Murder, tubing, and Kentucky Fried Chicken. That's the kind of life that Rick Remender leads........actually, Rick Remender doesn't do any of those things (well, at least not the murder part). Remender spends his days writing books like Fear Agent, The End League, Crawl Space, and The Atom, and spends his nights traipsing from rooftop to rooftop, dispensing his own ruthless brand of justice. Check out the hardcore, extreme, and super foil cover variant edition of my recent interview with him below.......
Q: I've read that you started out working in animation. This seems to be a bit of a trend for comic book writers and artists these days, with guys like Paul Dini and Dwayne McDuffie making that same jump. What are the biggest differences between the two mediums that you have to combat, and what are some things that make the transition a relatively smooth one?
RR: Well, working in animation you learn all the things that make for a successful freelancer, respect for deadlines, respect for co-workers, and basic production skills. I taught myself most every aspect of making comics in a trial by fire. I just made comics. At first I self-published a silly little book called Captain Dingleberry with some friends from Fox Animation. I had my first foray into writing, penciling, inking, zip toning (anyone remember cutting out your zip film to tone the pages?) and lettering a seven issue comic series and learned a ton. It's the only way to learn how to do comics; you do them over and over until they start to get better. I learned more about marketing the comics from my time managing a comic shop in Phoenix when I was in college.
Q: You also have ties to the music industry, having illustrated multiple covers to albums. How did you get involved with that, and do you have a personal
favorite album cover that you illustrated?
RR: When I was living in San Francisco I was in the punk scene and met a lot of great people and eventually started working for Fat Mike and his label Fat Wreck Chords. They were great and hired me to do a ton of stuff including a Black Heart Billy comic in their catalogs. Black Heart Billy is still one of my favorite creations, Kieron Dwyer and I had a blast doing that. I wish more people had seen it. As for my favorite art, I'm pretty happy with the NOFX: Never Trust a Hippy EP art. I've seen I shitload of folks wearing it on tee-shirts and had a few people send in tattoos as well.
Q: You've got your hands in quite a few different genres with your comic book writing. You write horror type books (Crawl Space), sprawling space action adventures (Fear Agent), and super hero work (upcoming Atom work, and End League). Do you prefer any genre to the others (if so why), or do you enjoy them all equally as if they were your children?
RR: I like writing Fear Agent best on most days. It just flows easier for me. But The End League, The Atom and Crawl Space have all become neck in neck for second place. I'm having so much fun writing these books, they all help me scratch a different itch. I don't see any difference in genre other than the window dressing and familiar trappings. What is the real difference between The Sopranos and Deadwood? Dialect, time and place. The rest is drama, violence, death… story is story.
Q: You've had a chance to work with Tony Moore, a guy whose art is great, but who isn't always the fastest. Some guys are able to schedule themselves in a smart manner, such as Tony Moore, while others not so much……since you are both a writer and an artist, and have dealt with things from “both sides of the table” so to speak, what are your feelings on late books/late artists/missing deadlines?
RR: I've learned that late books kill. I've also learned that artistic integrity in the work you produce has a longer lasting benefit than a piece of pap that came out on time. We all work as hard as we can and make, what I feel, are some of the best comics on the stands. Are they sometimes late? Yes. Are they worth the wait? I think so. That's not to say we don' take our deadlines seriously, we do.
Q: I'm a big fan of Fear Agent, and I think one of the strongest characteristics is the callbacks and homage's to classic genres of yesteryear. From the space opera aspect, to the war story tone, I think this book does a great job giving everybody a little something different to like. Was that the plan for the series from the outset, or did this idea grow as you went along?
RR: Yeah, the idea was a modern take on the genre's EC Comics was best at; Sci-Fi, War, Western and horror, or a mix there of. Volume 5 of the series is a Sci-Fi Western arc that Tony and I are dong and I can't wait to get to it.
Q: Since Fear Agent moved to Dark Horse, the new format of the book seems to be that of one mini series following another, as opposed to an ongoing with a continuing issue count. Why was this change made?
RR: It's actually both. We had the ongoing numbering on the inside for Last Goodbye and Twelve Steps in One but readers complained so as of Hatchet Job we both the ongoing numbering and the arc numbering listed on the cover. The fans have all been very effusive and unanimous in preferring this format. I think we'll see more and more books carry this on in the future. It helps new readers know where the current arc is while helping establish the chronological order of the arcs.
Q: End League #1 debuted on January 4th, and now that fans have the first issue in their hands, what teasers can you leave us with for the upcoming issues?
RR: It's nice to hear so many people are enjoying the book. The sales and reviews have been phenomenal. It guarantees we'll be around for a long time to come. We have a plan in place to make the book monthly by the summer so I expect it to just build from here. As for upcoming issues, let's see don't want to give any spoilers… well, everyone dies… eventually.
Q: In a similar vein to the last question, what more can we expect from Crawl Space in the near future?
RR: I can't tell you the name of our next series, as I'm afraid the high concept will be grabbed. Kieron and I have it outlined and he's doing designs as I write. It's going to be great. We hope to roll on it this summer.
Q: And finally to round everything out, what can we look forward to in fear Agent?
RR: Hatchet Job takes some pretty wild turns in the next few issues, focusing on Mara and her motivations for handing humanity over to the Dressites. Lot's of dead characters there as well and a cliff hanger no one will see coming. Basically, Heath Huston finds himself marooned on the desolate Planet West. A stranger in a strange place peppered with gun slinging robots, venomous mutants and buxom cowgirls. It's high noon in dead space.
Q: Recently, it was announced that you and Pat Oliffe are going to be the new creative team for the All New Atom title at DC Comics. You're following up Gail Simone on that title, and the story was initially outlined by Grant
Morrison. What is it like to follow up names like that for your first DC writing assignment?
RR: It's great. The foundation Grant and Gail set here is a load of good fun and I'm 100% confident that what Pat and I are doing is going to make folks excited. I have three issues in the can and Pat is well underway with art, I'm proud of the work and proud to be associated with this project and team.
Q: If you had to use three words to describe what you have planned for the Atom, what would they be?
RR: The Enemy Within.
Q: Final Question: What's your new years resolution for 2008, and how do you plan on going about accomplishing it?
RR: One day in May I plan on doing some murder, rape, more murder, some drug abuse all followed by a tarot card reading before going to the lake to eat Kentucky Fried Chicken and listen to ELO while tubing downstream to where my buddy Skeeter parked our Bronco where we'll take a moment to reflect on the evils of the Carter administrations while skirting around the homo-erotic undertones of our trip (which hangs thick in the air in equal proportion to the snugness of our OP shorts) before sliding into some agonizingly, faux-intellectual, self-examination in alleviate the anxiety before spiraling into a shame cycle and self-medicating with more fried chicken. Just catchin' up on shit I've been putting off.
No comments:
Post a Comment