. However, you only recently finished the second volume of the series. Has this been you deliberately taking your time, to work through the next phase of the story or was it simply of fact of scheduling between Cons and other projects?

TKM: Awesome, so other than those future plans, do you have an end goal for the series or something you simply want to keep writing until basically you can do it as long as you can?
DM: Yeah, I know the ending of TALES OF MR. RHEE and if I had to write one comic forever, it would be TALES OF MR. RHEE. No disrespect to NIGHTMARE WORLD or other books I do, this is if you made me choose, this would be the book. I know the end of TALES OF MR. RHEE, I’m not going to say when it is, because the cool thing about the story is, volume one is in the present, volume two is mainly a prequel to volume one. Volume three is a five issue mini-series. Five issues, five self-contained stories, five artists and that’s back in the present again. Volume four will be in the present again. I know what the end game is but, I don’t want to give away too much about how we’re going to lay out the story we do. But there is an end game, but as people have seen already we jump around in the time line alittle bit too, the continuity. But yeah, I know how it ends and I know what the last story line is, volume one was “Procreation of the Wicked”, volume two is “Karmageddon”. I know the title of the last story, I know it’s going to end, but we got a way to go to get there. Volume three is called “Those Who Fight Monsters” and it ties in very heavily to NIGHTMARE WORLD. We have a big universe to explore, but this series is all about forward momentum and things are going to happen hard and fast, it’ll be like a snowball rolling down a hill to hell.

DM: Yeah, like I said TALES OF MR. RHEE the five scripts are all in the hands of the artists right now. The plan right now for what I’m looking at in 2016, TALES OF MR. RHEE volume 3. People have been asking for a long time when it’s gonna happen, NIGHTMARE WORLD volume 4. Then TALES OF MR. RHEE volume 4, WRITE OR WRONG volume 2. Those are my big projects , I’ve got a couple of other things in the works as well that’ll be popping up. Those are kind of the milestone books right now. RHEE 3, NIGHTMARE WORLD 4, TALES OF MR. RHEE volume 4 and WRITE OR WRONG volume 2.
TKM: You covered my next question too, besides comic projects, what inspires you as a writer? What is your driving factor of what makes you do, what you do?
DM: If I did not write, I would go mad.
TKM: Good uhh, simple answer.

TKM: What’s the difficulties working independent, are there any or is it alot easier than working specifically for one publisher? Basically work for hire type of stuff.
DM: Yeah I really enjoy the perks of creator owned books, but when you do creator owned books you are the captain of your own ship. With Devil’s Due and TALES OF MR. RHEE, I set up my own artists. I negotiate the page rates with them, with the colorists, with the letterers. I have to do all that stuff myself. That’s all on me. As opposed to like I did some work for hire stuff for Big Dog Ink, that was nice cause I got to turn in the script and he gets the artist, he gets everything and I get paid right up front. But I really enjoy doing creator owned work. Devil’s Due has been wonderful to work with. Josh Blaylock and I have really learned how each other work. I always joke around , he’s punk rock and I’m heavy metal. We draw our water from the same stream, but we have a different approach. As we have learned how our styles complement each other, it’s been a very good relationship. And creator owned work I can do whatever I want. I can kill Mr. Rhee tomorrow and it’s my book, I can do what I want. As opposed to doing work for hire, you definitely have to work within the confines of their plan and their structure.

DM: TALES OF MR. RHEE and I would to do a NIGHTMARE WORLD omnibus, so stay tuned.
TKM: Is there any advice you’d like to give to prospective comic creators for the industry itself? Or would one just look to WRTIE OR WRONG?
DM: I mean, I don’t want to be a shill but, there’s alot of books out there about how to write scripts and they should be read. Read books like UNDERSTANDING COMICS and things like that. But I would also read WRITE OR WRONG for the real practical knowledge, about how to get yourself going and how to make comics. The other thing is, WRITE OR WRONG: A Writer’s Guide to Creating Comics aside, it’s available on Amazon, it’s easier than ever to make comics. It’s easier to meet artists. It’s easier to get your work published on demand, to offset printing for small print runs. Do the work. Do the work, do the work, do the work and this can happen.
TKM: Alright, two more questions. What’s been the hardest aspect of your career so far, has it been the travel, the creative end, building your own brand or is it something totally different?
DM: Uh…that’s a good question. [silence]
TKN: Do you want me to pause the recorder? [laughs]

TKM: Last question, if you had to choice one artist to work on any project in the world with, who would they be and why?

TKM: I greatly appreciate the time Manning took out for me and the advice that he gave after our interview. He’s been a great help in my own journey as a writer and I cannot thank him enough. As I said earlier, I’ve done reviews on his first times volumes for TALES OF MR. RHEE, both of which I very much enjoyed. The second volume of TALES OF MR. RHEE will be available this month for purchase in print, while volume 3 will be released as a digital print first later this year, so keep an eye out for that. Hope you enjoyed the interview and I look forward to futures encounters with this awesome human being.
Proofs, co-edits & common sense provided by Sleazy G