Fantasy Works for Desperado

This story originally appeared in PW Comics Week on March 7, 2006 Sign up now!

by Ian Brill, PW Comics Week -- Publishers Weekly, 3/7/2006

After making his mark working for indie comics legend Bob Burden and Flaming Carrot; at short-lived Caliber Comics, where he edited the acclaimed anthology Negative Burn; and later at Marvel Comics, Joe Pruett launched Desperado Publishing in 2004. His intention was to publish the best talent and the best creator-owned properties around. When you take a look at the list of creators he’s brought to Desperado—among them J.M. DeMatteis, Mike Ploog, Keith Giffen, Jimmy Palmiotti, Tony Harris, and Amanda Connor, to name a few—it looks like he succeeded. PWCW got in touch with Pruett to talk about new projects at Desperado.

PW Comics Week: How did Mark Chadbourn get involved with Desperado?

Joe Pruett: Mark and I worked together a couple of times back in 1997 while I was the creative director at Caliber Comics. I don't exactly remember how we got together (probably a blind submission from Mark), but I liked his writing then as much as I like it now. At the time, he introduced himself as a British horror novelist, having published a few novels. He wrote a short story for one of the later issues of Negative Burn [which was included in the Negative Burn: The Best from 19931998, published by Desperado/Image in early 2005], which I thought was amazing. From that he pitched me an ongoing series, Fatalis. I accepted it, and shortly thereafter left Caliber Comics to move back to Atlanta and pursue my own freelance writer career. I believe only one issue of Fatalis was published as it was a very turbulent time in the comics industry and smaller press companies were having a hard time staying in business.

I fell out of touch with Mark upon my departure from Caliber, but I picked up a magazine to read on the airplane flight to the San Diego Comic Con International in the summer of 2004, where I announced the formation of Desperado Publishing to the world, and to my surprise there was an article about this successful British fantasy novelist named Mark Chadbourn. I was happy for Mark's success and made myself a mental note to get in touch with him. A few months later, I found myself in Cambridge, England, at a bookstore where I came across a copy of The Queen of Sinister. I really liked it. This time, I followed through and got in touch with Mark and the idea of Book of Shadows was born.

PWCW: Why a prequel [Book of Shadows] to Lords of Misrule?

JP: Two reasons. Firstly, while Mark has been making himself a name in the fantasy world in Europe and elsewhere, his novels still haven't made a mark here in the States, so he's a virtual unknown over here. Secondly, he already has gained a considerable audience for his novel trilogies, so we should use that to our advantage. By tying into his already established mythology, then perhaps his audience could be persuaded to follow him into the comics/graphic novel medium. Although we toyed with the idea of doing straight adaptations of the novels, we figured it would offer more incentive to his audience and to our audience to do a spinoff of the novels instead. That way we can get the comics audience to seek out the novels and hopefully get the novel audience to seek out the comics.

PWCW: Will there be other projects with Chadbourn?

JP: I would like nothing more. Mark is a very talented writer and, good for me, a big comic book fan. If this project is successful, then Mark and I would both like to see either a regular ongoing comic book series and/or various projects based within his mythos. I'd also like to get Mark to do some more horror writing and he already has an original comic series on my desk that we've talked about a bit as well. Mark's got an open invitation at Desperado Publishing for as long as he wants it.

PWCW: Will there be other projects with other fantasy authors?

P: We're already following the Book of Shadows format [original tales spun off from novels] with another fantasy author, Frank Beddor, the writer of the Looking Glass Wars trilogy currently being printed by Egmont in England and making its way to our shores through Penguin Books this coming fall. Looking Glass Wars: Hater M is a four-issue series which answers some questions about citizens of Wonderland not answered in the novel series. Frank is probably more well-known as one of the producers for the extremely successful movie There’s Something About Mary, but he's surprised a lot of people by stepping away from Hollywood for a bit to produce this fascinating look at Alice in Wonderland. I urge everyone to check out his Web site (www.lookingglasswars.com) to learn more. It's fabulous. I'd love to work with other authors as well. Some I've worked with in the past like Neil Gaiman or others I've never even met like Michael Moorcock, Robert Jordan, etc.

PWCW: Why a partnership with Image Comics?

JP: It just makes sense. In today's comic market, it's pretty crowded and difficult to get noticed. With Image's reputation and with their market share and visibility we're probably getting attention we wouldn't have received had we gone out on our own. It's a mutually beneficial partnership for both companies. We bring them high-quality projects and creators which they benefit from and they give us all the advice, help and visibility that we benefit from.

PWCW: How does the partnership work?

JP: Desperado Publishing is its own entity. We decide what we want to publish. We pay the creators ourselves. We put the titles and projects together. Once the project or issue is complete and ready to go, we then send it to Image Comics and they deal with the printer, the distributor, etc., until the comic book [or] book ends up in the local comic shop or bookstore. Working with Image allows us to avoid a lot of the little headaches that come with being a publisher and allows us to focus on the creative end of it.

PWCW: Why is the fantasy genre important to Desperado?

JP: It's such a lively market and genre. Everybody loves fantasy. Look at the success of the Lord of the Rings movies for a mainstream example of how popular the fantasy genre is. Fantasy is about the larger-than-life hero that appeals to the comic book fan, an audience that's grown up on larger-than-life superheroes. At Desperado, our goal is to produce the best that every genre has to offer. So far we've been very lucky that we've been able to work with such talented authors as Mark Chadbourn, Frank Beddor and others in the fantasy field. I'd love to work with Stephen King, Dan Simmons, Koji Suzuki and others to produce the best in horror and science fiction as well.

PWCW: What are your plans with name creators like writer Garth Ennis and artist Bernie Wrightson among others?

JP: Garth is an old friend of mine who teamed with artist John McCrea, who's the talented artist on our popular the Atheist series, on an over-the-top detective series called Dicks while I was at Caliber. We're going to do another limited series with those characters. Bernie, with Bruce Jones, allowed us to repackage their Freak Show project that was serialized in Heavy Metal back in the early 1980s. We've got projects from Paul Jenkins, Don McGregor, P. Craig Russell, Brian Bolland, Phil Hester, Bob Burden and Tony Harris on the schedule. Again, we're more concerned about quality than anything, and by looking over our creative talent, you can see that we're serious about following through with our goal.

« Back | Print