Off the Record...

Dan Jolley is on a roll. Maybe you've heard the name before while reading his critically acclaimed JSA: Liberty File or JSA: Unholy Three mini series, or his creator-owned Obergeist, awarded "Best Horror Comic of 2001" by Wizard. Nowadays, he's writing furiously for several 80's revival comics, namely G.I. Joe: Frontline, Micronauts and the upcomng Voltron. We cornered Dan during one of his few breaks and got the inside scoop on the highly-anticipated Voltron, why Micronauts kick butt and how having the name "Jolley" was loads of fun as a kid.

CBEtc: You've been in the business for a little while now.

DJ: Yeah, about eleven years, off an on. It was a lot more off than on for the first six or seven of those years, though. [Laughs]

CBEtc: Yeah, recently, you have been pretty busy with lots of big-name projects. You just finished JSA: The Unholy Three mini-series, you are currently writing a G.I. Joe: Frontline story arc, you are the new regular writer on Micronauts, and you will be writing the upcoming Voltron series. Have you ever been this busy before?

DJ: No, I really haven't! And let me tell you, it's been pretty weird, just getting used to it. I mean, in the course of trying to get work over the years, it's been normal for me to have twelve or thirteen stories floating around in my head at any given time, what with ideas I was having and pitches I was working on and pitches I'd already turned in. But now, with four or five things actually happening, the margin for error has gotten a lot smaller; I've got to know those stories, in detail, all the time. And don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining even for a second. I'm fortunate as hell and I know it. It's just taken some mental adjustment.

CBEtc: Let's start with G.I. Joe: Frontline, since you are in the middle of the "Icebound" 4 issue story arc. For those that aren't familiar with the series G.I. Joe: Frontline, can you tell them a little about the concept, and why "Icebound" is a great place to start?

DJ: Well, Frontline as a concept is sort of designed to be easy to jump aboard at any time, because it features a bunch of self-contained story arcs, all by different creative teams. The first one was by Larry Hama (yes, THE Larry Hama) and Dan Jurgens, and is completely unrelated to the one I'm doing. After mine, Sean McKeever's writing a couple of issues, and then a newcomer named Brandon Jerwa is doing another four-issue arc. So it's kind of like an anthology series in a way, just spread out over story arcs instead of having several stories in one issue.

The one I'm doing is called "Icebound" -- a title I brazenly ripped off from Dean Koontz, because a) I really liked his novel, "Icebound," and b) I suck at coming up with titles. Frontline as a series is about different stories from the G.I. Joe universe, from any time frame; "Icebound" concerns one of the super-secret missions Duke went on during the Joe hiatus from 1994 to 2001.The mission was to a secret research base above the Arctic Circle, and Duke was the only survivor. Now that mission has returned to haunt him, and he takes a small team with him back to the base to find out what's going on.

It's gotten mostly positive responses from readers -- to my intense relief, since, as someone on-line pointed out, I'm the first writer ever to do a G.I. Joe story other than Larry Hama or Josh Blaylock. I was afraid I'd get burned in effigy.  But no one seems to be hoisting any Dan-shaped mannequins, so I'm feeling pretty good about it.

CBEtc: The ominous feeling in the first 2 issues is reminiscent of some of your earlier horror work. Do you enjoy writing with a suspenseful undertone?

DJ: Yeah, I really do; I think, unless you're writing certain brands of comedy, maybe, that every story should have suspense of some kind. I seem to do pretty well at the whole white-knuckle-action thing, and Josh Blaylock was very interested in a sort of departure from the normal Joe stuff, so it seemed like a natural fit with "Icebound." Also, a lot of credit for this plot and setting goes to Drew Johnson, who threw the idea of one of Duke's old missions at me while we were driving to a convention last year. As has happened more than once in the past, he gave me a big ol' nugget of idea, then just said, "Do your thing with that." So I did, and it turned out as "Icebound."

CBEtc: You collaborated with several people from the "Jolly Roger Studio" on this book. It seems like everyone working on the project is from your studio: Drew Johnson (co-writer and pencils), Tom Feister (pencils), Ray Snyder (inks), JD Mettler (colors) and Tony Harris (covers). Heck, you even do the letters along with the script! What's it like working with a group of guys you are friends with, as opposed to other projects? Easier? Harder? More hi-jinks?

DJ: I would definitely say easier, since we were all in the same place, working on it together. It's extremely rewarding for a writer to be right there, looking over the penciler's shoulder, as the story begins to take shape as images. It's actually helped me a lot in figuring out what parts of my descriptions convey accurate messages and what don't.
 
Plus, since Drew uses a lot of photo shoots to help with body language and facial expressions in his work, I got to be a model for several characters in the book. Incidentally, Drew, Ray and I have established a new venture together, along with Marie Croall and Josh Krach, which we're calling Studio Phoenix. Drop by and check out our site at www.studiophoenix.com. (Shameless plug!  Shameless plug!).

CBEtc: Are there any other projects in the pipeline you will be combining forces with these guys again?

DJ: Drew and Ray and I have actually gotten a deal set up for an ongoing series at DC, following Drew's upcoming run on Wonder Woman, but I can't talk about that yet. (Ivan Cohen has threatened me with great bodily harm if I go spouting off too much.)

CBEtc: It just occurred to me that G.I. Joe: Frontline, Micronauts and Voltron are all Devil's Due house projects. How did you get involved with these guys?

DJ: It was initially through Steve Kurth; Steve and I met at a convention about four years ago, and kept in touch. Maybe a year or so after that, he called me up and said he and a fellow named Josh Blaylock were about to start doing a new G.I. Joe comic -- Josh had just secured the license -- and he was wondering if I could make some introductions for him. I talked to Josh, and put him in touch with the head guys at Top Cow, but they decided to pass on the property. So Josh went to Image Central, and the rest of that is history.

CBEtc: I bet Top Cow wishes they took G.I. Joe now! What happened after that?

Cut to about eighteen months later, I think, and Tom Feister noticed an article on Newsarama that I hadn't seen yet, announcing a new spin-off series of G.I. Joe called Frontline. So I called up Josh Blaylock, got reacquainted with him, and we wound up with a deal to do a four-issue arc of the series.

Cut again to about seven or eight months after that -- long after I had written the four scripts and turned them in -- and on the phone one afternoon Josh casually mentioned that Devil's Due had gotten the license to do Voltron. Well, I turned into a gibbering fanboy for a couple of minutes, and finally calmed down enough to say, "Hey, if you're looking for a writer, I'm your man." So he let me turn in an overview of the initial five-issue Voltron mini-series, just to make sure I was on the same page as both Devil's Due and World Events, the owners of Voltron.

Simultaneously, and unknown to me at that point, DD had decided to make a creative change in another of their books, the toy-line-inspired Micronauts. And as it turned out, they were pleased enough with what I did on the Voltron overview to offer me the regular writing gig on Micronauts as well. So here I am!

CBEtc: You turned into a "Gibbering Fanboy?" You must have been a big fan growing up.

DJ: I was indeed! When I was about twelve, there was no cooler show on the air. Of course, looking back on it now, there are a lot of elements to the show that really make me squirm. But growing up, I couldn't get any TV stations except what were thought of back then as the Big Three: NBC, CBS, and ABC. I never saw Star Blazers, or Battle of the Planets, or any of the Japanese imports -- until I discovered Voltron. And it just blew me away.  Now, writing the updated version of it, I'm having SO much fun, I can't even describe it. Working with the art team -- Mike Norton, Clayton Brown, Clint Hilinski, and Brett Smith -- is such a pleasure. I absolutely love how the book is going.

CBEtc: You said previously Josh Blaylock wanted to keep all the stuff that was cool about Voltron and ditch what wasn't. What can you tell us about the "cool" stuff you will be expanding on? What can the fans look forward to seeing?

DJ: What we mainly want to keep -- especially after re-watching several of the original episodes that World Events sent us -- is the essential ideas and themes of the series. You've got five brave young fighters, each with his or her own area of expertise, who combine the strength of their minds and wills to become this gigantic, stupendously bad-ass knight in armor. These characters are facing an entire empire of vicious, conquest-minded aliens, led by an avaricious king, his ruthless son, and a terrifying witch; and these bad guys have an apparently limitless supply of huge, grotesque monstrosities at their disposal, which they don't hesitate in flinging at our protagonists.

It's space opera of the grandest order, with political intrigue, enslaved planets fighting for freedom, the highest nobility and the darkest betrayal. Plus the single coolest giant sword I've ever seen. I mean, come on, how can you not love that? How could I not jump all over that?

CBEtc: What can you tell us about the stuff that wasn't so cool, that you guys won't be bringing back (please, please, please say the dancing mice)?

DJ: The dancing mice are right out.

A good number of things are right out, actually, and a lot of it stems from the nature of "Voltron" itself; the series, as it aired in the States, was actually composed of two completely unrelated Japanese cartoons, both of them bought by World Events and spliced together. Also, it was aimed at ten-year-olds. So you had these American editors and writers, working with the severely re-edited footage they had at their disposal, doing their best to make it work... but it didn't always work, and the series was fraught with difficulties ranging from merely implausible situations to blatant self-contradictions. And then there were the dancing mice -- in tutus, no less -- for which I really have no explanation.

The new series basically takes the backstory presented in the Americanized cartoon, streamlines it, irons out the illogical parts of it, then advances the story from there. It's meant to be an all-ages book now; I think people my own age will enjoy it, but I wouldn't hesitate to let my ten-year-old nephew read it, either.

CBEtc: Okay, be honest. Did you have any of the G.I. Joe, Micronauts or Voltron figures growing up?

DJ: The bulk of my action figures as a kid were Star Wars figures. If I ever got the chance to ask for a new toy, which didn't come all that often, I wanted Star Wars toys, and they sort of shoved all other toy lines out of the picture for me. I did, however, play with a lot of the figures that other kids brought to school; one of my fondest memories is sitting outside after school, around second grade or so, waiting for the bus and playing with somebody's Space Glider toy. The Micronaut toys were so different from any of the Star Wars figures, and I remember being really fascinated with the moveable wrist joints. I was kind of peeved, I think, that Luke Skywalker's wrists didn't bend like that.

CBEtc: Let's talk Micronauts. You recently became the regular writer with Micronauts #6 and the book is moving from bimonthly to monthly with issue #7. For those that aren't long-time fans of the Micronauts, what can you tell them about the series?

DJ: Well, unlike Voltron, which combines elements of both sci-fi and fantasy, Micronauts is a straight-out, full-on science fiction story. It's about a twenty-year-old guy named Ryan Archer who gets abducted and pulled through a bizarre portal into a sub-atomic dimension. Almost the entire galaxy where he ends up is ruled by this cold, machinelike dictator called Baron Karza, who grabbed Archer because he believes Archer to be the center of a kind of "probability web" -- and potentially a huge asset to Karza. So far in the story Archer has escaped from Karza's throneworld and joined a very loosely organized resistance; he's traveling with a pretty motley assortment of characters from around the galaxy (many of whom are recognizable to long-time Micronauts fans), and probably could have successfully hidden from Karza's hunters. The problem is he's just found out that Karza's about to take his armies through the portal and invade Earth, so he and the rest of the crew have to figure out what they're going to do to wreck Karza's efforts.

Micronauts is actually a lot more open for me as far as storytelling goes, because while there are a large number of characters the fans are hoping to see, the actual personalities of those characters remain pretty much blank and waiting to be filled in. This isn't the Marvel series; readers understand that it's a similar, but not identical, continuity, so I don't really have any pre-set concrete structures that I'm expected to follow. What that's left me with is a vast canvas on which to paint a really intense, fun-as-hell science fiction tale, so that's what I'm trying my best to do.  And just like on Voltron, the art team is a dream: Stefano Caselli pencilling on #6 and #7, then Steve Kurth from then on, and Barb Schultz inking and Brett Smith coloring the whole time. Those guys are great!

CBEtc: I have read that you plan on taking the 'Nauts to Earth! Should we expect to see Ryan Archer and gang using thimbles and needles for helmets and swords and running away from house cats?

DJ: [Laughs] Uh, no.

CBEtc: What, no riding on flying ants?

DJ: I'll leave that to the appropriately-named ant-friendly member of the Avengers.

CBEtc: What did you do before you broke into the comics industry?

DJ: I graduated from the University of Georgia in 1993 with a BA in English, then stayed in Athens and worked for a few years running a small business that sold study guides while I tried to get steady writing work. I started writing full-time in 1998 -- or at least I thought it was full-time, not quite realizing the feast-or-famine nature of my chosen vocation. A few stints here and there as a bookstore employee, a warehouse manager, and a file clerk, interspersed with pleasantly longer periods of writing, carried me through to the beginning of 2002, and I've been at the keyboard full-time since then.

CBEtc: Besides the super-secret DC ongoing series in the works, what other projects do you have coming out in the near future?

DJ: Let's see... I've got a story in Humanoids' "Metal Hurlant" #5 called "Worship Service," which I think is one of the more twisted short stories I've done (consequently, I'm very pleased with it).  Around September I've got a project coming out from Moonstone Books called "The Lone Wolf: Queen of Thieves," which I co-wrote with Studio Phoenix member Marie Croall; it's a new take on an old radio and film property from the 30's and 40's, centered on a gentleman thief, except we've made the protagonist a young woman in present day.

I'm doing a fill-in Vampirella issue, and I was supposed to have a four-issue special Vampirella project out this summer, but I think due to one thing and another that's going to get pushed back to 2004. But it'll be in good company, because the DC series that I can't talk about SHOULD be out around February or March of '04.

It was very strange, and sort of cool, to realize that between the 2002 and 2003 convention seasons I either have had or will have product on the shelves from Marvel, DC, Moonstone, the now-defunct Chaos!, Humanoids, Harris, and Image. I don't even know what to do with that.

CBEtc: Is there life after Voltron #5? Are there plans to go beyond just this mini-series?

DJ: As long as the sales are there, I could write Voltron stories until I fell over dead. So yes, definitely, we want the book to stick around for a LONG time.

CBEtc: During Christmas time, do you have to pause every time you hear Berl Ive's "Have a Holly, Jolly Christmas" thinking someone called your name? I bet that would get annoying.

DJ: [Laughs] I think I've heard every joke that could possibly be made using the word "jolly." And, y'know, when I was a kid it really got me down; my chorus class actually sang "Have a Daniel Jolley Christmas" one year, purely to tease me, and I just wanted to crawl under a rock. Now, though, I love the name, I wouldn't trade it for anything. Plus I really enjoy the irony of a guy named Jolley writing "Obergeist," (which Wizard voted the best horror comic of 2001).

CBEtc: What's on your list of "must-reads" in comics nowadays?

DJ: I am really enjoying Uncanny X-Men these days. I never read Austen's "War Machine," and I didn't know what to expect when I picked it up, but I really like it. I'm hoping to meet Chuck Austen at a con this summer.

Okay, now is the time for "2099" portion of our interview. This is where I ask you 20 questions in 99 seconds. It’s basically an "either/or" type of response, but you can answer whatever first pops into your head.

Suspense or Cosmic Adventure: Shouldn't Cosmic Adventure have lots of suspense in it?

Plot or Script: Script.  Always.

Late night or early day: Late night.

Big screen or rent: Big screen with no one else in the theatre.

Studio or Solo: Studio for plotting and panel descriptions, solo for dialogue.

More annoying cartoon voice - Cobra Commander or Voltron's Pidge: Pidge.  Sorry, dude.

Play with toy or keep in box: Play with toy!  Why buy a toy and not play with it?  It's a toy!

Crossovers or One-shots:  One-shots.

Star Wars or Star Trek: Before Episode 1, I'd have said Star Wars. Post Jar-Jar it's Star Trek all the way.

Fly or drive: Fly.  No more major road trips for me.

Big Guns or Big Fangs: Aw, c'mon, I can't just pick one or the other!

First Print or TPB: Usually first print.

Voltron (Huge) or Micronauts (Tiny): How about giant Micronauts?

South Park or Simpsons: Simpsons.

Cell phone or E-mail:  E-mail.

Sleep in or make deadline: Make deadline.  ALWAYS.

Squeeze in the middle or at the end: At the end, of course.

More bad ass - G.I. Joe's Snake Eyes or Micronaut's Acroyear: Once I'm done with him? Acroyear.

World Series or Super Bowl: WrestleMania.

Buffy or Vampirella: Buffy VS. Vampirella!

WRITING CREDITS (official)

Voltron (Image Comics)
Micronauts #6 - current (Image Comics)
G.I. Joe: Frontline #5, 6, 7, 8 (Image Comics)
JSA: The Unholy Three #1-2 (DC Comics)
Sabretooth: Mary Shelley Overdrive #1-4 (Marvel Comics)
Superman Adventures #56, 59, 63 (DC Comics)
JLA: Gods and Monsters (DC Comics)
Obergeist #1-6 (Top Cow)
Purgatori: God Hunter #1-2 (Chaos Comics)
Purgatori: God Killer #1-2 (Chaos Comics)
Star Wars Tales #2 (Dark Horse Comics)
JSA: The Liberty File #1-2 (DC Comics)
Lazarus 5 #1-5 (DC Comics)
Dr. Strange: The Flight of Bones (Marvel Comics)
Aliens: Colonial Marines #9-10 (Dark Horse Comics)
The Mummy Universal Monsters One-Shot (Dark Horse Comics)

UPCOMING PROJECTS
Lone Wolf: Queen of Thieves (Moonstone Books)
Vampirella: Beautiful People (Harris Comics)
Metal Hurlant #5 (Humanoids Comics)