As its readers know, if there’s an antidote to superheroes, it’s Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson’s The Boys
published by Dynamite Entertainment. Together, the creators pit their
crew of agents charged with policing the superheroes against those that
the public sees as the brightest and the best heroes their world have
to offer.
And that’s not all Ennis has to offer at Dynamite. Coming in October, Ennis will write Garth Ennis’ Battlefields,
a return of sorts to realistic war stories from fronts that are not as
well known as those learned about in history classes, but yet, Ennis
loads them to the breaking point with drama and gripping action.
And yet, even that’s not all from Ennis at Dynamite. We spoke with
Dynamite President Nick Barrucci about what’s to come during “Garth
Ennis Month.”
Newsarama: Nick, October sees The Boys #23, which is Dynamite's 17th issue of the series. How's it performing for you in regards to your larger library of titles?
Nick Barrucci: The Boys is performing almost as well as
it did when we launched it under Dynamite as a monthly title June of
last year. There was a lot of hype when we launched and we got a few
extra readers, and we've kept some, but not all - it happens. It’s nice
that we’ve kept the momentum going. We've got a nice, steady pace, and
the trade paperbacks and collections keep selling gang busters.
NRAMA: So, no regrets about taking it on?
NB: Not a single one. It is one of the smartest, most
irreverent, fun comics out there and it is an honor to be publishing
it. On a personal note, it’s one of my favorite comics in the market
today. Not just favorite that Dynamite publishes, but one of my
favorite titles period. I have to tell you, every time I think of how
fortunate we are to publish this book, I remember Darick talking to
Charles (Brownstein) at Wizard World Philly telling him how this was
going to be one of his favorite jobs to work on.
NRAMA: In your view, who reads The Boys?
NB: I wish I could tell you who reads The Boys. It feels like everybody does because there are very few people in the business I speak with who don't read The Boys.
NRAMA: You'd had a personal relationship with Garth prior to this, but bringing The Boys
over certainly opened the door for more material for you from him.
We've spoken about it before, but just to recap a little - how did Garth Ennis' Battlefields get rolling?
NB: I did have a relationship with Garth though I actually had a stronger relationship with Darick. Garth's Battlefields
came along by Garth saying no to titles we asked him to consider
writing. He had very little interest in the projects we had suggested
to him and we just turned the tables on him and asked him what he would
like to do more of and he said "war comics." We said fine, it was
really that easy. Darick is still under exclusive with DC, with The Boys being his carve out, otherwise I would imagine we would be pestering him as well.
NRAMA: Speaking of Battlefields, big-picture-wise, what
stories is Garth looking to tell here? After all, he seems to have his
foot in the door at Marvel with the War is Hell project, which seems to be along the same lines, albeit with fictional characters...
NB: The Battlefields project is different in that he’s
not taking an existing character and crafting a story around it, like
he did with the Marvel book (and in a way that only Garth could). These
are real stories, without company characters – no matter how obscure –
that Garth has meticulously researched and carefully crafted. I
honestly think he’s having the time of his life writing these 3 stories.
NRAMA: Will Battlefields be an ongoing? A series of miniseries?
NB: Battlefields is currently set at nine issues. There
will be three, three issue story arcs with three different artists.
Peter Snejbjerg, Russ Braun and Carlos Ezquerra. I would like them to
be one nine issue series, Garth has suggested making them three, three
issue mini-series due to the fact that there are three different
artists drawing each series. We will have it all figured out within the
next week or so. Either way, this is going to be one heck of a
collection. Now, Garth and I have a bet, and I’m going to use Newsarama
to get your readers to help Garth win the bet. Garth would like to see
this as one huge collection featuring all nine issues. I stated that I
had no problem with that, as long as we could sell 28,000 copies of the
first series, and that would make me comfortable in feeling that we
would then sell 24,000 of the rest of the series. But, if we came in
under 28,000 copies of #1, then we would need to do 3 TPB’s and then
one full collection. This is an economic decision to ensure that we
make money, and if the fans help Garth win, I know the fans will win as
well. If the series is successful, then Garth will be able to continue
writing even more war books, which he loves. So, to all of the
Newsarama fans and all of the comics fans, if you can let your
retailers know to order this series, it would be greatly appreciated!
NRAMA: Fair enough – it’s out to the readers now. You've got Battlefields starting in October, along with a new arc in The Boys,
the latest trade, and the Boys trading cards, which we'll get to in a
moment... so this means that October is Garth Ennis month for you, huh?
What exactly does that mean?
NB: October being Garth Ennis month means that there is more of
Garth for fans to love! No seriously, it seemed to be that we were
originally going to solicit the Battlefields books for
September, and Garth asked us to move it to October which happened to
fall in line with the big push for the next story arc beginning in The Boys #23,
which will actually be a countdown to the halfway point of the series.
What this means is that we are going to create as much awareness as
possible for Garth and for The Boys and for the Battlefields
series and everything else that he is doing, and what it means is we
will try and use the synergy to just bring more attention to anything
he is doing with Dynamite and any ancillary that we are doing with him,
like the trading cards or any other books. It's a big month and we are
going to make the most of it.
NRAMA: As we mentioned, you're doing The Boys trading
cards through Dynamite. First off, there's still an audience for
trading cards such as these? How much of your business do card sets
make up?
NB: Trading cards are an incremental part of our business, and
they’re extremely important to us. The cards are going to be fun in
that we’re going to be able to have fun facts with the cards and random
pieces of info that you would not have known otherwise. The plus of
doing the trading cards is that we will be able to sell this to a
trading card audience and hopefully get trading card fans to try out
the comics. And fingers crossed, from my typewriter, to your message
board, to the fans voting by asking for them, to God’s ears.
NRAMA: How do you go about picking which images to turn into
cards? Obviously, the covers are a no-brainer, but after that? What
other specials are in there?
NB: There’s so much great art and moments in the series that
we’re really just looking to capture the iconic moments from the first
year… Behond that, we’re trying to figure if we should do glow in the
dark cards (an interesting way to show some hamsters), or other
enhancements. There’s that great seen in a movie theater where the two
heroes show up with their date. Hhhmmmmmmm.
NRAMA: So is there a card with Jamie the hamster on it?
NB: Actually, Jamie the hamster will have a special three-card
set. We want to show everyone the before, the during and the after.
It's more fun that way if you can see it from all three sides. Don't
you think? And remember, if we go glow-in-the-dark . . .
NRAMA: Back over to the series, with #23, you're starting
variant covers with the series. Dyanmite's no stranger to variants, but
on this series, you had been holding back. Why now?
NB: Issue #23 is a very special story line that Garth has been
building up to and #23 - #30 is going to have a huge payoff. We wanted
to grow the audience but do it in a way that was cool. By starting off
with John Cassaday, and the rest of the artists we’ve got, we feel like
we are adding such cool cover artists that we can bring an extra bit of
awareness, creating some heat, and getting some excitement by doing fun
covers that will have the intangible of bringing in a larger audience
who may be attracted by the covers. We know we have a great series, we
just want more fans to know about it and we are counting down to issue
#30 which is going to be a blockbuster… it's going to be unbelievable…
it is going to be huge and we just want as many people on board as
possible before we get there.
NRAMA: Variants are a hot-button issue in the industry, and have
been since their re-introduction. From your point of view, what purpose
do they serve?
NB: Variants have always served the purpose that if they are
done right, they allow some retailers to have the ability to stock more
copies of a book, to be able to stave off the risk of giving more real
estate to a title by having variations to sell and to offset their
risk. Done right, they're okay, done wrong, they're horrible. I'm sure
we will have critics on both sides of the fence. I'm sure that the
vocal critics will be the ones who dislike us for it.
NRAMA: The Boys is owned by Garth and Darrick. Did you have to convince them to do variants, or were hey up for it from the start?
NB: Both Garth and Darick are very proprietary about The Boys.
When it comes to art we like to especially defer to Darick because he
is the man! Without Darick, Hughie wouldn't look as good as he does,
Butcher wouldn't have the same effect. This is a labor of love for both
of them. I did have to push harder than I probably would have wanted
to, to do variants, but they both agreed that if we were ever going to
do it this was the time to pick up sales and I'm happy that it worked
out. Especially with the caliber of artists that we’re looking at.
NRAMA: So - when you choose to do variant covers on The Boys, who do you call to provide the art?
NB: We wanted to make it people who are established and added
something, it's hard to quantify something like this. I would say
anyone from John Cassaday -who is a well respected artist to Howard
Chaykin -- who is one of comic's greatest creators of all time, and
moving on with Dave Gibbons with the Watchman movie coming out
the timing could not have been better. (Dave's cover will hit the first
week in March, which will be just in time for the Watchman release.)
Then we are going to end with Jim Lee on issue #30. I can't see a
better way of doing this right.
NRAMA: Wrapping things up, where do you see things going with The Boys
in the future? Garth and Darrick said they have a what, five year story
planned, and it's clearly doing well for you. Have you been asking for
spin-offs? One shots as well, to perhaps mirror what Garth did on the
main Preacher series?
NB: Garth and Darick do have a five year story planned and I'm
hoping there will be spin offs. When we are on issue #48 you'll be
seeing me crying, begging and pleading for more. I love this series, it
is absolutely one of my all time favorite series and it's definitely my
favorite Garth Ennis/Darick Robertson series (no slight against Nick
Fury or Punisher but I love The Boys.) Will there be spin-offs,
specials and one shots? God, I hope so. There is one in the works, that
is really special but I want to save it for Darick and Garth to talk
about.
NRAMA: Will do. Finally, with the recent announcements surrounding Red Sonja and Thulsa Doom,
it's clear that you play a role in moving any properties you publish
towards other media. There's been on-again/off again talk about The Boys
heading to the screen...any word on where that talk is now? It seems
that, with the superhero flicks out now, that the well is primed for an
anti-superhero flick, or one about the people who keep the uppity
hero-types in line...are you looking to make sure The Boys is the first one there?
NB: The Boys is heading slowly but surely to the screen,
it's with Neil Moritz who has a great track record and the
anti-superheroes angle is just what he was looking for. The Boys
will be one of the first ones there. The attention that the comics and
graphic novels bring to the table has definitely made it easier, but
this is definitely a hit.
