Dynamite Entertainment and Disney have had a dynamite (pun intended) partnership in recent years, producing quality comics based on the House of Mouse’s properties, from Gargoyles to Darkwing Duck to Cruella De Vil. (Check out our interviews with Greg Weisman and Nate Cosby about the Gargoyles Winter Special and Sweeney Boo about the Cruelle De Vil series!)

And in 2025, the pair are keeping up that successful streak with the launch of a brand-new Zootopia comic book series! Written by Jeff Parker with art by Alessandro Ranaldi and timed to next year’s new Zootopia movie sequel, the comic focuses on the days following the events of the first film. Zootopia Police Department Officers Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde will have to contend with more hijinks to keep the peace in their fair city. What roads will that lead them down? It’ll be a rollicking time to see where Parker and Ranaldi take the Zoo crew.

I spoke with Mr. Parker recently about the conceit of the comic book version of Zootopia, where we find the characters at the beginning of the book, the process of adapting these movie characters to the comic page, and what projects he has coming soon.

Jeff Parker is an enormously talented comic writer and his work is just FUN. If you’re reading a Jeff Parker comic book—from Batman ’66  to Negaduck to Batman/Santa: The Silent Knight Returns!—you’re guaranteed a good time page after page. And if you can get that kind of enjoyment in every page, that’s a feat, one that Parker always conquers.

 

 

FreakSugar: Before we talk about your book, what is your experience in the world of Zootopia?

Jeff Parker: Same as most, I’ve only watched the movie. A lot.

FS: How did you become involved in the comic version of Zootopia?

JP: Editor Nate Cosby asked me Zootopia opinions while I was still working on the Negaduck series and we were clearly both big appreciators. And then I put together some ideas for possible series and the Disney folks liked it.

 

 

FS: Where do we find the characters and the world of Zootopia at the beginning of your book?

JP: It could be the very next week or even day of the last scene in the movie. Now you get to see them start a normal day in Bogo’s ready room, getting assignments like all the other police teams.

FS: What kind of trouble Nick and Judy have to contend with? Is there a narrative line that runs through your six issues?

JP: It mostly can read as standalone cases, but yes, there is a narrative running through the whole thing. There are no small stories in Zootopia, only small law officers.

 

 

FS: When you’re writing for characters who have been on the silver screen, is there a difference in the process? Do you think in their voices or how they moved in the movie?

JP: I absolutely think about how they sounded and their body language, all of it. It’s like when I wrote Batman ’66, I knew it was working if I heard Adam West’ voice. Bogo has to have Idris Elba’s thundering voice in my head. We get some chase scenes, and I try to make the way Nick pursues somebody different from how Judy does. Like the movie I stay aware of what kind of animal we’re showing and how that would affect the interactions.

FS: What’s been your favorite part of working on the book so far?

JP: Seeing Alessandro Ranaldi make these characters live never gets old. He has a very big job in showing the world of Zootopia and getting all the acting of the various characters right, and he makes it look easy somehow. I think this book will really make people aware of his art-power. For writing, I like a lot of the in-between bits when they’re just amusing themselves (well, Nick) and talking about small stuff. It’s fun to think how that plays out with animals. And to that, Alessandro comes up with really inventive ways to move you through the story, again, young artists are going to be looking at his work like a drawing manual.

 

 

FS: What are you reading right now?

JP: I’m pretty into the new Waid/Samnee Batman and Robin; I’ve been waiting to see Chris draw this stuff for years.

FS: Can you tease anything we might see in the book?

JP: I think it’s cool that you see them go undercover on assignment, even though they aren’t detectives and probably aren’t encouraged to.

FS: Are there any other projects you’d like to talk about that are coming down the pike?

JP: Right after Thanksgiving, my Batman/Santa Claus Silent Knight Returns! weekly miniseries begins, and with the most beautiful art by Lukas Ketner. The reaction to last year’s story caught us off guard, and then I was approved to write an extra issue, so we’ve had a chance to really do a nice big adventure with some of the best DC characters in our cast.

 

 

FS: In that same vein, are there any other Disney properties you’d like to tackle in comic form?

JP: I would certainly be into another favorite of the past couple of decades, Lilo and Stitch.

FS: If you had one last pitch for the book, what would it be?

JP: The Animal odd-couple of Hopps and Wilde are back and no matter how much Zootopia PD want them to just do a normal police job, they can’t help but find the biggest secrets in the city.

Zooptopia #1 goes on sale Wednesday, January 8th, 2025, from Dynamite Entertainment.

From the official issue description:

It’s another beautiful day in the bustling city of Zootopia, where every animal is free to strive to realize their full potential – and one of the most successful of those strivers is Tripp Zebrando, owner of the PB&J cell phone company.

PB&J’s high-tech devices are the must-have accessories for every species in town, and Tripp is about to launch their latest model with a huge publicity event timed for the arrival of the first shipment of phones at the airport.

Unfortunately, somebody has it in for PB&J, or Tripp (or both), and the resulting sabotage threatens to bring the house down – right on top of the unsuspecting crowd!

Luckily, ZPD’s finest – in the form of Officers Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde – are on the scene, ready to keep the peace (or at least contain the chaos). But what they’re about to discover in the aftermath of this seemingly isolated incident will lead them into a much larger and more complicated case!

Acclaimed author JEFF PARKER (Negaduck, Batman ’66) partners up with renowned artist ALESSANDRO RANALDI (Disney Villains: Hades) to bring the captivating world of Disney’s Zootopia to comic-book life with this all-new mystery adventure – featuring courtroom-quality covers from RANALDI, TRISH FORSTNER, CRAIG ROUSSEAU, and more!