Max Bemis Makes a Call to Arms Against an “Evil Empire” [Interview]

Announced at the tail end of last year, one of our favorite new comic writer’s Max Bemis announced his second series at BOOM! Studios, “Evil Empire” with artist Ransom Getty. A pre-apocalyptic vision of our road to a dystopic future, “Evil Empire” is a 16-issue series starring a rapper named Reese who stands up to the injustice in a way that her creator admits that he never could.

And of course, since we loved “Polarity,” we rightfully assumed we’d love this book as well. So what better way to confirm that than to spend an hour chatting with Bemis about the series?

So read on as we talk about the book, politics, what sci-fi-ish could mean and, like, a whole lot of Star Wars.

So Evil Empire is going to be your second book here at BOOM!, and I know we’ve talked a lot about “Polarity” and how much you enjoyed that and how much you enjoyed working with BOOM! for that book, so I take it that the stars have continued to align with your relationship with them?

Max Bemis: Oh, yeah, of course. I knew immediately as soon as we started real conversations about their priorities and how they work as a company, and when I got to meet everyone there, it was almost like I knew it was going to work out in the long term working with them at whatever capacity. I was like, these guys are going to be my friends and they’re going to help me make comic books, and I want to continue doing that with them as long as possible. And then when we started doing “Polarity” and I just saw, as a comic fan more than anything and a first time comic writer, it’s really crazy to see the gears spin and how easily they got stuff done. I’m sure it’s not the case with every company, but just how competent they were, and how passionate they were about “Polarity.” It made the book a good little success story.

I think that, you do hear horror stories and you do hear stuff, but I was just lucky that the first people that I out of the box I started working with were so awesome. So, “Evil Empire” has been a part of that. It’s just amazing passion; it’s real, these are real comic people who want to make the best work possible, and that’s part of the way that the company is structured versus certain other big indie publishers. They’re really in it with you, from editing all the way up to making people aware of it, and they don’t rest on their laurels and they won’t feel good about what they’ve done until they push you to make the best thing possible in a reassuring way. So this positive experience has definitely continued over these first few months of making “Evil Empire.”

Robbi Rodriguez

So let’s talk about this new book. It’s a 16-issue series, a sci-fi book about a rapper named Reese–

Max Bemis: [Laughs] Sci-fi-ish.

Ok, Sci-fi-ish! For those who are unaware of what the book is about, what is your elevator pitch for the series?

Max Bemis: Well, the idea came to me first from the idea of… To get into the pitch, just because we’re doing an interview, I’d probably be more akin to sort of talk about what caused me to put the pitch together, and then I can sort of tell you the basic pitch.

I’ve always had a problem with society. I’ve been a punk rock kid since before I knew what punk rock was, and I’ve always had a problem with the way society prioritizes things, and the way human civilization or culture always ends up leading us to do these horrendous things. Whether it be genocide or war, or the way we treat people of a different color or creed. It’s non-stop, even in the most civilized governments and pure golden ages of human development. People are just constantly stepping on each other and doing the wrong thing, and I’ve always had a problem with that. Right now, our government purports to be a fair democracy, but when you look at culture and how screwed up it is, we’re really not that far off from any fascist… I know this might be a controversial statement to some degree, but it’s just the things we do for war, for industry, and even within pop culture, the things we value and push onto people’s faces. It’s like one inch away from being totally fucked up at any time.

So I thought, how far are we really off from being in a type of government or society that’s so far gone that it doesn’t even claim to be good? That it doesn’t even claim righteousness, that it actually values evil? Instead of looking at this Judeo-Christian principal of “Do unto others” and all that, what if they just decided fuck that, do what’s good for you — because we’re almost there. We’re always almost there.

When I had that thought, I started to realize that there are so many comic books or movies, especially in the sci-fi world, that start out with this amoral government that runs everything, you know? Whether that’s the Empire in Star Wars, or the Matrix and the machines that have taken over the world, there’s always this sort of faceless, fascist empire that rules the world. So the pitch of this book is, I guess, how close are we to that actually happening where it doesn’t feel like sci-fi, it doesn’t feel like, “Oh, this could never happen. It’s like an apocalyptic future reality, instead of just our reality and a few things going differently.”

Essentially, “Evil Empire” is like a prequel to every movie you’ve ever seen where there is this horrible government with stormtroopers enforcing evil and selfishness. There’s always a rebel who has to fight them, and that’s our protagonist, so it’s trying to zero in on that trope and see how realistic it is and why we connect to that idea so much as people. It’s a mature readers book, though, so the cool thing about it is that it feels hyper-real, I’d like to think — or at least that’s what I’m going for. People act and say what they would in real life pretty much, versus a movie like Star Wars where it’s almost Shakespeare; everything is so over the top. In the case of “Evil Empire,” it’ll feel less like sci-fi and more like all of the horror movies to me, because it’s close to reality.

I think it’s interesting that you bring up the trope idea here, because like you were saying, the idea of rebels rising up against “the Man” or “the Machine,” it’s a very familiar sort of territory in fiction. What ways do you think that your book, “Evil Empire,” is sort of trope-bashing those apart in your own way?

MB: First of all, again, a lot of those movies feel like an opera. There’s a grand feeling, everything everyone says is like… [Editor’s note: because this is a transcription I can’t fully give you the hilarious impersonation Max put on, but imagine Max doing his best Emperor Palpatine] “I WILL DESTROY YOU AND THEN I WILL TAKE OVER THIS PLANET AND YOU WILL BE GONE!” In this case, the main character is this really grounded character, a mixture of Lauryn Hill or the guys from Rage Against the Machine. She’s very principled and feels like someone who would actually exist now. And the “bad guys” are real people with real problems too, and you’ll actually see how… you look at Anakin Skywalker, and so much of his problems are that he’s a Jedi and he has to be true to the Jedi Force, this magical aura that doesn’t really necessarily exist in real life unless you get super meta. [Laughs] Whereas, the people who begin to form this government and the way it happens, it’s all very realistic.

I was inspired a lot by, and I know this is a controversial book for some readers, but “Crossed,” the Avatar book? I think it hits home for so many people, considering how freaking crazy it is, is that beyond the initial outbreak in that we don’t really know why everyone has turned into sociopaths or depraved deviants, everything that happens around it is super realistic. When someone is disembowled, it looks really real and it feels threatening. That actually figured into my thoughts; what if you take away the component of “this couldn’t happen because there is no plague-like outbreak,” what if it was just people doing it because they wanted to do it? Because people are fucked up?

So I think a lot of the uses of these tropes, there’s always a catch or a way for us to feel calm and safe, where it’s removed from our reality. “Evil Empire,” it’s very much grounded in stuff that could happen today. Because BOOM! has been kind enough to let me make it a mature reader’s book, there’s stuff that happens that will just be super messed up — but always stemming from things that actually happened. Every single day what you read about or hear on the news, it’s just ended up being this perfect storm that creates this epic and hopefully entertaining story, but not because it’s fantastical.

Also, the fact that it takes place before instead of after. The book is planned to end, without giving away too much, the book ends where all those movies begin, you know? Even after all 16 issues, the very end is like the beginning of Star Wars.

So you sort of describe this, then, as a real-world horror book, but with sci-fi elements?

MB: I actually don’t even think there is much sci-fi. I think the only sci-fi you’ll get when you read it is, the book will begin with a flash forward to a dystopian future that’s something like 25 years down the line from where the real narrative begins. But even a flash forward isn’t very sci-fi; essentially, the flash forward just shows a world ruled by this evil empire, but even in that case there’s nothing mystical or beyond the realm of science that already exists. It’s just the fact there are these stormtrooper fascist Nazis who are enforcing this already. It’s not mystical, though; nothing happens in the book that couldn’t actually happen.

In my own head, I’ve been kind of thinking of it as a horror epic. It has more in common with something like House of Cards with a little less of the political stuff. It’s very much horror on a psychological level. And, sure, there’s some pretty horrific shit that happens, even starting from the first issue.

What can you tell me about the heroine of the book, Reese? She’s the rapper who starts this revolution.

MB: The Revolution really doesn’t come into it until later in the book, and honestly, doesn’t really come to fruition until the very last issue of the series. Her role is more of a moral compass for us. I think she’s the person in the book who we’ll most relate to, to have this outrage at society even as it exists before any of this evil empire nonsense comes around. She’s known for being controversial but always with a purpose; she’s not pretentious. She makes music because she sees something wrong with society, which is something I can relate to frankly, and I think a lot of people can relate to. What’s going on in this world that it’s so screwed up?

But she’s very human. She’s not perfect. She tries to be; she tries to be this person who always has it together, a very good role for other women or minorities, but she’s still human and she’ll screw up. She can’t just be this martyr. So when we meet her, she’s already protesting how things are in society as it stands in real life for us, as the reader. As things get more screwed up around her, that kind of pulls the reader along and we’re able to have this character —

You know, that’s one of the things about “Crossed.” It’s one of my favorite comics, I love it, I read it every month, but usually the people we’re rooting for are totally screwed up as well, and amoral. Versus something like “Preacher” or “Y: the Last Man,” where you have some kind of world-wide epidemic situation or just something crazy happening, you’re always grounded by having compassion for Jesse Custer or Yorrick. That’s what I wanted to make sure this book has, not only because that’s the kind of thing I like to read, but it would be so depressing if there wasn’t any hope. No matter how dark or screwed up everything gets, there’s a couple people in the series you can really root for and look up to.

With your last book, “Polarity,” obviously the main character was sort of a stand-in for you, but how do you relate to Reese of “Evil Empire”?

MB: Oh, so not very much. [Laughs] People will probably assume that because she’s a musician it’s going to be another Woody Allen-situation where it’s basically me, but she is so far from what I am. I’m a wreck, I’m full of neuroses, I question everything I do; even the music I do is about this uncertainty in life. And Reese comes into the picture very much having this strength and a set of moral principles that she’ll always stick by no matter what. She’s very strong, almost to the point where she pushes people away. She’s not ready to open up to people, it takes a long time for her to trust.

And then you’ve got the basic superficial reality that she’s a black woman than a guy who was born into… I was just talking to a friend of mine, the guy who is mixing my new record, and we were talking about basically how we were both handed so many things as a white male American. Reese comes from the opposite background, where she’s not really been handed anything in her life. It’s been interesting to put myself into her mindset, because I admire her and I admire people like her. I always have. People who come from less fortunate backgrounds than myself, and not only better their lives but make a point of continuing to try and better society, almost like with a vendetta. They’re pissed!

So, to me, she couldn’t be further from my reality, though there are characters in the book who are a little bit closer to who I am. I don’t want to give it away, though. But Reese is definitely not that in this book.

I think a lot in our culture, especially in terms of media, we’ve become very aware or even concerned about the portrayal of minorities, people of color or women in lead roles. After a book like “Polarity,” did you find that it was important to step outside of what you were otherwise used to?

MB: Completely, yeah. And it just so happens that, you know, it wasn’t forced. I didn’t think that I wanted to write a book about an African-American woman because I’d just written about a spoiled white Jewish kid, you know? [Laughs]

I came up with this premise and I just thought, who would be the hero here? It would obviously be someone who is really bold, principled, who knows the ins and outs of the corruption that we face more than someone like Tim in “Polarity,” who is pretty much a product of his environment. Sure, he gets powers and goes crazy, but he’s kind of a tool, let’s be honest. He goes to art gallery openings and punk shows and he’s like me, he just tries to skirt by in society. But Reese is a person who can not take it; she just literally can not take it. She can’t conform, she won’t conform, and that’s how she bases her life.

So yes, in relation to “Polarity,” it was half-conscious and half that it just fit so well into the guidelines of what kind of character we were looking for to be a spin on the trope, where we can kick it on its ass. She immediately popped into my mind.

So with the book and this idea that it takes place before when the Empire has already won in Star Wars, looking at society today we have things like the riots in Ukraine, but then we have America where it’s somehow otherwise stable. How much of what is going on in the real world do you find is reflecting on the events of the book? Do you think America is teetering on that edge as well?

MB: I think, yeah, I guess we are. I think that we’ve been fortunate enough that our leaders have been not as bad recently. I’m a very apolitical person; technically speaking I relate to anarchy, if anything, but not in a militant way, so that’s why I find it OK to actually live in America. But I’ll just go out there and say, I have problems with politicians from all walks, from the left all the way to right, because I think it’s a bullshit circus. Everyone is kind of the flipped side of the same coin, but there are those who try harder and make me believe in democracy more, who make me a little happier to be an American citizen.

I can’t say we’re exactly on the edge, and with Obama, I don’t think we’re in the worst place ever. I think there are a lot of things about him as a president that serve as a positive role model, I think he’s done an alright job, but at the same time, there could be an adverse reaction that we have the kind of president that we have right now, and you could have someone like George W. Bush back in power — which is kind of where “Evil Empire” starts. There’s an inept president, there’s this candidate for the presidency who is a little bit like Obama I guess (he’s completely different, he’s a white guy and he’s unmarried), but there’s a very right wing sort of stereotype running against him– or at least, he appears to be a right wing stereotype at the beginning of the book.

So really, right now, we may not be as close to this as we were when Bush was president, but it can happen any time. We’re going to be fluctuating back and forth, and frankly if Obama did what happens in “Evil Empire?” It could happen. I’m not going to hop on conservatives here just because I have a lot of left wing beliefs. I think we’re just as close to this, perhaps incrementally not as close as we were five or ten years ago, but it could happen at any point. You don’t know who is going to be the next president, you know? And that’s the reality. We fluctuate between the left and the right back and forth, and the tipping point that makes the Evil Empire happen, this specific event that is the turning point? It’s a completely human thing that happens; it’s not a fantastical event or terrorist attack, it’s just something that could happen to anyone, and that’s what gets the ball rolling with the evolution of the Empire. So it could happen to Obama, it could happen to anyone. You don’t have to be a radical conservative to fall prey to what happens in the book.

I take it that you have very specific ideas here in terms of the Empire, right? It’s not just a generic, like, when people say “the Man” or “the Machine.”

MB: The difference of the Evil Empire versus like, I guess I’d say the closest thing to compare it to is the Empire from Star Wars, because the basis of the Sith ideology — and I’ve been actually, my research for this book has been watching a horror movie every night and getting back into Star Wars. So to be more aware of it, you’ve got Darth Sidious running the galaxy, there’s this Empire built around this guy, and his morals are that of evil, essentially. The Sith, they hold themselves above others, you follow your passion whether it be love or hatred to a fault. So I’d say if there’s any movie can encapsulate what it’s like, it’d be Star Wars, but again, it’s not mystical, it’s not sci-fi.

I think a lot of the problems with involving this trope, there’s still this element of the bad guy having some kind of righteous attitude. “Yeah, we don’t think we’re bad, we think we’re doing the right thing.” You know, even Hitler would say he thought he was doing the right thing, and many fascist societies in real life do that. They attach, I don’t know, whether it be religious fundamentalism or just some kind of crazy fascist ideology. But in “Evil Empire,” the whole point of it is is that it goes the other way. The point is, there is no right. We shouldn’t have to even try to be righteous. Lets just give up and do whatever the fuck we want to do. A lot of humans beings would say no, that they’d never be involved with something like that, but that’s what scares me the most about society. Part of everyone just kind of wants to run amok, unregulated, unmitigated with no moral compass — drugs, sex, anything. Anything you want to do, do it. I tend to think that hasn’t been played upon as much in the kind of stories that I’m almost parodying here with the book. And in real life, there’s always this false self-righteousness, even in the worst people.

So you mention things like Star Wars and “Crossed,” but was there anything else that influenced here in writing the book? Maybe any other comics that you looked to into their format?

MB: II’m a fan of so many comics and such a voracious comic reader, within reason. I know there are some people who are just, like, insane. I’m up there. I was just looking at a lot of the trends, what stimulates comic readers and me? What are we drawn to? There are so many of these post-apocalyptic comic books that are amazing. You’ve got “The Walking Dead,” “Y: The Last Man,” “Sweet Tooth,” “Preacher” to a degree… We’ve really hammered this post-apocalyptic thing on the head, but it’s not getting old. At least not for me as a reader. I’m still open to post-apocalyptic books just because it’s such an interesting setting. But rather than writing about it as having already happened, which is what a lot of these books do, I wanted to explore how could it happen. Why are we fascinated with this idea of post-apocalyptic books, so what about a pre-apocalyptic book? That was basically my mindset in relation to what’s out there in comics.

And with “Polarity,” your music was an influence on the book as well. I take it that that’s probably not the case with this as much.

MB: It is and it isn’t. “Polarity” was directly referencing Say Anything songs and was a dramatization I went through making music. Our first record tells the story of “Polarity” in other terms, but I wasn’t trying to just make a Say Anything comic book by any means. This one has almost no apparent connection to Say Anything, but, you know, the whole reason I thought of it was because I’ve always had this problem with society, this fear I’ve had since I was probably old enough to have fears that… I can remember being in my bed, probably around the age of 7 or 8, and because my grandparents were Holocaust survivors, I had this fear that stormtroopers would come into my house and take away my family and there would be another Holocaust. Ever since then, any time I see culture leaning in the direction I consider to be pretty amoral, I get scared. It’s one of my deepest fears.

That’s always come up in Say Anything’s music, that fear of society. I tried to fight against it with my music as much as I could, but I’m not Reese. My music doesn’t center around politics, doesn’t center around society; a lot of it has to do with myself. I think that’s why it’s a little less close to home than “Polarity,” because “Polarity” was almost just an auto-biography. But it’s all me. Any comic, any film, any poem, it’s really just everyone that’s the writer in their story. So there’s a part of me that is Reese, there’s a part of me that’s in some of the less likable characters in the book. It’s as much wrestling with my id as it is examining society, and very much so Say Anything reflects that.

I think it’ll still connect with people who connect with the neuroses and the fears that I examine in my music, but it’s still very much removed from anything I’ve put out so far.

Character designs by Ransom Getty

It sort of sounds, and I don’t mean to just harp on “Polarity” here, but it sounds like– you have a very known voice in writing, it’s true for your music and it was very apparent in “Polarity,” but are you trying to step away from your own voice a bit in “Evil Empire?”

MB: A little bit. You could judge one way or the other, but thankfully “Polarity” did well for– First of all, I have no regrets in my life. Second, I love “Polarity” and everything in me is so proud of it and glad it was my first project. It was the perfect transition to writing about other people because I got to springboard off of an idea that was very much auto-biographical. I think I was ready to delve into things, and I don’t want to be a one-note writer. There’s not one comic writer I can name who is in my Top 10 Writers who just write the same book over and over again, you know? I’m sure I’ll return to something a little more auto-biographical at some point, but to me the writers I admire, I tend not to skew to slice of life. I’m definitely not a Daniel Clowes or Crumb or any of those guys; they were never one of my bigger influences where every comic is basically just their experiences. They make brilliant comics, I’ve read them and I’ve loved them, but to me my favorite writers are Brian Vaughan, Warren Ellis, Brian Bendis — These are guys who, yes, you can always tell that its there voice, some more than others like Ellis or Bendis and in two panels you know it’s by them, or even someone like Grant Morrison who injects all of his meta-physical and spiritual experiences into superhero books.

There isn’t so much of me in the book, and I definitely did want to stretch my writing. I think part of that was wanting to be seen and feel like, in my own heart, that I’m a comic writer and not just some guy who was dipping a toe into the pool so I could talk about my life or my music. If “Polarity” was the only comic I ever wrote, people would be like, yes, we liked it or loved it or hated it, but it was just an extension of the ideas sprung from his music or his real life or whatever. This one is more of an effort. It’s more of an effort to write characters who aren’t just stand-ins for me, but at the same time the book’s tone and sense of humor will be similar to “Polarity.” Anyone who reads it will know it’s definitely the same writer, but there are a lot of differences. It’s very dark, almost horrifying story at times, whereas “Polarity” was kind of a colorful circus.

I have things planned with BOOM! that are a little bit closer in tone to “Polarity”, but for my first long-form story, a couple of the books that really inspired me were “Scalped” and “DMZ.” I really had this feeling, the cool thing about Jason Aaron and Brian Wood is these are two of the biggest genre storytellers, you know? They do “Star Wars” and “X-Men” and “Conan,” but the reason I attach so much to their superhero or mainstream work is because I’ve known their dark and dismal sides. A lot of the time, a writer really eviscerates himself and looks at the darkest parts of society and can create an epic out of that, and that’s something you can always keep in mind when you pick up one of their less hardcore books. Jason Aaron will always be “Scalped” to me, and anything he does, even if he writes something I like more, I’ll always know this is a guy who knows how to keep it real. Brian Wood, all the way back to “Channel Zero,” or Warren Ellis and all the creator-owned work he did that was epic and dark and pushed boundaries.

Thankfully, BOOM! was just like, go for it. Sure, do it up. Write your “Scalped,” write your “DMZ,” and that’s a bit of what I’m trying to do here.

In looking at your previous work, are you approaching it in the same way? Are you still hoping to do some songs or little extras for “Evil Empire?”

MB: There are going to be no songs unfortunately, for the people who liked that. I plan to promote it, hopefully cross-promote it with Say Anything, just because so many of the fans are fans of both the music and the comics. I’m not going to be an idiot and not use it to my advantage in trying to expose people to it through both avenues, but at the same time this is a comic reader’s comic more than anything. It’s me stretching, it’s me trying to make the comic that I would’ve wanted to read or see from any of my favorite writers. We got lucky, we had this success with “Polarity” where it wasn’t the biggest comic in the world, it’s still an indie success, but enough people recognized that I actually knew what I was talking about with comics, they’re able to not necessarily feel like it’s just some musician writing comics. I want to continue to stay on that, I want to keep doing this until I’m old and decrepit and die. This isn’t just something I want to experiment with.

Comics are arguably my biggest passion and the fact that I’m even allowed to write them blows my mind, so I’m very much on the path of wanting to be seen as a comic writer and not just as a musician who wants to write comics. I think marketing it the same way we did with “Polarity” may not work, and it doesn’t really call for it, you know? “Polarity” was my first record made into a comic, and this is nothing to do with any of that.

And how do you find the balance of being a full-time musician and a full-time comic book writer?

MB: It’s starting to get to be more present, to the point where I can feel it. I had more to do now than I had to do before. But both jobs are so fun and rewarding that I just feel spoiled. I don’t think it’s this teetering balance where I freak out, “Oh my god, I have so much to do! I have to write a comic book and make a record!” Who complains about that? The only X-Factor is I have a little one-year old daughter, so I’m conscious of spending time with my family because that really completes me as a person. Not just for her, but for my own sake. So, you know, I’m just trying to spread things out.

I said this a few times during the “Polarity” process, but the cool thing about the way comics and music work is that, when you’re a musician, you really do have a lot of down time. You have this time where you’re doing jack shit. [Laughs] People just sit around and bitch, they’re bored, they’re not making enough money, whatever it is that musicians do now. So I have all this time to devote to being really passionate and thorough, and not half-ass anything with this book or any other project that I take on. I’d like to say it’s really challenging, that I should be patted on the back for doing both, but to be honest you couldn’t have a better situation. It’s really not that hard to be a musician and a comic book writer.

I find it interesting, before we started this chat you said you were in the process of mixing your new album and you’re going to have a tour soon, and this is a 16-issue series. So it’s not like “Polarity” where you can just write it all out.

MB: Well, in “Polarity,” I didn’t just write it all at once and then get to the end and put it aside. I found it better to spread it out, and BOOM! were incredibly understanding about my schedule. We just set up deadlines pretty far ahead, and if I had a few days off I’d work on comic stuff and give myself an actual couple days to relax, and then head off to the next issue. Thankfully the way that the production schedule works is, yes, you write and you try to get ahead of your deadline as much as you can, but then there’s also this mandatory amount of time where the book gets made, gets drawn and produced and lettered and colored. There are these gaps. And with “Polarity,” if I didn’t have story that I knew from beginning to end, if we hadn’t planned it as a four issue series, I could’ve kept going with it. It wasn’t too demanding on my schedule, but we spread it out over a while. I had a lot going on in my life as a musician during that time.

So, no, I don’t see the fact that it’s long-form being anything but kind of comforting. It’s actually kind of stressful to write a short mini-series. I find myself having a lot more trouble trying to condense the story into four issues than I do now, where I can draw it out and take it at my own pace. I have all these extra pages, which is this new thing. I have a whole page now where I can just do something else, and that’s fun. It’s just more fun. [Laughs]

So lets talk a little bit about the artist of the book, Ransom Getty. How did you two get hooked up for the series?

MB: BOOM! has just always been amazing about finding these amazing talents, who have had some experience but not incredible amounts of drawing mainstream books. Ransom is one of them. He’s done stuff for Image, he’s done his own indie stuff, but he’s one of those undiscovered gems in the same way that Jorge was for “Polarity.” Jorge went on to do stuff for Marvel and he’s working with Mike Carey at BOOM! And it was just clear, Ransom’s tone. We sat down with three or four artists that BOOM! had gathered for me after I had done some of my own brainstorming, and it was just clear that he was the best match in terms of the tone of the book. And in general, it’s just beautiful. He’s so good. We’re getting in these pages and we’re all flipping out. I think there is something to be said for someone who is a little hungry, who has the experience but is ready to really break out, and I think he’s one of these people for sure. I can see him drawing giant books for Marvel and DC if that’s what he wants to do, but thankfully I have him for now. [Laughs]

Since this is a long-form series, is there more of a back and forth between you and Ransom than there was between you and Jorge on “Polarity?”

MB: Not really. I guess I’m fortunate that he and Jorge both took the comic scripts and made them into incredible comics. Obviously the comics are not comics without an amazing artist who can think for themselves and doesn’t need to be goaded into doing something incredible, and I don’t write Alan Moore scripts, you know? [Laughs] They’re somewhere in the middle. They can be descriptive, but I try to leave it some of it up to him, and he basically read my mind and then did things that I wouldn’t have done and that’s everything I could ask for from an artist. There hasn’t been more or less back and forth I guess.

With this series, is there any particular things that you guys are looking at in terms of notes that you want to hit or visuals you’re really pushing for?

MB: The whole thing is kind of mapped out in my head in a very general sense. That was another thing I did a little bit less of in “Polarity,” and I was thinking of guys I admire like Jonathan Hickman and his fifty issue outlines. Given the leeway of having a longer form 16-issue start, which isn’t the longest thing in the world, but it’s enough to plan and allow me to deviate whenever I feel I have an inspiration. BOOM! and I have felt it necessary to sort of spell things out a little bit more so we don’t contradict, and we do have a long-term plan; I know the exact way the story ends and I’m really excited to get to that point; I know certain scenes, I know certain lines of dialogue that don’t happen until the final issue. Getting there is, you do have inspirations and bursts of creativity and you want to be able to make a giant drastic change as long as you’ve kind of reeled that in towards something manageable. If you want to change it you can change it.

Plus, it just felt natural with this book. As soon as I came up with the idea, because it ends in this theoretical trope way at the beginning of Star Wars or The Matrix, that helped me say, OK, then how would that play out in real life? Or how would that play out in the world that I’m creating. So it has made it all a lot easier to plan it out. I may say it ends with that idea, but I think a lot of people are going to be surprised how it gets there and what it means for it to be Episode IV of Star Wars in the real world. I don’t think anyone who thinks that, well, I know how it ends so why would I want to read it? There are shocks, there are surprises, even I think the last panel of the book ever will be a big shock.

I imagine that with someone like Ransom, who you obviously have a lot of affection for in terms of his art, are you writing for him at this point? Just throwing in big, crazy things you want to see him draw?

MB: Yeah, definitely. Once pages started coming in and I started getting a sense of what he does and what he can do, it definitely affected things and I can visualize story bits a lot better. At the same time, I don’t think it gets that altered. Jorge on “Polarity,” we had so many radical tone shifts and crazy visuals on that book, and I really just sort of think of it abstractly and wait for the gratification of having it materialize by an artist. I don’t tend to picture them drawing, I guess. I don’t know if that’s wrong? [Laugh] For all I know that’s not right to do in comics, but I like being surprised more than anything when it comes to the art.

I can understand that. So, sort of circling towards the end here, as someone who is a big comic book fan, I kind of wanted to get your thoughts on — as 2014 is beginning, how do you think the state of comic books are today?

MB: Fantastic. When I started reading comic books again, I mean, I took a five year break but when I come back I was like, jeez, this is like a golden age, you know? The truth is, I think comics have ruled for a really long time now. People say the 90’s were bleak, but at the same time that was the high point of Vertigo; you had “Sandman,” you had Morrison and his early work. That all crossed over to the mainstream and now superhero books are a lot smarter. You’ve got companies like Image and BOOM! who are doing stuff off the grid and independently that are amazing. I was just catching up with “Saga,” which I know is, like, the most hyped book in the world and everyone always talks about how great it is and that may turn some people off, but seriously, dude, just shut the fuck up because it’s amazing. [Laughs] I was reading it and I’m like, this is the best thing ever! What is going on in this industry that less people pay attention than they should when books like this are getting made?

I’m still a big fan of DC and Marvel, too, and I think there’s a lot of amazing books from both companies. Companies like Valiant, who are a really incredible company with their own version of a superhero continuity. There’s kind of everything you want. I think it’s a great time to be in comics, and maybe it’s just my naivety or inexperience with how it works in the background, btu again, I got to work with Marvel for the first time this year, sure, for a short story, but it was the most easy, fun, painless thing ever. I got one of my favorite artists to draw it, and it all happened so quickly, and I was just like, wow, that was easy and fun and I got to write Spider-Man!

So, if it continues, at least the way it has for me, in my eyes, nothing really needs to change. People should just keep writing. The community just needs to be as awesome as it is, because it’s such a great community, and I don’t really see any major faults besides, well, the normal stuff. There’s bullshit, there’s bad stuff in every industry you can’t escape, but largely I think it’s an amazing place.

In terms of what you think can improve in comics, is there anything specifically you think we need to do better?

MB: As a reader? I think, for one thing, the whole Marvel/DC competition turns me off a little bit at times. The fact that readers feel they need to make a decision there. That in turn creates this attitude for indie artists; for me, and I hope I don’t get in trouble for saying this because I buy every single Image comic at this point, I think everyone knows they’re bringing it, but because everyone has these crazy gripes with Marvel and DC and are griping at each other, I think Image feels the need to gripe at Marvel and DC. Or certain creators do at Image, anyway. I just think that competitive aspect, and the bitching and the moaning and defacing of anything, is never helpful; whether it’s a kid on a message board or an executive at one of these companies. Everyone should do their own thing and be proud of that.

We shouldn’t have these rules about what we will or won’t read, or this “I’m not going to read Superior Spider-Man because they killed off Peter Parker” stuff. Fuck that. If it’s a good book, read it! Same with certain creators, “I won’t read this guy because he won’t made this comic I don’t like.” I find that as a reader, you should give everything a chance. I do think largely that doesn’t happen too foten, which is why I, like I said, I think we’re in a good place… but the more we move to fostering each other instead of competing with each other, especially with Marvel and DC, the better. I know not everyone is like that, but there’s been this age old bullshit battle, when really, people are going to buy Batman comics and they’re going to buy X-Men comics, there’s no need for someone to really try that hard to sell either. They’ve been enduring.

Looking at “Evil Empire,” is there a specific format that you would like the book to have? Is it an arc by arc thing? Are you planning one-shots?

MB: There are basically three arcs, in my mind. I think there’s going to be four trades? But there’s three over-arching arcs, and it’s kind of like a movie in that way, that there’s this specific beginning, middle and end. I’m definitely planning it as such.

I pushed this question to the end, but looking at your music schedule, your writing schedule, do you want to do more? Or are you thinking just one book for now at a time?

MB: Oh, no. More and more and more and more. Dude, give me everything. [Laughs] If I could be writing three monthly books at a publisher plus creator-owned stuff… yeah, I’d do it. That’s what I want to do. Look at someone like Matt Fraction. He’s got a really successful indie book, he does the coolest stuff at Marvel. I guess my only thing in a fantasy world would be the ability to work on both a Marvel and DC property. That’s the only thing I’d see as limiting myself? But I’m ambitious. I want to do it more and more and more and more.