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An Interview With Mark McKenna

This week I got to chat with comics legend Mark McKenna. He has worked in the industry for over three decades. He is currently running a Kickstarter campaign for his all-ages series Banana Tail.

Aaron Iara: Thank you for taking the time to chat with me this week. Please tell the readers a little bit about yourself.

Mark McKenna: So, I’ve been in professional comics for 35 years, started at Marvel in the legendary Marvel Bullpen in April of 1985. I have worked for every major comic company in that span, Marvel, DC, Dark Horse, Image, First Comics, Archie and Eclipse.

As the comic market took a financial hit in the mid 90’s I started to think about life outside of comics or, at very least create my own IP, a legacy. Something I could leave to my kids. I came up with the idea of doing a children’s book. I enlisted my Dad to come up with some concepts and that’s how Banana Tail was born.

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Aaron Iara: You recently began a Kickstarter campaign. Can you please give the readers a synopsis of the project?

Mark McKenna: Banana Tail and the Checkerboard Jungle is the 3rd Banana Tail picture book and 5th overall BTail project. I started out doing an origin story about the lil monkey who woke up with a yellow tail and thought to himself, he’s turning into a banana. Then I wanted to create a focused story on his two best friends, Reena and Tic Tac.

The second book, Banana Tail’s Colorful Adventure tells the story of Reena, who’s a mood-color changing girl rhino who turns into all sorts of odd colors and BTail is trying to help her get back to her normal pink color, what he doesn’t know is, she sat on his favorite shell and is sick about it, yet is afraid to tell him. A story about what’s important friendship or material objects.

This third story, the one I’m currently Kickstarting is a focus on Tic Tac the plaid zebra and how BTail is chased in a part of the jungle he’s never been in before, The Checkerboard Jungle and how he meets Tac for the first time and Tac shows him the way home.

Aaron Iara: I have been a fan of your work for some time. How did you get into making art, and also into comics specifically?

Mark McKenna: Well, I was a big comic collector in my teen years and when I met with my high school guidance counselor as a senior I thought about either becoming a filmmaker or comic book artist. After some meetings with college officials, I opted to study animation at the School of Visual Arts in NYC. It lasted all of two yrs.

This was before computer animation, back in the early 80s so everything was hand-drawn and really not for me. I met with the chairman of the illustration dept and we pow wowed about direction, I explained I had wanted to draw comics and he told me that the perspective teacher at SVA was also the new talent coordinator at DC Comics. BINGO!

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Aaron Iara: Making comics often requires collaboration with others. How do we foster relationships and approach the collaboration process?

Mark McKenna: When I do lectures I tell the kids, Making Comics is like playing Guitar Hero, you’re only as good as your drummer. I think many times it’s pertinent to foster friendships with the other band members so you can get into each other’s creative process to come to some happy place and create good stuff.

Aaron Iara: Making comics takes a lot of hard work and dedication. Do you have any strategies/routines for maintaining productivity?

Mark McKenna: So there are on average 22 pages to a monthly comic. You have to divide your allotted deadline into the page count and make a sensible schedule for you to make the deadlines. If you’re going on vacation.. you may be working on it. Before I became a pro I met artist Klaus Janson at a con and he flat out told me. It’s wise to get married to that person of your dreams because once comics becomes a regular part of your life, you’ll end up married to it more possibly.

Aaron Iara: What are your biggest obstacles when it comes to making art in general? How do you overcome them?

Mark McKenna: Understanding the style in which you’re trying to achieve. It’s probably wise to have others work nearby to study from. If you’re collaborating with a pencil artist with a unique style, try and see what they’ve done in the past that works.

Aaron Iara: Do you have any advice for those who want to start making their own comics?

Mark McKenna: I’m a fan of the grassroots approach. Get somebody who’s strong where you aren’t and learn to collaborate. Put some cohesive products together. Go get a table at a local con, sell your stuff affordably, or give it away, build your empire on your own. Maybe Marvel or DC will be peering in.

Aaron Iara: Do you have any other upcoming events/projects/releases you would like to talk about?

Mark McKenna: I’ve just started the convention season. As I get older I thought I’d be doing fewer cons, but I’m solicited for an average of 15-20 a year.

Banana Tail and the Checkerboard Jungle is my focus at this time. Afterward, I’m planning on collecting everything “Banana Tail” I’ve published and titled it, “The Whole Banana…Tail”. I also have plans to do a new sci-fi /horror comic that’s a continuation of my Combat Jacks mini-series, the new one will be called something like, Combat Jacks: Code name Eddie. Eddie BTW is a Yeti 🙂

Aaron Iara: Thank you again for talking to me! Tell the readers where they can find you and your work.

Mark McKenna: In the meantime, you can see my convention schedule at WWW.Markmckennaart.com and more on Banana Tail at WWW.Bananatail.com Also check out the Kickstarter.

Check Out Banana Tail!

A huge thank you to Mark McKenna for taking the time to speak with me this week. Make sure to check out Mark at the following locations:

Kickstarter: Banana Tail and the Checkerboard Jungle

Banana Tail’s Official Website

Mark McKenna’s Official Website

Mark McKenna on Twitter

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