Interviews from APE: Mel Smith

I don’t have a positive association with the word “Gumby”. In college, my friends and I would routinely scrounge our change together to order from Gumby’s Pizza, which not only used the character Gumby as it’s mascot, but also delivered a large cheese pizza for $2.99. It was a lot like eating construction paper covered with grease and partially melted cheese (don’t ask why I know what construction paper tastes like). Any pizza for $2.99 is a risky proposition. So, when I saw the Gumby Comics banner at the Alternative Press Expo, my stomach turned a little bit with the memory. Can publisher Mel Smith break me of that?

Pink Raygun: Are your Gumby comics a relaunch of the original character, or a continuation from what has come before?

Mel Smith: Has Gumby ever really left? But this is a relaunch, we just felt it was time to bring the character back into comics. We discussed it, and decided to go ahead and get a license to do this work. Ironically, right when we got the license to do this comic book, we found out that they are in the middle of making a movie which will be out in 2008. They’ve just re-released the 80’s movie at the Tribeca Film Festival, and there’s a new television series in the works. So we’re like Laird Hamilton, surfing this comic around the wave of all the new media surrounding Gumby.

PRG: Are you doing anything different with Gumby that hasn’t been done before?

MS: We’re taking him out of Toy Land for the first time ever.

PRG: I’ve got to admit, as a child we were pretty limited, so my only exposure to Gumby has been the Eddie Murphy version from Saturday Night Live.

MS: Gumby has been here and there, bits and pieces over the years. There were some Cherrio’s ads in the 1990’s, some stuff with the Library of Congress. But as far as any sort of regular series, Gumby definitely dropped off the radar for a while.

As far as Toy Land goes, it’s always been sort of the focal point for the books, and Gumby’s journeys have always happened in that limited space. But that is a long story as to why they only told Gumby stories that way. When we first came up with the book, we decided that we wanted to take the character past the boundaries that we’ve already seen. With Bob Burden writing, it was an easy fix to do. Bob is like Hunter S. Thompson as a writer – what comes out is just crazy.

PRG: Is the marketing focus toward children, or is the new Gumby an all ages type of comic?

MS: You know, Gumby has never really been for children anyway if you think about it. He’s 77, and the writing in the book is like that as well. I’ve had adults pick up the book thinking it would be great for their kids, then they start reading it, and go “Hey! Wait, I kind of like this.” There’s all sorts of elements that adults can pick up on. In issue two we have Gumby and Johnny Cash. In issue one we have some of the Niagra (???) Clowns. There’s some target references and stuff. With scenes like that, we think that everyone can enjoy it. There’s no on particular crowd we’re aiming for at all.

The new Gumby is available at the Gumby Comics online store.

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