Exclusive Interview With Paul Tobin  
Paul Tobin is hot indie comic book writer who began his career with "Banana Sunday," which just happens to be illustrated by his wife, Colleen Coover. On the strength of that he broke into the Marvel bullpen by writing many titles in the Marvel Adventures line such as MA: Super Heroes, MA: Fantastic Four, and several others. His latest project is Dr. Doom and the Masters of Evil with art by Patrick Scherberger.

Tobin is part of Periscope Studios, a pacific Northwest collective of comic creators that includes Terry Dodson, Karl Kesel, Collen Coover and a ton of other top talents. Paul was kind enough to answer a few questions about how he broke into the House of Ideas, his work on Marvelʼs flagship characters, as well as his other independent work.


Hero House: Can you give our readers a brief rundown on how you broke into writing comics for Marvel?

Paul Tobin: Well... I'd been working in comics for years, but it was largely just to amuse myself. I can't say that I was a serious professional. Then my friend Jeff Parker asked if I wanted him to pass my name along to his editors, and it seemed like a good idea, since I was at the time enjoying Jeff's comics. I see us as two very different writers who still have similar sensibilities. We use different materials, but we still like to build the same style house. So, Jeff passed my name along, and I did a couple short humor strips, and then a couple longer strips, and these days I'm keeping pretty busy. It's a good time.

HH: Dr. Doom and the Masters of Evil got my attention because hereʼs this comic called the Masters of Evil and it has the Sinister Six on the cover. I picked it up just
because it thought it was a misprint. Why have a book called the Masters of Evil where they donʼt appear in that issue? Was this part of your master plan?

PT: The master plan was just to have Doom team up with a squidload of other villains, and we decided on the Sinister Six for the first issue. Then, after I'd finished the first script, we decided to call the series Doom and the Masters of Evil, because it sounded cooler than our original title idea. I frankly can't even remember the original title anymore, but I remember it as being too long, something like Doctor Doom And A Whole Bunch of Other Villains Who Team Up With Him In Some Issues But Not In Others. Kinda hard to get a good logo out of that, so we went with "Masters of Evil' even though they're not in the first issue. They're in the second and third issues, though. Not so much the fourth. But Selene will be there, as well as Magneto, and they're very nice people who I'm sure will make readers welcome.

HH: Whatʼs the 30 second pitch for Dr. Doom and the Masters of Evil?

PT: I abstain. I am soooo bad at 30 second pitches. It takes me a loooong time to come up with pitches, because condensing all the good stuff (the characters, the drama, the wry humor) into one or two lines kills it. I always envision some publisher saying, "That's it? There's an old guy and he goes fishing? Sounds boring. I'm afraid we can't help you. You'll have to try Old Man and the Sea elsewhere."

HH: In your critically-acclaimed indie series Banana Sunday you begin by taking the reader off kilter from page one. The protagonist shows up for school with a trio of super-intelligent monkeys and it becomes evident that finding out the true background of the monkeys is the real mystery. Can you share a bit of the process you go through writing these kinds of non-linear stories?

PT: I do end up writing non-linear a lot. It's actually pretty common in comic books. When we only have so many pages to get to our points, a straight timeline eats up way too many pages, whereas flashback transitions can quickly establish huge amounts of plot without eating up huge amounts of page counts. Past that, I'm no different than anybody else, and if I pick up a work I want to be HOOKED on the first couple pages, so you better come out swinging. It's hard to come out swinging on a linear story, because they all have boring jumping points. If I pick up a book, I don't want the protagonist to spend the first ten pages eating breakfast and driving to work, I want the moment when the rabid elephant gets dropped from the flying saucer. Ka-boom! Let's GO!
 

CLICK HERE TO READ THE FIRST 22 PAGES OF BANANA SUNDAY HERE

HH: You also write for Marvelʼs all-ages line? Do you
have a preference between working in the mainstream Marvel universe and the all-ages?

PT: Not really. I enjoy both sides of the equation. They both come with their own freedoms and their own restrictions, so I'll always want to have my hand in both sides of the pot. Right now a lot of my projects are in the all-ages line, but that's starting to swing, and I'm certainly open to a greater body of mainstream work. It's where I can more actively build character, which is important to me.

HH: Do you go through a different process in writing comics for the all-ages audience?

PT: Honestly, I thought I would, but I don't. I still go through the stage of the initial conception, then a page by page breakdown, then a panel by panel breakdown, and then finally full script. The only real change is that in the mainstream work the stories can be longer, so I have to start with a grand storyline overview.

HH: With Banana Sunday you collaborate with your wife
Colleen Coover. How different is that process versus the
editorial process of Marvel?

PT: The only change is that when Colleen and I work on our personal projects, there's no problem with other editors and creators using any particular character, or having a storyline that contradicts some other aspect of the contained universe. It's a clear path. Of course, there's also no relying on decades of previous storytelling, so when a character is introduced they have to be completely and thoroughly introduced, whereas in a title like Spider-Man, I can just say, "Oh, here comes JJJ," and people know everything about him, so I can just zing along with the story.

HH: I read somewhere that youʼve written a series of Banana Sunday novels. Have you found a publisher for them yet?

PT: It wasn't until recently, when I quit my day job, that I've really had time to buckle down and give them a thorough spit shine. I now have that time, so I'll be actively looking for an agent and a publisher soon. I'm putting a lot of love into them!

HH: Is Banana Sunday a young reader series like Goosebumps, or are they aimed at an all-ages audience like Harry Potter?

PT: The latter. I'm a big fan of doing all-ages material. That said, I LOATHE the modern meaning of "all-ages" as material good for anyone aged between 8 and 17. When I personally say "all ages" I mean it. I think Rowling meant it with her work, as well, though I by no means want to compare my writing with hers. Definitely not a knock on her writing... we're just different, and I have no need to be the "next J.K. Rowling."

HH: Banana Sunday is definitely a humor book, but really all of your stories have a humorous veneer. Is humor always a foundation in your writing?

PT: I think so. I've always been able to find humor. Sometimes it's a sad humor, but humor is what's kept me going through some of the saddest parts of my life, and I don't see why heroes would be any different. If you stack up the lives of some of the mainstream heroes, they have so much going wrong, so many tragedies in their pasts, that if they DIDN'T occasionally get to laugh, they'd likely be throwing themselves off the bridge. I need my heroes to be able to laugh in even the worst of times, because laughter is an essential part of the fight for better times.

HH: Can you tell us a bit about Freckle-Faced and Bony Knees, the next indie project with Colleen?

PT: First, we've changed its name to Gingerbread Girl, and we have now chosen a publisher, though we can't quite announce it. The story in Gingerbread Girl concerns an examination of whether the lead character is insane, or if she truly does have a twin sister created from her own Penfield Homunculus, which is a vaguely human-shaped part of the brain where feelings are registered. The graphic novel uses a series of narrators (a boyfriend, a girlfriend, a pigeon, a magician, a thief, a bulldog, etc.) to explore the real truth. It's a wholly different story than I could ever tell at Marvel, though it does have some of my humor in it, and some of Colleen's most inventive art.

HH: Will we ever see a story from the darker side of the Marvel universe?

PT: Oh yes. The dark side can claim me as one of its own.

HH: The Pacific Northwest has emerged as the new hotbed of comic creators. Why do so many creators relocate there?

PT: The real reasons are so varied and boring (taxes, etc.) that I'm just going to say that there's a magic unicorn who summons comics creators to dance in the glades 'neath the Douglas Fir trees, and leave it at that. It really is amazing, though. I'm in Portland, Oregon, and whenever we hear that another comics creator is moving to town, our first thought is always, "Well, duh."
 
HH: In closing, what projects do you have coming up that we should be on the lookout for?

PT: Upcoming I've got some really fun issues of Marvel Adventures: Avengers, and also Marvel Adventures: Fantastic Four, where there will be another Tobin /Coover team-up. In addition to that, I'm getting the reigns of Marvel Adventures: Super Heroes, and my plan is to really cut loose with some cult characters teaming up with some of the more well-known characters, in a variety of differently flavored stories, from wacky hijinks to as grim as I can get in the "Adventures" line. And once I finish up Doom and the Masters of Evil, let's just say that it won't be the last Tobin / Doom team-up. Then I have the Models Inc. series, and currently there are at least two books in the "can't talk about this yet," stage. So, more to come!