Robert Kirkman Answers 7 Questions with Sina Grace

Welcome Skybound Folks!

Sina Grace, your faithful Editorial Director here, with a new segment on the site I like to call “Seven Questions with Sina Grace.”  Week in and week out, I will be chatting with your favorite Skybound creators, and asking questions that fans will find both exciting and informative.   

Robert took a minute off from writing Walking Dead 100 to kick things off… woo hoo!

1 – What’s a genre of comics you haven’t written that you’d like to take a stab at?

 Honestly?  At some point in the future I’m dying to do a romance comic.  Just something about normal people falling in love, no zombies, no aliens, no superheroes, just a straight human story.  So, yeah… ROMANCE.  I think it’d be cool.

2- Did you ever have a desire to do anything besides comics-  like dreams of having a rock band?

I’d like to learn to play violin, and at this point, I can see that people are going to think that I’m not answering these questions honestly… but I really am.  I love the way violins sound and I took violin lessons as a child for about one day, and had to quit because my parents couldn’t afford to buy me a violin.  I’m hoping my son or daughter want to take lessons at some point when they’re older so I can tag along.  I think it’d be a fun hobby.

3- Earlier on in your career, some of your series couldn’t really sustain monthly sales to remain on-going.  Which of those do you wish you could bring back full-time?

Kind of all of them.  Cloudfall, Capes, Brit and Tech Jacket… I had other ideas for all of them.  I had a good 50 issue arc laid out for Capes involving METEOR MASTER that I’d love to get around to telling… but it appears people don’t want 50 issues of Capes… heh.

Cloudfall, I think, out of any of them has the best chance of coming back some day.  It’s unlike anything else I’m doing and the long term story for that book, I think, was pretty cool, I’d love to tell it.

Also, out of all of my failed comics, it ended on an unresolved cliffhanger, so I do feel like I owe it to the few people that did buy it to come back and finish it up some day.

4- People always ask celebrities if they’d want their kids to get into their industry… would you condone it if your kids wanted to pursue comic books?

I’d condone my kids doing anything they really enjoyed.  If either of my kids want to work in comics because they think I’ll make it easy for them… then no.  But if they love it, of course.  If my kids really want to go to the circus because that’s something they love…I’d support them at that, too.  And I’m sure, at some point in the future, when my kids are adults, one of them may find this and throw it in my face when I’m telling them how foolish trying to build a career in sea shell collecting is… so I already regret this.

5- Fans should know you’re a fan of collecting original art… what’s  one page you would covet more than any other?

I own no McFarlane art and Larsen is one of my favorite artists. There’s a pin-up that was drawn by both of them that I would LOVE to own.  There’s a line down the middle of the page, it’s McFarlane drawing half of Spider-Man in his black costume on one side, and Larsen drawing him in the red and blue costume on the other side…and it’s GREAT.  I’d love to own that.

If you’re talking about things I already own… I’ve got some gems, Issue 1 of Super Dinosaur, the full art from Marvel Team-Up 14, the Invincible/Spider-Man crossover issue drawn by Cory Walker.  I own issue 7 and issue 17 of The Walking Dead.  The current crown jewel of my collection is Savage Dragon 7, the all splash page Overlord fight issue.  I own that whole issue.

6- Which creator do you predict will be the breakout talent in 2012?

I hate to say Joe Keatinge, because he’ll get the big head and turn into a giant jerk… but HELL YEAH and GLORY (both from Image) are GREAT and more people should be reading them, no matter how many people are reading it (and it’s a lot, HELL YEAH is a hit).  I think Joe is definitely one to watch.  Artist-wise… I think Matteo Scalera is really good, I’m digging his work quite a bit.

7- Walking Dead is about to reach issue 100, Walking Dead season 3 is starting in October, there’s a hit novel and hit video game, you’re clearly eating drinking and sleeping Walking Dead at this point… do you ever get sick of it?

I really don’t.  I love working on The Walking Dead in all forms.  I guess I just really enjoy making fake people suffer through living hell day in and day out.  It’s strange to me sometimes, because I do spend a few hours on a few different forms of Walking Dead in any given day… but it’s totally cool.  It’s not hard to juggle because things are so different in each one, but it never gets old to me.  I know The Walking Dead won’t be this popular forever, but I can say that I love it enough that when things do finally die down… I’ll still be jumping out of bed in the mornings excited to write this comic… which will continue long past the point people want it to. Heh.