ARC Asks: David Pepose

Charting a career in comics

Editor’s Note: It’s Wednesday so that means it’s time for the eighth issue of Amazing Journey, the comics section of ARC Worlds.

The Amazing Journey column will touch on a comics-related topic, such as writing the first issue of a series, what it’s like to run a comic book store, working with artists, and how writing comics is different from writing prose.

Amazing Journey back issues

True believers unite (#1) | My comics origin story (#2) | Comic event series (#3) | The comics of Kickstarter (#4) | Single issues or trades? (#5) | From prose to comics (#6) | Adapting a celebrated fantasy series into a comic (#7)

Today I’ve got a great interview with comics writer David Pepose!

A former crime reporter turned storytelling professional, David Pepose has tackled comic strip homicide, wedding-crashing bank robbers, and post-apocalyptic fairy tales as the Ringo Award-winning writer of Savage Avengers, Avengers Unlimited, Spencer & Locke, Going to the Chapel, Grand Theft Astro, The O.Z., Scout’s Honor, and more.

I was introduced to David’s work after coming across his first Kickstarter campaign for his series The O.Z. (What if The Hurt Locker took place in the Wizard of Oz?) and later met him in person at the last two New York Comic Cons. I’ve had some great conversations with him about writing and charting a career in comics, and our interview today is no exception!

Check out the interview below and make sure you read to the end to learn about The O.Z. giveaway I’m running!

1. A lot of breaking-into-comics advice usually centers around making comics, getting them out into the world, and building relationships with editors. How do you get on an editor’s radar without being seen as self-promoting?

Great question — I think a lot of creators struggle with how much to push their work, whether it be on Kickstarter, or showing it off to editors, agents, etc. But I’d counter by saying that advocating for your work is part of the job, and nobody ever got a job by being shy.

My advice for getting on an editor’s radar is to be particular about who you’re reaching out to — if you’re able to say that you like some of their current work, it helps show that your sensibilities might be in sync — and then send them a quick email introducing yourself, and attach a small file with your best recent sample. Beyond that, it’s often a slow build from there — sometimes an editor is too busy to read your work, sometimes there just isn’t an opening, sometimes you’re not there yet, and sometimes it’s just easier not to respond rather than turn you down outright. 

But sending the email is the first step — because then whenever you have something new coming out, you can politely touch base again with your new material, and each communication is another opportunity to get on the radar. I think as editors see you’re consistent (and consistently polite and respectful of their time and other responsibilities — not pushy or needy or hostile!), they’re more inclined to respond. If an editor can see over time that you’re talented, reliable, and not a crazy person to work with, then you’re already about 85% there. 

2. You had a pitch that you thought you were never going to use that ended up being the basis for your Savage Avengers pitch. How often do you find yourself reworking past pitches when an opportunity arises?

It does happen from time to time. My all-ages superhero story Roxy Rewind was built on a short story concept I’d written nearly fifteen years ago, and then reworked a second time seven or eight years ago as an animated series pilot. I got an anthology story accepted based on another short I wrote way back when, too — honestly, if you have a good idea, there’s no expiration date on it. And if anything, getting to revisit those old concepts usually is a blessing, because you’re able to come back to it with a great deal more skill than when you first envisioned it.

3. How is the process of writing in the Marvel universe different from developing your other work? Similarly, how did you find shifting from Savage Avengers to a different corner of the universe in your Fantastic Four issues? And was there anything different in your scripting process that you did for your Avengers Unlimited run?

I’d say the biggest difference for writing in a shared universe is continuity, which I’d bet a lot of people would say has its benefits and its drawbacks. The benefit is you have a ton of backstory to draw from, with characters whose core traits have generally already been established for you — there’s some room for reinterpretation and revision within reason, but there’s a lot of raw material already there for you to draw connections. 

The major challenge is navigating the traffic of it all — you might have a villain you really want to use, but some other book just used them a couple months back, or there’s a hero you want to add to your team, but some other comic is already using them and they aren’t big enough to sustain memberships in two different titles. Luckily, you aren’t expected to know that stuff ahead of time — your editors are able to see the bigger picture and will convey that to you — but that means sometimes you’ll have to come up with a Plan B, or Plan C, or even a Plan Z.

Beyond that, when it comes from switching gears between titles, I think it’s often a matter of tone and what that book is meant to accomplish in terms of its existence. Savage Avengers is this big, bombastic, metal epic, with larger-than-life battle sequences and this operatic narration; Fantastic Four is a more down-to-earth, human action story that happens to have Jack Kirby super-science as its grace notes. I just worked on something with another character recently who felt so massive that it was hard to wrap my mind around them — and that very unknowable quality wound up setting the unsettling tone of the entire story. (You’ll find out a little more about that one in February...)

Avengers Unlimited was a really interesting and fun series to work on, for a couple of reasons — firstly, I saw that series as inherently built for more casual readers, since they’re based in continuity but not particularly beholden to it, if that makes sense? And secondly, the Infinity Comics format is built on the vertical scroll versus standard pages — that means you’re looking to leverage your artwork in a vertical sense, but just as important, you’re not wracking your brain trying to figure out how to fit your story across each individual page. For those stories, I know I have a certain number of images to work within in total, and that winds up streamlining the process for me dramatically. Honestly, figuring out how to fit my story inside the page count is, like, half my job, so this format was a breath of fresh air for me. (Laughs)

4. Which Savage Avenger would you most want to write again in a future series?

Boy, that’s a tough question… I feel like it’d be really fun to write more Black Knight on another team book. And I still think Cloak and Dagger deserve a shot on the flagship Avengers lineup. But if we’re talking individual characters…? I’d probably say Elektra, especially as Daredevil. Or maybe Flash Thompson, if I found the right angle for him in the greater Symbiote landscape.

5. You’ve talked in the past about reverse-engineering a comic down to its script as a learning vehicle. What is about that exercise that you think is beneficial to a new comics writer? 

Writing comics is ultimately about pacing — you have to figure out how much story you can fit in on a page-by-page, panel-by-panel, even line-by-line basis. If you rely solely on learning by doing, you’re probably going to wind up with some very cramped and frustrated artists and letterers on your hands, so taking the time to reverse-engineer what’s already seen print is a good way to calibrate your pacing accordingly.

David Pepose - Comic Book Writer @Peposed

@KurtBusiek One of the most important pieces of advice I got was from @Ssnyder1835, who recommended breaking down your favorite comic into script form, page-by-page, panel-by-panel, line-by-line. (I believe he recommended Batman: Year One — at least that was the first comic I tried it with.)

6. After The O.Z. #3, how do you see crowdfunding factoring into your future projects? How do you approach marketing your crowd-funded comics, where you can see people backing in real-time, versus your work with publishers?

Absolutely — I love the Kickstarter community, and even after we finish The O.Z., I plan on continuing to fund books on the platform for as long as there’s a viable audience for it. 

I think you nailed it on the head as far as the differences between Kickstarter and a Direct Market publisher — a Direct Market publisher is more of a sustained, long-term marathon, whereas with Kickstarter you’re able to really cut loose and go for broke promoting it at full-blast for 30-ish days straight. 

For me, I think of it as leaving no stone unturned during that Kickstarter window — I’ve had days where I’ll do four or five interviews in one day to promote my work, but that's sustainable because you’re only operating at that speed for just a month. But similar to what we discussed about reaching out to editors, promoting your work for a Kickstarter is the job — honestly, you could probably tweet once an hour, and if somebody else thinks you're too much, that’s their problem.

7. You always manage to come up with fun but opaque names in your weekly emails for the not-yet-announced projects you are working on. Do you just pick random cool names or do you think of something that is connected to the plot of the series?

It’s always connected somehow — but sometimes the connections are overt, and some of them are so abstract that I’m probably the only one who’d be able to connect the dots. But oftentimes working for comics means you’re working anywhere from five months to several years ahead of when the project will actually see the light of day, so using the codenames keeps me sane and lets me talk about what little I can.

(I am guessing that Project Sweet Potato is either a slice-of-life story about a fry-cooker working at McDonald’s looking for love or a farmer who gets caught up in the high-stakes world of international espionage after a spy seeks refuge in his barn).

Heh. Very different from what you’re thinking. But it’s probably the project that hits my emotional core the hardest. Very excited for it to see the light of day.

Bonus question: where would you rather be stranded, the Hyborian Age or 2099? 

I’d absolutely be dead either way, so I guess I’d say 2099. The TV is better there. (Laughs)

Thank you David for stopping by ARC Worlds!

You can pick up Savage Avengers volume 1 at your local comic shop and be sure to grab issue #10 when it hits the shelves on February 22.

You can find out more about David’s comics on his website, by subscribing to his newsletter, and by following him on Twitter.

Before you go, I’m running a giveaway for a physical copy of The O.Z. #1!

Decades ago, when a young girl defeated the Wicked Witch of the West, she said farewell to the magical land of Oz… but unwittingly plunged the country into years of brutal civil war. But a generation later, the name of Dorothy Gale lives on in her granddaughter, an Iraq war veteran grappling with disillusionment and PTSD — until a tornado strands her in the war-torn battlefield known only as The O.Z. Forced to navigate warring factions led by the Tin Soldier, the Scarecrow, and the Courageous Lion, Dorothy must face her past and embark on a dangerous quest for the all-powerful Silver Slippers if she ever hopes to bring peace to the Occupied Zone.

To enter, make sure you are subscribed to ARC Worlds and leave a comment to this post with the comic or graphic novel you’re currently reading! Or if you’re not currently reading one, let me know what was the last comic you enjoyed! Giveaway open to U.S. residents only.