WALRUS COMIX PROUDLY PRESENTS: An Exclusive Interview with DEAN "DINO" HASPIEL, Rock Star in Cartoonist's Clothing

Right out of the gate, all the twinkly cartoon planets lined up for our man Dino. In fact the "D" in Dino should stand for DESTINY, 'cause man was he ever born to do it. Starting off in the 80s as a kid, learning from the legends of the biz during the halcyon days of Marvel and DC, Dino went on to make his own indelible mark garnering countless accolades (including nominations for the prestigous Eisner and Ignatz awards) along with the well-deserved respect of the entire industry.

He's collaborated with the legendary Pekar, enthralled us with his romantic anti-hero Billy Dogma (the first issue of Brawl - his comic mash-up with Michel Fiffe, is available at Image Comics now) and is currently collaborating with writer Johnathan Ames called "the Alcholic", to be released in Fall 2008. Along the way, he's also managed to help revolutionize online comix with his remarkable work with ACT-I-VATE. You can drop by his site, www.deanhaspiel.com and myspace page for all the Dino you can get your hands on.

Let me start off by saying just how much we admire your work. You've contributed so much to the industry and inspired so many. When all is said and done, you'll be remembered in the pantheon of great comic artists, along with the likes of Will Eisner and Robert Crumb. It's truly a pleasure to get the opportunity to speak with you a bit.

Funnily enough, we've actually know of each other now, indirectly, through a mutual friend Drew Stiles for about 13 years! Back in the 90s, I was in the band Johnny Bravo, and Drew was in Yummy, where we both shared a dingy rehearsal space in the back of an old garage in a particularly sketchy part of Rockland County. I remember Drew coming over our house all the time and showing us this tremendous artwork drawn up for his band by this good 'artist friend' of his. We were totally blown away by it. I distinctly remember thinking, 'This guy's a freaking genius'. It wasn't until just recently that I realized that YOU were that 'artist friend' of his. I had been following your work for years and never made that connection. By the time you did that work with Yummy, you'd already established yourself in a huge way assisting  Howard Chaykin on American Flagg!, Bill Sienkiewicz on New Mutants and Elektra: Assassin (that's freaking amazing!!!!), and Walter Simonson on Thor (The greatest period for Thor by FAR!!). How did you wind up working with Drew on the Yummy stuff? Are you originally from Rockland County?

I grew up on the upper west side of Manhattan, NY, and went to SUNY Purchase to study art and film for 3-years where I met Drew Stiles through our mutual pal, Drew Morone. I remember Drew Stiles handing me a copy of your JOHNNY BRAVO demo tape and I fell in love with your song, "Sons and Daughters." It's a beautifully melancholic anthem that chills me to this day. Anyhow, Drew Stiles soon became one of my favorite people to riff on everything from racism to music to mom jokes. Drew formed an incredible three-man band, SMOOTHBRAIN, and asked me to design flyers. I took some snapshots of Drew and hand-lettered black & white xeroxed copies for a few gigs before the band decided to change their name to YUMMY. Drew wrote really funky songs that sounded like barnacles and dreadlocks that had been soaking in a swamp of corn syrup since 1972. His voice sounded like a cross-between Lenny Kravitz and Nick Drake. The band was awesome live and I was sad to see them disband and, of course, the death of their guitar player didn't help matters. I designed and illustrated all their flyers. I captured and caramelized Drew Stiles' music and essence into this filthy monkey type mascot and Drew loved it so we ran with it. I even co-wrote one of YUMMY's songs and provided art for the cover to their first and only album, "Elegante." To this day, Drew calls and still cracks me up. The man is fucking funny and more talented than any one person should be allowed.

As I mentioned before, you have been involved in some of the greatest series in comics history. The 80s were truly a golden age as far as the comic arts are concerned, and you were just a KID! How did you get your foot in the door at such a young age, and did you have any idea at the time that the projects you were working on would be so important?


In the early 1980s I befriended a teenager named Larry O'Neil who's father just happened to be the great and legendary comics writer/editor, Denny O'Neil. Larry listened to PINK FLOYD while I listened to PRINCE but we bonded over PUBLIC ENEMY and would hang out after high school [we attended Music & Art in Harlem] and read comics like BATMAN, MOON KNIGHT, and DAREDEVIL, and watch movies like VICE SQUAD, CAFE FLESH, and THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE. Basically, we bonded over exploitation, crime, and horror. We collaborated on amateur comix and movies until Larry went pro in the film industry and I went pro in the comic book industry. In 1985, our senior year of high school [Music & Art married Performing Arts, moved to Lincoln Center, and become LaGuardia], Denny alerted Larry that Howard Chaykin needed an assistant and he got the gig. Chaykin shared Upstart Studios with Walter Simonson and James Sherman [and before that, Frank Miller and Jim Starlin]. Down the hall from Upstart was Bill Sienkiewicz, Denys Cowan, and Michael Davis. Within a month or so, Sienkiewicz needed an assistant and I got the gig. I worked on NEW MUTANTS and ELEKTRA: ASSASSIN and, shortly thereafter, Sienkiewicz split back to his home in Connecticut. Chaykin took pity on me and hired me as his 2nd assistant and I worked on AMERICAN FLAGG! with Larry. Once in awhile, Simonson hired me to work on THOR. It was a year long crash course that expanded my comix making tools exponentially and became an experience I will forever cherish.


In the 1990s you hooked with another comics legend Harvey Pekar, illustrating stories for American Splendor and more recently the marvelous graphic novel 'The Quitter'. How did you make that connection, and how is he to work with, is he as curmudgeonly as he's been made out to be?


I grew up reading AMERICAN SPLENDOR which later inspired me to try my hand at semi-autobio comix in KEYHOLE [and, later, collected in OPPOSABLE THUMBS]. During KEYHOLE, my good pal, Josh Neufeld, scored some gigs illustrating stories for Harvey Pekar. So, I mailed Harvey Pekar some of my comix thinking he'd hire me on the spot only it took him three years to finally grant me the chance to illustrate a couple of his quotidian tales. Awhile later, I assisted movie producer, Ted Hope, and discovered he was a big alternative comix fan and dug Pekar's stuff. That was when a light bulb popped over my head and I made introductions between Hope and Pekar and a year later they had an award winning movie version of AMERICAN SPLENDOR on their hands. Pekar felt he owed me a solid and asked "within reason" what he could do to "repay" me for hooking him up. I wanted to draw something more substantial for Pekar which prompted him, with the encouragement of Vertigo editor Jonathan Vankin, to write his origin, THE QUITTER, which was a great challenge for me. THE QUITTER received critical acclaim and allowed us the opportunity to relaunch AMERICAN SPLENDOR at Vertigo. Harvey Pekar has come to trust my narrative solutions and we have a pretty good collaborative relationship but don't let Pekar's broken guitar string eyebrows fool you. Harvey's dirty little secret is that he's a kind-hearted mensch under that gruff, DARKSIDE exterior and he looks out for the folks who treat him right.

Around the same time period, you created the character of Billy Dogma; a romantic anti-hero (perhaps your alter-ego?) whose exploits have been published by Top Shelf, and are now currently being released online through the auspices of ACT-I-VATE a major force in the webcomics explosion. What are your thoughts on webcomics as a platform for releasing art? Do you believe it's good for the industry? How do you think Billy Dogma translates from page to the computer screen?


Despite format, BILLY DOGMA has evolved into a necessary avatar for me to express my emotional truths. However, webcomix pioneers like Scott McCloud, Dan Goldman, and Josh Neufeld, push the digital envelope while I drag my knuckles and, rather than experiment with the infinite canvas and utilize the mediums bells & whistles, I'm more concerned with exploring my battles with narrative solutions. The major difference between reading print comics and webcomix is the click and/or scroll of a mouse rather than the turn of a page and that's a concern I deal with for each episode of BILLY DOGMA. And, what's exciting about delivering free webcomix is that it creates an interactive dialogue with readers while building a loyal fanbase for future print collections as evidenced by Image Comics publishing BRAWL, my 3-issue mini-series with Michel Fiffe, featuring BILLY DOGMA and PANORAMA; stories that debuted online at ACT-I-VATE.

On the horizon is an exciting collaboration with Jonathan Ames. A graphic novel called 'The Alcoholic' to be released by DC Comics in the fall of 2008. We here at Walrus Comix are big fans of his as well. We read his column in the New York Press religiously, as well as his subsequent novels. As is the case with Pekar, Ames' writing style is brutally honest, autobiographical, and equally moving and hilarious. He's also perceived as a bit of a misanthrope much like Pekar. Was there a similarity between the two of them as far as how you worked together? How did that project come about?

I befriended Jonathan Ames a few years ago when I recognized him at a local cafe in my Brooklyn neighborhood. I, too, had been a big fan of his NY PRESS columns which were later collected into his amazing essay collections [like WHAT'S NOT TO LOVE?]. Ames is a renaissance man who performs and writes. So, he sets his sights on different ways to convey stories and it was only a matter of time before Ames would tackle comix. I had an opening in my schedule and asked Ames if he wanted to collaborate on a graphic novel and that's when he came up with the idea to write his semi-autobio memoir, THE ALCOHOLIC. Jonathan read Y - THE LAST MAN and FUN HOME and that helped him crack the comix writing code and he delivered an amazing script that I am currently drawing for Vertigo. Jonathan Ames and Harvey Pekar are very different writers who's stories couldn't be more diverse. I connect more with Ames' life and we share certain sensibilities that make our collaboration more intuitive. Plus, Ames thinks in visual terms and that helps me conjure a wild array of vivid layouts and drawings. 

Can you describe to our readers what tools you prefer to use i.e. brands of pens, pencils, brushes, etc..

I get my pencils approved by an editor and/or writer, I use a basic #2 lead pencil to tighten my breakdowns. I use a Japanese brush pen and Micron pens [.05 and .08] to ink my pencils along with triangle rulers and french curves. My good pal, Michel Fiffe, a fantastic cartoonist who I am honored to still have as my assistant since 2002, erases my pencils and fills in my black areas and sometimes draws in background details. I use 2-ply Bristol board [rough] paper for most of my franchise work and I've been using watercolor paper for my BILLY DOGMA comix.

Finally, we ask this question to all the artists we interview.. Do you have any advice to the kids out there just starting out, that have dreams of growing up to be just like you?

Don't let the perfect get in the way of the good and don't forget to show up.