Broken Frontier

You may not know Chris Giarrusso’s name right away, but you’ll most likely be familiar with his work. How about G-Man? No? Then let me throw these names at you: Bulletin Bits and Mini Marvels. Right, he’s that guy. August 9th Mini Marvels triumphantly return to Marvel comics with a 6-page story in the Spider-Man Family: Amazing Friends special.

Broken Frontier: How exciting is it to be drawing Mini-Marvels again?

Chris Giarrusso: I'm pretty excited about it.  It's been a few years and I haven't really made much progress without them, so it'll be nice to feel like a "real" cartoonist again.

BROKEN FRONTIER: How did the latest installment of the Mini-Marvels (in Spider-Man Family: Amazing Friends) come about?

CHRIS GIARRUSSO: My editor, Nate Cosby, asked if I'd be interested in working on an Amazing Friends story as a backup for that book if Sean McKeever were to write it.  Being a McKeever fan, I said "yes" before Nate finished asking the question.

BF: Was it strange to draw a Mini Marvels story that wasn't written by you?

CG: Yeah, actually it was really strange.  But it went a heck of a lot faster too.

BF: What do you think of McKeever's writing?

CG: I like him.  McKeever is a strong and well-rounded writer.  I think people are going to dig the Mini Marvels tale he wrote -- it's a fun ride.

BF: If you could have anyone besides yourself write a script for the Mini Marvels, who would it be?

CG: Curb Your Enthusiasm creator and Seinfeld co-creator, Larry David.

BF: How did you initially become involved with Marvel?

CG: I worked an internship there while I was still in college.  That led to an opportunity to do some back-up comic strips in the What If...? books, which led to the ongoing Bullpen Bits strip, which led to the one-shots, Giant Size Mini Marvels and Spidey And The Mini Marvels.

BF: Any chance that this will unlock any more work with Marvel (i.e. the return of Bulletin Bits)?

CG: Well, the Mini Marvels strip will be a regular bi-monthly feature in the Marvel Adventures line (Marvel Adventures: Spider-Man, Marvel Adventures: Fantastic Four, and Marvel Adventures: Avengers).  It's almost a full page, more like a Sunday funnies strip.  I doubt we'll see a return of the Bullpen Bits, if for no other reason than the title confuses almost everybody.  But that doesn't mean we couldn't do the same thing and call it Mini Marvels.  I doubt that will be happening though. At this point, it looks like I may also be working on some more Mini Marvels stuff as back-ups for some Power Pack miniseries. 

Regular Power Pack writer Marc Sumerak will be returning for some new Power Pack stories, and he'll also be writing the Mini Marvels back-ups.  Marc has already co-written the Franklin Richards back-ups in previous Power Pack series with cartoonist Chris Eliopoulos, who fans routinely confuse me with.  I'm looking forward to having people congratulate me on my Power Pack back-ups and being able to actually take credit for it for a change.

BF: Where did the idea for your current work - Comic Bits - come from?

CG: I always had G-Man and his friends in mind as superhero characters since I was in high school.  After I got into the little kid superhero groove with the Mini Marvels, I figured starting off G-Man and his pals as kids seemed like the way to go.

BF: Did Erik Larsen approach you to put Comic Bits in Savage Dragon?

CG: Erik Larsen's Savage Dragon has always been my favorite book.  People tend not to believe me any more when I say that because they think I'm just plugging for the guy who's hooking me up with a spot in his comics.  But anyone who knew me beforehand can verify that I have been a Dragon freak and a Larsen fan since day one.  The reality is that being a fan is what led me to getting a spot in Erik's book.  Erik has traditionally run back-up comic strips for most of the book's run.  I had often mentioned to folks that I'd love to be able to contribute to the back-ups.  Erik got wind of that and offered me the opportunity to run Comic Bits.

BF: How much has Larsen done for you?

CG: Erik has done a considerable amount for me, even going so far back to when he was just a creator inspiring me as a fan.  When life sucked for me and I was completely miserable in college, Savage Dragon was at times the only thing that kept me going.  Contributing to Erik's book is still an unreal experience for me, and Erik also encouraged me and gave me the opportunity to do the G-Man one-shot.

BF: You released a full sized G-Man comic for Image comics—are there any plans for a second issue?

CG: The plans and the stories have been in my head for a long time now.  I just haven't been able to get my act together long enough to get it all out on paper.  There will be a second issue, but I don't know when yet.

BF: You parody a lot of current occurrences in mainstream comics. What do you feel about the current state of the medium?

CG: It seems to me that there isn't a lot of the kind of stuff that I liked to read when I was a kid.  For the most part, comics have grown up with their audience and are much more serious.  I don't necessarily think that's good or bad or right or wrong.  It's just the trend that the market seems forced to follow as dictated by the buying audience.  I enjoy some of it and some of it I don't.

      

BF: How did the comic crossover 5 Star Pile-Up come about?

CG: My pal Brian Smith came up with the idea and suggested it to Tim Smith 3, Jacob Chabot, Gregg Schigiel and myself.  Each of us wrote a six-page story, then we picked names out of a hat to draw somebody else's story.  It was a lot of fun to work on, and we were all pleased with how it turned out.  We printed a small run of mini comics and then published a full size book after we ran out of the mini.

BF: Since the mini sold out, and has since been reprinted in a full size, will there be a follow-up?

CG: I think we're all interested, but also extremely busy.  Nothing's in the works right now but time will tell.

BF: You've worked with Jacob Chabot on several occasions, including crossovers with his characters. I also noticed you sitting next to him at several conventions Do you plan to work with him more in the future?

CG: Indeed!  Our next crossover between my G-Man and Jacob's Mighty Skullboy Army will be found in Savage Dragon #129.  This will take place in the middle of my current "alternate reality crisis" storyline, so we tried something new.  We wrote the strip together, as always, but this time Jacob drew the whole thing himself.  For the following strip, we'll do another crossover that I will draw.  So, we'll finally see Jacob drawing my guys and me drawing his guys, which I think helps add to the whole alternate reality spirit of the thing.

BF: Your website is fantastic, do you do all of the design yourself?

CG: My brother Dave maintains the site and we basically designed it together.  I would probably have no website at all without him. The brothers [G-Man and Great Man] and the dynamic of their relationship [in Comic Bits] are heavily inspired by my own brother and I.

BF: Will we see more of Timmy Two-Hats soon?

CG: Yes.  I have a TON of stuff I want to do with that guy.  Again, I need to buckle down and get my act together.

BF: Finally, is there anything else coming up you'd like to mention here?

CG: I drew a book for writers Marc Dworkin and Eugene Lehnert called The Adventures of Andy.  It's a story centering on characters from an independent film they put together called Armageddon for Andy. The movie will premiere Saturday, September 16th at 6:30pm at the Anthology Film Archives in New York City, and it features a short cartoon sequence animated by my brother Dave and I.

Check out the latest Mini Marvels tale in Spider-Man Family: Amazing Friends by Marvel out on August 9th, as well as Savage Dragon and www.chrisgcomics.com for all things Chris Giarrusso.