I first met Jimmy Palmiotti over twenty five years ago when I was working at Fat Jack’s Comicrypt in Philadelphia. He stopped in on a quiet Thursday morning, browsed for a bit, introduced himself, and signed some books. He was still working primarily as an inker (keep in mind this is before he and Joe Quesada launched Event Comics), he was extremely friendly and personable.
Every time I’ve encountered him, his genuine warmth hasn’t changed a bit. During his career he has become one of the comic book industries’ most successful editors and now one of its busiest writers. His regular collaborators have included Quesada, Justin Gray, and his favorite co-writer and artist, the inimitable Amanda Conner. Jimmy currently goes back and forth from working on corporate characters such as Harley Quinn, Batwing, and Jonah Hex to funding his own projects via Kickstarter. His latest project, Rage, launched this week and Jimmy was gracious enough to discuss the project with Forces of Geek.
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FOG!: Congratulations! This is the 16th Kickstarter for PaperFilms. After so many successful campaigns, what do you think makes Kickstarter unique and have you had any negative feedback from retailers?
Jimmy Palmiotti: I think the most unique thing about doing Kickstarters is it gives a creator a direct line to the people that are buying and supporting one’s work. It is almost an instant reaction to a pitch where people vote with their hard-earned money.
The other thing is no editorial control with content and I get to pick the paper stock, cover stock and oversee the entire production. The whole production is in the creators – which is far from normal. I have gotten little feedback from retailers mainly because we always offer a pledge level that is focused on them and gives them a discount if they want to order the books.
One day I hope to reformat the books and be able to offer them directly, but that’s in the future and even if we do, the editions offered on the Kickstarter are exclusively unique and one of a kind.
Your latest project is called Rage. What’s it about and what was the genesis of the project?
Rage is the story of a global disaster that happens overnight that has an effect on only certain people and it drives them mad at night.
This is the story of a few people that are not affected for reasons we discover along the way. The smaller story is a father and daughter are separated and try to navigate the chaos to be together again. It’s a disaster story with hope as its theme. Rage deals with adult subject matter and scenes and is not for the kids. It is dark, fun, weird and crazy.
This project has you collaborating with Scott Hampton. How did Scott get involved? Had you planned on a painted book or simply wanted to work with him?
I had worked with Scott a few times before and G.I. Zombie for DC Comics was our last project together and still one of my personal favorite comics I have done. During the pandemic, I was catching up with people and seeing how they were doing and checked in with Scott. We talked for a while and we both realized we had some gaps in our schedules and I convinced him to do a Kickstarter with me after I laid out the details as well as the risks.
We talked ideas, format, should it be a hardcover and all of that. We agreed on a subject and honestly, I was happy with whatever format his artwork would be presented. That wasn’t not an issue. In the end, Scott was someone that understood my writing and the room it gives an artist to explore and we had a blast working on it.
You’re also working on a few music bios with Z2. What can you share about them?
I first got called by Z2 comics to contribute to the Anthrax book, to create a new origin for the Not Man and connect it to the band. It was an easy and fun gig for me, knowing their music, knowing their roots in my old part of town, and once I got Nelson DeCastro on board for the art, the rest was a breeze. Nelson was the only man for this job and he did such a lush job on the story, they decided it looked better in natural black and white.
The other book I am working on with my wife Amanda Conner is a book about the band Blondie. This is a monster of a project and the entire band is involved. I have seen Blondie live, followed them and was a fan of Debbie and Chris my whole life, so this was a no brainer. I cannot wait for people to see this.
In addition, you’re writing Red Sonja for Dynamite. What are your plans for that book?
Amanda and I are writing the hell out of the series and it is our love letter to the genre and to Sonja herself.
We are having a blast watching the Moritat pages come in and getting more excited as we go. The big plan is we are writing a story that is all about a check list to what we want to see Sonja go through. We loved Roy Thomas’s run and look at this as a continuation to that and Frank Thornes. We are pushing the envelope with what we can get away with in the book and at its core, it’s a story about Sonja making a deal with a princess and seeing it through, even if it kills her.
After so many years working with Amanda on Harley Quinn, is this the first time that you don’t have any superhero titles that you’re working on and do you feel that your interest in writing for that genre has moved on?
We love superheroes, but we love them in a different way than others see them and sometimes it gives us great success and sometimes not.
Amanda and I see the human side and always explore that before we focus on the powers and fist fights. We want to know what they are thinking, how they live, and what is their relationship with others and the world around them. We just feel everyone else does the fight books so well, we should stick to what interests us.
Even with Harley, our book did everything except make it a villain of the month book. I think that was also why it did so well. We will always be doing superheroes, and are working on three titles as we speak for the future that are exactly that and Amanda is drawing every single one of them, but they will be published elsewhere and not at the big two.
What else do you have coming up?
Outside of comics I am pitching some of my books to other media as usual, constantly building up the PAPERFILMS.COM web site and trying to get working on my next project. I think the next Kickstarter will be Painkiller Jane. I am finishing that up as we speak.
If you had the opportunity to collaborate with any artists that you never worked with before, living or dead, who would be your top three choices and why?
There would be a few for a few different reasons.
Top of the list would be Frank Frazetta. Like myself, a Brooklyn boy who was a game changer in just about everything he did. I would have loved to create a universe around his characters so that his work would live on forever- which I think he managed to do with single images. Another would be Al Williamson, someone who I admired and got along with great that we just needed to see more work by. Joe Kubert is one I would have given my left arm to work with on something. I knew Joe and was a fan for life and to me, he was always the teacher and wise man of the business, I respected what he did, stepping out on his own with his own creations. Same with Will Eisner. My last would be Moebius. He influenced me so much I didn’t realize it till later on in life. His work in westerns and Sci-fi – well, no one came close.
All of these great artists take up an entire bookshelf in my studio and have given me a goal and strength to keep working harder at the craft. Sorry I went past three, but honestly, I could give you about twenty without blinking.
For more details and to support the Rage Kickstarter, CLICK HERE!
