PT1: Interview with Brandon Graham

Exclusive Interview with Justin Jordan on Upcoming Green Lantern Series

Exclusive Interview with Tom Neely

Exclusive Interview with Adam McGovern on AQUARIA of SAVAGE DRAGON

Please check out my FIRST video interview on my new YouTube channel! Don't forget to subscribe for more interviews! 

Exclusive Interview with Ed Brisson & Lisandro Estherren: The Last Contract

 It is my pleasure to bring you this exclusive interview with Ed Brisson (CLUSTER, 24:UNDERGROUND) and Argentina based designer Lisandro Estherren on their upcoming collaboration THE LAST CONTACT available Jan 13th! Today is the final day for pre-ordering the first issues of this highly anticipated crime series from Boom Studios!

TFQ: Where did the inspiration for this story come from? How did you begin to develop The Last Contract?

ED BRISSON: THE LAST CONTRACT was a weird one for me. Normally, I'll carry story ideas around for months, maybe years, let them gestate and develop. However, THE LAST CONTRACT wasn't like that at all. I was pitching a bunch of ideas to [BOOM! editor] Eric [Harburn] for a follow-up series to CLUSTER and nothing was really sticking. I think we'd burned through about 10 or 15 ideas that I had and none of them was really right—regardless of how long I'd been sitting on them.

Eric asked if I had anything else, and I didn't, but said that I'd always wanted to do a hitman story and Eric asked for more info—the thing was, I didn't have a idea. I just knew that I wanted to do a hitman story. So, I did was anyone else in my position would do: Fake it til you make it.
I sat down and literally made up the story in my email response. I was completely flying by the seat of my pants, spinning out an idea of an 80-year-old retired hitman who finds himself in the crosshairs of someone who wants revenge for something that happened over 20 years earlier. I didn't want this to be like a Liam Neeson-style retired hitman; I wanted to do something where it's a clearly geriatric, forgot-where-he-put-his-glasses-even-though-they're-on-his-face style of older, retired man. Once I nailed that part of it, it's like the flood gates opened and I had what I felt was a real interesting story on my hands.

TFQ: What kind of action can we expect to see in this story? Will it be a fast paced adventure or more focused on interpersonal relationships and introspective character development? 

BRISSON: There's going to be quite a lot of action and dark humour, but much of the story is going to focus on The Man coming face to face with the people who've been impacted by all the lives he snuffed out. Even 20-plus years after his retirement, the rippling effects of his actions are still prevalent, the wounds still raw.

TFQ: How did the two of you come together to collaborate on this book?

Variant by Vanessa R Del Ray

BRISSON: Eric and [assistant editor] Cameron [Chittock] had a bunch of artists that they've been wanting to work with and sent me their portfolios to look at. They probably wanted to strangle me during this process because I tend to be really picky about who I work with and kept passing on artists. I wanted to make sure that the art suited the story. So, while there were plenty of good artists presented, great artists even, none of them felt right.

Then they showed me Lisandro's portfolio.

I instantly knew that he was the right artist for the job. Thankfully, he was available and seemed really into the story.

Once the pages started coming in...man...there's NO ONE else who could have drawn this book. People are going to be blown away by his work. Every time new pages come into my inbox, my jaw hits the ground. Just amazing.

TFQ: Lisandro, could you tell me a little bit about your artistic process? How did you develop the atmosphere for this series? Are there any references you used to develop the settings and character appearances?

LISANDRO ESTHERREN: Yes, there is a primary mood that we set from the start. We are making a gritty crime story, so we needed a strong, heavy, black-and-white look, but also trying to add the subtleness of the greytones that helps to modulate the light values.

About references, part of my job is to follow close to the script, to study some realistic settings, and dig out its nature to make the storytelling more interesting. The character development follows a similar process: close study of the references, sketch a lot, and push the features beyond to find the proper look. I think the readers will enjoy this creative run.

Exclusive Interview with the Creators of Limbo!

Today I have the absolute pleasure of sharing with you an interview with the creators of a new Image Comics mini series! Dan Watters and Caspar Wijngaard have come together to bring us comic book obsessives a series entangled in a world of Mexican imagery and voodoo. In six issues the story trips our heroes through the depths of a city where technology and the divine collide. To make things extra special of course, the whole thing is fraught with mystery. I was lucky enough to ask both creators a few questions and now I'm sharing them with you. Limbo hits the stands this Wednesday, November 11th! Make sure you grab your copy then!

TFQ: Could you tell me what inspired both the story and the art?

DAN: Caspar and I both draw from a wide range of influences, but the more obvious ones in Limbo are probably 80s b-movies, the works of David Lynch and Raymond Chandler, early Vertigo comics… pretty much everything, really! The nature of the book we’re making kind of lets us throw a lot of things into the mix without them feeling (hopefully) too fragmented.

CASPAR: It was important for me to choose a narrative I enjoyed drawing, I never wanted this project to become boring as a creator and as a reader. So we chose genres and scenarios that we both loved and made sure to keep the book as engaging as possible. This comic will most definitely not contain page after page of static talking heads sat conversing in a room, we made sure each page felt unique whilst keeping the flow in check.

TFQ: The use of both Mexican imagery and religious practices fill this story with a very different cultural experience for me as a Canadian. I can really only appreciate this culture from afar. It feels very mysterious. Can you tell me a little about the Mexican themes of this story and how/why you incorporated them?

DAN: There’s certain imagery and mythology prevalent in Limbo that it’s hard to talk about without spoiling the book, but I can say there are elements of Voodoo and different cultural folk mythologies that we’ve drawn on because they take us to these really Jungian archetypal places. Death features heavily in the book and perhaps more specifically, ego death- but of course, not every culture takes a negative view towards these concepts, and that’s part of what we wanted to explore.

CASPAR: I've always been fascinated by Mexican art, it’s so vibrant and alive, even when conveying a subject such as death. I had often incorporated its themes into my previous work, but had never explored it within comics.

TFQ: With the themes in LIMBO heavily based around death, it was a no-brainer for me.
There's this mysterious connection between gods, magic and technology. Can you tell me a little bit about this, without giving away the plot I hope!

DAN: Technology is used by different magic users and entities in Limbo- to them these machines are just new ways of utilizing old traditions. Entertainment technology, be it music players, radio, television, right the way back to the book, have always been ways of altering our consciousness, which inevitably ties into a shamanistic current. William Burroughs did some really bizarre and fascinating experiments with tape recorders that definitely had something of an influence in our approach; especially his work with tape and cut-up. I’m not sure if that makes much sense right now, but hopefully it will when the book’s out!

TFQ: I'm often intrigued about how color pallets are chosen for books. Can you tell me a little bit about how you chose the colors for this issue?

CASPAR: Ha ha, thats a tricky question. There are some colours used in this book that are tied to the narrative and there are also elements that are used to convoy its 80’s/noir settings.

But, mostly it’s down to how I feel the page will work and what will keep the visuals interesting.

Exclusive Interview with Carla Speed McNeil on Finder!!

One of my favorite comic book stories every is continuing in a new serial with Dark Horse Presents. You can imagine how quickly I sought to read Finder after learning of it's return! It was immediate and no sooner had I read it, I found myself online emailing author, illustrator and Finder creator Carla Speed McNeil about the resurfacing. She quickly emailed me back agreeing to answer my questions for you my dear readers! 

The new Finder story entitled CHASE THE LADY will debut in this month's issue of Dark Horse Presents, issue #15 out Wednesday October 21st. 


TFQ: Finder is back but for how long? How many issues of Dark Horse Presents will we see the new Finder story?

Carla: Currently, I have 96 pages of the next FINDER story, CHASE THE LADY, drawn and ready to go. That's a little more than half of the new story, and a year's worth of episodes for DARK HORSE PRESENTS.

TFQ: This first part of the serial focuses on a mysterious religious event. Can you give us any hints about what is going on in this introduction?

Carla: The first episode of CHASE THE LADY depicts a moment of spiritual crisis for a high official of one of Anvard's many faith organizations. From the perspective of the main character of CHASE THE LADY, it's just the reason for a major traffic snarl.

TFQ: Can you tell me a little about where the plot is going and whether we will see some familiar faces? 

Carla: This next book returns to Rachel. CHASE THE LADY is my attempt at an Edith Wharton novel, in that Rachel is now a penniless aristocrat who needs to marry a suitable person-- suitable here meaning one with enough zeroes after the 1 and the 7 in her bank account.

TFQ: Every time a Finder story ends, I fear it may be the last. What makes you continue to resurrect Finder?  

Carla: I'm not in any rush to end FINDER. I set it up so that I could tell nearly any kind of story I wanted to. VOICE and 3RD WORLD and CHASE THE LADY are all part of my attempt to get into the guts and bones of this world, to show the whys and what-happeneds, because this isn't post-apocalyptic fiction, it's post-post-post-post-apocalyptic. What Happened happened so long ago that nobody even thinks about it anymore; they just put everything back together all wrong and now no one remembers the world ever having been any different.

TFQ: Is it difficult to revisit each time or the opposite? What is it like for you personally each time you begin a new story arc?

Carla: It's never hard to get back into FINDER. It's basically a snapshot of the inside of my head, and exists to keep me from getting bored. I'm horrible when I'm bored.

So it may be that I step aside from time to time to tell other stories, work with other people, but right now I have no plan to stop doing stories set in the FINDER scenario. As long as I think I'm still learning and have something new to bring to it, it will still be alive in my mind.

Exclusive Interview with Antony Johnston on Codename Baboushka

I am very pleased to kick off this release day with an exclusive interview on an upcoming release. I've once again had the pleasure of interviewing Antony Johnston who just announced his newest series Codename Baboushka. The series is currently available for pre-order and makes it's debut through Image Comics in October. This espionage adventure is illustrated in vibrant colors by Shari Chankhamma.

Each issue will feature two covers; a regular 'silhouette' cover by Shari Chankhamma and an 'art cover' by an all-star line-up of female artists including Tula Lotay, Annie Wy, Leila del Duca and Canadian Martimes' own Kate Leth.

So, I'll skip my praddling on and get right to the good stuff. The interview:

Cover by Tula Lotay

TFQ: What inspired you to write this story? 

Antony: The original inspiration came when I was watching FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE, one of my favourite Bond movies, and suddenly thought that I’d love to see a version of the story from the point of view of Tatiana Romanova, the Russian spy sent to entrap 007.

That got me thinking about female spies, female action leads, and historical characters like Modesty Blaise, Emma Peel, and Purdey. They were all groundbreaking characters in their time, and it’s pretty shameful that 50 years — half a century! — later, female action characters like them are *still* regarded as unusual and innovative.

There’s also a serious dearth of leading female action characters in comics, outside the superhero universes. It’s only really in the last several years that a few creators, many of whom I’m proud to count amongst my friends, have begun to redress that balance. We’re still nowhere near any kind of equilibrium.

I wanted to create a character who could be that leading female action hero, a fighter and survivor who was in charge of her own destiny. A character that could endure, and find herself in any number of stories and adventures. Someone with an iconic look, an interesting and shady history… and a very bad attitude.

Baboushka was born.

TFQ: Can you tell me a little bit about this mysterious central character, the Contessa and did you base her on anyone in particular?

Antony: Contessa Annika Malikova is the last scion of the House of Malikov, an old noble Russian line. They fled Russia after the October Revolution to live in Switzerland, intending to return when the Bolsheviks collapsed.

Of course, the Bolsheviks didn’t collapse, and the Malikovs soon frittered all their money away. By the time Annika was born, they were penniless.

When the rest of her family died in mysterious circumstances, Annika — then just a teenage girl — took matters into her own hands. She returned to Moscow, determined to re-make her fortune by any means necessary. She doesn’t talk about what happened, exactly, but it didn’t take long for her to turn to a life of crime.

She adopted the nickname BABOUSHKA, became a gang boss in the Russian mafiya, and quickly built a criminal empire.

(Exactly why she took the term for “grandmother” as her nickname is a whole other story, by the way.)

Baboushka was soon a renowned crime lord, a ruthless killer feared throughout Moscow… until the other mafiya bosses joined forces against her, and forced her to flee the country with her second-in-command, Gyorgy Gyorgyov.

They wound up in the USA under their civilian names, claiming political asylum. That was three years ago, and they’ve been keeping their heads down, laying low the whole time. Until now…

Annika isn’t based on anyone in particular, but is definitely inspired by those historical characters I mentioned before, and more modern female action characters like Black Widow and Misty Knight.

TFQ: For this story you have teamed up with Thai artist Shari Chankhamma who many of also remember from your other Image series The Fuse. What made you decide to do another collaboration with Chankhamma?

Antony: Well, most people only know Shari as an amazing colourist, from her work on THE FUSE and SHELTERED. But she’s also an awesome artist, with graphic novels and web strips to her name.

Shari’s work is modern and energetic, a mixture of manga influences and American storytelling that comes from her unusual background; she’s Thai, but she reads, loves, and works in the US market.

She has a great eye for character, draws some downright sexy women *and* men, plus — because she’s such a great colourist — readers are getting a full-on Shari art experience, from layouts through to final colours. It looks fantastic.

TFQ: Is Baboushka intended to be an long-run, on-going series like Wasteland for instance?

Antony: “The Conclave of Death” is Baboushka's first ‘mission’, running for five issues.

Her second mission, “Ghost Station Zero”, will follow some time in 2016, though right now we’re not setting a final date. We’ll see how everyone’s schedule looks.

Long-term, we want to release at least one new mission each year. The stories will build on each other, telling Baboushka's continuing adventures, but they'll stand alone well enough that people can pick up any mission and read it, without needing to know the others.

It'll be like getting a new spy movie every year ;)

TFQ: Something that always shocks me with comic book writers, is how many plots and characters you're able to write simultaneously. It must take a very organized mind to write so many concurrently running comics. How do you keep it all straight?

Antony: It’s all about compartmentalizing, really. Even before I started writing professionally, I was always doing several things at once; running multiple role-playing campaigns, playing in bands, writing fiction, building my design career… I think the urge comes naturally.

Of course, that doesn’t mean that *doing* all that stuff comes naturally, at all, and I do have to be pretty organized with my time and schedule — especially now you can add “making podcasts” to that list!

But the solution, for me, is quite lo-fi and simple. I make a lot of notes, I write *everything* down so I won’t forget it, and my calendar kind of rules my life. But that’s what enables me to do a bunch of different stuff, so I’m fine with it.

TFQ: The main characters are from Russia. I get the impression you know a lot about Russia and it's people. Have you lived there or did you simply conduct a lot of research?

Antony: I’ve never had the chance to visit Russia, let alone live there, though I do hope to. Mainly it’s a combination of research and social folklore; Russia fascinates me in many ways — as a political entity, as a culture, as a military power, and of course as our Great Enemy during the Cold War.

That said, I’m not trying to write social analysis or a political treatise, here. I use Russia, both in CODENAME BABOUSHKA and THE FUSE, as background and flavour to inform characters and events around them. Russia is still a pretty exotic and misunderstood place to many people in the west, and that’s very useful. After all, I’m writing adventure fiction, not a history book…!

PREORDER YOUR COPY OF CODENAME BABOUSHKA NOW WITH THESE DIAMOND CODES : Cover A (Chankhamma) AUG150479, Cover B (Lotay) AUG150480

Exclusive Interview with Juan Ferreyra on Colder: Toss the Bones!

I really enjoy the Colder series and I got really excited when I learned there would be a third story arc! Juan Ferreyra has been haunting the pages of the comic book, bringing nightmare to substance in these chilling tales. He's created unique, creepy ghouls that keep me coming back for more. Whether it be finger monsters or straight-up gore, I know I'm never going to be disappointed by a single issue. I got to ask Juan a few questions about the upcoming story arc, slated to debut this fall (September to be precise!).

TFQ: In the last story arc, Colder: Bad Seed the reader followed Declan into an unseen world. Can you give me any hints on where the next chapter of Colder will take us?

Juan: Colder will take us deeper into the Hungry world, they seem to return to that damn place all the time, This time Declan will try to find a way to stop the traveling , even if means to let himself die.

TFQ: How many issues should we expect from the third installment?

Juan: Is another 5 issues and the last issues, the story finished in this third volume. One of the things I love about Colder are the crazy ghouls! 

TFQ: What sort of ghouls are we going to be seeing this time around!

Juan: Nimble Jack in the first issue has a new horrific friend that likes to travel with him around. And probably a some new monsters that I haven’t designed yet! 

TFQ: Can you tell me a bit about what inspires the physical appearance of the devilish creatures and demons of Colder?

Juan: I tried to have normal things, relatable things and mixed them up to come up with weird twisted creatures.. In Colder vol 1, I took arms and use them in different ways, I took eyes and used them as well, in Vol 2 I sued fingers to create creatures, in Vol 3 we’ll see pigeons, fingers, arms, eyes, bones, legs, teeth, dogs, all mixing up!

TFQ: Can I ask you what your upcoming projects are?

Juan: I'm working On Gotham By midnight right now, for DC comics, with Ray Fawkes writing, my first issue #6 came out this past WednesdayI'm also doing cover for New Suicide squad for DC and finishing COLDER:Toss the Bones. After that I still don't know what will I do. I'll be doing some concept art for a couple of movies and a TV series too.

Exclusive Interview with Curt Pires on The Tomorrow's

2015 is shaping up to be a pretty amazing year with more great titles on the way. Darkhorse has announced an exciting title for the summer. A six part mini series written by Curt Pires. This Alberta resident wrote one of my favorite mini's from last year Pop, illustrated by Canadian resident Jason Copland. 

The Tomorrow's is a futuristic story where giant corporations are using data collected via social media (and the like) as a weapon against the public. Not that they don't in real life with target advertising aimed straight at our wallets...Only in this future art has been outlawed and totalitarian political system rules. 

Issue one hits the stands July 8th and is illustrated by Jason Copland. Each issue will feature a different artist. I'm very excited to announce that Curt gave me an interview. Here's what this busy writer has to say about The Tomorrow's. 

TFQ: How did you conceive this future in the story ? 

Curt: I looked at some of the trends of the modern world, the world we live in, and I looked at some of the things that scare me about these trends and then I amplified them and shot them into the future. It's a world that's not so different from our own in a lot of ways.

TFQ: How did the artists get chosen for each issue? 

Curt: I'm a huge fan of Copland's work on Pop! Thanks for the kind words! I'm a big fan of Jason too--he's one of my most trusted collaborators. I just picked artists who I thought were cool, who I wanted to work with, and I put them on the issues in the story that I thought would give them the most chance to shine.

TFQ: In this bleak future, I'm told art is illegal. Can you tell me a bit about why this is? 

Curt: Art has always been a channel of communication, of dissent for the oppressed. It's the way we communicate the things that are hard for us to communicate, or ideas that are "dangerous" to communicate by societal standards. Simply put the government and corporations in this future recognized art as a threat, and they decided to silence it.

TFQ: How does this book compare your past work? How do you feel about the story as a whole?

Curt: It's an evolution of a lot of my past work--POP in particular. It takes some of the themes of POP and applies them to a grander much more ambitious scale. The story spans multiple timelines, points across the multiverse, it's me ripping the chains off and diving into the ideaspace and getting wild.

TFQ: Are there any artists in particular that you are dying to work with? Perhaps in a second volume of The Tomorrow's? (can I be so presumptuous?)

Curt: There's tons of artist's I'm dying to work with. I'm SO excited to be working with all of the artists on the first arc. I genuinely think they're all geniuses.

Not being presumptuous at all! I'm pretty honest about the fact that these first issues are a "first season" and that I want to come back and do more if we can. The way it's currently planned is we'd do six more issues and wrap up the story. That's all dependent on success of course.

Some artists I'd love to work with for the second volume, or just in general: Tom Scioli, Eric Scott Pfeiffer, Vic Malhotra, Tonci Zonjic, Nathan Fox, W Scott Forbes, Tula Lotay, Christian Ward, Matt Taylor, the list goes on and on and on :)

Exclusive Interview with Alex De Campi

I am so excited to bring you this interview. Writer Alex De Campi's career has spanned different types of media but I think us ladies in the comic world particularly look up to her work in the comic industry. In the past she's brought us IDW title Smoke, her Eisner Award nominated manga from Tokyo Pop Kat and Mouse, and the acclaimed European release Messiah Complex. Currently you can see Alex's name on two very exciting new series. Archie vs Predator has made a lasting impression on a generation of Archie readers both new and old, while her exciting collaboration with comic giant Carla Speed McNeil  No Mercy has released simultaneously. Issue one of both series are available in stores now! I wanted to discuss both series with Alex so without further pandering on from me here is the interview!

TFQ: Alex, you've been busy! What is it like to work on two stories so drastically different?

Alex: It's actually lovely to work on very different stories. They work different muscles, as it were -- I don't know how some writers stay in the same genre their whole life. I suppose "my" genre is Thriller, but it's nice to break that up with a slasher/comedy like Archie vs Predator. Some of the creator-owned work can be very tiring/demanding. Not that I don't put my all into work for hire, but No Mercy -- I'm juggling about 10 different plot lines / characters. And the spy book I just finished writing, we're doing a lot of very innovative visual storytelling in it. It all looks easy on the page, but you have to work very hard to make it look easy.

TFQ: Is it hard to write in someone else's imagined world with iconic characters like Archie and the Riverdale crew? What kind of challenges did you face?

Alex: A good writer is a chameleon. We do our research, soak up the characters, and then disappear into them. I read about 4,000 pages of Archie comics in prep for this (Archie kindly sent me a whole pile of giant digests) and so by the time I sat down to write the kids, it was pretty easy. I tend to write the zanier, edgier Archie characters of the late 40s and 1950s, they're my favourites. And I can write Betty and Veronica aaaall day.

TFQ: How did you come up with the ideas behind No Mercy? We're there any real life events that inspired this book?

Alex: I've lived outside the US for a large part of my life, and I did a lot of stupid things overseas as a teenager that probably should have gotten me killed, or at least bitchslapped REALLY hard. So much of writing is taking a feeling or an experience and just tweaking it a little more, pulling at a dangling thread a little harder, and saying "what if?" What if I had gotten what I deserved? What if my luck ran out? And now I'm older, and understand more about the nature of tragedy and its after-effects, so I'm stronger at writing it... the little moments, they're the ones that count.

TFQ: I am a die hard fan of Carla Speed. How did you hook up with her on this project and what was the collaboration process like?

Alex: We had worked on a couple projects together, had friends in common, and I thought she drew the greatest teenagers in the world (see: Finder: Voice). So we were hanging out at Baltimore Comicon one year and I was talking about No Mercy and how I couldn't find the right artist for it and there was this pause, and then she just said, "I'll draw it". Obvs I said "sure", then excused myself, went into the bathroom, shut the stall door and happy danced silently for about five minutes straight!

TFQ: Just for fun, what are you reading right now? What are you absolutely in love with from today's current comic trends?

Alex: What I'm reading: The Tale of Genji (Royall Tyler translation). Man Without A Face: the autobiography of Markus Wolf.

Oh! Comic books. I'm afraid I'm not going to surprise anyone -- I read Saga and Wicked/Divine like everyone else. I just finished mainlining all the books of of Gisèle Lagace's Ménage À 3, which is so fun and addictive.

ARCHIE VS PREDATOR #2 IS AVAILABLE MAY 20th!!

NO MERCY #2 IS AVAILABLE MAY 6th!

Exclusive Interview with Andrew MacLean on ApocalyptiGirl !!

So there's been some buzz on the interwebs about Andrew MacLean and his first full original graphic novel. The post apocalyptic adventure is slated to be released in May by Darkhorse (You can currently pre-order online for June 2nd). I kept seeing the cover in various spots over the last few months and decided to contact Andrew because I HAD to read this book. Lovely chap that he is, Andrew let me read the story in full and he even discussed how he brought his vision to life.

Having finished the book I have to say it's put Andrew on my list for future artists/creators who I am keeping a close eye on. I love this book, love the artwork and the vision behind the story. It is a charming twist on the typical apocalyptic story, full of hope and beauty. The story follows Aria and her companion Jelly Beans the cat, on an adventurous mission which involves dangerous locals. She hopes to return home but must complete a specific quest. This is definitely on my list of top books for 2015!

TFQ: This is first, full length original graphic novel, written and illustrated by yourself,. How do you feel about that accomplishment?

Andrew: Feels good! I really like writing for myself and really really liked the freedom of the longer page count. And even though it was a ton of work, coloring it myself was nice too because you get to kind of compete your own vision rather than hand it off to another artist.

TFQ: Can you tell me a bit about the development of ApocalyptiGirl?

Andrew: Like the majority of my story ideas, it started as a simple drawing with no real purpose other than to be something (hopefully) nice to look at. Often when I create a one-off character like that I start to get curious about who they are and wheels start to turn somewhat absently and before long I start to realize I'm on to something I actually want to explore more. From there, I think of the type of world they might be in and what other characters populate it. But really once I get a clear idea of what all that is, the characters have already started to decide what they want to do for themselves. Which is an artsy-fartsy way of saying, I don't really have a clear idea of how it all comes together.

TFQ: So why a cat?!
Andrew: When I lived in New Jersey, just outside of NYC, the area I lived in was home to a sort of "crazy-cat-lady," and all her cats would travel around with her as she walked the street, and many of these cats rode along with her sticking their heads out of a partially zipper up wheeled suitcase. Very happily too! They legitimately seemed to PREFER riding inside a piece of luggage. I just always thought that was really funny, and early on I thought of Aria as a kind of 19 or 20 year crazy cat lady like the one I knew in Jersey. The idea being that Aria had created these relationships with the cats out of loneliness in the solitude of the apocalypse. But eventually I realized a relationship with just one cat would be more charming than a whole bunch. So, just Jelly Beans. - When I named him Jelly Beans, I was literally just eating a bowl of jelly beans. That's all. Nothing special.

TFQ: I feel like your work is strongly influenced by many of my favorite artists. I see a bit of Brandon Graham in your work. Can you tell me a bit about the artists who inspire you?

Andrew: I don't generally site Brandon Graham as an influence, but I think we soak up bits and pieces of things from everywhere and I do like his work so there very well could be some of him in there. But otherwise, I used to site Mike Mignola, Grabiel Ba, Fabio Moon, Toby Cypress, Rafael Grampa, Sam Bosma, but after a time its hard to keep track of what your taking in. I like a lot of things I'm seeing from all the folks in the indy scene, what I refer to as SPX stuff, modern animation is getting real fun, tumblr brings me a ton of European comic artists that are just amazing. But other than that, I wanted ApocalyptiGirl to have a bit of a Manga vibe, so I was looking at a lot of Katsuhiro Otomo and Taiyo Matsumoto at the time.

TFQ: What's next for you after Apocalyptic Girl?!

Andrew: I'm going to do more work on my Head Lopper comics. That's my main focus this year. I hope to finish out the arch I started in 2013-2014. Other than that I have a few odd ball one shots I'm doing with folks and maybe some other things I'm still ironing out.

Exclusive Interview with Mike Carey: ALL about John Constantine

A few things: you probably know that I'm a gigantic Hellblazer fan. HUGE. You may also know that one of my favorite writers from the series is Mike Carey. You may have also remembered my outrage when DC did the worst thing I could think of: they pulled the Hellblazer title from the Vertigo universe and pulled John Constantine into the New 52 at the beginning of 2013. Now recently, DC announced that they have decided to end that universe and give John Constantine back a spotlight more deserving of him. The new title will begin this spring entitled John Constantine: The Hellblazer. I couldn't possibly be more excited about anything else this year because HELL, one of my favorite people Riley Rossmo is going to be illustrator on this monster and Ming Doyle will be writer! This team has got me pumped! So.. long story short, I wanted to talk to a Hellblazer legend and expert on the history and future of John Constantine. So here's my chat with Vertigo legend Mike Carey.

TFQ: Mike, you held the second longest run of any Hellblazer authors and wrote many of my favorite Hellblazer stories. I wanted to ask your thoughts on the history of Hellblazer along with how he feel about the current title Constantine and the upcoming relaunch Constantine: The Hellblazer. But first what are your thoughts on the last relaunch of Constantine ? What kind of criticism do you personally have?

Mike: I felt like it was a missed opportunity in a lot of ways. John works brilliantly as an ongoing protagonist in a Vertigo milieu. And he works as a walk-on savant stepping out of the shadows in superhero books. Whether he can be made to work as a protagonist in his own solo book in a superhero universe is a different question, and harder to answer. I'd say the jury is still out.

TFQ: How do you feel about the decision to pull John Constantine into the New 52 universe? And how does it feel knowing that universe is coming to an end?

Mike: I absolutely followed the logic of having John at play in the DCU. That was where he started out, and on one of his early appearances in Swamp Thing we saw him mixing with superheroes on the Monitor's space vessel. But I don't think there was any compelling argument to end the Vertigo monthly in order to start the DCU book. Marvel had already made a very convincing case in the Ultimate books for having multiple versions of the same character be in circulation at the same time. Fans weren't puzzled by parallel, mutually exclusive continuities. They took them in their stride. Ultimate Spiderman was over here, and regular Spiderman was over there. All good.

So it seemed to me that an axe had been dropped for no good reason.

The Constantine book has gone up and down in quality as any ongoing book will do. But I've never been able to warm to it because it killed its older brother in order to get itself born.

TFQ: I'm a big fan of Ming Doyle. I'm also a huge fan of Riley Rossmo so for the first time since the end of Peter Milligan's Hellblazer run, I'm actually really excited about a new Constantine title. There is promise to restore him to his original character. How do you feel about the new series and do you have any predictions?
Mike: Ming is amazing as an artist. I'm less familiar with her as a writer. One thing that's certain is that during its Vertigo run every writer was able to re-invent John Constantine in ways that suited their own storytelling styles, while still keeping some core of the character intact. There aren't that many characters who are robust enough to stand that kind of manhandling. So I'm definitely prepared to give this a shot, and I'm curious to see what kind of John Doyle and Rossmo will give us.

TFQ: Would you ever consider writing Hellblazer again if the opportunity arose?

Mike: In a Vertigo context, yes. Not in the DCU. I'm probably all done when it comes to writing ongoing books in a shared continuity with a line-wide editorial mandate. It's fun, but you have to dedicate a big chunk of your waking life just to staying on top of what's what.

TFQ: What are your favorite Hellblazer stories of any that are out there?

Mike: My all-time favorite is still HAUNTED by Warren Ellis - utterly superb horror, and the best manifesto for a new take on the character that any writer has ever come up with. Of course, Ellis didn't stick around for the long haul so it's impossible to know what his Constantine would have been like if he'd helmed the book for three or four years or more. But I'm betting it would have been magnificent.

I also love Jamie's run on the book. The Family Man was insanely good.

And Suicide Bridge was a lovely one-off.

Exclusive Interview with Djet on Poet Anderson: The Dream Walker!

If you are a child of the 90's like me, then you probably remember a band called Blink 182 and a man called Tom Delonge who sang in said band. Well in the last couple months Tom announced that he was leaving the band to explore other interests. One of those interests happen to be the world of comics. In 2014 Tom released a short film called Poet Anderson The Dream Walker and this April Magnetic Press will release the mini series is inspired the film. The three part mini series introduces Poet to the world of the dream and is beautifully illustrated by the talented Djet. I was so taken with the beauty of this world I wanted to talk to Djet and find out a little bit about his process. Keep in mind English is not Djet's first language and although I cleaned up the sentences slightly, I wanted to keep as much of his original sentiment as possible.

TFQ: Can you tell me a little bit about how you got involved with this project? What is it like working with Tom Delonge on his vision?

Djet: It happened through a phone call, when I was asked to work on the comic adaptation of the work of Tom Delonge. The implication is made for itself because I was immediately captivated by the history and the visual of the cartoon. I received guidance on the process for the comics by Tom and Ben, via my editor. Which was much easier to understand the ins and outs. The rest is up to the power of the pen. I have not much interaction with Tom, but they let me know if he likes my work (or not: D)

TFQ: How did you begin the character design. Did you have a clear vision what each of the characters would look like?

Djet: Apart from Poet and his alter ego, Jonah, I did not have an immediate vision of how to treat the characters. Because we set myself a story that is still different from what is done in the cartoon. It explores the first steps of Poet in the dream world and the first figures that accompany it. Ayo, for example is a complete creation in this universe. They gave me references and images to the design as seen in the comic. The difficulty was being able to recognize my style while maintaining the graphic Poet.

TFQ: Where did you find inspiration for the dreamworld in Poet? 

Djet: The inspiration for the universe was already in place. I could not change it!!! Subsequently, I have a universe that is in line with the original work, with less of a dark side! So I could adapt easily to this dream world.

TFQ: Are there any other artists or books which contributed to how you developed this vibrant world?

Djet: In the work that I love is where I find my inspiration in general and to the cinema with Terry Gilliam, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, or Baron Munchausen (my favorite), novels as the Windwalkers Alain Damasio, Neil Gaiman and recently the work of Sean Murphy. I also work with the « Cabs workshop », designers friends scattered over France. We communicate via internet and they give me the right advice when needed. They are a good source of inspiration and support for a work of this magnitude.

TFQ: What are the challenges you face when illustrating a book that also lives in animation?

Djet: There are so many challenges on a project like this. The biggest challenge is to make it as vibrant and dynamic as the animated version. For one, it must combined several ideas. It is a work more amusing elsewhere. I find it exciting to find the angle that can represent several ideas without any show (it will not always happen). Then make sure that will not be just a command. And finally, give the best, because I quickly stress on what people may think of my work, so I don’t want to regret it with half effort. It's not over yet !! 

Exclusive Interview with Laura Zuccheri on The Sword of Glass

Humanoids has done it again. They've been bringing the English speaking audience original translated content from all around the globe. Next month they bring us The Sword of Glass. Since the very announcement of the release, I've been jumping up and down in anticipation and of course immediately called up my local comic book retailer and pre-ordered a copy. Humanoids has collected the book in it's entirety for the first time in English and pressed it into their classic hardback. The Sword of Glass can be yours on it's release date, April 15th!

This is one of the most beautiful science fiction/fantasy books I've ever seen. A book that the original Humanoids such as Moebius could be truly proud of. In particular, this book endeared itself to me with it's marvelous creatures and forests. It's something I would have expected out of an 80's anime and reminded of me my childhood. In a way it reminded me of Nausicaa due to it's strong female lead and interesting beastiary. However, the story does remind me of old manga and anime, it looks nothing like manga. Illustrator Laura Zuccheri has a completely original voice, drawing from stark realism and mixing it with pure fantasy. The end result is beautiful. So beautiful that it won her the The Grand Guinigi Award for Best Art at Lucca Festival (Italy). 

I contacted Laura with some questions about the book which she answered. I am very happy to share it all with you! Be sure to get your copy on April 15th. Pre-order now!

TFQ: Can you give me a little background on the making of The Sword of Glass and how it all came together? How did you come up with such fantastical looking creatures? They are so unique and beautiful!

Laura: Every inspirations comes from my place in Italy. I live now in Germany but my home is in a little village between Bologna, Ferrara, and Modena North of Italy. Here, there is a beautiful country side, full of history, old medieval castles, churches, old houses, swamps, trees and animals...What is very special is the fog that creates strange atmosphere and light...In this strange place, with little villages around and sleepy people. I grasped ideas of architectures, objects, and characters..This flat environment is special because it is out of the globalization tastes and it gives me the opportunity to make something different. For example, speaking of Karelane I mixed up the old red country houses of my place with the architectures of the white cities like Lecce in Puglia and Noto in Sicily...Concerning of creatures, I picked inspirations up from every kind of objects , people, dogs, monkeys, every kind of shape that remind me of something interesting...

TFQ: The Sword of Glass was originally a French publication, how do you feel about it being translated into English and distributed to a wider audience?

Laura: Being in USA next month is fantastic. My unknown place, life, experiences will be shared with people who lives very far from my culture and my country. I'm very happy, I worked so hard on this project with passion and enthusiasm.

TFQ: In the book, we get to see Yama as a child and an adult. What is it like to draw a character from their early years into adulthood? Is it a heavy challenge?
Laura: I love drawing real character, who grows, improves and learns like in the real life....I grasped the idea of Yama from one of my friends, I like her peculiarity in being a woman out of the conformism, elegant but in the same time funny.

TFQ: What was it like to work with Sylviane Corgiat?

Laura: Sylvane and I are friends, we met each other 9 years ago in Paris and we started to work on this project...It was a pleasure and it was easy work with her, she was very open to my ideas and she's a very good writer...I had a great opportunity!

Exclusive Interview with Ramón Pérez on All-New Hawkeye

You may have heard that Hawkeye has a new creative team. You also may have remembered my review of issue #1 from last week. I wanted to get some inside information on the new series for my readers so I contacted Ramón Pérez and he graciously agreed to answer a few questions about the new series. Check it out!

TFQ: Can you tell me about how you got the gig for the All-New Hawkeye?

Ramón: I was contacted by Sana Amanat, the series editor, with whom I had worked before on John Carter: The Gods Of Mars. We had been looking to collaborate again, and when Jeff Lemire had suggested me as an artist for the series, she was happy to extend the invitation to work on the series!

TFQ: In the first issue, you use two very different styles of artwork for the present and then for the flashbacks. How was this decision made and will it continue through the series?

Ramón: The two distinct styles were my choice as I wanted to separate the past from the present in a visual manner. I like the challenge of pushing myself stylistically as well, so it was a natural choice on my part. The present day storyline I wanted to keep in tune with the Fraction/Aja run, to give readers a sense of familiarity. With the past on the other hand I wanted to evoke that sense of memories, that hazy unclear way we often recall the past, the watercolour washes and loose lifework was a perfect way to achieve this. A balance of both styles will carry on through this storyline.

TFQ: How do you decide how to depict a well loved character like Hawkeye as a child?

Ramón: I thought of his childhood based on what I knew, and Jeff’s script, and certain things came to mind; where he grew up, foster homes, foster parents, the violence, poverty, how this would also affect his clothing and grooming: simple, low maintenance. With that in mind, a picture of a young Hawkey quickly painted himself in my mind.

TFQ: Are there any characters you are dying to draw and will they make an appearance in the All-New Hawkeye series?

Ramón: So far I am more than content with the immediate Hawkeye family… they’ll keep me busy enough as is ;)

ALL-NEW HAWKEYE #1 IS WAITING AT A COMIC SHOP NEAR YOU!! RIGHT NOW!

Exclusive Interview with James Harvey on Bartkira

A little while back I interviewed James Harvey about the release of Masterplasty by Image Comics. A gritty one-off about a new surgery, the master of all plastic surgery that could make your most beautiful. This artist and story teller has been working on another project this whole time. A project you may or may not have seen in your local comic shop. Bartkira is a collaborative project retelling the Akira, page for page with Simpson characters.. but don't let me explain it, let's ask the man responsible for spearheading this project.


TFQ: A lot of us are familiar with the on-going project but for those of us who are less familiar, can you tell me how this all began?

James: Bartkira is a long form-experiment where myself and thousands of collaborators from all over the world have taken Katsuhiro Otomo’s Akira and replaced the characters with characters from The Simpsons. Bart is Kaneda and Tetsuo is Milhouse. We’re about 75% of the way through redoing the entire 2146-page comic series, and we’re just putting the finishing touches on our take on the movie trailer. We’ve had about four gallery shows in America and the UK, and our first exhibition in Tokyo is about to happen starting this weekend.

It started when the fine artist Ryan Humphrey redrew a couple of scenes in Akira with Simpsons characters- fittingly, the first was the scene in volume 3 where Akira’s powers finally awaken. I got incredibly excited about this and asked Ryan if I could spin this off into a group project and he said yes.

It’s way bigger than I could ever have hoped for it to be, and I can’t believe it still has this much momentum well into its second year. Katsuhiro Otomo’s Akira is such a rich feast of ideas and it’s been wonderful getting to interface with it in such a prolonged and intimate way.

TFQ: This is the third installment of Bartkira, can you tell me a bit about the talent we will see in this volume?

James: Yeah! We’ve got pages by Cameron Stewart, the Eisner Award-winning artist/writer behind the recent Batgirl reboot for DC. We’ve also got Nick Sumida, who put out a brilliant collection of comics called Snackies last year. He’s one of the funniest cartoonists working today and it’s great to have him in the book, if only for a short cameo.

The cover is this awesome collage that features the work of about 6 different artists- including UK artist CROM, and Lily Bernard, the creator of Nickelodeon’s Puffin Rock, who made her contribution out of plasticine. It also incorporates work by Blair T. Kerr, an artist out of the Bronx who works in this abrasive, chaotic style that looks the way 80’s Public Enemy sounds. His work was a big inspiration on how the rest of the cover came out.

The back cover is a photograph of a mind-boggling cake made by Kylie Mangles, which depicts Ralph Wiggum in cross-section- his skeleton and innards clearly visible. She made it for her own purposes but she let us use it on the back cover. It’s kind of perfect.

There’s so much incredible work on the interior. Just glancing through, some pieces that stick out are by Jacob Chabot, K. Thor Jenson (who I’ve been a fan of since I was about 15, so it was good to get him in), Tyler Landry, Stephen Morrow. Me and Ryan are in there, too, with Ryan reprising the sequence that kicked the whole thing off.

TFQ: Each volume of Bartkira showcases a range of talent from the graphic novel community, how do you go about choosing contributors?

James: I have a mission to get Ryan Humphrey to have at least five pages per volume, but besides that I don’t have much criteria for choosing collaborators. So long as you can hold a pencil, you can do it. Actually, one entry to one of my projects in 2009 was done by a homeless guy drawing using the mouse in his local library. I think this thing gets its power from the range of different types of approaches and levels of skill. I’d love to see more people work with sculpture or collage or puppets and so on. The spaces fill up really fast, though.

Kate Sullivan, who organised the animated trailer, had a totally different set of criteria for her project- it was like, "don’t bother applying unless you’re amazing and you can make this look EXACTLY like The Simpsons.” I really can’t wait to see how it turns out.

TFQ: What are some of your personal favorite contributions to Bartkira?

James: Without a doubt, Cameron Stewart’s contribution in this volume we’re about to drop is one of the all-time greats- it's really a perfect example of what I hoped this thing would be. It’s like fine art. I also love all the work I got the mysterious dumpcomics.com to do for it. Such a rich style that guy has! If it’s a guy. WHO IS DUMP COMICS

Natali Koromoto was one artist who I reached out to specifically- I have her wicked Simpsons postcards on my wall and it would have been a mad oversight not to have her in there.

Sarah Burgess is one of my favorite UK cartoonists and she did some really awesome work in Volume 2, which ended up not getting used due to an editing SNAFU where two people got assigned the same pages. It’s on the blog, though, if you want to look for it.

Kristina Collantes is a genius artist who I was lucky enough to get for volume 6. Her BF Tom Neely did great work in volume 6, too. They both worked on THE HUMANS for Image. Kristina inks stuff for me sometimes, too. I feel really lucky that I get to collaborate with Kristina because we’re kind of each other’s biggest fans.

Frans Boukas did a lot of work for us, too. He’s like a punk version Geof Darrow. His style is so intricate! Again, I feel incredibly lucky that he chose to get as involved as he did. Not only did he produce a ton of amazing artwork for volume 6, he also brilliantly edited the Bartkira zine that Floating World Comics put out (all proceeds go to Save The Children).

Frans brought Simone Nemes on board who did a lot of really wonderful work for us, too. But! I’m forgetting like a thousand people here.

TFQ: How can people get their hands on Bartkira, if it's not readily available at their local comic book retailer?

James: The zine that Franz edited is still available from Floating World’s website. It encompasses work from all 6 volumes, so it’s still the definitive Bartkira-in-print article. There was also a very limited edition zine that myself and Hannah Chapman (Comic Book Slumber Party) put together to coincide with the volume 2 launch, but good luck getting hold of that.

Besides that, you can read everything we’ve finished so far at Bartkira.com. Go!