Broken Frontier

This coming April, Danger Girl co-creator Andy Hartnell will write history as the Danger Girls team up with Ash in Danger Girl and the Army of Darkness #1. Broken Frontier had the opportunity to chat with Andy Hartnell about this explosive new crossover.

BROKEN FRONTIER: This is one odd crossover! How did the stars align for these two properties to come together?

ANDY HARTNELL: It's almost like the stars actually did align for this one.  J. Scott Campbell and I have known Dynamite's Nick Barrucci for a long time now, and all three of us have always been big fans of Army of Darkness.  We'd worked together in the past on Army of Darkness: Ashes 2 Ashes and also on some Danger Girl exclusive editions.  So it was at just about the same time that Campbell and I were starting to develop some new Danger Girl adventures that Nick was ready to give Army of Darkness another big push for 2011. 

So Nick had the idea of bringing the books together for this big crossover event.  Campbell and I weren't sure at first, as it seemed like a pretty surreal mix at the time, but after a little thought, it was like, "Wait: both of these books are full of high energy, action, and humor.  Both heroes often find themselves chasing down supernatural antiquities..."  And then it was with the characters of Abbey and Ash being so different—in their personalities, skills, and in their methods of doing things—that we thought this crossover had some really interesting and explosive potential.

BF: Since you are writing and Jeff has also been mentioned, does this not only mark the return of Danger Girl ,but also Jeff's to interiors?

HARTNELL: Chris Bolson, who's been doing some really knock-out work on Dynamite's Red Sonja, is going to be tackling the interior art for this special series.  We are very fortunate to have J. Scott Campbell contributing cover art to this project as well.


BF: Having Danger Girl jump from Image to DC to IDW, all since 1998, that makes it a long-lasting adventure. It is great to see both creators back in action with Danger Girl. But on your end, where do you feel Danger Girl
stands at the moment?

HARTNELL: While Danger Girl has moved from DC to IDW, the original core creative team is still firmly in place.  From the beginning, Scott Dunbier has played a large part in the development of Danger Girl.  He's now the special projects editor over at IDW, and he was really key in launching Danger Girl: The Deluxe Edition, which is a new, oversized hardcover that collects the original series. 

So with our original Danger Girl series now readily available again (and looking better than ever, I might add), we felt it was the perfect time to continue our story with several all-new Danger Girl adventures.  Danger Girl and the Army of Darkness is really just the first of many new Danger Girl series that we have in development.

BF: Over the years, some very interesting storylines have taken place, but this one is the first to go from super to supernatural. What can you tell us about the plot?

HARTNELL: Abbey and Ash have a common goal in this series—to retrieve the legendary Book of the Dead.  But what the story is really about is how two completely different people try to take charge of a crisis in two completely different ways.

BF: Do you happen to know if Bruce Campbell is a fan of Danger Girl?


HARTNELL: We're really proud to say that Bruce Campbell, Ash himself, IS a big fan of Danger Girl.  He even wrote the introduction to our Danger Girl: Deluxe Edition.  What's also cool is that J. Scott Campbell (no relation to Bruce) did this really amazing illustration of Bruce that goes along with said introduction.  J. Scott later gave that original art to Bruce as a thank you, and Bruce liked it so much that he published it again in his own book.

BF: This is not the first Danger Girl crossover, since Batman beat Ash to it, so to speak. Are there any other crossover opportunities being explored between or beyond IDW and Dynamite? I know of a few people that would love to see Danger Girl and Vampirellameet up.

HARTNELL: We're really excited about the future of Danger Girl and their continuing adventures as a team in their own series.  There is, however, talk of another big Danger Girl crossover event for 2011.  I've never really thought about taking Danger Girl into the world of vampires before, but seeing Ashteam up with Vampirella—now THAT'S something I wouldn't mind sinking my teeth into!

Danger Girl and the Army of Darkness #1 is due to hit stores in April 2011.