Being interviewed by @samtastico

Sam: So CW…the word on the street is you have a new book coming out

Cody: I do indeed SW!

Sam: I have been getting a lot of questions about it, so I thought it would be a chance for you to talk about it

Cody: I would love to 

Sam: this book, Keeping the World Strange: A Planetary Guide is being published by Sequart.  Could you tell us a little about Sequart?

Cody: Sequart is a non-profit organization that promotes comic books as Art. Our books are unlike anything else being produced because they don’t analyze comics in a general literary sense, but keep them within the context of the medium. I first found Sequart through Tim Callahan’s book “Grant Morrison the Early Years.” It was such an incredible book because there was really nothing else out there like it. Critical analysis over a comic book writer’s work is just so unique and essential to helping legitimize the medium that I fell in love with the publisher after that book

Sam: That was how you found Sequart, how did you start working for them?

Cody: It’s kind of a weird thing to think about, but I started working for Sequart through Facebook. I sent an e-mail to Tim Callahan about how much I admired his book and I believe I wrote something along the lines of, “I’m down with the cause, how can I get involved?” or something equally as militant and embarrassing. Callahan responded and told me to get in touch with Mike Phillips, and I did via Facebook. I sent him a message on there, added him as a friend and literally a few minutes later I was on the phone with Mike about editing some work on a trial basis. Since that time, I’ve looked over nearly everything that Sequart has done and I’m immensely proud of everything we put out.

Sam: So you didn’t write Keeping the World Strange: A Planetary Guide, you were the Editor.  How exactly does that work?  What was your process for this?

Cody: In addition to publishing single authored books like “Grant Morrison the Early Years” and the Invisibles book “Our Sentence is Up,” Sequart also publishes collections of essays like the Legion of Superheroes collection “Teenagers from the Future” and the Adam West Batman collection “Gotham City 14 Miles.”

I remember sitting in the student union at Missouri State University reading the final trade to Planetary when it hit me that Sequart needed a book about this influential series, but I knew that with so many different genres and ideas put into Planetary that it would take more than just myself to write about it, so I decided to pitch an essay collection.

As an editor, I conceived of what I was looking for in terms of topics for essays. Writers pitched their ideas to me about what they wanted from the list of topics that I had generated or they pitched their own ideas to me and I got to choose what would fit best for the book. In addition to writing my own essay about the WildStorm Universe, I edited all of the other essays in the book and made suggestions for how they could be changed in order to help line up their content to my vision for the book. After I received revised copies, I revised them again and that is essentially the simple form of what I do as an editor.

Sam: What do you like most about this highly collaborative atmosphere?

Cody: I really like the collaborative aspect of Sequart because it shows that there are like-minded individuals who see comic books as being something worthy of academic study. I’ve always been interested in looking at the medium with a critical eye and to be able to discuss comic books with people who are as interested in reading these texts as if we were picking apart Hemingway or Faulkner is absolutely refreshing and thrilling to me.

I mean, it’s bad enough to feel alienated in life for simply being a comic book fan, but to be a comic book fan that wants to talk about the philosophical implications of All-Star Superman with people is even more alienating because the local comic shop just isn’t the place for these kinds of discussions. Working with Julian, Mike, Kevin, Patrick, Tim, and all the other Sequart people is an absolute blessing because it feels like we’re at the beginning of something big. We’re at the beginning of this wave of comics scholarship that has so much potential.

Sam: I guess that is what makes the internet great – that it can bring you all together and help you put yourself out the for everyone like you to find a voice.Speaking of finding a voice… what made you want to start this blog in the first place?

Cody: Writing is very therapeutic for me and while I’ve had blogs in the past, they have been on Xanga and Live Journal and were more for my own personal posts rather than a larger audience. I like to entertain people, so I thought it was time to have an avenue to do so. I wanted to share my writing with others because there are so many things that I’m interested in and I wanted to see how many others were interested as well.

Sam: What does Popgun Chaos mean to you?

Cody: Well, “Popgun” is just a fun word to me. It denotes a child-like wonder to it that is wholesome and adventurous and I included the word “chaos” at the end to denote that anything goes on this website. When I started the site, I wanted to mostly talk about comics (and I still do to a certain extent), but I didn’t want to box myself in with just comic talk day in and day out, so that’s why I have music reviews or television or reflections over the 90′s. I want to evoke a feeling that if a story isn’t appealing one day, then the next day will have something different.

Sam: So…Whats with the fish with the gun?

Cody: The fish is designed by the incomparable Chad “Woody” Woody  and I love his artwork. He agreed to make a banner for me and more than anything when I started this site, I really wanted someone to make an artwork banner for me, so Woody made my dreams come true.

Sam: Thank you so much for sitting down with me for this interview.

Cody: No problem, Sam. Now let’s go make dinner.