Interview: Louise Simonson & Sarah Gaydos on IDW’s Cartoon Network: Super Secret Crisis War!

Super Secret Crisis War #1 Heroes Cover. Art by Derek Charm.

Super Secret Crisis War #1 Heroes Cover. Art by Derek Charm.


Louise Simonson has written such comics as Power Pack, X-Factor, Superman: The Man of Steel, and many others. Now she’s turning her attention to a group of Cartoon Network’s heroes and villains in Super Secret Crisis War from IDW. Simonson and co-editor of the book, Sarah Gaydos, recently spoke with Westfield’s Roger Ash about the upcoming series.

Westfield: What attracted you to the Super Secret Crisis War?

Louise Simonson: I was at San Diego last year and we got to talking about it. It sounded like a really fun idea. Generally, I’m anti-crossover because I’ve done crossovers and I’m kind of sick of them in the superhero universe because they bring in every single character and they go on for much too long. This is the perfect amount. You’ve got six issues that are the main story and then you’ve got five other stories that tie in peripherally that will be fun if you buy them, but we aren’t holding a gun to your head saying “if you don’t buy these issues, you won’t know what’s going on.” Well, we are a little bit. [laughter] But you’ll be able to follow the initial narrative as if it were a graphic novel in and of itself without having to buy 500 issues. I think there are 10 or 11 comics that will show what’s happening in the stories. In the spinoff issues there will be a segment that shows how the villains got together to form their League of Extraordinary Villains.

Sarah Gaydos: The main series is six issues. That creative team is Louise Simonson (writer) and Derek Charm (artist). Then, there’s the five “one shots” that loosely tie in to the crossover, and also feature a two page back up in each issue. The two page back up has the same creative team as the main series, but the rest of each issue has its own creative team. Johnny Bravo is by Erik Burnham (writer) and Erica Henderson (artist); Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy is by Kate Leth (writer) and Troy Little (artist); Foster’s Home For Imaginary Friends is by Ivan Cohen (writer) and Paulina Ganucheau (artist); Cow and Chicken is by Jim Zub (writer) and Jorge Monlongo (artist); and Codename: Kids Next Door is by Scott Peterson (writer) and Ryan Jampole (artist).

Super Secret Crisis War #1 Villains Cover. Art by Derek Charm.

Super Secret Crisis War #1 Villains Cover. Art by Derek Charm.


Westfield: Who are the villains in the story?

Simonson: Aku is the main villain in Samurai Jack. He’s a demon. He’s the main guy; the prime mover; the guy who gets the other guys together. The second most powerful villain is Vilgax, who is a major antagonist in the Ben 10 universe. And, of course, Ben is one of the heroes. There’s Mojo Jojo who is one of the Powerpuff Girls’ villains. He’s wonderful. He’s great to use. He’ll play a major part in it. And Mandark, who is sort of a villain in Dexter’s Lab. He’s Dexter’s opposite. He gets sucked into it as well. He’s the apprentice villain.

Westfield: What are the challenges of getting this diverse group of characters to work together? For example, Dexter is very different from Samurai Jack.

Simonson: We’re playing it straight in that we have an adventure in which the villains have a scheme that they need to collect the heroes for. They create a series of traps which snare our different heroes and bring them to a place where they will proceed with their evil schemes. They’ll snatch them from the worlds in which they exist, in the milieu in which they exist, and bring them into a place where they all exist in the same time and space. Ed, Edd and Eddy are there because somebody screwed up. [laughter] So our characters are interacting as themselves with their own personalities and in their own way, but rubbing up against each other’s personalities, quirks, and wierdnesses. They all have their wonderful personalities and all of them are very different. It’s fun to have them interacting. It’s like it’s a bunch of your friends who don’t know each other, but you know them all, and they got together at a big party (thrown by villains) and had to work together. Or not, as the case may be. That’s how I envisioned it and it turned out pretty well. At least Cartoon Network said yes.

Westfield: Ed, Edd, and Eddy really seem like the odd men out here. What makes them good to include?

Simonson: Ed, Edd, and Eddy don’t have powers. The other heroes all do, even Dexter. He has the power of his mind. He’s a boy genius, as he’s inclined to tell people. Ed, Edd, and Eddy are just ordinary people. They represent us. What would happen to normal humans thrown into a situation in which the fate of the universe resided? What would we do? How would we act? How would we react? I think that’s what Ed, Edd, and Eddy do in their own amusing, slightly goofy, way. Ed, Edd, and Eddy speak for us. Also, they’re there because I like them. They make me laugh.

Super Secret Crisis War #1 Variant Cover. Art by Katie Cook.

Super Secret Crisis War #1 Variant Cover. Art by Katie Cook.


Westfield: Will any of the supporting characters appear like Dee Dee or The Mayor of Townsville?

Simonson: No. We have so many characters that we’re dealing with now, plus a whole batch of robots, that it seemed like we were asking the artist, Derek Charm, who’s doing a fabulous job, to do too much. It would have been too confusing. I suppose we could have brought them in if we did one of those normal crossovers that went from two issues of Powerpuff Girls to three issues of Dexter’s Lab to this, that, and the other, and went on for a year and a half. But there was no room to bring them in. I would have loved to have brought in the peripheral characters, though. Dee Dee’s a riot. There’s a lot of cool stuff that we could have done, but there just wasn’t room. Maybe this will catch on and we’ll be able to do something else another time.

Gaydos: I’d really love to be able to spin out some more comics out of this match-up, so we’ll see which characters the readers really respond to.

The Subscription Covers to all six issues of Super Secret Crisis War join together to form this huge image. Art by Troy Little.

The Subscription Covers to all six issues of Super Secret Crisis War join together to form this huge image. Art by Troy Little.


Westfield: Is there any character that you’re finding you’re really enjoying writing?

Simonson: I love the Powerpuff Girls. They are seriously fun. I love Mojo Jojo. I love that whole universe. The Powerpuff Girls comic is really well done. I felt seriously challenged to come as close to doing it right as Powerpuff Girls regular artist/writer Troy Little does.

I love Ed, Edd, and Eddy. The others are great. Samurai Jack is a hero — kind of a cross between Batman and Superman; he’s more like a character that I’m used to writing. Ben 10 is great. Visually, he’s fabulous because he can change into all these aliens. And he’s such a smart mouth. He’s fun, too. I don’t know who I’d choose.

Aku is a riot. Aku will go on and say things straight like a master villain for a while and then he’ll throw in this quirky response that’ll turn everything sideways.

The character that I’m having the most problem writing is Dexter, whom I find to be a riot, but it was harder for me to get a handle on him for some reason. I’m kind of getting it now–with the help of my editors, Sarah Gaydos and Carlos Guzman. Anyplace I screw up, they help me fix it. And if we all screw up, I’m sure I’ll hear about from our readers.

Westfield: Did you do much research for this?

Simonson: I did as much as I could but not everything is completely, readily available. My public library doesn’t even carry the Cartoon Network DVDs. Appalling, isn’t it?! For a while I could watch at least the first season of a lot of episodes on Netflix, but they weren’t carrying all the seasons. So finding enough material to really understand the characters—particularly Dexter– was a little challenging. But the research I’ve been able to do I’ve loved. It’s just fun stuff to watch.

Gaydos: My co-editor Carlos Guzman and I both grew up on many of these shows, so we’re always happy to jump in if Louise has any questions. And then our licensors, Cartoon Network, kindly offers as much guidance and reference as needed.

RoboWorld Satellite design. Art by Derek Charm.

RoboWorld Satellite design. Art by Derek Charm.


Westfield: Is there anything more you’d like to say about the story?

Simonson: I’ve probably already said as much as I should say. The villains get together and they trap the heroes and bring them to a place where they’re going to use the heroes in a scheme to conquer their worlds and then move on to the universe.

The spinoff one-shots feature Cow and Chicken, Johnny Bravo, Codename: Kids Next Door, Foster’s Home For Imaginary Friends, and Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy. The Johnny Bravo issue turned out great. It’s the only one I’ve seen. It spins into the main narrative as of Super Secret Crisis War #2.

RoboWorld interior design by artist Derek Charm.

RoboWorld interior design by artist Derek Charm.


Westfield: What’s it been like working with artist Derek Charm?

Simonson: I cannot tell you enough good things about this guy. He is such a good storyteller! I’ve done a lot of group books. Group books are a lot of fun for the writers but they’re really hard on the artists. Derek is a good enough storyteller and a good enough visual organizer that he’s able to really make it work. I just hope it doesn’t wear him out. There are just so many characters. I’ve seen the color version of the first 10 pages and was utterly and completely blown away. I’ve never met him, I don’t think. I’m amazed at how terrific he is. In addition to all the characters being in character personality wise, all the characters are drawn as they are in their cartoons. The Powerpuff Girls look like the Powerpuff Girls. Ben 10 looks like Ben 10. But everybody looks right juxtaposed against each other. Aku is composed of flat shapes. Others are linear. Derek gets the gestures and expressions of everybody just right. He draws emotion as well as action. He is extremely talented and I am so happy to be working with him. Also, his design sense is really good. He’s got it all going for him.

Gaydos: Working with Derek is just great. I found him when I was looking for Powerpuff Girls cover artists, and the quality of his work was apparent immediately. As Louise said, not only can he deftly handle keeping things on model, he’s able to infuse excitement and energy into the pages, as well as his own take on things.

Vilgax Robot designs. Art by Derek Charm.

Vilgax Robot designs. Art by Derek Charm.


Westfield: Any closing comments?

Simonson: Buy these comics. [laughter] I’m having a lot of fun writing it. In a way, it’s not exactly a crossover. It’s more like a graphic novel broken into chapters. Maybe it will eventually be reprinted as a graphic novel; I have no idea about that. I’m really enjoying doing it. It’s not stressful. And I don’t feel like people are being tortured into buying things they won’t want to buy. I think people who get a look at the first issue and give it a chance will really want to read the next issue and all the spinoffs too because it’s going to be fun. For people who love the Cartoon Network, and I know there are a batch of people out there who do, I hope this is what they want to see.

Gaydos: Yeah, buy this book! We’re really hoping this series resonates with readers, just as a fun, over the top adventure. We’re so thankful to have Louise working on this and bringing her vast expertise, warmth, and humor to the series. I’m a very lucky editor!

 Purchase

Super Secret Crisis War #1

 

USER COMMENTS

We'd love to hear from you, feel free to add to the discussion!


Notice: Undefined variable: user_ID in /home/wfcomics/public_html/blog/wp-content/themes/westfield2010/comments.php on line 73