In part one of our interview with Dark Horse Comics editor-in-chief Scott Allie, we discussed bringing the graphic novel sequel to Fight Club to Dark Horse. In the second part of our interview, Mr. Allie talks about Dark Horse’s plans post-Star Wars, the shifting publishing schedules of The Goon and BPRD, and working with Hellboy creator Mike Mignola for 20 years.
FreakSugar: Dark Horse doesn’t have the licensing rights to Star Wars any longer. How will Dark Horse fill that gap?
Allie: We have some pending deals and pending announcements that will play into that. Star Wars was part of Dark Horse for a long time, 23 years. It sucks to see it go, but the deal with LucasFilm was a small part of what we do. Last year was a good year for our Star Wars titles and this year was ever better. We’ll be launching books from Brian Wood and Jeff Lemire, and, of course, Fight Club. We’ll be doing a lot with the Aliens franchise with Fire and Stone that will go through February of next year and Prometheus. Star Wars is such a big part of the pop culture landscape that we can’t just throw something in there. A couple of licenses will help, but we can’t think that Star Wars can be replaced by one thing. Video game comics have become a big thing for us lately as well.
FS: BPRD shifted from miniseries to an ongoing series, while on the opposite end, The Goon has shifted from a monthly series to miniseries. How does this change alter the dynamics of those books?
Allie: This is something that we’ve been thinking about for a while, especially with how BPRD’s storylines have evolved. The miniseries seem to have been feeding into one another, and artist Guy Davis was becoming so fast at doing the art, that it seemed to make sense to make it an ongoing. With The Goon, we decided it made sense to get a few issues, a complete story, knocked out and release those issues monthly.
FS: With Abe Sapien, how much was the creation of the series an effort to use him as an everyman for the weird goings-on in the Hellboy universe?
Allie: With so much that has happened in BPRD and in Abe’s ongoing title, we can very much use him to tell smaller stories while at the same time use him to react with what’s going on in the larger Hellboy world.
FS: You do quite a bit of writing yourself in the Hellboy-related titles. How difficult is it to edit your own work?
Allie: I don’t worry too much about it because I’m able to bring my editing sensibilities to the work. I can pretty much cut to the chase with deciding what needs to be done to move the story along. The main thing is not to love your own writing too much so you can make decisions like that.
FS: You’ve been working on Hellboy for 20 years? How do you stay engaged and keep the experience new?
Allie: I love this stuff, man, I really do. I’m still such a big fan of the whole thing. I was talking to someone the other day about Hellboy, what’s best about the universe and what it accomplishes. As I was talking to her, I sounded like a gibbering fanboy, such a sychophant sometimes, when I talk about [Hellboy creator] Mike [Mignola]’s work. Doing the stories that Mike sets out to do and my love for Mike’s work and art is such a joy. There are certain things we are trying to achieve with what the comics are trying to do and what we want to do for the reader. Mike doesn’t approach any of this shit from a certain point of view or using themes. What he does comes naturally. He’s genuinely driven from an internal place to make stories that are fun and gripping. It’s natural to him. He makes the rest of us work harder.
I always strive to articulate what Mike does. It’s so intuitive for him and the rest of us are left to figure it out. I learn from folks like [writer Joss] Whedon and others, then I dole that out to other writers. It’s the circle of life, baby.
Be sure to check out Hellboy and the BPRD #1 this Wednesday from Dark Horse.