Leave Your Spandex @t the Door: Naked egg-hatching cannibal GIRLS Interview with the Luna Bros

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Welcome to the 12th instalment of the new Leave Your Spandex @t the Door!

This week I’m joined by fellow UK staffer, Iain Burnside as we doubleteam against the most succesful brother-brother creative team in comics right now: Josh and Jonathan Luna to discuss their current projects: the indy hit GIRLS for Image Comics and the “comeback of the year” mini SPIDER-WOMAN ORIGIN for Marvel Comics!

[We’d like to thank the Luna Brothers and Image comics for providing the Nexus with a 4-page preview of GIRLS #12, out this Wednesday]

Iain: So have you quit the day jobs yet?

Josh: Heavens no. I make way more money slinging crack.

Iain: – Very much a labour of love, then. Comic book love, not crack love. That comes later. How viable do you think it is to be able to make a living solely from comics?

Josh: It’s viable, especially if you have a passion to do it. It just takes a lot of hard work and dedication. But if someone’s getting into this business solely for money, there’s definitely lots of better ways to make it.

Iain: – How comfortable is it to work together as brothers? (My mind keeps going back to an episode of Frasier where he tries to write a book with his brother Niles and they literally wind up at one another’s throats!)

Jonathan: It works very well. Telling stories between us is very fluid.

Iain: – Could you tell us a little about your working style? Do you each have set tasks to adhere to or are things more fluid between the writing and the art?

Josh: Jon handles the art, and I handle the script. But we’re always discussing the story together, laying out the plot points, planning each panel, so it’s very much a fluid collaboration.

Jonathan: Specifically, I do the plot, pencils, inks, and colors while Josh does plot, script, letters and page layouts.

Manolis: – How difficult was it pitching Ultra to Image? Were things easier for Girls?

Josh: It wasn’t too difficult. We just followed the submission guidelines on the Image website, sent them the package and waited for a response. For Girls, it was just a matter of focusing on the story pitch. Since they already knew Jon’s art, they didn’t have to see much of that. So, in that sense, it was easier.

Iain: – How do you feel about CBS commissioning a pilot episode for a TV adaptation of Ultra? How much control do you both have on the end product? Do you feel confident the pilot will accurately represent the comic book?

Josh: It’s exciting and a little painful at times because ULTRA is still our baby. As far as we know, they’re staying somewhat faithful to the source material but at the end of the day, the pilot will definitely be their adaptation.

Jonathan: And it’s too early to tell how much control we’ll have.

Iain: – How much involvement do you have with regards to scripts, production, etc.?

Josh: So far, we’re just reading the scripts.

Iain: – Do you have any plans to do a sequel to Ultra? Out of curiousity, has anybody bought the official “ULTRA Logo Classic Thong”, available on your website for $9.99?

Josh: Right now, we don’t have plans for an Ultra sequel, but it’s still a possibility. We just wouldn’t want to do it for the sake of putting out another book. In fact, Ultra was always meant to be a finite series so if there were to be another volume, we need to come up with a really good reason for it.

Jonathan: No. You’d think the thong would be selling like hotcakes.

Iain: – That hotcake thing is a myth. I tried it once and wound up making just £1.30. Have you given thought to expanding the Ultra-verse along the lines of a webcomic or even an MMORPG? Would you be interested in working on such projects in the future?

Josh: Probably not.

Iain: – There have been rumours that DC approached you both to work on a project for them. Is it true and, if so, can we have some details (pretty please)? Similarly, are there any more Marvel projects lined up after Spider-Woman: Origin?

Josh: We’ve been talking to a few people, but we’d prefer to not let out any details unless something’s concrete.

Iain: – I’ll buy one of the thongs if you can give us some hints…

Josh: All I can say is we don’t like to repeat ourselves, so it will be different.

Iain: – A lot of recent creator-owned projects have set end-points to work towards (The Losers, 100 Bullets, Y The Last Man). Do you envision Girls as having a finite ending and if so how many issues do you imagine it will run for?

Josh: GIRLS was always a finite story. In fact, we wouldn’t start a story unless we knew how it was going to end. You can’t build a house without a solid foundation. It should run for about two years altogether.

Manolis: -Have you already plotted the series up to its final issue, then? Have you changed anything in the original story because of feedback you’ve received from the fans of the book or reviews?

Josh: Yes, we’ve plotted out the all broad strokes up to the very last panel. No, we haven’t changed anything because of that. That’s probably why we avoid reading reviews. Not that I avoid feedback–I’m all for that, in fact. You just have to be very careful where you find criticism, as well as praise, because if you’re not careful–it can become crippling.

Iain: – Your three main projects thus far have dealt primarily with female characters (Ultra, Girls, Spider-Woman). Is this a conscious decision? Do you find it easier to write and draw female characters?

Josh: Sometimes, it’s more enjoyable to write female characters because they have such a natural range of emotions you can work with. But it’s not necessarily easier. I just focus on the character and the story. Gender is secondary to me.

Iain: – Guys have been trying to figure out how the female mind works since the dawn of civilization. So what’s the secret? Telepathy? You’re secretly women in disguise? You were women in past lives?

Jonathan: Actually, Girls has a male protagonist.

Iain: – Indeed it does… how much of yourselves do you put into Ethan? Any personal demons being exorcised here?

Josh: In order for it feel real, I think every writer has to put some elements of themselves into their characters and write from the inside out. But at the same time, I’m really nothing like that character.

Iain: – Girls is particularly focused on discussing gender and sex in a way that most American comic books don’t usually manage. How do you think this has been received and would you like to continue exploring these themes in future works?

Josh: I’m probably the worst person to ask since I’m pretty clueless as to what’s being said out there. We just do whatever interests us at the moment, so it’s hard to say what kind of themes we’ll be exploring in the future. But “sex” is a good bet. That never gets old.

Iain: – Depends on the situation”¦ Anyway, how would you best describe Girls? There seems to be a little bit of everything in it”¦ horror, family issues, social issues, comedy”¦

Josh: I think you summed it up pretty nicely, man.

Manolis: -As you mentioned, SEX has been a major theme in the series so far. There’s an abundance of sexual symbolism, be it the giant ovary that has enclosed the small community, the egg-laying nudists or the giant slayer sperm! Did you encounter any resistance from Image when you pitched them the series because of the sexual content?

Josh: For the covers, we have to be careful not to show any naughty bits. But that’s about it. Other than that, we’ve pretty much had complete freedom.

Manolis: -Most stories begin from a single idea or image and are later fleshed out into the final story. What was the birth concept for Girls?

Josh: “Beautiful monster.”

Manolis: -Through the issues so far a lot of questions have been raised about the origins of the Girls and their purpose. Are we going to start finding out any of the answers in the coming months or are you springing for an explosive finale to reveal everything in?

Josh: Yes and yes.

Manolis: -A lot of potential new readers for Girls are reading this interview. What are the three greatest reasons they should run to their retailer now and pick up the first trade of girls?

Josh: People get laid, people kill, and people get killed. What more do you want from a comic?

Iain: – One of the (very few!) criticisms levied at Girls is that the pace is rather slow. How do you feel about that? Given that you are collaborating with Brian Michael Bendis, who has been criticised for slow pacing in his (very good!) stories, do you have any general thoughts about decompression in modern comic books?

Josh: Personally, it’s strange to put a timetable on storytelling. Every story is different, and not everything unravels at the same pace.

Iain: – Excellent point. Why do you think this has become such a prevalent issue among the, um, fanboys? Do you think the industry should move away from the monthlies towards the TPBs and Original Graphic Novels (OGNs)?

Josh: I don’t have a problem with monthlies. There’s a certain level of suspense the reader gets with the singles you can’t really get from the TPBs. It’s a ride, y’know?

Iain: – Spider-Woman Jessica Drew has a rather complicated background. Did it require much research to work on her revamped origin story?

Jonathan: Nope. Luckily, Bendis and Reed gave me everything I needed to tell the story.

Iain: – Cool. Were you guys into Marvel books when you were younger?

Josh: Sure, we were into all kinds of comics.

Jonathan: Uncanny X-Men with Jim Lee and Chris Claremont.

Iain: – What titles are you reading at the moment? Anything in particular influencing your style?

Josh: Blade of the Immortal, Stray Bullets, Lone Wolf and Cub, Stray Bullets, Walking Dead, Y: the Last man. That’s all I can think of right now.

Iain: Let’s play a little…

– If you had to choose one artist to draw a story of yours, who would it be and why? (without picking one another!)

Josh: Hiroaki Samura. He’s one of the best storytellers I’ve ever seen.
Jonathan: Ditto.

Iain: – If you had to choose one writer whose story you would draw, who would it be and why?

Jonathan: That’s a hard one.

Iain: – If you could work on any comic book character, who would it be and why?

Josh: Better yet, who could I kill off?

Manolis: -Who would you kill off if you were given free reign?

Josh: No one in particular. I just like the idea of having the option.

Iain: – If you could date any comic book character, who would it be and why?

Josh: This question saddens me.

Iain: – If you could go out on the piss with any comic book creator, who would it be and why?

Jonathan: Bendis and Reed. We haven’t met them in person yet.

Manolis and iain: Thanks again, Josh and Jon! Once, again, GIRLS 12 goes on sale this Wednesday the 12th of April. Check it out, highly recommended from the Nexus team!

ah, the good old Dr Manolis, the original comics Greek. He's been at this for sometime. he was there when the Comics Nexus was founded, he even gave it its name, he even used to run it for a couple of years. he's been writing about comics, geeking out incessantly and interviewing busier people than himself for over ten years now and has no intention of stopping anytime soon.