Wayne: You’re one of a growing breed of creators who’s using computers to take more control over the production process.

Millidge: My first three issues were lettered by hand. By #4 I was typing word balloons into a word processor, printing it out on sticky bits of paper and placing it on my original artwork. That was almost as much hassle as doing it conventionally. With #7, I started scanning my illustrations into the computer, and adding word balloons digitally. I’m still doing all the drawing with pencils and paper. No images have been generated by the computer. There is a panel in #7 (on page 22) in which two different maps are blended into each other and with another image. On that same page and the next, I used a blurring tool to imply motion outside the windows of the car. I mostly use the computer only when it’s transparent, so I think that the book will still look very much the same in the future.

Wayne: Shaping the look of Strangehaven isn't the only advantage the computer provides, though.

Millidge: Yeah, I started sending my book digitally on CD to the printer with #7. One of the benefits of sending my files on CD is that I don’t have to send huge hunks of artwork back and forth over the Atlantic, and pay insurance and taxes on them. That was a tremendous headache with the first six issues, because I’m in the UK and my printer is in the U.S. There were great technical problems getting my artwork back and paying duties on it. And, when you place a value on the artwork, you have to pay taxes both ways, and that’s a bit of a nightmare. I’m still coming to grips with my digital system. But it’s certainly saved me some time and money.

Wayne: The CD route creates new possibilities commercially too.

Millidge: That possibly opens up a use for my musical abilities--to lay a soundtrack over digital pages. There’s certainly a lot for me to learn before I would attempt to produce a CD-ROM. At this stage, I don’t think the effort and investment would be worthwhile, but I’m keeping my options open. As for digital entertainment, I really only see a CD-ROM as a stepping stone.

I think there will be more convenient ways to move data around, like the Internet. For a self-publisher like me or a musician trying to sell his own material, the Internet has tremendous potential to sell your creative work without having to invest in pressing a record or CD-ROM or printing a comic book. You don’t have to pay distributors or retailers a cut. You can just zap it down the phone lines.

Wayne: But faster ISDN lines and cable modems must be widely available and at a cheaper price to make that happen too.

Millidge: I am talking a few years down the line. But over here, the electric companies have worked out a way to be able to download information 100 times faster, by sending a signal down the electric cable. It may not be too long before it becomes the dominant form of selling all sorts of things, and not just video on demand.

Wayne: So, for example, if I wanted to subscribe to Strangehaven, I wouldn’t have to have a printed copy. I could download the latest chapter from the Internet onto my hard drive, Zip drive or a recordable CD.

Millidge: For people like me and you, that’s something of an abhorrent thing to have happen. I love books. I like the feel and smell of them. For the next generation and the one after that, I don’t think books will be as attractive. Computer printer technology has grown by such leaps and bounds that for $1 you could download the latest four-color issue of Strangehaven, and print it out on your high- speed, full photographic color inkjet printer for pennies. That’s really not too fanciful.

My brother’s kids are a generation younger than me. Books just aren’t something they look at. It’s a computer manual. Having said that, my brother’s youngest son is playing in a band, with real drums and playing Beatles songs and recording it on minidisc. Good stuff never dies.

I read something, which compared comics to poetry. You really don’t have that many professional poets around these days, but it’s still an ongoing form. Maybe that’s the way comics will survive.

(c)1998/1999 Wayne Beamer