The Bionic Woman

Paul Tobin is the writer of such books as Marvel’s Spider-Girl, Models, Inc., and The Age of Sentry. This month he comes to Dynamite with The Bionic Woman. Westfield’s Roger Ash contacted Tobin to learn more about the book.

Westfield: What attracted you to the project?

Paul Tobin: First off, I love Dynamite Comics. I’m a huge fan of pulp characters, and Dynamite has a wealth of them under their mighty control, so it was inevitable that we would begin to team up in some capacity. The first opening was this Bionic Woman project, which isn’t pulp-related, but I LOVE the character. I used to watch reruns of the old show, and I even had one of those Bionic Man dolls (ahem… action figures) where you could look through the back of his head and “see” with his bionic eye. So… yeah… when Nick Barrucci asked if I wanted to work on the character, it was a no-brainer. Plus, I don’t think it’s any secret throughout my career that I love working with strong female characters. I love bringing them to life, exploring character, etc. All in all, it was a natural fit.

Westfield: Is this connected with Dynamite’s Bionic Man title?

Tobin: Loosely. It’s inevitable that paths will cross, but at the same time we didn’t want to get caught up in some huge crossover, because that can have the effect of diluting the strength of the individual stories. Good ol’ Steve Austin certainly makes an appearance… but we’re focused on Jaime, here.

Westfield: What can readers look forward to in the series? Any story tidbits you can share?

Tobin: At heart it’s a mystery tale, where Jaime needs to uncover a group of DECIDEDLY illegal organ transplant doctors, ones who have begun to look at Jaime, and other “bionics” as THE best organ donors, whether these “donors” like it or not. Along the way, there are quite a few explosions, some new friends, some betrayals, a man with amazing hunting skills and no morals at all, a pretty French girl, a boat that sinks, some afternoon tea, a romantic hopeful, exactly 12,456 bullets (barring script revisions) and a partridge in a pear tree. Said partridge may or may not explode. Have I mentioned the explosions?

Westfield: You’re working with artist Leno Carvalho on The Bionic Woman. What can you say about his work?

Tobin: Leno’s fantastic, because he has the skills to bring everything I needed to the page. First… he’s good with drawing women, real women, as opposed to vacant-eyed pinups. That’s an ENORMOUS help to me in establishing Jaime’s personality and character. And Leno’s good with backgrounds and locales, which change quite a bit, and are part of the story’s character.

Westfield: Any closing comments?

Tobin: I’ve really appreciated how supportive Joe and Nick have been on this project. This is one of the clearest “story I want to tell” experiences I’ve ever had, and it’s fantastic to have editors who trust the creators. I think THAT is what can lead to some really great comics, not only on my own projects, but across the industry as a whole.

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The Bionic Woman

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