Shannon Gallant talks about leaving G.I. Joe for… G.I. Joe

By Mike Rhode

 

Shannon “S.L.” Gallant spoke recently on a panel on graphic novels at George Mason University’s Fall for the Book Festival. I last interviewed him in 2010 so it was about time to check in again. After the panel (which will be transcribed here in the future), we sat down for a quick talk.

You have just come off of what is supposed to be the longest run of an artist on the G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero comic book. How many issues did you draw?

I didn’t even count. I think the IDW guys said something like 70 or 75. I started on #161, which had a cover-date of November 2010, so that means I started before then timewise, and I just did my last issue three months ago, and that was issue #245. There were some fill-ins of various issues along the way.

You were mainly the penciler and didn’t ink yourself on the book?

Gallant inked by Earskine

The only thing I inked were covers. My first few covers were done by whoever the inker was on the book. Some were by Gary Erskine, and a couple were by Brian Shearer, but the last twenty or thirty or so that I did were inked by myself. That was the only inking that I did.

Larry Hama wrote the entire run that you worked on?

He did.

How did he give you the scripts? Was it thumbnails, or typescript? 

Larry works in the old Marvel style which is a springboard style – a synopsis of the page, rather than broken down on the page into panel-by-panel descriptions. He very rarely included any kind of dialogue, because he would script that later. It was basically just a synopsis of the page and he would say things like, “If I have more than one paragraph, consider the paragraph to be a panel,” but it wasn’t a hard rule. That’s generally how he worked.

So you’re leaving the main G.I. Joe title to do… another G.I. Joe title?

 

I am. It’s G.I.Joe versus the Six Million Dollar Man [jointly published by IDW and Dynamite]. It’s a period piece and I’m setting it in my head in 1981 so it’ll be between the end of the Six Million Dollar Man tv show and the beginning of the G.I. Joe cartoon. I’m modelling G.I. Joe more on the cartoon characters than on the comic book version. So the costumes are pretty much the same, but the characters backgrounds are slightly different.

Who’s writing it?

Ryan Ferrier. He’s done comics for a lot of companies, IDW and Dynamite included.

What kind of script is he giving you?

It’s more of a full script, panel-by-panel breakdowns with dialogue.

Who made the decision about when this was set it time?

It evolved out of everyone talking and deciding with Steve Austin being so set in the ‘70s because of the tv show and the fashions, and Dynamite has gone back from updating the character, to making it more like the classic character in most of their books. I wanted to do it [that way], and feel those books need to be period pieces. A lot of the G.I. Joe fans had issues when we started at IDW with the updating of characters and making everyone have cell phones, and computers, and laptops and iPads and so forth… so this is my way of doing a period piece. The research is one of the biggest hurdles for me on it.

Plus he’d be a Six Trillion Dollar Man now… You’ve said you do a lot of research. Since you’re setting this 35 years ago, are you doing a lot of research to see what buildings and cars looked like at the time?

I’m trying to. I trying to make sure that it at least feels like it’s set in 1981, as opposed to having people with iPods. You don’t want to make those kinds of mistakes. When I got the first script, there were references to an office building with computers on the tables, so I had a discussion with the editor, saying “Well, people didn’t have computers on their desk in 1981. There was a room you had to go to and use a computer.”

How many issues is it?

From what I understand it’s supposed to be four, depending on sales they may expand it.

You’ve also done work for American Mythology in Baltimore lately?

They do a lot of licensed properties. They do have some creator-owned stuff, but the work I’ve been doing for them is on their cartoon properties. They have the rights to Bullwinkle, Casper, Underdog… they started out with a license for Pink Panther and I did the Free Comic Book Day Pink Panther comic where he turns into Thor. Most of what I’ve done for them has been on their cartoon side, but they also do a Three Stooges comic and a Stargate comic.

Do you find it easy to switch styles between G.I. Joe and Pink Panther?

It’s something I’ve always had to do when I was working in advertising. I had to switch styles up a lot. That’s how I ended up as a staff illustrator which is pretty rare.  If they wanted a New Yorker-type comic style or something more realistic, or traditional advertising – that was something I was used to doing and I still enjoy. It keeps the batteries fresh.

Are you hoping to continue on the Six Million Dollar Man after this miniseries?

I enjoy the character. I wonder if it’s one of those things though. I read an interview with Adam Hughes once, about Star Trek, after he did the big Debt of Honor Star Trek graphic novel. He said, “No, I got that out of my system. I’m done with it.” So we’ll see if at the end of this if I’m over the Six Million Dollar Man.

Is there anything you would like to work on?

Dynamite has announced that they’re going to redo Swords of the Swashbucklers, and that’s a series I would love to get on. It was when I fell in love with Jackson “Butch” Guice’s artwork. I would love to do that because I love those characters. It was steampunky before steampunk was a thing. I was never into pirates until that but it’s got enough of a Star Wars feel to it. It’s a fun book.

Who’s writing that?

Marc Guggenheim, the producer of DC’s Legends of Tomorrow tv show.

Over the years at HeroesCon, you’ve become friendly with Butch?

Shadows drawn and inked by Gallant

He was introduced to me by our mutual friend Chris Sparks, who was friends with Butch for years and years. We email back and forth and are friendly acquaintances. I think he’s phenomenal. One of the things I really enjoy about his work – when I fell in love with it, back he was working on Swords of the Swashbucklers, and the work he’s doing now… if you look at his work then, and his work now, you wouldn’t guess it was the same person. Stylistically he has grown, but a lot of artists, when they hit a certain level, they plateau and they stay at that level and they don’t change. He’s still experimenting and trying different techniques. He’s gotten very obsessed with shadow work. To see his penciled pages and then to see what the final looks like… I still don’t know he makes that leap. I’ve asked him multiple times, “how do you approach your shadows, because what you’re penciling, and what I’m seeing in the final product, makes it almost seem like two different people did the book.”

Kata Kane's NBM double debut

by Mike Rhode

At  the Small Press Expo, Kata Kane had her own table as usual, but she was also signing books at NBM's table. They have published the first book in a new series Ana and the Cosmic Race by Amy Chu with art by Kata. We caught up to ask how her career was changing.. 

After our first interview, you published Altar Girl vol. 2. Did that wrap up the series, or do you have plans to continue it?

Altar Girl is ongoing, and you can read up to Book 4 online at my website altar-girl.com. I've also started releasing the series on webcomic sites like WEBTOON and Tapastic. I'm hoping to do a print version of Altar Girl Book 3 soon, but for now it's still going strong online! 

You've done the art for two new series coming out this fall from NBM's Papercutz imprint. How did that come about?

Papercutz reached out to me when they started the launch for their new Charmz romance book line. They saw that my art style and stories were all-ages/tween/YA and asked me to pitch. My first pitch was for GFFs: Ghost Friends Forever with Monica Gallagher [also of Baltimore]. Then they asked if I'd be interested in doing the art for Ana and the Cosmic Race, a story already in production with Amy Chu. I'm so glad I've gotten to work on both series! 

What kind of script do you get? Do you work directly with the writer at all?

I do work closely with the writers when it comes to collaborating and world-building, especially with the characters. As for the script, it varies from writer to writer the level of detail, but I do try to give suggestions if I see a spot where we could do something fun with the art, or if there's a chance to insert some great reactions from the characters. I'm lucky that I've gotten to work with wonderful writers who have given me a lot of freedom and great feedback too. I think pacing is one of my strong points, so in cases where I've been given either a lot or just a little to work with script-wise, I always aim to get a good flow going with the dialog and art.

Will there be more books in the two new series?

I'm currently working on Book 2 for both Ana and the Cosmic Race as well as GFFs! There's still much more to discover, so I think readers of Book 1 for both of these series will be eager to see what's in store.

My online/social media info: kata-kane.com | @kata_kane

An SPX Interview with UK's Avery Hill Publishing

by Mike Rhode

Tillie Walden was a guest at SPX this year for her autobiography Spinning out now from First Second. I was surprised to be told that she had already published three works with a British publisher and that Avery Hill Publishing was at the con. On their website, they have a very clever mission statement: "Avery Hill is a publishing company based in South London that helps aspiring creators reach their potential and is a home to the geniuses that the mainstream has yet to recognise. Our canon includes psychogeographical mappings, drunk 19th century scientists,time-travelling beagles, minimalist musings, kids running amok in dance tents, a giant cat called Nemo and much more." I went over and met owners Ricky Miller and David White, and they agreed to an email interview.

How long has Avery Hill been publishing?

We started self-publishing our own zines about six years ago. They were mainly filled with our own work and contributions by friends. Then we realised that everyone else we were publishing were far better than us and so we decided just to put out work by them. It kind of escalated from there, but some of the people from the early days, such as Tim Bird who does the Grey Area series for us, are still with us now.

Where are you based?

We’re based in London in the UK. We tend to get a bit provincial and narrow it down to South London as there’s a faux rivalry between north and south London, in the same way you get in a lot of cities. We both grew up around this area, we’ve know each other since we were eleven and Avery Hill is an actual place quite nearby that we used to go to when we were young. The Avery Hill logo is actually based on a photo of Ricky climbing over the fence into Avery Hill when we were 18.

How many artists do you publish? Just cartoonists?

Over the years we’ve published roughly 25 creators, some multiple times. We mainly do comics, but we’ve also put out a couple of books of illustrations, including Internal Wilderness by Claire Scully, which is a series of images of imagined landscapes and A Is For Amos by Ukranian illustrator Daria Hlazatova, which is an A to Z of illustrations of her favourite musicians. In the UK a lot of the comics creators we work with come form an illustration background rather than a comics/cartooning background, so it’s quite a fluid thing to move from comics to also illustrating things like children’s books and magazine editorial work.

What are your individual backgrounds?

We both grew up within about a mile of each other in the deep, dark, working class suburbs of South East London. We went to school together and are still very close friends with some other people from that time. We shared a common interest in music, mainly Britpop at the time and comics. After university we briefly formed a band, called The Do-Nothing Kings with some other friends and then when we realized we weren’t very good we started doing podcasts and music reviews. Dave then decided to put out a zine, which Ricky contributed a comic to called Metroland (which we still put out and that brings you up to date.

Favorite cartoonists, or influences, living or dead?

One of the first books that we both got into was Cerebus by Dave Sim. Whilst we find his politics and social attitudes problematic to say the least - Google him if you don’t know the story - the level of artistry in those books by him and his background artist, Gerhard, plus his self-publishing ethos were massively influential. We’d also both consider From Hell by Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell to be one of the greatest works of art in any form. In recent times anything by Darwyn Cooke or the Morrison & Quietly partnership are essential. More modern creators from around our scene would be people like Jillian Tamaki, Jason, Eleanor Davis and Isabel Greenberg.

Was this your first American con?

Yes, this was our first con in the US. We’ve mainly only done shows in the UK, apart from going to the Toronto Comics Art Festival a couple of times and one in Denmark. We’d definitely like to do more of them and are seriously considering shows in Boston and New York next year.

Why SPX?

We met the Executive Director of SPX, Warren Bernard, at the Toronto Comics Art Festival last year when we were there with our creator Tillie Walden. Warren took a lot of interest in our work and said that he’d love for us to go to SPX this year and that he’d help us out with some of our expenses. We were blown away by the generosity of that and of course accepted. We’d tried to get in to SPX in the lottery prior to that and we also had a couple of Tillie’s books nominated in the Ignatz awards last year (which she won) so we were desperate to make it there. We’d heard such great things about SPX, it’s pretty famous in the UK.

What did you think of it?

We absolutely loved it. The quality of the exhibitors was incredibly high and there were lots of great talks and guests. The overall vibe was just lovely as well, such a great feeling of community and diversity. Little touches, like having free coffee in the morning really make a difference as well. When you do a lot of shows you definitely notice that kind of thing. Having all of the exhibitors in the same room is another great thing as often if people are in different rooms then it can inevitably lead to some feeling they are in an area with less footfall.

How were your sales?

Sales were great, it was busy all weekend. We sold nearly everything that we shipped over, which meant that we didn’t have too much to have to carry back! It definitely stands comparison with some of our best ever events in that regard.

How do you decide what or whom to publish?

Essentially we just publish books that we like. Which doesn’t really tell you very much but it’s how it is. When we started Avery Hill we had no greater aspiration than to end up with a shelf of books that wouldn’t exist had it not been for us. We run this company in our spare time, we both have day jobs, so we have to keep it interesting for us and that means basing what we want to publish more on our personal choice than it does on a commercial decision. One of us will find a creator and then we’ll both discuss whether or not to approach them. If we do then we ask the creator what they’d like to do and more often than not we agree to do whatever it is they’re most interested in doing. Our only real limitation is time, so that dictates how many projects we can take on, but beyond that it really is just a case of trying to find books and creators that we’re passionate about. Luckily, it also often pays off.

How did you become Tillie Walden's first publisher given that she's an American educated in Texas and Vermont?

We first discovered Tillie’s work on Twitter when she posted a couple of images that someone retweeted. We got in touch with her to see if she’d be interested in doing a book and got a reply back from her saying she was too busy with school as she was only 17. This stunned us as the level of her work was already very high and we’d assumed she was much older. We gave it another six months and then got back in touch with her when she had finished school and had enrolled in the Center For Cartoon Studies in Vermont. This time she agreed to put a pitch together for us, which turned out to be her first graphic novel, The End of Summer. We loved working together and so quickly moved on to do another two books with her, all before she turned 19! She’s a great friend of ours and often comes to shows with us. The UK has a long tradition of discovering great US creators before their own country does, so we refer to Tillie as being our Jimi Hendrix.

Does your company have an overall aesthetic?

People often say to us that although we have a very wide range of different kinds of books, they can still see an Avery Hill aesthetic unifying them into a cohesive line. If there is one then it’s probably the midpoint between both of our tastes, plus the strong emphasis that we both put on quality writing. But really, an Avery Hill book could be anything, as long as we both like it.

Did you get to spend any time in Washington?

Yes we got out here early in order to do some sightseeing. It’s such a lovely city! We did the usual touristy things of the Lincoln Memorial/Washington Monument and the National Gallery of Art, of which the Impressionist section was a big highlight! Then on Friday evening we went to see The Nationals vs The Dodgers, which was great fun. We definitely hope to come back some day soon!

An SPX Chat with French Cartoonist Anais Depommier

by Mike Rhode

Anais Depommier is a young woman illustrator who has just had Sartre, her first graphic novel (really a graphic biography) come out in English from NBM Publsihing. She attended the 2017 Small Press Expo and I got the opportunity to interview her there.

Her NBM biography is charmingly translated rather literally (and a little outdated as you'll see later in the interview): Anaïs Depommier was born in the late 1980s in a small village in the Southeast of France. Growing up a close friend of Mathilde Ramadier, they can't do enough sleepovers from one's house to the other. Inseparable at school, they spend their weekends building huts in the bush, watching the gendarmes go by, playing "Mouse Stampede" on a Macintosh Classic, and reading many comics. When it becomes time to prepare for the entrance exam to art school, they meet later in the evenings at the painter Jean-Michel Pétrissans' workshop in Valence.

Anaïs studied drawing for four years, then co-created the OneShot workshop where regular life drawing classes and other exhibitions are held. She now lives in Paris and works in comics, graphics and animation design. 

For those not familiar with the French philospher Sartre, NBM's blurb for the book reads: For some he was the philosopher of existentialism, for others the constant provocateur, the politically engaged author, the uncertain militant, the repenting bourgeois, the life companion of Simone de Beauvoir… From his first readings in the Luxembourg Garden to his refusal of the Nobel Prize for Literature, Jean-Paul Sartre was all of this at the same time.

Mike Rhode: So SPX is your first American show... is it a little overwhelming?

Anais Depommier: Absolutely.

MR: And Sartre is your first book in English?

AD: Yes, and also my first graphic novel. And also for the writer Mathilde Ramadier, actually. It was our first book.

MR: Did you propose the book together to the publisher?

AD: We've known each other for a long time, so we created the project together and then asked some editors [if they would be interested in it].

MR: Biographical comics are fairy popular in France?

AD: Yes, that is true.

MR: You didn't serialize this in a newspaper first; this is an original graphic novel.

AD: Absolutely, we started everything through a contract with our French editor. Dargaud is our publisher; it's one of the main and oldest ones in France.

MR: Did you have the book already put together, or was it just a proposal when you approached them?

AD: It was just a proposal. Works like this in France are usually [done this way now].

MR: So they gave you an advance?

AD: Absolutely.

MR: Moving on from the business side to the subject, so why did you pick Sartre?

AD: At the beginning, it was the writer's idea. She got her masters degree in philosophy, writing about Sartre, and she's passionate about comics (like I am). She thought it would be a good idea to depict him in comics, so she asked the artist that she knew - me - and I totally agreed with her. We started like this.

MR: Did she give you a script that you then broke down?

AD: Absolutely. In the beginning, she explained to me in conversation what she wanted to say about him, and then she wrote all the script. I made my own layout. She didn't really criticize the scenes - I decided the layout myself.

MR: Right, so she didn't give you thumbnails or sketches?

AD: That's true.

MR: This is a fairly substantial book... how long did it take you?

AD: Oh, a little time. Two and a half years, more or less. 135 drawn pages, and [an appendix] at the end to explain who is who in the book, for 160 pages in total.

MR: Did you have a hard time illustrating any action in a philosopher's life? I saw in the early pages that he was a rough-and-tumble school boy.

AD: Absolutely. It was kind of fun actually to draw that part. [laughs] It was interesting to show this man not just as an intellectual philosopher, a serious guy, because he had a lot of humor. I liked the pages where there was more action, and all his travels, all the trips he made. It was interesting to read the documentation and get the atmosphere.

MR: Did you work from photo references?

AD: A lot. And also from videos. We still have some interview videos of him. He died in 1980. In his last fifteen years, he was not that active outside his house. He was really sick.

MR: Who is the audience for this in France? Is this an all-ages book in France?

AD: Yes, and that's interesting. In festivals, we meet a lot of professors who don't really read comics, but they are curious about it, so that's great for us. Also, the opposite - comics lovers who know Sartre by name but don't know his books and they buy our book because they are curious.

MR: Were you influenced by any of the other biographies that came out? Anne Simon was here last year [at the Alliance Francais] to talk about her books that had been published in English.

AD: Yes, Einstein and Freud... I met her because we have the same French publisher. I think her first book, Freud, was published during the time we were doing the first pages of our book. So she's not really an influence because she has a totally different point of view. I really like her work - it's totally another thing, another approach.

MR: So what's next?

AD: Right now, I'm just starting to work on another story. It's still really, really beginning. It's fiction, and kind of dark.

MR: Your own characters?

AD: Yes. I will work with another writer, an Italian one, and we'll see how it goes.

MR: Is this your first time in America?

AD: Yes it is, and it's really exciting.

MR: Where are you going next?

AD: Before I was in Baltimore at MICA and I met some students, and it was really interesting. Tomorrow I will be at the Brooklyn Book Festival, and then next week I will be in Miami in an art school and then a book store.* The counrty is really different already even between Bethesda and Baltimore so I cannot imagine New York and Miami.


MR: I'm sorry you don't have the time to see Washington while you're here since it was influenced by Paris. Any thoughts about the Small Press Expo? Have you been able to walk around?

AD: Just a little bit this morning, and I will go again now. It seems to have really cool work; so many different comics and illustratioins. It's full of variety and I love it. It's a little underground and I really like that.

SPX floor by Bruce Guthrie

MR: SPX isn't a normal American superhero convention. In France, do you usually attend Angouleme or other festivals?

AD: I've been there twice, but always just to visit. It's a huge festival, and editors send their author with a new book, but Sartre was published in March, and the festival is in January, so it didn't match. Still, it's a crazy festival and a really interesting place to go.

MR: Have you done other French shows then?

AD: Yes, in France - a lot. In Paris, a lot, in Lyon, a lot and so many in little cities.

MR: Do you see a difference about a show in France and one in America?

AD: Here in America everything is bigger. Also the buildings too. It's impressive. I can find the same family atmosphere, a relaxed and fun atmosphere is a common point, for sure.

MR: I should ask you about your background before we end...

AD: What I did before my book? I was in university, in École Émile Cohl, a traditional school with an academic program, and I studied comics and illustration there. After that, I created a studio with friends, and did exhibitions and drawing classes, still in Lyon. Then I went to Paris and I started this book. I've made a lot of little works for newspapers, and been a graphic designer for lawyers,. This book took me so much time. I'm also doing work in Lyon Capitale, a French newspaper that has several pages a month about the history of the city. It's not really serious. There's always a historical background, but the story can be fictional. I'm still working for newspapers as a graphic designer, and I'm starting a new book, but I've also moved to Rome. I don't live in France anymore.

MR: Why Rome?

AD: It's a personal choice, not a business choice. It's a gorgeous city and I really love the Italian south.

The drawing she did in my book

*If you're in Florida tomorrow:
 Anais Depommier Book Signing
Books & Books / September 20 at 8PM
265 Aragon Ave Coral Gables, FL
http://booksandbooks.com/event/anais-depommier/

Comics and Craft Beer: A Chat with Kate Hoke of Heroic Aleworks

by Mike Rhode and Chris Ingram

Heroic Aleworks, a brewery with comic book-themed beers, opened in Woodbridge, VA this past January. We recently met Kate Hoke, co-founder and co-owner of the brewery, and interviewed her on comics, cosplay and beer making.

What type of comic work or cartooning do you do?

I wrote the first issue of our comic, which tells the Solasta origin story, and will be doing the bulk of the writing going forward.  Fortunately, we have professional artists to handle the drawing part!  For each one of the beers my husband, Tim Hoke, and I create all the characters in terms of deciding who’s a bad guy and who’s a good guy, what are their powers, where to they fit in our comic universe, their name, and basically what they look like.  Then I put together a Pinterest board for the artist to give them examples for hairstyles, armor, weapons, poses, backgrounds, etc., that get turned into the final work.  Although we have only one issue right now, each and every one of our beer characters fits into the larger universe we’re creating and will all play some role in the ongoing stories.

I also do all of the graphic design work and web design for Heroic.

How do you do it? Traditional pen and ink, computer or a combination?

Haha.  I pay people!  But the artists we work with use a combination of traditional pen and ink, along with digital rendering.  The artists who created the characters for Sid Fist and Murdock the Merciless (Raymond Francis and Robert Spencer), for example, start with traditional pencil and paper and once the sketch is complete they do a high resolution scan and finish the piece digitally.  Our first comic was done entirely digitally.  My impression, however, is that most of our art is created through a combination of the two.

How did you find your artist's stable? Who are the people in it?

We work with artists literally from all over the world, many of whom I met through artist commission websites.  We also have a few local artists that we met at comic conventions, and I’m hoping that number will increase over time.  Here’s a breakdown of everyone so far, their website or Facebook page, and what characters they’ve done for us:

Ian Richardson (Great Britain)
o   http://pencilsandstrings.deviantart.com/
o   Solasta, Max Nix, Doctor Enigma, Mind Trappe, Death Blossom, the 63 Scottish Fold Oracle, and our logos
 

They Did This! - Illustration and Design (South Africa)
o   Primary artists are Karl Mostert and Andrew Cramer
o   https://www.facebook.com/TheyDidThisStudio/
o   Mistress of War, Master Heist, Oda the Huntress, Krystal Palast, Goldfang (coming soon), Confounded IPA (Moray Rhoda, artist)

Keith Hinman (Michigan)
o   http://kwh-illustration.deviantart.com/
o   The Dark Enemy, Baron von Blackbrane

Raymond Francis (local)
o   https://www.facebook.com/C3Comics/
o   Sid Fist

Robert Spencer (local)
o   https://www.facebook.com/C3Comics/
o   Murdock the Merciless

Zachary Davis Bradley (New Mexico)
o   http://zachdb.deviantart.com/
o   Heroic Aleworks Presents Issue #1 sequential art

Tim Hoke

When (within a decade is fine) and where were you born?

Tim and I were both born in the 1970s.  I was born in Philadelphia and he’s from Southern Illinois.  We met during our first year of law school in Northern Illinois and soon thereafter the army brought us to Virginia.

Why are you in Washington now?  What neighborhood or area do you live in?

I went to law school at William & Mary in Williamsburg, VA, but came up here after graduation because this is where most of the good jobs are.  We currently live in Woodbridge, which is why we opened the brewery in Woodbridge.  But Tim & I still have to commute to our day jobs in Washington, DC at least 3 days a week.

What is your training and/or education in cartooning?

Zero.  I just read a lot.  When I’m reading more, I find that I have better ideas for writing the comics.

Even for the graphic and web design, I’m entirely self-taught.  Mostly a whole lot of online tutorials and YouTube videos.

Who are your influences?

One of my biggest influences is Neil Gaiman.  As we start publishing our books, you’ll see a lot of Gaiman-esque magical realms hidden within our own, but not visible or accessible to most folks.  We will also be having a whole “Old Gods” line of beers, which is obviously a Gaiman influence.  I love the way he tells stories such that the reader shifts seamlessly between fantasy and reality and is left wondering if there’s even a difference.

In terms of comic book authors, Kelly Sue DeConnick has had a huge influence on me due to her masterful handling of strong female characters that retain their humanity and even femininity.  We’ve been quite deliberate about how we conceptualize and portray our female characters, and I aspire to bring some Kelly Sue sensibility to our stories.

If you could, what in your career would you do-over or change?

I often like to believe that I would have preferred to pursue a career in the arts at an early age.  But honestly I can’t say that there’s much I’d actually like to change since that would mean I wouldn’t be here doing this right now.  That said, there are probably a million small things we would have done differently in how we approached opening a brewery!  Lots and lots of lessons learned there!  The good news is that we’ll take all of that knowledge into the next phase when we’re ready to expand.

Kate Hoke at Baltimore Comic Con 2016

What work are you best-known for?

So to spin off in a completely different direction…  I’m probably best known in the local cosplay scene for my Winter Soldier costume.  I was doing it before it became super popular AND when I decided to do a female version of him, I wanted to honor the essence of character and not just slut it up like lots of ladies do with their gender bending cosplays.  I’ve been told that keeping Bucky a total badass is part of what makes it sexy, more so than when people just expose as much skin as possible with their costumes.

What work are you most proud of?

That’s a tough one, so I’ll answer it in a couple of ways.  I’m immensely proud that we actually pulled off the whole brewery in the way that we did.  In particular, I’m proud of the taproom.  I did all the painting, made the restroom doors (the Tardis door and the entrance to the Mines of Moria from Lord of the Rings, a.k.a. the Doors of Durin), did all of the decoupage work for the bar, and did all the decorating.  I even made one of the pieces of art that hangs on the wall!  Suffice it to say it was a very busy December last year!  The taproom décor sets the tone and makes our place unique among craft breweries, so it’s been a very significant accomplishment for me.

On a solely personal level, I’m quite proud of the leatherwork I did for my latest cosplay.  I’m completely self-taught and I recently created a Viking warrior version of the traditional Slave Leia costume that required intricate weaving and carving like I’ve never done before.  And not only does it look amazing, but it’s actually comfortable to wear, which definitely isn’t always the case with cosplay!  This one laid the foundation for some crazy stuff I have planned for next year for Tim & me.  Next level stuff, for sure.

What would you like to do or work on in the future?

First and foremost I’d like the brewery to be successful enough that Tim & I can quit our day jobs and run the brewery full time.  In my case, that would mean a lot more comic writing, more time for planning and promoting events, and a whole lot more time for making costumes.  

What do you do when you're in a rut or have writer's block?

Have another glass of wine!  Just kidding.  Sort of.  More helpful, though, is switching back and forth between my various creative endeavors.  If I get stuck for words, I’ll turn to doing something visual and vice versa.  Beyond that, if I get in a slump doing graphic art on the computer, I find that making physical art, such as my leatherwork, can give me the space to recharge my brain.  Sometimes I simply talk it out with my husband and he’ll see an angle I hadn’t previously considered that gets me back on track.

What do you think will be the future of your field?

Geek culture is certainly experiencing a golden age right now with the proliferation of comic-based movies and television shows and surging popularity of comic/pop culture conventions.  Even if this moment passes, I believe good storytelling will always find an audience.  Creating a narrative and having a story behind each of our beers gives our customers a little something extra to relate to and I think that will hold true even if comics fall out of mainstream culture.

And even if the growth of craft beer levels off, the market for great beers and solid brands isn’t going anywhere.

The fact that Heroic is an intersection of the two gives us some very unique opportunities so I think we have a lot of exciting things ahead of us.

What local cons do you attend? The Small Press Expo, Intervention, or others? Any comments about attending them?

We have traditionally attended Awesome Con and Baltimore Comic Con, both of which are great for cosplay and for networking, but less so for actually collecting comics these days.  We’ve noticed prices going up significantly, with vendors asking way more for books at the show than they sell for on eBay.  For serious comic collecting, I tend to prefer smaller affairs where there’s more opportunity to browse and have conversations with the vendors.  This year will be special because it’s the first time Heroic will have booths at both Awesome Con and the new NOVA CON.  We’ll still be attending Baltimore, but as civilians.  I’ve promised Tim that we’ll have at least half a day at each where I’m not in costume so we can enjoy our time together instead of getting continuously interrupted for photos.


How do I get the first issue of Heroic Aleworks Presents: Solasta? I can't see any way to buy it on your website.

We'll have them for sale at Awesome Con

What's your favorite thing about DC?

With the Kennedy Center and so many other theaters around, there’s never a lack of live entertainment options.

Least favorite?

It’s a close tie between the traffic and how politics seeps its way into everything.

What monument or museum do you like to take visitors to?

Who has time for that sort of thing?  We used to enjoy the National Zoo a lot and wish we could get there more.  I’ve also always wanted to do a tour of the Masonic Temple in Alexandria.

How about a favorite local restaurant?

Cock and Bowl in Occoquan has been a go-to of ours for a long time.  Their croque monsieur is amazing and they an extensive and interesting beer selection.  The brunch at FireFlies in Del Ray is also at the top of the list.

Do you have a website or blog?

The brewery’s website is www.heroicaleworks.com.  We’re also on Facebook (@HeroicAle) and Instagram (@HeroicAleworks).  I also have a separate Instagram page for my cosplay work @kateskostumes, which I have been shamefully neglecting as of late.

You currently have 9 or so beers on tap - which are your flagship brews and which are your seasonal brews?

Our flagship brews are the 5 we started with, the Doctor Enigma IPA, the Max Nix English Porter, the Solasta Kolsch, the Death Blossom Red Rye Ale, and the Mind Trappe Belgian Dubbel.  Together these 5 characters form our core team of heroes named “The Superhuman Syndicate.”  The rest of our beers are seasonals or special releases.

Is there any particular style of beer that you would consider to be your most outstanding?

Our Max Nix just took a gold medal at the Virginia Craft Brewer’s Guild Beer Cup, so we’re feeling kind of partial to that one right now!  But the award bears out the feedback we’ve received, not only from our customers but also from other professional brewers, regarding the quality of this beer. 

Brewmaster Leon Harris

Which of your beers are you proudest of (whether in terms of challenge to brew, originality, or some other criteria)?

Our Head Brewer, Leon Harris, is most proud of his Maibock.  This recipe was the first one of his beers to get produced commercially.  Back when he originated the recipe at Capitol City Brewing Company, the beer was named “Murdock’s Maibock.”  Murdock is Leon’s son.  So when we did the recipe at our place, we wanted to keep “Murdock,” but to put the Heroic spin on it, Leon and I worked together to create the “Murdock the Merciless” character.

Which beer is your most popular (or top seller, if that's the correct way to think of it)?

We’ve been tracking this pretty closely and all of our flagship beers sell pretty evenly across the board.  Murdock has been one of our top selling seasonal beers so far.  But nothing has rivaled the popularity of our 63 Scottish Fold Oracle Scottish Wee Heavy (a.k.a. the cat beer), which we did as a limited release beer back in March.  It’s cats in tin foil hats!  Plus it’s pretty high alcohol, which could explain some of the enthusiasm!

You have a broad range of styles that you have brewed so far, is there a style that you have not tried brewing that you would like to take on?

Leon is anxious to get into some sour beers, but also extremely nervous because there’s just so much that can go wrong – like contaminating the entire brewery with the lactobacillus bacteria!  From what I understand, there are some pretty specific procedures to follow to prevent infections, and it’s helpful to work with a fellow brewer who has a few sours under his belt to get the technique down.  Which leads into the next question…

One of the beers we tried at your DC Conspiracy event was a collaboration with Lost Rhino (Nova Confounded) - do you have plans for more collaboration brews?

We’ve been discussing a sour collaboration but haven’t been able to coordinate brew schedules yet.  I’m hesitant to go into much detail before any plans are finalized, but we’re having conversations with a few different breweries both up here in the DC region and also down in Richmond about collaborations.  Although it’s not a collaboration with another brewery, we are in the planning stages of partnering with the Museum of Science Fiction to create an exclusive beer for them like we did with Nova Con.  We’ll be doing a release party and sci fi celebration party here in August, and hope to be part of their convention, Escape Velocity, in 2018.

Any plans for future expansion of the brewery or taproom?

That’s certainly the goal!!  In the near term, we have enough space to significantly expand our brewing capacity at this location by adding equipment and staff.  It’s still a little too soon to figure out what the next move will be, but the plan is to become a regional distribution brewery. 

Do you have plans to package in cans or bottles?

We hope to start canning by the end of the summer.

Do you find that the folks who visit your brewery & taproom are mostly local (ie Woodbridge and surrounding areas) or from farther afield?

Right now we have a lot of regulars that are local, but we get a good mix of people from all over the metro DC area.

What are your most popular recurring events?

Karaoke has been extremely popular.  So much so that we’re starting to do it twice a month. And we generally fill the house every Wednesday for trivia night.  And although I they aren’t regular events in the same way as karaoke and trivia, people have responded really favorably to cosplay events.  So we try to put something on the schedule every month or so where we invite people to dress up and offer drink specials for folks in costume.  Lastly, people love steal the pint nights!  I’m working on a new design for some Game of Thrones themed glasses for a July event, and then we really, really want to do an Oktoberfest ‘Steal the Boot’ night – like with those silly boot-shaped mugs!

Finally, a more open-ended question about your origin story: how did you decide on the comic / superhero theme for your brewery and beers? 
 
We really just wanted to do something new.  We’ve seen some breweries do one-off comic book character beers, but never anything quite to the scale we’re doing it.  And given the growing competition in the craft beer scene, we wanted our brand to be something that stands out from the crowd.  Tim came up with the concept originally and, given our long-time passion for comics and sci-fi, it just seemed a natural fit.  Honestly, I think in the beginning the idea was more specifically “superhero,” but it’s evolved a lot since then.  Now I’m not super crazy about when people describe us as a “superhero” themed brewery because the comic universe we’re creating is so much broader than that.  For example, like I mentioned above, we have a lot of fantasy-based characters that would fall outside the scope of the traditional superhero sub-genre of comics.  In addition, we’re heavily influenced by, and do a lot event planning around, more general pop-culture stuff like Game of Thrones, Doctor Who, etc., which don’t involve “superheroes” at all. 

Which comes first, the beer or the name/superhero? Do you try to match the hero's characteristics to the beer?

We generally plan the brew schedule months in advance to allow time for character creation and art development.  Once we know what beers we’ll be releasing, we try to find some way to reflect the spirit of that beer in the character.  For example, the Kolsh is a very light style of beer that makes you think of summer and hot sunny days.  So for Solasta we had her powers come from a freak encounter with a solar flare, but also made her personality very “sunny” and cheerful.  One that’s less obvious, but kind of a cool connection, is our Baron von Blackbrane Schwarzbier.  Because “schwarz” is German for “black” we wanted to incorporate the idea of black some way.  A black brane is actually a series of equations that describes black holes, so Blackbrane is the character’s name and he’s a mad scientist type who uses black hole technology to build weapons.  Max Nix is similar – it’s a dark beer and Max Nix was transformed during an accident in his laboratory while studying dark matter.  His personality is also dark and brooding.  So stuff like that.  Or we use Scottish Fold cats for a Scottish Wee Heavy.  So sometimes it’s serious and science-y and sometimes it’s a bit silly.
 
But we try to avoid being too literal about it.  Like we would never name an IPA “Captain Hops” or something like that.  We also avoid using beer puns in any of the names because our goal is to make these legitimate comic book characters and not just gimmicks.

Now that our comic universe is getting more established, though, we have characters that are looking for beers.  Like we have an evil organization called the Pentaverate, but only 2 Pentaverate members so far (the Baron and Murdock).  We know who the other members are generally, so it’s about pairing them with the right beer at the right time.