Joe Keatinge's Comics & Stories

EXTREMEARAMA: In Three Parts

Newsarama conducted a massive, three-part interview with Bloodstrike’s Tim Seeley, Prophet’s Brandon Graham and Glory’s me about all things Extreme.

Here’s an excerpt:

Nrama: What about the rest of you guys? Were you into the Extreme books back when they were first being published?

Keatinge: Oh hell yeah. I had a similar situation to Tim, where I was just about the right age when Image first launched. I discovered those guys through their Marvel work, and when they left to form Image, I didn’t even understand there were different companies – I was just, “Uh, this is a bunch of awesome stuff.”

And I glommed on to pretty much everything – like Tim was saying, between me and my friend, we had pretty much the entire friggin’ line. And the Extreme line was a big part of that. With Youngblood, there was a specific run — #6 through 11, I think – that was pretty friggin’ awesome.

And then Alan Moore’s stuff revitalized my interest in that – Supreme and Youngblood and Judgment Day, and even his short Glory run. I loved Stephen Platt on Prophet, that blew me away, I still love those comics. I was definitely a huge fan going in. When Eric asked me to be part of this last November, I was like, “Anything you want. I’m all in.”

THE EXTREME 2012 PREVIEW IS HERE!

BECAUSE YOU DEMANDED IT!

Those fine folks at Graphic.ly have made the EXTREME 2012 preview book is available for every single person on The Internet to enjoy! And look no further, ‘cause this suckers embeded right on this site! LOOK OUT!

PLEASE NOTE: this book contains previews of all the upcoming line, including Brandon Graham & Simon Roy’s Prophet, Tim Seeley & Franchesco Gaston’s Bloodstrike, Alan Moore, Erik Larsen & Cory Hamscher’s Supreme, John McLaughlin (THE WRITER OF BLACK SWAN!!!), Rob Liefeld & Jon Malin’s Youngblood and… OH, YOU KNOW IT - Ross Campbell and my take on GLORY!

READ IT NOW and lemme know what you think!

BIG NEWS #4 (of 4): GLORY

Well, my series of four and a half big news items for the convention year comes to a close with the realization of a major dream.

As I mentioned earlier, I got my creative spark to create my own comics ever since fifth grade. The idea of doing what I’d realize was creator-owned comics was a major dream of mine.

But it wasn’t the only one.

I really, really, really wanted to play in other people’s sandboxes as much as I wanted to make my own. I loved the idea of someday writing a Savage Dragon, Spider-Man, Batman or whoever story. I still do. There’s something exhilarating about contributing to a larger mythology, especially when they’re ones who inspired me so intensely. An editor friend at another company said he thought all I wanted to do was creator-owned and, heck no, I am all for writing other company’s characters on a work-for-hire basis.

This is a thing I want to make happen.

Luckily, it looks like Extreme Studios creator Rob Liefeld and Extreme Studios Editor Eric Stephenson wanted me to as well, as almost a full year ago I was asked to pitch for their new line, specifically on GLORY.

Well, they liked it, because, well, this is coming your way in February 2012:

This is the cover to our first issue, illustrated by series artist Ross Campbell. You may remember him from such comics as Wet Moon, Shadoweyes, The Abandoned and Shark Baby. Hot damn, let me tell you, I feel so lucky to be working with him. I know it sounds like an odd fit, but let me assure you he is the best dude for the job.

Just check out how he draws Glory punching the shit out of a Nazi tank.

As the line was coming together, Brandon Graham was brought in to write Prophet and he suggested I talk to Ross. So, I did. And oh, man, yeah. Again. Look at all those dead Nazis. What convincing do you need to see he’s the guy to draw this book.

So, with Ross along the book’s form really gelled together. I think it’s optimal when you work with a specific artist in mind and even better when you can work together on developing the project together. The book that GLORY is now is because I got the opportunity to work with Ross. And, yeah, I’m super damn thrilled with the results.

Our take’s definitely different from what went on before, but at the same time I didn’t want to frustrate fans of the previous books. So, don’t worry, the continuity remains. All that happened. I hate it when writers negate what went on before to fulfill their own vision.

That said, I definitely approach comics like Rashomon. To explain, if all of us were given the same plot to work from, our final results would all look, feel and read differently. All that happened, but how Ross and I display it is certainly unique from what other GLORY creators have done. While there are definitely lots of new cast members, many old favorites appear as well, albeit differently from before.

Never read GLORY? Awesome. We’re approaching this book to be read by people who have never read the character before or possibly have never read comics in the first place. One of my major goals was to make this a comic my girlfriend would enjoy. She digs it. Hopefully you will too.

Our first issue alone sums up everything you need to know about the characters and their situation. Our second expands on what this has resulted in today. Our third shows where it will go from there. 

So, yeah, super stoked on this one too. It’s my first big work-for-hire ongoing series and I couldn’t be any more thrilled with the results. Then again, maybe I could be. Every time I get in a new page from Ross I reach new levels of excitement.

Plus, I gotta tell you, it was pretty damn sweet to see the character’s creator (Rob Liefeld) interpret our take (well, one of them, this costume is our take on the one Glory had during WWII her final design is closer to what’s on Ross’ cover) on the cover of the Preview book. Try to get your hands on one if you can, it has five pages of pure GLORY awesomeness.

FEBRUARY 2012. HOLY CRAP.