It’s Paul Pope’s world—the rest of us just get to write about it. Pope, the iconoclastic creator of such acclaimed original comics works as 100% and Heavy Liquid and the Eisner award-winning artist/writer of DC’s Batman: Year 100, is at work on multiple book projects—including a new series aimed at kids and even turns his attention to the world of fashion.
After winning an Eisner for Batman: Year 100, Pope’s work enjoyed a surge of attention going back to his long out-of-print series Heavy Liquid and 100%, both from Vertigo. The publisher announced plans to release a new hardcover edition of Heavy Liquid, a combination love story and international crime thriller transformed by Pope’s singular vision of the near future, that was originally published as a five-issue miniseries in 1999 and a now out-of-print trade paperback collection in 2001. Pope said he was looking around online and noticed out of print editions of Heavy Liquid selling on eBay for as much as $200.
"That was disgusting to me," he said. "That was money those fans could've spent on other books."
That disgust spurred Pope to push for a new printing of the series, which was released this month as a recolored hardcover edition with bonus sketch material. Next year, look for a new printing of 100%—another noirish Pope investigation of love, art and urban life and technology in the near future—thatwill also come out from Vertigo. "I'm glad people can read it," Pope said. "It seemed like a lot of people missed it."
While the re-release of Heavy Liquid, might seem like an occasion for nostalgia, Pope dismissed that notion, “Honestly, I haven't even read it in years." His only involvement with the project—besides getting the ball rolling—was to select a new color palette. "I don't read my own stuff that often. It's not enjoyable,” Pope said.
In an afterword to the new hardcover edition of Heavy Liquid, Pope wrote that the project was largely influenced by the band Thee Hypnotics. But Pope is also one of the few American comics creators who have worked in the Japanese manga industry, creating pages for Kodansha for about 5 years, a time he considers a form of graduate training in comics creating. Now, he says a lot of the work in Heavy Liquid came from trying to respond to the sprawling, massive monthly Japanese manga compilations he used to read.
"I was trying to do something that, at this stage, I would probably say was a little bit too clever," he said. "I wanted to throw as many disparate things in there that I could. Now I think I would've developed Heavy Liquid more as a thing. But it stands up. It has the noir elements. I love Chandler, and I always wanted to explore that."
He has no interest in returning to the setting, though, nor that of 100%, which he said, "I first conceived when I was 24. For that period, 100% really codified a lot of my interests and what I was trying to express in comics. I call those two books and Batman: Year 100 my New York dystopian trilogy. These stories all take place in the same universe. They're all different, but they're all interconnected."
Pope said now more than anything he wants to focus on "optimistic work," particularly his ongoing series THB and Battling Boy, an all-ages story set to come out in two graphic novels from First Second, the first set to debut at the 2010 New York Comic Con. Speaking during a brief break from working on Battling Boy(which has been optioned by Paramount with Brad Pitt's Plan B as producer)in his New York studio, Pope said it's a very personal project "and I just want it to be bad ass."
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Battling Boy |
Battling Boyis set in Monstropolis, a "pre-World War II European capital," type of city, Pope said. The titular character is the son of a god/hero and he's an elite monster-slayer even though he’s still a child. Pope said he set out with the project to make a super hero story for children, a type of project he doesn't see coming from Marvel and DC. He also believes the book is a "brother project" to THB, his much-lauded and much revised science fiction epic about the colonization of Mars.
"I really like this idea of [novelist] Michael Chabon's that a super hero is a wish fulfillment," Pope said. "Jung said something like a super hero emerges when people's consciousness concentrates. So, what's the superman for now?"
The answer Pope came up with was a super hero who would protect children. And the story grew as he combined elements of mythology and Jungian archetypes to craft an elaborate world. Pope will explain the fantasy and mythology of Battling Boy through an index in the back of each book, which he said he hopes will inspire young readers to look into mythology.
"I think kids can handle stuff that's scary," he said. "I think kids realize they're not really safe in this world. So that's kind of the heart of the story. Also it's kind of funny, an indestructible kid destroying monsters." He's also trying to expand on the traditional graphic novel structure, he said, eschewing the three-act format and following the story into "eddies" and breaking the story out into fight scenes that can last as long as 40 or 50 pages.
Beyond that, the ever-busy Pope is working as a freelance illustrator for a range of corporate clients and enjoying his recent successful debut as a fashion designer through his DKNY 2089 clothing line. If it sells well, he said he would like to take on more clothing-design work, though "hopefully I'll be able to have more artistic control."
Despite the success of Batman: Year 100, Pope said he isn't racing to jump into work on another licensed comics property. He's only interested in licensed work if it's something he really wants to do.
"I might do an issue of Jonah Hex next year," he said. "He's a great character. And I really want to draw horses."