You also revealed at the Image Expo keynote that "Casanova," formerly of Marvel's Icon line, is now back at its original home, Image. What prompted that decision?
It's just best for the book right now. And that's sort of what all the business decisions about "Casanova" have always been -- "What is going to allow the book to exist right now?" This is the best place for us right now. I'm thrilled to be back.
It was the first comic I ever wrote, and I wrote it because Eric Stephenson asked if I wanted to write a comic. I had written short stories, and I had written graphic novels, but I hadn't written a comic with staples. It was all on Eric. He was and is "Casanova's" first fan, and I think I can channel the excitement and energy that Image has right now into recreating and rebirthing the series.
When the story opens up, Casanova has complete amnesia. Casanova doesn't remember the first three volumes, and he's not going to figure it out. So it's kind of a perfect place for new readers to come in, because your lead character has no idea what happened in the past, either. An interstellar James Bond has complete amnesia, and Blofeld and all the bad guys find out. Basically everybody he's ever pissed off, every woman whose heart he's ever broke, every relationship he ever ruined, every person he's ever left widowed or orphaned, find out he's helpless as a kitten, living on our Earth, in a very regular, normal place, in Los Angeles, and all of the bad guys come after him. It's like a sexy, psychedelic, spy-addled "Straw Dogs."
This sets up the next trilogy. There were three volumes, and we're going to put out hardcovers of those; we're going to put out, I hope, a big collection of all three. But this is always going to stand alone, unless we collect everything in one giant book -- which I'm not a fan of, but I could be swayed. This was always a standalone in the grand scheme of things. This is the most different; this is entirely independent. It's the midpoint, and the main character doesn't remember the first three -- so, come on.
And we can't ignore the Michael Chabon-written back-ups, which, from the news that surfaced a few months back, started with him being a fan?
That's how we met. Chabon was on a book tour -- he was in Lawrence, Kansas, this was when I lived in Kansas City -- Jai [Nitz] and I went to meet him, talked about comics a little bit, and Michael expressed that he was a fan, and he knew that I was there, and was hoping I would come out. Jai said, "This is going to sound crazy, but Michael Chabon just said he wished you would come out and meet him." I was terrified. I can't express to you -- I'm getting goosebumps just thinking about it -- how important of a writer he is to my life, and how important a writer he was to my development as a writer. I always feel weird saying, "This is the book that made me want to be a writer!" It feels so diminishing and silly. But he is an incredibly important person in my development.
I just didn't believe it. I introduced myself -- I brought him comics, which he then stopped me, and reached into his own bag. He had brought them just in case I came out. So we started to talk, then we became friends, and our families have broken bread together; I've watched his kids grow up.
One day we ended up on a podcast together, and we were joking around about doing something, and he said, "The only comics I want to write are back-up stories for 'Casanova.'" "Done. You're in. Let's go." Afterwards: "Were we kidding? How much of a joke was that?" "I'm not kidding at all." So, away we go. One of my heroes is now writing a book with me.
over the holidays -- the accounts of Fraction and artists Gabriel Bá and Fabio Moon, specifically -- you saw clear indications that work has indeed begun on the long-rumored and much-anticipated third volume of the critically acclaimed spy-fi series.
