Comixology: So let's talk to each of you about your backgrounds and where you are in comics. Let's start with Jeromy.

Jeromy: Okay. I started self-publishing comics in about '92. I was into comics and I was doing video games, so I knew computers and I live in San Diego; and in San Diego is Wildstorm Studios, so I ended up getting a job there as one of their original colorists. When I started, I didn't know a lot about color, but over the last fifteen years, working with a lot of different creators, I've developed a style and a look that's gotten me a long way. Working with people from, say, Image, or DC or Marvel, the storytelling is different from each of those-- I mean, superhero stories aren't usually that different but I've gotten to work on things like Leave It To Chance and Mage, and some Vertigo books. Whenever a different storyline comes in, you change your coloring style to help the storytelling. At the point where Fluorescent Black came along, I was feeling and urge to do something different and break out, so it's a different style for me. I can see it; I don't know if other people can see it but it's a hybrid of stuff I've been doing, and stuff I've been wanting to do.

Cmxlgy: And in terms of technique, do you do your coloring digitally? What are you doing now, and how has that evolved over time?

Jeromy: It's all digital. I've done traditional, but in terms of control of color and as far as everything's come, it's starting to look more like painting, but I also wanted a hybrid of the two. So the textures and everything look really detailed and the backgrounds look detailed. But then the characters I wanted to pop off-- sort of cel-framing, like-- looking sort of like a cartoon. But not so that it flattened it too much.

Cmxlgy: Nathan, in terms of your background, just go over how you got into comics, and some of the stuff you've done.

Nathan: The first real comic gigs that really kind of did it for me was when I started working with Jeromy on DMZ and Friendly Fire and again on Rapid Fire, number 27, and a little while after that, I just kept pounding the pavement and trying to get some more comic work while I was freelancing as an editorial illustrator. And then Pigeons From Hell came along, through Dark Horse. And then almost at the exact same time when I said yes, since I'd already kind of given my word, I ended up getting a phone call from Matt, so that all led to where we're at now. So the Pigeons thing and this are basically my first solo books. As soon as we got about ten pages into the coloring when Jeromy did DMZ, I was beyond hooked with what he could do with coloring. And besides that, he's a Vampyrate, so that was a huge draw for me as well. Working on this book for an extended period of time, to collaborate with him, and the Matt's script, is just beyond amazing. I'm really happy to be involved with it.

Cmxlgy: Explain, what is a Vampyrate?

Jeromy: That is a book that I had published in 2004 through Bloodfire Studios, and they're going to be doing a regular series some time next year, I believe. An independent book.

Cmxlgy: Is that a book that you do entirely on your own?

Jeromy: I had some inkers on the first issue and I'll probably have some inkers and maybe bring some people on to help me color it, because if it's going to be in any way monthly, I can't do everything. But I do enjoy trying to do everything because it feels more like one person, but I think that's impossible on a monthly book.

Cmxlgy: And then, Nathan, you've got Fluorescent Black going on right now, and what else have you got going on in the comics world right now?

Nathan: Just some pin-ups are floating around for some other books, like Screamland and the last couple of US issues of Blade of the Immortal had a two-issue stacked pinup; you put the two together and it made one image. And other than that, just doing some more editorial stuff and have a nice bit of messy work left on Fluorescent Black. Outside of that, there are some pitches floating around, and who knows? We'll see. Just keeping my fingers crossed that I'll get to do more of it and everybody likes it.

Cmxlgy: Matt, you mentioned that you don't have much comic book experience.

Matt: Zero, really.

Cmxlgy: So, talk to us about that. Were you a comic book reader, or are you totally new to the comic book world?

Matt: No, no, I was a comic book reader for a long time. Similarities between storyboarding and comic books, makes it a really easy transition. It was, surprisingly, not that different than other things I had been doing. It was more of a matter of brevity. I didn't want to cover up the art with big word bubbles and stuff like that. I had to figure out ways to say more with less. But I had read a lot of comic books and knew what I liked and what I didn't like about them so I tried to negotiate that with myself and with the studio and tried to figure out what was a happy medium, and I think really, Heavy Metal was the answer. The stuff I've written is not superhero-type stuff, so it was more a matter of figuring out what was a venue for the material. Once that was figured out we could really decide on making aesthetic decisions regarding the material and how to translate it.

Cmxlgy: And do you expect that you'll be doing future comic book work, or is this a one-off thing for you?

Matt: No, I'd love to. I think that there's a lot of freedom in comic books to take more risks that you can't take when screenwriting. You know, in screenwriting you have a very limited palette. It has to be over in a certain amount of time. It has to follow one character and there's more rules surrounding screenwriting and filmmaking, and comic books you can do whatever you want, really. You can take whatever risks you want and you can create any kind of story. So that's really appealing to me, and I hope that in the future I'll have another opportunity to do it.

Cmxlgy: Do you have other things you wanted to mention about Fluorescent Black before I ask if you have other projects you wanted to mention?

Matt: Well, I think it's important if people like it that they voice their opinions. Because that's really the only way that we're going to get a movie out of it, is if people support it and get behind it. If they don't like it, I'm just as interested to hear what they think. (laughter) Well, maybe not. (laughter)

Nathan: If anything, especially for the second installment, or second and third installment depending on how it lands pagewise, if they like the first one at all, the second one only amps up what's in the first 48 pages. So if anybody picks up the September issue of Heavy Metal and is kind of blown away, they better grab some extra socks and hold onto their hats because the second part is quite a bit more unforgiving than the first 48 pages. (laughter) To say the least.

Matt: Part two gets more into the actual dangers of this sort of world. When it opens it's kind of started on ground level, and you push the top floor and watch the elevator go up. So you get to see a lot more of the more crazy, dangerous results of genetic experimentation.

Nathan: Should we intro the characters? Matt or Jeromy, do you want to intro them?

Matt: Where should we start? Max is the main character. He suffers from a neurological disorder; it's a movement disorder that causes him to have spasms and difficulty swallowing and all sorts of other problems, and that is by he's been moved to Johor Bahru, which is called the Butcher Block. It's a ghetto where people sort of feed off of each other. There's a whole food chain of criminal elements that make money off of other people. Sort of a predatory existence. He lives with his sister Blue; they're both in this criminal gang. Blue is his twin sister, only she didn't inherit the error in the genetic code that causes the disorder that Max suffers from. She's there because he's there and that plays a big part in the story. They have two close compadres, Lovely, who is a lady-boy, transgendered, sort of scary and somewhat callous surgeon-type person, I guess.

Nathan: And she'll take you out.

Matt: She's pretty dangerous. And then Holiday, who probably would work best in some sort of prison environment (laughter) because he's big, he's violent, and he has very low impulse control.

Jeromy: I thought he was cute (laughter).

Nathan: He is cute.

Matt: So they're sort of the bad good guys. And then the real bad guys are just these scientists who work for a company called U-gen. I came up with that name from eugenics, because that's what they're trying to do; they're trying to build a master race, sort of like the Nazis. And they're led by a guy named Dr Anders Rupender who is a-- I don't want to say he's hell-bent on it, but his vision for the future does not include a lot of different sorts of people. It's narrowed down to one type of person who is superior to all others. And he's trying to make that vision a reality. He's sort of a Michelangelo of the brain. Who else... There are some corporate bad guys who work for a military corporation. They prey off of the other biotech companies by stealing from them and corporate espionage, things like that. They get involved and it's a big mess.

Cmxlgy: Do you guys have other projects that are going on or coming up that you want to mention?

Jeromy: I'm still working on DMZ and a lot of Amazing Spider-Man and I'm just finishing up the last issue of Catwoman. That's that kind of work, and then I start Vampyrates work in a couple of months, and then Fluorescent Black is going to take up a large part of my time. Can't wait to do that. That'll be fun.

Nathan: As far as anything else, I'm just focusing all of my energy on Fluorescent Black right now, and if any pitch stuff comes through for more narrative work, or any other fill-ins, then as soon as all this stuff is wrapped up for Fluorescent, I'll be on that later.

Jeromy: Are you doing anything at Imagi, Matt?

Matt: Yeah, I've been working at Imagi. I finished a draft of Gatchaman. They're doing a Gatchaman movie, but I think that there was some interest in my draft, but I think that they've gone a different direction. And I've done a lot of treatment-type stuff for various projects that have come down the pipe, and I've gotten hired by other companies to writer treatments and I've got my own sort of indie film that I'm hoping to shoot some time in the next year, if I can make time. It's something I wrote called Pretty Little Gun, about gun culture in the Southwest. And that's about it.