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Talking To Jimmy Palmiotti About Brothels, Superheroes And Why Vertigo Doesn't Want Him

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Comic book creator Jimmy Palmiotti has a new Kickstarter project for a graphic novel, Abbadon, based on an unproduced Western movie. But it's hardly the only thing he's working on. We sat down on a cyberspatial toadstool and talked about what was up…

Rich Johnston: Most media companies try and turn comic books into movies. Adaptive are trying to turn a movie into a comic book. Isn't that the wrong way round? Don't they know how little money there is in comics?

Jimmy Palmiotti: Abbadon was never a movie; it was a movie script that was never made. The crew at Adaptive love graphic novels and, like anything else, when you love something you want to be involved somehow in making them. They also understood that they needed someone who knows how to turn something into a graphic novel and that's when we got the call to meet up and talk. Justin and I couldn't be happier working with the crew there.

Also, with the folks behind HBO's Project Greenlight behind it, why the crowdsourcing venture in the first place? Can't daddy just write a cheque?

You already know that's never an easy thing to get unless someone else is going to own the entire property, which isn't the case here. Paperfilms and Adaptive are working together.  We are dealing with the publishing end of the company and we both decided on a project we could do together and co-own, but came to realize that the subject matter would be a hard sell because of the genre. We wanted to make the best possible graphic novel and doing so means hiring a lot of top-notch talent and a pretty big budget since the story is 72 full color pages. We both agreed with Abbadon, going to Kickstarter was the right way to approach this. I know a lot of people think of Kickstarter in a lot of different ways, but to me, it's a store and part of that store is delivering the best product you can and offering exclusive incentives. With all of our Kickstarters, we take a ton of pride in the work we do. We deliver the goods each and every time.

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RJ: You are a man in touch with sexuality. An appreciator of the female form. and one who likes to share the finer examples with the world. What do you think you bring that other creators may lack, say, to the brothel scenes in Abbadon?

JP: Are you fishing for me to say " because of my extensive experience visiting the brothels all over the world and my hands on research…" type of answer? I think for the most part, after writing Jonah Hex for so long, all the research we've done about the old west comes into play in a book like this, except we get to push the envelope a bit with Abbadon because it's made for adults.

If any genre feels strip mined to the bone more than superheroes, it's the Western. I'm sure if you spent your entire time reading and watching all the Western stories that exist, you would outlast the time period of the Wild West itself. What keeps bringing folk – including you – back to this period and place?

In my world, no genre is more strip mined than the super hero genre because I've been working on them for over 20 years and reading them my entire life and now they are on TV, movies, in toy stores and on just about anywhere else you look. I did not grow up in the 40-50's when they made a ton of westerns. I grew up in the time when they were on the way out, and every once in a while a film would hit theatres that would hit the bull's-eye and reintroduce the genre to a new audience. For me, it's the beautiful simplicity of the genre, the amazing opportunities a writer can have exploring history and culture and it's a grounded in reality genre that if done right, can be timeless with the proper storytelling. I felt with Jonah Hex we told the stories we wanted to tell and with the last issue of all star western with Darwyn Cooke, we wrapped up our body of work on the title. With Abbadon, I'm looking at world building that if given the opportunity, can become a pretty big project over time.

RJ: You have eight days to go. It's looking good. Planning a stretch goal or two?

JP: We've hit the first stretch goal, which every single backer gets a digital copy of the original screenplay the graphic novel is based on. Our next stretch goal will see that every single backer will get a separate digital sketch book by Fabrizio and from there we have some pretty cool stuff planned, but the deadline is looming. We are down to the last of the special additions featuring the limited Amanda Conner and Darwyn Cooke covers.

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RJ: I notice that your common writing partner Justin Grey is working on Convergence titles solo… no love for the Pre 52?

JP: I honestly had a lot of projects going on at once, and when the opportunity came up I felt it was a smarter move for me to focus on what I committed to and not take on anything else at the time. I am super happy Justin is working on the titles he has and look forward to reading them, but in the end, I am not the biggest fan of crossovers to begin with, so I thought my time would be better spent on the projects in front of me.

RJ: Your new creator-owned (or creator-participant) comic is at Boom! Why not closer to home at Vertigo, or even Image?

JP: Well, other than inking a few books in the past, the DCU has been my real home.  With Vertigo, I've pitched them a few times over the years, and will continue to do so, but they have never really been interested in anything I have given them…yet.  My track record isn't great with them on that level, but I don't give up easily. I always look at the things I pitch and try to figure out the right home for each project. Most of my creator owned work goes to Image and I will forever have something going on with them in one way or the other, but with them, I have to put the book together and all the costs come out of my pocket, so I can only afford to work with them now and again because my books don't really sell big numbers, thus the Kickstarters here and there. I cannot tell you enough how wonderful Eric and the image guys continue to treat me and I will always be in business with them. Now with THE CON JOB, the book I am co-writing with Matt Brady, this isn't something I would take to Vertigo because of the subject matter and it's not something I would bring to Image comics because I don't have the money to pay a team for 4 issues of the book. So why Boom!? Boom! was chosen for a number of reasons. First and foremost, when we pitched the idea to Ross and Fillip, they loved the insane premise of the pitch, had total confidence in us as writers and stepped up to the plate with a plan, a shared creator deal that was wonderful for both of us and best of all, took on a lot of the risk with something a bit off from the usual genres. At the end of the day, I know it's a big part of my job to do the best thing I can for each project and for The Con Job, Boom! Was a no brainer. We are super excited to be working with them.

RJ: You are the only Image comics creator whose comics are available on the Kindle… how come you escaped the Graphic.ly trap when no others did? And how is your relationship with Amazon?

JP: I looked at the web site and talked with some of the guys at that company and I was not sold on it. I really didn't have anything but a gut feeling at the time, and figured I would wait a bit to see how they were doing with others and then step in when I felt they were better established. Nothing against anyone there, this was a business decision and not a personal one. As far as Amazon, My relationship with them is just great. We have most of the Paperfilms books on them; we just finished the Jet City adaption of the best seller WOOL, and we've been talking about doing more with them in the future.

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RJ: Your biggest selling book, by far, is Harley Quinn. Which still seems to take people by surprise as it outsells the X-Men, the Justice League, the Avengers and the Superman books. And shows little sign of stopping. What's coming up for the gal, and how do you intend to stop people from killing the golden goose through overexposure? Is that even a thing?

JP: For the record, no one is more surprised than us it's been doing as well as it has. That said, I think any company that has a hot book or character spends a lot of time thinking of ways to capitalize on it and who could blame them. In the end, this is all a business and you have to make money. The cool thing about working on Harley is that there are different audiences for the character and we have seen them come together over the past year in a great way. You have the original animated appearances, past comic series, you have the video game Harley and then with the new 52 you have the suicide squad Harley and our crazy book along with a wonderful army of cosplayers. Just this past week the announcement of Harley in the suicide squad movie is added to the list.  DC has done an amazing job with getting the character out there, and they have been pretty wonderful with us on so many levels with Harley. They let Amanda, Chad and I do what we do best, and give us a ton of room to be creative in the process. I don't think there is a problem with over exposure as long as the actual title we work on keeps coming out, stays fun and isn't dependent on other titles to make it's numbers. I like to think we are getting new readers to try the title every day and with each issue, we aren't alienating someone new with a huge continuity driven story each and every time. We have seen over the past year a large number of fans tell us it's the first comic they ever bought and that's music to our ears because its something we played a part in has turned someone on to world of comic books.

Coming up, this month we see the last part of the Powergirl/Harley superhero team story and it has a couple of scenes drawn by chad that are instant classics. We also have this very week the Holiday Special, which features three stories all around the holiday theme. I think a lot of people will be laughing out loud at some of the stuff in there. After this, we have a two-part story setting up an even wilder scenario with Harley being the main troublemaker, as usual. Lots of fun stuff ahead.

RJ: The other fictional love of your life is Painkiller Jane. She's never quite taken off in the way say Harley did, despite sharing certain attributes. Any chance of a crossover?

JP: Painkiller Jane has taken off better in other media than the actual comic book, which is nice, but I would trade it all for Jane getting the audience in comic form she deserves. I am not really sure why this is, but I will continue to write new stories and explore other possibilities with her. I've done a few crossovers with the character in the past and would love to do a Harley one, but the chances are slim to none. In a perfect world, I hope people that have enjoyed Harley discover Jane. For now, a few more books to come in the near future and all the rest are available on our site, Paperfilms.com and at a store near you.

Abbadon's Kickstarter can be found right here.

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Rich JohnstonAbout Rich Johnston

Founder of Bleeding Cool. The longest-serving digital news reporter in the world, since 1992. Author of The Flying Friar, Holed Up, The Avengefuls, Doctor Who: Room With A Deja Vu, The Many Murders Of Miss Cranbourne, Chase Variant. Lives in South-West London, works from Blacks on Dean Street, shops at Piranha Comics. Father of two. Political cartoonist.
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