THE ELECTRIC MIKE BRENNAN

By: R. O'Donnell

From a community sketchbook to T-shirts to a "must have graphic novel," the deep dark secrets of a successful comic book revealed.

Virginia is a student with a nifty dog dupped Blammo, and an invisible scalawag gremlin named Oogleeoog. She also has amazing electrical superpowers and can release bursts of electricity from her body at will. Welcome to Eisner-nominated Mike Brennan's graphic novel Electric Girl-a comic book for, well, just about everybody.

From a modest community sketchbook to popular Blammo T-shirts to an Eisner-award nom, the deep dark secrets of Mike Brennan's all ages comic book Electric Girl revealed.


Okay, so in the Beginning, before Electric Girl, there was Blammo! How'd that come about?

Mike Brennan: Blammo was created "almost accidentally" by me and a friend. I started a drawing in a community sketchbook that we kept in the house that we were renting. It was of something that may have possibly resembled something between a dog's head and a box. I got sidetracked by something going on in the house and never finished the sketch. Later that night, my roommate came upon the sketch and finished it. And it became Blammo---our imaginary house dog.

After a couple of years, I started using Blammo as my mascot on my illustration work. I also created t-shirts every now and again that featured a Blammo drawing. Everyone that I gave them to seemed to love them (or they were being nice to me), so I felt I was on to something... Blammo eventually became one of the core cast members of a comic strip I created (that was never picked up by the syndicates), then made the cut to Electric Girl #1.

So after Blammo hit the page you create a gremlin-type character named Oogleeoog? Where'd he come from?

I created Oogleeoog for that comic strip that I submitted for syndication. Oog was the x-factor that I felt the strip needed to keep it interesting and offbeat. He was much the same character as he is in Electric Girl, except that he had pointy tips on his head.

Now you've got Blammo the dog, Oogleeoog the gremlin dude, and later you add a high-school girl named Virginia to the brood and zap! Electric Girl ensues. Tell us more?

Well, Virginia was one of the 8 characters that I had created for this comic strip. After I finished the strip, I started getting into some of the independent/small press comics at the time. The "cartoony" and non-traditional storylines of a lot of these comics gave me the idea that I could try this.

I decided to use Virginia, Oogleeoog and Blammo in a comic book. But I felt that there was a dynamic missing from the previous comic strip. I originally added the "electric girl" theme as a bridge to the super-hero comics I read since I was a kid. The EG theme started off as a crutch for me to use as I had hoped to create some sort of super hero parody...but after writing and drawing a couple of stories (that were never published), I realized that I didn't have the desire to pursue the parody aspect.

So I thought, "Why should these electrical powers automatically make her a super hero?" That's when I decided that she wouldn't be one. But, I liked the name "Electric Girl" and the idea that this girl had these powers...and here we are!

Virginia has super electric powers and talks with an invisible creature? Not so ordinary a life. Why the fantasy to tell her story?

I didn't have the confidence to create stories that focused on just an ordinary teenage girl. I wanted to create some offbeat, mildly crazy stories. A teenage girl WITH electric powers, her dog and her invisible gremlin friend gave me more toys to play with. As all of the elements fell into place accidentally, I felt that it created an interesting premise that had a lot of potential.

Then comes the accolades for Electric Girl like being named to the "Popular Paperbacks for Young Adults 2002" list by the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA), and most recently being dubbed a "must have graphic novel" by the Library Journal. What's that like?

Well...of course it feels nice to be appreciated! It helps me rationalize all the hours it took to create the books. But seriously, I'm grateful for the appreciation that the librarians have for the EG books. It lets me know that I'm doing something right.

Any Blammo tee-shirts left? If not, how about a 2nd printing? C'mon!

I just came across several of them in my garage a couple of weeks ago and shipped some off to Brave New World in Newhall, CA for Free Comic Book Day. So if you happened to have been in that area, you may have been the lucky recipient of one.

I'm hoping to produce a set of Blammo, Electric Girl, and Oogleeoog t-shirts some time this year. They're fun to do, but they're difficult to sell at a profit. I have this bad habit of giving them away...

So what's next?

I've spent the better part of the year marketing the latest EG book, Electric Girl Volume 3. But, I didn't let that stop me from focusing on the future. I've been working with a friend in LA on drafts of several ideas that I think would make excellent graphic novels. As soon as one of them becomes something more concrete, I'll let everyone know. In the meantime, I also have this stash of funny stories of this certain yellow dog that I want to draw...

Who are your favorites in the biz?

Not to sound cliché, but I don't necessarily have any favorite artist or writers that I follow regularly. Having a three-year-old kid will do that to you---not nearly as much time for reading as I used to have! But I try to visit any of the local shops whenever I can and grab whatever looks interesting to me.

I just picked up the first volume of the Akira series that Dark Horse published some time ago and thought it was great. I'm going to get the rest as I get the chance. I recently got hold of some old Milt Caniff "Steve Canyon" collections---I'm amazed at how consistently well the man could draw. I always pick up anything that Mike Mignola draws...I was looking through the Making of Atlantis book some time ago and was reminded how wonderfully stylized his drawings are.

I'm a Marvel zombie at heart, but stopped regularly reading the comic books years ago. It became too much of an effort to stay with the ever-changing characterizations and reboots of my favorite characters. However, I got hooked on the Ultimates and pick up the latest issue whenever I find one.

Final thoughts on the current state of graphic novels?

Not really... I think they will eventually be the only print outlet for comics, but I wouldn't be so bold as to declare if that would be a good thing or not!