The Super Powered Fancast

Dragon Con in Atlanta, Georgia has been one of my favorite conventions to attend for the last ten years and this year was no different as I got to spend time with amazing people, bask in the glow of fandom and have the rare opportunity to speak with professionals I have been a fan of for years.

I got the chance to talk with many of those creators last week to ask them about their inspirations, work they’re excited for fans to read and work that they think all comic fans should pick up.

Jim Zub is an award-winning writer and artist of series like Thunderbolts, Uncanny Avengers, Dungeons & Dragons and more. Currently, he is currently writing the Conan the Barbarian series for Titan Comics.

SPF: What have you been enjoying the most about your Dragon Con experience this year?

JZ: Dragon Con. So I am in the midst of sort of a screed of conventions. This is my fifth show in six weeks. So this is sort of the last big push for the summer for me. It’s such a fun, celebratory show. I was talking to Jackson Lanzing ( X-Men: Hellfire Vigil and the upcoming Star trek: The Last Starship for IDW Publishing), and he’d never done it before. His perspective, he was like, you know, there’s so many just pure fans excited about the work and excited to celebrate what they love. And that’s really the truth. This show has such an amazing vibe. Like, it’s got the best kind of attitude. The fans are so passionate and excited about what we do and really want to meet us and talk about it, and it feels amazing. Like, that’s what I found. The more that I do this show, the more that I appreciate that kind of level of intensity and excitement that comes from all the fans.

SPF: Speaking of the work. What upcoming work are you probably the most excited to have people read?

JZ:  So I’ve been doing Conan now on the relaunch from Titan since 2023. So we’re moving into our third year, and I’ve signed a long-term contract on the series. We’ve got a big event coming this fall. It’s called Scourge of the Serpent, and it’s sort of the next kind of card that I put down on the table for a big meta plot that we’ve been building since the very start. It is going to be big and audacious. We’re using several different characters created by Robert C. Howard, obviously, Conan, is at the heart of the story, but then there’s a lot of other fun things that are going to be revealed over the course of it. The artist I’m working with isn’t really known in the North American market, but he’s been doing stuff in the French market for years. His name’s Ivan Gil, and I’m a huge fan of his stuff. To work with him and put this together has just been just a rush. It’s been so much fun.

SPF: Another question I have is that was there a specific comic or run, the kind of inspired you to get into the business itself?

JZ: I mean, I grew up reading a lot of Marvel books, so like your classic kind of Claremont X-Men. I really love Roger Stern’s run on Doctor Strange. I read a lot of the David Michelinie Spider-Man stuff. I just love collecting those superhero books and the feeling that they were all interconnected and building these larger stories and that stuff definitely has influenced my, obviously my superhero stuff, but all my writing over the years, trying to make characters that feel that appealing, that engaging, everything from the romance and the drama to the big action, I try and exemplify as much of that in my own stuff as I can.

SPF: And last question I have is, is there a central book that you think that every comic book fan should pick up and it can be your own work as well?

JZ: Sure, I don’t want to just push my own stuff. I think there’s a lot of classic material out there. You know, the original Savage Sword (of Conan) run, so they’ve released them in these omnibuses. They’ve got some of the most beautiful black and white artwork ever created. John Buscema being inked by Alfredo Alcala is like transcendently beautiful artwork. Barry Windsor Smith doing, you know, Red Nails is like a textbook in how to tell a great comic book story.  That’s the kind of stuff that I think all of us that do the work, we aspire to create something that will last like that stuff has lasted.

Becky Cloonan is the Inkpot Award winning artist and writer of several titles including the art for The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys, being the first woman to draw the main Batman title in 2012, co-writing the Batgirls series with Michael W. Conrad and winning the Eisner Award for Best New Series for Somna: A Bed Time Story for DSTLRY.

SPF: Was there a specific title or a specific run that kind of inspired you to get into the comic book business?

BC: Well, my first comic ever was a Silver Surfer Annual from like 1988, so I was very, very young. And like, my dad was super into Silver Surfer, so he was explaining the nuances of the Kree/Skrull War. As a kid, it sparked your imagination, you know? And then I really got into Manga when I was in high school and it was really eye-opening because here’s a whole country of women who draw comics, which there wasn’t that much, you know, at the time when I was growing up, there were maybe like a couple of women making comics.

It was like Colleen Doran (The Sandman, The Legion of Superheroes), Jill Thompson (Wonder Woman, Black Orchid), of course, but Clamp (Tokyo Babylon, Cardcaptor Sakura) was like a huge inspiration to me. So I was like, four women all hanging and they’re friends, they make these crazy comics and so much more. So that was, I think, what really solidified it for me was this is the goal. Like, I want to be Clamp. Just find my friends and let’s just make comics together.

SPF: Is there a current project that you’re working on that you’re really excited about? Anything you can talk about?

BC: This next project, I can’t say what it is, because it’s not announced yet. But Tula Lotay and I just did Somna, which came out, as a trade last year and I love working with her so much. I love her so much. She’s like, my best friend and her art is so inspiring and lush so working with her, it’s electric, you know? She and I are working on something else together? Can’t talk about it quite yet, but we’re knee deep in it, you know? It’s starting, so hopefully soon, I’ll be able to talk about it.

SPF: Is there another recent comic you’ve finished that you would like readers to pick up?

BC: God, I’ve got well, The War is coming out in single issues with Garth Ennis, I think one issue one just came out like last one.

SPF: I’m reading it. It’s so dark.

BC: It is and that’s what I love about it. It’s such a dark and interesting story, but it’s from a human perspective. It’s just about the people, that’s what I enjoy. After we finished it, Garth was, like; “the next book we have to do, it’s got to be a comedy.” And I was like, you’re not having fun right now? I’m the one drawing it. I’m in it. Yeah, that was a good time. Batman the Long Halloween: The Last Halloween just did issue 8 that Jeph Loeb wrote. I don’t want to sound bratty, but I feel like I got the best script. It was a haunted House story. It’s got all Solomon Grundy, the Penguin, Catwoman, Two-Face. I got to draw, like, all the hits, you know? It was so much fun to do, and it was also, very much an homage to Tim Sale. I’ve been super lucky and feel so bad that I don’t have anything like I can really talk about coming up, but there is a lot of stuff going on.

SPF: is that is there an essential book that you think every comic book reader should read? It could be your work or someone else’s.

BC: It’s gonna be someone else’s work. I always recommend to people, E.M. Carroll’s Through the Woods. It’s a book of short stories, which is my shit. I love short stories. I think it’s one of the hardest things to do, and if you can do it really well, it’s like, there’s nothing more, you know? It’s good and it’s perfect because they’re kind of scary. They’re kind of spooky, perfect since we’re getting into fall soon and Halloween coming. If you haven’t read Through the Woods, she had another book come out in 2023 called A Guest in the House. It’s a graphic novel, like a longer format graphic novel. Carroll’s stuff, I always go to it. It’s poetic, it’s impactful. It’s not a straightforward story she’s going to spoon feed you. You have to figure a lot of that stuff out on your own, but there’s an enigmatic quality to the way that she writes that really gets under your skin. You’ll be thinking about it way after you put the book down. So, I go back to her books all the time just to soak in that quality, you know?

Josie Campbell is a television writer and filmmaker who also writes the series I Heart Skull-Crusher for BOOM! Studios as well as other comics including Amazons Attack and The New Champion of Shazam. She is also the head writer of series like She-Ra and the Princesses of Power and My Adventures with Superman.

SPF: Is there a specific title that inspired you to get in the comics?

JC: A specific title, oh, man. So I was a ’90s kid, so some of my first comics, on the Western comics side was The Death of Superman Arc, actually. That was like one of the first things I ever picked up, which was crazy. I was like, oh my God, Superman, he’s dead. Then I got real into Superboy. But I would say it was like a combination of like Superman and some of the Wonder Woman that was happening at that time. Then I also got to live in the era where Manga was just starting to get big in the U.S. so I was picking up Sailor Moon. I was picking up a Cardcaptor, so it was a bunch of different titles, but yeah, basically Superman and Sailor Moon were my gateway in.

SPF: Is there a specific title or project that you’re currently working on that you would like to talk about?

JC: Oh, awesome, yeah. So yeah, right now, I’m really excited. I’m working for Boom Studios. I’m working on an original comic called I Heart Skull-Crusher that the first two arcs of it are out, I think the second arc graphic novel collecting the next five issues is going to be out sometime in the fall. Working on the third arc right now. And for people who don’t know what it is, it’s about a teenage girl who has big dreams and wants to join her favorite sports team and her favorite sports athlete in the world, but she lives in the post-apocalyptic American wasteland and through the team and sport that she loves is basically Thunderdome meets soccer. So it’s a sports anime, sports manga that happens to take place in essentially a Mad Max dystopia.  You’re following this girl as she puts together a ragtag team to like, murder her way to the top. So that’s coming out from Boom. We’re working on the next arc. There’s ten issues out right now, and then there’s maybe some other special stuff coming out for that very soon. So stay tuned for that.

SPF: Kind of a process question. What do you find are some of the differences between working on your own comic and working on something in another medium like My Adventures with Superman?

JC: Yeah. So, I mean, I think the big difference in difficulties is different levels of oversight. You know, like, for the comic side it was just me writing it. It was me collaborating with my comic book artist, but, that’s kind of it. That’s us. So editorial would let us know what we can and can’t do, but we’re kind of like on our own. Whereas running a TV show like Superman is hundreds plus people working on that. It’s incredibly collaborative. Also there’s so many eyes on it. There was more checking in with DC. There was more being like, hey, we want to do this thing. I know it’s not from the comics, but overall, on both sides, the DC stuff, DC’s been very happy with people modernizing, I would say, some of the stuff that they’ve been doing. Superman’s 85 years old. There’s no reason to do it if you’re going to do the same thing we’ve seen over and over and over again. DC’s happy for us to do new things with them. And then, you know, I think the least difficult, but most intense one is when you’re writing your own comic. Skull-Crusher, which I love, and I can do whatever I want. Because I’m the one making it up. There’s no one to check in on, but it can be a little nerve wracking because you’re like, oh, well, this is a brand new character. Like, I don’t have 85 years of fans to go back on. So I love all of it, but I definitely, on the TV and DC side, the challenge, is like working within the constraints of like, who Superman is, what we’ve done before. Then on the original side, it’s in the constraints of oh, gosh, I hope people like it, because if not, there’s not going to be any more of this comic.

SPF: Are there any comic books or character runs that you think fans should read?

JC: Ooh! Oh, my goodness. Man, I really Oh, man, I’m trying to think. Like, it’s really hard ’cause it very much feels like picking children. So I think there’s a couple I mean, I’m going to date myself old school basic, but, Sandman. I think that is something everybody should read, because it really shows what you can do with the medium that are not just superhero stories. It’s not just the stories. It can be so much more and so much trippier and weirder and crazier and also so much more deep and dark than I think people think of superheroes. Then I’m going to say something that’s the complete opposite. But honestly, I would also recommend people pick up something like a One Piece, like a Slam Dunk because that’s the other side, it’s just pure joy. A lot of that stuff can be a little formulaic, but it’s that formula that you love. I want to see Luffy go off and have his adventures. I want to see Superman do his things again. I feel like if you want to vacillate between One Piece and Sandman, those are the two to be like; comics can be all of this.

And if you want to read a good standalone Superman story, I got to write the My Adventures with Superman tie-in comic. So that was like six issues, and that is available now as a graphic novel.  

Once again, I want to thank these amazingly talented and creative people for their time in answering my questions. Meeting them was definitely a highlight of my trip to Dragon Con and there are more interviews to come in the next installment.