MICHAEL AVON OEMING Interview

Earlier today, Mike Oeming took a few minutes to talk to me about everything from Lycra Woman & Spandex Girl to POWERS. We also talked about MICE TEMPLAR, RAPTURE with Taki Soma, Top Cow's DARKNESS with Phil Hester, and he even took a moment to answer some questions given to me by members over at the Digital Webbing Forums.

SEBASTIAN: Ok, let’s see, the first time I remember seeing your name, it was on a little something called LYCRA WOMAN & SPANDEX GIRL. Was that your first comic work?

MICHAEL AVON OEMING:
It was one of my earliest, with Mice Templar Co creator BRYAN GLASS. Before that I had been inking CHILD'S PLAY the comic and I drew some Porn.

SEB: POWERS, the “Law & Order” of the Superhero genre, how did you get involved in that?

OEMING: Brian really introduced me to true Noir and Crime genre's. Thats been his game the whole time, but Ive been pretty steeped in it for about nine years now.

SEB: What can we expect to see from POWERS in the future?

OEMING: Lots more Powers. Brian and I have come up with a way to get more Powers out on a regular basis. We should see that effect release dates by the end of the year.

SEB: So, I thought this was pretty funny. I was doing my research, like a good little interviewer, and I found an interview you did back in 1999 for manwithoutfear.com. In it, they asked you what you thought about Elektra coming back to life, and you replied “Didn't read it to be honest. She's dead, I don't know who that chick dressed like her was!!!!” Does this mean your buddy, Bendis, really did have the Skrulls’ SECRET INVASION planned years ago, or was that just freakish coincidence?

OEMING:
I honestly have no idea! I’m not a big super hero dude, Brian and I don’t talk much about his Marvel stuff unless it’s a funny story. I don’t have a real handle on Marvel history so a lot of that talk is lost on me I love superhero comics and Marvel comics but Im very casual about it, so when Brian got those gigs I really didn’t know more about it than the Miller stories.

SEB: How much do you think he owes you for cementing his claims of “years in the making” ?

OEMING: Really I just found out what Secret Invasion was about last week. I knew what Skrulls were only vaguely. I low roll low dice on the geek factor. Oh wait, I just made a gaming joke, maybe I’m wrong...

SEB: You and Bryan Glass have MICE TEMPLAR going on. What’s in store for the righteous rodents?

OEMING: The Trade is next- coming out in November! Then next year is the next big ass arc. The first arc has action, mystic stuff and all that but it’s mostly character and setting, we put the players all in place and hopefully make you care about them. Now we are free to let loose, knock the dominoes over and watch the chaos. Now that Cassius is a player, things really kick into high gear. We took our time to tell the story, next it’s time to just kick ass.

SEB: Now MICE TEMPLAR made their first appearance in MORE FUND COMICS for the COMIC BOOK LEGAL DEFENSE FUND, but they’d been scampering about in your head since well before that, right?

OEMING: It goes back pre Powers when I was working as a security guard. I think it was first on line in 98 or 99 when no one cared about online comics as a five page short on my first site. By the time it hit the More Fund books I had bought Bran on board as co-creator.

SEB: I was talking to my friend, Rick, owner of FAMOUS FACES & FUNNIES, and he was telling me about the diverse appeal of MICE TEMPLAR, catching many female readers as well as first time comic readers. What do you think it is about MICE TEMPLAR that strikes such a cord?

OEMING: I think the fact that it’s not super heroes is a start. Also most super hero books are full of girls hardly dressed with their hoo-ha's hanging out. Even when the book doesn’t try, that’s often what happens on the covers one way or the other. Doesn’t exactly speak to women, you know? Mice Templar is fantasy, a genre with a strong following, so I think that’s part of the draw.

SEB: You’ve gotten more and more into the writer’s seat, making that transition rather well, with books like ARES, STORMBREAKER, and, OMEGA FLIGHT, among others. Was writing always an ambition of yours, or did you grow into that along the way?

OEMING: I think that’s always been part of my DNA, I’m a storyteller, that means writing as well as art. I have more writing projects coming up, including some writing on POWERS (Such as the Annual) and I have a new mini coming out with Taki Soma called RAPTURE that I am co- writing.

SEB: Not really a question, but, BETA RAY BILL? Any Comments?

OEMING: [Beta Ray Bill is]Marvel's Hellboy... I'd love to write and draw a mini for him one day.

SEB: I understand you have an issue of Top Cow’s Darkness coming up. What can you tell us about that?

OEMING: Wow, I’m having fun! Its great to work with Phil Hester and the Darkness character is a kick. I’m loving it. Lots of fun lineowork, Im trying out a slightly different style. I’m loving working with the Top Cow folks too.

SEB: Now, I know we have to wait for the SAN DIEGO COMIC CON for the full reveal, but what’s this about the creator owned project RAPTURE with Taki Soma?

OEMING: Ah! Taki and I have partnered up both in life and comics. We both have projects together as well as our own careers- Taki is an accomplished portrait artist and has her own creator owned web comic You'll Never Die and is working on projects with other writers. Keeps her pretty busy, but we also have several ideas we came up with together, one of them is RAPTURE. It's officially being announced by a major company in San Diego. We are writing it together, Im doing the interiors and we'll see some Taki art in there as well. Here is some teaser art. [click on the thumbnail at the bottom of this page to view the RAPTURE teaser art!]All we are saying about it right now is "every break up feels like the end of the world... but this one IS."

SEB: Your MYSPACE Blog has a rather old Norse looking illustration up and teases of a “Secret project with Phil Hester.” You know what they say, ‘secrets, secrets, are no fun…’ Anything you want to tell us?

OEMING: Hah, that’s from the DARKNESS issue- it takes place in Viking times. I guess I should update that

SEB: Your MYSPACE Blog also mentions an EBAY store for your original art, which is all rather reasonably priced, I might add. Is that new?

OEMING: Thanks! Yea, you can go there here-
http://stores.ebay.com/OEMING-Original-Art-and-Comics There’s Prints, art from Powers and lots of sketches. I may be closing it down though, its a bit time consuming and I gots comics to write and draw!

SEB: OK, I polled some readers, and got THEIR questions. If you would be so kind…

RONALD MONTGOMERY: What’s the strangest thing you’ve been asked to draw by a fan?

OEMING: Walker naked. He has quite the gay following, which I’m more than happy to keep happy. I drew him opening the fridge at night naked, looking for a late night snack.

LEE NORDLING: Considering the complicated nature of Bendis' ballooning for Powers, will you please describe the process through which the script and layouts are integrated into such single cohesive pages? In other words, who's the first one to establish the way the balloons are going to flow?

OEMING: Simple- I leave lots of room in the gutters. Take a look at how much room is in between panels when it gets talky!

LEE NORDLING: Considering how much open space you have in your line art, how involved are you in determining the color interpretation of your pages?

OEMING: Have colorists we trust. Nick Filardi is amazing. We put them through the grinder with ideas and concepts, but I rarely give any direction. We are very big on the colorist helping to tell the story with color and Nick is great at that. I think that’s a true measure of a colorist just as much as their palette- can they help tell the story with color? Nick can, most can't.

MEVYN: How is your production on Powers going now that you're working on the bi-monthly Mice Templar? Have you found a good workflow that you see allowing you to work on both books indefinitely?

OEMING: Its going good now. I can draw two books a month. Powers has been cursed with production problems, Brian and I were very out of sync with our schedules but we've cleared that up. 2006/2007 was a trying time for me personally and that really effected things, and this year began with a death in the family, all those things slowed things up both on Powers and Mice Templar but we are recovering from that getting the work train moving again!

SEB: Any parting words for the masses?

OEMING: Be sure to eat at the end of a night of heavy drinking. Its key.

SEB: That's some good advice, right there!

SEB: Well, Thanks for talking with me. It’s been an honor!

OEMING: Thanks man!

Chalk another kickass interview up for Seb!

Well, Mike helped a little!

OEMING: Be sure to eat at the end of a night of heavy drinking. Its key.

how about fried pickles....

Pickled eggs! *throws up*