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Countdown to Free Comic Book Day: Mike Kunkel
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Location: Blogs Atomic FalloutAt the Core |
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| Posted by: Jake Bell |
Friday, April 06, 2007 1:42 AM |
After spending a few years away from comics, Mike Kunkel, creator of Herobear and the Kid is returning to the industry both with a graphic novel in the works and an all-ages project at one of the "big two" that he can't quite talk about yet. He'll be signing and sketching at Atomic Comics Chandler on Free Comic Book Day, May 5th.
 Do you remember the first time you got paid to draw something?
I started animation in January of 1991 working for Hanna Barbera. They had a little division—Turner Feature Animation—and I my first job was on a movie called Once Upon a Forest. It came out about the same time as Ferngully so people usually get them confused because they both have kind of a similar plot. It’s funny how studios get ideas at the same time, like this past year we had Open Season and Over the Hedge which were both about animals dealing with people encroaching on their habitat.
Any way, I was fresh out of cartooning classes at the local Cartoonist Union and, frankly, I was just excited that there even was a union for cartoonists. I stayed with Turner for about five years and then went to Disney in ‘96 to work on Hercules and Tarzan.
How did you make the transition from animation to comics?
I’ve had idea for Herobear since high school—
Hold on. I have to stop you there and ask, what makes a high school kid decide to write a story about a teddy bear? Well, there were a lot of different versions. At one point, it was a superhero with a teddy bear. I guess I actually had the teddy bear superhero idea even before high school…
Overall, I guess the one theme that was always constant was the idea, “What if your best friend was a superhero?” When I was a kid, I always wished for that. What if you could be buddies with Peter Parker? How cool would that be not only for you, but for him to have someone to share all of that with as he’s learning to use his powers.
Okay, sorry to interrupt. Back to the animation to comics transition.
Right. Well, I’d had the idea for a long time and was thinking about it as a movie. As I was refining it and really getting it to what I wanted it to be, I had two friends—Scott Morse and Jason Lethcoe—who had some success in comics. I was shocked. I was like, “Wait a minute, you mean you can put this together yourself, send it up to a printer in Canada, and have it done? You don’t have to make a pitch and wait for studio approval and jump through all those hoops?
That’s when I decided to do Herobear and the Kid as a comic and I loved it. Comics can be so much more personal than animation. When you’re making a cartoon, there are so many more people involved you can’t oversee everything and give it all a personal touch the way you can with comics.
 But yet, you haven’t really done much in comics lately.
No, I’ve been working at Cartoon Network for the last few years. I’ve been designing characters for Judd Winick’s “Juniper Lee” series and “My Gym Partner is a Monkey.” I also have three shows at three different studios in various stages of development. A pilot is being produced for the one at Nickelodeon.
The fact is though that I’m looking to step out of animation fairly soon and do comics full time.
What do you have in mind? Are you going to stick with Herobear and other creator owned stuff or has this opened the doors to other--for lack of a better term--more high profile opportunities?
I don't know how this all happened, because like you said, Herobear is a small thing. I did it because it was a story I liked and I just feel blessed that other people liked it too. It opened doors to become friends with people I probably never would have met otherwise. For example, before I did the books, I loved Superman for All Seasons and when I first met Jeph Loeb he came to me to say he loved what I was doing. It was just amazing.
I hope it’s opened doors to see me differently. I think people see that I'm not just an artist or a storyboarder, but that I can be a storyteller.
 Not to repeat myself, but again you're talking about Herobear opening doors, do you have any opportunities--or interest for that matter--in working on something with say Marvel or DC?
Well, I did that page in the Sam Loeb issue [Superman Batman #26]--and let me say I met Sam when I talked Jeph into co-writing the Herobear movie with me. Sam would come around with him and he was just an amazing kid. I mean, for a kid who had pretty much the worst things in the world happening to him, you'd never know. I can't say enough great things about the great Sam Loeb. Of course, I'm guessing you're also wondering if I'm ever going to do something that was more than just a page for Marvel or DC? (laughs)
Let's just say I'd love to take some characters from either of the big two and produce an all ages book that can be successful and truly be for all ages, not just a kiddie book.
In fact--I'm being a little evasive here so you'll have to forgive me--I’m working on a project for one the big two that will be immensely fun. I can't say anything yet because nothing is official, but hopefully, I can make an official announcement by Free Comic Book Day and have some pretty cool art to show by then.
Okay, I'm just going to go out on a limb and guess it's an Adam Warlock pop up book. Kids love Adam Warlock.
I'm not saying anything more...
Fine, let's change the subject then--is it an all ages 52 issue weekly series about Darkseid and Apokolyps?
(Stony silence)
Okay, you win. What other projects do you have in the pipeline that you can talk about?
I'm working on a new Herobear graphic novel. The rights finally reverted to me, back from Universal, so I hope that will be out in the near future. As I said, I'm really looking to get out of animation and focus on comics/ This is what I want to do, it's something I can do from home and the time is much more personal. Ever since I learned you could publish your stories yourself, this is what I've wanted to do. |
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