Broken Frontier

It was only a matter of time before writer Jason M. Burns became Editor In Chief Jason M. Burns. A very talented, and prolific, scribe the 31 year old has managed to not only carve out a niche as a creator of high concept works, but has also grabbed a few awards along the way, including last year’s Best Indie Writer, and Best Limited Series for his A Dummy’s Guide to Danger.

Burns began his comic book-ery via his day job as an entertainment journalist when he began a story on Dead@17, which was then at Viper Comics. He impressed Viper’s publisher, Jessie Garza sufficiently with his screenplays and then crossed over from reporting on entertainment, to creating his own. Burns had an impressive output at Viper, with titles such as The Expendable One and The Underworld Railroad, and recently helped launch new publisher, Outlaw Entertainment, with four of his new OGNs launching in July.

BROKEN FRONTIER: Do you think comics have come a long way since you started as an entertainment reporter those few years ago?

JASON M. BURNS: Absolutely.  I think that not only has the industry expanded in general, but the quality has continued to get better and better.  No longer are comics just the place of capes and super powers (not that there’s anything wrong with that), but it’s become such a diverse medium… Even more so than film and television because here there are no boundaries (or budgets) that the stories have to adhere to.

BF: How did you come to work with Outlaw Entertainment?

JB: When company founders Tony Hobdy and Rick Villa decided to start Outlaw, they hired me to write a pair of their books, one of which was Praetorian, the first book the company is releasing.  From there, a business relationship was formed, and because I had experience working behind the scenes (I previously worked with Viper Comics as Assistant Publisher), I was asked to come onboard in a dual faceted capacity, both on the creative side and on the business side.  The rest as they say is history.

BF: Why did you pick the four OGNs (Praetorian, Imaginary Friends, Hat Trick and Jenna Blue) as the launch books for Outlaw?

JB: As a company, we are going to focus primarily on graphic novels.  That’s not to say that we will never put out floppies or another form of book, but right now our business model is based on graphic novels, with original material being the driving force behind what we o.

BF: All four titles seem quite different from each other. How difficult was it for you to write them all?

JB: On the creative side of things, I’m constantly writing and working on new material, so working on these titles was no different for me than working on another group of books.  Praetorian was Rick’s original concept, and he had been developing it for quite some time, so when I was hired to write the book, he had a really good sense of how the story shaped up, and how the characters were going to play out.  Imaginary Friends was actually the first book I had ever written specifically for comics, so that one had been kicking around for years.

Jenna Blue was another one that had been laying in wait, and then Hat Trick was one of the newer scripts I had written, but for me, it was an easy story to tell because I really enjoyed the characters.  Within the last year, I have written somewhere in the range of 20 different books/titles, so I really have to try hard to focus on the material and just get the job done.  I look at writing like a job… I punch in and punch out just like I would if I worked in a factory, because if I don’t approach it like that… I’ll never get what I have to get done.

BF: Will Outlaw be focusing solely on OGNs rather than ongoing series?

JB:  For right now, we’re OGN focused, but that doesn’t mean we’ll never tell another Praetorian or Imaginary Friends.  We have developed these stories specifically so that we have multiple stories to tell within each specific title/world, so if they do well and connect with fans, we’ll do a second installment, and then a third, and so on and so forth as long as people want to read them.

BF: What’s the reason for the price drop for the launch books?

JB:  We wanted to make our material as accessible to people as possible, especially in this economic crunch.  By making our books affordable, we’re hoping to reach more readers than we would if our books were priced at the industry norm.

BF: Do you keep up to date with the latest and greatest in the comics industry, or are you not that curious as to what other publishers are up to?

JB:  Not really.  We’re not interested in following trends, so we tend to focus on what our slate looks like and how we can make it better by putting out as much interesting content as possible.  That’s not to say that we don’t read other books by other publishers, because at the core, we’re all fans ourselves, but when it comes to comparing them from a business standpoint… It just hasn’t been part of our game plan.

BF: Are you looking for new creators to come on board with Outlaw?

JB:  Absolutely.  We’re in the process of finalizing a number of deals with creators to bring their properties over, and we have some very exciting stuff in the pipeline.  As with every publisher, we’re on the lookout for new artists with exciting and distinct styles, but at the same time, we’re always keeping our eyes open for exciting and distinct projects as well.

BF: What’s the most valuable lesson you’ve learnt so far with Outlaw?

JB:  Be patient! Haha.  Seriously, an original OGN takes a substantial amount of time to produce from inception to completion, and if you push it, it’s not going to develop properly.  You need to let these projects breathe and give the artists time to do their thing.  We don’t work in flashes, we’d rather work at a steady pace and ensure the quality shines through. That’s always our goal, and in the end, I think that’s a good lesson to learn.

For more information on Outlaw Entertainment and their projects check out their website.To find out more about the work of Jason M. Burns visit his website.