Secret Dead Blog Interview: Jeff Wong

After I posted my "Book Report" a few days ago, artist/illustrator Jeff Wong--who is the man responsible for the cool cover of The Archer Files--dropped me a line. Somehow, I was able to con him into answering a few questions for Secret Dead Blog. (See what you get when you write me? No good deed goes unpunished.)

Secret Dead Blog: You have quite a Ross Macdonald collection. What's the prize of the bunch?

Jeff Wong: As a book collector, I love having 1st editions, but, the material that excites me most is the handwritten manuscripts and letters. The letters I have span close to 40 years of correspondence, which creates a nice day to day biography of sorts. It's hard to pick just one of the manuscripts, but, if forced, it would probably be an archive for a piece of self parody that Ken Millar/Ross Macdonald wrote circa 1959 called "The Macdonald Case". It is comprised of 6 holograph drafts and a carbon typescript. The last of the 6 handwritten drafts was edited many years later (evidenced by Millar's microscopic later hand, suggesting he revisited the material in the late 70s). The drafts were written in 2 different notebooks (both spiralbound, with different 3 ring hole sizes). Millar was clearly alternating between notebooks, editing and honing the piece, copying and revising from notebook to notebook. In this short work (a rare stab at humour), mystery writer, Ross Macdonald brings his new novel, The Galton Case, to the literary critic, Kenneth Millar to be evaluated. It's a first person POV, written by Kenneth Millar. In it, Kenneth Millar is critical of Ross Macdonald's use of similes, Macdonald quotes Aristotle as a defense of the use of similitudes, and the Mystery Writers of America factor into the story as "the Organization". It's a fascinating look at the author wrestling with himself & his work and the different drafts give insight to the creative process; getting to see the crossed out words, their replacements, and editorial choices in each successive version until the piece is honed to 3 typed pages is nothing short of bliss. This is a privilege that we will see less and less of in the digital age.

SDB: When you were first given The Archer Files assignment, how did you approach it?
JW: I began with a sketch of Ken Millar as Archer in an office -- the stereotypical private-eye office with filing cabinets, desk with green blotter, and an oscillating fan. My initial idea was to have Archer reading the 1955 Bantam paperback of The Name is Archer, and include Lew Archer: Private Investigator and Strangers in Town in the background on a bulletin board. I was working on the image digitally and was getting caught up in working on it. It was getting closer to looking like a finish than just an initial sketch. I wasn't entirely happy with the image. It felt a little awkward, stiff, and clumsy, but, I thought I could fix it if it were approved. I was also too caught up in trying to set the scene in 1955 and included the famous Marilyn Monroe calendar from that year in the background; this was out of character for Archer, and as Tom Nolan (Macdonald's biographer and editor of The Archer Files), later pointed out, something Ken Millar would've strongly objected to. I took a walk one day and an idea popped into my head. Why not pay tribute to the history of the Archer short stories and mimic the original Bantam cover? As much as I adored the Mitchell Hooks cover, I always got the sense the artwork was a bit generic and might've been something that was sitting in the flat files at the Bantam offices. Seeing Archer with a six shooter always made me think this was for a Western. The romance vignette in the lower right corner never rang true. Here was a chance to include things that tied into the stories that were more appropriate. I didn't think Doug Greene (the publisher at Crippen & Landru) or Tom would go for this idea, but, it was the one that I was secretly hoping they'd approve, even though I'd already spent several weeks on the other image. I dashed off a quick digital sketch, reworking the Bantam cover with Millar's face. I sent them both sketches, and thankfully they much preferred the Bantam idea. I was relieved. They felt it was clever, and quite fitting to have Millar as Archer. Tom offered the suggestions of including the Warner Brothers water reservoir and the Santa Barbara Courthouse clock tower since Hollywood factored into the Archer canon quite often, and that the Millars were known to frequent the court sessions in Santa Barbara. I knew I had to retain the shooting vignette to show this book contained crime stories, and to retain a strong visual link to the original image. As a Macdonald collector, I loved the idea of paying tribute to the original collection while making "improvements". My father was a package designer (he designed the original Milky Way bar wrapper), so, I've always been fascinated how things are presented. I knew I wanted to emulate the Bantam book as closely as possible, so that the book would be old and familiar, yet new at the same time. It would be a book cover for Macdonald collectors by a Macdonald collector. I'm grateful to Doug and Tom for indulging my idea to carry the project to the logical extreme and giving me complete freedom to ape the front, spine, back, and title page. With the help of a friend, I was able to identify all of the original fonts used. The greatest challenge was redoing the calligraphic type for the back cover. I was going to do the cover art in the computer (I've mostly switched to digital in the last few years), but it dawned on me that I was going to be the owner of the original cover art of an important Ross Macdonald book and in a sense become part of my own Ross Macdonald collection. Was I insane? Who wants to hang a digital print when it could be a real painting instead? I did the painting in traditional media and am glad I did.

SDB: Why do you think a character like Lew Archer has endured all these years?
JW: I was beginning to wonder if people are still reading Ross Macdonald these days. Michael Chabon mentioned him recently, so, I guess so. I recently gave a friend a copy of The Chill, so I'm rereading it to discuss it with her. The writing still holds up for me. The use of foreshadowing using birds, the similes -- still artful in my book. I know Ken Millar felt Archer was so thin, if he stood sideways you wouldn't see him, and that the other characters were the ones he wanted you to remember, but, I always felt he was wrong on that front. For me, it is Lew Archer's unique voice that endures. How he sees the world in metaphor and simile, his compassion and sensitivity, his documentation of the California landscape at the time -- these are the things that resonate long after I've forgotten about the mother, or wayward son.

SDB: What's up next for you?
JW: I'm going to be working on a cover for a book by Kevin Avery about my dear friend, Paul Nelson, who passed away last summer. He was one of the few critics who defended Bob Dylan going electric at Newport, worked for Mercury Records and signed the New York Dolls, and was an editor at Rolling Stone Magazine (in Paul's cover story about Warren Zevon, Ken Millar factors into it in a big way). Paul conducted 39+ hours of interviews with Ken Millar between 1976 and 1978. I only wish Paul had lived to see the publication of The Archer Files, as he would've been one of the few people who would appreciate how much being involved in this project has meant to me.