Chris Giarrusso's G-Man: Cape Crisis #1 cover

Chris Giarrusso is the creator of Marvel’s popular Mini Marvels comics. He’s also the creator of G-Man, another fun, all ages comic. Chris returns to G-Man this month with the new G-Man: Cape Crisis mini-series from Image. Westfield’s Roger Ash contacted Chris to learn more about this book.

Westfield: For those who’ve never read G-Man before, what should they know about him?

Chris Giarrusso: G-Man is a kid super hero who gets his powers from a magic cape. And he’s got a bunch of kid super hero friends. It’s like Mini Marvels (hey, it’s written and drawn by the same guy!), but with new characters.

Westfield: What can you tell us about the new mini-series, G-Man: Cape Crisis?

Giarrusso: G-Man: Cape Crisis takes a closer look at the cape that G-Man gets his powers from. His brother, Great Man, has identical powers from using a scrap piece of G-Man’s cape as a belt. But there are still more scraps left over, and those scraps inevitably fall into the wrong hands. This leads to all kinds of ramifications for G-Man and Great Man that ultimately threaten to eliminate their powers entirely.

G-Man: Cape Crisis #1, page 3 image

Westfield: Who are some of the other characters in the book?

Giarrusso: G-Man’s pals, Billy Demon (is he boy or demon… or is he both?), Sparky (the fastest kid on the block), Tan Man (the master of camouflage), and the Suntrooper (solar soldier from the sun) will all be on hand. Also playing a prominent role will be Wizard Glenn (Glendolf) Williams. And of course, G-Man’s brother Great Man.

Westfield: Is there anything you can say about the villain, or villains, in Cape Crisis?

Giarrusso: There are going to be a lot of bad guys that need to be dealt with throughout the series, ranging from the neighborhood bully level to the dangerous super villain level (which reminds me, we’ll be seeing a guest appearance of the Savage Dragon during one of those confrontations!). But the main conflict will have more to do with a fight between G-Man and his big brother Great Man.

G-Man: Cape Crisis #1, page 4 image

Westfield: Your Mini Marvels pieces tend to be shorter stories. Are you enjoying doing a longer story?

Giarrusso: Yes, absolutely. The short stories are fun, but I’ve always wanted to do entire full-length comics, and I finally have that opportunity at Image. I’ve done a few stories in the past that are single issues in length, but this is my first opportunity to tackle a full mini-series. In addition to my usual style of humor writing, I’ll also have room to have some super hero action sequences in the mix.

Westfield: What challenges or rewards have you found in doing a full mini-series?

Giarrusso: The main challenges are in pacing. Pacing in terms of how fast I need to work to stay on schedule (at Marvel I usually only had four pages month), and pacing in terms of how to tell a satisfying full-length story, as opposed to a string of single-page strips. The Mini Marvels strips would most often be a series of continuing single-page strips. Because of that approach, the single pages could get rather dense. That’s fine for a few pages at a time, but for a longer story, I think it’s good to back off and breathe a little bit (similar to my final Mini Marvels Hawkeye story in the Marvel Assistant Size Spectacular #1).
The reward is that I finally get to have my own comics, my own mini-series, and I’m finally getting to tell more G-Man stories. And if people actually like it, that would be the best reward yet.

G-Man: Cape Crisis #1, page 5 image

Westfield: Are there any other projects you’re working on that you’d like to mention?

Giarrusso: I’m currently working on some comic book insert stories in a series of chapter books from Scholastic, titled The Amazing Adventures of Nate Banks written by author Jake Bell.

Westfield: Any closing comments?

Giarrusso: Visit my website, chrisgcomics.com, and friend me on Facebook!

Purchase:

G-Man: Cape Crisis #1

G-Man Vol. 1: Learning to Fly SC

Mini Marvels: Secret Invasion Digest

G-Man: Cape Crisis #1, page 6 image

“Getting to work on G-Man: Cape Crisis has been a long time coming,” Giarrusso said. “I had a great time working on Mini-Marvels while it lasted, but I’ve also had some G-Man stories I’ve wanted to tell for a while.  Short Mini-Marvels back-up strips are always fun, but with G-Man, I finally have the opportunity to tell brand new full-length feature stories in full comics.  This is the most ambitious project I’ve ever worked on.  Fans of the kid super hero stuff I did in Mini-Marvels will be sure to enjoy the all-new kid super hero stuff I’m doing in G-Man.  The writing style and art style are identical – it’s the same writer and artist, after all!  I’m having a blast, and I hope Mini-Marvels fans will take a chance and check it out.”

G-Man: Cape Crisis begins shortly after the ending to the upcoming G-Man: Learning To Fly digest, with pieces of G-Man’s magic cape falling into the wrong hands and things spinning out of control.  G-Man and his friends must battle to recover the pieces, but this time, the bad guys have the same powers as G-Man! The five issue mini-series will shed a whole new light on the G-Man universe with friends old and new coming to the fold for his biggest adventure yet.

Image Comics Publisher Eric Stephenson added, “Chris’ sense of humor and cartooning give G-Man an appeal to both children and adults alike akin to Pixar’s Incredibles or WALL*E. We’re very proud to have G-Man as part of the Image Comics library.”