Joy Operations issue 1 featured Interviews 

The Joy Of Operating In Jinxworld With Stephen Byrne and “Joy Operations”

By | October 11th, 2021
Posted in Interviews | % Comments

It is often very important to listen to the voice in your head especially when it tells you “yes you need to buy the omnibus even though you have the single issues already and the trade paper back copies.” But what if that voice in your head was telling you to betray everything you ever knew. You also live in the near future. And you have awesome super agent powers. Well that’s the case for Joy in the new series, “Joy Operations.” The status of Joy’s omnibus collection is still up in the air.

The series will be the first release in the new Jinxworld and Dark Horse partnership from creators Brian Michael Bendis and Stephen Byrne.  “Fifty-five years from now. Joy is an EN·VOI. A special agent of one of the JONANDO TRUST. Trusts are corporate-owned cities that are the centerpiece of modern society. She rights wrongs for the trust. She is excellent. Perfection. Hard on herself. Driven. Almost legendary in some parts. Until one day a voice pops in her head trying to get her to betray everything she has ever believed.

To learn more about this new series, Joy and the first release in the Jinxworld line, we were lucky enough to be able to speak to artist, Stephen Byrne. Stephen discusses the pressure of being involved in the debut series, the influence for the look of the series, bringing to life emotional acting and more. You can find Stephen’s answers below and you can find “Joy Operations” in stores this November 24.


“Joy Operations” is the first title under the Jinxworld launch at Dark Horse. Is there any added pressure or excitement or a mix of both with the release of this series?
Stephen Byrne: Yup, all of those things. I’ve been a fan of Brian’s work for a long time and so the opportunity to work together on something like this has been extremely exciting. I want to do the best possible work I can.

With this being a brand new series what can readers expect from this first issue and series going forward from you and Brian?
SB: I think Joy is a character unlike any other I’ve seen. Her emotional and psychological journey is uniquely interesting, and I think people will have to pick up the book to find out why! Also, giant sci-fi blobs and energy swords.

I would think a part of the appeal as an artist on “Joy Operations” is creating the look and aesthetic of the world and characters. What have you and Brian settled on for the approach to the overall look and design of the series? Are you drawing from any influences when creating this future world?
SB:I think there are lots of different things that influence us, consciously and unconsciously. We shared a lot of reference material of things that we liked early on. All those things get absorbed into your mind and affect the choices you make when designing a world like this. I’ve tried to think of this future world as an evolution of our modern world with some huge technological leaps forward. That’s usually my logical brain process when it comes to designing particular elements.

The solicitation discusses Joy dealing with hearing a voice in her head and her battle with that. In the first issue you are able to bring to life that “internal” battle beautifully in the acting and emotion of Joy. Is it challenging as an artist to be able to visualize something happening in a character’s head?
SB: I really like doing emotional acting in comics. It’s one of the reasons I was very excited about these scripts. Joy has a lot of unique stuff going on in her head, and it was a fun challenge to try and capture that. Lots of big feelings to play with.

You’re no stranger to action with your previous work. What has been your approach to the action in the series especially with the added freedom of a sci-fi/future-tech world?
SB: Brian writes great interesting action scenes. There’s so many exciting elements at play on the page. Its just fun to go wild with that. It’s not every day you get to draw a woman fighting and evil blob while freefalling through floating buildings. It naturally compels you to try and be as dynamic as possible.

Continued below

Your art over the different titles you have worked on, especially at DC adapts and fits the tone of the specific series. Looking at the difference between say “Wonder Twins” and “Mera” is impressive just in how you match what the story needs. What has your approach and thoughts on how you want “Joy Operations” to look and feel?
SB: Yeah I think I try to vary my approach a little on any new project. “Mera” was YA, and I think a lot of the individual feel of that book is down to the beautiful colors of David Calderon. With “Wonder Twins,” I was trying to inject some of the essence of the original Super Friends cartoon into my style. “Joy Operations” is probably darker in tone, so that’s reflected in the color palettes I choose, the level of detail, stuff like that.

Looking at a quote from the solicitation from Dark Horse it mentions “This meticulously-designed …… journey shows us a new future like only comics can.” As a comic creator and someone involved in bringing to life Joy’s story, why is this medium the best medium for this story? What do you feel comics do better than any other medium?
SB: I think the way the narrative unfolds in this book was designed for comic books. It takes advantage of some of the unique aspects of the medium. It’s hard to say more than that, but if people read the first issue, I think they’ll know what I mean. It’s also a big bold epic scale sci fi story, which allows your imagination to run wild and try lots of different things. Comics are uniquely suited to that. I think the smaller team working on a project like this means you get to experiment with weird unique stuff.

What do you hope readers take away from their experience with “Joy Operations”?
SB: I hope they feel connected to Joy and excited by her unique predicament. I hope they are pumped to find out more because issue 1 is only the tip of the iceberg.


Kyle Welch

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