How Things Are Going Dynamite For President Nick Barrucci

PREVIEWSworld: First, lets start with arguably one of the biggest undertakings you’ve ever done – Prophecy. This is your first major event crossover. What made this the right time to do this event? Who are the characters involved and can you talk about who might play the bigger roles?

Nick Barrucci: It’s 2012, and the Mayan Prophecy isn’t coming, it’s here. This crossover has been in the works for well over a year. We’ve wanted to do a self-contained crossover. I always enjoyed self-contained crossovers as a young reader – and consumers and retailers are saying that’s what they are looking for in a company crossover. So with an eye towards that we decided who would be the best writer to pull together the right characters that he felt would pull together the best story possible. First step, bring Ron Marz on board, which is perfect for us.

Obviously we couldn’t put everyone in here; we had to pick and choose who made sense for the story and that’s the direction we went with Ron guiding the ship. We’ve put in everyone including Vampirella and Red Sonja, two of our best known characters, with Kulan Gath, Dracula, Eva, Herbert West: The Reanimator, Alan Quartermain, Dorian Grey, Athena, Purgatori, Pantha and many others. The characters were picked for a reason and there will be a little bit of a surprise who will play the bigger roles. There are also some characters coming that we haven’t announced yet, otherwise why would we say “or will an army of darkness rise”?   

PREVIEWSworld: One of the points you’ve been emphasizing in your promotion of Prophecy is that it is a self-contained seven-issue story. Why is it so important in your opinion that this be a standalone story rather than having spinoffs or tie-ins in your other publications? 

Barrucci: First and foremost retailers and fans have been stating that in crossovers they like a self-contained story. That they would want some focus and not a dozen spin-off books as part of a crossover that they feel they have to buy. We’ve been known for doing a few too many spin-off books before, and so in our first major crossover, we wanted to show the retail community and the fans that we could create a central focused crossover so that some of our greatest heroes and villains can be in one story, and fans can enjoy the focused story, and retailers can maximize so that the series can reach maximum sales potential. It’s a really cool story. We only get to tell the end of the world – the Mayan Prophecy 2012 – once. We wanted to do it right. 

Ron Marz has structured a fantastic tapestry with an incredible structure – a complete beginning, middle and end. Why not give fans and retailers one central, focused story?  If it does well we can evaluate how to proceed down the line. But for now, we’re focusing on the core – and ONLY – series. We expect it to do well; let’s see how well.  

PREVIEWSworld: You’ve talked about Marz’s past experience with crossovers. What do you think readers can expect of him here? 

Barrucci: Readers can expect a great Ron Marz story, great Walter Giovanni art, beautiful covers by Paul Renaud and they can expect the unexpected. I know Ron’s ending to the series and I know it will surprise people. It will definitely surprise people. 

PREVIEWSworld:  Can you tell us a little bit about your impressions of how the art duties are being handled, both by interior artist Walter Geovani and cover artist Paul Renaud?    

Barrucci: I don’t envy either of them and thank God they have a lot more talent than I do. Ron has had to read all of the Dynamite characters involved, and he’s stated that it’s a labor of love, which is gratifying. Walter is taking direction from Ron, having to look through every Dynamite comic to review all the characters in the story, and he has to do it all in seven issues, and he is absolutely packing in a lot of art to compliment the story Ron is writing.

Paul has to figure out how to put so many characters in each cover, but he does it. He makes each cover distinct. There are some characters in the shadows and some characters that are prominent. We did pick two of our most prominent characters to show in the first two covers, but once you start seeing the covers to #3 and up, you’re really going to be able to see where it’s going on the covers. That’s why the cover to #1 and #2 are great introductions, but they don’t give away as much. It’s an incredible series and Ron, Walter and Paul are bringing their A game. 

PREVIEWSworld: One of the characters involved in Prophecy, Pantha, is also getting her own series. What is it about this character that makes her strong enough to support a new title? What made you decide to bring her front-and-center again?

Barrucci: Pantha is an extremely well known character from Harris Publications. We’ve always planned on having Pantha hit in June. What happened was Prophecy was supposed to be an April or May title. It slipped to June because Ron was working on the characters and tweaking it and working to make it better. Pantha was always slated for a June launch, so it’s a coincidence (or the gods planned it ;-). Pantha is a strong character and we wanted to give her a lot of room for when we launch Red Sonja to get her own series and the fact that Prophecy and Pantha #1 are in the same month is a coincidence. 

PREVIEWSworld:  Can you tell us a little bit about the creative team on Pantha and what’s impressed you so far about their work and approach to the character?   

Barrucci: We’ve worked with Brandon Jerwa quite a bit. He’s always delivered stories that are strong, enjoyable and move the characters forward. With Pantha, we wanted to take the best Harris released with Mark Texeira and move it to be a Dynamite comic. Brandon brought that voice to the character, the voice that was needed. Pow is an artist we’ve wanted to work with for years. He’s worked on many books including The Justice League. He was available as we were launching Pantha and the energy and excitement he brings to every page will make it evident why we wanted to work with him.    

PREVIEWSworld: You’re publishing series dedicated to a lot of strong female characters right now – Vampirella, Dejah Thoris, Red Sonja, Jennifer Blood, and now Pantha. Is there any particular approach to presenting comics starring female leads that you believe has made Dynamite successful in this area, perhaps even more so than competing publishers?   

Barrucci: The only thing I can say is that strong voices and strong characters work. I can’t really say why our characters have such sticking power; I can say there are other publishers that have done a great job in having their characters have sticking power. Witchblade from Top Cow is one that comes to mind. She’s been around for at least sixteen years and she’s been their flagship title from the get go. There’s Wonder Woman at DC, the longest running female heroine, and many others. I will say that the creators that we bring to the table have a passion for the characters which the fans gravitate towards so we’ve been very fortunate there. Whether it’s Eric Trautmann, Arvid Nelson, Garth Ennis, Al Ewing, Brandon Jerwa, they all bring the right voice to the characters, and part of it is we focus on it, so that helps, too. 

PREVIEWSworld: As a follow-up to the last question, what do you think makes Pantha standout from a Vampirella or a Red Sonja? For those that might not know much about the character, what can you tell us about Pantha’s history and how Dynamite hopes to further develop the character? 

Barrucci: Well, in some ways Pantha is a story about revenge, and she’s a creature who stalks the night. She drives the forces of chaos from the shadows, and she hunts them down like prey. She’s a lot more like a shape shifter; she’s also an avatar for the Egyptian goddess Sekhmet. Pun intended, but she goes for your throat. Pantha is definitely fiercer than just about any character we have in the Dynamite universe possibly with the exception of Red Sonja. So, she’s dangerous. We’ll leave it at that. 

PREVIEWSworld: If I’m correct, Pantha stands on its own apart from Prophecy, but can you talk about any cross promotion plans you have to use Prophecy to increase awareness of Pantha? 

Barrucci: Prophecy is going to bring awareness to all the characters. Pantha is going to have a great lift coming out at the same time. We’re not going to release them in the same week. We’re going to have them separate and the ads and promotion in Prophecy will help bring more attention and sales to Pantha. Keeping them in separate release weeks will help them sell more. 

PREVIEWSworld: Moving on to a character closely tied to Pantha, Vampirella #20 marks the last issue of the series for writer Eric Trautmann. What do you think he’s accomplished with his run on the book? Can you talk about who he may be passing the baton to?   

Barrucci: Eric has accomplished everything he wanted to accomplish. He had a story to tell he was able to tell it over 20 issues. He didn’t pad it and now he’s moving to other titles for Dynamite. Brandon Jerwa is actually going to start Vampirella with #21, and it’s called “The Inquisition” for a reason. There will be an inquisition and we’re going to take it from there. But for right now, the countdown to Eric’s climactic issue will hit this month!

PREVIEWSworld: Fan-favorite writer Matt Wagner is likewise moving on from Zorro with the end of the 12-issue Zorro Rides Again series this June. Looking back at the start of his Zorro work for you, what made Wagner such a good fit for the character and his series? Do you know what he may be working on next?    

Barrucci: I do know what he’s working on next, but I can’t say.  

Matt was a great fit. He reached out to us. I mean this is the incredible, legendary, multi-award winning writer Matt Wagner and he wanted to do Zorro covers because he was a fan of the novel, and we mentioned to him the idea of writing it and he had not thought of it and he jumped all over it. So what made it amazing was just right place, right time, and we’re so glad we caught his attention. Matt is working on other projects; I wish I could say they’re for us, they’re not. But we’ve talked about other projects together down the line and I hope he comes back sooner rather than later. 

Daily: Before we go, let's quickly talk about Bionic Man #11 which marks writer Phil Hester’s first full issue and a new story arc. What are Hester and artist Ed Tadeo doing on this book that you believe should make it standout on shelves going forward?    

Barrucci: Well, #11 is a stand alone story to help new readers come in and still allow for existing readers to enjoy the progression of the series. It’s the handing of the baton basically from Kevin and Phil to just Phil, and this sets up the foundation for the future. This leads into - I know we’re talking about #11 – but this leads into #12 with the first appearance of Big Foot, which fans have been asking for for years. Ed Tadeo’s first professional work is incredible, he’s actually been an inker who’s covered some of the more prominent artists in comics and this will be his first penciling gig.