This May, BOOM! Studios will be publishing a brand new series from writer and Say Anything frontman Max Bemis (“Polarity,” “Evil Empire”) and Logan Faerber (covers for “Adventure Time,” “Regular Show). As with his previous work, “Oh, Killstrike” will be a story that Bemis uses the lens of personal experience to tell. But this series will be a bit of a departure for the writer as well, as he uses the framework of a buddy comedy to build the narrative.
To celebrate the series launch, Bemis took the time to talk with us about his influences, writing on the road, and the last comic he drew himself. We’ve also got an exclusive preview of two pages of Faerber’s interiors.
Oh, Killstrike #1 (of 4)
Written by Max Bemis
Illustrated by Logan FaerberWhat’s to Love: Say Anything frontman Max Bemis writes a love letter to 1990s superhero comics in this tongue-in-cheek homage to the era, featuring the art stylings of Logan Faerber—reminiscent of works by Chip Zdarsky and Jeff Lemire. Much like Polarity, Oh, Killstrike is very personal to Bemis: It’s about a new dad who loves comics from his youth. Part twisted buddy comedy, part profound coming-of-age story, we could not stop smiling when reading Oh, Killstrike.
What It Is: Jared, a new father, fears parenthood. An old comics fan, he turns to them for comfort. But when he unwittingly lets loose his favorite character, Killstrike—a single-minded, vengeance-loving anti-hero—onto the world, Jared must find a way to send him back before he harms all the people he loves the most. But before that happens, Killstrike leads Jared on a quest of self-discovery to make him realize the kid who loved this character is not the man he has become.
Hey Max, thanks for taking the time to do this, man.
Max Bemis: Of course!
So, do you want to start with the obligatory elevator pitch?
MB: Sure. Well, the idea for the book is that the hero of the story, Jared, is this incredibly pretentious comics fan who, you know, I’m sure a lot of readers can relate to because he’s incredibly passionate about comics, but he’s also overly critical of them, and he’s super discerning about what he reads. So he finds out that there’s an issue of a comic that he has from his childhood that is very rare and he can eBay it for a bunch of money. The comic itself is one of those superhero comics from the 90’s, like very, very 90s, and he goes to his house that he grew up in to find it, to sell it, and Killstrike, the lead character of the comic, comes to life and they embark on this buddy comedy trip together to find the Jared’s absentee father. The whole thing is kinda based on the dynamic of this guy who looks down so much on this era of comics, as so many of us do, versus this character, who’s a classically 90s stereotype comic hero come to life. It’s kinda the opposite ends of the spectrum because Jared’s ashamed to be seen with Killstrike, he’s ashamed that he ever read the comic. And Killstrike’s just, you know, a total character. He’s a huge hulking behemoth guy with face tattoos, and pouches, and knives and is very single minded. And now, Jared’s kinda gotta teach him to exist in modern society. It’s a very classic buddy/fish out of water thing. A lot of it is a sort of a love letter to my own experience being a comic reader and my own relationship with the comics I grew up reading.
I’m gonna assume that this character is based on who was popular when you probably first began reading, right?
MB: Yeah, like, it is close to home in certain ways; definitely in the fact that I sometime feel jaded as a comic reader, but then I have to remind myself that I was the one purchasing the foil covered “Lady Death” or the “Youngblood” #1 ashcan or whatever it was. But Jared himself is a lot more far gone than me and very selfish. He’s almost like a Scrooge type character. I still read superhero comics happily, and I love them and I’m able to sorta admit my guilty pleasure of mainstream tastes. Where this guy is one of those people you meet or see on a message board who can’t get past the pretentiousness, and I think that there is a part of me that obviously feels that way, and i guess it’s just kind of blown up and out of proportion. But I probably just want to smack the Jared around a little bit.
Continued belowNow, the title “Oh, Killstrike,” when I read the description of the series, and I hear you talk about it, I see the title I think of it as almost an ‘Oh, Killstrike‘ and then freeze frame at the end of the sitcom and cue the laugh track. Is that basically the gist?
MB: Yeah, that is it, you got it on the nose.
So there’ll be some, ‘aw, shucks’ moment in this?
MB: Yeah, the funny thing about it is that it has a lot of heart. Coming off of Evil Empire I wanted to do a really sweet natured comic. It’s definitely like, the comedy itself is pretty dark at times and kinda messed up and weird and uncomfortable. My brand of comedy has never been the obvious, it’s always the most weird sort of eclectic, uncomfortable comedy. There’s always this element of sitcom, of the two mismatched main characters. So it does have a lot of heart, but it’s self conscious, or self-aware that it has that archetype of, ‘Oh Killstrike you just unloaded a plasma rifle.’
‘You so crazy’
MB: Yeah, ‘You crazy Killstrike,’ that was the whole thing. It’s almost like that’s the comic in a nutshell. This straight laced guy dealing with this complete cartoon of a character who is definitely a combination of Cable, Deadpool, Spawn, and any member of Youngblood. I kind of tried to imagine what that person would be like in these personal situations, as opposed to fighting some threat. What would he be like to be on an airplane? When you’re sitting next to Badrock from Youngblood on an airplane what is that like, you know?
So you’re working with Logan Faerber on this. When you’re taking to him about this idea, when you guys are first breaking this story, talk to me a little bit about what the process of creating this character was, and what creating the visuals was like.
MB: Well, me and Logan are completely on the same page when it comes to actually having grown up reading these comics, so as soon as I told Logan about the concept of the book and the kind of character that Killstrike was and that Jared was, like, I gave some description, but this was very much a co-creation visually. Because we just knew exactly what the joke was, and I think that anyone who’s aware of those comics could have almost, if they were as talented of an artist as Logan is and he’s just incredible, could draw the idea of Killstrike in a second. Because it’s really just rolling together these elements that’re so common, and they’re on almost every one of those characters. So as soon as I saw the first preliminary sketch of Killstrike I was like, of course, he nailed it. And the cool thing about the book is that there’s a lot of room. Where “Evil Empire” is very ground level and realistic, this is kind of a cartoon. So there’s a lot of areas where Logan will embellish with little touches and expressions an stuff that I didn’t even have in the script, and it works perfectly because it’s so much more fantastical, the story, than “Evil Empire,” which is happening right now.
When you first brought this idea to BOOM! was there any ever talk of doing foil covers for it?
MB: (laughter) You know, we’ve talked about doing something to tie it to the real 90’s stuff. I think they actually have some plans in the works. I don’t know if its a full on foil cover, but they’ve got some plan, I think, to do some 90’s celebratory variants.
That’s amazing.
MB: I don’t want to give it away yet, but I think there might be something in the works for that.
So, speaking of BOOM!, this is the third series you’re doing with them. What was it like first coming to them with ideas and with publishing stuff. How did the relationship begin?
MB: Well the relationship began through my booking agent, who somehow knew someone who knew Ross Richie. And I ended up taking a meeting with him. This must be five years ago now. We had an amazing lunch together and talked comics, and he saw pretty quickly that I’m just a huge comic geek. I wasn’t just ‘(in a hoity-toity voice) some guy in a band who thought that comics were becoming cool again and wanted to do one to be cool.’
Continued below(Laughter) Yeah.
MB: I think that was a very important interaction for us to have. And I hadn’t even written a page at the time and it was all theoretical. I was still kinda daring myself to try to be creative in this new venue. He was open to it and by the time I was ready to actually pitch a book, and I had taken a few meetings with other people, I just sort of reached out to Ross and he was like, “Yeah, of course, let me hear some ideas.” And they fell in love with the idea of “Polarity,” and ever since then I’ve had a really close working relationship with everyone at BOOM! It’s developed a lot over time, I needed a lot of guidance when we were first doing “Polarity” because I had never done it before. But now it’s a lot more seamless and I feel like I’m actually a comic writer. You know, whatever degree of success or respect I have is a whole other story, but I feel like this is actually my second career. And BOOM!, I just got lucky that my first experience was with someone so awesome. So, obviously, I wanted to keep working with them, and still do, even as I start to do stuff for other companies. I can’t foresee not wanting to work with them ever because they’re just so great.
BOOM! has published the work of a few musicians before, and it’s never felt gimmicky. I kinda understand what you were saying before about this being something that you really want to do, because everyone remembers those Kiss comics, you know what I mean?
MB: Yeah exactly!
But BOOM! picks and does really cool things. Besides your stuff there’s stuff with Claudio from Coheed and Cambria, and they did that Rush comic a few months ago…
MB: Yeah, I think they’re discerning and I think a lot of comic companies are becoming more discerning about not just putting out a comic because someone has some established profile. Because, first of all, you may sell a lot of the first issue to the person’s fan base, but unless they have any sort of chops or passion for comics… they’re not going to do an ongoing series and expect a lot of quality out of someone who’s ghost writing the series who’s some, like, actor. It’s like, it has to be someone who’s passionate. I think comics fans, at least I am, are really leery about that stuff. I think there a few great examples of people, like Joss Whedon or someone like that, who are really known for what they did outside of comics, but when they came to comics they made it their business to really do it right. And I think comics fans can pick up on that. It’s definitely something that I am aware of as I work, and I’m trying to kinda constantly escape being classified as someone who’s not really committed to the career.
When you’re writing for comics, how different are the creative muscles that you’re using vs. when you’re working as a lyricist?
MB: They’re very different, I have to admit. I mean, there’s the same underlying creative spirit that sorta comes out of nowhere. I sort of work very quickly, and I work very intensely, and that’s definitely the same as it is in music. But the difference in music is that when you’re making an album, that’s a process that takes up to a year, including writing, recording it, marketing, blah blah blah. And you really only do it once every couple of years if you’re the average rock band, as I’m in. Whereas with comics, you’re putting them out monthly. So every two weeks you’re doing something else. Or every few days you’re doing something else. And then it comes to rewriting and editing, and now that I’ve got a few books going for this next year, I’m finally getting to see what it’s like and it’s actually great. You know, its less of a time commitment to do one issue of comics that it is to do an entire album of music, but you have to kinda work at it more constantly. And that’s definitely a cool thing to have as a different thing than music. Because music definitely takes so much more time, depending on how you’re doing it, or how I do it at least, it takes a lot more time. Unless you’re playing shows, and that’s kind of a whole other thing that’s more like working out.
Continued belowThat’s a little more visceral and immediate
MB: Exactly
Now, in talking about playing shows, and I guess particularly as a touring musician, does the hurry-up-and-wait of touring afford you time to work on your comics writing?
MB: Yeah, that’s the thing. I’ve begun to do work with Avatar Press, and I’ve been becoming friends more with William Christensen, the guy who runs the company. He’s so sweet about everything and he’s always very worried that I won’t have any time, he’s like, “I don’t want to put too hard of a deadline on something because you’re in a band, you have this whole job,” and I was trying to explain to him like, “you don’t understand, we are the laziest artists.” Musicians are so lazy because, generally, if it’s your entire career, even if you’re in the most successful band in the world, you may be busy doing press or shooting music videos or whatever, but that’s why there are so many musicians with drug problems its because literally it is the most hurry-up-and-wait thing in the world. When you’re on tour, people make a big deal out of going on tour, and it is emotionally hard, but in reality you’re sitting on a bus or in a van driving or waiting. All day. And then you play. You know? And then if you’re not on tour, you’re waiting to go on tour, or record. Like, maybe recording is kinda time consuming, but beyond that there is so much hurry-up-and-wait. So it actually makes it really convenient for me to do comics full time.
When you’re working out ideas, do you sketch at all?
MB: Nooo, in fact the last time I drew a comic I was probably eight or nine years old.
(Laughter)
MB: And it was called “Crystal Force.”
That’s a fantastic title.
MB: It was very influenced by the early work of Rob Liefeld. (Laughter) It was actually the inspiration for Killstrike. My mom dug out those old comics and I looked at them and I was like, “woah!” (laughter) And I was like, how funny is it that this super discerning comic reader, this is my past, this is when I actually got attracted to comics. It was because of this. And there’s a sort of magic to that era. A lot of Killstrike itself isn’t just making fun of that era, its also trying to show that it was kinda cool. And I think that’s actually coming into peoples’ consciousness now. When you look at the “Prophet” relaunch or just Image doing cool stuff in general, and you think about the spirit of creativity that was going on at the time, it doesn’t matter that it’s slightly embarrassing now. In certain respects, it’s still really important and I think that’s part of the journey of the Jared, to realizing that he doesn’t have to compartmentalize that part of his life.
Yeah man. For all the flack that that era of comics gets I think you’d be be hard pressed to find someone who’d deny that they weren’t a ton of fuckin’ fun, you know?
MB: Yeah, they were so much fun! And I think they’re even an influence on what we read now, because they made things so immediate. It was during this era or sorta stagnation in the superhero world, and people were just sick of the same boring characters not really with too much emotional depth who were too afraid to like beat the shit out of someone. Now when you have a comic, and you have Jason Aaron or Brian Bends writing the X-Men or Thor, we kind of expect that same immediacy and emotional engagement in a comic. Because of that era where it was like every page someone dies, you know?
(Laughter) Of course.
MB: And I think there was a little bit of that lacking. You know, I’m not saying it was the perfect way to do it, but like, I think it’s been engrained into anyone who’s around my age or was into that stuff. I need to be entertained, you know? This isn’t just something where we can watch Superman walk around beating up people in stupid costumes endlessly over and over again. There needed to be something different. Not to mention the publishing paradigm that Image set up at the time, which is now really important for everyone. So it is kind of a duality of completely making fun of it and embracing it.
Make sure to keep an eye out for more information about “Oh, Killstrike” as we get closer to the May release date, and thanks again to BOOM! and Max for being so gracious!
