LJ Talks to Unshelved
Jeff Ayers, Seattle Public Library -- Library Journal, 6/20/2006
From the first appearance of Unshelved (see a sample below) in February of 2002, both librarians and fans of funny comic strips have enjoyed the daily adventures of the Mallville Public Library staff. The fourth collection of strips, Book Club, has just been published, and you check out the library staff's daily lives or browse the archive of cartoons. LJ spoke to the creators of Unshelved, Bill Barnes and Gene Ambaum.
What sparked the idea for Unshelved?
Bill: Well, Gene told me a really offensive and disturbing story about the library he was working in. I knew immediately that this was to be my life's work.
Gene: Bill kept talking about this other strip he was working on about two people on an RV trip. I kept telling him true stories about library and eventually he realized my stories were funnier. I held out for an offer I couldn't refuse.
Do you share characteristics with any of the cast?
Bill: Dewey has my bad back and my technophilia, and Ned has my politics. Tamara has my wife's common sense.
Gene: Only the most positive aspects of each character. You know, my boss might be reading this. I share Buddy's skin condition.Do you have any plans to show the "management" side of things?
Bill: Maybe. Having Mel as the middle manager between a rock--her library system administration--and a hard place--her staff--generates a lot of good comedy. I'm not sure we can make her superiors as funny on-stage as they are off-stage.
Gene: Not unless one of us goes into management. But then we'd just have a strip where Mel keeps asking herself, "Why did I go into management?"
How have librarians reacted to your strip?
Bill: They generally say we are writing a documentary about their lives. Once in a while someone complains about some detail we got wrong--which is really funny because having a nudist patron and a page in a beaver suit doesn't seem to bother them! But violate an obscure tenet of library science and our name is dirt.
Gene: Overall, reaction is strangely positive. After we had the strip about the cataloger, complaints from catalogers who felt underrepresented pretty much petered out. We're never mentioning the Bible again, though.
Has there ever been a topic that really irked the audience?
Bill: In one strip we showed Buddy the Book Beaver holding a bible, and a bunch of Christians thought he was a monkey and wrote to ask if we were making some sort of twisted commentary on creationism. But in general, no, we have almost totally failed to widely offend people. We'll have to try harder.
Gene: I try and I try but Bill is holding me back.
Why do think Unshelved has been so successful? Do you think newspaper syndication would have made a difference?
Bill: Without question the reason we've been more successful than most webcomics is the fact that it has special appeal to a well-defined audience. We meet them at library conferences, they post links on library blogs, and they talk about it at work. Newspaper syndication might still happen, but if it does it will be because our fans paved the way for us.
Gene: Having an editor other than each other would have led to some changes, but I'm glad we never found out what they were. I imagine some suit going, "A beaver? Marketing won't like that, not one bit!" Honestly, syndication would have made me feel like more of a success at the beginning, but I love where we are now and I wouldn't change anything.
What have you especially enjoyed about creating the strip?
Bill: I love meeting fans and giving our talk. But the Unshelved Book Club, where our characters booktalk a new book every Sunday, has generated unexpected dividends. Having Dan Simmons and David Brin send me fan mail? That's weird and wonderful.
Gene: Honestly, it's throwing that rubber amoeba back and forth at Bill's house at 7am, singing Europe's "The Final Countdown" while Bill and I go back and forth trying to finalize a script. That plus Frito pie and Oral Roberts' giant hands in Tulsa.
Bill: It's not just you. I don't know what he's talking about either.
What are your future plans for the strip?
Bill: We're full of ideas, each one crazier than the last. Right now there aren't enough hours in the day to do more than keep the daily strip going. The next step for us to make the strip self-supporting so that we can quit our day jobs and free our time to work on the next next step.
Gene: More strips set in the public restrooms. Watch for geese. And next interview I get to answer questions first.
