Blair Butler: All right! Away we go.
Bill Watters, ComicsOnline: So, nice to get a chance to chat with you and stuff. How do you think the Image Expo is going for their little 20th shindig?
BB: I think the Image Expo is fantastic. I’ve had a really great time. Y’know, mostly I’m working covering conventions for G4. It’s great to have a chance to really experience the Con as a creator for the first time. I really hope they do it again because the accessibility to talk to creators, guys like Brian K. Vaughan, Ed Brubaker, or Robert Kirkman, Jonathan Hickman, you know, there’s no barrier–you can really have great one-on-one conversations with those guys. I still am getting into comics, even though I finally have something out there – you know, if I were someone considering doing something in comics, this would be a no-brainer. You would have to go to this because it’s just great.
BW: As a creator just getting into comics would you have any advice for other women looking to get into the field? Or is it an even playing field?
BB: You know the great thing about Image is that it is an even playing field in that they have a blind submissions policy. I think if you submit six finished pages [from your comic], they’ll take and check it out, and consider it for acceptance, which is really great. This year Womanthology had a huge presence at the Image Expo. It’s an anthology [made up of all] women creators, you know, writers, artists, editors, all coming together on an anthology book. You know, sometimes it’s tough for people to commit to 22 pages for first issue or much less 88 pages for a four-issue miniseries, but they can do like a six-page, or two-page, or even a one-page submission to something like that. And, my understanding is that there probably will be more of those volumes. You’d have to ask them for sure, but that seems like a great place to start.
BW: You did your stand-up and everything else with G4–Slasher School and stuff like that. Did you have fun with all of that?
BB: I loved it. Slasher School was so much fun. I really, I hope maybe it will rise rise again, like so many of its undead protagonists. [laughs]
BW: What did you learn from that whole experience with animated series?
BB: It was great; I learned a ton. I mean, I got to work with Titmouse, Inc., which is really one of the greatest animation houses out there. They do Metalocalypse, and Dave Johnson, who does all the covers for Punisher Max at Marvel, designed all the characters for Slasher School. It’s just a great-looking series. [Working with a great animation house teaches you a lot about pacing, about editing, about writing for animation, which is slightly different and a lot more descriptive than writing for like a straight narrative like TV or film, and also I feel like it’s really conducive to comics writing. That’s something else in animation. It’s great.
BW: Nice. You’ve been covering conventions now for a while. Have you seen trends, as far as the attendees to conventions, not just you’ve got the big cosplay influx coming in, but also it seemed like for this event, as an example, some people that weren’t into comics, but they’re into Walking Dead, they’re coming here and it gives them exposure. Are you seeing that happening? More facets of popular culture coming into cons?
BB: Yeah, I think New York Comic Con is a great example where they really incorporated anime fandom into that, and as a result the size of that convention just swelled dramatically, so you have solid comics content, you have big studios coming out, you also have gaming companies, and then a huge anime contingent in New York. I mean San Diego, obviously, is like the Mothership. Everything goes there. And this year with WonderCon being in Anaheim, you know… The hope, I would think, is that if someone comes in, [they’ll see] the comic idea at heart is black and white. There’s some slight manga influence, and so you sort of hope like, hey, those manga fans, maybe we’ll give this a try at some point. So you hope there’s crossover for everybody. That everybody gets to explore and try out new stuff.
BW: What do you think of what’s coming out of the big comics publishers, Image notwithstanding, but like DC and Marvel, as opposed to the Indie groups – what do you think is the cutting edge? Do you think there’s anything still at heart in the DC and Marvels of the world, or is it just kinda like, same ol’ same ol’?
BB: Oh yeah. No, no, no. I mean, look – Mark Waid’s sort of lighter reinvention of Daredevil is incredible. It’s one of the best superhero comics on shelves today. You know, DC’s got [Scott] Snyder doing Batman, he’s doing great, really creative stuff. [We’re getting] visually innovative stuff from Greg Capullo. And then you know, you look at DC and they have a lot of great books. Fronted by a female protagonist, you’ve got Paul Levitz doing Huntress, you’ve got Batwoman, you know with JH Willams III, and the great Amy Reeder [Hadley] now taking over on the art. You’ve got Duane Swierczynski I think doing a pretty terrific job with Birds of Prey, um, you know. So I feel like… I feel like there’s a lot of interesting stuff at the Big Two. The, you know you get something completely new and fresh and different at Image as well. You get Ed Brubaker’s Fatale. Jonathan Hickman’s next book is going to be absolutely incredible. You know, I have so much excitement about some of the new books coming out, that uh… [laughs] that it makes me feel insecure.
BW: [laughs] You know it was interesting. I’ve been to a number of the publisher panels before with a number of their main teams, and usually I’ll know a couple of the names, but here at Image, everyone on that panel, you know every one of them, both of how they’ve impacted culture, and fandom, and everything, and their characters.
BB: Yeah. You’re here and you know, there’s a panel with Todd McFarlane, Robert Kirkman, Brian K. Vaughan, and Ed Brubaker? I mean Jonathan Hickman-
BW: It’s a ‘who’s who’.
BB: You know, these great innovators who all have done mainstream work and their own creator-owned work, and you know, I just think it’s really fascinating.
BW: Right. And I think their relationships between each other as kind of a peer group helps, you know, probably helps bring a culture up underneath them of people that want to come to them-
BB: Absolutely, yeah.
BW: -as it’s not really so much of a looking down on, but it’s more, it’s a big peer group trying to help each other out, and you know, keep each other humble, but also push each other for the next thing.
BB: Totally, yeah.
BW: What do you see yourself doing for new projects, going forward?
BB: I definitely want to do more comics. It just, flat out, want to do more comics, because I, you know, obviously I’m a correspondent for Attack of the Show. I also write for the show, and you know, we do five episodes a week, so the production cycle, you know, I think we don’t really have dark weeks, so our production cycle is pretty all-consuming. Finding the time around that can be a challenge, but there will be more comics for sure. Someday, even if it takes me a while!
BW: [laughs] Thank you very much for your time. I know you’re having a busy day of it here and everything.
BB: Oh, no problem!
BW: We just wanted to you know, catch up, and probably will catch up again down at WonderCon.
BB: Absolutely, that would be great! And if you could let your readers know, the final issue of Heart, is completely done and will be out on March 21st.
