Adventure Time

In an ideal world, all comic book editor-in-chiefs should experience working at a comic book store. Such is the case with current BOOM! Studios EIC Matt Gagnon, who spent a spell as buyer and purchasing manager for Hollywood’s Meltdown Comics. Gagnon recently took some time to discuss BOOM!’s transition away from the Disney properties and toward KaBOOM! books like Peanuts and Adventure Time, as well as creator-owned works such as Roger Langridge’s Snarked. The bulk of this interview took place well before Newsarama’s report that Mark Waid’s Irredeemable and Incorruptible were both drawing to a close this May, but Gagnon and I spoke of it briefly after the news broke. I will be curious to see what big news BOOM! will have in a couple of weeks. In the meantime, enjoy this interview. Me? I wish I was a young writer, so that I could get Gagnon to send me a Mark Waid script.

Tim O’Shea: What were your priorities when you took over the EIC role, and how successfully did you achieve what you set out to accomplish with the BOOM! line?

Matt Gagnon: I was—and continue to be—focused on maintaining the level of execution that the fans expect of us and we expect of ourselves. Before I became EIC I had already spent two years as Managing Editor, building a style and a system of how we make comics and fulfill the promises of what we solicit. Not to oversimplify our principals, but at its core we’re all about publishing great comics and shipping them on time. This July will be my 2 year anniversary as EIC and I feel like we’ve only been getting better and better.

Back in 2008 when I came to the company, one of my first goals was to make sure the trains were running on time. We’ve been very consistent since then and I’m extremely proud of the reputation we’ve garnered. It’s a testament to the insanely talented team we have here at BOOM! and the dedicated network of talent we have involved in our comics. We’ve been recognized by Diamond and our retail partners for two years in a row with the Best Publisher Award (under 4%).

Anybody who knows me knows that I have high expectations of myself and my team. I want to maximize every opportunity that we have. I don’t just want to do Planet of the Apes comics; I want to do the best Planet of the Apes comics, you know? The same goes for Hellraiser, 28 Days Later, Adventure Time, or anything else that we publish.

Creatively, I’ve always had a vision for our line and I’m proud of all that we’re accomplishing. We continue to achieve our goals every day, every time we send another issue to print that we’re proud of. But there’s always more to be done and bigger goals that we’re working toward. You can never rest on your laurels.

O’Shea: The KaBOOM! line made a rather pivotal transition in the past year, as the Disney licenses expired and the new licenses and creator-owned projects were gained. Are you pleased with where KaBOOM! now finds itself positioned?

Gagnon: I couldn’t be happier with the progression of the KaBOOM! imprint. The Disney licenses were obviously very important to us, and we were fortunate to publish Pixar, Muppets, Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, et al, at such a formative point in the company’s development. We had a lot of success with those titles and continue to be thankful for the opportunity to be a part of that legacy.

When I look at the KaBOOM! imprint now I see a much more diverse line of comics. Whether it’s the iconic characters of Peanuts or creating brand new characters like Roger Langridge’s Snarked or a modern hit like Adventure Time, it’s a phenomenal line-up. Publishing all-ages comics is incredibly difficult in the direct market. When the Disney license was up we were hearing a lot of consternation about what our position would be in the market with all-ages material moving forward. I think we’re showing with our new line-up that we’re more committed than ever to all-ages comics.

And things should only get more exciting this year. We’ll make a big announcement in a couple weeks that will only bolster the imprint.

O’Shea: It’s safe to assume you learned a great deal about the EIC position while Mark Waid was still a full-time co-worker, but who else would you say you learned from the most in order to be best equipped for the job?

Gagnon: Oh yeah, Mark is a giant. I’ll always be thankful that I got my start working with him. I mean, c’mon, he’s one of the all-time greats. To this day I still send young writers I’m working with a Mark Waid script to study. He can get whatever he wants out of 22 pages; it’s amazing.

I learned a ton from Ross [Richie, Founder & CEO of BOOM!] and we continue to have a great working relationship. There’s an awesome team over here filled with smart people that all have something to offer.

O’Shea: There are few people in the comics editorial side of things that have a background such as yours in retail. How did your retail experience help you to understand the priorities of how to best position the BOOM! line in a struggling (and quickly changing) economy?

Gagnon: I’ve said this in interviews before, but it’s one of the best pieces of experience that I have. I spent years “behind the counter.” I’ve seen the industry from all angles: fan, professional, retailer, publisher. It’s something I’m very thankful for and I think it gives me a unique perspective into what’s important to readers and retailers. It’s certainly helped me make adjustments and continue to be successful as the economy—and the industry—have changed over the years.

The only thing I haven’t done is work at Diamond. I should go shadow my Diamond rep for a few days [laughs].

O’Shea: This question is rooted in ignorance. Was the Stan Lee line always intended to be one year, or was there an option to go past the one year?

Gagnon: We launched the Stan Lee line as an ongoing series, but most of the story development was only planned out through the first year. It’s not really uncommon when launching a new series. You have to wait and see how the market responds to what you’re doing in serialized entertainment.

There was some terrific fan support for the line, and the books were generally well reviewed throughout the run. We all still love those stories. The creative teams were amazing and their work was exceptional. At the end of the day the sales just didn’t enable us to continue past the first year. That’s the long and the short of it.

O’Shea: What’s been some of the larger challenges in trying to maintain a proper foothold in the print side of comics, while bolstering your presence on the digital distribution landscape?

Gagnon: Well, it’s no secret that comic sales as a whole have been struggling. Launching anything new is a delicate and challenging task. There’re titles we launched last year that I think would have succeeded in, say,’09 but under-performed for us. Thankfully, we’ve also had a lot of success. You have to keep hammering away and putting out comics that you believe in. Some of them will find an audience, some of them won’t (despite your best efforts). It’s a magical and joyous thing when something pops and it’s a tremendous bummer when they don’t.

We’re consistently working on expanding our presence in the digital landscape, which is important long-term. But our core print business is still very much our bread and butter. I think we’ve done a good job of doing a balancing act between the direct market, the book trade, and digital. The trick is to keep hitting all those targets.

O’Shea: With bookstores such as Borders closing, I am curious how that has impacted BOOM!’s performance on your Mass Market sales. When you were interviewed by Tom Spurgeon in early 2011, you were pleased with the business BOOM! had gained with your distribution deals with Simon & Schuster in America and HarperCollins Canada. Are you still as pleased?

Gagnon: It was sad to see Borders close, but it honestly didn’t have much impact on our Mass Market sales. Simon & Schuster did a terrific job of shielding us from any fallout. We’ve actually been doing better than ever in the book trade. We’re getting to the point as a company where our backlist is robust and S&S and HarperCollins Canada are uniquely positioned to distribute our line.

O’Shea: This year saw you turn the editing responsibilities of Incorruptible fully over to Shannon Watters, while still keeping a role in editing Irredeemable? How hard was it to leave Incorruptible, which you had continued to edit after assuming the EIC role–and why did you decide to continue editing Irredeemable?

Gagnon: The answer is pretty boring: it simply came down to work flow. Shannon had been doing the heavy lifting on Incorruptible for a while as the Assistant Editor. I was there in a supervising capacity as she honed her own (considerable) skills. When I promoted her to Editor it was only natural that she take over the series. As my responsibilities increased she started helping with Irredeemable as well. I’ve been with Irredeemable since day one so it’s a tough series to completely let go of.

That said, both titles are ending in May, so we’re close to the finish line and are focused on sending Irredeemable/Incorruptible off with the ending they deserve. Thankfully, Shannon and I have a time-tested shorthand for doing these books, and she’s very patient with me [laughs].

O’Shea: How do you see the editorial line expanding this year?

Gagnon: You’ll see more in the way of new, original series from us. Creating new stories is something that’s in the DNA of the company. It’s something that’s important to us, and something that I’m a big believer in. As a matter of fact, we’ve been going full speed since the holidays developing a bunch of new originals that will debut this year.

We’ll continue to be aggressive in the realm of licensed comics as well. We have some of the best in the business and will continue to add some key franchises as the year goes on. The overall goal is to have a thoughtful line of comics that we’re passionate about.

If we believe in what we publish—if we care—then I think that translates to the page. There’s no greater ally than the comic book reader. If you put your best foot forward and deliver a great comic, the fan of that title will support the book in ways that are astounding.

That’s the great thing about the comic book reader, if they like what you’re doing, they’ll have your back.

Nelson

The concept behind Nelson is quite unique: A 43-year old tale about the life of Nel Baker, born in 1968, as told by 54 British creators, published by Blank Slate Books, in a 252-page collaborative graphic novel. (Is that enough numbers for you?) Did I mention that all profits from the book go to Shelter, the housing and homelessness charity? To mark the book’s recent release, Woodrow Phoenix (who co-edited the project with Rob Davis) took the time for a recent email interview. Once you’ve read this interview, be sure to enjoy CBR’s Mark Caldwell’s interview with Davis, as well as CSBG’s Greg Burgas explaining why he ranked this book as one of his best graphic novels of 2011.

Tim O’Shea: In the afterword for this book, you noted that there is “an invisible jigsaw in this book that you could put together if you knew where to look for the pieces. A secret history, a kind of group autobiography, comprised of memories and reflections from each of the creators of Nelson.” Did you always see the jigsaw pieces, or did the pieces reveal themselves to you as you compiled the book?

Woodrow Phoenix: Those pieces gradually made themselves apparent as we put the book together, really. Because the idea with the story was to ground it in recent history through the eyes of Nel, our protagonist, many of us used bits of our own lives. Things that we remembered, that we had seen or been told about, personal family history or items that had been in the news at the time. We based our stories on them or did ‘what if’ fictional riffs with them and Nel. You’ll notice a lot of real events are alluded to in the backgrounds of strips. There are a lot of pop music references, for instance. Before the late-1980s and cable & satellite TV, songs that were in the charts were the only music you’d hear on local or national radio and everybody had to listen to the same three or four stations because that was all there was. So they are a really good indicator of moods and styles in 1970s and 80s Britain, and most people used them for texture in their stories.

As the book progressed we saw what a good narrative engine the episodic chapter idea was. Because you could build an event into a story without having to explain what happened before or after it, creators could start anywhere. But they could ‘comment’ in their chapters on events that were significant to them from previous chapters. So by the time we got to the end I’d found out a lot of fascinating things about my fellow contributors!

O’Shea: Speaking of the book, you are one of its co-editors. How did the co-editing duties break down (who did what?) in terms of the collaborative editing of the book?

Phoenix: We shared the story editing equally, talking through every decision before we asked anyone to change anything. We asked everyone to follow the same process: read the story so far, then deliver an outline or script within three days. Rob and I would read and discuss it, then one of us would give the creator any notes or feedback necessary. They had another three days to come back with rough layouts which we would again discuss and comment on. Once we’d okayed them, the script and roughs were passed onto the next person in line to start them working. This way people could work on their final finished pages without feeling pressured to hurry, but the book kept moving, a chapter a week.

I had the extra responsibility of the design and production too. One of the main problems with anthologies is how the differing styles of many artists can easily make a book feel random and unfocused. So I knew a page design that framed all the artwork in the same way was going to be crucial to tie everything together. The running heads and no top or bottom bleeds give a consistency that makes Nelson feel directed and curated; no matter what’s going on within the page it’s all visually and thematically connected.

We were determined to make this book accessible to people who had never read a comic before. People new to comics struggle with figuring out reading order and what to look at first. So the other key thing I did to help consistency was to go over everyone’s lettering and balloon placements, making sure that all the creators were using the same “visual grammar” even if their styles weren’t remotely similar. Lettering is often the most neglected part of comics but speech balloons are the way that people connect with your narrative. Bad lettering will confuse and annoy your readers and destroy your comic. So it’s crucial to do it systematically and logically; even moreso on a large project like this. I did a lot of tweaking.

O’Shea: How did it come to be that certain creators landed certain years in the project, were they selected because “Hey creator A’s style is best suited for that year.” Or what was the criteria?

Phoenix: Some people really wanted a particular year, so they got it – but mostly it was about fitting styles to a time period, and putting the right people next to each other to get the most interesting transitions going. Rob had a idea of what style would fit a particular time in Nel’s life–childhood, teens, early adulthood, etc–and he decided who should go where. There was a little shuffling later on but 70-80% of the creators were happy with their position in the lineup and as you can see, the progression worked out really well.

O’Shea: I am not going to ask you for favorites, of course, but can you mention a few contributions that were far different than what your expectations were for a particular creator?

Phoenix: Almost no-one did what I expected they would. We picked people who wrote or wanted to write as well as draw. Few of us did literary naturalism, so it was definitely going to be pushing most contributors into new territory. Jamie Smart surprised me with the depth of his characterisation of Nel and her parents in just two pages for 1971. He managed to get so much personality and quirkiness into them so deftly and economically, it was an amazing gift to the book right at the beginning. There’s a three panel sequence in Sean Longcroft’s 1975 chapter that is just breathtaking in its appallingly casual depiction of a near tragedy. I keep going back to it. John Allison did some beautifully subtle character studies with just enough slapstick to throw you off the scent. Simone Lia captured the random madness of teenage (il)logic wonderfully well… I could go on. Nelson is packed with great moments.

O’Shea: In editing these various creators, were there any storytelling lessons you took away from the experience?

Phoenix: It’s a strange (but very telling) quirk of the industry that generally comics editors are not artists. They come from print media, publishing or even TV backgrounds and it isn’t considered important or relevant for them to know anything about drawing. I discovered that when I gave very specific art notes to creators–move this character up and put the speech balloon over here so that in the next panel your eye will go here, break this action into two panels, this should be an up-shot, move the horizon line down in this panel, etc–they were usually amazed and delighted to get storytelling advice that made sense and fixed narrative problems that they might have been stuck on. One person said that the total amount of useful, targeted feedback he had received in twenty years of drawing comics was less than he got from Rob and I in two weeks.

Rob and I have opinions and we aren’t shy about voicing them, which is the main reason why we did Nelson, to make a book that we thought needed making. But as a result of working with 53 people on this book and listening to what they have to say I think the low standard of basic narrative skills in comics and graphic novels today is due to inadequate editing as much as to artists having to learn as they work, with nobody correcting their storytelling problems or fixing odd tics and habits.

O’Shea: Any chance if response is strong enough, would you be willing to embark on a book of this scope and logistics again?

Phoenix: I really don’t know if I would do this again because it was hugely demanding both technically and emotionally. I had to keep the overall structure of the book in my head so that I could see where each story fit or didn’t fit Nel’s evolving narrative; that was easy for a while but thirty chapters in, the number of events and character arcs to remember were immense. I had to tell people their ideas didn’t work and deal with the fallout, which was sometimes sheer misery. Chasing copy, explaining rewrites, making suggestions and ensuring everyone was happy with what they ended up submitting. I had to juggle deadlines and corrections and check everything fit the design templates. There were some weeks where it left no time for anything else. Combine all that with the stress of living with a big cloud of uncertainty over my head about whether it was all going to fall apart in a huge embarrassing mess before we got to the end. My girlfriend Bridget deserves many fine dinners for proofing the final pages and helping me pull it all together.

O’Shea: What were the most challenging logistics of co-editing a project of this scope?

Phoenix: We were doing this by telephone and email; sometimes it took days to co-ordinate our responses and valuable creative heat would begin to cool before Rob and I could discuss a script. Luckily there were only five or six occasions where we didn’t see eye-to-eye, but when we didn’t we talked it through until one of us convinced the other or found an alternate idea that we could agree on. We rejected a story outline for one of three reasons:
a: it had already been done
b: it was too closed and didn’t give the next person anywhere to take it
c: it didn’t make sense

It was sometimes very tough to tell people to try again, which was mostly my job, for some reason… Some contributors who weren’t used to working with an editor did not take criticism well and that meant difficult emails or strained phone calls to make them understand it wasn’t personal. But once they saw that it was about technique or logical narrative flow and not anything to do with my (or Rob’s) own likes or dislikes, most people were okay with making changes. The book went along paths that I would never have chosen were I the sole writer, but collaboration is embracing what other people come up with and making it work. Whether you like it or not is irrelevant. You just have to find the logical departure point and take it where it should go next.

O’Shea: Had you always intended the book to be published by Blank Slate, or had you considered others? If not, what is it about Blank Slate that made you want to have the book produced and released through them?

Phoenix: Blank Slate Books was central to making this book a reality. Rob and Kenny Penman, of Blank Slate, had been talking about doing a book together. When Kenny saw the initial discussion Rob and I were having about the ‘collaborative graphic novel’ project he offered to publish it if we were serious about it. That transformed our really cool idea into a potential book and suddenly we had no excuse not to go ahead with it. We did some quick calculations and I ran the specifications past Kenny, he was supportive and positive and enthusiastic, and just like that, we had a book to put together! By the time we had our first production meeting in January we were already five chapters in. I’m really grateful to him for being such a calm, no-nonsense, straightforward person to deal with. He saw the possibilities for something new and gave us the opportunity to create it, he trusted us to deliver it and hardly asked us to change a thing. We couldn’t have found a better person to work with.

O’Shea: How did you all first find out about Shelter? Were the charity folks surprised to find out you wanted to do a book to benefit them?

Phoenix: They were very surprised. It was Kenny’s idea to donate the profits from the first printing to Shelter and we thought it was an excellent idea. Housing in Britain is so expensive and so tilted in favour of haves vs have-nots that most of us are only a few pay-checks away from being out on the street. Nelson is not really a ‘charity book’ though – it’s a book that is also benefitting a charity, if you see what I mean. There would have been no difference in the content wherever the money went.

O’Shea: You wrote of your contribution to the book “And because my sister died decades ago, but I still think about what our lives would be like if she had lived.” Was it cathartic on some level to delve into a piece that partially delved into your personal loss?

Phoenix: I’m not sure if cathartic is quite the right word. But maybe, yes. It felt like a good, important thing to introduce as a theme because we don’t have very effective mechanisms for coping with death as a society, especially the death of a child, and the lack of ways to acknowledge and deal with that loss makes bereaved people go a little nutty. It happens all the time and mostly we try and forget about it as quickly as possible, ignoring that the people it happens to are never the same again. My family went off the rails for a while in the face of that grief, though we knitted back together eventually. A couple of my friends whose children died had similarly bleak experiences.

I was surprised by the alacrity with which Sonny’s death was seized on by the other creators, actually. I had expected everyone to avoid dealing with it in favour of easier topics, but it became a dominant subplot right from the beginning. So that showed me my instincts were correct: there really isn’t such a thing as an undiscussable topic. It just comes down to how you present them.We’re all curious about how other people live, how they cope, how they feel. We only need the permission to ask the questions and we’ll be digging right in there.

Dustin Harbin: "No Time for Tim"

This weekend, I made my way up to Charlotte, N.C., to catch up with my pals Johanna Draper Carlson and KC Carlson, who also drove down to attend the 35th Anniversary of the Charlotte MiniCon. I enjoyed attending the Minicon (seeing folks like the always photogenic and hilarious Dustin Harbin [yeah, I had to photograph him...again], as well as Jason Latour, Matt Wilson, Bridgit Scheide and Rich Barrett). Yet as I was in the middle of having fun, I realized I wanted to enjoy it as a consumer, not cover it as a journalist. So if you are looking for coverage of the Minicon, I highly recommend Johanna’s coverage over at Comics Worth Reading.

That being said, I could not go to Charlotte and not take some pictures. Despite the fact I have attended HeroesCon for the past several years, I have never shopped at the legendary retail store, Heroes Aren’t Hard to Find. Until this past Sunday. Here’s the evidence of my fun.

The shot where I show I can cross a street for a photo.

KC Carlson indulges my request for a peek-a-boo game. (Mary Jane Watson by Adam Hughes)

Price check under the giant Spidey!

Doc Ock makes sure no one messes with the cash register

My favorite art in the store (Superman by the late great Mike Wieringo)

I did not take pictures of my purchases, but I was able to score copies of the first few issues of Terry Moore’s Rachel Rising, as well as X-9 Secret Agent Corrigan Volume 3 by Archie Goodwin and Al Williamson.

MUSH!

I was immensely impressed in early December, when Stephen Colbert recommended Glenn Eichler & Joe Infurnari‘s new First Second book, Mush!: Sled Dogs with Issues, to The Colbert Report viewers. Admittedly, Colbert is slightly biased, given that Eichler (the author of the frozen tundra/talking sled dogs/quirky humans comedy-drama) writes for the Comedy Central show. However, while many of the show’s writers have projects they’d love to have promoted by their boss, it’s relatively rare when Colbert uses the show’s forum to promote his staff’s projects. As a result, once I saw the endorsement, I made a mental note to track down the creators after the holidays for a potential interview. By some stroke of luck, the book’s artist, Infurnari, instead contacted me in mid-December to see if I was interested in covering his latest project (you bet I agreed to email interview with him and Eichler). I appreciate the collaborators’ willingness to discuss the project, particularly when Eichler shared the origin of his honed sense of comedic timing (having worked in an “editing room for a lot of animated half-hours for TV” [he was a story editor for MTV's Beavis & Butthead in the mid-1990s, as well as creating and producing the television show, Daria]). Once you’ve read the interview, be sure to enjoy First Second’s preview of the book.

Tim O’Shea: Joe, I love the way you convey the intensity and energy of the dogs when they are working, how did you arrive upon conveying that particular style of kineticism?

Joe Infurnari: The story hinges on the idea that not doing what you love leads to discontentment and unrest. For the team of sled dogs featured in this book, running is their bliss and the time they spend not running breeds trouble. So it was important to make the times the dogs were running as full of energy and joy as possible.

Quick slashing lines, splashes of ink, dramatic foreshortening and powerful diagonals are some of the ways I tried to bring to life the rush of running through the trails. I also knew that if it looked quickly drawn, then that energy would come through in the movement of the characters. When it came to the final inks, I was very comfortable drawing the book and I think the art reflects that. The inks are decisive, gestural and full of energy.

The final piece to the puzzle was the use of sound effects to add a visual punch to the high action running sequences.

O’Shea: Joe, I appreciated the placement of sound effects (particularly the dogs’ sounds), how did you decide when to slip those sound effects into the page?

Infurnari: I like sound effects in comics. With Mush! I used them to not just be descriptive of the sounds of things but to also highlight some of the non verbal communication taking place between the dogs. So when Buddy feels Venus is responding to his amorous overtures, I punctuated his tail with a ‘WAG!’ When she responds with a withering quip his tail simply ‘sags’. Similarly, when Dolly tries to politely reject Winston’s advances, she moves her hindquarters away from him with a ‘scooch’.

Ironically, I also used sound effects to make the lack of communication and sexual frustration between the humans even more awkward. The ‘shlup’ ‘shlup’ of Patty mashing berries is a subtle and funny comment on her desire for more connection with Frank.

O’Shea: As collaborators, how quickly did you establish a rapport on this project, and had the two of you been familiar with each others’ work prior to this project?

Infurnari: I of course knew Daria and before starting Mush! I read Stuffed!, his book with Nick Bertozzi. That was a great book and I think it helped me understand what was needed for Mush.

Mark Siegel’s editorial style is to have his artists and writers work together directly so Glenn and I rather quickly built up a rapport.

Glenn Eichler: I have to say that I was not familiar with Joe’s work, but First Second’s Mark Siegel thought he’d be perfect for the book, and Mark has a great sense for that kind of thing (and was absolutely right). As for our working rapport, we were always in touch, but never working in the same room. Joe did his thing and I did mine, but when we did communicate concerning feedback or notes, I’d say our working relationship was great.

O’Shea: I enjoyed the comedic pacing of the book at times. There are panels where nothing is said, allowing the comedy to linger for a moment. How much discussion took place in trying to frame comedic moments like that?

Infurnari: Glenn and I both understand it’s not always what is said that is funny. Many times it’s what goes unsaid that can really be hilarious. I don’t recall how many of those moments were in the script and how many came out of our collaboration. Those moments just seem to naturally flow out of the characters and their situations.

Eichler: Often I had indicated in the manuscript where a blank panel should be… I’ve been in the editing room for a lot of animated half-hours for TV, and that helps develop a sense of timing. Obviously you can’t “freeze” for five seconds in a book, so we used blank panels instead.

O’Shea: Joe, the dogs in this story convey a range of emotion, to a great extent through body language (beyond the mere wagging of a tail), did you do a lot of experimental sketching trying to learn how best to convey emotions or how did you settle upon how best to emotionally wrangle the dog cast?

Infurnari: Doing this book taught me a lot about my own process. Unlike some artists who are able to nail the designs and style right from the beginning, I have to do the book to know what it will look like. The characters and their unique body language come out of living with them through the layouts, the pencils and eventually the inks. The more I drew them the more they would each gain their own life. I attribute the hard work of drawing, redrawing and living with them throughout the process of creating this graphic novel as responsible for really breathing life into these characters.

O’Shea: How much research did the two of you in preparation of doing this story?

Infurnari: In his character descriptions of the dogs, Glenn gave me their breeding. This was my launching point for developing the characters with the rest coming from just doing lots and lots of drawing. I also researched the Alaskan landscape, log cabins, the sleds and harnesses as well. The book was pretty light on research with most of the books focus being on the characters’ psychological states. They have issues after all.

Eichler: I read up on dog teams, the various breeds used, what type of dog is considered best for what position in the harness, etc. I had read a classic book about Alaska, John McPhee’s “Coming into the Country,” which taught me a lot not only about how Alaskans use dog teams, but also about what kind of person moves up there from the lower 48 to live in the bush.

O’Shea: Was there a great deal of discussion on the coloring of the pages between you two, or did Glenn defer to you on that Joe? I really like the wintery range used to convey the snowy landscape.

Infurnari: When Mark approached me about the book he said he was looking for something different from the color. A wintry landscape of mostly snow and sky is limiting of what can be done but I tried to inject as much color into it as I could without detracting from the characters. That was my other objective for the color; to really individuate the dogs. So after a few tests of the color, I showed Mark and Glenn what I had and I was pretty much given the go-ahead from there.

O’Shea: Glenn, the human characters in the book are named Boss and Boss’s Mate (clearly named from the dogs’ perspective). How early in the story’s development did you realize you wanted to take that approach?

Eichler: Probably when I first decided that we should see the humans from two points of view, their own and the dogs.’ The device of the names lets you know immediately whose perspective you’re seeing, and that’s also the reason that when the dogs hear the humans speak, it’s in nonsense syllables. In their scenes without the dogs, the humans call each other by their given names.

O’Shea: Glenn, how much of a struggle was it trying to pace out how much story you wanted to devote to human drama versus the dog drama that is the backbone of the story?

Eichler: It wasn’t hard at all. The book was always going to be about the dogs, so they got the main focus.

O’Shea: Question for the both of you, there appear to be metaphorical fences in this book (between people and between the dogs), in addition to the physical fences. Would you agree?

Infurnari: When I read the script, I was reminded of how in art and literature natural landscapes have often represented the depths of the human psyche. There’s something about the dark bottomless fathoms of the oceans, the mysteries of the forest or the wide open expanses of sand or snow that spark our imaginations. In Mush!, the barren isolation of the Alaskan landscape sets the scene for a story about the dogs’ psychological state and ultimately our own interior lives as readers. The fences in this story are boundaries preventing the dogs from being out in the open on a run where they are most happy. The trail is their bliss and the fences that keep them from it mark the breeding area of their issues.

Eichler: Well, definitely. No one can ever know or meld with another person (or dog) entirely, and the isolation in which they all live just throws those differences into brighter relief. But that same isolation also creates fences that enclose the people and the dogs, forcing them together because they really can’t get away from each other. I’m saying the book has a lot of fences. It’s best to read it with a pair of wire cutters.

O’Shea: Glenn, not to get bogged down in details, but naming one’s dog is often a challenge. You really did a good job of naming the team of dogs in this story, did that come to you quite easily as you developed the characters or was it challenging with certain characters?

Eichler: I hate naming characters as a general rule, but I tried for a mix of the silliness and anthropomorphism often found in the names that real people give their real dogs. I also wanted to touch on the way people will give their puppies names that turn out to be either perfectly descriptive of their adult personalities, or utterly wrong.

O’Shea: Glenn (from the book’s acknowledgements you thank the dogs “who talk to him when he sleeps”) how long have you heard the dogs talking to you?

Eichler: I didn’t write that. The dog dictated it.

O’Shea: Of the whole team of dogs, for both of you, did you develop an affinity for one of the dogs over the course of developing the story?

Infurnari: Definitely. For me, I loved Buddy and Winston the most because their particular physiognomy and situation gave me the most opportunity for some hilarious drawings!

Eichler: I always like all my characters. To write them you have to be able to understand and sympathize with the motives of them all, even the villains. That said, it’s hard not to love Buddy.

O’Shea: How much fun did the two of you have at the recent Cousin Corinne’s LIVE COMIX BLOCK at Book Court in early December?

Infurnari: Live comics readings are always great opportunities for pushing the material into a different comedic realm. I like to enlist the audience to do all the sound effects. With Mush!, I got no small amount of pleasure at conducting a room full of people into a resounding swell of grunts!

Eichler: It was my first time doing one of those, so I had a lot of fun. And I got to meet some people whom I respect a lot – including Joe! That was the first time we met face to face, if you can believe it.

O’Shea: Anything we should discuss that I neglected to ask you about?

Eichler: Where’d you get that shirt? I like it.

Memorial 2 (Cover by Michael WM Kaluta)

Wednesday marks the release of the second issue of writer Chris Roberson and artist Rich Ellis’ IDW miniseries Memorial, which centers on Em, a women recovering from amnesia only to have a magical shop with unique transportation abilities enter her life. The story also features a talking cat, an element that captured my interest (and as I learned, the cat talks like a comics associate of Roberson’s [your guess who it is as good as mine]). Last week I caught up with the Roberson and Ellis via email to explore their collaborative process. In addition to delving into the six-issue miniseries, I briefly learned about the advantage that Ellis finds in being part of Portland’s Periscope Studio. Once you’ve read the interview, avail yourself of IDW’s preview of Issue 1 and Roberson’s November interview with CBR’s Josie Campbell.

Tim O’Shea: In a recent CBR interview, Chris described this project as using “mythological tropes that are somewhat familiar but twisted.” Who had more fun twisting the tropes, Rich (from a visual perspective) or Chris (from a writing perspective)?

Chris Roberson: Rich may claim that he had more fun, but he’s clearly wrong, as I am having a BLAST.

Rich Ellis: If Chris is having more fun, then I am the person who benefits most from his enjoyment. The fun for me has been in the challenge of getting my head into the complex characters and wonderfully intricate world of Memorial.

O’Shea: With at least two or three of the six issues already in the can, I am curious if you two feel like you have established a rapport as collaborators? What assets do you both see each other bringing to this story?

Roberson: I knew from the first time I looked at Rich’s website that he would be perfect for Memorial, and I have yet to be proven wrong. I can describe a crazy bit of architecture or a character’s look or a setting, and as soon as Rich turns his hand to it he produces EXACTLY what I had in mind. Or improves it in a way that I hadn’t even anticipated. Some of the stuff we have in the upcoming issues just looks AMAZING.

Ellis: To put it simply, collaborating with Chris has been ideal. It usually takes time for a team to really understand each other creatively, but from the first synopsis I read, I felt like Chris and I were on the same page. As for what Chris brings to the story, he has said before that he’s throwing everything he ever wanted to see done in comics into Memorial. I can tell you personally that he was NOT exaggerating. Each script has included characters and concepts I have never seen anywhere else.

O’Shea: Without giving away too much, the first issue ends with a door opening in the midst of a seascape. Chris, could you describe your thought process when you realized you wanted to write that scene — and Rich, how challenging a scenes was that to draw?

Page from Memorial 1

Roberson: It was really just a question of Em stepping through a door and it being immediately obvious that she was in a MUCH different place. Originally I toyed with the idea of her ending up in some different city, or some rural setting, but there was something about the stark isolation of a desert island that seemed to fit.

Ellis: Drawing that particular page was actually a breath of fresh air. The most difficult pages for me in that issue were actually the pages in the shop. It is an important setting, and I was very focused on capturing just the right feeling for it. I wanted it to feel like the kind of place where you could find ANYTHING.

O’Shea: Another art/writing challenge, how do you feature a talking (and hilariously snarky) cat in one’s story without making the character seem cheesy?

Roberson: I didn’t realize he would be snarky until he started talking. I always hate it when writers talk about characters writing themselves or coming alive on the page, but the experience writing Schrodinger has very much been that kind of thing. But once I’d written a few issues, I mentioned to my wife Allison that for some reason I never had to struggle to imagine what the cat would say, and that I knew EXACTLY how he talked. It was like I heard his very distinct voice in my head. Then she realized that I had unconsciously modeled Schrodinger’s speech patterns after those of a good friend of ours. As soon as she said that, I knew she was right.

I’m not saying who the person is whose voice I’ve stolen for Schrodinger, but he works in comics. I’m curious to see if anyone can guess who it is. (To be fair, though, I’ve never heard him call a woman “toots.”)

Ellis: I think a lot of what makes Schrodinger work is how Chris chose to deal with him. Schrodinger is normal as far as he’s concerned, and in a story with a evil puppet and statues coming to life, I think he may have a point. I think of him as just being another character at this point, the main challenge for me being that I have to be creative with my acting.

O’Shea: How important was it to the two of you that this story be in color, and speaking of the color — how critical is colorist Grace Allison to the look and feel of this series?

Roberson: Memorial wouldn’t be HALF the book it is without Grace’s colors.

Ellis: It never occurred to me to do Memorial in anything but full color. From the outset I imagined Memorial to be a rich, vivid, and inviting place. I had previously worked with Grace on a number of different projects and she was my first choice for Memorial. Grace has been a part of defining the look and feel of every character and environment in the book from the very beginning. I can’t imagine the book without her.

O’Shea: Would it be fair to say you both have an affinity to a certain degree for urban fantasy (and would you agree Memorial has an element of urban fantasy to it)?

Roberson: “Urban fantasy” is one of those terms that used to have a much broader definition than it does today, and has come to identify a fairly narrow sub-genre. So if you mean writers like Charles de Lint, Emma Bull, Ellen Kushner … then yes.

But I think Memorial owes more to prose writers like Roger Zelazny and Diana Wynne Jones, which I suppose could be termed “urban fantasy” in the original sense of the term, which indicated fantasy stories in a contemporary setting, at least in part. With Em’s story, I’m trying to capture that same sense of the extraordinary and fantastic intruding into the real world. Hopefully we manage to accomplish it!

Ellis: I have a great love of fantasy stories in general. Knowing what I do about Memorial and where it’s heading, I find it entirely impossible to classify it as any one specific sub-genre.I describe it to people as a contemporary fantasy story in which ANYTHING can happen. I hope that answer isn’t too vague, but I think one of most exciting things about the Memorial universe is that, when it comes down to it, I can’t think of a type of story we COULDN’T tell.

O’Shea: Rich, one question for you solely, when struggling with a scene or a facial reaction or some other aspect of you art, how beneficial is it to be working in the talent rich environment of Periscope Studio?

Ellis: I cannot overstate how useful a resource being a member of Periscope Studio has been for me. Aside from the obvious benefit of NOT spending 60 hours a week alone in my apartment, I get access to a multitude of incredibly talented and experienced artists and writers. There is no problem that I can’t ask the room about without receiving at least six different solutions back. I work in the company of artists I admire and respect, and I can’t recommend it enough.

The only downside is that at some point my studio-mates found out I was very good at making ridiculous facial expressions for photo reference. So our studio’s iPhoto library holds enough incriminating photos of me to ensure the end of my career, should they ever be released.

O’Shea: Chris, since Rich got his own question, it’s only fair you get one as well: How did the Memorial team score Michael Kaluta for the covers?

Roberson: Getting the amazing Michael Kaluta to do covers for Memorial was entirely up to the fine people at IDW. We had originally talked about Rich doing the covers himself. But when IDW wrote to ask us if we MINDED if Kaluta did them instead, well … It’s not as if Rich or I were about to complain! It’s thrilling and a little humbling to get a chance to work with such a monumental talent, whose work I’ve admired for as long as I can remember.

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic-War

Over the past several years, writer John Jackson Miller has built a loyal base of Star Wars comic book readers, through his work on Dark Horse’s Star Wars comics line. This Wednesday, January 11, marks the release of the first issue in the Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic-War five-issue miniseries (a project which teams Miller with artist Andrea Mutti). While I had Miller’s attention in this email interview, I also opted to pick his brain about the realm of circulation and its related implications. Once you’ve read the interview, please be sure to peruse Dark Horse’s preview of the first issue.

Tim O’Shea: What’s the most enjoyable aspect of returning to the Knights of the Old Republic world?

John Jackson Miller: Zayne Carrick is a fun character to write. He was the Jedi student that didn’t make the grade, but who became a hero in spite of those low expectations. Zayne starred in the fifty-issue Knights of the Old Republic series — available in digital and nine TPB collections — and it’s fun to return to him here, where, once again, he’s completely out of his depth. This time, he’s been drafted into the Republic’s war against the armored Mandalorians. Not good — especially if, like Zayne, you’re against killing under any circumstances. That, too, makes it fun to return to telling Zayne stories — he has to think his way out of situations. Brute force is rarely an option for him.

It’s also a nice change of pace from writing about Sith. I’ve been writing the Star Wars: Knight Errant comics and novel for the last couple of years — and also the Star Wars: Lost Tribe of the Sith prose collection due out from Del Rey this July — and while it’s fun to come up with new and interesting ways to depict Sith evil in those series, the Sith aren’t the main enemy in the Knights of the Old Republic-War period. The Mandalorians differ in a lot of ways but most importantly, they’re not evil — they just have a different philosophy that is having serious trouble coexisting with the Republic’s. So that makes for an interesting difference.

I should note that we’ve crafted War so that you don’t have to have read the previous Knights comics — Zayne starts out all on his own, and we learn about the galaxy as he does. We will have some treats for readers of the previous series, but the aim is to make a jumping-on point here.

O’Shea: While the Knights of the Old Republic saga plays out several thousand years before the movies, would you say there are certain elements of the characters and the universe that are still able to tap into the appeal of the movies?

Miller: Oh, sure. Humor is one; Zayne’s master once said he was walking proof that the Force had a sense of humor. Zayne isn’t in a funny situation, at all, but his outlook is such that he’s fun to follow. He’s not intense, like Anakin Skywalker or Kerra Holt (from Knight Errant) — and I think his perpetual underdog status and earnestness recalls a young Luke Skywalker in a lot of ways.

And here again I think we try to convey events of galactic scope, as the movies did. War begins with a battle to try to stop the Mandalorians’ advance on the Republic — but as we’ll see as the story goes on, there’s a much bigger game afoot. So we have that drama playing out as well.

O’Shea: How excited are you that the book is being released digitally as well as in traditional print, allowing your potential audience to seemingly broaden to a wider range?

Miller: I think it’s a good thing. The reach of the comics expanded dramatically during the last decade, with trade paperbacks giving everything a second life; I think the expectation is that digital will become another leg of the table in this decade. Personally, I’m very much committed to the print format — where some house-hunters look for workshop space, I look for a good place for my library. But I think having the additional option for readers is the right thing to do.

O’Shea: You’ve dabbled in the Star Wars universe for a number of years, but still it clearly is a set of characters and worlds you love exploring. Why is that?

Miller: It’s because it’s open-ended, with a lot of opportunities to tell different types of stories. Knight Errant, for example, has given me the chance to explore life under totalitarian rule, and resistance against it. The Lost Tribe of the Sith stories are very nearly a sociological experiment, seeing how a group of Sith stranded on a planet with no technology survives generations without imploding. And Knights of the Old Republic has given us a chance to deal with the Republic more or less intact, but under threat from a different kind of external enemy. So the playing fields are very different and allow for very different kinds of stories to be told.

That said, it’s all Star Wars, whenever it’s set. The big themes of good and evil are always there, they’re just interpreted though different lenses.

O’Shea: I’m impressed with your restraint as a writer, in that you construct a series of pages full of action, but no dialogue or thought balloons of substance. Is that something you would have been comfortable trying earlier in your career–and how good did it feel to be able to do that with this issue?

Miller: I’m a big fan of old comics, but I always thought it was crazy to have long debates raging in the middle of a fight scene between combatants. There’s a place for repartee in a fight scene — we see it a lot certainly in Star Wars, during the escape from the Death Star — but Zayne is very much on his own for a lot of this first issue, so I wanted to let the action flow without getting in the way.

That said, something I did with War that I haven’t done in previous KOTOR comics is that Zayne is our narrator. I made a conscious decision in the previous series not to use a narrator during long stretches, because there were many characters in the story who weren’t what they appeared to be, and I didn’t want an omniscient narrator telling people what was true. But here, Zayne is on his own, and while there are definitely many surprises in the series, we’re discovering them just as Zayne does. So I give the microphone over to him.

O’Shea: Speaking of the art, how quickly were you and artist Andrea Mutti establish a narrative rhythm/rapport? Also, I was really struck by the coloring work of Michael Atiyeh–how satisfying is it when a story fires on all production cylinders (art, inking, color and lettering)?

Miller: Andrea’s work has been great. With any artist it’s just a matter of studying their work and then crafting pages that will play to their strengths. Every artist specializes in different things — the more you can match the story’s staging to an artist’s approach, the better.

And I’m glad you mentioned Michael Atiyeh, who really was a huge part of the success of the Knights of the Old Republic and Knight Errant series — as well as the Mass Effect books we worked on. Colorists are important in helping to maintain a consistent look on a title that has more than one artist, true — but they do so much more. Michael adds to the drama of scenes with his choices, and I try to work in a lot of opportunities in the script where lighting makes a difference. Another Michael, letterer Michael Heisler, is also aboard — he’s lettered just about everything I’ve ever done at Dark Horse, and always adds a lot to the package. And series editor Dave Marshall managed KOTOR and Mass Effect — so this really is a veteran team working together on this.

O’Shea: It’s interesting that the first issue of this project publishes letters about your Knight Errant work. Was it important to you and Dark Horse to reassure fans, in a sense: “I am starting this miniseries, but I am not turning my back on Knight Errant!”

Miller: Yes, I think so. There’s a five-months-on, five-months-off dynamic with some of the series, and in this case we scheduled Knights of the Old Republic – War exactly into the Knight Errant gap. War fits into the slot between Knight Errant-Deluge, just ended, and Knight Errant-Escape, which ships in June and is our best, most impactful story let in that line. So this is a logical place to put those letters.

O’Shea: You are a circulation expert, no doubt, but I am curious do you monitor the numbers on your sales or do you avoid looking at them–and just not worry about month by month sales too much?

Miller: One of the things that I preach on The Comics Chronicles is that while the month-by-month numbers of books that Diamond Comic Distributors ships are interesting, they aren’t the whole picture. And so while I certainly look at the monthly figures, I’m also aware of their limitations: first-month orders are impacted by the shipping calendar, time of year, and the volume of other releases just to name a few. But many more things go into the circulation of a comics story. In the years since the first issue of the original Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic series came out, for example, that story has now sold in more trade paperbacks than it did comic books — and the number of comic books is a lot larger than the initial number, too, due to reorders and reprintings. Something else we never see in the Diamond charts is the multiple foreign licensed magazines these stories appear in — and then, of course, there’s digital. So it’s a definite patchwork. I clearly think the monthly numbers are important, given my research work, but I tell people to put a lot more focus on what they say about the market in aggregate. The reach of any individual comics story is a lot farther than current sales charts can capture.

O’Shea: Which characters are you most pleased to get to develop and explore in this new Knights of the Old Republic–War story?

Miller: Dorjander Kace, the Jedi Master who’s volunteered to join the Republic in its war against the Mandalorians, is a character we’ll be seeing a lot more of. One of the big events of this era involves the Jedi renegade Revan rejecting Jedi neutrality and going to war against the Mandalorians; we saw that moment in the original series, and of course the character plays a big role in the later video games and in the just-released Revan novel. Kace is the highest ranking Jedi to go rogue and go to war against the Mandalorians — but as we’ll see, he comes at it from a unique angle.

I also have fun with Zayne’s superior officer, Republic Captain Dallan Morvis, who we introduced back in the original series as a secondary character — rich, entitled, arrogant, and thoroughly unlikable, Morvis hates Zayne’s guts. Which makes him an interesting foil for Zayne. It’s easy to tell a story where the allies like each other; this amps up the conflict.

O’Shea: Is there anything you’d like to discuss (that I neglected to ask you about) or thoughts you’d like to leave with Robot 6 readers?

Miller: I think the intent with the whole Star Wars line is to tell good stories — I think new readers will find that there aren’t many continuity demands in War. Yes, there’s a rich tapestry that we’ve all been working on developing — readers will find lots of moments in the original series that point to things we’re doing here. But we also tell a complete story here that stands on its own. Hopefully, it’s a first step into a wider world, as Obi-Wan once said!

Readers can find out more about the series at the official Dark Horse site and also my own website, where I maintain a behind-the-scenes page for every comic book I’ve ever done. There’s a lot of fun background there. Readers can also follow me on Twitter and catch my comics history work.

A snippet from Peanuts 1 (Art by Vicki Scott/inked by Paige Braddock)

Did you pick up Peanuts 1 yesterday? If you love all ages books, you should have. The first issue of this ongoing KABOOM! monthly features new stories by Vicki Scott, Paige Braddock, Shane Houghton and Matt Whitlock–and original Charles Schulz stories of course. In fact, Braddock wears many hats on this project. First off, she is the creative director of Charles M. Schulz Creative Associates. Secondly Braddock (also creator of the ensemble comedy comic strip, Jane’s World) inks the stories, as well provides colors on the cover. Anytime an all ages title like this new release from the KABOOM! gang (in partnership with Peanuts Worldwide) comes out, I want to shout it from the rooftops. On a personal level, I am overjoyed to interview Braddock in this brief email interview, as I have been a fan of her work since her days many, many years ago–on staff as an illustrator at my local newspaper, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. As much as I wanted to interview her some about Jane’s World and The Martian Confederacy (her collaboration with Jason McNamera), I opted to make the focus of today’s interview on Peanuts. My thanks to Braddock for her time.

Tim O’Shea: Were you involved in selecting the other writers of the stories, such as Shane Houghton and Vicki Scott?

Paige Braddock: Shane Houghton was selected by Boom, but I was familiar with his other work on Reed Gunther. Shane also did some test pages for Boom and we reviewed those at the studio. I met Vicki Scott during the Happiness is a Warm Blanket graphic novel project. It’s a funny story actually… I had met her husband, Bob, who was at the time an animator at Pixar. I knew his work and contacted him about working on the graphic novel. He was pretty busy so he suggested that maybe his wife could help out. I was thinking to myself, his wife?! Then of course his wife, Vicki, turned out to be this incredibly talented artist. Since that first project, she and I have collaborated on a couple of children’s books based on the Peanuts characters. Vicki also turned out to be quite gifted at writing and capturing the “voice and tone” of these characters.

O’Shea: What is the key to capturing the spirit of the classic Peanuts tales without blatantly trying to copy the late Charles Schulz?

Braddock: I think we are still working very hard to figure that out. Part of the equation is taking stories from the comic strip and adapting them by creating more cinematic scenes and character images from maybe a different viewpoint. Keeping true to the stories while creating art scenes and staging that you might not encounter in the comic strip. We’re also doing some short original stories which we review by committee here at the studio to make sure we stay on model. Lex Fajardo is the project manager for these books. He and our art director, Iain Morris, contribute in keeping us on track. Once we’ve run a story and thumbnails through our proofing process here we send them to Boom for their editorial review. This series really is a group effort. We also include some “pure Schulz” work in each issue. There are at least 3 Sunday comics that run in each monthly book. We figure most kids don’t read newspapers so at least this will give them a chance to encounter Schulz, unfiltered by other writers and artists.

O’Shea: I always thought the coloring on Peanuts Sunday strips were distinctly unique, are there certain colors that you avoid when telling a Peanuts tale?

Braddock: If you look at collections, like the 25th anniversary Peanuts book, the Sunday color is really vibrant and sort of unpredictable. I think Schulz wasn’t afraid to use bright colors or to use them in an unconventional way. Like, a pink sky, for example. Erin Samuels, who worked with Schulz has done the color Sunday work for at least the last 15 years. I think she’s done a good job of following his lead. For the comic books, we’ve had a lot of discussion about color. Just simply as a result of size and print quality we can do more with color for the comic books than we can do in newsprint, which tops out at 150 dpi. The majority view is that we’d like to push the envelope a little in terms of color and application (textures, fades, ect.) but we don’t want to use too many gimmicks that would distract viewers from Schulz’s simple character design. It’s going to be a balancing act for sure. When I first started working here at the studio I did some one-on-one Sunday color work with Sparky (Schulz). I was the first one to really use the computer to enhance the color on the strip. Sparky definitely was open to experimentation. He wanted to try things that I would have thought were too “out there,” but he clearly liked trying new things.

O’Shea: What makes the Peanuts universe (and its characters) so timeless?

Braddock: The short answer I think is “universal themes.” Schulz tapped into some collective experience that enables Peanuts characters to resonate just as much with a school teacher in Iowa as a business man in Japan. That’s a pretty amazing feat. I personally think it’s not just the universal themes, but the depth in which he deals with them. Schulz managed to achieve a certain level of depth within the discourse in the comic strip, without it seeming forced or trite. Peanuts seems real. I think it seems so real because Schulz put so much of his personal feelings, insecurities and doubts into each character. It seems real because it is real, if that makes sense. That sort of authenticity takes personal bravery and I think his vast readership obviously appreciated that authentic, voice.

O’Shea: How hard was it to work on the Peanuts story in between the other projects you are working on?

Braddock: It’s actually been a lot of fun. For me, this job started out as an art job. I was hired by Schulz to do illustration work. The job got sort of side tracked after Schulz retired, and I was asked to do a lot more “direction” and less hands-on artwork. So I’m really glad to be finally back to doing what I was hired to do. After 12 years at the studio, I’m a lot better at drawing the characters than I was when I started.

O’Shea: Anything we should discuss that I neglected to ask you about?

Braddock: There hasn’t been a Peanuts comic book series since Dell published comics back in the 1960s. As a fan of both comic books and Peanuts, I’m glad that comic shops will once again have Peanuts on their shelves. As a comic reader, I think Peanuts will be a breath of fresh air in terms of material that’s suitable for all ages. Some of the super hero stuff has gotten so dark and violent that speaking as a comic book fan, I’m glad there will be a “happy” alternative on the shelf.

This is our final post for our big birthday bash, and what a post it is. No matter how much stuff we line up, people we interview, etc., there are still tons of folks we like to hear from and include in our giant New Year’s/anniversary/birthday activities. So, as we have in past years, we have asked various comics folks what they are excited about for 2012 in comics–something they aren’t working on and something they are.

There’s a lot of great stuff here–hints at new projects and even some downright announcements. Our thanks to everyone this year who responded!

Jason Latour

Loose Ends 4

I’m most anticipating the 30th Anniversary of HEROES CON (June 22-24, Charlotte, NC) . For any convention 30 years is an amazing run, but the fact that Shelton Drum and his extended family have put this show together every year with nothing but blood, sweat and tears is flat out super heroic.

On the personal front, the challenging and exhilarating ride that’s been Loose Ends will come to a close with issue 4. It’ll be bittersweet to send our child off to into the real world but I can’t wait for you guys to see the work Brunner & Renzi are doing.

I’m also super excited to dip my own toes into the Mignola-verse with the BPRD: The Pickens County Horror [March 28, 2012] and to read the end of Jason Aaron & RM Guera’s Scalped, which is my favorite series in years.

Jason Latour is a writer/artist, most recently the writer of Loose Ends. He spoke with Tim O’Shea about the miniseries in July.

Patrick Zircher

This sounds politic, but it’s genuine: what excites me about comics in 2012 is what’s exciting every year, the work of the talent.  Seeing what the best are up to and how the up-n-comers have grown as artists and writers.  In the new year, I’m also excited about illustrating several books and covers that feature my favorite Avengers.

Patrick Zircher is an artist, who explored the 1920s/1930s era of the Marvel universe in 2011 with the five-issue miniseries, Mystery Men. He spoke with Tim O’Shea about the miniseries in May.

Bryan Q. Miller

Happy a Birthday as this is, Robot 6, let’s not get so lost in the celebration that we forget the sacrifices made by Robots 2, 4 and 5 to get you where you are today.

Now that THAT’s out of the way… AVENGERSavengersAVENGERSavengersAVENGERS #Hobbit

Also looking forward (very much) to the end-run on Locke and Key, as well as the next year’s worth of Morning Glories.

And, hopefully, DC will finally announce my secret project. Then there’s that other secret project I’ve done for a secret company. #Secrets

Bryan Q. Miller is a writer for television and comics, most recently of the Batgirl series featuring Stephanie Brown, which Tim O’Shea ranked among his favorite series of 2011. He spoke with Tim O’Shea about Batgirl in March.

Jimmie Robinson

Bomb Queen

I’m quite interested in what the Image Expo will be like in February. The platform is based on Image Comic’s 20 years in the industry, but in my opinion it represents the emergence of the independent creator and publishers and self-publishers of this generation. I’m old enough to have lived through the change of a dependent system where the market was primarily two companies and three distributors. That changed in the late 1980s and early 1990s. I’m not sure if the Image Expo will be a one-time celebratory event or the basis for a yearly gathering but I am excited about it. It’s different from the likes of Stumptown, or APE or SPX, because the independent spirit exists on several layers and I’m not sure publishers on this level have had a real convention just for them.

As for myself personally…
I’m looking forward to seeing the end of the Bomb Queen story arc. In 2012, Vol. 7 *might* be my last run with the character… except for some annual specials and crossovers. I’m not ending it forever, but I might be slowing her down so I can do other books. I’m thinking more how Robert Kirkman handled, Battle Pope. He keeps it in print and brings the character out every now and then to retain control.. but it’s no longer his main focus. By the way… that’s a crossover I would like to see. Battle Pope and Bomb Queen.

Jimmie Robinson is an artist, writer and creator of many titles, most recently Bomb Queen, published by Image Comics.

Rachel Pandich

In terms of projects I am not personally involved in, I know this is going to sound all touchy feel-y and hippy dippy but I am super excited for all the opportunity that 2012 will bring for creator owned and newbies in the comic field. Between projects like Womanthology that show the untapped/underused talent out there and the creator-owned push from people like Niles and Kirkman I have a feeling that 2012 will open up many doors for people. Whether it is acceptance on to an anthology, a chance to work for a favorite company, or getting a bit of spotlight at a convention. There was way too much fire in 2011 about getting new creators out there for that excitement to burn out in 2012, and I am overly excited about that for everyone.

In terms of projects I am personally involved in, this is going to be kind of a “duh” but I’m excited about Womanthology. I can’t wait to see this book in print. I’m also now the events coordinator for Womanthology so any conventions going on in 2012 that want a Womanthology event feel free to contact me. Shameless self promotion, I know. Hooray 2012!

Rachel Pandich is the writer of the eight-issue miniseries, Aspire (Movement Comics). She spoke with Tim O’Shea about the miniseries in August.

Van Jensen

Snow White: Through a Glass Darkly

I’m really looking forward to the Valiant relaunch. I’ve heard just a little about what’s in store, and it’s going to be some high quality comics. It’ll also be interesting to see how it shakes up the market. We’ll learn if DC’s Nu 52 thing has any legs and if Marvel can capitalize on the Avengers. All in all, should be a tumultuous year for the Wednesday crowd.

The big thing I have coming up for 2012 is Pinocchio, Vampire Slayer: Of Wood and Blood, the third book in the trilogy with artist Dusty Higgins. I’m excited to see it wrap up. And then I also have Snow White: Through a Glass, Darkly coming out with artist Robin Holstein. It reimagines the classic fairy tale with the twist that the stepmother isn’t evil. The mirror is.

Van Jensen is a writer of comics, who just happened to be interviewed regarding Pinocchio, Vampire Slayer: Of Wood and Blood just yesterday by JK Parkin.

Johanna Draper Carlson

I’m very much anticipating new work by favorite creators. Alison Bechdel’s Are You My Mother?: A Comic Drama should be one of the books of the year, exploring the (sadly neglected in comic) mother/daughter relationship in a companion volume to her Fun Home. I can’t wait to read Faith Erin Hicks’ Friends With Boys, about a home-schooled girl making friends outside her family for the first time. And one of my favorite manga series, Ooku: The Inner Chambers by Fumi Yoshinaga, will have a seventh volume out. I’m sure there are many more coming I have yet to know about, and that’s what I am most excited by — the continual discovery of excellent work by talented creators.

For myself, I’m eager to keep on as I have been, reading and writing about good comics and sharing recommendations.

Johanna Draper Carlson is a graphic novel, manga, and comic book reviewer as well as the driving critical force behind Comics Worth Reading.

Corinna Bechko

Alabaster: Wolves

I can’t wait to get my hands on Alabaster: Wolves, a miniseries from Dark Horse written by Caitlin R. Kiernan with art by Steve Lieber. I only wish I didn’t have to wait until April!

For personal projects I have to say it’s a tie. I’m really excited about Exile on the Planet of the Apes, the second Planet of the Apes miniseries that Gabriel Hardman and I are writing. Marc Laming has already finished inking the first couple of pages and they look fantastic! But Gabriel and I are also deep into writing a creator owned sci-fi project called Station to Station which I’m thrilled to say will finally be completed in 2012.

Corinna Bechko is a writer (with a zoology background) and frequent collaborator with husband artist Gabriel Hardman. She and Hardman talked with Tim O’Shea about Betrayal of the Planet of the Apes in December.

Lance Sells

Most excited about for 2012? Image Comics. Not sure what their secret sauce is lately but they are on fire and have me buying single issues for the first time in years.

Most excited about personally for 2012? Thwipster Version 2 (with added detergent).

Lance Sells, the co-founder and director of Thwipster (offering “Daily Deals for your Inner Geek”), spoke with Tim O’Shea about the website in July.

Dean Haspiel

Comics writer/artist/publisher, Jimmy Palmiotti, recently Tweeted, “Publish or perish.” Maybe it was end-of-the-year blues but I was feeling particularly bleak about my career and was struck by Jimmy’s charge and asked if we could discuss the origin behind those three ominous words and what I got was a pep talk for a lifetime.

Securing work from franchise publishers is harder than ever before and very few other publishers pay livable advance wages anymore. Most deals are made for royalties and back end rewards based on sales. Print is competing with digital and profits are questionable. Readers want archives and new stories but making money at publishing has become a challenging and schizophrenic mess. The risk for a corporation to launch something new has become greater and all the bean counters what to know before they gamble on your idea is the sales of your last three books and whether or not your comic book idea has multimedia legs and if you have a strong fan base. In other words, publishers hardly publish what they “like” and franchise publishers would rather update 75-year old icons every five years [which they've worked hard to maintain] than build and grow new ideas that inspire writers and artists today. I understand why that is but it’s paranoid, lazy, and shortsighted.

Haspiel's The Last Romantic Antihero

Frankly, pitching proposals sucks right now. What if you don’t have three books and your new idea doesn’t translate to a movie or toy? Worse, what if you do have three books and the numbers didn’t inform the zeitgeist and thrill Hollywood? Why does one thing need to yield the other in order to make a cool comic book? Because comic books don’t sell like they used to. I get it. While the internet leveled the playing field it also made everything a niche. However, the comix industry does have a strong fanbase. I’ve seen them and they are us.

Now is the perfect time for a cartoonist to manifest his or her own industry. We have the DIY tools. We have the social networks and viral know how. We have proof that crowd funding works and community is key. We have a cranky comedian like Marc Maron rise from the ashes of every bridge he ever burned and make his own rules with his WTF podcast, and popular acts like Radiohead and Louis C.K. making affordable, direct deposit products; offers no one in their right mind could refuse, and venues like Etsy and Kickstarter changing the ways we consume by supporting work with our wallets BEFORE it’s made so that it can BE made sans corporate fear and scrutiny.

But, what about us? Viva la Michel Fiffe for self-publishing ZEGAS, a print-only experience that reminds us why magical efforts like Los Bros Hernandez’ Love & Rockets were punk yet vital and stand the test of time. All hail Alex De Campi for recognizing the virtues of the old self-publishing model while implementing new rules with the understanding that in order to hawk your wares you must show up to the party and build sound relationships with the people who produce, distribute, and purchase your wares. Rock out with your cock out Jimmy Palmiotti for having the talent and acumen to keep your feet firmly planted in all ponds while knowing how important it is to be different.

Bottom line: I’m sharing these thoughts to rally myself, too. I count myself lucky to have been paid to make comix and I owe a lot of people my perpetual gratitude. I would love to continue to get hired and occasionally play with the toys I grew up with but I can’t let over-worked editors ignore me or my talented friends, anymore. It doesn’t champion creativity and it doesn’t pay the bills. Indifference only engenders ill-will and I won’t be banished to that bitter cabal of disgruntled cartoonists. “Publish or perish?” So, to answer your question about what am I “most excited about for 2012?” I’m most excited to see comix auteurs bring their A-game and step up to the plate with a hit in their mind and a home run in their heart.

Dean Haspiel is an Emmy award winning artist and a native New Yorker who created the Eisner Award nominated BILLY DOGMA, and launched the webcomics pioneering site, ACT-I-VATE.com. In December, Haspiel joined Seth Kushner & Chris Miskiewicz to talk with Tim O’Shea about Trip City, a Brooklyn-filtered literary arts salon.

Nate Cosby

Cow Boy

I’ll admit I’m not super well-versed on what’s specifically coming up comic-wise in 2012, but I’ll continue to pick up and be excited about anything my favorite creators work on: Roger Langridge, Colleen Coover, Jeff Parker, Fred Van Lente, Greg Pak, Katie Cook, Jennifer Meyer, Ron Marz, Mark Waid, Becky Cloonan, Andy Diggle, J.M. DeMatteis, Mitch Gerads, Declan Shalvey, Jordie Bellaire, Jock, Mike Maihack, David Gallaher, Phil Hester, Evan Shaner, Marjorie Liu, Brian Clevinger, Scott Wegener, Paul Tobin, Chris Samnee, Chris Eliopoulos…and dozens more creators I’d name if I were allowed 30,000 more words. There’s fun in anticipation of a known quantity, but there’s also a joy in walking into a comic shop or surfing a digital app with a totally open mind, and finding something great you never knew existed.

Of all the things I’m cooking up in 2012, Cow Boy has me the most excited. It’s coming out in hardcover in March from Archaia, but we’re putting it online for FREE starting in January. It’s my favorite thing that I’ve written, and I tailor-made it for Chris Eliopoulos to draw. This book is Chris’ artistic coming-out party. I’ve been a fan of his art for a long time, but this really is the best work he’s ever done. The subtlety of emotion and cinematic scope he’s brought to Cow Boy has blown me away. I hope my story is half as good as his amazing art…but if not, at least you’ll have a gorgeous book to look at.

Nate Cosby is co-writer of Pigs for Image, Buddy Cops for Dark Horse, Cow Boy for Archaia. He spoke with CBR-TV  in July.

Laura Morley

I’m excited about the advent of The Phoenix, a new kids’ comic magazine launching here in the UK. There’s so much enthusiasm among kids around comic-book characters and ideas, anything that works to convert that enthusiasm into a lasting love of the medium is A Good Thing in my book.

Of my own projects, I’m particularly excited to have a story in the first issue of Journeymen, a new quarterly designed to showcase work by new creators. Having seen the calibre of some of the artists signed up, this looks set to be a very slick book and I’m thrilled to be a part of it.

Laura Morley is a writer and Womanthology assistant project manager, which will be released this spring. She spoke with Tim O’Shea about Womanthology in August.

Kris Dresen

she said

In 2012 I am most looking forward to the new Chicago Alternative Comics Expo. It’s been ages since Chicago has had an alternative comics show and I’m quite thrilled that CAKE is happening.

Personally, writer JD Glass and I are ramping up the publishing company we founded in 2011 – Outlines Press. One of the books will be the print collection of my web comic she said. It will be available in late spring.

Kris Dresen is a Chicago-based artist and writer.

Dave Roman

I’m really looking forward to Legend of Korra, the spinoff of Avatar: the Last Airbender. Based on the trailer, it looks to be an imaginative follow up to what I consider the most perfect animated action/adventure series ever. I also can’t wait to read Avatar: The Last Airbender: The Promise, the new comic series by Gene Luen Yang and Gurihiru being published by Dark Horse, that will act as a bridge between the two TV series.

In the world of original graphic novels, I’m excited about a lot of what First Second has coming out in 2012. Especially Broxo by Zack Giallongo, which looks like a fresh take on sword and sorcery. And also, the sequel to Zita the Spacegirl by Ben Hatke, which was one of the most fun and visually exciting books of this past year.

Teen Boat!

As far as stuff I have a direct connection to in 2012…

I collaborated with my wife, Raina Telgemeier, on a story for Explorer: The Mystery Boxes (Amulet books). Edited by Kazu Kibuishi, it’s an all-ages anthology with a fantastic mix of scary, mysterious, funny, and action-packed short stories that reminds me of the classic Amazing Stories TV series.

I wrote a book called Teen Boat! (Clarion Books), the comedic tale of a boy who can transform into a yacht, and the jocks and pirates who seek to exploit his boat-tastic powers. Illustrated by longtime friend and collaborator, John Green, Teen Boat! started out as a series of mini-comics that kept growing more ambitious and absurd with each issue. The book will be hardcover and full-color, collecting and expanding on previous material in ways that I think will blow people out of the water (pun intended).

And, Drama (Scholastic Graphix) is Raina ’s follow up to Smile. It’s a similar coming of age story, set in the behind-the-scenes world of stage crew kids producing a middle school play. I think this book will really connect with a lot people (especially teenagers) the same way Smile has, but also showcase a new emotional side to Raina’s work.

Dave Roman is the creator of Astronaut Academy: Zero Gravity and Agnes Quill: An Anthology of Mystery. He lives in New York City with his wife, Raina Telgemeier. He spoke with CBR’s Alex Dueben about Astronaut Academy in June.

Paul Cornell

Saucer Country

I’m excited about Scott Snyder’s ongoing work in the new DC universe, including Swamp Thing and Batman. He’s been the absolute breakout talent of 2011, not just successful with the audience, but also artistic and stylish. His closing run of Detective Comics was a tremendous thing to behold.

In terms of my own work, it’s Saucer Country that I have to mention. This is the story I’ve been working on in the back of my head for decades. Ryan Kelly’s art is a joy. It’s The West Wing does The X-Files, and it lets me use all the UFO mythology that I’ve been researching as a hobby since I was eight. I like to think we’ve done something original and truthful with it, and that we’ll scare you witless.

Paul Cornell is a prose novelist as well as writer of many things for TV and comics, including the DC ongoing, Demon Knights. He talked to CBR’s Jeffrey Renaud about Saucer Country in November.

David Liss

One of my favorite reads of 2011 was Charles Soule’s horror/rock comic 27 with Image, so I’m very much looking forward to his Strange Attractors from Archaia, which promises to be weird and intriguing in all the best ways.

As far as my stuff goes, I’m very excited about doing The Spider with Dynamite. I love pulp, and it’s been such an interesting experience re-working one of the great pulp characters into a contemporary setting. Plus, Colton Worley’s art is absolutely breathtaking.

David Liss is a writer of prose and comics. He spoke with Tim O’Shea about Black Panther: The Man Without Fear in January.

Charles Soule

I’m incredibly excited for Saga, Brian K. Vaughan‘s return to comics. Also really looking forward to the conclusion of Locke & Key (I think that’s supposed to finish up in 2012), seeing how digital develops, Dark Knight Rises and the amazing, out-of-nowhere creator-owned stuff that always shows up to blow everyone’s mind EVERY year.

Strange Attractors

As far as my own work, I have a beautiful graphic novel entitled Strange Attractors, to be published by Archaia later this year. It’s about people who have figured out how to use New York City as a sort of engine, and an ensuing fight over the key. I’ve lived in NYC for more than fifteen years, and it’s my love letter to the city. Pencils/inks are from Greg Scott, with Art Lyon on colors. It’s looking amazing, and should be on shelves around summer or fall.

The other big project I’ve got in the hopper is called Letter 44. It was just picked up by a fantastic publisher, literally this week, so I can’t quite give all the details yet, but it’s a real-world political sci-fi thing. Sort of 24 meets 2001. The art is from a newcomer named Matthew Childers, and it’s going to be a real humdinger. We’re planning it as a mini-series, and it will probably be out around Q4 2012.

There are other things in the works, but we’ll see if and when they appear. Go comics!

Charles Soule is a Brooklyn-based writer and musician. He spoke with Tim O’Shea about 27 in June.

Ben Towle

Barnaby!!! I’m really excited that finally there’s going to be a complete collection of Crockett Johnson’s amazing newspaper strip Barnaby. I’d be stoked about pretty much any collected Barnaby, but I’m ecstatic that Fantagraphics is publishing it and that Dan Clowes (!) is doing art direction. There’s no way this can’t be great.

Oyster War

I’m pretty excited that I’ll be passing the half-way point with my webcomic Oyster War sometime in 2012, but event-wise I’d have to say I’m most excited about SPX this year. I had to miss SPX 2011 because of a wedding–the first time I’ve missed an SPX in around a decade–but I’m for sure going this year. I’m considering trying to organize some sort of “Alphabet Collective” table to sell A-Z minicomics by folks who’ve completed full alphabets from our Animal Alphabet and AlphaBeasts projects.

Ben Towle is a cartoonist and self-described occasional teacher who spoke with Tim O’Shea in April.

Chris Roberson

I’m really looking forward to the new Adventure Time comics that BOOM! is doing with Ryan North and Shelli Paroline. My seven-year-old daughter and I watch every new episode of that cartoon together, usually more than once, and we can’t wait to check out the comic. And on a personal level, my wife Allison and I are looking forward to finally making our long discussed move to Portland this coming summer, where we’re told that sometimes water falls from the sky; having lived for so long in a place where it gets hot enough in the summer to LITERALLY burst into flames, some water falling from the sky sounds pretty awesome to us.

Chris Roberson is a writer of prose and comics, based in Austin, Texas, at least for a few more months. He spoke with Tim O’Shea back in May.

Johnny Bacardi

Hey, I just found something I’m excited about for 2012- the newly announced Courtney Crumrin color ongoing! CC was one of my favorite comics series of the last decade, and I hope it gives Ted Naifeh the spotlight his work deserves.

Sadly, I am working on nothing that has me excited. C’est La Vie.

Johnny Bacardi is a comics and pop culture critic.

Landry Walker

I’m psyched to see comics continue their move into a digital medium; an idea I’ve been championing that damn near got myself and artist Eric Jones laughed off a panel just 6 or 7 years ago is finally on the verge of being properly embraced.

In regards to art rather than industry evolution, I’m looking forward to seeing if Tom Neely has anything new coming out; the diversity in his work continually impresses me. I hear Ted Naifeh has some more Courtney Crumrin coming up, which is something I always look forward to.

Danger Club

Outside of stuff being produced by my friends, I’m interested in seeing how Watchmen 2 develops. I don’t know if it will be good or bad, but I find the challenge fascinating and I’m curious to see the end result.

As for myself, I’m working on several book projects with Disney/Marvel that I’m looking forward to seeing in print. Most of all though, I’m excited to see Danger Club released. Eric and I have been working on this book for a couple of years now, and it’s finally ready (with Image Comics in April 2012). The basic concept is kind of like Teen Titans meets Lord of the Flies. All the world’s adult heroes leave the Earth to battle an unimaginable evil and never return, leaving the sidekicks behind with the looming threat of impending doom for the entire planet.

There’s also the cartoon adaptation of my and Eric’s comic horror movie inspired series known as Little Gloomy – now known as Scary Larry. I believe we will see that airing this year. I’ve seen a couple of episodes and am very happy with how the material has translated.

Landry Walker writes comics, and spoke with CBR’s TJ Dietsch about Danger Club in July.

KC Carlson

For me, this year is a bit of “everything old is new again!” With so many major comic book projects personally disappointing lately (I’m finding much more pleasure in smaller, well-told stories, but publishers seldom advance-promote those, no?) I’m mostly looking backwards for good stuff, with all the new and continuing comic strip collections and creator-focused archival works. I’m also really into animals this year. I’m excited about getting regular doses of Carl Barks’ ducks (haven’t read any in over 25 years), Walt Kelly’s possums and gators (very little prior exposure for me, except for collections checked out of the library as a kid), Floyd Gottfredson’s mice (never before read), and Berkeley Breathed’s penguin (gave up reading them at the time, as our local paper reduced it to the size of an index card). For (little) people, there’s Crocket Johnson’s Barnaby (never read), Charles Schultz’ Peanuts (entering into an era I’ve never read), and the slightly older teens of Bob Montana’s Archie gang (never seen these –now in color with the first collection of Sunday strips!). I’m also hopeful that sales were great on Sheldon Mayer’s Sugar and Spike Archives, so we can get a second volume sometime soon (because I only started reading this great series much later)!

It also looks like a great year for comic book films. I think many moviegoers are most interested in Batman: The Dark Knight Rises, but I’m a big fan of the ensemble structure, so I am very interested in this summer’s The Avengers. Of course, I’ll be seeing both.

KC Carlson, former comic book retailer, distributor, and editor, contributes to the Westfield Blog and Comics Worth Reading “while participating in various behind-the-scenes plotting to either save the industry — or destroy it.”

Doctor Strange Season One

Greg Pak

I was blown away by the success of so many comics projects on Kickstarter in 2011 — I’m hopeful that 2012 may be a watershed year for diverse projects finding and growing comics-reading audiences via crowdfunding venues like Kickstarter and IndieGoGo.

On a personal front, I’m thrilled to be writing Doctor Strange Season One, which Emma Rios is pencilling. Strange is one of those characters I’ve been dying to write as a lead for ages, and I couldn’t be happier.

Greg Pak is a filmmaker and comics writer, who spoke with Tim O’Shea about Bill Mantlo in November.

Joe Keatinge

What I’m Not Involved In: I’m extremely excited for Corey Lewis’ Sharknife Double Z from Oni Press. Its been in the works for a very long time, but from what I’ve seen I’m very confident it will be worth the wait. I was lucky to get a sneak peak at some unseen pages and it’s definitely the best work of his career. Furthermore, I’m excited to see where he goes next after scaling this artistic Everest.

What I’m Involved In: I’ve got a number of books coming out, like HELL YEAH and GLORY and a couple that aren’t announced yet, but I have to say I’m way excited about attending this year’s Angouleme Festival of Bande Dessinee. It’s what replenishes my creative juices every year. Always a damn good time. You get exposed to so much you never see state side. Can’t wait to be there.

Joe Keatinge is the writer of several of your favorite comics of 2012, including Glory and Hell Yeah.

Janet K. Lee

Comic-wise, what are you most excited about for 2012?

Time of the Dapper Men

I’ve only seen a few images from Blue, which will be published by Top Shelf in March, but they are amazing. And that’s my fault since the entire comic is available online! Blue is the debut graphic novel from an Australian creator named Pat Grant; it sounds like a magical Huckleberry Finn tale. I’m sold!

I also cannot wait until April for Mind the Gap by Jim McCann/Rodin Esquejo/Sonja Oback. The concept, of course, has me completely hooked: girl tries to solve her own attempted murder while hospitalized in a coma. But Jim keeps showing me art as well, and oh-my-god is it beautiful. An absolute must-buy.

Then there’s Dark Crystal: Creation Myths from Archaia: it just came out this week, but I haven’t gotten my hands on a copy yet. But I will! Dark Crystal has been one of my favorite films since I was old enough to appreciate film, and I’m positively giddy with anticipation.

Comic-wise, what are you most excited about for 2012?

Personally, I’m probably most excited that Time of the Dapper Men will be coming out next year. I was proud of the work Jim and I did for Return of the Dapper Men, but after a year of working on the adaptations of Jane Austen’s Emma and Northanger Abbey for Marvel, I feel my own art has really grown and evolved. And then the scope of Jim’s story is epic and grand. Every day I work on it is a day filled with joy.

I’m also thrilled to be a contributor to Womanthology: Herioc which will arrive in stores next February. I got to collaborate with two wildly talented writers, Jenna Busch and Rachel Pandich, on our short story, and the book is simply chock-full of truly legendary talent. I can’t wait to get my copy.

Janet K. Lee is the artist of Return of the Dapper Men, the upcoming Time of the Dapper Men, Jane Austen’s Emma and Northanger Abbey, and more. She also makes rad Christmas ornaments.

Andy Hirsch

Comic-wise, what am I most excited about for 2012? Seeing creators and publishers continue to work towards figuring this whole digital thing out. Would it be too much to hope for a shift towards a common file format and pricing enticing enough to attract an even broader swath of readers? Oh, and if I can sneak one more in here: Tom Fowler on Hulk: Season One.

Andy Hirsch is the creator of Varmints and illustrator of SLG’s The Royal Historian of Oz.

Faith Erin Hicks

Friends with Boys

Comics by others: I believe the English publication of Naoki Urasawa’s 20th Century Boys will wrap up in 2012. There are six volumes left and they come out every other month, so it should be finishing at the end of 2012. I’ve been enjoying the insanity of this series, and am really curious to see how Urasawa will wrap things up. Will it be a satisfying ending, or a house of cards collapse? I can’t wait to find out. On the North American side of comic making, I’m really looking forward to Raina Telgemeier’s new graphic novel, Drama, which is about a school stage tech crew. One of my few fond memories of high school was being on the stage crew for a couple of plays, and I’m looking forward to see what Raina does with the set up. If it’s half as good as her last comic, Smile, it’ll still be a pretty great book.

As for my comic-related contributions to 2012, I have a couple of things I’m looking forward to. My graphic novel Friends With Boys will be published by First Second Books in February 2012, so please pick up a copy! It’s a sort of but not really autobiographical story of a homeschooled girl following her three older brothers into public high school (I was homeschooled and have three brothers, so I have some experience with this scenario). Friends With Boys has been running online since August as a part of First Second’s webcomic initiative, and the reader response has been a lot of fun. If you’re interested in the comic, you can check it out here: http://www.friendswithboys.com

I think I also have a second graphic novel coming out, although I’m not sure of the publication date. I’ve been drawing a young readers graphic novel called Bigfoot Boy (written by J.Torres), which I think will be out from Kids Can Press in the fall. It’s really cute and fun, and I think a lot of kids will like it, so do get it for the eager young comic reader in your life.

Faith Erin Hicks, as she noted above, is the creator of the upcoming Friends with Boys, as well as War at Ellsmere, Superhero Girl and Zombies Calling.

Ben Morse

I’m excited about Marvel.com as a whole. A bit of a cheat to answer, but it’s legitimate. There are so many great comic book resources (see what I did there?) out there on the Internet these days that I’m proud we’ve been able to do what we do as a corporate site. Being part of Marvel has never hindered our creativity, it’s only helped. That comes down to our editorial staff, from Ryan Penagos to Marc Strom to Janna O’Shea to all our great freelancers; to our amazing video team of Jason Harvey, Ramon Olivo and Todd Wahnish; to the folks within the other departments at Marvel like Arune Singh, James Viscardi and all the tremendous editors who help us out; and the rest of the Digital Media Group who actually understand how to make a web page work (I do not). With all this work and support, we’ve been able to, in addition to our extensive editorial work, do things like our live streaming coverage of conventions, our new This Week in Marvel podcast, the recent event where we announced AvX and the audio version of Daredevil #1. I’m excited to keep going with all of this stuff as well as expanding our reach and variety of projects. Marvel digital is a very exciting place to work and I’m fortunate to be a part of it.

On a more personal level, my favorite thing to do is produce the Marvel Super Heroes: What The–?! stop motion series with the brilliant Alex Kropinak and very handsome Jesse Falcon, so I’m pretty pumped to get back to a regular schedule on those, particularly with the Oscars coming up in a few months as we always have fun with that.

I’ll cheat once again as far as what I’m looking forward to from others (I’m terrible) as while I didn’t work directly on Secret Avengers or Scarlet Spider, I got to be in on the ground floor with Rick Remender, Chris Yost, Ryan Stegman, et al as far as promoting them, and from what I’ve seen there are few books I’m more excited for coming out the gate in 2012. Remender can do no wrong right now and the Scarlet Spider boys are enthusiastic as all get out.

From my buddies, I’m looking forward to Sean T. Collins hopefully doing more mainstream work, Phil Jimenez’s gorgeous art on Fairest, and seeing what exactly Alex Segura has in mind as a next step after teaming Archie with KISS. I’ve got my fingers crossed for Archie/Motley Crue in 2012.

A fixture at Marvel’s booth and panels during conventions, Ben Morse is associate editor of Marvel.com, future heavyweight champion of the world and has even written a comic for Marvel on occasion. When he isn’t working, he likes to hang out at the Cool Kids Table with CBR’s Kiel Phegley.

Matthew Petz

War of the Woods

I’m obsessed with everything about The Dark Knight Rises, and I can’t wait to see that on the screen. Beyond that I’m really excited to see what happens in digital. I think 2011 will be seen as the year digital broke through in a real and substantial way, and 2012 will be even more innovation and acceptance.

One of the reasons digital is so interesting to me is my own book, War of the Woods, is coming out that way. Season One is done and available through Comixology. So what I’m MOST excited about in 2012 is getting Season Two going. If you’re interested, you can to warofthewoodscomic.com for news and to follow along as I make the comic!

Matthew Petz, as he noted above, is the creator of War of the Woods.

Robin McConnell

I am most excited about the growth of fascinating small press work is experiencing. Conventions like BCGF and TCAF are showing just how diverse the market is and that young new readers are looking for options beyond what can be found in the average brick and mortar stores that make themselves solely dependent on the archaic offerings of Diamond distro.

As far as particular comics go, Brandon Graham’s Multiple Warheads and Prophet are both looking to be great offerings that show a remarkably different direction that mainstream markets have a potential to go in. Fantagraphics is doing some amazing archival projects that I can’t wait to sink my teeth in, like the EC collections of Wally Wood and Harvey Kurtzman.

2012 is going to be a busy year for me. I have started doing video interviews with my friend Daniel Giantomaso. We have done two videos so far, the first with Brandon Graham and the more recent with Anders Nilsen.

Daniel and I will be posting video’s early on in the new year with David Lasky and Peter Bagge and much more to come.

I am also doing a couple of small press publishing projects. After a lot of talk and dares among friends, I am putting together an anthology of comics that take place in the Gossip Girl universe. So far, the interest has been great, with folks like Michael Deforge, Benjamin Marra, Corey Lewis and much more wanting to take part.

My other collection will be tied into my art selling website, www.mcconnellart.com. I am putting together a 100 page sketchbook of the work of Brandon Graham. He has stacks of these great sketchbooks which will serve as nice compliment for fans. All work that I am publishing will be done on the cheap, to keep costs for consumers to a minimum. I am pretty excited about these new projects.

On top of this, inkstuds will continue as strong as ever with new audio interview every week.

Robin McConnell is the host of the awesome interview series Inkstuds.

Ian Harker

Rub the Blood

Like many on the East Coast I’m still riding the wave of excitement that was the Brooklyn Comics & Graphics Fest. That show is as good an indicator of our “state of the art” as anything, so looking forward to 2012 I’ll take my tips from what I saw. For starters it seems as though the art comix landscape may finally be turning the corner on the Fort Thunder aesthetic. The hot ticket at BCGF was everything post-manga. “Post-Manga” is a term I’ve heard thrown around lately and I think it’s appropriate. It’s a demographic inevitability that many close observers saw coming, the post-art school echo of the early-2000′s manga boom. The kids who were snatching up Pokemon cards by the hundreds 10+ years ago are making the sickest art comix on the scene now. Artists like Jonny Negron, Michael DeForge, Mickey Z, Zach Hazard Vaupen, etc. The current standard bearer for the style is Ryan Sand’s Thickness anthology, which sets the new bar. What I’m looking forward to most in 2012 is seeing how this decade continues to develop it’s own aesthetic identity.

In Philly we’re hitting the ground running in 2012, first with our Rub the Blood art show opening at Brave New Worlds comics gallery in Old City, Philadelphia on January 6th. The show will feature art by Victor “Bald Eagles” Cayro, Keenan Marshall Keller, Josh Bayer, Box Brown and more. Up next is Secret Prison #666 which will be co-edited by Pat Aulisio of Yeah Dude fame. It’s the last free tabloid-format issue of the series and will feature 100% crazy collaborations with artist pairs teamed up by me and Pat as though we were Ted DiBiase and King Haku picking Survivor Series teams. If you want in on it hit me up! Closing out the year we’re taking Secret Prison in a new direction with our most ambitious format to date. SP7 will be published by Retrofit Comics and will comment on the aforementioned post-manga wave churning in alternative comics.

Ian Harker is editor of Secret Prison and co-editor of Rub the Blood, an art comix tribute to the Image Comics line of the ’90s.

Christopher Butcher

It’s a little unspecific, but the thing I’m looking for the most in 2012 is probably getting to the end of it, and seeing how many amazing manga, comics, graphic novels, classic reprints, art books, and more we’ll have seen published in the medium. I look back at 2011… the past few years really… and they’re filled with wave after wave of excellent comics. There always has been and always will be the crap, but 2011 was a constant struggle to keep my weekly purchases from getting completely out of control. As 2012 sees my favourites continue and brand new works rise to take their place? Well, it’s a great time to love comics. Special shout-outs to some of my favourite series and books including Criminal: Last of the Innocents by Brubaker and Phillips, Cross Game by Adachi, Love & Rockets by the Hernandez Bros., Walking Dead by Kirkman and Adlard, and Zoo In Winter by Taniguchi, amongst dozens of others I enjoyed and dozens still yet to be read.

In 2012 I hope to meaningfully contribute to the enjoyment of readers and the enrichment of the medium with TCAF 2012 – The 2012 Toronto Comic Arts Festival. I’m the Festival Director (in addition to my other responsibilities) and I can say that this will easily be the biggest Festival yet, and one of the most diverse and unique ones as well. I think people are going to be really happy with it. TCAF 2011 featured a lot of amazing cartoonists who had a great year as exhbitors– Kate Beaton (Hark A Vagrant), Michael DeForge (Lose), Ray Fawkes (One Soul, Possessions), Stuart & Kathryn Immonen (Fear Itself), and Jeff Lemire (Animal Man) for example–and I think 2012 is going to be another stellar year that’s really going to set the tone for the year’s great comics.

In all of the stuff I do, blogging, at TCAF, or at The Beguiling, I’m glad to be able to work with such great creators, to support and promote the work that’s important to them, and I’m hoping that 2012 is more of the same.

Chris Butcher is a comics retailer, organizer of the Toronto Comic Arts Festival and comics blogger.

MK Reed

I’m most excited for Rich Tommaso’s The Cavalier Mr. Thompson, Prophet, and for the love of Pete would someone translate Ulli Lust’s Today is the Last Day of the Rest of Your Life into English already!

On the work side of things, I’m excited to work with some awesome artists this year on a few different projects, least secret of which being aboutabull.com.

MK Reed is the writer of Americus and creator of Cross Country.

Ian Brill

What I am excited for in 2012: Fantagraphics’ EC Comics reprints. I have a great fondness for these comics. For one, they’re the greatest realization of the sci-fi/horror/war anthology, a format we’ve by and large lost. Also, these comics offer a snapshot of a fascinating time for both the comics industry and the United States as a whole. I was very pleased to hear that Fantagraphics will collect these stories by artist. To have an entire tome that’s Wallace Wood from cover to cover is irresistible.

What I’m excited for myself for 2012: I am going to destroy the world and re-create it. In a comic book that is. I’m working with some amazing artists on an original project that is equally challenging and exciting. But isn’t that how creating your own book should be? More info as we get closer to publication.

Ian Brill is a former editor at BOOM! Studios and writer of such comics as Darkwing Duck and Chip ‘n Dale Rescue Rangers.

Justin Aclin

I think 2012 is going to be a landmark year for creator-owned comics…I’m pretty sure all of my favorite creators have creator-owned titles coming out this year! I’m especially looking forward to Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples on Saga, plus whatever Mike Mignola and company are cooking up for the BPRD next year, and The Sixth Gun from Cullen Bunn and Brian Hurtt continues to be one of my favorite monthly comics. There’s so much exciting stuff out there that’s not superheroes, and I say that as an enormous superhero fanboy. (Oh, and The Avengers movie should be pretty cool, too.)

As for personal projects, I know it’s annoying when people say “It’s too early to talk about so and so,” but it’s enormous enough news for me that I’ve even got something that it’s too early to talk about. Something is coming, and it’s very exciting. Other than that mystery, I’m in the early stages of working on a new project with my Hero House artist Mike Dimayuga, who is always fantastic to collaborate with.

Justin Aclin is a former editor of ToyFare magazine and is also the writer of such comics as Hero House and S.H.O.O.T. First.

Jim Zubkavich

Comic-wise I’m really excited about Image Comics’ 20th anniversary as they keep on rolling with a great slate of new creator-owned books and their Image Comic Expo coming up in February to really kick-off the 2012 convention season. This industry is powered by new ideas and creator-owned concepts are leading that charge,

As far as personal projects go, I’m incredibly excited about releasing the third arc of Skullkickers from Image starting in April and Makeshift Miracle book 1 from UDON Comics in May.

Jim Zub is the co-creator and writer of Skullkickers from Image Comics and the creator of Makeshift Miracle, UDON’s online graphic novel serializing with new pages every week at www.makeshiftmiracle.com.

Stuart Moore

NOT PERSONALLY INVOLVED: I really want to see what happens in the digital space this year. I have a feeling we’re going to start seeing original, creator-owned comics released in a variety of new ways.

PERSONALLY INVOLVED: I’m extremely proud and happy to be writing the first new Marvel Comics prose novel, an expanded and updated adaptation of Civil War. And I’ll be editing the subsequent novels, too, so it’s a whole exciting new version of the Marvel U that I’ll be playing with all year.

In addition to working Marvel’s prose project, Stuart Moore is also a former Vertigo and Marvel editor. He has written comics like Namor, Shadrach Stone, Wolverine, Firestorm and many more.

Jamie S. Rich

The Girl Who Owned a City

1. I am excited for the publication of Baby’s in Black: The Story of Astrid Kirchherr & Stuart Sutcliffe, written and drawn by Arne Bellstorf, in the United States. I have a copy of the UK edition I borrowed from Mike Allred, the ultimate Beatles fanatic, but I want to get my own and I also want others to read it. First:Second has picked up the rights.

I’m also stoked for Joëlle Jones’ to have two new books next year. The Girl who Owned a City is out in April from Graphic Universe, and her art on the comic is phenomenal. Dan Jolley wrote the script, adapting the classic young adult novel by O.T. Nelson. It’s set in a future where all the adults have died, and Joëlle’s inks have a gritty feel to them we haven’t really seen from her before. It should also carry over nicely into a project she has that I can’t talk about yet, but is due in the fall, that will really knock some people for a loop. If you think you know what she’s capable of, you have no idea!

And are those spiffy Paul Pope THB reprints happening in 2012?

2. Most of my stuff is still hush hush and under embargo and the like, but I have my comic with Natalie Nourigat coming, and it looks like it’s going to be in the autumn. She finished drawing it in early December. (By the way, can I also add Natalie’s Between Gears collection that Image is putting out?)

art by Natalie Nourigat

In addition to that, I have something cooking with Mike Norton that should be out by the end of the year, but we’re just in the middle of him drawing the first issue, so I don’t know, we have a publisher but we haven’t pushed it onto the schedule yet.

art by Mike Norton

Most immediate in terms of release, the Madman 20th Anniversary Monster is coming out on Jan. 18. I helped Mike Allred compile it, and also contributed the script for a two-page framing sequence that Jim Valentino pencilled and Mike finished. There is a new Allred story and also 20 new one or two-page comics by guys like Pat McEown, Dave Cooper, Darwyn Cooke, Peter Milligan and Philip Bond, Matt Wagner, Steven T. Seagle and Teddy Kristiansen, and all three Hernandez Bros. Plus, every Madman-related pin-up we could fit in, including some you’ve never seen before. It’s 11 X 17, hardcover, HUGE!

Finally, I’m going have a short story with Megan Levens coming up in Tim Seeley and Mike Norton’s Double Feature early in the year. I am excited to be a part of their crazy digital adventure, and Megan and I have been wanting to work together for a while. Hopefully this is just the start!

art by Megan Levens

Jamie S. Rich is a writer who regularly publishes through Oni Press, and quite often with the likes of Joëlle Jones, Nicolas Hitori de, and soon Natalie Nourigat and Dan Christensen. His most recent comic book release was Spell Checkers, vol. 2: Sons of a Preacher Man. You can read his sort-of kind-of frequently updated blog at http://www.confessions123.com.

Ron Richards

The thing I’m most excited for in 2012 is Image Comics. With 2012 being their 20th anniversary, it looks like it’s going to be a huge year for the publisher. In February we’ve got the Image Expo, which will kick off the con season of 2012. In terms of books, I can’t wait for Fatale from Brubaker and Phillips, Saga from BKV and Staples, and a new series from Hickman and Pitarra. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, the real innovation and “new” in comics is coming from Image Comics and I can’t wait to see what else they deliver in 2012. Lucky for me, I get to talk about all these great comics at iFanboy.com as well as get to help Image Comics by being one of their digital comics solution partners through my gig at Graphicly.com – But even if I wasn’t in a spot to work directly with Image, I’d be as big of a fan as I was back in 1992 when they first started. They are by far, the most exciting thing going on in comics right now and hopefully for all of 2012.

Ron Richards is one of your hosts at iFanboy.com, and is also vice president of external relations for digital comics providers Graphicly.

Jim Gibbons

The Massive

I’m extremely excited to finally get my hands on Avatar: The Last Airbender—The Promise by Gene Luen Yang and Gurihuru, who are working alongside series creators Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko. I’m an enormous fan of the animated series and I’m so psyched they’re continuing the story in comics. After rewatching the series a few times, it’s going to be nice to finally see what happens with Aang and the rest of the crew after the end of Season 3. The fact that Dark Horse is publishing it is a nice perk, as well.

I’m wildly jealous that BOOM! Studios will be publishing Adventure Time comics in 2012. I think Ryan North is going to do a great job on them and I’m really looking forward to reading them!

I’m looking forward to finally reading Joe Keatinge’s Glory and Hell Yeah! The guy won’t shut the fuck up about them, so I’m curious to actually read the fucking things. (I’m giving Joe Keats a hard time here as he’s been hyping these books like nobody’s business—and more power to him for that! You know I love ya, Joe! And, comics-savvy person reading this article, I am legitimately looking forward to these bad boys. You should be too!)

I think BKV and Fiona Staples’ Saga is going to be the bee’s knees and I’m excited to see Nate Cosby and “Doc” Shaner’s Buddy Cops premiere in Dark Horse Presents, as well! I’m also real curious to read Keith Giffen’s Superman—love that guy’s writing!

As for stuff that I’m working on in 2012 that I’m excited about, I really can’t stress enough how insanely great Brian Wood’s The Massive is going to be! It kicks off in January’s Dark Horse Presents #8 and that is really just the tip of the iceberg. The issue #1 script blew me away and the Kristian Donaldson art I’ve seen so far has been staggering. This will be your new favorite series of 2012, folks. Make a note!

The Massive

Speaking of Mr. Wood, I’m also jazzed to be working on the complete collection of his first series Channel Zero. This is going to be a beautiful comics tome, a necessity for your bookshelf. Keep an eye out for it this summer!

David Lapham and Mike Huddleston are absolutely killing it on Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan’s The Strain. This book kicks it up about 25 notches in 2012, so buckle up!

And then there’s… aw, crap! I can’t talk about those yet… Get excited though, folks! Lots more good stuff from Dark Horse headed your way this year!

Jim Gibbons is an assistant editor at Dark Horse Comics, where he works on a whole bunch of titles, including Brain Boy!

Rick Marshall

At this point, the comics project I’m most excited about for the upcoming year is Doctor Who–specifically, Joshua Hale Fialkov’s debut as the new writer on the series. Former writer Tony Lee did an absolutely brilliant job of capturing the show’s appeal during his run on the comic, so Fialkov has some big shoes to fill. The fact that he’s not British has some fans concerned, but I had a long chat with him during New York Comic Con and I’m not worried at all. He has some great stuff planned for The Doctor, and I’m looking forward to seeing where he and artist Matthew Dow Smith take the series in 2012.

Outside of print, in addition to the obvious, big-budget movie events like The Avengers and The Dark Knight Rises, I’m also really excited about the premiere of the Powers television series. Brian Michael Bendis has been talking about this project for years now, and after seeing it hop around Hollywood for so long, it’s great to see it finally come together. It feels like the time is right for this one, so here’s hoping it lives up to the high quality of its source material.

Rick Marshall is a full-time journalist, professional geek, occasional photographer, indentured servant to incestuous cats, unwilling party host, speedy talker and obsessive story collector. I stole that description from his blog. Professionally you can find over at IFC Fix.

Ilias Kyriazis

Well I am a big fan of Brian K Vaughan so I cannot wait for his return to comics with Saga. I’m also very excited about Ann Nocenti’s upcoming run on one of my favorite DC heroes, Green Arrow and I want to see more of my new favorite comic, Wolverine And The X-Men. Last but not least I love it that after decades of waiting I’ll have the opportunity to buy a collection of one of the best comics of the 80s, Strikeforce Morituri. I’ve only had my dog-eared Greek reprints and it’s a story that deserves to be in a nice trade paperback.

And that’s strictly about comics, there’s also that Avengers movie…

On a more personal level I’m hoping to find a publisher for my new sci-fi/horror/drama comic, Elysium Online. And maybe do more with my characters from The Dragon And The Ghost.

Ilias Kyriazis is creator of the comics Blood Opera and Manifesto in his home country of Greece and, on this side of the Atlantic, Ghostbusters: Displaced Aggression and Falling for Lionheart from IDW. He also draws a lot of fun things I like to link to.

Ryan Cody

One of the things I am most looking forward to is some of the BPRD projects coming out. Scott Allie and Mike Mignola have picked some great artists to add to their roster. I’m excited for books by James Harren and Jason Latour. I am also really looking forward to Punk Rock Jesus from Sean Murphy. I hope that makes it out in 2012, it’s probably the book I am most looking forward to right now. Sean’s work is always amazing and I think it’ll go up another level working on his own book. Polly and the Pirates Vol.2 I have been waiting on for a long time. My kids and I love the character and Robbi Rodriguez’s art on it looks fantastic. Other than that, I tend to follow artists so I jump around a bit. Give me a solid story with great art and I’ll read it regardless of publisher or character. One thing I hope to see is more diversity in the type of art showcased by the Big 2. There are a lot of energetic, exciting and very talented artists just on the fringe right now, and I’d like to see them pushed forward instead of much of the bland, boring art that is at the forefront in most high profile books.

For me in 2012, the only thing I have that I can announce is a Sparrow short story I am doing for Red 5 comics as part of their Atomic Robo anthology. My story takes place in 1944 and is written by Brian Clevinger. It’ll be a full 24 page story, broken up throughout the six issues. I am currently working on a five issue series that has not been announced that should be out in 2012 as well, hopefully sometime around summer. I’ll be relaunching my creator book ICARUS as a webcomic as well, sometime in late spring. As always, you can see what I am up to by going to http://super75comics.wordpress.com/

Ryan Cody is an artist and writer whose past credits include ICARUS, Jesus Christ: In the Name of the Gun V2 and Villains. See more of his work at http://super75comics.wordpress.com/

Ryan Penagos

2012 is gonna be pretty fun, particularly from us at Marvel. We’ve got plenty of unannounced stuff, all across the board, hitting in 2012 that’ll be killer. I’m involved with some of those projects on a few levels, but for stuff that I’m implicitly involved in at Marvel, I’d have to say I’m most excited for a few video projects on the way. Our Marvel LIVE shows and experiences were a blast—from the Avengers vs. X-Men kickoff event to our live convention coverage and red carpet events—and we have some cool stuff planned for the new year. There’s some more original video content from Marvel Digital Media, but more about that in the coming months. Also, from Marvel, don’t forget Marvel’s The Avengers and Avengers vs. X-Men.

As for stuff I’m not quite so involved with, I’m really psyched for convention season 2012, especially WonderCon. I love San Francisco, but Anaheim has Disneyland and tacos. Oh, also, that Prometheus movie. That looks rad!

Social media megastar Ryan Penagos, aka Marvel’s Agent M on Twitter, is executive editorial director of the Marvel Digital Media Group Marvel.com. He also loves tacos.

Joey Weiser

Mermin

Something that I’m not personally involved with that has me excited for 2012 is the launch of Viz’s Shonen Jump Alpha.  For those who haven’t heard, it’s a digital serialization of some of Shonen Jump’s top titles in English, and only a couple weeks behind their release in Japan.  I’m looking forward to seeing how this experiment develops and its effect on the international comic world.

As for personal projects in 2012, I’m very, very excited about something that will be announced later this year.  But since it hasn’t been announced I can’t say anything about it yet!  Something that I can talk about though, which I’m also looking forward to, is that at this moment I’m working on a brand new Mermin mini-comic, which should see publication this Spring.  It will have a couple short stories, including one that I had started a long time ago for Flight and never completed, a totally new story that I’m in the middle of drawing right now, and maybe a few more odds and ends.  We’ll just have to see!  So keep an eye out for a new Mermin mini-comic and an announcement about… something later this year!

Joey Weiser is the creator of Cavemen in Space, Monster Isle, The Ride Home and Mermin. He also writes the Spongebob Squarepants comic.

Ross Campbell

I’m really into IDW’s new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series by Kevin Eastman, Tom Waltz, Dan Duncan, and a few other various artists. I can’t wait for more, especially after the awesome issue #5 and the great Raphael one-shot.

Leonardo by Ross Campbell

2012 has a few things for me, the new Glory relaunch for Extreme Studios/Image I’m doing with Joe Keatinge kicks off in February, the long-delayed 6th volume of my Wet Moon series finally comes out in October which is a big deal for me, but I’ll keep this all Ninja Turtles: I’m drawing the upcoming Leonardo one-shot for IDW which drops in April I believe, and I’m super pumped!! The old Eastman and Laird comics are what set me on the comics path, and I’ve had a few close brushes with drawing TMNT comics over the years and I’ve done a few covers when they were still with Mirage, but Leonardo will be my first actual TMNT comic.

Wet Moon Vol. 6

Ross Campbell is the creator of Wet Moon, Shadoweyes and Mountain Girl, and is the artist of this year’s Glory revival.

American Barbarian

Back in 2010, when Thomas Scioli started bolstering his online presence and entered the realm of webcomics with American Barbarian, I was curious to see how things would play out (as may or may not have been obvious in my June 2010 interview of him). I’ll be honest and admit that now, more than a year later (and with far more of the project online to read), American Barbarian far exceeds what I expected. As much as I have always enjoyed and respected his Kirby-influenced approach to visual storytelling, after reading this double post Apocalyptic tale, I am far more impressed with Scioli’s funky ear for dialogue. It’s like reading a 1970s comic written by a minimalist version of David Mamet. Doubting my quirky endorsement of the work? Then realize AdHouse is collecting the webcomic for a 256-page/6 ” x 9 ” /hardcover release early this year. If you don’t trust my tastes, then you should definitely trust AdHouse publisher Chris Pitzer. To mark the upcoming release, Scioli and I did another of our quick email interviews. Before diving into the interview, let me take a second to agree with JK Parkin’s sentiment in this post, back in June, that DC Comics should have considered Scioli for one of the New 52 titles that it launched back in September. So I was surprised to learn (as you can read in this interview) that DC did not contact Scioli when assembling the creative team for the new OMAC title. As I edited this interview I realized it was hard to find my favorite part of our discussion, but it may be the revelation that the look for Two-Tank Omen came to Scioli in a dream. A close second was learning a bit about his next webcomic, Final Frontier. Feel free to chime in with your favorite part of this interview and/or Scioli’s work in the comments section, please.

Tim O’Shea: As an independent creator, the job of marketing your work falls to you. Do you think over the years, you have gotten more comfortable marketing yourself? On a related note, how did you decide upon doing this one minute trailer for American Barbarian?

Thomas Scioli: Even the largest comics publishers don’t seem to have a budget for promotion, so I’d say any creator, independent or mainstream, can benefit from doing their own promotion. It’s something that I’ve never been comfortable with, but do out of necessity. I think I have gotten better about it, because in the beginning, it would give me crippling anxiety, now it’s just mild trepidation. The idea for doing a trailer came from having seen other people do it. AdHouse’s own Afrodisiac trailer and [Top Shelf's] Infinite Kung-Fu [trailer] are two that made an impression on me when they made the rounds. It got me excited about those two works, so I wanted to do the same. I’d been dabbling with animation, back when I started AmBarb so it was a natural outgrowth of that, too. Once you start doing a webcomic it isn’t long before you realize, hey, why not just do a cartoon?

O’Shea: Did AdHouse’s Chris Pitzer contact you regarding the possibility of an American Barbarian book, or was it the other way around?

Scioli: It happened pretty organically. Comics is a small world, independent comics is even smaller. We’d been hanging out on the convention circuit. Chris had expressed an interest in American Barbarian from pretty early on, but there’s a wide gap between interest as, “that’s something I’d like to read” and “that’s something I’d like to publish.” When I got closer to finishing the book, I knew I had to start pitching it to publishers soon. I was dreading the thought. Chris had bought an American Barbarian pinup I did for the program book and art auction at HeroesCon 2010. At HeroesCon 2011, our tables were adjacent. One of the most common things people ask me at conventions is “When are they going to reprint the first Godland hardcover?” Since it’s been out of print for many years and goes for ridiculous prices online. The idea occurred to me, “Hey, Joe and I own this, so just because Image doesn’t want to reprint it doesn’t mean some other publisher might.” I half jokingly turned to Chris and said, “Do you want to publish a reprint of the first Godland hardcover?” Chris said no, but that he’d like to publish American Barbarian. It was as simple as that. I was ready to say yes right then and there, but I decided to wait until I got home and think about it first. The more I thought about it, the more sense it made. I had a long list of reasons why AdHouse would be the best possible publisher for it. And I like Chris so much, that the idea of working with him made it easy to say yes.

O’Shea: To you, what are some of the larger benefits to teaming with AdHouse?

Scioli: Before AmBarb, my audience was largely the wednesday comics store audience, viewing my work mainly from a Kirby nostalgia direction. When I started going all-in on webcomics, I noticed a totally new audience discovering my work for the first time. I think being with AdHouse gives it a different context where the full range of things I’m bringing to the table can be highlighted.

I feel like Chris Pitzer is strong in areas that I struggle with. He’s got a great understanding of book design, which is really important for a project like this that is going from an online context to book form. He’s focused on making the book an interesting object in and of itself. Since this is a work that I created entirely on my own, it wasn’t commissioned by a publisher, the main thing you need is a publisher who understands presentation. I know American Barbarian will get the attention it needs and not get lost in the shuffle. AdHouse’s line seemed to me to be carefully curated. Each release really counts. It’s gotten to a point where each new AdHouse book is kind of an event, you know? The Josh Cotter books, then Afrodisiac, then Duncan the Wonder Dog, Pope Hats, Forming. I feel like AdHouse has had this great track record of quality, where I’m benefitting from that goodwill, that American Barbarian is the next AdHouse book and that that means something. I think it’s a great way to have your work presented.

O’Shea: In the webcomic’s first chapter for several panels before his arrival you inject small panels teasing the impending arrival of Two-Tank Omen in a manner that reminded me of Walt Simonson’s teases for Surtur. Did that serve as an inspiration for you?

Scioli: I’m a fan of Thor, so it might be in there somewhere. It’s probably closer to the buildup to the introduction of Galactus, since the buildup and intro happen within the same chapter. Ditko tended to do more of the Surtur-style multi-issue buildup to a villain’s intro than Kirby did. Didn’t they mention Dormammu for months before he actually showed up in Dr. Strange? Spiderman always seemed like it had lots of silhouetted mystery villains hanging around making plans for ages before they’d actually make a move.

Specifically what I was thinking of, and I think it will be more apparent in the print version, is that I had an idea in one of my notebooks to have a subplot going on in a small panel at the bottom of each page, and to have that bottom panel slowly get larger and larger until it engulfs the entire page. I eventually found a use for that idea here, in the buildup to Two-Tank’s arrival.

O’Shea: Is it me or did you enjoy writing the dialogue for American Barbarian’s brothers and father? I cracked up when you had his dad telling the king: “you’re going to have to eat some shit.”

Scioli: Yes I did. I had to make that choice for this comic, how do people talk? I’d been doing the high and mighty fantasy speech in 8-Opus. I wanted to take a break from it and see if I could get away with some more direct, less polished speech. While I’m drawing, I’ll write temporary dialogue in the margins as a placeholder for when I can fill in something more polished. I’ve talked to some other artists who also do this, too. I thought it might be interesting to have them speak in that “first draft” dialogue. “Eat shit, Submariner!” rather than “Taste the full cosmic fury of mine awesome hammer Mjolnir!”

O’Shea: When Rick is carving revenge into his fingers you went to a completely different art style in two panels (pages 10 and 11) of Chapter 2, in fact at least with 11 it looks like it is a photo of actual hands. What lead you to try those panels that way?

Scioli: I don’t know. It was something that just came up in the course of doing it. I hadn’t planned to do it that way, until I sat down to draw it. I knew I wanted to reserve the right to draw any page any way I wanted to. That’s part of the freedom of webcomics. I knew fumetti, watercolor and collage were tools that I hadn’t used before in a comic, so this seemed like a good place to do it. In a lot of ways that’s the emotional focal point of the whole story, so if you’re going to do it somewhere, that’s the place for it.

O’Shea: Am I right in assuming you love designing zany-looking characters. Who do you consider among the American Barbarian cast to be the most outlandish looking character?

Scioli: You’re right, that’s my favorite part of the job. The most outlandish has got to be Two-Tank Omen. That was one that came to me in a dream, so I don’t feel like I “designed” it as much as some of the other characters. Gali-Leo is pretty weird and he was one that was very carefully constructed.

O’Shea: At what point in the story planning did you realize: “I want to have Rick driving a Honda in the opening to chapter 3!”?

Scioli: I wanted him to roll down the hill in some kind of vehicle. At first I was kind of picturing something like in the Simpsons driving game where you utterly destroy your car and drive around in a frame with no tires.

Eventually I decided I wanted this to be another point to include some photo-collage. That’s actually my car.

O’Shea: How is plotting and pacing for a webcomic different than your approach in your past projects?

Scioli: Here’s a big difference, which worked out really well: there’s no set length for the chapters. Each chapter is as long or short as it needs to be. I had 14-page chapters, 40-page chapters. Originally I had concieved of this as a 10-part monthly mini-series comic book. That means that I would’ve had to cram the 40-page chapter into 20-some pages or pad out the 14-page chapter. It lets the work breathe and find its own pace.

I also like how you can release it a page at a time. In a monthly comic, the only page that lingers is the last page. You have to wait a while for that next chunk of story, so that’s where the cliffhangers go. With a webcomic, every page is a cliffhanger. As a creator, you hate the fact that something you labored over can be read so quickly. The people who followed the comic as each page was posted read it in a timeframe that was a lot closer to the timeframe I created it in.

O’Shea: Am I right in thinking you love to use thought balloons for comedic effect (I am thinking in particular of the line “I thought that douche was her boyfriend” from Chapter 5).

Scioli: I’m a big believer in the thought balloon. It lends itself to humor of course, since it’s viewed as a quaint relic, but I think you can use it for serious effect, too.

O’Shea: The webcomic is currently at chapter 10. How many chapters will be covered in February’s release?

Scioli: There will be 10 chapters total, but chapter 10 is pretty long. That’s the whole story. After the story finishes, ambarb.com will host my next webcomic: Final Frontier.

O’Shea: Care to divulge some more details about Final Frontier?

Scioli: It’s the most straight-up superheroey thing I’ve ever done. There’s a whole universe of characters doing all kinds of crazy stuff. It’s tangentially related to American Barbarian.

O’Shea: Are there any extras that the American Barbarian book is going to offer?

Scioli: There are extra drawings and sketches scattered through the book as chapter breaks or design elements. There’s an awesome map of American Barbarian’s world on the endpapers. There’s no backmatter. The book is pretty much all story. The story ended up being a lot bigger than I thought it would be. That last chapter just kept going and going.

O’Shea: In a recent Twitter exchange with Kurt Busiek, you noted that there is a lack of plot (much less subplot) in some comics. How did that come to be, in your opinion?

Scioli: I disavow anything I post on Twitter. Anything I say on there is usually only how I feel at the moment I tweet it, and I usually disagree with it immediately.

I think that because Kirby-style action comics story-telling is my baseline, which is very plot-heavy, everything else tends to seem to my eyes, leasurely and anemic by comparison. But I probably tend towards an over-reliance on plot mechanics and need to learn to more fully utilize the other components of storytelling.

O’Shea: It’s a simple opinion at its core, but I still have to ask (based on this tweet) what is it about the writing process that is so enjoyable for you?

Scioli: That’s where it feels like you’re really playing with toys and having fun, when you’re in those early stages of figuring out the shape of it. The day-in-day-out drawing of a comic has its own set of rewards, but things happen so much more slowly, it’s not as enjoyable. I think it’s also because my early work was so much more focussed on the drawing. Writing was something I did to facilitate the things I wanted to draw, where now I’ve accumulated enough experience that I actually have feel like I have things to say, and a way of expressing them.

O’Shea: Please tell me that DC contacted you when they decided to include OMAC as part of the new 52?

Scioli: They did not. DC is the one big four company I’ve never done anything with. OMAC is a lot closer to what I’d like to see from mainstream superhero comics, a focus on visual bravura and clearly-choreographed action. It’s got that joy in the drawing process that I’d just mentioned. I’d been enjoying Giffen’s recent penciling work leading up to it. It’s beautiful. It’s my favorite of the new 52, and tellingly enough it’s by far the worst-selling. I know better than anybody what a tough sell the fake Kirby thing can be.

Tom Brevoort, photo by Luigi Novi

Let’s not mince words, the online presence of Tom Brevoort has provided hours of great reading for Robot 6 readers. Given his constant and unflagging willingness to interact with consumers via social media, Brevoort is a quote machine (His Twitter bio? “A man constantly on the verge of saying something stupid–for your entertainment!?”). There’s always a directness (some would say bluntness) to his manner online–making him the ideal subject for an interview. Last year saw Marvel promote Brevoort to senior vice president for publishing. 2011 was a year of some major successes for Marvel, as well as a year where some hard business decisions were made. In this interview, conducted in mid-December via email, I tried to cover a great deal of ground (we even briefly discuss DC’s New 52 success)–and Brevoort did not hold back on any of his answers. For that, I am extremely grateful. Like any high profile comics executive, Brevoort has his fans and his critics (and many in between), but I like to think this exchange offers some perspectives everyone can enjoy.

Tim O’Shea: Whether it’s in your job description or not, fan outreach via social media is definitely part of your job–clearly by your own choice. What benefit or enjoyment do you get from interacting with the fans/consumers?

Tom Brevoort: I’m not sure that I get a particular benefit, except maybe just being the center of attention for a few minutes—maybe everything I do is motivated by ego! I’m a whore for the spotlight! But I started doing this kind of outreach back in the formative days of internet fandom, largely because I like the idea of internet fandom. I know that, if the internet had existed when I was a young comic book reader, I’d have been on those message boards and in those chat rooms all the time, obsessively—just like a certain portion of the audience today. So I like the idea of giving back, of being accessible enough that anybody who has a question or a concern knows where to find me, or at least to find somebody with an insider’s track who might have the background and knowledge to speak to their point. In a very real way, it’s all an outgrowth of what Stan Lee did in his letters pages and Bullpen pages. Joe Q, I think, was really the first person to perfect that approach for the internet age. As EIC he was incredibly available to the audience in a myriad of ways. It’s a philosophy that’s very much woven into our DNA at Marvel. And for the most part, our fans are interesting, vibrant, cool people, especially when you meet them in person.

O’Shea: Much has been made of the miniseries cancelled in mid-arc, or announced projects killed, but I am curious to learn how it impacts you to see co-workers being let go in the recent round of belt tightening? When I ask this I don’t necessarily mean on a personal level, per se, but rather in terms of the loss to Marvel’s collective creative/editorial talent, how challenging is it to deliver the best product Marvel can produce when you lose some talented editors?

Brevoort: It’s terrific, I love seeing people let go into one of the worst job markets in recent memory! I’m sorry, Tim, but I don’t think it’s possible to answer this question in anything other than a personal way—or if it is, I’m just not that dispassionate about it. I certainly understand that a business is a business, but there’s also a very human face on all of this. The people who were let go were my co-workers and friends, none of them were dismissed for cause, they’re all great, talented people. But that’s the economic world we find ourselves in right now, and as somebody who has to keep an eye on the business as a business, I understand and accept that. And it definitely means that those of us that remain have to work harder to do the same thing—that’s just simple mathematics. An editor who was once dealing with six projects maybe now has to cope with seven, or eight, at least until we’re through the backlog of material that was initially in the hands of those editors no longer on staff. So it’s definitely a lot to ask—but we’ve got the best crew in the business at Marvel, and though we may all grumble from time to time, everybody steps up to get the job not only done but done with the greatest level of excellence that can be managed. It really is an extraordinary group of dedicated people. And, on the flipside, there’s now some editorial talent out in the marketplace with super-strong skills that any other company could benefit enormously from. So a word to the wise there.

O’Shea: When 2011 began, could you ever have envisioned Marvel having cancelled a miniseries before it even finished?

Brevoort: It’s an unfortunate thing, but yes, I could. I’ve seen it happen in the past, though not quite in the way it happened on All-Winners. And some of that is my doing. We could have gone in at the last minute and tried to hack up the climax of the story, bringing things to a truncated resolution in issue #5. But with three whole issues left to go, I didn’t want to do that. Admittedly, that would have given the readers some kind of resolution, but it would have been a bad and unsatisfying reading experience. So I made the argument that, with so much story still left to tell, we should simply stop. That way, if market conditions improved down the line, and there was enough sustained interest in the project, we might eventually be able to return to it and finish it properly in the future. Hey, the last issue of Ghost Rider that I edited saw print ten years after it was created, so anything’s possible. I’m also a child of the 70s, where books would often be cancelled mid-stream, with no warning and no resolution, so I may be more immunized to this happening than a lot of other people, because I’ve seen it happen before. It stinks, nobody likes it, but again, that’s the marketplace in which we seem to find ourselves. The one thing I know for certain is that putting out issues that lose money is a good way to get to the point where you can’t put out any issues at all.

O’Shea: At the beginning of 2011, you assumed your senior VP role. With almost a year under your belt, I am curious what have you most enjoyed about your increased responsibilities? With your increased executive duties, is there an aspect of your pre-2011 responsibilities that you wish you still had time to do?

Avengers: X-Sanction #1

Brevoort: People, I think, get dazzled by the title, which maybe sounds like a lot more than what it actually entails. I’m still very much doing all of the things I was doing last year, just with a bit more stuff added on top of it. I’m maybe looking at the whole line more, rather than just half of the line. But I’m still directly editing a good number of books—Avengers, New Avengers, Secret Avengers, Fantastic Four, FF, Captain America, Children’s Crusade, X-Sanction, Defenders at least for the first two issues, and a lot more. So there isn’t a whole lot of down time, and there are definitely days when I feel like I could use another me to handle all of the stuff that’s stacked up while I was on the phone talking to a creator or off in a planning meeting of some kind.

O’Shea: While clearly a main focus of 2011 was Fear Itself, what were the other main successes of the past year?

Brevoort: I think we had a bunch of successes this year, and I’m probably going to forget all kinds of things as I run down the list. But certainly the death of the Human Torch and the rebranding of Fantastic Four as FF was a bigger success than we would have imagined. The Death of Ultimate Spider-Man and the introduction of Miles Morales. The “Spider-Island” crossover and just Amazing Spider-Man in general, a series that not only has been garnering all kinds of good fan reaction but has also consistently come out twice a month. Schism, and even more so the relaunching of the core X-titles as Uncanny X-Men and Wolverine & The X-Men. Waid, Rivera and Martin’s Daredevil, probably the best-reviewed title we’ve got right now, Remender and Co’s Uncanny X-Force—I feel like our line is very strong overall right now, even though it’s easy for people to sometimes take that for granted. You take a book like, say, Fraction and Larroca’s Invincible Iron Man, and it comes out like clockwork 12-16 times a year, with the same creative team telling highly-polished stories. After a while, people start to overlook it because it’s so consistent. Also, the steady growth of our digital initiatives. That’s a world that’s going to become steadily more important to us, and to the business in general. We had a couple good movies, too.

Miles Morales

O’Shea: In terms of “the steady growth of our digital initiatives,” what kind of milestones or successes did Marvel see in the steady growth?

Brevoort: I don’t know that there are any specific milestones I can point you to, in that most of our data about the digital world is confidential. But especially in instances where we had mainstream coverage on a particular storyline—Miles Morales, say, or Fantastic Four #600—we saw a pronounced uptick in our digital sales, with each new one besting the sales records of the previous. And all without having a measurable impact on our tangible copy sales. I think that everybody has still only scratched the surface of digital as a delivery platform for the kinds of material that we do, and that it’s only likely to grow further into a cornerstone of our overall publishing business.

O’Shea: You don’t work for DC, but you clearly have an opinion about the other major industry publisher, so I have to ask: Did DC’s 52 perform beyond your expectations, or is their success (still potentially short term, only time will tell) along the lines of what one might expect from a major line relaunch?

Brevoort: I don’t think we have good enough optics yet to predict the long term—we’re only now heading into the period of time wherein retailers can return their unsold copies, so the numbers for those months aren’t finalized yet. But there’s no two ways about it, regardless of how many books they get back, DC did a great job of getting their message out to the world and getting excited readers new, lapsed and existing into the stores to check out what they had going on. I don’t know how, at least judged in those terms, it could have been any more of a success. And I’m very happy about it—not just because we’ve seen an uptick in our sales for those months as well, but because increased competition leads to more excitement and better books. A lot of people have maybe misunderstood my message over these months, and maybe that’s my fault for not getting it across as clearly as I might have. But my biggest complaint and concern for the longest time was that it often felt as though DC had given up the fight, that they were content to just drift along, doing business as usual and not making waves. And a marketplace that Marvel is half of or more isn’t healthy—it puts too much weight on one part of the machine, too much responsibility. So I couldn’t be happier that the new DC team is stepping up to the challenge and hitting the field ready and willing to play the game. And that’ll force us at Marvel to up our game as well. The question now, of course, will be whether and for how long they might be able to maintain that increased readership base.

O’Shea: You recently discussed Marvel’s plans for the 2012 Free Comic Book Day. In reading your Formspring discussion of FCBD, I was left wondering, what is the main goal/point of FCBD to you? And while you think FCBD is being served in 2012 by a reprint, for those who are disappointed, do you understand when they may strongly disagree when you characterize them as potentially “petty”?

Avengers/FCBD 2012

Brevoort: Well, in fairness, I characterized a single question-asker’s question as possibly petty, not the audience as a whole. But as I understand it, Free Comic Book Day is an outreach program that enables local retailers across the country to mount the kind of mainstream promotion and local event that potentially draws new people into the stores. The existing fan base is served by it, sure, but it’s not really aimed at them, but at everybody who doesn’t regularly make the trek out to their local stores. So on that level, I want our FCBD entries to be entry-level friendly—not unsophisticated, but self-explanatory in terms of the story presented. And I want them produced at the highest level of quality possible. But I don’t know that there’s any pressing need for them to be all-new material. Certainly DC’s had no problem with running repurposed material in their FCBD entries the past couple of years. I mean, it’s great to be able to give people an all-new story by our best guys absolutely for free, but we’re talking about an economy in which we had to let a number of people go—it’s an expense that doesn’t recoup itself in any way, and one that isn’t even really necessary in terms of what the goal of the event is. So sure, I’m sorry that our regular readers will have to make do with “only” an Avengers comic written by Brian Bendis and drawn by Bryan Hitch that they may have purchased previously. But, y’know, this even isn’t really about you!

O’Shea: With the news of Brian Bendis of departing the Avengers franchise, after his long and very successful run, it got me wondering. When faced with the prospect of finding a new writer for a successful book like the Avengers, what kind of criteria do you use in your search?

Brevoort: Well, it’s different every time, in that you’re working with a completely different array of variable each time. But to paint the process in broad strokes, you need to assess where the series is at, what’s been strong and working and indispensable about it and what it might be lacking. In other words, and this is pretty obvious, you want to try to maintain the appeal that a book has under its current creative team and then build upon it by accentuating those areas or aspects that haven’t been explored as much. To point to a specific example and provide you some context, when Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch were finishing up their run on Fantastic Four, I needed to line up their successor. In looking at the series as a whole, having come off of JMS and Dwayne McDuffie before them, and Mark Waid and Mike Wieringo before that, I felt like the time was right to try to get a younger voice into the mix—the book had been done by apex talent for a long run, but Fantastic Four is a series that’s got a strong almost gravitic pull towards its past, those initial 100 issues are so seminal. So I wanted to bring in somebody who would have something new to say, and who maybe wouldn’t be as shackled in his thinking to the past. At the same time, I wanted to maintain the overall positive/optimistic flavor that the series has always had when it’s been really clicking, in my opinion. Given those parameters, it didn’t take me long to start speaking with Jonathan Hickman, with whom I was working on Secret Warriors at the time. Jonathan went away, pulled together his ideas, and came back with a strong pitch for the series—and away we went! So it’s very much the same kind of thing on Avengers. Brian is leaving behind a legacy that it’s going to be very difficult for somebody else to equal or surpass, but that’s the challenge of the incumbent. As it happens, I’ve already got the next Avengers writer lined up, though it’ll probably be several months before you all learn who it is—Brian’s still got about a year’s worth of great stories to tell before that switchover happens.

O’Shea: You tapped Hickman to write Fantastic Four partially because he was someone “who maybe wouldn’t be as shackled in his thinking to the past”. Am I right in thinking you also do not mind tapping writers who can partially mine the past and find new story potential, given what a writer like Ed Brubaker has been able to do with James Bucky/Winter Soldier Barnes (as well as some elements of Hickman’s work on Secret Warriors)?

Brevoort: Well, yes, sure. One of the strengths of the Marvel Universe is the conceit that it’s one vast, interconnected place in which all of these stories co-exist, going back to 1961 and beyond. So sometimes you want to take advantage of that fact. But you always need to keep the bigger picture in mind. There have been times in Marvel’s history when whole stories have been written to explain some gaffe in an earlier story—those tend to be “comics about comics” and only of interest to our most hardcore audience. The continuity and the history is meant to be there to service the stories, not the other way around. At times, people at Marvel have lost sight of that. But there’s no problem with mining the past of our characters and our publishing history, so long as the stories that you do with that material are genuine, and have some compelling emotional touch-point for a modern reader who may not have read the earlier stories your tale is based on. In other words, you can do Star Trek II: Wrath Of Khan, but like that film, you need to do so in such a way that an audience member can have a great experience even if they’ve never seen the earlier Star Trek episode that Khan was introduced in.

O’Shea: How do you avoid burnout in your demanding job–how and why are comics still fun for you?

Brevoort: I just love comics. I love the characters, I love the stories, and I love the form. And not just any one style of comics, but all sorts of comics. I still go to the comic store every week like clockwork and drop crazy money on assorted new releases. And while what I do isn’t always easy or always fun—it is a business, after all—I never lose sight of the fact that, in a very real sense, I get to sit around and make up stories about people that fly all day, and then they pay me for it. And that’s pretty great! I also get to collaborate with a broad spectrum of supremely talented people, from our assorted creators through our incredible editorial staff, our promotions guys, online, the film and television folks—just about everybody. So yes, the hours are long and the days can be grueling, and there are those times when things aren’t breaking the way you’d like them to or there’s some difficulty that has to be worked through. It’s a high-pressure situation, keeping this many trains on the tracks every month and getting to their destinations on time. But it’s also a considerable amount of fun. There’s never a better feeling than when the printed copy of an especially good issue comes into the office, and you get to look it over before anybody else.

Fantastic Four #600

O’Shea: The death and return of the Human Torch this year (and the saga that transpired along with it) has clearly resonated with readership. From your standpoint, what is it about series writer Jonathan Hickman’s approach to Marvel’s First Family that enables him to click with readers?

Brevoort: I think that readers are only now starting to get a sense of what Jonathan’s been doing, not just on Fantastic Four but on all of his books, and that is to create long-form stories in which the individual parts all mesh together with mechanical precision to create a much greater whole and a much grander reading experience, one that truly rewards multiple rereadings. In a world of short attention spans, Jonathan is one of the few guys who comes onto a series with years’ worth of concepts, and he’s able to set things up in such a way that events past a certain point continue to build and build and build in a logical way, and then ultimately pay off great. Now that folks can look back at all of Secret Warriors as a whole, it’s easy to see just how much of the overall story Jonathan had in his head when the book began, and how even events in the first teaser short story we did in the Dark Reign: New Nation book fold back into the climax 28 issues and three years later. On Fantastic Four, I just gave him a sense of the kind of thing I was looking for and set him loose, and he came back with a gameplan that we’re only now, almost three years later, getting to the climax of. I think it was beneficial as well that Jonathan had never really been a Fantastic Four reader beforehand, in that he was able to come to the characters and the material fresh, to look over the entire history of the series and figure out for himself what he thought worked best about it without any personal nostalgia coloring his viewpoint. He clearly loves writing the kids, to the point where they would often threaten to take over the series.

O’Shea: This past year also saw Daredevil endure a great deal through Shadowland, as well as Daredevil: Reborn. But when all was said and done, the new Daredevil series by Mark Waid (along with Paola Rivera or Marcos Martin on art) is a major shift in tone that has been embraced by critics and fans equally. How satisfying is it to see Marvel take such a creative shift and pull it off so effectively?

Daredevil #1

Brevoort: It was a gamble to break with the past so severely in terms of the tone and the style of Daredevil, but it’s definitely a gamble that’s paid off big time. And that’s all thanks to the efforts not only of Mark, Paolo and Marcos, but especially those of editor Steve Wacker and his team. For my money, Steve is the solidest line editor in the business today. He’s great to work with, he’s got a strong point of view and a vision for what he does, he thinks about the whole package even beyond just the story and the artwork, and creators love working with him. And maybe it’s just that his sensibilities and mine are similar, but his batting average in terms of the content of his titles has been tremendously good: Avenging Spider-Man, Daredevil, Punisher, Venom, Scarlet Spider—those last three are books that, by all rights, I shouldn’t be enjoying anywhere near as much as I do. And, of course, keeping the juggernaut that is Amazing Spider-Man on the rails and successful both commercially and critically for such a long period of time. Getting back to Daredevil, obviously Marcos Martin is a genius, and Paolo Rivera’s an incredible talent, but it’s especially nice to see somebody like Mark Waid gathering such kudos. Like we were talking about with Invincible Iron Man before, Mark’s been around the industry for so long and has such a track record for producing excellent work that I think it’s easy for people to overlook what he does; “Oh, it’s another good Mark Waid comics again. Yawn.” Whether it’s just ageism or familiarity breeding contempt or whatever, the fact remains that Mark’s been a power hitter of great consistency for two decades now—so it’s very nice to see him getting the sort of attention and praise often reserved for new hot young guys.

O’Shea: We have talked about some of the great writing of Marvel in the past year or so, and while we have briefly touched upon the greatness of Paola Rivera and Marcos Martin’s work, I wonder if you’d like to discuss some of the other artists that really seemed to hit their stride in 2011 (and/or you look forward to knocking it out of the visual park in 2012)?

Brevoort: It’s truly an embarrassment of riches at Marvel in terms of artistic talent, so this is something I could go on about at length, and never run out of material. But focusing more on promising up-and-coming talent, there are three or four creators who seem to really be hitting a stride, beyond the ones we mentioned earlier. Sara Pichelli has been a revelation on Ultimate Spider-Man, her sense of environment and character acting is second to none. Nick Bradshaw harnesses the detail-craziness of an Art Adams around an appealing, bouncy, energetic penciling style. Jerome Opena is a terrific action artist, with a subtlety of line that I’m not sure entirely translates into ink. Ryan Stegman draws great , appealing characters with a lot of bounce, very much in the spirit of Joe Madureira or J Scott Campbell. And there are plenty of others, of course—but that’s a smattering of folks that come to mind this morning.

O’Shea: Looking ahead to 2012, if response is strong enough to the Marvel Season One books, would there be a possibility of pursuing an ongoing series with those creative teams, or is the focus solely on original graphic novels of the characters’ origins?

Brevoort: I wouldn’t rule anything out—every option has been discussed, doing follow-up volumes (“Season Two”) or serialized follow-ups, and every other option in-between. But it’s all a moot question until we can see how people respond to the initial books. At this point, I’ve read the completed Fantastic Four Season One volume front to back, and it is outstanding! I couldn’t be more pleased with it—and I say that having had nothing particular to do with it. All of the credit goes to Roberto Sacasa, David Marquez, Lee Duhig and editor Lauren Sankovitch. These guys understood the mandate of the line and really delivered the goods, in a way that I think will be appreciated by fans old and new. The X-Men Season One book is similarly looking and reading well, based on the 40 or so pages I’ve gone over so far.

Brevoort's Twitter photo

O’Shea: Any closing thoughts you’d like to leave Robot 6 readers with?

Brevoort: I think that my general message for comic book readers of all kinds right this moment would be: relax! It’s so easy to become overly anxious or overly outraged or overly agitated about all sorts of aspects of what we do, the characters we create and the worlds we build. And we love that sort of emotional investment! But keep in mind, these are just stories! It’s all just entertainment! If you’re being entertained, then everything is fine! And if you’re not, try something else! Try something new! Reading comics shouldn’t be a job, and neither should it be a series of existential crises on a month-by-month basis. Also (and I know that this isn’t something that most readers are going to be willing or able to do), stop being so concerned about what’s going to be happening three or six or nine months down the line and try to focus a little bit more on what’s going on right now! Don’t miss the precious moment in the anxiety about what tomorrow will bring! None of what we do is life-threatening, it’s not likely to change the world in any but the most subtle of ways—the drama need not be quite so overblown!

Also, it’d be nice to get into a blog entry headline from time to time for something other than saying something provocative.

Daryl Gregory

The Avengers #4 (Not the comic stuffed in 'Lil Daryl's stocking)

Every Christmas, comics would show up in my stocking. They’d be rolled up, which I’m sure breaks the heart of every collector out there, but it didn’t bother me much. Comics were for reading. For some reason, my mother thought I liked Thor. I wasn’t a Thor guy, except when he was hanging out in the Avengers. I was, and still am, a Captain America super-fan. How could my Mom not know this? But every year I’d get a couple more Thor comics.

Fast-forward 35 years. I’m the official stocking-stuffer in the household. My wife is the queen of holiday organization, but the stocking assignment has always been mine, primarily because it’s the kind of job you can give to a procrastinator. I can run out on Christmas Eve and grab everything I need: gum, iTunes gift cards, candy bars, extra batteries… and comics. See, my son is 15, and he IS a Thor guy, so I usually try to round up something Asgardian for him, as well as a something with Atomic Robo or Axe Cop. I don’t understand the clothing my daughter is asking for (an “infinity scarf” sounds like something Dr. Who would wear), but by gum, I do know my son’s taste in comics.

And by the way? The comics never actually get inside the stocking, but sit there on the mantle beside it. Because Christmas tradition be damned, I’m not rolling them.

Jeff Parker

Okay fine, I’ll tell an embarrassing one. A few years ago I was renting a house here in Portland and indulged one of my vices I haven’t been able to shake: trash dumping. Not in the woods or anything horrible like that, but in any open dumpster that someone left unlocked- I can’t help it, I hate having lots of trash around and can’t wait for garbage pickup sometimes!

Anyway, I had just gotten rid of a bunch of boxes at a nearby apartment complex’ dumpster during the holidays and Christmas morning I answered my door where an angry apartment manager held up an empty box from Dark Horse that had once contained comps of something I’d done for them- with my name and address clearly labeled. I had to laugh at myself for getting busted by such a stupid slip up, and I told the guy I’d go back over there and pull my trash out. He let me off the hook because it was Christmas and a ‘don’t do it again.’ I wonder what other mysteries he’ll be out solving this holiday season?

Remember kids, using other people’s dumpsters is WRONG. (wink!)

Fred Van Lente

It’d probably be getting Watchmen under the tree the year the TPB came out and reading pretty much in one sitting (in robe and PJ’s) for the rest of Christmas Day. I don’t remember if I got to Exploding Vaginal Space Squid before turkey.

Young Romance

Colleen Coover

One year Paul [Tobin, her husband] gave me my favorite Christmas gift EVER. It was a medium-sized box, and when I opened it there was some packing material, beneath which were fifteen romance comics from the late 60s and early 70s! I thought I’d died and gone to cheesy comics heaven. But then under all those comics was more packing stuff, and under that: ANOTHER TWENTY ROMANCE COMICS!!! Just the best.

Jane Irwin

My best Holiday-related comics memory is from right after Thanksgiving 2002, when Paul Sizer, Pam Bliss, Matt Feazell, Layla Lawlor, Sean Bieri and I all got together during Mid-Ohio Con and created a “Comics Passport” minicomic where fans could collect autographs and stamps from all of us and end up with a neat little personalized book. Sean hand-pulled the covers with his Print Gocco, and we each contributed a sketch. It was a really neat concept — it got fans of one creator introduced to the rest of us, and we had a lot of takers — but the very best part was that working on the passport together caused Paul and I to finally notice each other, after about five years of attending the same conventions. The rest, as they say, is history — we’ve been happily married and making comics together for over seven years now.

Paul Sizer

Here’s my memory. Not as mushy as Jane’s, but hers was pretty good!

Age 10: the marathon experience that was the opening of presents at Grandma and Grampa’s house was well under way. Two hours (out of five) in, my brain was ready to explode from boredom. Then, I opened a present from one of my uncles; How To Draw Comics The Marvel Way. History was forever altered. I don’t think I actually saw any of my other presents that year. I still have that book somewhere in my stacks.

Chris Schweizer

Through most of middle and high school, my sister exhibited a distaste for reading.  When she was a kid, she read voraciously, as did the rest of the family; when we moved to Kentucky (I had just turned eleven; she was nine) she fell in with a group of girls for whom reading was a very low priority, and, being a preteen girl in a new place and in want of friends, she naturally followed suit.  What I assume began as affectation became character, and by the time she was in middle school you couldn’t get her to crack open a book unless there was a grade attached.

There was one clear exception – newspaper comic strip collections.

My dad and mom both had picked up comic strip books since I was very little.  Our house was stocked with Peanuts and Pogo books well before I was born, and it was my dad’s first Calvin and Hobbes trade, likely brought home within days of its release, that cemented my love of the form, and my desire to contribute to it.  My dad was an ardent C&H and Far Side fan, and my mom bought For Better of Worse and Cathy.  We had stacks of others, usually the 1950s minimalist humor strips that still run today, but these paperback-book jobs were haphazard and gathered in no particular order from garage sales, not like the pretty horizontal Andrews McMeel deals that lined our bookshelves by series and in order of release.  When Watterson and Larson retired, our influx of books didn’t halt; if anything, it increased.  My mom and dad both became big fans of Dilbert (which, though oft-criticized, I still quite enjoy).  My favorite contemporary strip when I was in middle school (and a chunk of high school, until Zits came along and gave it a close run for its money) was Bill Amend’s Foxtrot.

Wrapped-Up Foxtrot

Though it may not be evident upon glancing at my comics, Foxtrot has likely had more influence on my storytelling than any other comic.  I consumed Amend’s dialogue pacing with such fervency and regularity that writing dialogue in anything but an Amend-patter-pattern would be entirely unnatural to me, and my dialogue pacing determines everything on the page, including the composition of the images. Oh, yes, Foxtrot was my favorite.

My sister felt the same.

My dad couldn’t resist picking up the Dilbert books as they came out, but the Foxtrot books waited until Christmas.  Why?  My parents, ever eager to stoke the fires of advanced literacy in their daughter, ALWAYS GAVE HER THE MOST RECENT FOXTROT BOOK. Without fail.  Every year. Her.

This would not have been a problem, in general.  We were a fairly communal household when it came to books, and what belonged to one generally ended up being passed around.  But as she grew older, my sister became increasingly aware of my intense desire to spend time with Amend’s newest masterpiece, and she began to use this to her advantage.  I’d have to trade candy for the privilege.  I’d have to give up a gift of greater value.  When I became able to drive, chauffeur duties became a bargaining chip.  Sometimes, just to get my goat, she’d refuse me entirely and hide the book, leading me to search, sometimes for days, whenever I found her absent.

“Well,” you might say, “You could drive and likely had a job.  Why not simply go get your own copy?”  The idea truly never occurred to me.  Getting my own copy when my dad or mom or sister had one which I could (in theory, at least) read?  It made no sense.  Even now, away from home for a decade and more, I still don’t have duplicates of books that my dad has.  The new Fantagraphics Peanuts collection?  You’ll not find a one on my shelves.  The big Calvin and Hobbes collector’s set?  Nope.  I make do with my old A/McM paperbacks.

I have, to be fair, stolen a good number of my parent’s books for my own collection – I consider it a child’s prerogative, and will not begrudge my own children such luxury when they someday fly the nest.  But, though they sit not in my sister’s house in Alabama but at my parent’s in North Carolina, I have not taken the Foxtrot collections.  Whereas taking from my dad is hardly stealing (sorry, dad), taking from my sister would be.  So, by virtue of Christmas tradition, I live more or less Foxtrotless, save the occasional bumper compendium snagged at a Borders failsale.

Elizabeth Breitweiser

My husband, Mitch, has a good one. Christmas of 1992, Mitch age 13. His dad gave him his very first comic book, Spider-Man 2099 #2. As soon as he pulled it out of his stocking and flipped through the pages, he knew he wanted to be a comic book artist.

This year will also be one for the memory book. Mitch surprised me by sneaking our little family, fat cat and all, into the holiday issue of Journey Into Mystery #632. What a treat!

The Breitweiser Family in Journey Into Mystery #632

Erik Larsen

My recollections are both Marvel-related. I can remember having two different people give me a copy of Stan Lee’s Origins of Marvel Comics as a kid and I can recall getting money from my parents to buy gifts for other members of my family and blowing part of it on a copy of Rampaging Hulk #1 (the b&w magazine) and getting some grief for doing that.

Mike Allred

When I quit a career in broadcasting in exchange for a budding comic book career, the first few years were hard going.  But Christmas time brought a few moments of splurging, and Laura would justify getting me hard cover collections of classic comics.  I still have those, and they are every bit as priceless to me as the original pulpy beauties they reprint.  Later, after Madman started taking off, she started scoring me original comic book art for Christmas gifts.  The ultimate collectable from the ultimate wife.  Laura is the best thing about Christmas and comic books.

Van Jensen

G.I. Joe

When I was 4 or 5, there was nothing cooler in the world than G.I. Joes. It’s fair to say I spent months in the lead up to Christmas poring over the Sears and JC Penney catalogs looking at the Joe toys, trying to decide which ones to ask for (we lived far from any toy stores, so the catalogs were all I had). Christmas morning, I know I had a couple of Joes waiting for me under the tree. But despite all of my excitement for the toys, I can’t recall which ones I received. All I really remember is that I also got my first few comics: issues of MAD, Captain America and Larry Hama’s G.I. Joe. I still remember the stories from those issues—Roadblock was arrested!—even though hundreds of readings long ago disintegrated the copies into dust.

MK Reed

On a New Year’s Day about 10 years ago, I was working in a ski rental shop at a small ski slope in New Jersey with my bff. They’d been very insistent that we come in on New Year’s bright and early, but it was in the 40′s and the snow was all melted. With few customers and little to do, we started putting together the shipment of kid’s skis that were waiting to be assembled, and when rentals employees called to see if they should come in, we said yes, not realizing that at a certain point the managers made an announcement that the slope would be closed in the afternoon because of the weather. (There was no speaker in the rentals room, nor supervision, nor heat.) We accumulated some boxes from the skis & bindings, and so my bff & I decided to set up a city of boxes and live out a Godzilla/Rodin fight to break them down. Within a minute of the fight’s beginning, the laughter and cheering of a dozen onlookers alerted a manager who showed up to see what all the noise was about. As he yelled at us for not leaving, we protested it was impossible for us to hear the announcement, and that no one had told us to leave or stop more employees from coming in. During the entire argument, we kicked & stomped down boxes. We were then criticized for being inefficient in box-waste removal, which everyone jeered at. Then we got to leave work early!

John Arcudi

Terminator

It was long, long ago — right about when I became a full-time comics writer.  In fact, it was exactly then.

I was back in my home town visiting my father for the holidays when I got a call from Dark Horse publisher Mike Richardson.  I don’t remember how he got my father’s number (we had only communicated through my home # back in Brooklyn) but he did.   I’d been writing part-time for a few years, working a variety of day jobs, hammering away on scripts at night.  You can do that in your 20′s.  Just 8 page stories here and there, nothing regular.  Anyway, Mike was calling to offer me a series (Terminator) which would require a full time writing schedule from me, meaning I would have to quit my day job.  Seems like an easy decision in retrospect, but there was no “retrospect” then.   Still, I knew what I wanted, and so did Mike.  I remember what he said very clearly: “You want to be a comics writer, John, then be one.”  He was, of course, right.

Yeah, not something easily forgotten, to say the least.

Mark Andrew Smith

This is a Christmas story that happened to me last year.

Living in Taiwan they do not celebrate Christmas.  You’re on your own, and you try to make the best of things.

I went to a Taiwanese Bar with my friend Paul and we are going to order some hamburgers.  We sit down and there’s a drunk guy in the bar who speaks poor English that wants to talk to us and says the same thing over and over again, the guy is kind of scary, and I just nod to be polite, hoping he’ll leave.

In Taiwan there are street dogs everywhere. This black stray dog goes into bar and just starts humping the crap out of the guy’s leg.  He’s drunk and can’t do anything about it.

Meanwhile all of these Christmas songs are playing while the dog is going at this guy’s leg nonstop with his face so happy and his tongue hanging out of his mouth and it almost seems to synch up to ‘it’s the most wonderful time of the year’.  The dog would go away and then come back and hump this drunk and incoherent Taiwanese guy’s leg.

It went on for a good 30 minutes with the music playing like it was out of a film.

I turned to my friend Paul and said, “This is it, this is our Christmas Eve. Eating a hamburger and watching a dog go to town for 30 minutes on a drunk Taiwanese dude’s leg.  Merry Christmas Paul.”

Janet K. Lee

Duncan the Wonder Dog

Last year, I desperately wanted a copy of Duncan the Wonder Dog for Christmas, but could not find it in Nashville. My LCS couldn’t get it for me in time for the holiday; I had waited until too late to ask. So I tweeted about my great sorrow, my failure to acquire Duncan the Wonder Dog, to several hundred of my closest internet friends. Like you do.

Well, the amazing folks at Malaprops Bookstore in Asheville, North Carolina, were listening. They have one of the best graphic novel sections in the US—not only in my opinion, but according to the fine folks at Publisher’s Weekly—and they sent me a copy of Duncan. It was a Christmas miracle under my tree. I sent them a bunch of home-made ornaments as a thank-you. Best part: the book was every bit as wonderful as I wanted it to be.

Charles Soule

In March 2009, my first published work, Strongman, appeared on shelves (from SLG Publishing, a fine group of people if ever there was one.)  The Christmas before that, I was home to visit my family in Michigan – in Grand Rapids, specifically, at my dad’s house.  I had some advance copies of Strongman with me, and I intended to give a few to my siblings and my father as Christmas “gifts.”  Yes, I know that’s pretty dubious as far as gift-giving goes.  I might as well have given them a framed picture of myself.  Signed.  (Hmm… maybe I’ll do that this year.)

Anyway, I got everyone something “real” too, but I was (and still am) very proud of Strongman, and wanted to share it with them.  On Christmas morning, everyone opened up their stuff, oohed and aahed and thanked, and we moved on to the customary post-gift breakfast.  Good stuff.  Traditionally, my family will go to a movie Christmas afternoon, or do something else as a group.  That year, we trooped out to see The Spirit, god help us.  My dad declined to come with us, which was weird – we weren’t all together that much over the year, because my family is scattered all over the country, and normally he’d hang out with us the entire day.  He decided to skip the movie because he wanted to stay home to read Strongman (or possibly because he’d read a review of The Spirit, but I choose to believe he wanted to read the book.)

My siblings and I saw the movie, came home, and my dad and I talked about my first published book for a while.  He was a comics reader from childhood, and introduced me to them – my first comic was a Fantastic Four he bought me, and I use to read his tattered T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents issues in his old bedroom when we’d go to visit my grandparents when I was little.  So, he knew what he was talking about, and he had some good things to say and some critical points to make.  It was amazing.  One of my favorite Christmas memories of all time, not just comics-related.  Unfortunately (putting it very mildly) that was the last real Christmas we got to spend together, but that afternoon we had no idea that bad things were looming on the horizon, and we just talked.  I have a million memories of my dad and books, but it’s hard to top that one.

Ryan Stegman

Spawn #39

My comics-related holiday memory is the issue of Spawn that had “Santa Spawn” on the cover. That is easily one of my most remembered comic book covers ever. It hit me at the time when I had just decided that comics were what I wanted to do and I just stared at it forever wondering how the hell someone could draw something that cool.

I also remember reading that issue. It’s hilariously cheesy, but in the best way possible. It’s like every Christmas related kids movie with the sappy ending. But the stuff leading up to the ending was insane violence and Spawn looking badass. What more could you want?

Corinna Bechko

This time of year generally means two things at our house: comics-related presents and wicked deadlines. Usually the gifts are special edition books or maybe rare action figures, while the deadlines are always urgent and seldom as nice to look at.

Last year I wanted to get something extra special for my husband Gabriel Hardman though, and after much hunting I found an original page from The Tomb of Dracula #14, drawn by Gene Colan and inked by Tom Palmer in 1972. I carefully wrapped my treasure up, convinced that I had scored a great bit of comics history.

Meanwhile, Gabriel was hard at work penciling and inking Hulk. The holidays are always hectic when you’re a freelancer, so when he was asked to do an extra “point one” issue on top of his normal workload something had to give. He agreed to pencil the book, but wanted someone else to ink it. And who did that someone turn out to be? None other than the legendary Tom Palmer. So in a nice bit of symmetry Gabriel now has an almost 40 year old Palmer-inked page hanging on his studio wall as well as his name next to Tom’s on a book from 2011.

Nick Dragotta

My favorite holiday recollection was the time Howtoons went to the Kipp Bridge Charter School in West Oakland to teach 8th graders how to make snow globes through our comics. We projected the cartoon up on the wall and then just laid out the supplies. The kids were pretty stoked you only needed a peanut butter jar, water, and glitter. The decoration we left to their imagination. The results were pretty fantastic. I also remember it being freezing that day, and we all wore our winter coats the whole time while inside the classroom.

Shawn Crystal on The Cartoonists Holiday

It’s dark outside, and cold. My two kids, Zoe and Zac, are tucked snuggly into their warm beds. My wife, Stephanie, sits watching Family Guy while wrapping presents.

I wish I were there, home with my family… relaxing.

Instead, I am at my studio, working tirelessly under the relentless pressure of a tight… VERY tight, deadline. This is my life, the life of a cartoonist. We don’t get down time, vacations, or holidays. We work when we have work. We relax when we don’t. The lucky ones are constantly working.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining. I’m just painting a portrait of what a cartoonist’s life is like.

Crystal art from Deadpool Max XMas

When I was a young wide-eyed child with a head full of dreams, my biggest wish was to be a professional comic book artist for Marvel. Every Hanukah, I asked for drawing supplies, comics, and Marvel related toys. As I grew older, I wished for books on storytelling, cinematography, anatomy, and photography. Always focused on the big wish, to draw for Marvel. Decades later, here I am, doing just that.

I didn’t just wish for this lifestyle, I worked hard to achieve it. I was focused and driven to draw comics. I don’t think many of us (cartoonists) truly understood the demands of this job before we had it, but that doesn’t matter. It’s a damn cool job to have.

It’s a bittersweet time for me.

I miss being with my family, but I LOVE that I am drawing comics.

On the day of Hanukah, I’ll be busy frying Latkes and grilling steaks. Passing out presents to my family while shoveling Belgian chocolate gelt into my mouth. I’ll be full, happy, and half drunk.

So, I’ll get some downtime…even if it’s just for a day. After that, I’ll promptly return to my studio, ready to grind while I listen to Marc Maron’s “WTF” podcast.

To my family, I love you. Without your support, I wouldn’t be able to do this. My job asks a lot of you. You work with me to make it all happen. I’ll see you soon, with a table full of food, and presents to pass around.

To all the cartoonists, my brothers in arms, fighting the good fight in the trenches of publishing…you’re not alone during these cold nights. You’re making comics, and you worked hard to be able to do this. Take a moment to enjoy your success. Soon you’ll be with friends and family, doing your thing. Only for a short while though, there’s a deadline waiting for you…. and he’s a nasty lil bastard.

Did I mention that I run the Sequential Art dept. for SCAD Atlanta as well? That’s another story for another time.

Hell Yeah

I’ve been friendly with Joe Keatinge dating back to his days managing PR & marketing for Image Comics. When it was revealed back in October that Extreme Studios was relaunching the line–with Keatinge writing Glory (with Ross Campbell on art), I started generating questions for an interview. In addition to discussing Glory (which relaunches with Glory #23 on February 15, 2012), Keatinge opens up about Hell Yeah (Image), his creator-owned collaboration with artist/co-creator Andre Szymanowicz that premieres on March 7, 2012, as well as another upcoming 2012 project, Brutal, in collaboration with artist Frank Cho. My thanks to Keatinge for this email interview. After reading this piece, be sure to check out CBR’s Joe Keatinge coverage for more insight into the busy writer’s upcoming work.

Tim O’Shea: Did Rob Liefeld approach you to work on the Glory relaunch? Was Ross Campbell already committed to the project when you joined?

Joe Keatinge: While Rob was certainly involved with the process, I was actually approached by Image Comics Publisher and Extreme Editor, Eric Stephenson, almost a year ago now. At the time they had nailed down the idea of the line and I believe a couple of the other books may have had writers, but it was still in the very early stages. After that was the process of giving a quick pitch, which was virtually instantaneous to Eric asking if I wanted to do it, to developing a longer pitch, to Eric and I bringing Brandon Graham on board for Prophet, to discussing Glory with Brandon, to Brandon suggesting Ross Campbell, to seeing Ross’ amazing work and me asking him if he wanted to come on board. He did a few samples which blew away both Eric and Rob. We’ve been working on it ever since.

O’Shea: When writing do you try to play to Campbell’s strengths in his art, and if so, what would you say are some of his strengths?

Keatinge: As a general rule, I prefer to specifically write with the artist in mind. Meaning, I wouldn’t write the same Glory script I do for Ross for anyone else. I think it’s a fault of the writer not to take the artist’s strengths and interests into account. We’re a team, you know? It’s important we’re both having a good time. While I had an outline before Ross came on board, I certainly adjusted it to suit his strengths and interests. As far as what his strengths are – they’re pretty numerous. I’m extremely impressed with how versatile he is an artist. I highly admire how much enthusiasm he puts into a page. His design work alone amazes me. However, I think my favorite aspect are the power he brings to the characters. Look at Glory. She looks like she could legitimately break you in half. A lot of superheroes – both male and female – look like super models. You don’t buy they could devastate a tank. He really makes you believe it with Glory.

I don’t know if this necessarily counts as a general strength, but I do love the ease there is in working with Ross. While we have very different backgrounds in comics on a professional level, we gel together very well. He’s an ideal collaborator in every way. I’m extremely thankful for when that happens and have been lucky enough to have it happen on three concurrent books between him, Andre Szymanowicz on Hell Yeah and Frank Cho on Brutal.

O’Shea: Speaking of Campbell, the opening to the Glory preview has a cinematic vibe to it, in terms of framing. Was that something you detailed in the script, or was that an angle he brought to the mix?

Keatinge: I actually try to stay away from anything ‘cinematic’ in any comics I work on. While I think a lot of the early experimentation such as in Miller’s Daredevil or later on with ‘widescreen’ comics like Ellis & Hitch’s Authority and Millar & Hitch’s Ultimates was incredible, I also believe comics have gone too far down that rabbit hole more often than not. Frank Miller himself has even said he got into comics to make them more cinematic, yet has stayed in to make them less so. I’m with the latter. I think comics are a much stronger medium than film in many ways. I think there’s also much more potential left as well. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a huge movie fan. I go to the theater pretty much at least once a week. That said, comics are way better in general.

What I am trying to do with Glory is create a huge level of scope. I really want to take a fantasy epic and filter it through superheroes. My ideal situation is to stay on this book for a very, very long time. Hopefully Ross will be there with me the whole way. The first three issue spans centuries – well over a thousand years in total. It’s a big, big book with big, big plans. I know everyone says this about everything, but it’s my hope to achieve it here. The idea with Glory is she’s a weapon so destructive people confuse her with a god. That’s quite the impression. Superman doesn’t have that. People just think he’s a dude who can fly.

O’Shea: What was the overall appeal to working on the Extreme relaunch?

Keatinge: I grew up with the Extreme books. I was only in fifth grade when Image Comics launched. Youngblood had an especially massive impact on me. Every single interview with Rob psyched me up beyond belief. Youngblood #6 remains one of my favorite single issues ever. Then when Platt came on Prophet? The best. Bloodwulf’s debut in Darker Image? Blew my mind. As I got older my tastes changed a little, but the Extreme books did as well once Alan Moore was brought into the fold. His work on Supreme and even smaller tenures on Youngblood and Glory excited me even more.

Glory 23

It used to be that Marvel and DC were the big universes people wanted to grow up to work in and while I absolutely have a huge desire to do that, I think you’re going to be seeing more and more people coming into comics who grew up with that sort of passion for the Image Comics characters. I was able to work on Savage Dragon, I would be insanely stoked to get my hands on Spawn or The Darkness someday. Working in the Extreme universe is incredibly exciting for me. There’s a couple of cameos of other Extreme characters in our first issue of Glory and when I realized these stories ‘counted’, that they weren’t fan fic or whatever, I felt like a major life goal had been fulfilled. Now I just need to get married and have kids. I’ll be set.

O’Shea: Are you getting a chance to build Glory from the ground-up, or are you going to be capitalizing on past runs of the character to some extent?

Keatinge: They’re giving us an astounding level of freedom, but I feel it’s a little ridiculous to jump on an established character or series and not acknowledge their past. Otherwise you should just be making creator-owned comics. Furthermore, I think it’s lazy and disrespectful to the fans who loved the previous comics to go in and say, “hey, all that stuff you loved? DIDN’T HAPPEN.”

My approach to continuity in general is to try it like Rashomon. How Ross and I interpret past events may be different than another creative team, but it still happened whether it’s the original Duffy/Deodato run or Moore/Peterson. So, we definitely build on the past, but with an eye toward the future. I want to create a new audience just as much as I don’t want to alienate the old audience. My first issue is written with that kind of person in mind. If you have absolutely never read Glory - or, heck, a comic book at all – in your life you should be able to fully understand everything you need to jump on board.

O’Shea: In terms of collaborating with Frank Cho, do you think you would have been more intimidated to work with him had you not become friends with him prior to contemplating collaboration?

Keatinge: Probably. Going in I just viewed it as making comics with a buddy, but every once in a while I’m reminded he’s FRANK CHO, one of the most respected and admired artists in mainstream comics. That said, I am really grateful to be collaborating with him. While he’s a fantastic artist, having him as a co-writer has been basically a crash course in writing comics. Whenever he has changes to my stuff I initially want to argue, but I’m pretty sure virtually every time I’ve thought, ‘oh, hey, never mind. You are totally right.’ I hope between this, Guns & Dinos and a few other projects he has the general comics industry respects him even more as a writer than they do for his award-winning run on Liberty Meadows. He’s the real deal when it comes to writing.

O’Shea: I love how when you discuss this project at your Tumblr site, you wrote in part ” to have a superhero book I’m writing with a massively popular artist be announced to come out on [Image's] 20th anniversary feels like the culmination of my own 20th anniversary of my first having the dream of writing comics means everything to me.” Which are you enjoying more, writing superhero comics, or getting to launch such a major project at such an auspicious time in Image’s history?

Keatinge: Writing comics at all, really. I’m always more into the craft and the work than I am the hype of it, but it’s hard to resist on the 20th anniversary. That said, again, I try to keep my eye on the prize. Gotta focus on the writing.

O’Shea: In general, what is the biggest benefit to you, as a writer, to get to explore the superhero genre?

Keatinge: You can do ANYTHING. You can make any genre work within it. You can bend or otherwise completely devastate any law of science. There are no budget limitations. Anything goes.

It’s due to this I think there’s a lot of potential in the genre. Furthermore, I think what’s traditionally discussed, promoted and marketed as superhero comics is really just one gigantic sub-genre of something much larger. A lot of people scoff at the notion that superheroes being something adults would want to read. I think they’re nuts. They’re defining a genre by their most popular works, whereas I try to think more of potential than execution. Should X-Men be for all-ages? Yeah, probably, but if Image showed me anything it’s that I can create anything under any genre the way I want to do it. They went with superheroes at first, because that was what they were passionate about. Same goes for Andre and I with Hell Yeah.

O’Shea: Will you concede that when you say lines like “Hell Yeah is the direct result of almost thirty years of comics passion put into one book.”  that you may be putting some pressure on yourself?

Keatinge: Absolutely not.

I’ve been reading comics in many different forms in many different genres my whole life. Every life experience I’ve ever had somehow informs the work I’m doing today. It’s not hype, it’s fact.

Besides, I think pressure’s a good thing. Poor work comes out when you’re comfortable. I am extremely hard on myself with everything I do. A small part of it is psychological condition. Most of it is never wanting to be boring.

O’Shea: You were first introduced to Andre Szymanowicz while working on PopGun. But when did you realize he’d be a good fit for Hell Yeah?

Keatinge: Mark Andrew Smith and I were discussing different projects we wanted to do together. I believe I suggested James Stokoe for what became Sullivan’s Sluggers. He suggested Andre Szymanowicz. So, that’s what got us talking. However, what convinced me was hanging out with him one on one at a San Diego Comic Con a couple of years ago. Like I was saying with Ross and Frank, Andre and I just completely clicked. The show ended with us at the Hyatt bar, shaking hands to make this book happen. Sometimes you just know.

O’Shea: Branding-wise, how did you arrive on the name Hell Yeah?

Keatinge: It sure helps that I say the phrase all the time. The universe of Hell Yeah has been percolating in my head for a while. One of the first thing I thought of was superheroes being treated and named more like bands than typical super-teams. The first team name I thought was ‘The All-New All-Differents’, the second was ‘Hell Yeah For Justice.’ It struck me then that the name was the perfect embodiment of the book, especially since Hell Yeah For Justice is the group the series’ main character, Ben Day, will be hanging out with. So it was more organic, less market strategy. However, I will admit it makes for a pretty rad logo.

A Girl Called Ana Teaches Kittens How To Draw

Last week Chris Arrant covered former Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) Professor Bob Pendarvis’ Kickstarter effort to fund A Girl Called Ana Teaches Kittens How To Draw. In today’s email interview, Pendarvis discusses his aim with the book, as well as Sugar Ninjas, the all-female sequential art anthology series aimed at drawing a spotlight on female creators. My thanks to Pendarvis for his time, and Tom Feister for putting me in contact with Pendarvis. His Kickstarter site gives more background on Pendarvis, including  that he “created and taught the first comic book illustration classes at the Savannah College of Art & Design, going on to co-found their comics-based BFA and MFA degree programs (along with writer Mark Kneece and artist Bo Hampton).” If you are interested in helping Pendarvis with his Kickstarter effort, please act now–as there are less than 20 days left to meet the $15,000 goal.

Tim O’Shea: How soon after leaving SCAD did you realize you wanted to develop Sugar Ninjas?

Bob Pendarvis:  Sugar Ninjas was originally a project I came up with to showcase the amazing variety of female artists in my classes. In the summer of 2009, as my official association with SCAD was coming to an end (on mutually acceptable terms), I decided to expand the concept of the Sugar Ninjas to include not only SCAD students, but also female artists and storytellers from around the world. All material in the book is copyrighted exclusively to the creators and the books are printed at lulu.com, each one priced at printing costs only—I don’t make a penny from any copy sold (although I encourage the ninjas to add sketches and charge a few dollars more). Volumes 1 and 2 are available right now, and a revised edition of Volume 1 will be back in early 2012.

O’Shea: Care to discuss some of the talent working on Sugar Ninjas?

Pendarvis:  Some of the ninjas are comics professionals, like inker Rebecca Buchman (Green Lantern) and penciler/inker Heidi Arnhold (Legends of the Dark Crystal). Popular web comic creators include Jennie Breeden (The Devil’s Panties), Laurel Shelley-Reuss (Olive Peril), Becky Dreistadt (Tiny Kitten Teeth), and Elena Barbarich (Sister Claire). Former Tokyopop manga artist/writers Christy Lijewski (Re:Play), Erica Leigh Currey (Sea Princess Azuri), and Mara Aum (Silky Pink) are all Sugar Ninjas. Gally Articola, my assistant and co-editor, is a colorist/refurbisher working on the Official Marvel Handbooks. Kat Shea is a costume designer/illustrator/voice actress for the Archer TV show. As you can imagine, it’s a pretty diverse group, especially as most of the girls are still relative newcomers just starting out.

O’Shea: Why did you decide to break up each volume of Sugar Ninjas into two separate Sweet and Spicy books?

Pendarvis:  Over the past two years, the Sugar Ninjas three volumes have featured contributions from close to 200 hundred girls who were all given total freedom to write and draw whatever sort of material they deemed fit, regardless of whether it was mainstream-oriented, experimentally alternative, manga-influenced, unapologetically feminine, or anything in-between. Right from the start, some of the girls have preferred sticking to relatively family-friendly material, while others love producing edgier pieces, possibly with partial nudity, naughty language, controversial subject matter, and a wee bit of ultra-violence. I realized the best way to accommodate everyone would be to have both a Sweet book and a Spicy book. Of course, a number of ninjas have sent in material for both books every time.

O’Shea: How important is gender diversity to the success of sequential art?

Pendarvis:  “You draw like a girl!” shouldn’t be considered an insult, but to a depressingly large number of comic book editors and professionals, it most certainly is. It’s tantamount to saying their work has little-to-no commercial appeal. I rejected that attitude all those years I taught at SCAD and I reject it now. The truth is that generations of comic book creators and fans have become accustomed to accepting that there are rules for drawing successful mainstream comics, and an equal number of rules regarding publishing and marketing comics. But the reality is that the number of people still buying comics is embarrassingly lower than it should be, making it way past time for publishers to stop sticking to misguided, outdated ideas of marketing almost exclusively to young males.

For the first dozen years or so, SCAD’s Sequential Art program had no female professors, which I always felt bad about. In the early years, we all considered ourselves a great big family. Sort of a “comic book fans vs. the world” situation, as it took a long time for our new major to be accepted by the world at large, including the academic world. And even though I worked hard to make sure I had a female-friendly classroom, I knew full well that some of those pioneering girls felt overlooked and underappreciated, solely because their styles and interests didn’t match the expectations of many of their male peers (a generalization, of course). Too many of these girls succumbed to the temptation to change their work in ways that pleased their critics, but failed to address actual structural issues inherent in their comics storytelling.

O’Shea: How did you decide you wanted to use your Kickstarter project to embark upon a graphic novel “…meant to provide inspiration for the next generation of young sequential artists and storytellers…the first in a series of  books aimed especially at young girls, but hopefully entertaining for readers of all ages, girls or boys.”?

Pendarvis: Before I started teaching at SCAD, I taught k-5 art classes for three years. I saw firsthand that too many young girls AND boys were giving up on learning how to draw before they’d really given themselves a fair chance, partly because kids are told early on that artists are just “born talented.” Some of the best art in those grade school classes was produced by kids who just refused to accept their supposed limitations, letting their imaginations fly free, regardless of the “accuracy” of their drawings.

As much as I love Will Eisner’s Comics and Sequential Art and Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics, both of those books can be a little daunting to young readers. A Girl Called Ana Teaches Kittens How To Draw is designed to be accessible and easily understood by children, while hopefully providing enough entertainment to keep the attention of older readers, too.

Not a how-to textbook, ANA is an actual story about a girl who teaches drawing to kittens, and many of the lessons included are to be found between the lines. The first book ends with the kittens realizing that drawing is only part of what it takes to create their own comics. The next book in the series centers on the principles of two-dimensional design, and how they’re used in tandem with drawing to communicate effectively. The third book has Ana dealing directly with the basics of visual storytelling. All three books work together to show that learning how to create comics isn’t that far removed from learning how to read and write, period. On top of all that, I throw in a superhero or two, spooky ghosts, monsters, robots, and more.

O’Shea: You are a teacher clearly beloved by your former students, were you hesitant at all to ask for their help in donating art for the project? Looking at the list of folks who donated, does it leave you speechless to realize the scale of success your collective group of students has achieved?

Pendarvis:  Well, as grateful as I am for all the love and support I receive from so many of my former students, I’m not so conceited as to think I’m universally “beloved.” In fact, I can easily think of quite a few students who never seemed all that impressed with me, ha ha. But I’m very, very happy that so many of my former students HAVE become successful, working for comics companies like Marvel, DC, Dark Horse, Oni Press, and IDW; gaming companies like Bioware and Konami; and cartoon studios producing animated hits like Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Archer, and Kung Fu Panda. But to be honest, they had plenty of other professors, too, including amazing guys like former Disney Imagineer Paul Hudson and comics writer Mark Kneece, both of whom are still at SCAD and I can’t recommend their classes highly enough). For that matter, there are also a large number of successful SCAD students who never took my classes at all, so the only thanks they might owe me would be for having created the program in the first place.

Since my departure from SCAD, I’ve received hundreds of emails and messages from former students, pledging their support and promising to let people know what my classes meant to them. For awhile, I thought about doing a straightforward textbook which would incorporate interviews and artwork from a wide group of alumni working in comics, animation and video gaming. Ross Campbell, Andrew Robinson, Christy Lijewski, Heidi Arnhold, Dean Trippe, Ron Chan, and Tom Feister were among the first to sign on.  I ultimately decided to do the ANA books first, primarily because I wanted to take advantage of my sudden abundance of free time, but also because I thought it would be a good idea to let people see I have plenty to say all on my own.

O’Shea: Besides the Sugar Ninjas and your ANA kickstarter project, is there anything else you’d like to mention?

Pendarvis:  Over the past two years, while appearing at conventions like Atlanta’s AWA, MOMOCON, and DRAGON CON, I’ve had the chance to meet hundreds of people who ask me where or when I’ll be teaching again. Frankly, I spent so much time all those years at SCAD promoting my students and helping them find jobs that I never really prepared for my own life post-SCAD. I’d be very happy to return to a classroom setting, especially at a school wanting to develop their own sequential art or comics-based courses of study. Other than that, I’d love to develop ANA into an animated series, possibly with my friend and former student Sam Ellis (the original head illustrator for the FX show, Archer). If not that, I still have my dream of forming a rock band and solving mysteries, hopefully involving pirate ghosts.

The Ray 1

Sometimes when you interview a creator, you get the distinct impression that person would rather be promoting a new film or a new novel, anything but a comic book. Other times you are fortunate enough to talk to a creator like artist Jamal Igle who relishes his craft, loves comic books and is almost as much a booster of his fellow creators as the typical comic book fan. This Wednesday (December 14) marks the release of The Ray 1, the first installment of the four-issue DC miniseries by Igle with the writing team of Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray. My thanks to Igle for the email interview. Once you’ve enjoyed this interview, be sure to check out CBR’s late November interview with Palmiotti and Gray, as well as the preview that CBR offered of issue 1.

Tim O’Shea: When the initial 52 DC Books were announced there was a great deal of displeasure voiced about the fact you were not on the list of creators. Two-fold question: How gratifying was it to see your fans support you so vocally on this front. Secondly, without going into details, were you offered a New 52 assignment and passed on it (please feel free to skip the first part and only answer the first part, if you prefer not to delve into it)

Jamal Igle: It was very flattering and humbling at the same time. It was a little difficult for me to respond to all of the inquiries, because I didn’t know, frankly, how to respond.  I was still working on Superman at the time, so I hadn’t been assigned anything. It was a really weird, with all of the assignments being announced, not being able to say anything. The offer for The Ray came just as I was finishing up Superman # 713, prepping #714 and getting ready for San Diego.

O’Shea: Does this mark the first time you have collaborated with the writing team of Palmiotti and Gray? What sold you on joining this miniseries and/or these creators in particular?

Igle: It is, which is really funny because I’ve known Jimmy for something like 14 years. In fact Jimmy and I have worked together as an art time a few times, but never with him as a writer. However, the opportunity of working with Jimmy and Justin was too good to pass up. I’ve read pretty much everything they’ve done from Powergirl, Jonah Hex, Freedom Fighters, The Twilight Experiment, so I knew what they were going to bring to the table. When I got the script, it was so tailor made that I knew I was going to have a blast doing it.

O’Shea: Are there certain aspects of Palmiotti and Gray’s writing that you find serve to compliment your approach to storytelling?

Igle: It’s a very open collaboration. The script is very straightforward, I think that comes from having an experienced artist as part of the writing team. They understand the limitations of the comic book page and what can be done within the page. There’s a clear sense of fun to their stories, particularly with this series. However there’s also such a breakneck pace to the story as well, and so many things thrown in, monsters, aliens, etc. All the things I love to design and rarely get a chance to do.

O’Shea: In a recent CBR interview, Palmiotti praised the dynamic nature of your work on this miniseries. Seeing the first issue preview, I was struck by the kineticism of the Ray’s powers even when he first gains them. How much experimenting with the layout did you do before you realized “hey he should bounce off a car, then off the belly of a plane and then back down to earth” (a great bit BTW)?

Igle: Well, how the actual layout came together just popped into my head as soon as I read the script. The thing about Lucien’s power set, is that in order to fly, he has to ricochet off reflective surfaces. As he’s doing it, he’s making hundreds of calculations in seconds. He can’t stop in mid-air like most fliers can and because he can move at the speed of light, he’s able to cover miles at a time then recalculate where he needs to go. So visually in some panels, it looks fairly random, but it creates such a unique visual effect, one that I’ve rarely seen done in comics.

O’Shea: What do you enjoy more on a project like this: designing the costume and the characters’ powers or building the look of the supporting cast?

Igle: Actually the costume was the last thing I designed. It was more important that we ground Lucien’s world and make it as “real” as possible. Every location is a real location, I went out of my way to get as much reference for San Diego as I could. Everything from the families houses, to the looks of Lucien’s parents, Darius, his girlfriend Chanti. I really went out of my way to design these characters as I saw them in my head as well as maintain the vision Jimmy and Justin had of each character. So all of the action scenes were drawn last, and then once those were done, we designed The Ray costume and went into the high octane stuff.

O’Shea: Can you talk about the benefits of your art being inked by Rich Perrota and colored by Guy Major?

Igle: Well, I’ve worked with Guy before so I had no issues with the coloring. What’s interesting is Rich Perotta. Rich and I worked together on Iron Fist and Wolverine: The Return of Kun Lun for Marvel 11 years ago. We were friends for a long time and lost touch with each other. Then a few years ago I ran into Rich at Heroescon. He had dropped out of comics for a few years and was just getting back into the business and had been doing really well. He was good then but his work has really gotten sharp. He’s an incredibly talented inker.

O’Shea: If response was strong enough to the miniseries, would you be game for an ongoing Ray series?

Igle: Of course I would. It’s a great premise and the characters are so rich. I could see myself having a nice run on The Ray, if it came to fruition.

O’Shea: I admire how much of a fan of comics you are, even after all these years in the industry, a quality that cannot be said about all industry veterans. With that in mind, I was curious which of the new DC 52 you are really enjoying these days (but maybe you think might be getting overlooked in the deluge of new titles)?

Igle: Well there are the obvious one’s Like Action Comics, Batman, Batwoman, Green Lantern and All Star Western (Moritat is kicking ass on that book). I’m also really digging OMAC and I didn’t think I would. I really like Hawk and Dove, Green Lantern Corps, Batwing is good, a very strong character piece. [Peter] Tomasi and [Patrick] Gleason on Batman and Robin was a no brainer for me. The Huntress miniseries is really good, between [Paul] Levitz, Marcus To and John Dell, you have a really good looking, well-written book . The surprises for me were Frankenstein and Swamp Thing. I was never a Swamp Thing fan but Scott Snyder and Yanick Paquette are so good on it, and Jeff Lemire is so talented.

O’Shea: Is there anything about The Ray you would like to discuss that I neglected to ask you about? On the flipside, after answering all my queries, are there any questions you’d like to ask Robot 6 readers or a message you’d like to give to them?

Igle: It’s difficult for me to talk about the series without wanting to spoil things, so I hope people pick up the first issue and give it a try. It really has been a labor of love for me, putting the art for this book together. If you dig it, please contact me via Facebook, Twitter and Google+ (I’m easy to find) and let me know.

Trip City

As long as I have been covering the comics industry,  it seems like I have always found reasons to support the work of Dean Haspiel and/or his many talented associates. So when Trip City, a Brooklyn-filtered literary arts salon, launched at the start of last month it struck me as a good time to reach out to the founders for an email chat. While Trip City has four key members (Haspiel, Seth Kushner, Chris Miskiewicz and Jeffrey Burandt) the bulk of the discussion involved Kushner and Miskiewicz, with a brief check-in by Haspiel (discussing the start of a new Billy Dogma story, The Last Romantic Antihero [TLRA]). Haspiel also gave me a head’s up on a December 8 TLRA live reading at BookCourt at 7 PM (163 Court St  Brooklyn, New York 11201/718-875-3677).

Tim O’Shea: When did TRIP CITY first get conceived–and how did the two of you come to be involved? How early in the planning was it determined that a podcast would be important to the venture?

Chris Miskiewicz: Dean was leaving Deep6 and starting a new studio. Seth Kushner and I were the first people he asked along. Although my film schedule is always in flux and I wasn’t sure how often I’d actually be there, the idea of sitting around others and not being by myself writing appealed to me. So we formed HANG DAI Studios.

If you put three creative people in a room together stuff happens. What happened was TRIP CITY. We spoke about the concept for about five months. Who would be a part of it, what we’d do, how we’d do it. We didn’t want to revamp ACT-I-VATE but we did want comics, along with prose, fiction, a web-series, and a podcast. What we did was create a multimedia site that catered to our individual interests blending them together into a whole.

Seth Kushner: I’d been posting my content in various places.  On GRAPHIC NYC (NYCGraphicNovelists.com) I was posting my photographic portraits of comics creators, along with Chris Irving’s interview-based essays.  I also wrote personal and pop-culture essays there.  I was posting my photos and behind-the-scenes material from my shoots on my personal blog, SethKushner.blogspot.com.  And, my series, CulturePOP Photocomix was appearing on ActivateComix.com.  I wondered if I was spreading myself too thin over too many venues.  TRIP CITY was created and designed to be the venue for a group of us who all felt we needed ONE place to post our unique content and sell our wares.

O’Shea: You really were ambitious with the bookings for the first two podcasts (Michael Moore and Henry Rollins). How hard was it to arrange for these two, and will the goal always be to go for “big name” mainstream interview subjects?

Kushner: One of my favorite quotes is by Woody Allen—“80% of success is showing up.”  I couldn’t agree more, but I would add that in addition to showing up, also be polite and persistent, know some of the right people, and hopefully have at least a little bit of cred.

BookCourt December 8 Event

We’re very fortunate to have our studio, HANG DAI located above BookCourt, Brooklyn’s premiere independent bookstore.  They get big names to do appearances at the store, so we’ve teamed up with them to “share” some of their visiting guests.

With the BookCourt’s help, we basically took shots in the dark at Moore’s and Rollins’s publicists before the site had even launched.  I wrote polite query emails, in which I described the site, dropped some names of publications where my work has appeared (NY Times Magazine, Time, L’Uomo Vogue, my book, The Brooklynites) and mentioned that Emmy winner Dean Haspiel and Eisner winner Nick Abadzis were involved in the site.  To our delight, both agreed to the interview and photoshoot.  Now, we have a nice looking site and Michael Moore and Henry Rollins to use as leverage for future guests.

One of the interesting aspects of the podcast is how we take a sort of “artist-to-artist” approach to the interviews.  While Chris “hosts” and produces the podcast, we try to match-up each guest with an appropriate interviewer.  For example, our buddy Dan Goldman, who’s done such politically charged graphic novels as Shooting War and 08 was matched up with Michael Moore.  Fellow TC contributor Amy Finkel, a filmmaker and punk music aficionado, was the right interviewer for Henry Rollins. We’ve got Dean and artist Jen Ferguson interviewing cartoonist Ben Katchor on the current episode. Upcoming, artist Krista Dragomer talks to artist/actress/filmmaker/author Miranda July for the next one, and writer/musician Jeffrey Burandt interviewing author Jonathan Lethem on the one after.

So, the bar is set high, but we plan to continue to roll out “name” guests, and more importantly, guests whose work we admire and who inspire us.

O’Shea: Do you hope to have some recurring segments on the podcast as the project evolves?

Miskiewicz: We’re looking at it as showcasing our featured guest with a TC-Podcast show running before it that talks about what’s going on with our contributors which includes some comedy skits like “Ronnie’s Story” “How to in 2” and a variety of real and made up news stories coming down the line. We also close with a featured song.

O’Shea: How do the two of you divvy up the production responsibilities for the podcast?

Miskiewicz: Seth & Dean have been getting our guests. A conversation goes out about who in our group will conduct the interview. We have a group meeting about the overall schedule. And then I build the podcast, picking the order, which skits, and which jokes.

O’Shea: Are there certain podcasts that the two of you listen to on a regular basis and that achieve the kind of vibe/content you hope to offer for TRIP CITY (to give interested listeners context)?

Kushner: I listen regularly to Marc Maron’s WTF podcast and also to John Siuntres’ Word Balloon.  What they have in common, is they feature smart, honest, in-depth discussions about process with folks I find fascinating–Marc with comedians, and John with comic book creators.  Dean and I are both fans of that type of format and Chris really enjoys silly, ironic humor, so he creates segments to go in-between the smart stuff.

O’Shea:Seth, how gratifying is it to have a forum where you “have a venue to post the type of material I most wanted to work on, no matter how esoteric or personal“. How hard was it to write about your late father?

Kushner: The piece, Patrick Stewart And My Father was the first of a series of “personal/pop-culture” essays I’ve written.  I followed it with How Mark Hamill Changed My Life and I Hated Star Trek.  The concept is to show how popular culture, the things we all love, informs our life and how some of the periods of our lives can be tied into these things.

It wasn’t that difficult to write about my late father.  It’s been a lot of years, and I see the piece as a tribute to him, and to some extent, to Partick Stewart.

O’Shea: Chris, in addition to your role in the podcast, what kind of content to you intend to develop for TRIP CITY?

Miskiewicz: In December I’ll be posting a 24-page children’s story entitled Astor Place as well as the second part of Adrift with Kate McElroy.

I’ll be publishing the first chapter of my novel Allergy Season in parts to run as a weekly until it’s completion, as well as several short stories.

However the bulk of my presence within Trip City comes into play when we launch our webseries station, Trip City Television in late February/March.

I’m currently in production on two original web-shows for the station. But we’ll also have short films and skits from outside contributors. It’s going to be a lot of fun.

O’Shea: What else is on the TRIP CITY horizon?

Kushner: There’s lots brewing at TRIP CITY.  I’ve been continuing my series CulturePOP Photocomix on TRIP CITY.  Author and creator of HBO’s Bored To Death Jonathan Ames was the first one, followed by comedian and WTF podcaster Marc Maron.  Upcoming I have Moby and James Haspiel, Dean’s dad and friend and biographer of Marilyn Monroe.

I will also be writing my own semi-autobio comix series called, SCHMUCK.  The first chapter, illustrated by Kevin Colden, appeared on ActivateComix.com two years ago.  Moving forward, I’ll have different artists illustrating 8-10 page chapters.  I plan to launch it in February and then post monthly.

The Last Romantic Antihero

The big thing coming on the site proper is Dean’s new Billy Dogma story, The Last Romantic Antihero.  I’ve seen it and it’s a doozy and it will appear only on TRIP CITY.  Look for it on 12/6.

Dean Haspiel: The Last Romantic Antihero is my gauntlet to woo virgin readers to the BILLY DOGMA mythology while welcoming fans to TRIP CITY, where I get to hit the re-set button both creatively and narratively. I’m excited to grow a multimedia home that challenges me to experiment new story ideas among a diverse set of accomplished and highly individualistic creators.

Betrayal of the Planet of the Apes

Several months back when I had the opportunity to interview Gabriel Hardman, there was one aspect of our discussion that I hoped I’d get to explore more, as the chance presented itself. That aspect was the Hardman’s potential collaboration on future projects with his wife, writer Corinna Sara Bechko. So, lo and behold, once the first issue of Bechko and Hardman’s Betrayal of the Planet of the Apes (BOOM! Studios) hit the stands, I convinced the creative team of Bechko and Hardman to do an email interview. In addition to the five-page preview of issue 2 that BOOM! Studios provided to CBR, it also was kind enough to give Robot 6 previews of pages 6 and 7 from the upcoming issue (which is coming out this Wednesday, December 7). To learn more about the creators’ approach on this project, please be sure to also read CBR’s August interview with them.

Tim O’Shea: Recently Corinna, you wrote: “Spending the last several months immersed in Apes has been a bit of a dream come true for both Gabriel and me.” What is it about full Ape immersion (so to speak) that’s so enjoyable for both of you?

Corinna Sara Bechko: I’ve always been drawn to post-apocalyptic fiction, and this is no exception. We’re both big fans and feel so lucky to contribute a little corner to the Apes universe. Plus, the folks at BOOM! and FOX have been an absolute joy to work with.

Gabriel Hardman: And it’s just fun to spend time inventing an original story that still fits neatly into an established world that we have a lot of affection for. I’ve always been frustrated with licensed books that can’t capture the feel of the original material. Immersing yourself in that world is necessary to make it authentic both in the writing and the art. Obviously when writing we’re trying hard not to directly contradict the established Apes continuity. When drawing the book, I think about it like I’m directing and production designing a lost Apes sequel. I’m not going to draw a prop that is out of place on that set.

O’Shea: How do you divvy up writing responsibilities on a project like this?

Bechko: We usually hash out a general outline, then break it down into individual scenes, pages, and panels together as I take detailed notes. After that I put those notes into script form, and that becomes the first draft.

Preview of page 6

Hardman: Then we revise that draft together. It’s actually a fairly conventional process. We write full scripts and I rarely deviate from the way we initially break down the panels. That’s because I’m picturing how to tell the story visually from the earliest stages of the writing process. I don’t do thumbnail sketches or anything. It’s just as straightforward for me to think through the panel breakdowns and just put those into the script.

O’Shea: What do you admire about each other’s storytelling abilities?

Bechko: No doubt about it, Gabriel is a master storyteller. The hardest thing about constructing a narrative is knowing when to give the audience information and when to hold back and let them have the satisfaction of figuring things out. Gabriel instinctually knows when to cut and what tiny bits of information, maybe just a look or a gesture, will do the work of whole pages of exposition. He’s also really good at keeping even the wildest story elements grounded and believable and won’t rest until every single character seems like an actual fully realized person.

Hardman: Corinna is great at bringing nuance to any given idea we’re working on. She can always bring a fresh point of view to an scene or character so that we don’t fall into the trap of repeating familiar stories. She’s also brilliant at researching. Both in searching out a springboard for a story from history, science or the news and making what we’ve already come up with more credible. She’s deeply knowledgeable about scientific subjects. She’s a voracious reader of physics and biology. You can imagine how important that is when writing comics.

O’Shea: Corinna do you think the five years you spent working at the L.A. Zoo (with chimpanzees and orangutans) has an impact on your writing of this project at all?

Bechko: Definitely. When I was at the zoo I worked in the Research Division. Our most important job was designing and implementing behavioral studies. Most of these had to do with exhibit design, looking at how the apes actually used the space as opposed to how humans thought the apes should use the space. This led to some to some innovative enrichments of their habitats and also gave me an intuitive knowledge of how apes approach a problem. And since most primate problems are social in nature, it really taught me a lot about how they think. There’s a truism you’ll hear from ape keepers: give a chimpanzee a puzzle and he’ll work at it, trying different things, until he unlocks it. Give an orangutan the same puzzle and he’ll sit and look at it. Then he’ll get up, try one thing, and solve it. Different approaches that seem to define their approach to life. Both gorillas and humans fall somewhere in between.

Another aspect of my job was looking at how zoo visitors interfaced with the chimpanzees and orangutans. Were they curious? Disgusted? I think a lot of what I learned about how humans tend to look at apes made it into Betrayal through the funhouse mirror of how the apes treat the human Tern and the rest of his species.

O’Shea: How was it decided that Jordie Bellaire was the ideal colorist for this project?

Preview of page 7

Hardman: I saw Jordie’s work online and sought her out at the last Heroes Con even before we were locked to do Betrayal. It was a huge priority for me that if I was going to draw this, it look as good as my Marvel work or better. Luckily, she was available and has done an amazing job of the book. I’ve been very lucky to get the colorists I’ve worked with.

Bechko: Jordie’s colors are just wonderful. Looking at her work, there was no doubt she’d be perfect for the book.

O’Shea: After the miniseries wraps, would you both be open to working in the Apes universe some more?

Bechko: Absolutely!

Hardman: We’d love to. We’d also love to write other freelance projects together.

O’Shea: Another question prompted by your blog, Corinna–can you discuss your affinity for time travel?

Bechko: There is literally no subject I’d rather discuss. Well, besides apes! The nature of time fascinates me. Why does time exist? Is it an emergent property of the universe? Does all time, past, future, and present, actually exist in some predetermined way based on conditions present during the big bang? These are all real questions that are pertinent to real physicists, but they are also some of the greatest gateway questions you could ask to kick off a fictional story. Just look at the first Apes film: it uses a very practical application of relativity to kick off the story of how the space ship ended up so far in Taylor’s future. Thinking about how time works fires my imagination and causes me to go on book buying sprees. I’ll happily watch or read just about anything dealing with time travel, fact or fiction. Time is one puzzle that I don’t think anyone will solve soon, and that makes it even more fun to think about.

O’Shea: One final Corinna question: When I interviewed Gabriel a few months back, I asked him if he listens to music while he works. So now I pose the question to you?

Bechko: I generally don’t listen to anything while I work because it interferes with the rhythms I’m trying to wrestle out of my head. I do listen to music that evokes the mood of whatever I’m working on before and after I sit down to write though, and I find that listening to really loud live music periodically is great for clearing out the cranial cobwebs.

Scarlet Spider

Say the name “Scarlet Spider” to a longtime Marvel reader and you’re bound to get a range of reactions. But come the new year, Marvel is hoping all the reactions will be positive and numerous when the new Scarlet Spider series launches on January11. As recently confirmed in Marvel’s Point One one-shot, the new Scarlet Spider is none other than Kaine, the Peter Parker clone recently cured during the Spider Island event. Unlike many of Marvel’s series set in New York, Scarlet Spider will enjoy the unique cityscape of Houston, Texas — one of many factors that has me looking forward to reading it. Before the series gets started though, series artist Ryan Stegman stepped away from his drawing table to take part in this Q&A. In addition to this interview, CBR also is offering a preview of the first issue. After reading this (and enjoying the preview), be sure to check out the recent installment of Comic Book Resources’ “Axel-in-Charge,” where Alonso interviewed Stegman.

Tim O’Shea: How did Marvel approach you about joining the Scarlet Spider creative team? Was getting to work with [series writer] Chris Yost a deciding factor in joining the project?

Ryan Stegman: I had been working on an issue of Amazing Spider-Man and I made it clear as I could to editorial that this is the type of stuff I wanted to be doing. I practically begged. And Steve Wacker said that he would love to have me back and but that ASM was booked up artist-wise for the foreseeable future. I couldn’t argue this, because the artists that they have are fantastic. So one day, out of the blue he called me up and told me about this idea and I was sold. No offense to Chris, but that wasn’t a selling point because I think I was hired before him! Chris turned out to be the icing on the cake.

O’Shea: Can you take folks through designing the new costume?

Stegman: I spent a lot of time thinking about it and thinking about it. I really knew that I wanted something very classic, with very few bells and whistles. I wanted it to read instantly and from a distance. I tried some stuff and sent it over to Skottie Young and he told me he hated it. Haha. But he had the same ideas as me for what we were looking for and so he helped me to refine it and really get rid of all the unnecessary crap that I wanted to put on it.

I also thought it was important to get rid of the hoodie because that’s Ben Reilly’s costume. I’ve taken a lot of heat for it, and I understand everyone’s attachment to it. But I want Kaine to be a different character…More edgy and frightening looking.

O’Shea: Are you inking yourself on the book (if not, who is)? You recently tweeted about experimenting with inking with a Cintiq. Are you hoping to eventually work on Cintiq for your pages, or how?

Stegman: No, I am not inking myself. I’ve been working with an inker since I worked on She-Hulks named Mikey Babinski. He’s a friend of mine and we’ve really developed a great working relationship. I have inked myself before, but I don’t have the patience for it! I can only really work in a much scratchier style or I find it to be no fun. So I’m glad to have someone that does that heavy lifting for me.

I do part of my work on the Cintiq. Layouts and I add my perspective digitally, then print that out onto the Marvel board in light blue and draw over it. I don’t foresee a future where I would draw completely digitally. For one thing, I like selling original art! And for another, I just can’t quite get the control that I need to have on it. It’s close, but not quite there yet.

O’Shea: Not every artist goes through Marvel’s Artist’s Training Program (as you recently discussed with Axel). What kind of lessons did you learn from Klaus Janson, for example?

Stegman: I learned so much in those few days! I learned a lot about storytelling and the business in general. But the biggest thing that Klaus imparted on me was to never take storytelling for granted. You need to make active decisions when laying out your pages. I guess before working with Klaus and Howard [Chaykin] I didn’t realize how much one could really get into that aspect and since then I’ve been obsessed. There’s plenty more that I learned, but that’s the most concrete thing.

O’Shea: Scarlet Spider is set in Houston. Creatively, what kind of visual opportunities does playing in a different cityscape provide?

Stegman: I have to study Houston and find out the feel of it. When I draw New York, I have a certain aesthetic that I go for. It’s generally kind of dirty and cramped. But Houston is much more wide open. So I just try to use the right reference and understand the city and hope it gives off the right feel. I am much more in tune with making Houston accurate. New York you can kind of put a bunch of pieces together and it just feels like New York. But with Houston, I’m paying attention to everything, right down to how they paint their crosswalks.

O’Shea: Not suprisingly, you read the Clone Saga in preparation for this new assignment, did it inspire you somewhat with some ideas to work into the present day project?

Stegman: Oh, yes. Chris and I are always firing emails back and forth to each other with ideas that we have. Just the other day I became obsessed with Ben Reilly’s impact webbing and told Chris that I’d love for that to be something that Kaine has. And it might end up being so!

Reading that stuff helps me to really understand Kaine as a character too. I think that now more than ever I realize how much baggage he has. So it really helps put me in the mindset of, “This is not Peter Parker … at all.”

O’Shea: Rather than give everything away, I was wondering if you care to discuss the Scarlet Spider supporting cast in general terms?

Stegman: We will be creating a lot of the supporting cast and villains from scratch. Which could not be more exciting for me. Today I was working on a character and I thought, “Wouldn’t it be cool if he could make fire snakes?” and then I drew it. Because this is his first appearance! Nobody can say no, because nobody knows who the hell he is yet. And stuff like that is SOOOOO liberating artistically.

O’Shea: Looking at some of the pencils that CBR previewed for the project, one asset (among the many) is the unique way you layout the web lines (such as here) and how the Scarlet Spider uses them. I don’t think I’ve seen another artist be so unique with the lines. When and how did you realize that was an aspect you wanted to play with and exploit dynamically?

Stegman: The first time I saw Todd McFarlane draw webbing I knew that I wanted to draw webbing. Haha. It’s so cool. But beyond that, movement and energy are two things that I am very conscious of in my work. And the webbing just provides me with the opportunity to add movement and energy to the art. When done right, it really breathes. Plus, by putting webbing in the foreground you can create a lot of depth and cool compositions. I intend to keep pushing this stuff. I love it.

O’Shea: It’s clear in reading your discussion with Axel that this title has allowed you to challenge yourself creatively, can you talk about the thrill and challenge of that?

Stegman: As I mentioned earlier, the most challenging and rewarding part is that we get to create so much of it. But beyond that, I feel that this book really plays to my strengths and so I am getting to use all of the tools in my toolbox. And at the same time, I’m trying to add new tools. Drawing a spider-character is an interesting challenge in his own right because there are SO MANY poses you can put him in, given his flexibility. So figuring out new and exciting things to do is always fun.

O’Shea: Do you find Twitter to be an easy means to interact with readers?

Stegman: I love Twitter for that. I think back to my 15 year old self and wonder if my head would have exploded if Twitter existed. Because at that age, all I ever wanted to do was hear directly from my favorite creators. But I had to wait until Wizard Magazine came out. Then the internet came along and I would spend all day in the Wizard chat room on AOL and creators would pop in occasionally and it was the greatest.

Now I’m on the other side of that, and getting to talk to readers is the best. I’m a very extroverted person so it’s very unnatural for me to stay at home and work by myself. But Twitter allows me to talk to people and get it out of my system. I’ve even made friends with quite a few readers on there. Now, when I go to conventions, I get approached all the time, “I’m so-and-so from Twitter” and immediately the ice is broken. You know stuff about each other. So conversations get rolling as though we have known each other for a long time.

O’Shea: Were you able to get an Xbox on Black Friday?

Stegman: Haha. YES! I got one online. It should be arriving today, in fact. I honestly have no idea when I’m going to play it though. I have a 9 month old son and a job where I work 7 days a week. But hopefully I can make some time to play the Kinect dance games or something with my wife.

O’Shea: One looking in the rearview question, do you have a favorite scene from your work on Fear Itself: Hulk Vs. Dracula?

Stegman: In issue 2, the spread at the beginning of the issue was a big moment for me. I felt like I really captured the action that I had been going for in my work all along. Like I always wanted massive action scenes, but when I’d finish them they’d never live up to my expectations. But that one totally did. And it was the Hulk smashing monsters. Nothing better than that.

O’Shea: Any questions you’d like to toss out to Robot 6 readers?

Stegman: My question to Robot 6 readers is: Will you buy Scarlet Spider? PLEASE?!!!

Octobriana: Samizdat Edition

When writer Steve Orlando contacted Robot 6 about his 88-page graphic novel, Octobriana: Samizdat Edition (Poseur Ink), I was intrigued for a number for a reasons. First off, Orlando tapped artist Chaz Truog (Grant Morrison’s collaborator on his definitive Animal Man run) for the project. Also, of interest to me, was the Russian history aspect; SAMIZDAT, the underground Soviet movement for spreading censored art and literature and best of all, a character born partially from a pop culture hoax. Once interested, of course, I arranged an email interview and we discussed all of these topics and more.

Tim O’Shea: At the outset, for uninformed readers like myself, can you discuss SAMIZDAT- the underground Soviet movement for spreading censored art and literature?

Steve Orlando: Samizdat (which means “self-making” or “self-made” in Russian) was an underground publishing movement during the harshest times of Soviet repression. It’s best summed up by Vladimir Bukovsky, a doctor and writer that exposed psychological torture against Soviet prisoners- “(…) I myself create it, edit it, censor it, publish it, distribute it, and …get imprisoned for it. (…)” With Samizdat, banned documents were printed in secret and passed hand to hand between readers, under the radar. Because the documents were censored by the government, Samizdat was a dangerous movement, its printers were social and political zealots. But it was also extremely important- works such as Mikhail Bulgakov’s “The Master and Margarita” were among the circulated texts…making the movement responsible for the continued growth and expression of Russian literature. These were dedicated people- sometimes even recreating the texts word for word by hand or by typewriter.

Samizdat symbolizes a time when literature was dangerous and being a publisher was deadly. Its the passion of publishing, renegade creation and circulation, similar to the Zine movement, but with higher life costs. For these people, spreading the work was more important than their safety…and I think that’s a great thing to pay tribute to.

O’Shea: When did you first get interested in Octobriana–and prompted you wanted to write a story using her?

Orlando: Octobriana has fascinated me ever since I returned from my time living in Russia. After being among its culture and people, I discovered Octobriana’s backstory as a 1970s pop culture hoax. Her entire backstory as a protest creation of the made-up group the PPP (people’s progressive pornography), was a moneymaking scheme by Petr Sadecky. He claimed she was the ultimate communist character, created without copyright, so that anyone could use her. Ultimately he was a thief, stealing other people’s art and using it to concoct a story. But what was truly interesting, and what I ended up writing a thesis on, is that Sadecky could not stop or control his creation. Octobriana was out of the box, and functioning exactly as he said she did, despite his hoax. She had become modern pop culture folklore, popping up in art and print in different all over the planet, including a possible David Bowie film project int he 1970s, and a tattoo on Billy Idol’s arm.

Folklorist Vladimir Propp identified that Russian folklore has a standard set of tropes and parts, a morphology similar to a living organism. Writers and storytellers keep the basics, and then alter the dressings and semantics to fit their story and the ideas they want to speak about. No matter what her small minded creator planned, Octobriana ended up becoming just the folklore, with creators saving the basics and using her as a medium for their stories.

After researching her for a year, I had to tell my own story.

O’Shea: How challenging was it to find a publisher who would print the story on newsprint?

Orlando: Finding a publisher in general was challenging, due to the story’s content, especially with its frank depictions of LGBTQ sex. I’d worked with Poseur Ink before, and as a publisher of zines, underground comics, and also underground vinyl music printings, I thought that they would be a perfect thematic match to the story. Because of their minicomic background, selling them on using newsprint was not hard, especially once I told them more about Samizdat. However, finding a newsprint printer was actually surprisingly challenging. Many printers no longer even offer newsprint for book printing, and many others actually tried to convince me to convert to a thicker paper stock. Finally though, I was able to convince a printer in Brooklyn that newsprint was actually important to me as a statement for the book to make, and not a financial compromise. I wanted this to feel like an old-school book that someone could have pressed in their basement.

O’Shea: How important was it to you that the story be in black and white (as opposed to color)?

Orlando: Similar to the newsprint issue, having the book be in black and white was extremely important. There is of course a narrative to the book, but I wanted the entire book, even the media it is presented on, to be a statement about Samizdat and underground publishing. Even distributing the book through smaller sales reps, publishers, and directly, was done to mimic the hand to hand transactions of the Soviet era.

O’Shea: At what stage in developing Octobriana did you realize you wanted Chaz Truog to collaborate with you on it?

Orlando: When Chaz came on the book, the story was already set, but the characters had not been given form. I have loved his work since Animal Man, and know from his interest in Da Vinci that he has a genuine love of art and art history. I wanted the right artist, someone whose work was expressive. Octobriana had to be voluptuous, but also soft and curvy, to stay in line with her early depictions. When I first saw Chaz tackle Octobriana, I couldn’t imagine another artist taking on the story. The small details that he brought to the pages and settings truly grounded the story in the world I’d created. As soon as I saw the cover to the first chapter, with the iconic action pose inverted by gender, I knew that Chaz just got it.

O’Shea: The story is a mixture of intense sexuality and equally intense violence. How hard was it to script such scenes without going overboard on either count?

Orlando: While the PPP were not real, I think that the message of sexual freedom they were supposed to embody is still important today. And so when I decided to write about Octobriana, sexuality was always important to me as a part of the story. As such I decided to connect it to the narrative, and continue to invert expectations. In some scenes, Octobriana’s nudity is hopefully a mediating agent to desensitize the reader to less mainstream sexual images. In addition the sexuality pushes boundaries in a market where ratings systems say it is more damaging for a teenager to see a nude male or female than it is for him or her to see someone decapitated or have their head blown in.

Sex and Death has always laid along a thin line of separation- just look at the fascination with vampire literature, where the two begin to blend together. Because Octobriana is a story about passion, I felt that the sex and death needed to be bold. Yes, Liuba’s story is heartbreaking, but I wanted her to be more than a heartless villain- it gives her pathos, point of view. And she was in fact a real person during the Soviet period. I think the hardest part was imagining what her life was like, locked up, forced to perform these experiments on film. Her rage and restriction is the reason her sexual world so quickly and easily became a world of death. Her plague on Russia makes that literal.

But in general I work to make sure that if there is sexuality or violence, it is pushing the narrative forward, and that there is emotion behind it. The goriest killing, that of Liuba’s lover, is also that carrying the most emotional weight. The most sexually explicit scene, in the beginning of the story, is also the most passionate and pure, before it is spoiled by Liuba.

O’Shea: Which did you have research more for this story: Soviet political history or Soviet folklore?

Orlando: Though I was well versed in both, I did more research on Soviet politics. Sexual legislation was so tight during Octobriana’s time that a breast could not be depicted in the media unless it was to suckle a child. I had known about Liuba thanks to some reading I had done on her for an older story idea, but I did not know the extent to which the government had censored its literature and art. The more I read about Octobriana, Samizdat, and Mikhail Bulgakov, the more I looked for additional information.

O’Shea: Anything you’d like to discuss that I neglected to ask you about?

Orlando: I think Octobriana is important as a tribute to a publishing movement, but beyond it’s intents, it’s a story about one woman looking for who she is, and another wanting everyone to know who she is. Even simpler, its about two women avenging their lovers…two women championing their passion. It’s about action, magic, and sexuality…and I think the reader responses I’ve received have stood by that. Not everyone has said it’s their Octobriana, nor should it be, but it’s been an Octobriana they’ve wanted to meet again. I wanted to create an exciting action work, but didn’t expect to get emails from readers saying that they’ve been waiting for a book to tackle bisexuality like I have, or that’s spoken to their experience like it has.

To create a book that combines old-school comics action, and lets readers know they’re not alone…it’s been a great experience.

Grandpa Won't Wake Up

It’s been just over two years since the last time cartoonist Shannon Wheeler and I have done an interview. Since then, he’s gotten even more popular with his successful New Yorker cartoon submissions; turned his New Yorker rejections into the Eisner Award winning collection (from BOOM! Studios), I Thought You Would Be Funnier; collaborated with Simon Max Hill on a Little Golden Book parody, Grandpa Won’t Wake Up (BOOM! Studios); as well as teaming with Steve Duin (The Oregonian columnist) on Oil and Water (from Fantagraphics, set for release this month). This new interview focuses on the experience of winning a second Eisner (to go with his 1995 Best New Series win for Too Much Coffee Man), his various current collaborations, comedic boundaries and the impact of stress in his creative process. Be sure to peruse Fantagraphics 19-page preview of Oil and Water after enjoying the interview.

Tim O’Shea: Not many folks can say they’ve won an Eisner, but this year’s was actually your second Eisner win. How gratifying was it to get such validation again? Also, how amused were you that you won an award for a collection of work rejected by the New Yorker?

Shannon Wheeler: It was more moving than validating. I didn’t think I would win this time around. I swore I wouldn’t be one of those people who cry on stage at a stupid award ceremony. But once I got up and took the award in my hand I honestly choked up. It meant more to me than I thought.

O’Shea: You were just at APE, where Grandpa Won’t Wake Up premiered. Were you pleased with how it was received at APE?

Wheeler: It’s such a catchy title (thanks to the author, Simon) that it’s hard not to pick it up. The thing sold like hot cakes. I was very pleased.

O’Shea: What attracted you to working with Simon Max Hill?

Wheeler: I told him that there was no way I had time to work on someone else’s project. I was overloaded with work. Then I read his text… I kept laughing… I had to do it. I’ve always been a fan of Edward Gorey and Shel Silverstein this seemed like an unholy union of those two.

O’Shea: Did you always plan on going with a Golden Book packaging homage with this project, or was this an idea that came to you in the midst of its development?

Wheeler: I think it was in the middle of working on it. There’s nothing more iconic than the Golden Books. I love them. Simon and I had a long time to develop ideas. We’d meet every few months and work on the roughs.

O’Shea: So, do you take pleasure in the fact that the Simon & Schuster site recommends this book to 11 Graders and up? For that matter, is there a target audience for this book per se?

Wheeler: I did the book because it appealed to me. I never thought about the audience. I had no idea Simon & Schuster recommends the book. That’s totally cool.

O’Shea: Comedically, did you hesitate at all in terms of going for dressing Grandpa in Nazi garb (particularly swastika thong)?

Wheeler: When Simon and I talked about it we laughed so hard that there wasn’t a moment of hesitation. The whole idea was to find the limits – walk on them, urinate, dance, start a fire, kill and roast an endangered animal and eat it while sitting on a baby seal.

O’Shea: Do you consider any boundaries in cadaver comedy?

Wheeler: We considered all the boundaries… but we were laughing too hard to notice them as they whipped past us.

O’Shea: Tell me the evolution on the name “C’Thris’Klpotheup” particularly the use of apostrophes in the name (I am partial to apostrophes in names, as you might expect)?

Wheeler: Simon spent hours finding a demon that would fit with the syllable and rhyming structure.

O’Shea: Can you single out a scenario in Grandpa that you found comedically more absurd than the others, or were you able to achieve a consistent level of comedic absurdity on all pages?

Wheeler: One of my favorite bits is with the candle. Putting a candle in a dead grandfather’s ass was offensive but we wanted to make it funnier. First we thought a roman candle would be funnier replete with fireworks on the next page… but given that he’s wearing Nazi underwear, a Chanukah candle was the funniest.

O’Shea: Back when you and I did an email interview in 2009, you said of getting published by The New Yorker: “When they finally bought one, it was relief as much as joy, that my work paid off. Then I got nervous that they’d never buy a second cartoon. Then they bought a second cartoon. A number have run but I’m still nervous every week.” They have bought several more since then–still nervous?

Wheeler: Yep. I’m still totally nervous. I’m waiting to be found out for the sham that I am. They just bought another cartoon of mine last week. I still find it unbelievable that I’m in one of the most respected magazines in the country. Maybe when I go senile I’ll stop appreciating how lucky I am.

Oil and Water

O’Shea: November sees Fantagraphics release Oil and Water, your collaboration with The Oregonian‘s Steve Duin. What can you tell me about that project–and what was it like to work with Duin?

Wheeler: The BP oil spill is a classic story of a multi-national corporation screwing the little guy. I’ll never get tired of working with that theme. I felt this particular story – and the impact it had on the people, environment, economy was an important one.

There were times that I was frustrated working with Steve. We’re both have ridiculous personalities with strong ideas. We butted heads on a few things. The bottom line is that I have enormous respect for his writing. It was an enormous learning experience for me. Steve has a deep and genuine love for comics. He understands story telling. I loved it. I learned a lot from him.

O’Shea: What kind of things did you learn (storytelling wise) from Duin?

Wheeler: Steve understands a scene really well. When all the characters visited the bird cleaning facility there was a large storytelling arc with multiple subplots. I would have been afraid to juggle so many elements. I would have focused on the single note of the horror of the facility. Steve isn’t afraid to trust the reader to understand. I’m a lot less trusting of the reader. Steve showed me how to have more faith in the narrative.

O’Shea: What else is on the horizon for you creatively?

Wheeler: I’m doing another collaborative project… this time it’s the Bible. Top Shelf is publishing it early next year. I’m doing gag cartoons and Mark Russell is rewriting each book down to about 3 paragraphs. It will be funny but it’s not a parody. It’s an accurate retelling of the stories. Hopefully my jokes will be funny and help sell it.

O’Shea: The Bible project with Mark Russell, this is another writer named Mark Russell, not the American political satirist/comedian who plays the piano, right? Not wishing to marginalize either Russell, just trying to make a distinction for readers (and myself)?

Wheeler: Yep. It’s the Mark Russell who does a zine called Penny Dreadful. He’s not well known yet but he’ll make a splash before too long.

I also have a few new Too Much Coffee Man stories to do for Dark Horse Presents. I want them to be good so it’s stressing me out. Long term – I’d love to do another graphic novel.

O’Shea: If you ever stop stressing and being nervous about your work, are you afraid it would not be as good? Would you agree that stress is a creative fuel for you on some level?

Wheeler: On some level… maybe. It sure gets in the way most of the time. I don’t think it’s good for my health either. I would rather be the type of artist who can sit down every day and draw from 9-5. I piddle and stress then draw for 12 hours straight.

Greg Pak's first Bill Mantlo comic

Greg Pak‘s Afterword tribute to Bill Mantlo in the final issue of his Hulk run (The Incredible Hulks 635) genuinely gave me pause (and as I said as much in that week’s WAYR). Then last week when Kevin Melrose made us aware of LifeHealthPro/Bill Coffin‘s devastating profile of Bill Mantlo’s life since 1992, which clearly struck a chord with many Robot 6 readers. Once I saw Pak’s comment in the thread, I realized I wanted to talk to Pak about Mantlo. While I have long respected Pak as a writer, his decision to set up a donations page for Bill Mantlo’s care is the reason why I admire him. My thanks to Pak for the interview and for scanning the cover to the actual copy of his first Bill Mantlo comic (Micronauts 3), which we get to discuss also.

Tim O’Shea: At what point in your run on the Hulk did you realize that you wanted to write the Afterword, partially about Bill Mantlo?

Greg Pak: I’d cited Bill Mantlo as a big influence many times over the years in press and publicity for my various Hulk storylines. So it was a natural for me to focus on him in the afterward to Incredible Hulks #635. And it was a huge pleasure to be able to formally dedicate the run to Mantlo on that final page.

O’Shea: Was an issue of the Micronauts the first Bill Mantlo-written comic you ever read?

Pak: Yep. Micronauts #3. I read and reread that thing approximately six trillion times. Man, you’ve got me pulling it out again now… check out that tattered cover!

It’s just a fantastic issue — with the Micronauts’ crazy dogfight in the streets and skate parks of Daytona contrasted with Steve Coffin’s suburban angst, that creepy old lady requesting Prince Argon’s body back in Homeworld Body Banks, exiled prince Acroyear hacking that traitor’s spaceship IN HALF, nonstop quippage and banter and romantic tension, and the eerie image of the battlecruiser and dead baddies in the shoebox on the final page. LOVE.

O’Shea: You wrote an entire column for Newsarama detailing your respect for Mantlo’s writing and its influence on your Hulk run. But can you elaborate further on what it is about Mantlo’s storytelling that has always appealed to you?

Pak: I love Mantlo’s dedication to emotional story and his total embrace of completely loopy, big ideas. See the “Micronauts” #3 description above. So much crazy fun, and yet Mantlo always has his thumb on his characters’ emotional pulse. We’re thrilled ’cause it’s so insane — and because he’s made us care about the characters.

O’Shea: Did your Marvel editors ever push back when you wanted to work Mantlo homages into your own Hulk run? Speaking of all the homages, which one were you most pleased to have worked into your Hulk run?

Pak: Marvel editor Mark Paniccia, my big partner in crime on my Hulk run, is also a big Micronauts fan. So I think he got a kick out of all the little homages I tossed in. I gave my insectivorid Miek a recurring “kik” in his dialogue — a tip of the hat to the Micronauts’ Bug and his “tik.” I had several characters in “Planet Hulk” check out with big screams of “GLEEEARGH!” — one of Mantlo’s favorite exclamations. But I’m probably most happy with the way we worked flashbacks to Mantlo’s Incredible Hulk #312 into the Skaar/Hulk confrontation in Incredible Hulk #611. It made the whole issue resonate on about three more levels. Thanks again, Mr. Mantlo.

O’Shea: In acknowledging Mantlo’s influence did you initially hope to be able to bring his current plight back into current day discussion, or was that just a happy coincidence?

Pak: Every time I talk about Mantlo I try to mention his condition and give people an indication of how they can help out with his daily care. When someone gives you so much joy, it’s important to give back if you can. Amazing folks like David Yurkovich and Jason Leivian set the stage for this with their hard work on their Mantlo benefits; I’m just happy to have the chance to follow their lead.

O’Shea: For folks who have never read Mantlo’s Hulk issues, where would you recommend that people start?

Pak: If you want to plunge into the action, I’d recommend Incredible Hulk #297-300, which tell the story of a mindless Hulk going on an insane rampage that leads to a massive showdown with a huge number of Marvel heroes in New York City. And then the Crossroads saga, which spans from Incredible Hulk #301-313, during which Doctor Strange exiles the Hulk from Earth in hopes of finding him a dimension in which he can be happy. That run includes the amazing Incredible Hulk #312, which had such a huge influence on my own exploration of Banner’s relationship with his father and mother.

O’Shea: Were you surprised when Mike Mantlo reached out to you with a note, after you wrote of Mantlo’s influence?

Pak: I actually tracked down Mike through Jason and asked if he’d like to send me a note to include with that Newsarama column. Mike has done so much for so many years for his brother that I thought it would make a big difference if folks could hear from him directly how their notes and support have helped.

O’Shea: Are you proud that you have been able to indirectly use your run on the Hulk to partially bring Bill Mantlo’s life into present day focus, and encourage fans to donate to his care?

Pak: You bet. It’s so easy to feel helpless when you read about something as tragic as what happened to Bill Mantlo. But there are always things we can do to help, and I’m very happy to have the chance to help point people in the right direction.

And thank you, Tim, for doing the same by writing this article! Much appreciated.