INTERVIEW WITH NICK SPENCER of Existence 2.0 and Forgetless.

by Isaac Dilbert

On a busy night in Williamsburg NY, the streets are noisy, the people run rampant, and the parties are just beginning. But one man plugs away at his masterpiece, With two books coming out of Image comics and another on its way Nick Spencer and word of his current comic work Existence 2.0 and Forgetless is already making their way into the hearts of many fanboys and fangirls world wide.

A very kind, well spoken and passionate, new writer Nick Spencer takes a phone call and break from his busy schedule to let us indie lovers and comic fans in on his thoughts, current projects and how a boy now man from the Midwest gets to work his dream job.

DILBERT: So Nick, you attended the big apple Con this past week am I right?

SPENCER: Yeah I stopped by there on Saturday, I wasn't there for to long. I saw Joe Quesada panel and a few others.

DILBERT: Big Apple Con, I happened to miss it this year. Were you there to promote any of your current books?

SPENCER: I stopped by on Saturday but didn't do a table or anything. I just swung by saw a couple of panels, did a little bit of shopping. It was a fun show to be at

DILBERT: Did you buy anything good?

SPENCER: You know I can’t say no to five dollar Essentials. That seems to be the thing that I can never pass up. In Baltimore they killed me with that and they killed me in Big Apple with that. I picked up the first couple of Silver Surfer Essentials, I got three of the Defender Essentials. Between Baltimore and Big Apple I think I picked up something in the range of 20 Essentials and showcases. Those things are great man, you get weeks of entertainment out of them. Its cause there's like 30 issues per book, they are big time favorites of mine. I picked up a few other trades, I just finished the second trade of Air. I was yelling about this on Twitter the other day that is the best ongoing series being made right now. I was just floored, I really loved the first trade and I was really looking forward to this. And I almost moved over to singles on it but now I picked up the second trade. It was really phenomenal, that book is so innovative, so different, so fun and so smart. I can’t say enough good things about it. That was a nice thing I picked up this week, I just really enjoyed the trade.

DILBERT: Well what are your current reads?

SPENCER: Besides Air, I loved Scalped, DMZ is a big favorite, over at Marvel I am loving Hickman’s Fantastic Four run that's really terrific, I am loving Bendis on Dark Avengers, Fraction on Invincible Iron Man, I love all the Marvels Project and Captain America stuff Ed Brubaker is doing, I dug the hell out of Dingles first issue on Daredevil. I love Sword, I'm a big Lunar Brothers fan, I'm enjoying the hell out of that. The Walking Dead, that's a terrific book. Ha whenever someone asks me this, I always feel like I am forgetting like 80 books. Phonogram, is a terrific read.

DILBERT: Yeah my list is long myself, we’ll come back to that though. Since your multiple books have been picked up, how many Cons have you done so far to promote your books?

SPENCER: This year I think I did six, but by next year I should be doing something around the range of about 20 shows. This year we had Existence 2.0 come out during Con season, but it was like in the middle of the season. So we would only have 1 issue to 2 issues, Baltimore was the first show where we had all 3 issues out, that was a couple of weeks ago. But by the time Con Season comes around next year, 3.0 will be out, Forgetless will be out, Shutter Town will be out so there's a lot more to fill a table with. I should have a really strong presence at Cons next year. I am going to be doing a lot of shows, a lot of smaller shows I plan on attending like Ohio, Pittsburgh, a few on the West Coast like Long Beach, Wonder Con. So I should be doing a lot next year, I am pretty excited about that. Actually before we talked and hour ago I was sitting with my calendar marking all the dates for all the shows, so I should be all over the place next year.

DILBERT: Is your current job going to be effected by any of these trips?

SPENCER: Oh no, these shows are mostly for the weekends. You fly out Friday nights and you can fly back Sunday nights. You don't miss work for it but you sacrifice your weekends for it, but Cons are fun I enjoy them. You know the guys I idolized when I started out as a writer, you know the guys when I was trying to break in. Like Bendis, David Mack...they would show up at every show and they would just get on the road and push their books everywhere and try to build their audience. They would be at every Con that opened its doors, and I always admired that. I think that's where you start at building your fan base, I think sometimes we have a really great internet community out there, there's a lot of great websites out there. The fact is you go to Cons and it’s a reality check, as far as building an audience and awareness for yourself. I am really looking forward to it next year, getting out there having a table, and meeting fans, talking about the books and doing it the old fashion way, I think it should be fun.

DILBERT: How do you like working for Image?

SPENCER: I love working for Image, it’s been terrific. They have been really supportive, while I’m doing all these books. Kris and Jim at Image Shadowline have been terrific to work with. We actually just got rolling on Shutter Town which is the next book, which makes the 4th project I have done with Kris and Jim in the last 6 months in that range. I spend a lot of time talking to them, it feels like it’s been a lot longer than a few months. But it’s all been really pleasant, we haven't had any problems, and we seem to have a really great working relationship.

DILBERT: Randomly what's the last movie you saw?

SPENCER: Last night actually I watched Synecdoche, New York, it was incredible. I actually want to watch it again in the next few days. It was really ambitious, and just riveting, Philip Seymour Hoffman was amazing. It was just terrific flick. And in a little I am going to watch Drag Me to Hell which I hear is a lot of fun. I was actually disappointed I missed it in theaters. I'm probably going to that out tonight and see how it is.

DILBERT: So tell us a little about your current projects Forgetless, Existence 2.0, like where you see them going?

SPENCER: Well Existence 2.0 is the story of Sly a brilliant physicist who has his consciousness transferred into the body of the man who kills him. At first he is thrilled about his new life, he enjoys it and takes to it easily. Then he finds out the people who killed him also kidnapped his daughter, he is forced to go back revisit his old life, solve his own murder and rescue his daughter. We just wrapped that up, it was pretty well received. We got some nice reviews and pretty enthusiastic fans. Image asked me to do a sequel, which ships out next month late November. And we will wrap production on the first issue tomorrow and that follows the story of Jenny Sly’s daughter who due to the ending of 2.0 who is the only living prototype of the consciousness technology. She, her mother and Marko the dangerous assassin are on the run from very dangerous folks trying to bring in the technology. And Forgetless is set in a very popular club night here in New York, that is having its very last party. The party is called of course Forgetless, there's a couple of girls there who are also struggling professional models who are also moonlighting as professional killers and they have been hired to kill a guy named Derrick who may or may not have done something bad. It’s a story told from four different perspectives across 4 issues and then it comes to a crashing point in the 5th issue. Hermes also a fun backup illustrated by Marley Zarcone that's about 3 kids in Jersey who are trying to make their way to the last Forgetless. We have some fun back matter there about why its ending, its a fun project with multiple artist Scott Forbes, Jorge Coehlo, and Marley Zarcone its got a fun feel with lots of different kind of art in it, I think you can enjoy this on many different levels.

DILBERT: I looked at the previews of it on a few sites before, I love the artwork. A few friends of mine and myself pre-ordered mine from DCBS.

SPENCER: Yeah awesome, if they order it from DCBS you get it for 87 cents, a signed script and a free sketch card from 1 of the 3 artist. It’s a hell of a deal, those guys are always really good to my books. Marking them down and putting up the giveaways.  They have been really amazing, I’d be wrong not to mention that. They have been real helpful about getting the word out about the books.

DILBERT: Way cool man, can’t wait.

SPENCER: Yeah when you get a copy of a comic for 87 cents, plus a signed script, plus a sketch, you can’t go wrong with that.

DILBERT: Of course but you will always have people who complain, as usual.

SPENCER: Oh sure, look we want to support the other retailers to and were doing some stuff with the New York shops too. But the reality is that in the direct market today a lot of shops don't even stock these books. A lot of shops don't stock Image books. So DCBS is a nice way, that if you live out in an area where they don't carry those kind of books or where you don't have a shop, it’s a great way to pick it up. Or it’s basically a nice way to get a sample for 87 cents. So DCBS has a really nice place in the grand scheme of things.

DILBERT: You don't have a writing background right?

SPENCER: No not really, this is really my first writing work. Writing has always been something that I have done as a kid. This is just when I really chose to go after it professionally, you know it’s funny cause when I was a kid this is what I always told people I was going to be. And I don't know what happened exactly, in my early 20s I don't know if I just convinced myself I couldn't do it. I think to some degree, when you’re around that age everyone says they are going to be 1 of 5 jobs or so, everyone wants to be either a writer, or actor or musician. I guess when I was about that age I guess I figured I didn't want to just be the 1000th person saying oh I'm a writer. I just chose to not ignore what I wanted and saved it up for later and now here I am.

DILBERT: So a little bit of back story on how you got the gig, was that you entered the Image create a super heroine contest.

SPENCER: Yeah, and its kind of interesting with Shadowline a smaller part of Image, If you look at it a lot of folks with them right now are folks who made their first connection through that contest, its real fun. So I entered the “Who wants to create a Super Heroine Contest” and I had not made the cut on that. I put in a couple of entries, and there was a big argument in the thread. The contest was sponsored by Newsarama and especially back in the old days of Newsarama before they revamped the site. The talk backs were always ridiculous and there was always tons of comments in there. I was reading the talk backs. The deal was pretty standard. You split the rights 50/50 with the artist involved, and someone took great offense to that, and said it was a rip off, to be sharing the rights with the artist. I remember there was a lot of back and forth and me just finding out that's pretty standard and anything else is pretty unfair to the artist.

DILBERT: Yeah, isn't it usually 50/50 when you’re co-creating something?

SPENCER: It usually is.  You know different people have different deals. I don't hold it against anyone who doesn't have that kind of deal or anything. With me on my books it’s an equal partnership on rights between me and my artist. And we also carve out a little bit for the rest of the creative team, for the colorist, the letterer, they get little shares at least. Just in case for the ridiculous off chance that one of these things become a movie, the letterer isn't there with no return. So I'm pretty adamant about that, making sure everyone is included on the right side. I think everyone has a hand in shaping that product being on the shelf if it ends up generating anything. I guess some of the points I made there were pretty entertaining to Kris and the staff, and they liked what I had to say. I made a little impression that way, I started talking to Kris a little bit and that sort of opened the door. But I didn't make the cut in the contest but Kris has a forum of her own, and I was there on the page and when they announced the finalist, I said I can’t believe I didn't make it and I think I’m going to give up. You know I was just being really whiney, feeling sorry for myself. Kris was so nice, she sent me a message saying you came so close we really liked your pitch and you shouldn't give up. And that conversation kind of led to me sending them a couple of pitches of course which got rejected. It kept the conversation going though and they kept seeing I was serious about it and then at the New York Con in 2008, I submitted Existence 2.0 with a different artist. They liked the story, they liked the script and the concept but they said I needed a new artist, and from there it took a long while about 6 months I think to find that right artist. I met Ron through a friend of my Jeff Brand and from there Ron did the pages in pretty short order, in a couple of weeks and we got green-lit just around the time of New York Con this year.

 PART 2 coming soon.