Broken Frontier

What would you do the very moment you found out that your deceased dad was actually a superhero, wreaking havoc wearing a welding mask and armed with nothing but a wrench? Would you rise to the occasion and follow in his footsteps? That’s exactly what young Shelby Cooper does, a young teenage girl and daughter of the former protector of the city of Midtown, GearHead.

GearHead is also the title of Arcana Studio’s latest release, by Dennis Hopeless and Kevin Mellon. BF spoke to Hopeless, who first-hour readers of BF might remember as “Dent”, about the how and what behind the four-issue mini-series debuting this month.

BROKEN FRONTIER: Kevin Mellon once described the book as Pearl Harbor done right, but after reading the first issue, and based on how Shelby treats her assassins, I’d say it’s more like The Fast and the Furious meets Kill Bill, with the female hero holding a wrench instead of a samurai sword.

DENNIS HOPELESS: Ha!  You’re right.  It’s nothing like Pearl Harbor—Kevin just likes taking jabs at Michael Bay.  What he meant is that GearHead is the comic equivalent of an unapologetic big-budget action movie.  Since my first drunken ramblings about a hot chick beating people with a wrench, Kevin’s said over and over that this is our Michael Bay movie, “you know, only good.”

We didn’t set out to do action comics. The first couple of projects we collaborated on were my post-college bleeding heart indie films put to paper.  I love the things but they didn’t exactly send publishers a-running.  We spent a year reading “Nice, but this won’t sell,” in rejection letters and decided to (pun completely intended) switch gears.  I guess GearHead is the unholy offspring of that decision. 

BF: GearHead will take Shelby all the way up to the White House. What kind of conspiracies lead her to Washington, DC?

DH: The story takes place in a post-war US run by Super-Powers turned bureaucrats.  Shelby learns a family secret that ties her to the heroic powers-that-be.  Then she pisses them off.  I guess it would be more accurate to say that Washington comes to her.

BF: Part of the mystery is unraveling who the super powered guys are that came after Shelby, who they belong to and what their beef is with her…

DH: In the book, there are two kinds of supers: former heroes and former villains.  Shelby’s dad died fighting alongside the heroes.  When she gets attacked, that’s all she has to work from, so obviously her first thought is that big bad super villains must be behind it.  Whether or not that’s the case, a big part of the book is Shelby figuring out where her loyalties lie and what it means to be a “hero.”

BF: As a character, is Shelby driven mostly by grief over her father’s death?

DH: I guess the short answer is yes. Shelby’s dad died when she was 12 and very much Daddy’s little girl. She idolized this guy and nothing has lived up since.  That relationship is the reason I created the character.  Shelby’s whole world takes place in her dad’s overwhelming shadow.

BF: Her brother says she’s very much like her old man, who just happened to be a vigilante named GearHead. What made him become a hero in the first place?

DH: Shelby’s father cracked the heads that needed to be cracked.  He kept his neighborhood safe and wasn’t afraid to brain a few thugs in the process.  The dude died before the events of our story, so I haven’t spent much time with him, but I like to think of him as Frank Castle without all the angst.

BF: The story takes place in and around a desert city called Midtown. Were you looking for a name that implied this story takes place in an average, dull city? Or is this comic secretly sponsored by Midtown Comics? [Laughs]

DH: Midtown is quite literally a town in the middle of the country.  The Super War pretty well fried the landscape of the US.  Afterwards, the heroes sort of rebuilt the country around 7 giant super-cities.  The one in the middle, stretching roughly from Wichita to Chicago, is called Midtown.

BF: Kevin Mellon was already mentioned at the start of this conversation, but the art chores on the book are not handled by him alone.  Eduardo Herrera is also responsible for bringing your ideas to life. What does each artist do exactly?

DH: Kevin pencils the book and Ed’s the inker.  They went to the Kubert School together and have a Wonder-Twins-like synergy when they work together, which I guess makes me the monkey. Kevin makes me look good and Ed makes Kevin look better. 

BF: What made the project so appealing to Arcana for them to publish it?

DH: Sean O’Reilly (Arcana Publisher and Renaissance Man) never bothered to explain what he liked about the book.  Kevin sent him an email.  He responded with 3 words and a contract.  That pretty well foreshadowed our relationship with Arcana.  We do our thing and Sean publishes it.  It’s great.

For a sneak peek at GearHead #1, click here.