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Man Vs. Himself in Waid and Jones' Strange Fruit

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by Vince Brusio

Working for the big boys is always rewarding. It pays, it gets you name recognition, and you get to play with characters and concepts that never go out of style. But for the vets who have done it all and seen it all, there’s always that wall to climb which is always out of reach because of time constraints. Life just keeps getting in the way. With the Strange Fruit HC (JAN171418), however, Mark Waid and J.G. Jones show they have reached a point in their careers where they wanted to climb the next creative wall no matter the volume of emails that keeps flooding the in-box. With history on their side, and a need to tell an original story, both creators hooked up with publisher BOOM! Studios to deliver a book that is exquisite, historical, and tight.

Strange Fruit HC (JAN171418) is in comic shops May 3

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Vince Brusio: Strange Fruit has been described as a “deeply personal passion project.” Could you elaborate on that for us?

J.G. Jones: I'm not really given to hyperbole, unless there's a punch line at the end. That said, I could have done another superhero story at one of the bigger publishers, but I felt that it was time to finally do something of my own. I have been writing for years, but too busy working at Marvel and DC to take the time for my own stories.

Strange Fruit deals with a lot of issues that are unresolved still, nearly 90 years after the time frame of our story. I wanted to take some of those ideas and incorporate them into a fable, something with a specifically American flavor, like the tall tales told of John Henry or Paul Bunyan.

Vince Brusio: The story takes place during the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927. What research was done to help you get the feel for the culture?

Mark Waid: Tons. Luckily, J.G. was able to point me to two amazing resources: a film documentary called The Great Flood and a book chronicling this event called Rising Tide. Even having grown up in that part of the country, I was really unaware of what a destructive landmark that moment in history was — up until then, it was the greatest natural disaster to ever strike the United States.  

J.G. Jones: Those were two really important resources, certainly, but I think I also drew on recollections of growing up in Southern Louisiana. When I was a kid, there were still parts of the rural South that were not much changed from that Depression era way of life. The Flood of '27 still hung like a ghost around the Delta. It's the reason the levee system was finally finished and reinforced. The Mississippi is now the world's largest ditch, and not allowed to overflow its banks like it did every year, historically. It's the main reason that the Gulf Coast of Louisiana is eroding at such an alarming rate—there’s no more soil deposited from flooding (that, and the fact that oil and gas companies have cut canals all through the wetlands for drilling and transportation).

Vince Brusio: As the story itself is a collaboration, can you give us some insight as to the nature of discussions between you two as you approached doing Strange Fruit? What pushed you both into taking on a story set in a time period many won’t recognize?

Mark Waid: First off, please be aware that I would collaborate with J.G. anytime on anything. But what drew me to this in particular was that I've been listening to him talk about the idea for this story for years and years now, and I've always been enraptured by it. It plays heavily to our shared heritage as Southern boys who grew up during the height of the Civil Rights movement, but the emotions and conflicts stirred up in J.G.'s story are timeless—which is simultaneously tragic and wondrous. 

J.G. Jones: Working with Mark has been on my bucket list for a while now, so I couldn't be more thrilled collaborating with one of the best writers in comics. I also thought that our shared background would help with this particular tale, one set in a time before television and nightly news. I wanted the story to be contained and tightly focused, so it's specific to a time and place; it’s hermetically sealed.

Vince Brusio: Why was BOOM! Studios the right publisher for Strange Fruit? What was it about the company that made it the right fit?

Mark Waid: From my point of view, I was impressed with how quickly they embraced the subject matter and how fearlessly they approached it. 

J.G. Jones: Agreed. BOOM! was not only willing, but excited to publish this. [President of Publishing & Marketing] Filip [Sablik], [Editor-in-Chief] Matt [Gagnon], [Founder & CEO] Ross [Richie], and the whole crew have welcomed us and supported the project from day one. Not much to add to that. See why I like working with this guy?

Vince Brusio: What do you think readers will take away from this story? What do you think they’ll find appealing?

Mark Waid: Honestly? That's a hard one to answer, because if creators do their job right, they're telling a story and it's up to the readers to decide what the takeaway is. But I do think they'll find the characters compelling — and unlike any other characters they're following in comics right now.

J.G. Jones: I think that we have an interesting story to tell.  I hope that the readers will get drawn into this world the way I did, to find a knife-edged tale of conflict between not only man and nature, but man and his own nature.

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Vince Brusio writes about comics, and writes comics. He is the long-serving Editor of PREVIEWSworld.com, the creator of PUSSYCATS, and encourages everyone to keep the faith...and keep reading comics.

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