Broken Frontier

We apologize for the unoriginality in the headline pun as there will probably be numerous headlines of similar nature in regards to this book. Image Comics’ latest original graphic novel is written by Mark Sable (Grounded, Fearless) who collaborates with Tek Jansen artist Robbi Rodriguez to bring us a work in the vein of Mean Girls and Heathers. Broken Frontier sat down with Mark Sable, to discuss Hazed (which came out on February 27) along with his other career endeavors.

BROKEN FRONTIER: How did this project come about?

MARK SABLE: After the success of Grounded – a mini-series with Paul Azaceta about a teenager surviving in a high school for superheroes where everyone has powers but him – I had the chance to pitch another project at Image. I decided to take advantage of this window and do something controversial and out of the (comics) mainstream. I wasn’t sure I’d ever get a chance to do a dark comedy about sororities and eating disorders at a major publisher again, so I decided to swing for the fences rather than do something safe.

BF: Did any of it come from your days at Duke?

MS: It’s based heavily on my time in college, although I use a good deal of dramatic license. I’ve said this before, but when I got to Duke I found myself asking myself a question over and over. How is it that some of the smartest women in the country, who have so much more going for them than their looks, could center their lives around how desirable they were to fraternity brothers as soon as they stepped on campus? Hazed is my attempt to answer that, albeit in a satiric, politically incorrect way.

I should also say that this is not a Duke-specific story. The university depicted in Hazed is fictional, and not just for legal reason. In the years since college, I’ve incorporated the experiences of my friends and girlfriends who attended many different schools, sadly confirming a lot of stereotypes and urban legends that I thought too horrific (and sometimes, horrifically funny) to be true.

BF: What was your process with artist Robbi Rodriguez? How did you guys originally connect? How did you map out the entire graphic novel?

MS: Hazed started out as a play, which I then adapted into a screenplay. From there, I broke it down into issues. Issues became chapters as I began to feel more and more like this story needed to be told as it was originally intended, as a complete whole.

After a long, painful search for an artist who could capture the comedic elements and soften my sometimes harsh writing, Greg Thompson (of Hero Camp and CBDLF) fame was nice enough to recommend Robbi to me.

I gave Robbi full scripts, but also free reign to mess with the panel and page layouts. I also told him not to hold back, to push the comedy as far as he did, and the end result is something funnier and more outrageous than what I originally wrote.

BF: Would you say this is your mature young girl story for college? A more grown-up story along the lines of the Minx line?

MS: I think in some ways that’s an accurate description, and I’d certainly love to get some of the Minx audience and women in general. But I’d also like to think Hazed has a broader appeal than that. It’s weird. In the larger scheme of the entertainment medium, movies like Heathers or Mean Girls or television shows like Greek (or my favorite, Undeclared) are considered mainstream, and superhero work is considered niche. In comics it’s the reverse.

Hazed is a comedy. It’s a thoughtful Animal House with girls. Just having the first chapter out there (on MySpace Comics), the reaction I’ve been getting is not just, this is a great book to get your girlfriend, but this is a really accessible, fun comic. Hell, my mom even liked it…although I’ve warned her not to read past Chapter One because it gets much, much more offensive.

BF: What’s new and upcoming for you?

MS: A lot. That’s been announced? I’m a contributor to Comic Book Tattoo, an anthology of Tori Amos songs adapted to comics form. From Boom! Studios, a Cthulhu Tales story and from DC, I have the first ever Cyborg mini-series. The first of six issues debuts in May and is solicited in this months Previews. I’ve got another DC mini that should be announced this weekend at WonderCon and I hope to have news about more creator owned work soon.

BF: When I spoke to you around Thanksgiving you mentioned Polarity, how is that coming along? Has it been affected by the writers’ strike at all?

MS: Polarity is the working name of an original pilot that I’ll be developing for the Cartoon Network, something I pitched as modern day Wonder Twins. Fans of Grounded I think will like it, that’s the tone I’m aiming for. Right now it’s still in the hands of my managers and lawyers. On the one hand I’m thankful that it was not affected by the writers' strike (very little animation is covered by the WGA), on the other I wish the WGA hadn’t taken animation off the table in reaching the deal. As someone who honored the strike despite being offered scab work, I felt a little let down.

BF: Anything else you’d like to say?

MS: Just that I hope people will really give this a chance. The more positive the response to this, the more likely not just Image but other publishers will be to take more chances. I also hope people will check out Grounded, which is still available in trade paperback, as well as the last issue of Fearless (my mini from Image about a vigilante who needs an anti-fear drug not only to fight crime but to function as a human being), which is out the same day as Hazed.

Hazed is published by Image Comics priced $14.99.